Magic Key Passes

[dieumeye]

As for the spending argument; day ticket guests absolutely spend more than AP holders per capita.

Care to share your data on this?

 

[Epicnemesis]

Sounds well and good, but if you think Disney is the same company today as then you're nuts. Disney is a global company with massive influence today.

As for the spending argument; day ticket guests absolutely spend more than AP holders per capita. I'm not sure why some take that so personally.

 

[DLgal]

Sounds well and good, but if you think Disney is the same company today as then you're nuts. Disney is a global company with massive influence today.

As for the spending argument; day ticket guests absolutely spend more than AP holders per capita. I'm not sure why some take that so personally.

It's not that anyone takes it personally. It's just factually inaccurate. If that was truly the case, they would simply not sell annual passes, period. Why would they if they can make more money on day guests?

Per capita is not the only important metric. Giest volume matters a great deal. Disneyland cannot maintain the volume of ticket sales needed for reaching their revenue goals with only day ticket guests.

If Disney didn't ever bring back the Magic Key program, I promise you as "day guests" we would have spent FAR LESS at Disneyland over the last year. It was quite eye opening during the closure how much money we actually spend there when all of a sudden, it was no longer an option. But when I had to buy day tickets, I did NOT have the same laissez faire attitude about spending money at Disneyland. It s much harder to spend a large chunk of money at once rather than smaller amounts spread out over several months. We bought a 2 day hopper and then another 5 day one and I told my kids that was going to be it for a LONG time (this was before the MK were announced).

 

[Ursula J]

I might be wrong here, but wasn't Crapek very clear that he didn't really want APs at all? He said APs were less revenue than splurge/once a year visitors. Look, I hate him, so I'm not in agreement. Just saying it's not a surprise that he'd try to get rid of them.

 

[DLgal]

I might be wrong here, but wasn't Crapek very clear that he didn't really want APs at all? He said APs were less revenue than splurge/once a year visitors. Look, I hate him, so I'm not in agreement. Just saying it's not a surprise that he'd try to get rid of them.

This might be true for WDW. It is absolutely not true for DL. Chapek doesn't seem to fully understand the cultural differences between the two parks.

 

[dieumeye]

I might be wrong here, but wasn't Crapek very clear that he didn't really want APs at all? He said APs were less revenue than splurge/once a year visitors. Look, I hate him, so I'm not in agreement. Just saying it's not a surprise that he'd try to get rid of them.

Chapek was chairman of Disney Parks & Resorts from 2015. He did not need to be CEO of the entire Disney corporation (which is much more than just the parks) to make changes to the parks if desired.

(The idea that Chapek was just seething for years, hoping to end the annual pass programs, and the only one standing in his way was Iger, who refused to let Chapek cancel the program is just silly.)

People act like Chapek came out of nowhere with a radical agenda to change everything, but he’s been around and part of major parks projects for years.

I think the company has made some missteps recently, and I also think there is a misunderstanding about the differences in the cultures of WDW and DL. But the reality is that none of us know all the reasons decisions are made and who is making them.

That’s actually Chspek’s biggest failure in my opinion: his messaging/press/appearance make everything look like both a dumb avoidable decision and solely his fault.

 

[elenex]

This might be true for WDW. It is absolutely not true for DL. Chapek doesn't seem to fully understand the cultural differences between the two parks.

Reminds me of a guy named Eisner who decided that Disneyland needed a park about California... For Californians to go to. Glad Iger & co. could right that ship but clearly there is a precedent for Disney CEOs so totally misunderstanding the differences that they lost billions on it... Kind of scary.

I do say that i think it'd be insanely stupid to not have an AP option when they open VDH (the DVC tower at DLH). It'll certainly put the brakes on my interest. Although unfortunately we need look no further than WDW right now for a precedent on that either, although there are no new resorts that have opened since their AP suspension.

The ironic thing here is that WDW is still selling the lowest tier resident APs (but no others)... Which seems totally counter to everything we hear out of Chapek.

 

[DLgal]

Reminds me of a guy named Eisner who decided that Disneyland needed a park about California... For Californians to go to. Glad Iger & co. could right that ship but clearly there is a precedent for Disney CEOs so totally misunderstanding the differences that they lost billions on it... Kind of scary.

I do say that i think it'd be insanely stupid to not have an AP option when they open VDH (the DVC tower at DLH). It'll certainly put the brakes on my interest. Although unfortunately we need look no further than WDW right now for a precedent on that either, although there are no new resorts that have opened since their AP suspension.

The ironic thing here is that WDW is still selling the lowest tier resident APs (but no others)... Which seems totally counter to everything we hear out of Chapek.

Well, that was a good lesson on how when you slash the budget, you don't always end up saving any money in the long run. Do overs are expensive.

 

[DontSpamMe]

It's not that anyone takes it personally. It's just factually inaccurate.

Did you get the facts you needed today? I guess you can't always be right.

Told ya'll so.

 

[DontSpamMe]

Care to share your data on this?

Do you need me to post the articles or have you found them all?

 

[DLgal]

Did you get the facts you needed today?

Nope. I didn't see any numbers.

I'll wait for the official transcript.

"Unfavorable attendance mix" can also be referring to the people who came in on discounted CA resident tickets and then didn't spend any money. All I've seen is one Twitter journalist post his assumption of what that line was referring to. And everyone ran with it.

