Thoughts on how surge price tickets would effect parks and resorts??

[larryz]

Food is easy to cut the cost of. Fewer table services, share counter services (which often for my family four meals is way too much food anyways), pack lunches.

And you can always take your ever-versatile rice cooker with you.

 

[hoosll]

I'm still trying to figure out how they will work it unless you reserve tickets for the exact dates you want like airline or hotel reservations. Jeez ... then try and modify your plans as they will be date and park specific in order to charge the correct daily admittance, oh maybe you can add park hopping on a daily basis.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

From what I've seen in a few pictures showing how the tickets would increase based on the season there were only like 5 or so weekends in the entire year where the weekday price (which was the same ticket price as now) was the same as the weekend then you add on the different seasons and I think people may be finding out that their dates have to be chosen more carefully than before along with more general confusion about the pricing structure (I can just see people buying tickets once they get down to their resort and upset with having to pay one price for this day and another price for this day and they didn't plan for that).

I know with the resorts they have already updated the price for 2016 that is modeled on the surge pricing. I noticed is that from 8/19-9/17 it is considered Value but 9/18-10/29 is Regular then 10/30-11/18 is back to Value (myfirstvisit.net). I've seen people talk about how busy it was during the last half of September and all of October in the last year or two when they expected it to be the Off season. Well according to Disney it no longer is. It's a regular season which may be less crowds than peak but only by so much.

People then may shift their visit if they can a week or two to avoid the raise in resort price and ticket price. If enough people did this if their plans were slightly flexible then it could cause more crowds at the resort and parks during the time where the prices were lower. I know it seems a generalization that people would shift their plans but it only takes a certain number of people on a given day to create longer than anticipated lines and feeling like the park is too crowded.

It does seem as though Disney is trying to redistribute the crowds more evening throughout the year but unfortunately for those of us (myself in included) that will only go in the off season) it can lead to a less magical time when you feel like you are fighting crowds that didn't used to be there.

We could only hope that the surge pricing lasted less than 5 or so years if implemented like maybe until they have the large expansions done and any other smaller expansions/renovations were done since that in itself will help redistribute the crowds (yes more people will come for the new attractions but more space will be available to put them in). Maybe in 10 or so years they might consider an entirely new park. It would be a shame though for surge pricing to become the norm at Disney as this can add another wrench into a family's plan.

 

[Colleen27]

I think you'd see the biggest effect at the margins... Not people moving trips from peak season to value season, but rather visiting the parks on the weekdays during the trip with break/waterpark days on the weekends or arriving a day or two earlier to "beat" the seasonal increase. I also think it'll push people away from adding extra park days "just because", as we often do now with the lower per-day pricing on longer tickets, because more park days will frequently mean running into a higher season (based on the survey that was floated showing virtually every weekend as a higher price tier than the surrounding weekdays).

I wonder what it will mean for the long "party season" at the Magic Kingdom. Theoretically, they could probably demand top-tier pricing for all of the full days during those months because they're so desirable (and so crowded) due to the short hours and lack of evening entertainment on party nights. So it could logically come to a point where you have to pay more to see any evening entertainment at all for 1/3 of the year.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I think you'd see the biggest effect at the margins... Not people moving trips from peak season to value season, but rather visiting the parks on the weekdays during the trip with break/waterpark days on the weekends or arriving a day or two earlier to "beat" the seasonal increase. I also think it'll push people away from adding extra park days "just because", as we often do now with the lower per-day pricing on longer tickets, because more park days will frequently mean running into a higher season (based on the survey that was floated showing virtually every weekend as a higher price tier than the surrounding weekdays).

I wonder what it will mean for the long "party season" at the Magic Kingdom. Theoretically, they could probably demand top-tier pricing for all of the full days during those months because they're so desirable (and so crowded) due to the short hours and lack of evening entertainment on party nights. So it could logically come to a point where you have to pay more to see any evening entertainment at all for 1/3 of the year.

I wasn't meaning people would necessarily move their trip from peak season to value season as most people (though not all) have to go during peak season due to children's school schedule or work (time-off) allowances.

I more meant changing from a week or a few weeks. For example my current "fake" plan (to get an idea of how much it MAY cost for our September 2017 trip) I have it saved for September 16-25th 2016. This is the same week (meaning 3rd week in September) my husband and I went in 2011.

In regards to resort prices while the 16th-17th is still in the Fall season (my last post I had said it was Value but technically they are calling it now Fall for that time period), the 18th-25th would be considered Regular season and would cost me more. Additionally if I went that week I would be paying more money for the weekend than during the week as the weekend would be silver and the week would be gold (using the survey sent out).

However, for September using the survey and the already existing 2016 resort price updates if I adjust my trip just one week prior I avoid paying the silver price for the weekend and the avoid paying the Regular versus the Fall pricing for the resort. This savings could be substantial too.

We would be just one family of 5 but imagine that you multiply that by other families who had that flexibility and it could result in higher crowds that week versus the other original week.

My example is just that an example. I don't really think it would cause a mass migration from what is normally considered peak season to off-season but small shifts here and there with enough people could cause crowd adjustments (and that could be their goal or at least part of it).