I feel like they’re getting closer and closer to the brink of their supply and demand. Not quite yet, but soon I think they will push too hard and try and take too much. I absolutely understand…“if you don’t want, don’t pay for it” but I’m just curious to see how everyone plays out in the future if Disney continues on this trend
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Right? I get really emotional whenever I start thinking, will there be a day when I can’t take my family because economics so dictates that we don’t meet the requirements to afford it? It really is a supply & demand problem and I know the parks aren’t limitless in terms of their capacity but it just frustrates me that an idea that started on the opposite spectrum of “How much money can be made from this endeavor?” has now become “How far can we go to make more money?” It is a shame to the legacy of Walt Disney.
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I absolutely agree!
One thing to consider… if you’re not an Annual Pass holder and you’re not a Multi-day pass holder, and it’s a peak day, the $150 isn’t that bad for evening entrance and exclusive after hours time at the park. If you just live in the surrounding area and want to go for one day, this option makes sense. It’s still cheaper than buying one day passes for the family and renting, even a value room to access EMH. Maybe they’re just trying to appeal to a group that doesn’t attend the park otherwise.
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This clearly demonstrates the difference between a family or employee owned company and a publicly traded company. Family or employee owned companies genuinely care about the mission of the company and the employees while also wanting to make a decent profit. But the CEO of a publicly traded company answers to the board who is elected by nameless stockholders, most of whom don’t even know that they own the company. The only thing they care about is profit. Period. The mission and the employees absolutely do not matter.
Also, ESPN has spent the last decade buying up rights to sporting events to the tune of billions of dollars. Now people are cutting their cable at alarming rates. They are preparing for a time when they can’t make the ends meet.
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Which is exactly what the financial strain of capitalism (as opposed to industrial capitalism) says business should must do. The writer K.W. Jeter, in his dystopian novel Noir, coined a deeply cynical but perfectly apt phrase for this: “turd in a can,” or “TIAC.” TIAC was the concept of making something worthless appealing through its packaging and marketing.
I think Disney is going to monetize, upsell, and premium-experience-ize this year like nothing you’ve ever seen before. My guess would be that the data NextGen has been collecting have finally reached some critical mass that they’re making longer-term business decisions based on the models. Those models show there are enough affluent customers to float these experiences.
The Magic Kingdom is now, effectively, at capacity all the time, and is a scarce resource. The idea is now to increase cost on Magic Kingdom time, in chunks, until the demand curve inflects. These events cost next to nothing to add, and can be scrapped any time without any meaningful lost investment.
The Shorter™: Big Money B, dancing on the boardroom table, yelling, “BOHICA, baby!”
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As someone who has literally been going since day 1 - this train ride is ending for me.
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Well said BGK, and my thoughts exactly…
I’m in the minority, I guess, who doesn’t find this particularly disturbing.
With a one-day MK ticket at $105 plus tax, this is essentially a moderate premium on top of that for a more limited day (enter at 7pm), but with three hours of minimal crowds at the end of the day (plus some refreshments thrown in). It’s a good option for the single-day offsite guest to get the maximum experience for a moderate cost premium.
It’s also coming at essentially no cost to on-site guests. There are no conflicts with regularly-scheduled MK EMH nights, so it doesn’t limit their on-site perk. I don’t think it’s a particularly attractive deal for an on-site guest, and especially not an annual passholder, but I’m sure it might be worth it to some subset that I’m not seeing on first blush. Really, though, this is an add-on for offsite guests on single-day tickets.
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Agreed - I’m not seeing the huge issue here. I think the key is how limited a ticket it is - I’ve read from 3,000 to as low as 500 (although I don’t feel those are well known figures yet). If the latter, you’re basically looking at 3 hours of ZERO lines - everything is a walk-on. That would be somewhat tempting. And if folks feel it’s overpriced or gouging, don’t buy it.
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I was also thinking it might be great for the family that is really doing mostly Universal and staying off Disney property to be able to squeeze in a really great evening at MK. I hear Universal is doing quite well at competing with WDW, so they might want to win those people back with a premium ticket for evening (post Universal or Sea World touring).
