What did Disney gain/lose for their Billion dollars?

[skilesare]

Promise them 3 rides per day, then when those rides are up, steer them to the golf course, let Dad drive a racecar, push the Kids clubs and other resort ammeneties.

Exactly...or offer 3 extra FP+ if you play a round of golf in the morning. If you had 6 FP+ at MK and AK or 2 Tier 1 and 4 tier 2 Rope drop would become a non issue.

 

[Laketravis]

I think that people will definitely spend more $$ w/ the MB charging. How cool to swipe your wrist and charge a Mickey Bar! Those little $3-5 charges add up fast, and people won't watch as they spend $15-20 here and there thru their vacation.

I stayed at CSR and wore a MB for 17 days last month. We were on the dining plan for 14 of those days.

You want to know how much more I spent outside of meals and tips?

$67.

That's right - a whopping $3.94 average per day.

Yeah, I know .... that's just me. And I'm sure that some people can and do go into credit card debt spending sprees while at WDW. But they did that before MB's existed.

To be honest, I didn't find it any easier to tap my MB than I did to swipe a card. I wouldn't put too much weight into the theory that MB's will cause everyone to spend recklessly.

 

[ArwenMarie]

95% of the guests will be receiving significantly more and their experience will be better. They will come back more.

The power tourers will not have as many rerides and as a result will be exposed to more kurtosis. One thing disney does well is sprinkle magic in unexpected ways.

Their customer satisfaction surveys are about to go through the roof.

How? 1 FP in Epcot? 2 in DHS? 3 in MK. How is that so much more than what they were getting?

And wait until they try to bundle FPs in with rooms, tier by resorts, and phase out free dining and room discounts.

As someone said so eloquently on another thread, this is just a money grab, and the winner will be Disney. Not the consumer.

 

[skilesare]

You don't need to go on the DIS to know how to use FP efficiently. We did it for years without the help of a fan site. Looking at the DIS is not an accurate way to determine if people did or did not use FP in the parks.

So the answer to my question is no, you don't have actual numbers the 5% was just an educated guess, correct?

No hard numbers...just empirical evidence. I've helped so many family plan trips that just had no clue about FP or that getting to RD was important.

 

[*NikkiBell*]

I think it's too early to tell. Once the system is in its final stage and has been up and running for a good year, then we will know. Based on early testing reports though, it was concluded that merchandise sales had increased significantly.

 

[ArwenMarie]

No hard numbers...just empirical evidence. I've helped so many family plan trips that just had no clue about FP or that getting to RD was important.

If Disney cared so much about everyone getting a few FPs then why didn't they just take more time and invest in teaching everyone about using the old FP? That would have been the kind thing to do! But they didn't, because there wasn't any money in that. In fact, that would have cost them money.

They saw a previously free-with-admission product and are now monetizing it. Which, as a business, I get their point. But to say that this is about making people feel better about their trips? Nope, not buying that. They could have just done the above.

 

[rwdavis2]

It's all about the hotels. The parks exist to fill up the hotels, not the other way around.

They will get some people to move onsite from offsite. They will be able to reduce free dining and room discounts. They will make their money back, it will just take longer than they thought.

The loser in this will be the customer, who will end up paying more and receiving less.

If this does happen that would be great. Maybe the food quality and service will improve.

 

[Laketravis]

If this does happen that would be great. Maybe the food quality and service will improve.

That would be great, but probably won't happen. Once they realized how much margins could be increased by lowering the quality, it's hard to go back.

 

[skilesare]

To be honest, I didn't find it any easier to tap my MB than I did to swipe a card. I wouldn't put too much weight into the theory that MB's will cause everyone to spend recklessly.

I think this is overstated. Disney is much more interested in you booking another $5000 vacation next year than spending 10% more on your current trip. A bump in spending is a bonus but not the point here.

 

[BuckeyeBama]

To answer the OP's question, we only have hints as to their grand design, so we have no idea. Others can speculate (and have), but they are just speculations at this point (unless someone here really has seen their 5 year plan).

 

[Laketravis]

I think this is overstated. Disney is much more interested in you booking another $5000 vacation next year than spending 10% more on your current trip. A bump in spending is a bonus but not the point here.

Then if that is the case, they missed the mark.

 

[Robo]

On second thought...

 

[over50visits]

To answer the OP's question, we only have hints as to their grand design, so we have no idea. Others can speculate (and have), but they are just speculations at this point (unless someone here really has seen their 5 year plan).

I speculate they spent this huge amount of money in the expectation of making more money in return.

There are a lot of posters here with (1) very good knowledge of Disney operations and (2) very good business sense. They may be "speculating" but it is fascinating to hear some of these opinions.

 

[skilesare]

If Disney cared so much about everyone getting a few FPs then why didn't they just take more time and invest in teaching everyone about using the old FP? That would have been the kind thing to do! But they didn't, because there wasn't any money in that. In fact, that would have cost them money.

