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

[mshanson3121]

I really don't see their proposed plan being that hard to implement or follow. If you are just buying one day, you'll buy the ticket for the park of your choice at the price for that day. Pretty simple. If you want 5 days of tickets, you buy 5 individual tickets which will be either bronze, silver or gold based on the days you're traveling, and then you'll get a quantity based discount. It's very different, but really not that hard to implement. So really, I see no problem with tiered pricing, EXCEPT for the prices they were propsing - they were insane. If they do it how Universal did it - your Gold ticket is the current price, then Silver and Bronze are discounted off of that, and still offering a GOOD multi-day discount, fine. But, they were proposing that the current price be Bronze, and then raising prices significantly for silver and gold, and then greatly reducing the multi-day discount.

 

[uandmfan]

So what would happen if we bought our tickets now and they moved to a tired system where the current prices were gold prices? We don't travel to Disney I'm gold season (at least not yet)....

I'm confused as to what to do!!

 

[lockedoutlogic]

Sometimes they collect information just to do it...

Sending out surveys with prospective pricing is NOT one of those times.
They don't joke about money. The fact that they even talked of pricing in the survey speaks volumes.

Don't doubt that the decision was made long ago.

 

[mshanson3121]

But they've since leaked to the business papers that they're looking at it.

Do you have a link to any of these? So far the only thing I can find are just other people discussing the possibility of it.

 

[Eoghann]

Do you have a link to any of these? So far the only thing I can find are just other people discussing the possibility of it.

How about the Wall Street Journal? http://www.wsj.com/articles/disney-parks-consider-higher-prices-during-busy-times-1443960001

Of course the Disney spin isn't "tiered pricing" it's "Off-Peak Pricing" but that's semantics.

Disney is a publicly traded company, they don't float that sort of stuff in the WSJ unless they're trying to make it happen. It's just a question of how it will work.

 

[mshanson3121]

How about the Wall Street Journal? http://www.wsj.com/articles/disney-parks-consider-higher-prices-during-busy-times-1443960001

Of course the Disney spin isn't "tiered pricing" it's "Off-Peak Pricing" but that's semantics.

Disney is a publicly traded company, they don't float that sort of stuff in the WSJ unless they're trying to make it happen. It's just a question of how it will work.

Thanks I wasn't doubting by the way, just wanted to read it and see what they said. I've been googling but all I ever got were just speculations.

 

[lockedoutlogic]

The sentinel wrote practically the same article...and for students of history, about 95% of sentinel coverage over the years is shadow written from Team Disney.

 

[Eoghann]

The sentinel wrote practically the same article...and for students of history, about 95% of sentinel coverage over the years is shadow written from Team Disney.

This is how you get the market used to an idea and soften the blow before it lands. A few more stories about it in the media and people will just expect that the rate they are getting is because of the "off-peak discount".

It's just the system proposed in the survey I'm questioning, not the tiering itself.

 

[lockedoutlogic]

I really don't see their proposed plan being that hard to implement or follow. If you are just buying one day, you'll buy the ticket for the park of your choice at the price for that day. Pretty simple. If you want 5 days of tickets, you buy 5 individual tickets which will be either bronze, silver or gold based on the days you're traveling, and then you'll get a quantity based discount. It's very different, but really not that hard to implement. So really, I see no problem with tiered pricing, EXCEPT for the prices they were propsing - they were insane. If they do it how Universal did it - your Gold ticket is the current price, then Silver and Bronze are discounted off of that, and still offering a GOOD multi-day discount, fine. But, they were proposing that the current price be Bronze, and then raising prices significantly for silver and gold, and then greatly reducing the multi-day discount.

This is how you get the market used to an idea and soften the blow before it lands. A few more stories about it in the media and people will just expect that the rate they are getting is because of the "off-peak discount".

It's just the system proposed in the survey I'm questioning, not the tiering itself.

I don't think this idea is easy at all to implement...and that's why it hasn't already happened IMHO.

I know they do this in ln
Paris now...but this one is different.

That floater chart they put out in May had variations in price almost by the day...for the most visited tourist spot on earth...it has "guest services nightmare" written all over it.

But two other thoughts have been percolating for near a year:

1. The weekend pricing...which basically is "we don't want Florida residents or annual passes anymore"...I smell a rat there.

2. With so many variations...not by seasons but by calendar days...it's a way to set it up where they know the full park attendance in advance. Of course they want that...but it's so Orwellian.
They could price each park differently...which allows them to know exactly who's were and cut all the logistics down to the bone. Even with offsiters...which is like the lost arc they've been trying to figure out for decades.


But to reiterate...here's what I know:

None of this is cool, none of it is fun, none of it relaxing, none of it is leisure...
And sure as hell not "for the guest".

 

[Josh Hendy]

It's hard to compare DL Paris or Universal CA because those are either day or weekend destinations for practically all of their guests (or just afternoon or evening destinations for AP holders).

WDW is generally a 1- or 2-week destination, and most complicated of all, it's 4 parks. Well, sort of. Right off the bat that's a problem. 3 of the parks are seldom extremely crowded, except that a couple of rides in each park have very long lines. Does that make them "gold" parks, or is it just "gold" rides? People mix and match parks on the same day, on different days, they get tired and take days off, they decide to repeat parks and rides, they cut other ones short, and they do it for a million different reasons. And Disney has plenty of ways to smooth out crowds and handle them in many ways, using the vast amount of information at their disposal. They have to put in the effort to detect patterns, schedule park hours and shows, schedule staff and so on because they're in the business ... it's their job ... the customer is paying for leisure not for reservation and pricing headaches.

 

[Eoghann]

It's hard to compare DL Paris or Universal CA because those are either day or weekend destinations for practically all of their guests (or just afternoon or evening destinations for AP holders).

