Disney Pricing and associated talk

[PanthersATL]

Over in another thread, @Ricky Prickles said

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With the price hikes into the magic kingdom and other parks of theirs? How come? They have nearly priced out hard working middle class families and are currently making it to the point that daddy must be a CEO just to take a family vacation there. I understand raising prices to go along with the price of everything else in society but look at their price raising over the past 20 years versus the average salary raise and you will see an enormous difference. They are not hurting for money at all. I see it as greed driven by far. It's their company and their right to do as they please but it is also others rights to say to heck with it and choose other vacation destinations of course as well. 

I get what you’re saying, but I find the argument flawed.

the problem is that the parks are way way too crowded (blame Fastpass, and more so the new Genii/lightning lane), along with many years of poor attraction planning/management . but people keep flocking to the parks, so there are only so many ways to find that balancing point.  When Disney abandoned the ABCDE ticket books for POP, that was the beginning of the issue-but bearable as there were only a single queue line for each attraction.  Once a bean counter determined that there was a way to put more people in shops without losing ride capacity- that was a weakening of the system.   Lack of investment in infrastructure was a sledgehammer,
 

yes, the cost of a single day ticket has risen dramatically, percentage-wise. But the vast majority of Disney visitors do not buy single day tickets. So using the price of a single day ticket is not really fair for their economic model.

Hotel prices are based on demand + features. More demand means higher prices.  Lower quality will be lower prices (naturally. Case in point, as the All Star Resorts keep high occupancy, then rates can rise until occupancy evens out or drops a smidge.

WDW is designed to require multiple days to explore the bulk of the 47 square miles of land that make up the resort. It’s designed for multiple day vacations. Disneyland has the opposite issue: it’s now designed for annual pass, day-trippers who visit daily for a few hours at a time.

The quality of the parks / guest experience is declining. WDW can’t afford to upgrade space mountain or haunted mansion because they don’t want to take those attractions offline for two-six months as they don’t want to ruin a guests planned vacation.  But by not doing so, they minimize the overall experience for everyone.

land yet, crowds keep coming, no matter the price point.    And part of that are parents feeling obligated to take their kids at least once (or more!!!!).   There needs to be a price point where  the average family says “no”, or at least, “just once” to alleviate the crowding and make the higher price feel like it’s a better experience.   Forcing people to make park, ride, and meal reservations 6 mo this in advance isnt fun at all.
 

because it’s not going to happen merely by limiting reservations to X thousand visitors a day.  Heck, the park hoppers got angree when they couldn’t park hop until,after 1p or 2p.  Imagine how angry people would get if reservations were more locked down.

(disclosure: havent been to WDW in close to 16 years after visiting at least once a year for a bit, including touring the parks as the guest of former staff members who’ve written multiple books about Disney history)

[CRA]

last time I went to Disney (think it was 2022) it definitely felt much different than just a year prior.  It was right when the genie got unrolled. 

Genie sucks.  You feel obligated to get it.  But that doesn't do diddly.  It doesn't even work on the "good" rides.  You got to pay essentially another version of an individualized fast pass for them on top of the genie "fast pass". 

[d-dave]

We're going this summer to Disney (sweat city), and we looked into the fast pass and park hopper and realized they were nothing more than cash grabs.  So we passed.  We'll see how it goes.  Hopefully my son can build his lightsaber.  That's what he's most excited about.

[PanthersATL]

47 minutes ago, CRA said:

last time I went to Disney (think it was 2022) it definitely felt much different than just a year prior.  It was right when the genie got unrolled. 

Genie sucks.  You feel obligated to get it.  But that doesn't do diddly.  It doesn't even work on the "good" rides.  You got to pay essentially another version of an individualized fast pass for them on top of the genie "fast pass". 

Genie is a sad replacement for the superior Fast Pass.... but they needed to go to a digital/online/app-based solution if they were going to keep the Fast Pass concept.

Regardless, the concept of Fast Pass is horrible as it forces people out of waiting on line for attractions and into the streets making things more crowded than they should be.   The nice thing about the Fast Pass lines is that it allows a (reasonable) way for guests who require an expediated line experience a way to access the ride without entering through the exit.  (ie:  guest passes due to earlier ride malfunctions, Make-a-Wish kids)

The ABCDE ticket books were fantastic, as it forced guests to experience all the attractions to get the full ticket book value rather than focus only on the E-level tickets.

