price plans

I've been mulling this over for a while, and I think a tiered pricing system will fail for Disney on the 2 counts that will matter to them (a) more revenue; and (b) crowd control.

As folks have said before me, having price tiers for busy times, will just make it way too complex... especially since the plan they've laid out is not blocked out by "months or weeks", but by days.

------> The simple fact is that folks who are restricted by their work and travel schedules, are going to come based on when they are free, whether or not the price of a ticket goes up or down. (Elementary & High School Teachers, College Professors get off work in the summer, and on holidays, and oh yeah, spring break) The airlines already try to make travel during these time periods "cost prohibitive" -- and people still travel.

-----> The reality that folks are going to come based on their schedule, which means crowd control won't really occur. Maybe, as folks mentioned before, this will give some incentive to visit other Orlando attractions on so-called "gold" days, such as Sea World or Universal, or stay back for a relaxing day of rest and sunning by the pool, but without "additional" ticket policy changes, Disney will be dealing with lots of unhappy tourists.

a) Advanced ticket sales become far more complex.... Many folks buy vacation package months in advance, capitalize on 60 day advance Fastpass reservations, ADRs, etc. Price tiering will impact all of that
B) its currently easier to "change" one's vacation days months in advance, which will become more difficult with tiered tickets.
b) I believe current ticket policy says I can use my tickets any day up to 14 days past first use - this will have to change with tiered prices. If I buy a silver ticket, and am not allowed to use on a gold day - either I lose a day on my use or disney has to allow for x number of silver days.

-----> Even if Disney effectively "controls crowds" on "gold" ticket priced days, what they fail to realize is that they have probably just redistributed the crowds to the "silver days" which will now be more packed than ever.

-----> Most experienced Disney travelers already self-monitor for crowd control (many of us plan in advance which park we will go to on which days based on park hoppers and Extra magic hours, based on the high crowd/traffic charts that some of the websites put out, etc),---I don't know that changing ticket prices will do that much more. Folks that are oblivious to crowds are going to remain to be oblivious. Folks that monitor crowds are going to continue to monitor, and if anything, the ticket tiers will make it more difficult to monitor crowds because it will probably redistribute the crowds except for the truly "off season" (Late January & February; Late september & october)

-----> If families have to pay more in ticket prices overall because of a tiered system, families are going to find a way to save money elsewhere.... meaning that either
(a) they will cut a day or two off their overall stay to save $$ in ticket and hotel prices
(b) they will reduce the budget for souvenirs, meaning less money spent in the parks
(c) they will find ways to save money on food (either through dining plans, or packing granola bars, or by buying groceries and eating back at the hotel)
Thus any increased revenue disney hopes to gain from increased ticket prices, will probably be nulled by families finding ways to be thrifty in other ways.

Very well thought out SorcererMickey. Any ideas on how they would handle annual pass holders? Bronze, Silver, Gold & Platinum where your passes may be invalid on certain days? Disney may be shooting themselves in the foot!

The only way I can think of to "guarantee" low crowds would be to extend the Extra Magic Hours from 1 hour to...oh, I don't know, 2 to 4 maybe 5 hours. But I sincerely doubt they would do that.

I really appreciate SorcererMickey's post because I've read so many forum posts and I was not exactly sure why it would be a good or bad thing.

Yes, it's true that most people are limited to vacationing whenever they're free and it's not just teachers or the faculty that's affected. It's also parents and schoolchildren who also suffer from being stuck with the most crowded times of year when it comes to Disney. Nowadays, states and school districts are becoming a lot more strict in terms of pulling kids out of school and some states are even making it a crime to do that! Because of that, people have reported bigger crowds during the 3-4 day weekends like MLK and Presidents Day where families are taking advantage of that and trying to squeeze every last drop of Disney while avoiding the really crowded times. I don't know how they can do it in such a short amount of time but it's possible. Unless you want to homeschool your kids for the sole purpose of having more flexibility and better selection of dates, then it's the district's/state's way or the high way.

It just baffles me that Disney is trying to reinvent the wheel. First came the FP+ fiasco, now this.

I think they are over playing their hand. Disney is not the only place to go on vacation. And anyway, no matter what they charge, kids can't go when school is in session and that's that.

They are in harvest mode. They are not trying to increase market share or obtain additional customers. They are just trying to fleece the ones they already have for more money. And that's not good for the customer.

This!

If this is implemented, I think it will backfire big time because they're making leaving the bubble more appealing.

Say hubby and I are going at a time when weekdays are bronze but weekends are silver. In the past, we'd get a length of stay pass and do nothing but Disney. Under this system, we'll probably get a five-day pass for the weekdays and go to Universal or someplace else over the weekend. That's not just the price of tickets Disney will lose because we also have to eat and we'll have a whole different set of souvenirs to purchase. And that's without factoring in the ill will this cash grab will generate. Who knows, maybe we'll do WDW for just four days and get a three-day pass for Universal, where we'd still get a significant discount for coming three days instead of two.

If Disney isn't paying attention to the grumbling, I'll bet Universal, Sea World, and Busch Gardens are.

I'd also have thought that pricing the busy times out of the reach of most people's willingness to spend will just create a new busy period that sits inside the silver or bronze tiers...surely that just moves the crowd to different times of the year and causes headaches for people who are planning to visit during those times?

How would this affect cms? Right now we can get in 364 days a year (24 hour day is blocked out). Would we be limited to sliver and bronze?