They saw a previously free-with-admission product and are now monetizing it. Which, as a business, I get their point. But to say that this is about making people feel better about their trips? Nope, not buying that. They could have just done the above.

1. If you teach people about the old fast pass you still have to support the machines and print the paper tickets. Mechanical machines break down way more than the electronic system and are costly to repair.

2. The FP machines were in physical location. Very few people 'got it' until they did it at the park....by then it was too late to plan. Now they send out pre materials that forces guests to do it before hand. They arrive knowing how it all works.

3. What in the world was 'kind' about the old system? It was exploitable and inconvenient. We all made work and found our hacks, but it was clear that most guests were not using it. Think about it, the fast pass runner is now extinct. Was anyone ever happy to be the runner? Sure I'll dodge strollers while you ride this cool ride...see you in 20. Fun times.

 

[FireDancer]

If Disney cared so much about everyone getting a few FPs then why didn't they just take more time and invest in teaching everyone about using the old FP? That would have been the kind thing to do! But they didn't, because there wasn't any money in that. In fact, that would have cost them money.

They saw a previously free-with-admission product and are now monetizing it. Which, as a business, I get their point. But to say that this is about making people feel better about their trips? Nope, not buying that. They could have just done the above.

Legacy FastPass was a terrible idea from a business standpoint unless you view it as "give it to them for free at first then charge them for it later" or as I call it, the crack-dealer model. I knew from the moment it rolled out that it was going to eventually change to a product that could be monetized so I never integraded it into the way I toured. I am surprised it took so long but I suspect they needed to wait for other technologies to advance to the point where they could be leveraged.

The things we have heard about and witnessed so far in regards to monetization are almost surely the tip of the iceberg. The way NextGen will end up being monetized is with things like incentives, add-ons, and customizations and I don't think Disney is ready to announce any of that yet which is why the upcoming call will be vague.

The additional spending using MBs is nice and I do think it is noticeable if you had the data to look at but it will be a very small portion of the ROI NextGen returns. It will be very cool to see it all play out. I love data and these kinds of systems and seeing all the potential for monetization. It is a big part of my job.

ETA: There are also going to be a lot of ROI we never see like improved forecasting and scheduling.

 

[wisblue]

Who knows how much of the money being spent was on updating and integrating old systems that would have been spent regardless of MBs or FP+.

In the past there were multiple systems that could have impacted one person's Disney trip (tickets, hotel reservations, dining reservations, Magical Express, Fastpass, Photopass, DVC, etc.). I would be surprised if a significant amount of the money being spent hasn't gone toward things that are designed to bring all of these elements together and to allow customer service representatives to assist customers better without going to different systems to pull their information together.

As one simple example that a consumer can see, I think it's great that I can use my MB with a Photopass photographer and have those photos linked directly to my MDE account without having to carry around a card, and then log into an entirely separate website and enter the number of a card to claim those pictures as mine. Developing that kind of integration can't be free, and there are several other examples of it.

 

[xie]

I think this is overstated. Disney is much more interested in you booking another $5000 vacation next year than spending 10% more on your current trip. A bump in spending is a bonus but not the point here.

Weeeellll...

If that was the goal, it failed for us. I cancelled 2 upcoming, onsite resort week-long trips after our very difficult trip 3 weeks ago.

For the first time in literally years I have no upcoming reservations in the next 18 months.

 

[kenshinelite]

It was exploitable and inconvenient. We all made work and found our hacks, but it was clear that most guests were not using it. Think about it, the fast pass runner is now extinct. Was anyone ever happy to be the runner? Sure I'll dodge strollers while you ride this cool ride...see you in 20. Fun times.

I agree, but as the old adage goes change is hard. People are adverse to it even if it's better in the grand scheme if they have trouble it's to much and it's terrible. They have a right to feel that way but give it time and they might change their minds. Also selective memory comes into it somewhat too. Remembering the good but not the bad parts of an old system because most happy memories gloss over the minor annoyances .

 

[BuckeyeBama]

I speculate they spent this huge amount of money in the expectation of making more money in return.

There are a lot of posters here with (1) very good knowledge of Disney operations and (2) very good business sense. They may be "speculating" but it is fascinating to hear some of these opinions.

I have also enjoyed reading some of the opinions - I just don't accept them as fact. No one on the Disney executive management team is posting on the Dis, and this is not the type of information that makes it down to the CM level. What information does make it down that far has been filtered many times.

 

[BuckeyeBama]

I agree, but as the old adage goes change is hard. People are adverse to it even if it's better in the grand scheme if they have trouble it's to much and it's terrible. They have a right to feel that way but give it time and they might change their minds. Also selective memory comes into it somewhat too. Remembering the good but not the bad parts of an old system because most happy memories gloss over the minor annoyances .

Also consider that most Disney marketing is to new customers. For these customers, there is no change - this is just a feature set that they can advertise.

I am not sure how much, if at all, the WDW market is reliant on repeat business. Frankly, they might not really care.