 

[DontSpamMe]

Nope. I didn't see any numbers.

Uh....Disney never releases numbers. But if your stance is still that AP holders put more money in the parks then I don't know what to say.

Neither of us can provide facts because we all know disney does not make them public. We can only go by hunches and assumptions. Mine are currently more accurate.

 

[dieumeye]

Do you need me to post the articles or have you found them all?

What data? I did see them talk about loosening AP blockout dates when attendance drops.

 

[Epicnemesis]

Dear god, I’ll end this sidebar.

APs spend more over a year on average, day tickets spend more in a day on average.

If there is no AP program Disney loses all of that revenue and the parks are at a low attendance (see when they reopened the park and it was empty and they rushed magic key to market)

 

[dieumeye]

Snark aside, serious question:

“Unfavorable Mix” allegedly means “too many MKs in the park.” Ok, I’m not arguing about that but I have a question…

Disney sets how many day ticket and MKs can be in the park each day with the reservation system. They decide exactly how many reservations to make available to MKs and how many to make available to day tickets.

So, how can they set the mix and also complain that the mix isn’t right? They set the mix. They set how many MKs can be in the park. Every day.

If they want less MKs, they could make less reservations available. But reservations have been mostly plentiful (except for the first couple months). I could go tomorrow. I could go right now if I want.

I know the lawsuit exists but is that really the answer? That they are making reservations available against their will? Maybe, but that seems too simplistic, unless they really think the suit has merit.

I heard elsewhere that “unfavorable mix” may actually mean there weren’t as many hotel guests as they wanted. Which is something they don’t have control over (unlike MKs). And, allegedly, what prompted them to rush out the PP DCA entrance and bring back Early Entry.

They also say attendance is down, which would explain why they are keeping MK reservations available. But then they say the mix is unfavorable.

It’s all somewhat contradictory is all I’m saying.

 

[Epicnemesis]

So, how can they set the mix and also complain that the mix isn’t right? They set the mix. They set how many MKs can be in the park. Every day.

I think that what they mean is they aren’t selling enough day tickets to fill the parks with right ratio of day ticket holders, thus they then release day ticket reservations to the MK pool, and the ideal ratio gets imbalanced.

But that also would mean that they see the importance of the passes to fill the parks, you would think they would want the most loyal (the people who have a pass that expires day one) to renew their passes.

 

[Aurora0427]

Dear god, I’ll end this sidebar.

APs spend more over a year on average, day tickets spend more in a day on average.

If there is no AP program Disney loses all of that revenue and the parks are at a low attendance (see when they reopened the park and it was empty and they rushed magic key to market)

This. It’s not like if all of the MK holders disappear, they’re going to be replaced by day ticket holders. That’s a ton of lost revenue for Disneyland.

 

[MonocularVision]

Snark aside, serious question:

“Unfavorable Mix” allegedly means “too many MKs in the park.” Ok, I’m not arguing about that but I have a question…

As mentioned earlier, the “allegedly” is really just a person on Twitter. Personally, I don’t think it was the MK/Ticket mix for the reasons you stated.

 

[Aurora0427]

Snark aside, serious question:

“Unfavorable Mix” allegedly means “too many MKs in the park.” Ok, I’m not arguing about that but I have a question…

Disney sets how many day ticket and MKs can be in the park each day with the reservation system. They decide exactly how many reservations to make available to MKs and how many to make available to day tickets.

So, how can they set the mix and also complain that the mix isn’t right? They set the mix. They set how many MKs can be in the park. Every day.

If they want less MKs, they could make less reservations available. But reservations have been mostly plentiful (except for the first couple months). I could go tomorrow. I could go right now if I want.

I know the lawsuit exists but is that really the answer? That they are making reservations available against their will? Maybe, but that seems too simplistic, unless they really think the suit has merit.

I heard elsewhere that “unfavorable mix” may actually mean there weren’t as many hotel guests as they wanted. Which is something they don’t have control over (unlike MKs). And, allegedly, what prompted them to rush out the PP DCA entrance and bring back Early Entry.

They also say attendance is down, which would explain why they are keeping MK reservations available. But then they say the mix is unfavorable.

It’s all somewhat contradictory is all I’m saying.

I don’t know how much more packed the parks can be….. I mean how can attendance be down? July was miserable. So was June before the blacked out all of the Enchant Key Holders. I’m not sure what August has been like…. We’re going tomorrow. I’m preparing for the worst.

I will say we live in San Clemente and I’ve noticed this week that the beaches have been way less crowded… even in Laguna. My daughter did a surf camp a couple of weeks ago and trying to find parking to pick her up and drop her off was a nightmare. I’m hoping for my sake Disneyland is less busy than it was when we were there in July.

 

[SOCALMouseMommy]

I don’t know how much more packed the parks can be….. I mean how can attendance be down? July was miserable. So was June before the blacked out all of the Enchant Key Holders. I’m not sure what August has been like…. We’re going tomorrow. I’m preparing for the worst.

Omg this was my thought exactly! How in the world is attendance down??? The parks have been packed this summer.

A local friend of mine who is a huge Disney fan but not a Magic Key holder went with her family this week, stayed at the GCH and actually used the words “pretty miserable” to sum up their DL park day due to the massive crowds. Another local friend went two weeks ago and had a similar experience. I don’t think either of them will be back anytime soon.