Tiered pricing is good, What Disney should do.

[mjh2901]

I have been living with the crowds for a long time and I think Tiered pricing is a good idea, but I think they need to do much more.

The problem is Disneyland has to many people in it, for Disney to provide good customer service. The only way to control crowds is with gate prices, or setting a limit and closing the gates. This is further impacted by the fact there are to many nuts like us. If they started closing the gates I guarantee there would be enough disney fans to have 3 hour lines at 5 am on Saturdays as people try to get a spot in the park before cut off.

So my system would be this.

First the Disneyland phone app needs to be able to act as a ticket, fast pass and payment system inside the park. This will speed up park entrance as multi day ticket holders would no longer need to take a photo because the ticket is attached to their account and can not be transfered or sold. People not using phones would get a plastic pass like the season pass (probably with rfid) and take there picture at the now almost completely unused ticket booths. Finally I would also add a security line bypass, Guests with an attached credit card in the app who used it for purchases in the park would after a certain number of visits earn the ability to bypass security. By tracking guests purchases, entrance, and fast pass use using the app security experts could determine what in park activity patterns determine a guest as a non threat, and notify the guest in app that they are now "pre screened" This would not only speed up security for those guests but decrease the security lines for the other guests. People not wanting to be tracked simply need not use the app.

Second Disney should end the monthly payment system for season passes, and if need be eliminate the lower tiered passes. They would be replaced by new multi day tickets that are first valid any day for 365 days from date of purchase and come also come 10, 15, 20 and 24 day offerings. There are a lot of season pass holders who do not hit the park 24 days in a year. People who want to go in more often or for short periods of time would still be able to buy the one expensive unlimited season pass.

The affect of this plan would lower the number of guests in the park, but at the same time making those guests more profitable by lowring the partial day guests that often spend little to no money because they don't need to buy food or much food.

I am trying to do a couple things here, lower numbers and speed up non ride lines.

 

[coaches24]

I have been living with the crowds for a long time and I think Tiered pricing is a good idea, but I think they need to do much more.

The problem is Disneyland has to many people in it, for Disney to provide good customer service. The only way to control crowds is with gate prices, or setting a limit and closing the gates. This is further impacted by the fact there are to many nuts like us. If they started closing the gates I guarantee there would be enough disney fans to have 3 hour lines at 5 am on Saturdays as people try to get a spot in the park before cut off.

So my system would be this.

First the Disneyland phone app needs to be able to act as a ticket, fast pass and payment system inside the park. This will speed up park entrance as multi day ticket holders would no longer need to take a photo because the ticket is attached to their account and can not be transfered or sold. People not using phones would get a plastic pass like the season pass (probably with rfid) and take there picture at the now almost completely unused ticket booths. Finally I would also add a security line bypass, Guests with an attached credit card in the app who used it for purchases in the park would after a certain number of visits earn the ability to bypass security. By tracking guests purchases, entrance, and fast pass use using the app security experts could determine what in park activity patterns determine a guest as a non threat, and notify the guest in app that they are now "pre screened" This would not only speed up security for those guests but decrease the security lines for the other guests. People not wanting to be tracked simply need not use the app.

Second Disney should end the monthly payment system for season passes, and if need be eliminate the lower tiered passes. They would be replaced by new multi day tickets that are first valid any day for 365 days from date of purchase and come also come 10, 15, 20 and 24 day offerings. There are a lot of season pass holders who do not hit the park 24 days in a year. People who want to go in more often or for short periods of time would still be able to buy the one expensive unlimited season pass.

The affect of this plan would lower the number of guests in the park, but at the same time making those guests more profitable by lowring the partial day guests that often spend little to no money because they don't need to buy food or much food.

I am trying to do a couple things here, lower numbers and speed up non ride lines.

I think you have some interesting ideas. One that I don't like is the closing of the gates after a certain number of people. I know Disney does that now but I assume you mean to lower the number significantly and I don't like that. Most days IMO the park is very manageable crowd wise. IMO you can alleviate much of the crowd issues by learning where the crowds tend to be at certain times of the day and why they are there and then plan on doing different things in different areas at those times. I rarely have a problem with crowds, even in the summer. I take advantage of the morning hours and then plan on doing less popular attractions in the afternoons when the crowds are worse. Ive had trips where I never waited in line more than 15-20 minutes for anything and usually it was less than that. And this was during a peak time of year. IMO Disney does a great job at crowd management.

