Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge (Disneyland)

[belloq87]

I have no idea what to make of Iger essentially conceding that price increases have negatively-influenced guest attendance.

That’s kind of a stunning admission to make publicly.

 

[tyro]

I have no idea what to make of Iger essentially conceding that price increases have negatively-influenced guest attendance.

That’s kind of a stunning admission to make publicly.

I mean isn’t he set to retire soon? He doesn’t have to word everything to get an contract extension anymore :grin:

 

[bob albert]

Disney is playing a game of chicken. They are trying to get tourists to accept higher prices and locals to pay up charges as normalized. They are willing to take a major hit to make this happen.They are willing to wait for rise of the resistance to open before making a full judgement in any case. I imagine they intentionally unblock most pass holders while still not discounting any rates for tourists to insane crowds for the full opening.

 

[Parkscope Joe]

I have no idea what to make of Iger essentially conceding that price increases have negatively-influenced guest attendance.

That’s kind of a stunning admission to make publicly.

They got arrogant and hubris pissed in their face.

 

[rhino4evr]

The constant theme park ticket inflation needs to stop. It's just gotten foolish. Universal is guilty of this as well. Eventually you price yourself out of affordability. That's already happened for my family. The once a year trip is now once every two years....and that being said we are finding much more affordable family vacations elsewhere, that makes us question what exactly we are paying for in the first place?

 

[Mad Dog]

Iger's remarks on ticket cost is interesting.

 

[Ron101]

The constant theme park ticket inflation needs to stop. It's just gotten foolish. Universal is guilty of this as well. Eventually you price yourself out of affordability. That's already happened for my family. The once a year trip is now once every two years....and that being said we are finding much more affordable family vacations elsewhere, that makes us question what exactly we are paying for in the first place?

USH can somewhat get away with high priced one day tickets because of the low re-visit value they have. People typically just go once a year. It’s the reason why the annual passes there are extremely cheap.

 

[smoaT]

Indeed. The report came with shocking admissions and things we said all along (most of us). Confirmed, attendance was down, for Disneyland and shockingly for WDW as well. Other interesting things is that everyone was riding the wave of "GE is going to be so successful" and hotels and everyone raised prices and people stayed away. Disney hotel's occupation was up by a meager 2%, Star Wars merch revenue came down. It looks ugly for Disney. They are kind of conceding even saying that ticket prices might be the ones to blame. It must be a humbling blow. Many people here downplayed it and said that they were making bucketloads of money from merch, but that is not actually true. There was an increase on guest spending, but it says in the report that it's because of higher prices. So yeah, tough blow to Disney. Let's hope it translates to something good for us APs. Bloomberg - Are you a robot?
Attendance drops at Disney's U.S. theme parks
Attendance Crashes at Disneyland and Walt Disney World | Theme Park Tourist

 

[bob albert]

Indeed. The report came with shocking admissions and things we said all along (most of us). Confirmed, attendance was down, for Disneyland and shockingly for WDW as well. Other interesting things is that everyone was riding the wave of "GE is going to be so successful" and hotels and everyone raised prices and people stayed away. Disney hotel's occupation was up by a meager 2%, Star Wars merch revenue came down. It looks ugly for Disney. They are kind of conceding even saying that ticket prices might be the ones to blame. It must be a humbling blow. Many people here downplayed it and said that they were making bucketloads of money from merch, but that is not actually true. There was an increase on guest spending, but it says in the report that it's because of higher prices. So yeah, tough blow to Disney. Let's hope it translates to something good for us APs. Bloomberg - Are you a robot?
Attendance drops at Disney's U.S. theme parks
Attendance Crashes at Disneyland and Walt Disney World | Theme Park Tourist

Yea when your revenue increases are dependent on ripping people off more on the core product that is a real problem long term. It used to be that Disney was expensive but something that could be a comparatively good value vs other vacations. Now they are just not a good value even given what they offer vs many other major tourist markets, many with decent theme parks. They priced star wars into the tickets long before it was even open and then increased prices again on top of it. I have talked to a bunch of people that have waited for years to do a Disney vacation but at this point are reconsidering even with star wars coming up.

 

[bob albert]

The constant theme park ticket inflation needs to stop. It's just gotten foolish. Universal is guilty of this as well. Eventually you price yourself out of affordability. That's already happened for my family. The once a year trip is now once every two years....and that being said we are finding much more affordable family vacations elsewhere, that makes us question what exactly we are paying for in the first place?

Given the prices Orlando is not worth it every year for a family these days. I mean does Disney or Universal build enough to be even worth visiting every year given the ticket prices? Mostly no except for Halloween at universal which is kind of worth it yearly. Busch gardens Williamsburg had 3 day tickets on groupon for like $55 a person. Six flags is around $200 per person with food for a whole year to all parks and Cedar Faire is not much more. Add in Europe has some cheap flights these days and really great value parks. I am going to Paris Disney and Europa park for less than people in the USA probaly go to Disney World.

 

[OLSinFLA]

The whole Six Flags is cheaper thing reminds me when I worked for Holiday Inn back in the 80s. I told him the price for the Holiday Inn by WDW was $85 a night and he was like "But the Holiday Inn here in Podunk is only $25 a night." "OK," I said, "stay there," "I don't want to stay there" "And nobody else does either. Thats why its $25 a night"

 

[bob albert]

The whole Six Flags is cheaper thing reminds me when I worked for Holiday Inn back in the 80s. I told him the price for the Holiday Inn by WDW was $85 a night and he was like "But the Holiday Inn here in Podunk is only $25 a night." "OK," I said, "stay there," "I don't want to stay there" "And nobody else does either. Thats why its $25 a night"

Given the absurd amount of planning around crowds at Disney these days taking a day off midweek or showing up well before park open sounds easy for six flags a this point. Bad service parks can be worked around more than bad hotels when the issue is how crowded they are.

