You read that headline right. Disney is trying to fight lower park attendance by both raising prices and offering a discount at the same time. Mickey has lost his mind.
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Disney Park Attendance Suffering
Throughout the year, various social media reports have suggested that Disneyland (California) and Disney World Resort (Florida) are “empty.” Pent-up demand for travel filled the most magical place(s) on earth over the last year, but reports (verified through the app and, now, statements from Disney) suggested shorter wait times for key attractions. Even the 4th of July crowds this summer, typically a very busy period for the Florida theme park, were lower than pre-pandemic levels – a far cry from recent months.
Ride times are an excellent metric to determine if Walt Disney World is empty in real-time, but are anecdotal and only provide a minimal window for comparison.
One cited reason for lower attendance was trouble with the weather, however, the weather was fine on the Fourth of July Independence Day weekend and wouldn’t have affected both parks. The Walt Disney Company had a very public tussle with Governor Ron DeSantis as well, resulting in the cancellation of the company’s new office building in the Orlando area with a stated $1 billion economic impact. However, Florida’s politics are nearly opposite to California’s so if politics was the reason, the opposite should be true on the West Coast. However, both are being reported as empty this summer (and now, fall.)
Both parks have added new attractions recently, with the Magic Kingdom opening TRON which was under construction for more than five years, Mickey’s Runaway Rail at Hollywood Studios, and both a Guardian of The Galaxy attraction as well as one from Ratatouille at Epcot in Florida.
Pressure may be coming from Universal Studios too. Universal Orlando Resort is building its new third gate, Epic, which is slated to be approximately the size of both its Orlando parks, City Walk, and all its resort properties. That’s not due to open until 2025, however.
The company has kept some COVID-era restrictions in place, limited annual passholder sign-ups and renewals, raised prices, and removed benefits now charging as much as $60/per person/day for what was formerly included. Candidly, this is why this writer moved his business to Universal.
Disney Is Raising Prices
What’s the perfect solution to fighting low attendance numbers? Raising prices, of course.
“The top tier pass, called the Incredi Pass (which has no blockout dates) now costs $1,499 for one year’s access, a $100 increase from Monday and $200 more than it cost in September 2021. The Sorcerer Pass, favored by Florida residents and Disney Vacation Club members, is now $999, up from $969.” – Fortune (paywall)
Daily tickets are going up too:
“While a basic one-day ticket for the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California, will remain $104, starting Oct. 11, guests will have to pay more for the other daily passes. The most expensive tier now costs $194, up from $179.”
“Disneyland Resort parking is also up $5, from $30 to $35.” Disney World moves from $25 to $30/day. – Today
Park Hopper, the ability to move between parks at will was restricted to a reservation system and limited to 2 pm switches since the pandemic. This policy reverts back to normal freedom to move throughout the parks without a reservation starting January 9th, 2024.
Disney Is Also Offering 50% Off Children’s Tickets, Kind Of
Taking a play out of airline loyalty program playbooks, CEO Bob Iger and co. have added some good news to go along with the bad. But not really.
“Disney said it would knock 50% off theme park tickets and dining plans for 3- to 9-year-old children in a Disney World deal for families getting a “non-discounted 4-night, 4-day Walt Disney Travel Co. package for you and your children that includes a room at a select Disney Resort hotel, theme park tickets and a dining plan.” There will only be a limited number of packages available for the deal, according to the company.
It will work for “most” nights in a nearly four-month period spanning March 3 to June 30 of next year, Disney said in the blog post. ” – FOX Business
Let’s break that apart to show how that’s probably not a savings at all:
- Kids are in school during this period
- Non-discounted packages are far more expensive than the savings
- Doesn’t include all children’s tickets
Conclusion
Iger stated that the changes are neither inflationary nor are park troubles a matter of price and the Parks division showed an increase in revenue of 13% in the last quarter. Of course, an increase in revenue does not necessarily mean an increase of visitors by the same percentage, nor does it reflect solely US concerns. The company is also raising prices on streaming services Hulu, and Disney+ and cracking down on password sharing. This is the strangest strategy I think I have ever seen. If the parks are suffering from lower attendance, the solution to discount tickets for a specific period might be the answer, but raising them at the same time is counterproductive. Additionally, Disney might find a return to the parks if it restored its pre-pandemic benefits, one of which it plans to do, the rest it does not. The house of mouse is in trouble, it appears, and the savior, Bob Iger, seems confused at best.
What do you think? Does Disney have the right strategy? Did I miss something?
“Of course, an increase in revenue does not necessarily mean an increase of visitors by the same percentage, nor does it reflect solely US concerns. ”
I’m reminded of when Delta announced an increase in prices and restrictions on lounge access as a net positive because it meant that it would reduce crowding and some even hailed it as a good idea. Instead of building more capacity and lowering prices, businesses increase prices to reduce crowding.
Wall Street wants to see earning numbers up, period, and if that means fewer people are attending the parks but spending more, that’s a win-win in their eyes. The USA population continues to increase and there aren’t any more big parks being built.
It would be great if we could go back to the 1980’s with Eastern Airlines when I went to Disneyworld and admission was inexpensive, the restaurants were pricey, but not crazy priced, and the park limited admission when it appeared to get too crowded.
Companies are going to start seeing declines after outrageous price increases that some were willing to pay but that willingness is running out. Streaming companies are going to be losing business soon as they cut back content and keep raising prices. I’ve noticed a ton of Netflix shows are simply foreign shows dubbed in English. I guess it is easier to pay people to dub a show rather than create something new.