But I do like your idea for multi day passes that are good for that many days throughout the year.

 

[mjh2901]

I think you have some interesting ideas. One that I don't like is the closing of the gates after a certain number of people. I know Disney does that now but I assume you mean to lower the number significantly and I don't like that. Most days IMO the park is very manageable crowd wise. IMO you can alleviate much of the crowd issues by learning where the crowds tend to be at certain times of the day and why they are there and then plan on doing different things in different areas at those times. I rarely have a problem with crowds, even in the summer. I take advantage of the morning hours and then plan on doing less popular attractions in the afternoons when the crowds are worse. Ive had trips where I never waited in line more than 15-20 minutes for anything and usually it was less than that. And this was during a peak time of year. IMO Disney does a great job at crowd management.

But I do like your idea for multi day passes that are good for that many days throughout the year.

I must have written the post in a confusing way. I meant that closing the gates is one of Disney'[s options, not one I would support. I agree completely

 

[Casey's Mommie]

I've had similar thoughts. I was thinking #1 eliminate monthly payment option. I also thought of eliminating annual passes, and instead sell passes that were good for a year, but only allowed you to go 25 days, or 30 days, or 35 days as you said. Too many people love Disneyland now. If they don't take any measures they need to at least work on increasing capacity to make lines shorter and walkways less crowded. Star Wars land will be such a draw too, I think the crowd issue will have to be dealt with sooner rather than later.

 

[DSLRuser]

Simple. $100 a day for resort guests. $150 a day for non resort guests. Season passes @ $1,500 period.

The people who live local and have nothing better to do on a Saturday afternoon but go to a park should be discouraged from doing so. Drive people to stay at the resorts.

And your security idea about tracking habits is just crazy. Easy to defeat.

 

[sheetz]

There are still large parts of DL that are underutilized, namely a huge chunk of Tomorrowland. They need to find a way to use that space better and try to funnel guests in that direction.

 

[figment_jii]

First the Disneyland phone app needs to be able to act as a ticket, fast pass and payment system inside the park.

Um...isn't this pretty much the same as the MagicBands over at WDW? They act as a ticket, FP, payment system, room key, etc. But I don't see how this would necessarily prevent tickets from being used by the "wrong" person...you could just give your phone to a friend for them to use. While some people probably can't go an entire day without there phone, there would be some who could and would do that in this scenario. So you would still need some type of identification system; be it a photo or biometric scan (like WDW) or similar.

Finally I would also add a security line bypass, Guests with an attached credit card in the app who used it for purchases in the park would after a certain number of visits earn the ability to bypass security.

This is one that I don't understand. Just because you've visited the park some number of times and make a certain number of purchases, why does that mean you should get to bypass security? What would stop someone from saying "oh, I've visited 10 times so I can now bypass security, so now I can bring my gun/knife/weapon into the parks because they won't check"?

 

[ashley0139]

Simple. $100 a day for resort guests. $150 a day for non resort guests. Season passes @ $1,500 period.

The people who live local and have nothing better to do on a Saturday afternoon but go to a park should be discouraged from doing so. Drive people to stay at the resorts.

And your security idea about tracking habits is just crazy. Easy to defeat.

Uh, why? DL isn't WDW. It's a locals park, not a traveler park. Of course there are people that visit that don't live there, but a large part of DLR is the locals. I think the biggest thing they should do is get rid of monthly payments. And I'm an annual passholder using monthly payments.

 

[figment_jii]

Adding onto ashley0139's comments, they already do block out a lot of the APs on Saturday (SoCal and SoCal Select on most Saturdays and Deluxes during the peak seasons), but the crowds are still high. So I don't know that Saturday crowds are necessarily driven by AP holders...

 

[LizzyS]

I agree about discontinuing the monthly payments for APs and also that tiered pricing may be a good thing. I think the rest of what you are proposing is somewhat akin to Magic Bands, which I bet will come to the park sometime in the future, anyway.

I agree it is too crowded for Disney to provide the customer service that they really want to at this point in time.

Disney Parks are so popular, the "locals park" tag is really just in comparison to WDW, because any theme park will have a large number of locals in it on any given day. That's just how I look at it. With Disney's popularity, DLR's footprint is just so small it can't readily handle all of the people very well at peak times.