[quote=“Kevin_Krom, post:49, topic:21884”]
I’m in the minority, I guess, who doesn’t find this particularly disturbing[/quote]
I think the concern for some is that free Extra Magic Hours for resort guests will either go away or be reduced.
As for the price, it could fit with the current one-day ticket prices, but it still doesn’t make sense to me relative to the after hours party ticket prices (at least, what those prices have been in the past).
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I agree! Think if you had a school group or a sorority or fraternity from a relatively close university. This would be a fantastic thing to go do, and a heck of a lot more practical than a 1 day ticket plus you get the added novelty of it being the middle of the night. Those groups certainly can’t afford to rent the whole place out!
What I don’t like is the fact that Disney gave us (The planners) very little notice of this.
I picked the days I wanted using Crowd Calendar, Booked the ADR 6 months in advance, Booked FPP 60 days in advance,
And now I may be looking at more crowded park after 7pm. And I can not change the days now. (Or loose the hard to get ADR & FPP)
If I had known this 5 months ago, I could of scheduled accordingly.
Personally, I do not stay late at the parks as I prefer being there for rope drop. If I was there for opening even with an afternoon nap, as an adult. I find it hard being in the parks late. So I have no interest in this. Unless there was something truly worth it. This just sounds like you are paying for extra magic hours.
I too am concerned as to what will happen in the long run with the perks offered to onsite guests. Will this be the end of extra magic evening hours? It does not seem at this point that they are changing the closing hours for regular guests as I see 10 pm and 11 pm. It does seem as if Disney is testing the waters to see what the demand might be for this.
Disney has raised ticket prices with this “tiered” ticketing system. And now they are making these extra nights, which giving away free ice cream and certain drinks cost them next to nothing. They had to find some perk for this. And I honestly feel that soon there will be no quiet time at Disney as more people will try and take advantage of the lower ticket prices.
I love Disney, but it is getting so hard to be able to visit the parks. I am remembering Jurassic Park and this quote:
"Donald Gennaro: And we can charge anything we want, 2,000 a day, 10,000 a day, and people will pay it. And then there’s the merchandise…
John Hammond: Donald, Donald… This park was not built to cater only for the super-rich. Everyone in the world has the right to enjoy these animals.
Donald Gennaro: Sure, they will. Well, we’ll have a, a coupon day or something."
It is starting to feel like this.
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^^^ Well said Jedilogray. I am just seeing less and less value. Planning our latest trip I am using CC points etc. However looking at the raw $ - it is literally cheaper to go to Europe. Which after this trip is where / how we will be spending our money. I enjoy WDW - but between the ever increasing crowds, the lowered service, the increased pricing and don’t even get me started on the fact that you now have to get a fast pass to take a pee. I am done with it. They have gotten my money and now have stolen the magic. I am all for monetizing and if you have more $$ you have the ability get more (God bless Capitalism) - but I am no longer the loyal consumer
Well, no wonder they aren’t having 24 hour day. It was FREE with reg admission. If they were to have it, everyone would laugh at these After Hours events.
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My current hypothesis: Some folks who don’t get 7DMT or Anna and Elsa FPP are willing to pay to see those attractions with short waits (anything else in MK can be booked on relatively short notice). I think the target is people who’d rather pay than plan, and this may be a reasonable price in that regard (though, I still haven’t reconciled the price of this vs. the price of the Fall/Winter parties).
I’d also think this could be an appealing add-on, if you could purchase it the day of (assuming the evening weren’t already sold out). Folks who missed an attraction that someone in the group was really looking forward to might be inclined to pay for the extra time late in evening.
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I am certainly not a corporate finance specialist. However, in order for Disney to recoup the cost of the operating, staffing and food and beverage expenses, while at the same time making a profit, I imagine they would have to sell waaaay more than 500 tickets for this event. And if they end up selling thousands of tickets for each event and limited rides are open, how short will the lines actually be? It doesn’t affect me at all, and if people want to pay it, feel free. But I will be curious to see just how much benefit there actually is to attending this event.
Let’s look at this too. At the parties there are special parades and fireworks and dance parties taking crowds away from rides. This after hours is just that. Limited rides, some characters, free ice cream and some free drinks. So the rides will be a focus, which is different from parties.