I went to Disneyworld a while ago (at least 5 years ago) and even then it was too crowded and prices way too high. And we tried to book a less busy time frame.
I can’t imagine paying that kind of money if I was a family of 4 or more.
I just played Studio Ghibli cartoons (dubbed by Disney with English speaking actors) and it beats nearly everything Disney has produced in the past half century. I like a few films: Wall-E, Luca, Frozen I, and Tangled but for the most part, I don’t want my daughter watching the rest of it. Other fun stuff includes classic Russian fairy tales (youtube Zhiharka and Kolobok), Teremok TV, Masha and the Bear (VERY popular), and “spiewanki dla dzieci”. Soviet era stuff is also good: “Bolek i Lolek” and “Wolf and Rabbit” are my favorites.
Where else to go but the corporate studio stuff? Dollyworld comes to mind.
We have been to Disneyworldver 100 times with our family. Now that they have grown and they are vacationing with their children, they head to Universal. Now that we as older Florida residents, we refuse to pay the ridiculous Frorida resident price for the passes, even though we have more cash to spend. Too bad DW are money grabbers. We also have a big motorcoach and would check in to the disabled section of the campground, if the prices were reasonable! I would rather go to Busch Gardens where they treat the disabled well!
Wait, are you telling me asking a thousand bucks a day to get lectured on the importance of castrating your children isn’t a huge success?
Consider me surprised. Actually, resident racist & holocaust-denier GUWonder could probably fill us in on the magical aspects of this.
Would a parent take their 6-year old daughter to a princess makeover with the help of a fat bearded man in princess drag attire?
I wish for the continued destruction of this brand, at least until “Papa Iger” and his immediate cohorts and underlings are forced out.
We were at Epcot yesterday. It was way too packed. They are not short on visitors. This author needs to go to the park and verify my their story. It was ridiculous the amount of people there. Every ride had over an hour wait and walking around the world was painful, shoulder to shoulder.
To spend over $10,000 for a family of four for 4 days is ridiculous for lousy food and mid- grade accommodations and a migraine. It’s an amusement park, which deserves a one day visit at best and avoidance if possible. (And btw, taking a child under 5 is like flushing money down a toilet as they will not remember any of it).
Disney World in Florida is more accurately four amusement parks and Disneyland is 2. It’s possible to do Disneyland in a day and Disney World in 3 days with lower crowds and extreme planning, but it involves a lot of backtracking and would be exhausting and unpleasant (and you can pretty much forget being that efficient with kids in tow).
Yeah. I have done it repeatedly with the kids over the years. But the 4 days was exhausting and in my opinion too much for the children. Then it began to sink in these vacations were not a good value and better spent exploring more educational destinations. But I do understand many folks enjoy it.
Although a bit off the beaten path… consider Zatorland, a dinosaur themed amusement park in Poland. If you have extra time before your flight back to the states, you can hit “Park Wodny”, an indoor waterpark, year round, with fantastic slides, jacuzzis, a little bar, and climbing wall. My wife goes into the park in the morning and refuses to leave until dinnertime. There’s a 700 year old salt mine near Krakow (you can get a special bus), called Wieliczka where over the centuries, bored miners carved elaborate sculptures out of salt.
10X better than Disney, IMO.
Oh, the salt mine has one of the best “museum” restaurants I’ve ever been to. Europeans, and particularly Poles, won’t spend money on overpriced junk food.
Hotel Gołębiewski!! Glad to know it’s still there. As a kid in Poland in the 90s it seemed crazy that it existed there back then! So much better than Disney.
So that’s a thousand dollars for WOKE ? Really It’s time to sell to Apple
“The house of mouse is in trouble, it appears, and the savior, Bob Iger, seems confused at best.”
Beautifully put
Six Flags has the issue of Mom & Dad dumping junior or sissy off at the park and running away for the day. Since the kids were unsupervised, the park(s) has issues.
Disney wants Mom & Dad present so junior & sissy are closely monitored.
I’m confused. Whenever I read these articles, I go check the app and see that the wait times are STILL ridic.
When The Walt Disney Company became “The Woke Disney Company”, those who were offended by the demise of the traditional values that made The Walt Disney Company successful…LEFT! The company could have maintained the status quo that made them highly successful among all visitors. Instead, the management went against the tried and true success and decided to pander to the less than 1% of the population. As a result, the other 99% figure that they could go elsewhere. While I never met Mr. Disney, I did three term papers on him and his brother Roy. There was not a single shred of evidence that either of them (Walt was awarded several B’nai B’rith awards!) discriminating against any group of people. Flushing the company’s management/board down the drain and returning to their original values might cause a turn around.
The real problem Disney has is its Woke issue! Conservative parents are sick over Disney woke culture. They do not want to see Trans or gay anything being presented to their children. Igor and the directors will not come out and admit it, but it’s true. You see it in their films, animated cartoons etc. That’s why they lost 2 billion on their film/movie business.
Sexualize the children, lose business. Doesn’t matter if it is Florida or California, parents love their children.
Disney stopped following Disney themes – instead, it decided to go along a new route and pander to virtue signslong progressive agenda – pardnts just want yo tske themselves snd their children to a park to relax and enjoy the rides and the day – slso, in my opinion, Disne is wsy over-priced – give me my childhood small theme parks, like Idora Park or Conneaut Lake Park – or even Cedar Point – where the prices were reasonay, you experienced wholesome family fun snd togetherness, snd not the ridiculous wait lines (who wants to pay $100+ to ride, on a good day, maybe 4 rides???)