There shouldn't be any additional charge to park hop

[jensen]

A trip to WDW is a splurge, not a right. Any business has the right to charge what they wish to charge for whatever they want to sell you. The consumer then gets to decide if those items are worth the cost or not.

When each of us owns our own business we get to decide what we should charge for and how much we should charge. But it is laughable to think that any of us have enough inside information on Disney and their financials to be able to decide what they should charge for and how much they should be charging.

Of course we all wish a trip to WDW was cheaper. But I don't expect any business to mark down what they are selling based on how much I wish to pay. Disney isn't a garage sale.

Curious why you quoted me in your response... were you responding to me directly?

I do own my own business. I didn't claim to have any inside information on Disney.

 

[photo_chick]

Why do we allow Disney to get away with this practice ? If I park my car at the MK and start my day there and then later on drive over to HS and park there and finish my day there they don't charge me again to park my car there because I've already paid to park in one of their lots for the day . The same should be true if I want to hop to 2 or more parks in one day , no additional charge should be levied because I've already paid for a days admission to their parks . Fair is fair right ? I paid for a days admission I should be allowed just like my car (lol) to hop to another park or parks if that is what I want to do . We haven't bought park hoppers in years because we feel like hopping wasted too much time but we understand why some people need or want to hop But as I stated it doesn't seem like a fair practice/charge by Disney .

I don't like the fee my bank charges me for using another banks ATM either but I pay for that convenience.

 

[JoshuaShaw]

I like that Disney charges extra for hoppers, if only to spite all you crankypants out there.

More greed! More filthy vacation profiteering! Crush the proletariat!

 

[gwmort]

Anyone remember "Length of Stay" Passes?

I was young but I believe it was an option instead of getting the multiday tickets that never expired and instead of having a number of discreet days attached it started on check in and expired on check out and let you hop to whatever in between.

 

[Itinkso]

Anyone remember "Length of Stay" Passes? I was young but I believe it was an option instead of getting the multiday tickets that never expired and instead of having a number of discreet days attached it started on check in and expired on check out and let you hop to whatever in between.

We had those in '97 and they were great! We were there for 10 nights and the LOS included water parks and mini-golf.

 

[shalom]

Park hopping to me devalues my ticket.

It devalues mine, too. Which is why I have yet to buy a parkhopper. But plenty of people feel otherwise, or Disney wouldn't make money on them.

It was a number Disney made up, a value they decided.

In a capitalist system, all original prices are numbers the seller makes up. However, the value is determined by the buyers. If enough people pay the price, then the object has value to match or exceed the price. If not enough people pay the price, then the seller has overvalued what they're selling. Disney doesn't seem to have done that.

 

[Tiramisu]

This was my dream until I realized that diving into a pool full of tightly-packed coins would result in a concussion.

 

[Laketravis]

We think Hoppers are worth it, in fact we sort of consider them to be "Park" insurance.

If the park we went to that day is more crowded than we thought it would be or it wasn't and we were able to accomplish more than we thought we would, it's nice to be able to go to another park.

That was our original purpose, but then FP+ came along and actually made Hoppers more useful for us. Three parks a day is now our norm, mornings in one for low Standby waits, afternoons in another for FP+, evenings at a third for dinner, fireworks, parades, drinks (Epcot), etc...........

So yeah, it's worth an extra 1% in WDW vacation dollars for us.

 

[davedmaine]

This is the same company that charges 10-year-olds as adults in restaurants .. be grateful they don't start charging premium ride costs..

 

[Redarrow5150]

By your logic if you eat at a buffet and leave the restaurant you should be able to comeback again?

Why do we allow Disney to get away with this practice ? If I park my car at the MK and start my day there and then later on drive over to HS and park there and finish my day there they don't charge me again to park my car there because I've already paid to park in one of their lots for the day . The same should be true if I want to hop to 2 or more parks in one day , no additional charge should be levied because I've already paid for a days admission to their parks . Fair is fair right ? I paid for a days admission I should be allowed just like my car (lol) to hop to another park or parks if that is what I want to do . We haven't bought park hoppers in years because we feel like hopping wasted too much time but we understand why some people need or want to hop But as I stated it doesn't seem like a fair practice/charge by Disney .

