Ridiculous Disney Math

[2Tiggies]

I'm exhausted playing games with Disney over what they are charging for a vacation.

They have super pricey room rates, that vary by "season", then discount, then blackout, then add "free" dining.

No one knows what anything really costs. Disney was whining that Discounts are killing revenue, but that is chop logic. They probably charge too much to begin with, scare people away, then overcompensate with discounts to get them back.

It's a $10 chicken sandwich, but from December 2-10, it's only $9. Now with a public discount is 40% off, so it's $5.40, unless you opt for the free french fry plan, then the whole meal is $7 -- Unless you have the frequent customer annual card, then you can add the extra cheese for only $.10.

Just sell the friggin sandwich for $5.50 and skip the advanced math. Save bad PR of people spending time on the phone making 6-7 calls and waiting on hold each time to see if they can get a better deal on the lunch.

I do know what you mean. I wonder if Disney has the same software for tiering prices as the airlines use ..... only the enhanced version

I guess we can't accuse Disney of not providing an educational experience. You get it right from the time you start looking at offers.

 

[cm8]

OP, what you said was true! Thanks for the laugh

 

[Dreamer & Wisher]

DH and I started considering a trip for Halloween after they just released the new discounts.

He likes the price of the standard room at Caribbean Beach. Just $685 for 5 nights. But I am wondering if it really would be better to get a room with free dining. We have a slightly more complicated ticket issue this year, because we have three Give-a-Day Get-a-Disney-Day tickets. DS was too young to volunteer, so we have to either get him an extra day, or get the fast pass. And I want to go to the Luau at the Polynesian one night. I guess I need to figure out the price of the Luau vs. the Free Dining. Also, we have to add in the cost of the Halloween Party!

Looks like a spreadsheet will help me figure it all out.

 

[sndral]

Too funny & also too true. Start with which season/ are weekends more, dinning plan qs,rdp,dxdp? Airfare, if I go a day early my airfare is $200 cheaper, room is $350 ,wait - no savings there. Maybe renting points are cheaper, how many points do I need. To hop not to hop, waterpark, but if I stay here I won't need waterpark, so by paying several hundred more to stay here I can save a hundred on waterparks option - wait, no.
And that's all before you start w/ the discounts. 20/30/40% v. cheaper season v. 'free' dinning @ rackrate v. $$ giftcard.
I suspect some of us spend more time and effort on planning a Disney vacation than we spent on buying our last car. I know I spend more time on it than I do allocating my investments

 

[jlhay]

Good points! Totally agree about the discount psychology. It's not just Disney. I feel like I never pay full price for anything. Stores all have special prices for loyalty cardholders or facebook fans and I get a zillion emails each day encouraging me to "save" money!

 

[PKWallaby]

I certainly sympathize with you on this one. There is no doubt your product is over priced when you are constantly having to discount it. On top of that they keep raising the prices every year even though they know it is over priced.

That said, I can see a couple of reasons why they do this:
1. They still manage to get some people to pay full price. This is either people travelling in the absolute peak times or those who are not well informed and don't realize there are deals available.
2. There are people, and I admit I am one of them, who like to get a deal. Even though we are kidding ourselves we feel good when we get a deal.

Absolutely agree with you. Before I discovered the DIS boards we went every 2-3 years and either traded in my in-laws time share for a nice off site villa or spent a couple hundred (for the week!) for a villa. Great airfare just prior to a, shall we say "milestone birthday" caused me to plan a spur of the moment ON site trip. I called up, booked a room and paid RACK RATE. Did not know to ask about discounts and they certainly did not offer.

Had a fantabulous vacation and fell in love with being on site. Found the DIS shortly after returning and have not looked back since. Now we own DVC (bought resale thanks to DIS) and have never again paid rack rate. I wonder how much money I could have saved if DIS had not opened my eyes to the wonders of discounts, APs, DVC and everything else!!

I consider myself fortunate to be able to visit a place that makes us so happy...getting a "deal" is just icing on the cake!

 

[Momtomouselover]

Okay, I feel s-t-u-pid now! I wanted to come here and brag about the great deals I got. Just used the Annual Pass discount for our October and November trips, saving us big time, and booked free dining for February. We will apply our two day tickets to our annual pass renewal this April and have less to pay then! We don't even try and do the Disney math, just pray for discounts because Disney knows we are coming anyway. We are on schedule to make 6 trips this year, so Disney has nothing to worry about from us, no matter what they offer. Having annual passes for the first time has been an eye opener, because after you get over the shock of paying all that money up front, you practically feel like you are coming for free! We wanted to make Disney cry by tearing up the highway between us and them with our frequent "free" trips....how come I hear them laughing all the way to the bank?

I can definitely sympathize with this comment! OK, maybe I'm not making 6 trips but 2 or 3 a year and all because I bought an AP?? Who is getting the better deal here or laughing all the way to the bank? LOL, I have to wonder. Now don't get me wrong we do enjoy our vacations but I do hope Disney continues upkeep on the resorts and the parks so we continue to get a good value for our money.