 

[Andysol]

The constant theme park ticket inflation needs to stop. It's just gotten foolish. Universal is guilty of this as well. Eventually you price yourself out of affordability. That's already happened for my family. The once a year trip is now once every two years....and that being said we are finding much more affordable family vacations elsewhere, that makes us question what exactly we are paying for in the first place?

It’s to the point you can ask that family- would you like to go to Europe or Asia for 10 days or Orlando for 5?
The value just isn’t there for me. I wait for an AP and then go multiple times (only because I’m DVC) and then sit out a year or two. That goes for WDW or UOR now as well.

But clearly we’re in the minority because they aren’t hurting for attendance.
What makes this park (DL) unique is they priced out what’s essentially a local’s park while the economy and job market have been very good. That isn’t a good sign for the future quarters... at all.

 

[Nico]

Well it seems like they’re trying some old school Disney marketing techniques to help with the attendance issue. I do think the casting for this was a bit let’s hit every demographic.

‘Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge’ Special Set On Freeform – Deadline

 

[bob albert]

It’s to the point you can ask that family- would you like to go to Europe or Asia for 10 days or Orlando for 5?
The value just isn’t there for me. I wait for an AP and then go multiple times (only because I’m DVC) and then sit out a year or two. That goes for WDW or UOR now as well.

But clearly we’re in the minority because they aren’t hurting for attendance.
What makes this park (DL) unique is they priced out what’s essentially a local’s park while the economy and job market have been very good. That isn’t a good sign for the future quarters... at all.

I would say if a Disney park prices you out at the higher end they have made a huge mistake. The whole market somewhat collapses if even wealthier people don't find Disney a good value. It really doesn't matter to a point how much they build. At a certain cost it is a better use of money to experience something new in a park wealthy people do value if it is cedar point vs Disney two years.

 

[GAcoaster]

I think this was a challenging summer for ALL parks, and that was really unexpected. I think though on paper the economy is still doing well, there is a recession coming and people are nervous and either not spending money or don't have it to spend right now. Six Flags, Cedar Fair, and SWP&E all gave reports that fell short of predictions despite new capital expenditures and discounted ticketing. I think the weather has also been a factor. This spring/summer started out much wetter than usual with record rains and flooding all over the country, followed by the hottest summer temperature recorded all over the country.

Disneyland did a lot of boneheaded stuff to keep people away, but there may be bigger trends in the economy to blame as well.

 

[Jamesh22]

I love how Iger partially blames local hotels raising prices, errr they just followed your lead Mr Iger!!!

Maybe a rethink about how much you charge for food and merch?

 

[SkiBum]

I would say if a Disney park prices you out at the higher end they have made a huge mistake. The whole market somewhat collapses if even wealthier people don't find Disney a good value. It really doesn't matter to a point how much they build. At a certain cost it is a better use of money to experience something new in a park wealthy people do value if it is cedar point vs Disney two years.

Completely agree. I would also suggest that, once priced out, a person doesn't go back in a couple years to see if it has become affordable. We tend to accept that we're priced out and move on. One thing that stands out to me (although not true for the next couple years) is that a WDW vacation was fairly static. They were not adding more rides and yet charged more money. Star Wars seems to be a nice add and the other upcoming rides will be nice as well but will Disney continue building or will they go "status quo" for a while? Probably not the right forum for this discussion but you and others have made great points.

It’s to the point you can ask that family- would you like to go to Europe or Asia for 10 days or Orlando for 5?
The value just isn’t there for me. I wait for an AP and then go multiple times (only because I’m DVC) and then sit out a year or two. That goes for WDW or UOR now as well.

But clearly we’re in the minority because they aren’t hurting for attendance.
What makes this park (DL) unique is they priced out what’s essentially a local’s park while the economy and job market have been very good. That isn’t a good sign for the future quarters... at all.

We fly down and try to stay onsite. A four day/five night trip with tickets (not counting food) runs around $2,000. We started going offsite and picking up food as it was far cheaper and tasted better. Still, $2,000 for four days is a pretty big investment in a vacation. I read of people who spent a lot more than that on a trip (even upwards of $5,000 to $10,000) and nearly pass out.

 

[bob albert]

Completely agree. I would also suggest that, once priced out, a person doesn't go back in a couple years to see if it has become affordable. We tend to accept that we're priced out and move on. One thing that stands out to me (although not true for the next couple years) is that a WDW vacation was fairly static. They were not adding more rides and yet charged more money. Star Wars seems to be a nice add and the other upcoming rides will be nice as well but will Disney continue building or will they go "status quo" for a while? Probably not the right forum for this discussion but you and others have made great points..

Yea I think in general once people are no longer interested in a place as a potential vacation destination because they are priced out, the parks simply offering decent enough discounts won't bring them back into the mix. The parks need to bring actual value back into the package. These days Disney is only really offering fake discounts or limiting deals to select groups that probably are already spending money at the resorts

 

[rhino4evr]

The whole Six Flags is cheaper thing reminds me when I worked for Holiday Inn back in the 80s. I told him the price for the Holiday Inn by WDW was $85 a night and he was like "But the Holiday Inn here in Podunk is only $25 a night." "OK," I said, "stay there," "I don't want to stay there" "And nobody else does either. Thats why its $25 a night"

We went to Carrowinds this summer and found low waits, a clean park, and incredible rides. It cost us $44 a person.