That's why I think this coming to Disneyland is inevitable and very easy to implement.

WDW is generally a 1- or 2-week destination, and most complicated of all, it's 4 parks. Well, sort of. Right off the bat that's a problem. 3 of the parks are seldom extremely crowded, except that a couple of rides in each park have very long lines. Does that make them "gold" parks, or is it just "gold" rides? People mix and match parks on the same day, on different days, they get tired and take days off, they decide to repeat parks and rides, they cut other ones short, and they do it for a million different reasons. And Disney has plenty of ways to smooth out crowds and handle them in many ways, using the vast amount of information at their disposal. They have to put in the effort to detect patterns, schedule park hours and shows, schedule staff and so on because they're in the business ... it's their job ... the customer is paying for leisure not for reservation and pricing headaches.

Yes there are a number of simpler tiering options that could be offered but the one Disney proposed is about the most convoluted thing I've ever seen and really only works for one day tickets unless you want your customers to have to maintain a spreadsheet before and during their vacation just so they know what parks they can attend on any particular day.

It would be ticket books for parks instead of rides, and there's a reason they moved away from that model.

I would think more likely is to make people pick dates when buying the tickets (just like they have to with the resorts) and then the software can slide the pricing accordingly.

 

[lockedoutlogic]

I would think more likely is to make people pick dates when buying the tickets (just like they have to with the resorts) and then the software can slide the pricing accordingly.

This is what I'm thinking too...and I have a hard time see how this isn't over the top already.

They can't hold the argument that it's "to manage crowds in our awesome, cutting edge parks" with daily price variations and what would amount to preselecting parks months or even years in advance. Not without capping tickets sold which will NEVER happen.

How do you charge people $140 a ticket on December 19th, have a 2 hour and 45 minute wait for space mountain, no fast pass, and then tell the angry mob that the "crowd controls failed today...sorry. Come back tomorrow...but only if you purchased a silver ticket already or pay the upgrade fee"

 

[mshanson3121]

Yes there are a number of simpler tiering options that could be offered but the one Disney proposed is about the most convoluted thing I've ever seen and really only works for one day tickets unless you want your customers to have to maintain a spreadsheet before and during their vacation just so they know what parks they can attend on any particular day.

My understanding is it would be no different than it is now. When you go for one day, you buy a ticket for a particular park. When you buy a multi-day pass, you're buying a ticket that is good for ANY park. Same thing, just the price for that ticket is going to vary depending on the rating for that day.

 

[lockedoutlogic]

My understanding is it would be no different than it is now. When you go for one day, you buy a ticket for a particular park. When you buy a multi-day pass, you're buying a ticket that is good for ANY park. Same thing, just the price for that ticket is going to vary depending on the rating for that day.

If true then they're picking at the margins...

The majority of tickets used are not one day...

 

[Polydweller]

This is how you get the market used to an idea and soften the blow before it lands. A few more stories about it in the media and people will just expect that the rate they are getting is because of the "off-peak discount".

It's just the system proposed in the survey I'm questioning, not the tiering itself.

Yes, but it's also the way you fly a trial balloon to see if it will fly. You get a story out and see what the reaction is. From the reaction you can also guage whether changes might make it work.

They are looking at this but it's not certain yet. It would be unusual to 'announce' a final decision and version at this point. You really don't want to give your competitors that level info at this stage.

 

[lockedoutlogic]

Yes, but it's also the way you fly a trial balloon to see if it will fly. You get a story out and see what the reaction is. From the reaction you can also guage whether changes might make it work.

They are looking at this but it's not certain yet. It would be unusual to 'announce' a final decision and version at this point. You really don't want to give your competitors that level info at this stage.

Perhaps...but it's just unusual for them to do "surveys" that detailed that is 100% about money.

 

[Josh Hendy]

Perhaps...but it's just unusual for them to do "surveys" that detailed that is 100% about money.

Might be a sign of internal disputes over the policy ... the idea was floating around internally and someone who thought it was dumb/unworkable but without the power or courage to say so was trying to sink it by putting it out there as a survey and getting the public to torpedo it for them ...

Just a guess.

 

[lockedoutlogic]

Might be a sign of internal disputes over the policy ... the idea was floating around internally and someone who thought it was dumb/unworkable but without the power or courage to say so was trying to sink it by putting it out there as a survey and getting the public to torpedo it for them ...

Just a guess.

You mean a "good witch" fighting for the poor customers...and a "bad witch" out solely for profits?

I got some beans to sell you.

If you mean a half baked scheme that somebody promised and can't deliver on...like big profits off magic bands...then I feel ya

 

[Nancyg56]

You mean a "good witch" fighting for the poor customers...and a "bad witch" out solely for profits?

I got some beans to sell you.

If you mean a half baked scheme that somebody promised and can't deliver on...like big profits off magic bands...then I feel ya

LOL! Yes, I think it is something like your latter suggestion. I do think that there will be tiered pricing in the future, just as there is in the resorts category. I also believe that the survey that had such detail in terms of daily pricing was no accident. By the time we see this idea implemented, I think that it will be more like the seasonal pricing we already have for the resorts, and we all will be breathing a sigh of relief rather than raging like hornets. I think that Disney will be encouraging people to purchase packages that include "discounts" rather than plan their trips ala carte with discounted tix from one place, meals from outside the parks, and RO discounts that are not attached to any other inhouse spending. And guests will be happy that they avoided all the hoopla that planning multi day trips would have encompassed.
Win for Disney. Win for me. I really don't know, but I can say that the cost of my trips has increased and I can pinpoint every area that the increase has taken place. If the cost gets fuzzy, maybe people will not question where the hikes have taken place.

 

[Tarheel girl 1975]

Only the one day tickets at DLP are tiered and even then the options are more straightforward than what was included on the survey.