 

[shalom]

This was my dream until I realized that diving into a pool full of tightly-packed coins would result in a concussion.

I always figured Scrooge had some kind of magical powers or his weird affinity with the stuff made them one somehow (because there's no other reasonable explanation for his ability to essentially swim in the stuff). But I still used to cringe when he'd start flinging it around and it'd rain down on him.

 

[TeamSy]

I do find it weird that they charge more to go to two parks in a day, when technically, I think you're sort of getting LESS by not seeing as much of either park in the day. It's obviously a personal opinion and reason why we don't park hop. We like to relax and enjoy one park in one day. But people pay for it, and if people pay, obviously Disney continues.

I guess the idea (and what you're paying for) is for the "ease" of visiting more than one park in a day. Lot of places do it, including Universal.

I feel like this is sort of what the Disney Dining Plan turned into. It used to be an advertised savings of 20% or so. Now, I find we have to struggle to make sense of the savings, if any. The savings used to be very obvious and a no brainer. Now, it's more like you pay for the "ease" of the dining plan.

At the end of the day, Disney is a business, and it aims to make money. If it doesn't work for you don't do it. If enough people don't do it, it will change.

 

[ArwenMarie]

At the end of the day, Disney is a business, and it aims to make money. If it doesn't work for you don't do it. If enough people don't do it, it will change.

Good point. It's kind of like their rack rates. Sure, they might get them sometimes, but look at all the discounts they run during the rest of the year.

 

[maxiesmom]

Curious why you quoted me in your response... were you responding to me directly?

I do own my own business. I didn't claim to have any inside information on Disney.

Sorry, didn't mean to quote you. Apparently I wasn't paying attention, or my computer had a short time out.

 

[jon18uk]

In the UK I can only buy park hopper tickets, including waterparks, mini golf & DisneyQuest. A 14 day ticket is £285 (approx $465) or 21 days for £305 ($500). I would normally only spend around 10 days out of the 14 at Disney (as also go to Universal/Busch etc), so I'm wondering would buying 9/10 days at US prices work out cheaper, I would park hop and go to waterparks.

 

[Robo]

In the UK I can only buy park hopper tickets, including waterparks, mini golf & DisneyQuest. A 14 day ticket is £285 (approx $465) or 21 days for £305 ($500). I would normally only spend around 10 days out of the 14 at Disney (as also go to Universal/Busch etc), so I'm wondering would buying 9/10 days at US prices work out cheaper, I would park hop and go to waterparks.

HERE are the US ticket prices. (Add 6.5% sales tax to all numbers.)

HERE is a US Dollars to British Pound Sterling exchange calculator.

 

[flicx]

It devalues mine, too. Which is why I have yet to buy a parkhopper. But plenty of people feel otherwise, or Disney wouldn't make money on them.



In a capitalist system, all original prices are numbers the seller makes up. However, the value is determined by the buyers. If enough people pay the price, then the object has value to match or exceed the price. If not enough people pay the price, then the seller has overvalued what they're selling. Disney doesn't seem to have done that.

I never was debating that. Just trying to simply get across the fact that one day Disney decided to charge for no exp and hopping.

 

[Couchy]

And this is a bad thing... why?

It seems to me going after "$$$$$$$" is nothing but sound business practice. It's not like Disney's breaking into your home and rifling through your wallet. You're choosing to give them your money, because you believe that what you're getting in return is worth the money you're paying.


Walt would have never succeeded without Roy. Dreams need financing, and businesses are not charities (though they do sometimes donate to charities).

Disney has every right to charge whatever they can and organize their price structures to maximize profits. If anything, I'd even say they have an obligation to do so, otherwise they're doing their shareholders a disservice.

Exactly right

 

[shalom]

Just trying to simply get across the fact that one day Disney decided to charge for no exp and hopping.

