Why give Florida residents a discount?

[GATORinaZ28]

I know the parks are more crowded then ever. Attendance is up a lot and it doesn't seem like it is going to slow down anytime soon. I always wondered why Disney gives a great discount to Florida residents. There are many amusement parks that don't give discounts just because you live in the same state the park is in. I don't think Disney owes anything to Florida residents and since they are looking to cut down on crowds, maybe they should not discount Florida residents anymore. I am sure if I was a Florida resident, I wouldn't go for this idea but why crowd the parks with Florida residents who pay considerably less? Does anyone else in other parts of the country, get discounts because they are a state resident? Why does Disney discount Florida residents?

I am a Florida resident living in Pensacola. It takes me 6.5 hours to get to Disney from home, which is longer than some places in Alabama and Georgia. My trips consist of one yearly trip for roughly 6-8 days at a time. I am not a "day tripper" at all. I venture to guess that our stays are like most other's who stay at Disney.

I have always equated the Florida Resident discount with living in Disney World's home state and they provide us that perk. It's something that they don't have to do, but do anyway. Nothing wrong with it. I highly doubt those of us living outside of the general area of Disney are effecting the numbers solely due to that perk in any extraordinary way.

 

[SnipsNSnails]

Like every business decision it's about making money. There are some FL residents they will make money off and some they will not, but their research must show that there are more they make money off, or they wouldn't offer the discounts. It's like credit cards. There are those who always pay their bill off and the company never makes any money off them, and those who pay large amounts of interest constantly more than make up for those who don't. There are those who wouldn't buy without the discount. My parents and grandma just got silver APs because it was cheaper than the 9 day PH tickets that we needed for our trip. Disney didn't make any money off them because they otherwise would have bought the 9 day tickets plus we used their merchandise discounts the whole trip. But with the added free parking benefit, they will most likely spend some additional days in the park during the next year. Not sure how much Disney will make off them as they plan to use their Disney Visa for all purchases for the next year and their points for purchasing food etc. but it is definitely a case where without the discount, they wouldn't have APs and potentially be spending money where they otherwise would not have gone back in the next year. They are about a 25 min. drive so it's easy for them to go too.

 

[hookedonears]

Let's see.
- YOU spoke for the OP saying you believe they were referring to day trippers who should not receive discounts.
- I said it's ridiculous if that is what they meant since the discussion is Florida resident discounts, and most Florida residents are not day trippers.
- I said that if so I hope the OP is not up on her geography to not realize most in the state can not day trip.
- YOU attack me for not reading "the post" - since I was talking about two posts - you did not clarify.
- YOU said everyone knows how big Florida is .. sadly a great many people in our country know nothing about other states or parts of the country.
- YOU said everyone knows large numbers of Floridians are not day trippers, not sure where you get that data but I certainly wouldn't presume that at all.
- YOU present as your fact as to why there are Florida discounts.
- Well ... Florida discounts have been around well over 30 years, during good times and bad, and at any point Disney could have eliminated them. They haven't.
- Instead this last round Disney increased Florida residents options and gave them more opportunity for free parking and free photopass.
- In addition each year Disney usually offers some great deals on regular tickets to Florida residents along with hotel and other discounts. Always courting them.

Disney clearly feels Florida residents are an important part of their bottom line.
I also note they are not giving those tickets away. Yes they are discounted but some of the better priced ones still come with considerable restrictions.

And it absolutely shouldn't matter to any other guest whether Florida residents get some discounts, that is Disney's business.

Wow, I believe we've got a little road rage here.

 

[DrivenByDisney]

We live in Dr. Phillips which is only a few minutes to the entrance of Disney and I personally have been an AP holder since 1989. We actually moved to the Orlando area to spend more time at Disney as life happened (not going into personal stuff on here) and needed a change. We vacationed at Disney A LOT and made sense for us to move here.

We use our AP's A LOT as well. We go to Disney parks at least twice a week and Disney attractions (ie. Resorts, Disney Springs) another two times per week. We get the value, and them some, out of our tickets as well as Tables in Wonderland.

Maybe this is not the typical persona of AP holders in the area, this is just my example of how we use ours and enjoy all the benefits that come along with them and living five minutes from the parks.

 

[Tom P.]

I admit, I haven't read every single post in this thread. But to address one key point that keeps coming up, I simply do not believe that Disney is raising prices and/or making cuts at the parks either to lower crowds or because they don't care about repeat visitors. I just do not think that is true at all. Not even a little bit.

