In 2002 travel was down due to people being scared to fly after 9/11 so a lot of the Orlando area places had discounts. Sea World had 2 days for the price of 1. From what I was told Disney didn’t have any discounts at all and from what I saw that was true.
What the business needs to keep its doors open certainly factored into the equation, but it is, in a certain sense, irrelevant .
Whenever a business raises prices like this, they have to try an evaluate the market for their product, and the amount of revenue they will get at particular price points. If increasing the ticket price by $4 a ticket is going to result in reduced overall revenue (due to fewer people coming), then they won’t do it. If it’s going to result in increased revenue, then they will.
Basically, what Disney have essentially decided here is that, even with the economy in a bad state, the demand for tickets to Disneyworld is inelastic enough that a $4 price rise will not discourage too many potential visitors from coming to the park. I think they’re probably right, especially since, as others have pointed out, if you’re willing to spend all the money required to get to Florida, pay for your accommodation, etc., then an extra 4 bucks a ticket isn’t going to be a deal-breaker.
Personally, if i were deciding how to spend a few grand on a vacation, Disneyworld would be so far down the list that i couldn’t even describe how long the sheet of paper would have to be before i seriously considered Disneyworld as a place to go.
Bingo! I didn’t notice it so much when I went to DW but when I spent the day at Discovery Cove (A scuba/water park adjacent to DW) I seriously felt like the minority as an American. (Not that I had a problem with that, it was kind of cool actually.)
They were even serving hot tea at the cocession stands.
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It’s been years since I’ve been to WDW, but my recollection is that place is so efficient at sucking money out of guest’s pockets, the cost of admission is less relevant than the price of valet parking at Neiman Marcus. You might gripe about it at the door, but it’s part of an unspoken understanding that this is about to be a very, very expensive day.
My parents just moved to Florida and are building a house about 45 minutes from DisneyWorld. My SO and I have been thinking of visiting them over New Years and taking the kids to finally have their first Disney experience. We should be able to get cheap flights and have a free place to stay, but even if we didn’t, the price hike wouldn’t be a deal breaker.
Not really. And not all day. And that’s ignoring Fastpass. You might get that at the peak time on the very busiest days, but not generally. If you arrive right at opening, you can probably get 5 E-tickets done before lunch. Or if you stay late, you can get a lot done during Fantasmic and the fireworks and on towards closing. Throw in Fastpass (and single rider lines) and you can get a lot more that 5 rides done on a crowded day.
I think only Space Mountain, Indy and Splash Mountain will ever approach 2 hours and 90 minutes is probably closer to peak wait times. A ride like Pirates will never come close to that outside of maybe New Years Eve or Independence Day.
The Unofficial guide to Disney World is a good book. The author mentions that he always gets lots of letters from people complaining about foreign kids without parents. He calls this “Brazil mail” since many of the kids are from Brazil.
Just be aware that new years eve is traditionally one of the busiest days of the year at Disney. I heard that one of the rides had a four hour line on that day last year. People were waiting for midnight so they figured they might as well just wait in line.
:eek: That’s really good to know as patience is not one of this family’s virtues. We might have some replanning.
$79 dollars for a day at Magic Kingdom? Yikes. I guess I should stick with the much better Tokyo Disneyland and its JPY5800 (US$61.00) one-day passport.
In 2002 I never waited in line, I just used fast passes, that was in April. I can’t believe people wait 4 hours in line for a ride.
Yeah, I go in September most of the time when a 30 minute wait is considered a serious inconvenience.
Seems fitting for a park with about a day’s worth of entertainment.
One of the authors (Len Testa) is a memebr here.
Former Disneyland worker here.
If you’re going to go, you should stay away from the entire month of December and up until the first week of the new year. Those are the busiest times of the year for Disney. Sure the park stays open pretty late (like 3 or 4am), but there will be so much people that you’ll be standing in line for 30 mins just to get food
There are good threads about when to do Disney and what to do all over, if you search. The smart visitors go during October, incidentally- best combination of weather and low crowds.
The standard daily ticket prices don’t affect overseas visitors, who will nearly all either have a discounted multi-day Park Hopper as part of their vacation package, or will buy a multi-day pass.
The (non-group) daily tickets are virtually all bought by locals (Florida residents get a discount anyway) and casual visitors.
FWIW, the recession hasn’t really adversely affected Disney because so many visitors are foreign tourists, and the weak dollar makes today’s Orlando vacation today nearly half as expensive as 2003’s Orlando vacation.
Howdy, and thanks for reading the book.
I don’t think this price increase is going to stop many people from heading to WDW. And not to hijack the thread, but the increase in dining plan prices came as a shock.
Len
My last two visits (2002 & 2006) have been in early December. Very low crowds and all the holiday goodies available. Maybe things have changed, but post-Thanksgiving until mid-December is a fantastic time to go.
Too bad that MK can’t even come close to that. 