Tiered Pricing Coming to Walt Disney World
- Thread starter amityboattours
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I hear you, but in some cases their tickets even on peak days are cheaper than Universal. For a 1 day park hopper (which gets you access to 2 parks) at universal costs $165.08 after taxes. Where a 1 day on peak season park hopper that includes MK costs $153.36 and you have access to all 4 parks. Now where I think this is most important is there is a ride at Universal that unless you do the park hopper option you can't get on which is HE. So many people HAVE to add the park hopper option at Universal if they want the entire experience. Where at Disney, MK is a full day park and therefore you can go there with no park hopper option and have more than enough to do during that day and have access to every ride in that park. Also, on Value and Moderate days that park hopper is even cheaper, making Universals 2 park pass look even more ridiculously expensive.
So while I get your point, I think Universal and Disney are getting a little out of hand in their own ways. But I think the Peak/non-peak will actually be good because some people can go to non-MK parks on Value or Moderate days and get a fairly good deal at Value being 103.31 and moderate being 108.63 where Universal is 111.63 no matter when you go. With AK getting some new night time stuff it will be closer to a full day park and Epcot during festivals is also a full day park. So those could be some great deals for those parks.
BTW, I just went thru the ticket pages at both parks to get these prices and while is sounds confusing, walking thru the Disney page it is not that confusing at all. In fact it is set up pretty nicely.
I'm not trying to make this Universal vs Disney, so don't start please.
Bri, I am sorry, I was not either. My personal opinion is they are both getting out of hand and the price increases at Universal and Disney are going up way faster than any goods or services out on the market today. Groceries, plane tickets, hotel prices, clothing, etc are not rising at the rate either park is raising their park tickets.
I was more talking along a money vs. value and Sea World park passes are so cheap that you can't use them as a comparison. Because in all reality Sea World parks have the best Value for your money, but some people have no desire to go parks with animals. So my next best example was Universal. Showing that on Value and Moderate days it is actually a pretty good value for your money type deal compared to other parks in the area.
I don't think there is a debate here between the two parks. They both raise ticket prices every year and have since their opening. They both cost a ton of money and are not for people who are living paycheck to paycheck. They both no matter what new rides they have or how badly their parks are maintained continue to raise their prices one right after the other. They both are causing this problem and are both at fault for where ticket prices are today. And honestly they both know if they keep their prices close to each other there is no competition when it comes to ticket prices which is where they are both very happy to be sitting. They compete in other ways, but ticket price is not one of them. If this wasn't true, they wouldn't both raise their prices a month right after their competitor raised their prices. They both do it.
Also, another bottom line. As long as attendance and profits continue to go up, both parks will not stop this. They will keep going until it hurts their bottom line because the supply is higher than the demand. Simple and basic economics. Which is why their prices raise at a higher % than other markets. People will drive if airline tickets get too high, people will stay at a cheaper hotel if prices go up, but there is no other place like Orlando. So if you want to go, you will pay the prices asked.
Edited to Add... Disney did this to spread out the crowds. They want to get the peak season at MK to be more bearable. That is really the only reason they are doing this. They are not doing this to compete with Universal in ticket prices. They are more competing with themselves in that they want people to pick a cheaper period of time to go to their parks.
My "shuddering at paying $125" was just trying to point out that it sucks for someone who is clueless to walk up and pay more than they have to due to poor planning.
But prices will increase because people still pay them, even including the "paycheck to paycheck" people most likely. Attendance keeps rising so there is no reason for any park to stop.
My only problem is Disney is increasing, but also cutting back. I know it's PR speak but I laughed when they used "We're building Star Wars, Avatar, etc" line. Maybe if they budgeted better, there would be no need to cut back anything.
Oh the cuts suck big time. I think they are dumb and don't need to do them. But they are a business and for some reason WDW suffers when any other part of their company is not doing well. It is like their go to place. Which I hate. So I agree there. Now I would have been really up in arms if the rumored ride closure on non-peak days would happen. That to me is just lame and really dumb.
Of course I work in IT, so I am more used to cuts happening because of other parts of the company doing bad. IT always seems to be the go to place when cuts are needed and the rest of the people get stuck doing 4 jobs.
On the Star Wars point. I just got a come back to WDW marketing brochure. Star Wars and Star Wars Encounter were very, very prominent in it. If I was just a run of the mill tourist,due to the way SW is advertised, it would be easy to think that Star Wars was already opening at DHS. Really deceptive marketing. Bet they get a ton of people booking a vacation package for this.