But why is that a problem? One day, everyone had to pay for something not everyone used. Next day, people who weren't going to use the no exp and hopping weren't paying for it, so they were happier. People who wanted to use no exp and hopping could still get it if they valued it at what Disney's charging, or they got a discount on a regular ticket, so they were fine. And Disney, presumably, could end up charging more for a particular perk while keeping the basic price down for those who weren't interested or were willing to go without those perks. Win-win for everybody.

I don't like nickle-and-diming when I feel like it exists to hide costs. For instance, a "resort" fee that everyone who stays in a hotel has to pay, whether they plan to use the facilities or not. But when it's for parking, and clearly posted with the regular price, that doesn't bother me much, even though I always drive and will have to pay it, because it's essentially a discount for people who aren't using a particular perk. It's paying for two different things, not a hidden charge I have to pay no matter what.

Hotels charge for parking because space is at a premium -- if space isn't at a premium, they just build a bigger parking lot, because where there's space people either don't stay where they have to pay for parking or they just park down the street. Disney initially didn't charge extra for park hopping because people would have just stuck with the Magic Kingdom or wherever they were used to going. Disney wanted people to get to the other parks and so they encouraged park hopping. But once all four parks became reasonably popular for themselves, then park hopping became a perk in itself -- a perk that most people didn't use, so Disney pulled it out of the basic ticket and charged for it separately.

No expiration, OTOH, was a perk few people ever used that became pertinent when Disney worked out crowd predictions, so, again, charging a separate fee for that years after it was "bundled" into a regular ticket made sense. Disney wouldn't have tons of tickets floating around in the aether that might or might not be used any one year, while people who made the effort to buy a non-expiration feature were more likely to make use of them at some point. People who didn't use the non-expiration feature got a discount, while Disney had fewer variables to worry about.

Change is inevitable. With a well-run business, it's also logical, and usually aimed to make the most profit by pleasing the most people. Disney is as mass market as it gets, and only artisans are likely to aim for pleasing a tiny minority at the cost of pleasing a larger group.

 

[RnbwSktles]

I doubt they will be that uninformed. Universal is making this a well known fact. It will be stated on all media(maps ect) and they are putting in ticket booths in Diagon and Hogsmeade with signage ect that makes this fact clear.

I also think it would be a bit of obvious common sense that if you want to see both Diagon and Hogsmeade that you will need a two park ticket considering they are in two different parks. As for the Hogswarts Express, there will be plenty of signage and again, if it drops you off in the middle of another theme park and you know that you have to pay to get into both parks, then again one would hope common sense would prevail.

Totally off topic at this point, but I can't resist.

I think you are overestimating the intelligence/knowledge of a lot of first-timers (and sadly some repeat visitors). I'm sure once someone is there they will learn 2 park admission are needed, but I am willing to bet many people budget 1 park admission for 1 day and then end up incredibly POed that they have to pay extra, or disappointed that they can't afford the extra ticket and will only get to see half of what they came for. None of that is Universal's fault, but I think it will be pretty common. Many people only plan to the level they think they need to, and if they feel they already know everything, they are not going to put in the extra effort.

I can't tell you how many people I have talked to think that:
a) Universal is just one park
b) Universal is PART of Disney (*fun story below)
c) Hogwarts is at Disney, not Universal
d) That WDW is JUST ONE park

*My MIL picked DH and I up from the airport 2 weeks ago after our 10 day WDW trip and asked if we went to the Harry Potter land. Keep in mind that my MIL has been to WDW a few times. The conversation then went like this:

DH - "No Harry Potter is at Universal"
MIL - "I thought you said you did all of the parks"
DH - "Yeah, at Disney World"
MIL - "Universal isn't included in the tickets?"
DH - "No, they are 2 different companies. Universal and Disney are competitors"
MIL - "But EPCOT is in Disney World"
DH - "Yes, EPCOT is a Disney park"
MIL - "But Universal is not?"

And that's where we gave up on that conversation