Disney to have theatrical window for the remainder of 2021

[Mike Blakesley]

I had somebody bring in a "free pass" from 1958 one time. That was three owners ago, but we still honored it. Today it sits proudly in my "collection" of printed stuff from over the years.

[Marcel Birgelen]

I didn't know you can still use unused day-passes from way back to enter Disney parks, I'd readily expect them to carry some expiration date. I guess it's good practice to still honor them, especially if you can prove that you bought them yourselves via an authorized seller and not via some illicit ticket trader.

I'd say that honoring free passes from long ago is probably the most sensible action to do, maybe even if they have since expired, as long as the (potential) customer isn't clearly abusing the system (e.g. someone found a giant stash of unused free passes in the trash you threw out years ago). A disgruntled customer will probably never return, a happy customer may just do so...

Then again, putting an expiration day on your free passes or gift certificates may be a wise thing to do, as it allows you to eventually write off the obligations created by issuing them.

I have an idea...why not charge PER-RIDE? And, to make it easy to figure out the charge, lets give each attraction a letter value. Say, A-E with an "E-Ticket" being for "best" highest-attended attractions. They could sell ticket books with a set amount of each ticket to disperse people more evenly through the parks and for those that have to ride all of the E-ticket attractions again and again, they could buy just those tickets? Whatddya think? Think it could work?

Experience-wise, the "flat fee" ride model they implemented way back in the early 1980s was one of the best things they ever did to bump the experience of the place. I always considered a Disney park more of an integrated themed experience that best can be experienced without artificial barriers like "toll gates", whereas a carnival mostly just a collection of cheap thrills. The "flat fee, do whatever you want to do" mindset really helps to further that experience of being away from the outside world for a few moments. Besides the blatant money grab, marketing and crowd control initiatives, that's also what bothers me most of all those "planned experiences". It used to be impossible to get something decent to eat without a reservation at any Disney park, now you need reservations to just ride an attraction...

Would they still accept my leftover ride tickets from my childhood visit to Disneyland in 1966?

If they're in good condition, they may be worth more than an actual day pass... I have some old Disney park maps and some information brochures lying around and some people wanted to give me some actual money for that stuff. I decided to hang onto it though, I guess I got a bit sentimental…

I had somebody bring in a "free pass" from 1958 one time. That was three owners ago, but we still honored it. Today it sits proudly in my "collection" of printed stuff from over the years.

Seeing something like that in a display case or in a frame on the wall would make me smile.

[Steve Guttag]

Experience-wise, the "flat fee" ride model they implemented way back in the early 1980s was one of the best things they ever did to bump the experience of the place. I always considered a Disney park more of an integrated themed experience that best can be experienced without artificial barriers like "toll gates", whereas a carnival mostly just a collection of cheap thrills. The "flat fee, do whatever you want to do" mindset really helps to further that experience of being away from the outside world for a few moments.

I, actually, don't agree. I preferred the separate ticket per ride scheme and feel that when they went to the daily rate it lowered the value. Now, their money is generated by the gate price, which has shot up and continues to go crazy. The incentive for Disney is to get you to buy as many days as possible and to slow down and deny you as many rides as possible during any day...making the gate needed more. If you had tickets left in your ticket book, they were still good and while there still was a gate fee, it was much lower because they wanted you spending money on the ride tickets (and food) so getting into the park was made easier. The incentives were in the right place. Even the dispersion around the parks was better because the various pricing would put a premium on the hotter attractions plus, one would burn off A and B tickets (Main Street transportation sorts of things) rather than go from E to E to E to E. It may have seemed like more freedom but, in financial reality, it made things more expensive and over time that disparity has grown. Why is a gate ticket to the park the same regardless of hours of operation? You are going to have less opportunity to go on attractions on shorter days. With tickets, those tickets get consumed the next day or next trip.