I agree on this. They are trying to keep people going to DHS even when it is not a real park. I think it is a little shady and going to backfire when people are not happy once they get there.
Are you sure about those 1 day park hopper prices at WDW? I'm seeing 1 Day Park Hopper - Adult $174.66, Child 168.27 for peak, 1 Day Park Hopper - Adult $170.40, Child $164.01 for regular and 1 Day Park Hopper - Adult $165.08, Child $158.69 for value.
New Walt Disney World 1 day ticket pricing and tier date range details
Maybe I am reading your post incorrectly.
You know what I went back and I was looking at Florida prices. It used to default to non-resident prices and I guess now it detects me and defaults to Resident pricing. So I went back and did it with non-Florida pricing
Peak Park Hopper - 174.66
Moderate - 170.40
Value - 165.08
It looks like single day tickets are the same between Resident and non-resident. It only changes when adding Park Hopper, my bad.
I think the reason I made the post is Bri's reaction to the $124 was the same reaction I had when my sister was in town and looking at 1 day park hopper tickets for Uni. I think it was crazy that they expected someone to pay that kind of money for one day. So that is why I was looking at park hoppers and comparing them. But it looks like Disney thinks they are the poop and can charge way more than Universal for park hopper outside of value days. One can say they have more parks, but the average park hopper guest is really only going to one other park. It is interesting though, I wonder how many non-residents buy one day park hopper tickets. I would guess it would be very limited to house guests in Orlando (like my sister). Because I doubt many people would travel out of state, stay at a hotel, and only go one day. Universal seems to not have a discount for residents, but maybe I am missing something on their site. So the residents can get the ticket cheaper, by a bunch. That also shocks me, that Disney would give that much of a discount to residents. They typically do not cater to locals like other parks do.
Again, I think they are all ridiculously high priced!
First time I did Disney I did 3 parks in one day and felt tremendous value for the price I paid. I also felt a lot of pain afterwards.
Probably deserves its own thread, but radio ads are every bit as bad. Hyping a glorified gift shop and new fireworks as the ultimate Star Wars experience. I'm sure they are counting on confusion with the land announcement to drive turnstile clicks this Summer.
Personally I was thinking of paycheck to paycheck people as those who literally earn the money each month to pay bills, buy food and that's their lot. They don't have holidays and don't travel at all
Me too. My parents could have been considered paycheck to paycheck when I was growing up because they didn't have a ton of savings. However, they did put aside money for vacation and we did go to Disney 3 or 4 times as kids, myrtle beach a lot, etc. I wouldn't consider them paycheck to paycheck because they could afford a vacation (they made more than was needed for bills, groceries, and cloths), but I guess some people would consider them it since they didn't have savings for the future, only savings for luxury items. I consider paycheck to paycheck people those who after paying bills, buying groceries, and buying NEEDED cloths and toiletries they have no money left over.
Yes, but there are those who shouldn't travel but still do. Obviously for someone across the pond, it's a little harder than say someone from Florida/GA.
- Jun 29, 2013
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I'm a paycheck to paycheck family. A lot of paycheck to paycheck people still find a way to go to the parks, but maybe only once every 5-10 years or something like that. And most times stay off site. And we look for every deal that we can get. We might do something like buy tickets one year but not be able to use them until 3-4 years later. But yes, we go to the parks too.
You make some really good points. And I'd bet that's a much larger percentage of people than most imagined. Also, even among people that make very good money, quite a few live paycheck to paycheck. Some people just budget different than others and may be better at handling their money. I've been around for a long time in a lot of economic circles, and there's plenty of people that even make six figure plus plus salaries that have essentially no back up savings and would be devastated within a couple of months if they lost their jobs. I've personally known quite a few business executives and high government officials, that when they lost their jobs, lost everything soon after, like a house of cards. Sometimes people think too elitist. Everyone has a right to live a happy life. If someone from a low to middle economic status, scrimps and saves, so they can have a nice vacation every now & then, more power to them.
- Sep 18, 2015
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Rediculous. The value is that as I said before you can get more for that money when there are less people around.
And please no one should take what I said the wrong way. I was saying people were getting priced out. I never said people didn't have the right to go to the parks. What people do with their money is their business not mine.
I understand. That's what I thought you were saying. No harm done. Your parents did exactly what I was talking about. They managed their budget so they could get away with their family for a nice vacation. And they did what many Pittsburghers do, they went to Myrtle Beach
on many of their vacations. That's the kind of people I was referring to.
