With the likely introduction of tired pricing should we buy tickets now?

[lockedoutlogic]

I can see Disney going to a ticket system which will have all new tickets expire 12 months from purchase. They have already eliminated the 'No-Expire' Tickets. They would obviously still honor all previously purchased tickets which do not have a new expiration period tied to them. I'm really surprised they haven't already done this. As for me, we have enough No Expire tickets and AP vouchers to last till 2024.

No doubt...it's out there somewhere...

It would increase revenues and do nothing to discourage travel.

In cases like this...the ineptitude of their tracking/computing systems is probably a more likely culprit than "good will" or "being too busy".

 

[Spacedog1975]

I can see Disney going to a ticket system which will have all new tickets expire 12 months from purchase. They have already eliminated the 'No-Expire' Tickets. They would obviously still honor all previously purchased tickets which do not have a new expiration period tied to them. I'm really surprised they haven't already done this. As for me, we have enough No Expire tickets and AP vouchers to last till 2024.

No doubt...it's out there somewhere...

It would increase revenues and do nothing to discourage travel.

In cases like this...the ineptitude of their tracking/computing systems is probably a more likely culprit than "good will" or "being too busy".

It is possible, that Disney would engage such a strategy to diminish speculative ticket purchasing save for a couple of considerations:

1) Speculative ticket purchases largely benefit Disney. It's a big reason why the post office has Forever stamps now. You hand Disney your money for something that you don't have specific plans to use, and quite possibly will never use. Worst case scenario, they get to hold your money for months or years while you only hold the value of "future days".

2) Law, ethics, or customer service considerations would likely compel them to offer purchase value for any such ticketing they might expire. You can look at things like LivingSocial or Groupon for this example. Your offer value may expire, but your original purchase figure value remains. For the argument that Disney doesn't care about any of these things, you'd be wrong. Even if they don't engage in good customer service for customer service sake - they do so to assure good press and brand value perspective.

 

[AngiTN]

I'm not sure I can say that because there was a survey that mentioned tiered tickets means likely they will have tiered tickets. It's just not a leap I'd take

 

[lockedoutlogic]

I'm not sure I can say that because there was a survey that mentioned tiered tickets means likely they will have tiered tickets. It's just not a leap I'd take

You should...they don't joke about pricing...it's a cash cow and you don't sour the milk

 

[wdwthanksgiving]

I can see Disney going to a ticket system which will have all new tickets expire 12 months from purchase. They have already eliminated the 'No-Expire' Tickets. They would obviously still honor all previously purchased tickets which do not have a new expiration period tied to them. I'm really surprised they haven't already done this. As for me, we have enough No Expire tickets and AP vouchers to last till 2024.

how do you have the AP vouchers? did you purchase them all at full price (without the renewal discount?)--- are they then, technically, non-expiring? i have a current AP that i just renewed...even tho we only go about 2 times a year for a total of 7 or 8 days, we feel the price works out --we usually save at the resort (tho not always) and 10% off a number of restaurants. we always bought the 10 day no expire for my husband and we were disappointed they did away with it--we felt it was the best deal around! we did not purchase the TIW this year - the price increase was too steep for the benefit for us.

 

[Josh Hendy]

You should...they don't joke about pricing...it's a cash cow and you don't sour the milk

You'd think that all that would be obvious ... however the concept of tiered pricing is just a mess. The more I think about it and the more I see other people trying to wrap their brains around it, I get the feeling that they WERE acting like a bunch of jokers when they came up with that survey, and they DID sour the milk.

They must have been studying Adobe's subscription model of pricing or something and thought ... how can we break the pattern of "we build a product and you decide whether or not buy it" and change it into, "you give us your money, keep giving us your money, and we'll decide what to give you".

 

[Alicenwonderment]

I have some questions about pre buying tickets or an AP. I think Disney raised prices in Feb last year. What are some of the clues to find out before it is happening? Last time I found out the day of at 2 am so I couldn't buy non expiring tickets. Do you think they will raise AP costs in Feb 2016 since they raised it in Oct 2015. I'm seriously considering buying an AP for future use.

 

[peabody58]

how do you have the AP vouchers? did you purchase them all at full price (without the renewal discount?)--- are they then, technically, non-expiring?

Several years ago, DVC offered a special on the Premium AP, and we jumped on that, which meant we didn't use our 'normal' AP vouchers that year. Then we realized the AP prices were going to get crazy high, so we purchased another set of DVC AP vouchers. The DVC AP vouchers do not expire and only start when we activate them at Guest Services. I do not know about non-DVC AP purchases.

 

[Eoghann]

I'm not sure I can say that because there was a survey that mentioned tiered tickets means likely they will have tiered tickets. It's just not a leap I'd take

If it was only a survey they might have been testing the waters. But they've since leaked to the business papers that they're looking at it. Which is basically a way of getting people ready for the idea it's going to happen, the only questions are how and when.

I'm one of the people who thinks the structure proposed in the survey doesn't make much sense, but there are many ways to do tiered pricing.