As Pete said on the podcast last week, this is simple supply and demand. The demand for Walt Disney World continues to rise quarter after quarter, year after year. Every single time Disney releases a quarterly or annual report, they post record attendance numbers. And this is in spite of the price increases that we've all complained about in past years. As long as demand continues to remain strong, Disney will do whatever they feel they can "get away with" in terms of price increases and budget cuts. Why? Because that makes them more money.

If and when Disney starts to see a measurable decrease in attendance, then we will see prices start to drop and more aggressive promotions come into play. Don't forget, a decline in attendance was how we got the now ubiquitous "free dining" in the first place. But until that happens, prices will continue to go up and Disney will continue to make whatever cuts they think guests will accept.

Again, I don't think this has anything to do with decreasing crowd levels. It's all about making more money.

 

[prestoncaldwell]

I admit, I haven't read every single post in this thread. But to address one key point that keeps coming up, I simply do not believe that Disney is raising prices and/or making cuts at the parks either to lower crowds or because they don't care about repeat visitors. I just do not think that is true at all. Not even a little bit.

As Pete said on the podcast last week, this is simple supply and demand. The demand for Walt Disney World continues to rise quarter after quarter, year after year. Every single time Disney releases a quarterly or annual report, they post record attendance numbers. And this is in spite of the price increases that we've all complained about in past years. As long as demand continues to remain strong, Disney will do whatever they feel they can "get away with" in terms of price increases and budget cuts. Why? Because that makes them more money.

If and when Disney starts to see a measurable decrease in attendance, then we will see prices start to drop and more aggressive promotions come into play. Don't forget, a decline in attendance was how we got the now ubiquitous "free dining" in the first place. But until that happens, prices will continue to go up and Disney will continue to make whatever cuts they think guests will accept.

Again, I don't think this has anything to do with decreasing crowd levels. It's all about making more money.

Then they would have increased the ticket price across the board instead of introducing tiered pricing. The singular rationale for tiered pricing is that it seeks to level out the peaks and valleys of attendance, so that the low points have higher attendance and the high points have lower attendance. No other reason would make any sense. The fact that the lowest tier is the same price as last year tells you they want to do this while raising revenue instead of lowering it, but still, the purpose of tiers is crowd leveling. Hotels, resorts and airlines have been doing it for many years.

Also, if Disney drops prices, they have established a lower perception of the value of a ticket. As you mentioned, rather than lowering the ticket price, they would rather keep their tickets at the established value and add extras to entice purchasers when the market is tough.

There's a saying in the hotel industry that to guests, a room is worth no more than the lowest rate they have paid for it in the past.

 

[Tom P.]

The singular rationale for tiered pricing is that it seeks to level out the peaks and valleys of attendance, so that the low points have higher attendance and the high points have lower attendance. No other reason would make any sense.

How about that the busiest times of the year are the ones when Disney feels people will be most willing to swallow a price increase, because they're when people most want to go? Or how about that doing the tiered pricing gives them a plausible justification for why they're raising prices at the same time they're making cuts -- that they're trying to level out crowds to make the guest experience better? "No, really, we're raising the price for YOU!"

No, I'm sorry, I still don't buy it. Disney is *never* going to intentionally do anything that will decrease attendance on any day of the year. Never. This is all about what strategy their people believe is the best to soak more money out of the most customers without them storming the gates with pitchforks in revolt.

 

[prestoncaldwell]

How about that the busiest times of the year are the ones when Disney feels people will be most willing to swallow a price increase, because they're when people most want to go? Or how about that doing the tiered pricing gives them a plausible justification for why they're raising prices at the same time they're making cuts -- that they're trying to level out crowds to make the guest experience better? "No, really, we're raising the price for YOU!"

No, I'm sorry, I still don't buy it. Disney is *never* going to intentionally do anything that will decrease attendance on any day of the year. Never. This is all about what strategy their people believe is the best to soak more money out of the most customers without them storming the gates with pitchforks in revolt.

They are going to raise prices while making cuts anyway. Last year, it was made very public that they replaced their IT staff with H1B foreigners, and forced their outgoing staff to train their replacements or lose severance. This right after a ticket increase.

I've worked in hospitality for 30 years, and the very busiest days of our year create unique problems in security, crowd control, and guest satisfaction. I would absolutely have loved to be able to unplug 1,000 guests on New Years Eve and plug them into the second Tuesday of December. Since we couldn't do that, we charged them NYE pricing to maximize our revenue, and we rewarded those willing to come in early December with the lowest room rates of the year.

To your point, if they could have increased the ticket price year round to $124 without losing any attendance, I'm sure they would have done it. But they probably would have lost some attendance in the crowd level valleys of the calendar, which is the opposite of what they want to do, which is utilize the facilities and manpower efficiently across all seasons.