I would be okay with tiered pricing if it would alleviate the overcrowding.

 

[lorijohnhill]

I don't think Disney will ever do anything to outright discourage people to go to the parks. That would've be a bad financial move. They have set a capacity limit, and unless they are above capacity they are not too crowded.

Can they manage some of the crowds better? Sure.

Should they set pricing so that only rich people can go to the parks? Absolutely not! Walt created Disneyland as a place for families to enjoy together. If they price out a majority of families, that goes against the design. (Although, in my opinion, the prices are getting close to that point already.)

If you don't like the crowds, you have the option to not go to the park. Why should it be made so that other families can't go so that you can enjoy fewer crowds?

 

[sherilaine]

I agree with the monthly payment plan. If you cannot afford to pay for the whole pass at once then you cannot afford the pass!

 

[Metalliman98]

This thread misses the point. Yes, overcrowding is a problem.......for GUESTS, not for Disney. Disney will do nothing to address the overcrowding "problem" because for them it's not a problem. It's increasing their profits. All their talk about increasing prices to reduce crowds, including tiered pricing, is pure PR spin.

Ending monthly payments, raising AP prices, eliminating socal discounts, yes, they would all reducing crowding. Except that's not what Disney wants.

 

[Ckkk]

I live in the LA/OC area and have been fortunate enough to be a passholder for most of my teenage/adult years. Want to avoid crowds? Go in mid-late January and early mid September on a Wednesday lol its no different for everybody that lives in the area.

Disney will never do most of these things because thats just bad business. I dont have to took at any sort of report to tell you they increased annual pass sales alot when they started to offer monthly payments. I cannot afford to pay for a car or my home all at once so I guess I shouldn't be allowed a payment option for those things either. Thats not meant to be mean in any way, its just like cmon. I also don't have to look much further than my friends and family who have annual passes and average 5-10 visits a year because of crowds lol or they just forget. Its like when you sign up for a free trial and forget to cancel it so they get you for a month or two except Disney has got you for a year. Im sure if Disney was in any way not maximizing profits on annual passes, they would fix it and they have been over the years.

Besides raising pass prices, Disney has taken steps to limit passholder benefits such as getting rid of the socal pass, blockout tickets, and adding parking to passes without parking. Security and entry to the park is a mess. I won't complain about security because thats for all guests' safety. Even though I dont get the method completely, anybody who's been lately will note the increased security presence so thank you disney for being somewhat proactive instead of reactive. If they wanted to make it faster to get into the park, they could but they wont. This is just one of many ways they control crowds.

If you're that tired of crowds or poor customer service, pay for a Disneyland VIP tour. Im told they don't have a payment plan for that

 

[sherilaine]

I tell you what I'd pay extra for, stroller and scooter free days!!

 

[Halloweenqueen]

My suggestion is not going to be a popular one, but I think they need to limit AP visits. I think they should limit a person to, for example, 100 visits per year. I know that sounds like a lot, but there are plenty of APs going 200+ times a year! These people usually do not spend like the typical tourist, so Disney would not lose much revenue.

It is amazing how many people use DL as a free babysitting service. Plus you have the bloggers, vloggers, gangs, cosplayers, etc who practically live at DL!

I always get a kick out of watching a vlogger talk about how crowded the parks have become, as they themselves go daily. Guests need to recognize there are now plenty of tourists who make DL a yearly or once in a lifetime vacation.

 

[Gisele]

I agree with the monthly payment plan. If you cannot afford to pay for the whole pass at once then you cannot afford the pass!

Disboards needs a thumbs down button.
In order for me to avoid a possible tissue issue with a mod, I shall say no more at this time regarding the above quote and those like it.

 

[sheetz]

I imagine the number of APs who go over 200 times a year is insignificant. If APs went as much as people here say they do Disneyland would have annual attendance of 100 million per year.

 

[Halloweenqueen]

I was going to say 50 visits, but I chicken out.

 

[Gisele]

Yes, lol my @15 visits per 12 month period of AP time is the reason why one has to wait eons and eons of time before boarding Peter Pan. Lol!
I love SRL and FP. and if you can get your booty up earlier enough to make EMH or MM or simply regular opening time that is normally a golden time man!