Disney announces new ticket structure!

[MillauFr]

Our local MLB team tried "dynamic pricing" which sounds like what Disney is proposing. They charged more for games against certain teams, etc. I don't think it went over very well.

Usually what they do is just jack up the prices for the high demand games. In addition to that they should lower the prices of the low demand games down to $5 a ticket in order to fill the stadium.

 

[Aimee Wolfe]

Any idea what sort of price hike there will be over Christmas on multi day tickets? Is it expected to be significant? I am visiting this Christmas and haven't bought tickets yet. Thinking I should get on that asap!

 

[kymom99]

Usually what they do is just jack up the prices for the high demand games. In addition to that they should lower the prices of the low demand games down to $5 a ticket in order to fill the stadium.

Yes and they announced it like we should all be excited about it. Now they can't give the tickets away since we have had consecutive losing seasons and are "rebuilding." They may have had low prices at select games but not any great bargains.

 

[Carrie Ellis]

It will be interesting to see what they do with Military offers and tickets too. I guess we should know by the end of this week?

 

[dizzydrop]

So, if I'm going right after Christmas for two weeks would I be smarter to buy tickets now?

 

[HHMcG]

What I dislike most about this change is - when a deal comes out for tickets I can't scope them up knowing I'll be heading to The World sometime in the next year+. A lot of times we don't settle on dates until the last minute.

I haven't read too much yet but I'm curious to hear how much it will cost to change your dates. Just the difference in the daily price or will their be some "change fee"?

I did notice in the video they showed the new ticket scheme being less expensive than they currently are. It was a 4 day ticket. In the video it showed $85/day with a total of $338.xx. A current 4-day adult base ticket is $380 before tax ($360 for a child's). They used a date of Nov 12, 2018.

 

[MomToOne]

Disneyland has this same kind of price structure. You want to go on more popular *days* not just seasons or holidays you pay more so choosing it over WDW isn’t necessarily going to save you money.

Single day tickets have variable pricing at Disneyland, but not the multiday tickets, at least for now. And I don't have to deal with other headaches like Magic Bands that just increase the need to plan every minutia of my visit in advance.

I can just imagine the nightmare of trying to sync up cheap airfare dates with cheap ticket dates. No thanks.

 

[NY Pirate Princess]

All the reputable websites are saying if you are travelling soon you should buy now.

 

[wenrob]

Single day tickets have variable pricing at Disneyland, but not the multiday tickets, at least for now. And I don't have to deal with other headaches like Magic Bands that just increase the need to plan every minutia of my visit in advance.

I can just imagine the nightmare of trying to sync up cheap airfare dates with cheap ticket dates. No thanks.

Back when I joined this site I thought I’d might like to visit WDW someday. I’m a big time planner but seeing what goes into it, it’s way beyond what I’d want to do so I get what you’re saying.

 

[MillauFr]

If they do this correctly the park attendance during the Christmas break will be the same as during the lowest demand period.

 

[Marionnette]

If they do this correctly the park attendance during the Christmas break will be the same as during the lowest demand period.

Do you honestly believe that attendance in the MK will be the same on Christmas Day as it will be on Groundhog Day as a result of this new ticket structure?

 

[MillauFr]

Do you honestly believe that attendance in the MK will be the same on Christmas Day as it will be on Groundhog Day as a result of this new ticket structure?

At first this won't make much a difference. Taken to its logical conclusion I think eventually the attendance will balance out. I mean if they are charging $25 a day during the lowest demand periods and $250 a day on Christmas wouldn't you expect attendance to balance more?

Here in Seattle they are charging tolls of $10 on the freeways during rush hour. During low demand periods the toll is zero.

 

[Toolulu22]

Our local MLB team tried "dynamic pricing" which sounds like what Disney is proposing. They charged more for games against certain teams, etc. I don't think it went over very well.

So did our teams. We joke about how empty the stands look when we watch the games from the comfort of our living room. Suddenly there are deals galore trying to sell seats. But why pay hundreds or thousands for a family for tickets, food, souvenirs etc?

 

[Marionnette]

At first this won't make much a difference. Taken to its logical conclusion I think eventually the attendance will balance out. I mean if they are charging $25 a day during the lowest demand periods and $250 a day on Christmas wouldn't you expect attendance to balance more?

Here in Seattle they are charging tolls of $10 on the freeways during rush hour. During low demand periods the toll is zero.

And yet there are still more cars on the freeway during rush hour anyway. Why? Because that's when people need to use the highway. If the toll is too expensive, cars begin to clog the back roads.

People will still flock to Disney during the busier times because that is when they can go. Higher ticket prices at Christmas will not serve to influence those people to visit in February. It may serve to influence those people to make alternative vacation plans to destinations that are more affordable. The net effect is not redistributing attendance. It may only serve to discourage attendance during traditionally busy times. Of course, if that ticket price is significantly higher, then the loss of numbers is offset by the increase in the gate revenue. Whether that would translate to an increase in guest satisfaction remains to be seen.

 

[MillauFr]

And yet there are still more cars on the freeway during rush hour anyway. Why? Because that's when people need to use the highway. If the toll is too expensive, cars begin to clog the back roads.

People will still flock to Disney during the busier times because that is when they can go. Higher ticket prices at Christmas will not serve to influence those people to visit in February. It may serve to influence those people to make alternative vacation plans to destinations that are more affordable. The net effect is not redistributing attendance. It may only serve to discourage attendance during traditionally busy times. Of course, if that ticket price is significantly higher, then the loss of numbers is offset by the increase in the gate revenue. Whether that would translate to an increase in guest satisfaction remains to be seen.

Do you really believe that if Disney dropped the price to $1 a day during low demand periods it wouldn't result in a packed park?

 

[Marionnette]

Do you really believe that if Disney dropped the price to $1 a day during low demand periods it wouldn't result in a packed park?

That's a facetious argument. Disney isn't going to drop ticket prices to $1 on any day of the year.

 

[MomToOne]

If they do this correctly the park attendance during the Christmas break will be the same as during the lowest demand period.

No it won't. This is basic revenue management. "Doing this correctly" from Disney's perspective involves maximizing the money they are taking in. Getting some folks to move to less crowded days will just free up space to book those who are willing to spend more for the popular days. Today those people are lost customers once all rooms are sold or the park reaches max attendance.

All this will do is make the park more crowded on less popular days. The park will still be a mess on popular days.

I worked on revenue management systems for many years, creating and implementing them for several hotel chains and other types of clients. This is pretty similar to the hotel stuff. Hotels didn't implement these systems in the interest of just evening out how many rooms they sold from day to day, they did it to increase their revenue by getting higher rates and raising occupancy. More popular day? Raise the price to the point where you still sell out (just barely) but get more $$ from the folks who book. Less popular day? MAYBE lower the price to get more people to book, but not so much that you actually take in less revenue (10 people at $100 a night gets you more revenue than 15 people at $60/night - so if you don't think you could get demand higher than 15 by lowering your price to that degree, you don't; optimal could be $85 a night if you think 13 people would book at that price). So you still have peaks and valleys in demand. They are softened somewhat, but they still exist.