price plans

It just seems like it would become too confusing. I am also thinking, it is a great way to get my family to go to other destinations on the "gold" days. I would hate to be the person who has to figure out what to sell to a family in order to cover their vacation, but July would be easy.

Yikes. It's a pretty stinky deal for families who don't want to pull their kids from school or for teachers' families. It's already bad enough having to plan your vacation times at the busiest and most expensive times of year. Add to it the idea of having to buy "gold" priced tickets. Boo.

That is a bit much. I agree with Mousedreaming, I think it will just push people to go to other destinations on the gold days. WDW is already expensive; for a lot of families adding $80-$100 on top of the current prices would just be too much.

I have the luxury of going whenever because I take my daughter out of school for a few days during less-than-peak season but not everyone has that ability.

I think this is just absurd and confusing. And that price hike is just downright outrageous.

It seems these are for individual days - does that mean there'd be a tiered season pass too?

Why complicate visitors vacations ? The current ticket & annual pass (AP) system is pretty straight forward and fairly easy to figure out :

https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/passes/

This might take some planning and definately extra cost

I don't like it! If they do it, I'll change my dates of travel by 3 days to stay silver! I'm not spending extra if I don't have to!!!!!!!!!!!!

If they do this what will happen to pre-purchased tickets? I usually buy mine right before the rumors of price increases. I'm wondering if they will be honored as is.

That is a good question, but hopefully they won't try this. I had read further that you would need to buy the level of ticket that covers all of your days. So if you happened to be going when there were some from each level, you would have to buy the gold level ticket.

I got a survey today. It did not have the page in the article with the gold, silver and bronze days but it was along the same lines. I don't know how to get a screen shot of my computer but I wrote down a couple of the questions.

It started with asking about my April trip and had a few of the strongly agree/disagree questions then these...

Are you aware of businesses or industries that charge different price depending on the specific date or time you use their services?

How often in the past have you purposefully made plans to use these services to take advantage of lower prices?

How would you describe your overall impression of businesses that charge different prices depending on the specific dates and times you use their services?

The question I found most interesting....
How willing would you be to pay more for a ticket on certain days during your expected visit if it could be guaranteed to be less crowded on those days

Interesting questions! This all makes me very nervous. To even be asking questions about it, it must be a serious consideration of theirs.

Makes me a little nervous too. I keep thinking if I go 3 "cheap" days and 2 "expensive" days it balances out... right?!?!?! I am trying to see some positive in this but I really feel the waiting is part of the Disney experience. Sure, it would be awesome to not be running into people constantly, walking onto rides but I really don't see the positive in all this "talk" yet...

Just walked past the TV in the waiting room at work. Saw the 7DMT on tv and the words "Disney may raise prices on peak days and special events"

Well, it's hit the news now......

GREEDY, GREEDY, GREEDY!

Now that's a very interesting question. I might be willing to pay a little bit more (maybe 10%), but how are they going to guarantee it'll be less crowded? Sell fewer tickets? I don't see that happening. If they normally sell X number of tickets, to guarantee a smaller crowd, they'd only sell half as many then close the park. They'd have to charge twice as much to make up for the lost revenue.

Have to point out that they already do that with resort accomodations including DVC. It costs more $$ or points if you stay during a busy time of the year. It even costs more to stay on a Friday night and Saturday night v.s. Sunday through Thursday. Dining at certain TS can cost more during the busiest times of the year. It will be interesting to see how they can guarantee fewer crowds.

I think this stinks. I agree with the question.... how are they going to guarantee lower crowds? This is just sad and bad form on Disney's part. These trips aren't cheap to begin with but I guess when you have a corner on the market you can do what you like. Makes it easier to decide not to do DVC. I love going to Disney..... but this just may make it not doable for us......ugg.....maybe I am just having a bad day and this hit me wrong

True, true. Never really thought about it that way. It was just something I was used to with the hotel industry, I suppose. Simple economics, I guess. As demand goes up, price goes up. I never noticed it with restaurants, though. I'll have to pay more attention to that.

I was actually using my experience with trying to buy baseball tickets as the basis for my previous comment. A lot of baseball teams use what they call "dynamic pricing." The ticket prices vary depending on what team they're playing, day of the week, special events happening at the stadium, etc. It just seemed like a money-grab to me.

Now that is an interesting question. Hrmmmm...

I people want to go, they are going to pay to go regardless. (in my humble opinion) So many people save up for these trips and it's the one thing they do. I agree, unless they "limit" the gold tickets, then you will still have crowds. And my opinion of a crowd may differ from someone else. If I am guaranteed a less crowded visit, I better walk right on every single ride if I am going to pay a premium price.

You'd have to ask what their idea of 'less crowded' means. The park is able to take a very high number of people and they already have systems in place to limit those numbers based on what level of visitor you are. Are they going to seriously think about taking a hit in terms of paying visitors IF they're able to convince enough people that this price tier is the way forward?

In any case, as has been said already, people will go regardless, especially those who are from further away. A trip to Disney is meant to be a treat, a once in a while treat. I have been lucky to have been able to visit 4 times in the last 6 years and already pay a significant amount to be able to come into the park whenever I want to and park hop as required.

I can't see how this is anything other than 'cripes, we've spent a LOT of money (Lucasfilm/Star Wars/Indiana Jones, Marvel, Pixar) in recent years...we need to make it back somewhere!'

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?