[PanthersATL]

26 minutes ago, d-dave said:

We're going this summer to Disney (sweat city), and we looked into the fast pass and park hopper and realized they were nothing more than cash grabs.  So we passed.  We'll see how it goes.  Hopefully my son can build his lightsaber.  That's what he's most excited about.

I'd recommend subscribing to the TOURING PLANS app (it's low cost vs the paid-for Genie) to help organize your day-off activities.  Have used it, and it's pretty accurate vs the freebie wait times seen in the official Disney app.

Plus, it's pretty solid in terms of making a complete day plan of which attractions to hit in order when you give it a full list of what you want to do.   

[PanthersATL]

30 minutes ago, d-dave said:

We're going this summer to Disney (sweat city), and we looked into the fast pass and park hopper and realized they were nothing more than cash grabs.  So we passed.  We'll see how it goes.  Hopefully my son can build his lightsaber.  That's what he's most excited about.

Good luck on getting access to the SW rides.  They're fantastic, but your patience may be tested.

[PanthersATL]

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@Ricky Pricklesalso said:

They are not hurting for money at all. I see it as greed driven by far.

All corporations are in the business to make money, some do it better than others. But Disney is not even close to being at the top.  I don't fault any company for making money --- if they provide me my expected value for their prices, I'm happy to pay. If I don't find value or worthwhile use, I'll pass it by - but won't dissuade others from being willing to pay up.

Apple, Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Tesla, Berkshire Hathaway, NVidia, Facebook are all in the Top Ten (among a few lesser well-known names). 

 

[CRA]

4 hours ago, d-dave said:

We're going this summer to Disney (sweat city), and we looked into the fast pass and park hopper and realized they were nothing more than cash grabs.  So we passed.  We'll see how it goes.  Hopefully my son can build his lightsaber.  That's what he's most excited about.

We did the build a droid one.  Make sure to do an online reservation in advance for the lightsaber.  

 

[scpanther22]

If I remember correctly when Disney brought back Bob iger as CEO he admitted prices had gotten to high and wanted to bring them down? 

[PanthersATL]

2 hours ago, scpanther22 said:

If I remember correctly when Disney brought back Bob iger as CEO he admitted prices had gotten to high and wanted to bring them down? 

More because Chapek wasn't very good at his job. 

Share price was down pretty hard, lower than expected profits, and the direct-to-consumer division lost $1.5b in one three month period.  He wanted to move away from animated movies, kinda screwed up Disney+ a bit...

And yes, Chapek raised WDW prices pretty hard during his tenure, blaming "increased demand" for the reasoning, but without supplementing that with in-park improvements.  

But the ticket prices by themselves is not what resulted in Iger replacing Chapek.

 

 

 

[Cullenator]

I haven't been to WDW that wasn't for a conference since '09 so everything I know is second hand or skewed by the deep discounts conference attendees get but my daughter, her husband, and 2 friends just went for a week.  They stayed on property and did everything they wanted (light sabers, all the parks, every ride, etc) and ate in all the places they wanted and didnt spend but about 7k per couple.

 

Turn that into a family of 4 and a weeks vacation with The Mouse for under 15k doesnt seem crazy to me.

[Squirrel]

Military tickets are decently priced for wdw.   

 

There is ways to save some money and get extra benefits.  Renting Dvc points saves alot of money if you like staying in deluxe hotels.  You also get after hours to ride. 

[Shocker]

I know this is a larger discussion but Hulu Live TV bundle at 69$ is now the best TV replacement option.  Youtube TV is 72$ and has no real advantages anymore.  If you like Disney+ for whatever reason the large amount of 4k content is a serious selling point IMO.  ESPN+ is just icing

Edited July 24, 2023 by Shocker

[KSpan]

On 7/24/2023 at 6:38 PM, Shocker said:

I know this is a larger discussion but Hulu Live TV bundle at 69$ is now the best TV replacement option.  Youtube TV is 72$ and has no real advantages anymore.  If you like Disney+ for whatever reason the large amount of 4k content is a serious selling point IMO.  ESPN+ is just icing

God, it's like paying for cable all over again... taking me back to 2014 when we cut that off in the first place.