 

[AngiTN]

I have some questions about pre buying tickets or an AP. I think Disney raised prices in Feb last year. What are some of the clues to find out before it is happening? Last time I found out the day of at 2 am so I couldn't buy non expiring tickets. Do you think they will raise AP costs in Feb 2016 since they raised it in Oct 2015. I'm seriously considering buying an AP for future use.

There were no clues for that price increase. No one knew it was coming more than a day or so before.

 

[Planogirl]

I've decide not to worry about this. When and if the time comes to visit the parks I'll just see what the tickets cost and if they're too much I'll go elsewhere.

I wonder if any of the other Disney parks are looking into this too? Disneyland has been beckoning but of course only once the construction is done.

 

[Eoghann]

I've decide not to worry about this. When and if the time comes to visit the parks I'll just see what the tickets cost and if they're too much I'll go elsewhere.

I wonder if any of the other Disney parks are looking into this too? Disneyland has been beckoning but of course only once the construction is done.

Tiered would make more sense and be easier to implement at Disneyland I would think.

 

[JohnDaleswife]

I have 4 adult 4-day base tickets in my MDE right now and have had them for about 6 months. I hope to use them at the end of this year, but if not in 2017. I know the ticket prices will increase at least once before then, not sure if tiered pricing will come into effect before then though.

But I too believe that the expiration dates will come into play in the future and that sucks for some of us, but good for Disney.

 

[tlmadden73]

I have no doubts ticket prices will go up again with how crowded the parks are reported being. Why wouldn't they? They will keep raising ticket prices until the crowds start leveling out.
If not now .. they will go up at least once or twice before the big new "lands" open. Simple supply/demand.
If anything they probably will raise the price of the hopper pass since a lot of people will want to "hop" over to see the new stuff like AK's new night show.


10-Day no expiration tickets was a good way to "pre-buy" Disney tickets with little risk for many short trips - (they averaged out to about $75/day (with hopper) when I bought them). I have no-expiration tickets with days left, but I am tempted to buy some multi-day tickets NOW for longer trip in the future (after all the new lands open up 3-4 years from now) but trying to figure out how much money that would really save me.

Seems like buying a 4-5 day ticket now for a future trip (2+ years from now) would be worth it (IF You have the money now).
1) Would probably save you $10-20+ per ticket per year (depending how much prices go up AND if they do tiered pricing).
2) When that vacation time comes .. it will "feel" relatively cheaper since your tickets are already purchased and that money has been already spent.

Obviously there are better methods to save money (at least there used to be) . .but with interest rates the way they are .. you probably get a better rate of return on Disney tickets .. heh.

 

[lockedoutlogic]

I think breaking out prices by the day is impossible...by period of travel is reasonable.

They've already aligned annuals to fit that model.

 

[Josh Hendy]

I think breaking out prices by the day is impossible...by period of travel is reasonable.

They've already aligned annuals to fit that model.

"Reasonabler" maybe. Or "reasonabley" in the sense that McD's cookies are "chocolatey" i.e. not at all.

As people keep pointing out, the parks are often "crazy busy" at times of the year - certain weeks or certain days - that sometimes might be reasonably related to a special event, and other times are just plain (un) "reasonabley" and may even be related to gamesmanship involving staffing levels, table allocations, queue management and FP allocations.

Maybe it'll work out ok for them because they'll always have an alibi. If it's a gold day but quiet they'll say, allocation by price is working. If it's a quiet bronze day they'll say, told you this should be bronze. If it's a busy gold or bronze day they'll say, uh huh, we have to bump up the prices again to smooth out the crowds.

People will just scratch their heads and keep on paying ...

 

[mshanson3121]

I'm not sure I can say that because there was a survey that mentioned tiered tickets means likely they will have tiered tickets. It's just not a leap I'd take

This would be a mistake on your part. Disney doesn't put out surveys like that without reason. It means they are definitely considering the possibility, especially considering they already do it at Disneyland Paris.

 

[mshanson3121]

You'd think that all that would be obvious ... however the concept of tiered pricing is just a mess. The more I think about it and the more I see other people trying to wrap their brains around it, I get the feeling that they WERE acting like a bunch of jokers when they came up with that survey, and they DID sour the milk.

They must have been studying Adobe's subscription model of pricing or something and thought ... how can we break the pattern of "we build a product and you decide whether or not buy it" and change it into, "you give us your money, keep giving us your money, and we'll decide what to give you".

They already have tiered pricing at Disneyland Paris, so obviously it can work.

 

[mshanson3121]

I've decide not to worry about this. When and if the time comes to visit the parks I'll just see what the tickets cost and if they're too much I'll go elsewhere.

I wonder if any of the other Disney parks are looking into this too? Disneyland has been beckoning but of course only once the construction is done.

Disneyland Paris already has tiered pricing. And of course Universal in CA just implemented it as well.

 

[AngiTN]

This would be a mistake on your part. Disney doesn't put out surveys like that without reason. It means they are definitely considering the possibility, especially considering they already do it at Disneyland Paris.

I'll just opt to disagree with you.
I never said that I didn't believe it was possible.
But I did say that I do not take 1 survey as firm word that it's changing
I still don't.
I do think prices will go up though so I still wouldn't hesitate to purchase a ticket sooner rather than later