Now, for annual pass, both Florida and out of State, the dynamics are different as one has a set price for getting in, regardless of how many days. The AP customer, one presumes, is not on nearly as limited a travel schedule to the parks so for them, yes, a 1-price fits all works best. Again, back when ShowEast was in Orlando...we would stay at Disney via an AP discount, which was far cheaper than staying at ShowEast and actually cheaper than staying at many local hotels (particularly name brand). Parking was free (or included) and the location compared to the Marriott World Center (convention site) was close enough by car. The AP worked incredibly well for us and we also had a dining plan (Tables of Wonderland) that ensured free valet parking at various hotels too plus discounts on the food itself...pretty much covered the tip). Disney used to get $1000s of dollars/year from us but no more. Their pricing is insane and the value of the various plans just make one feel stupid for doing it.

[Mitchell Dvoskin]

I hope NYC has another Worlds Fair. I still have a few admission tickets left over from the 1964/1965 fair.

I don’t have any admission tickets but I have souvenir booklet and post cards from Freedomland, a huge “Disney” like knock off theme park in New York City where Co-Op City is now. It closed after the 1964 season.

[Andrew Thomas]

I think the general issue for Disney here is that releasing movies day and date turns them into movie of the week stuff, things with no lasting power in culture. Free Guy and Shang Chi have both remained relevant in pop culture throughout the late summer, while Black Widow opened and then was forgotten within a couple of weeks. Keeping the brand in the consumer's mind for as long as possible generates the largest return, and it would appear that being one of a couple of major new releases theatrically on a given weekend does that better than being one of literally 100+ new bits of content across the various streaming services.

[Mike Blakesley]

I, actually, don't agree. I preferred the separate ticket per ride scheme and feel that when they went to the daily rate it lowered the value. Now, their money is generated by the gate price, which has shot up and continues to go crazy.

And you can bet that if they start making crazy money with the new pay-per-ride thing, they still won't lower the gate fee. The first time I went to WDW, in 1977, it was $6.00 to get in the park, and the price for the "E" ticket rides was 90 cents. I remember this because we bought a lot of extra Space Mountain tickets. We were with a group and we all got "packages" that included a bunch of tickets, but they were top-heavy with the A&B tickets -- which we came home with a lot of.

I have always thought that the one-size-fits all gate price was a bit of a ripoff for some people, like a grandparent who might only be along to "watch the baby" while the family goes on the rides, but is still paying the full rate.

Once they eclipsed the $100 mark for admissions, and then when they went to "dynamic pricing," all bets were off. Now, they've got to make up all that money they lost during Covid in order to pay for their expensive new attractions. The sad thing is they get lots of blow-back on their admission prices when it's really a good deal, considering you are buying a whole day's worth of entertainment for that $125 or whatever it is. Even if the park is only open 9 to 7, that's only $12.50 per hour. Not bad when you consider some of the attractions cost $150 million or more to build. It's kind of like movie theaters...the price is really low considering what you get, but nobody thinks about the cost of putting on that entertainment.

I do think they should lower the price when the park hours are shorter, though.

[Marcel Birgelen]

I, actually, don't agree. I preferred the separate ticket per ride scheme and feel that when they went to the daily rate it lowered the value. Now, their money is generated by the gate price, which has shot up and continues to go crazy. The incentive for Disney is to get you to buy as many days as possible and to slow down and deny you as many rides as possible during any day...making the gate needed more. If you had tickets left in your ticket book, they were still good and while there still was a gate fee, it was much lower because they wanted you spending money on the ride tickets (and food) so getting into the park was made easier. The incentives were in the right place. Even the dispersion around the parks was better because the various pricing would put a premium on the hotter attractions plus, one would burn off A and B tickets (Main Street transportation sorts of things) rather than go from E to E to E to E. It may have seemed like more freedom but, in financial reality, it made things more expensive and over time that disparity has grown. Why is a gate ticket to the park the same regardless of hours of operation? You are going to have less opportunity to go on attractions on shorter days. With tickets, those tickets get consumed the next day or next trip.

I've always accepted that a Disney park will be more expensive than your average other theme park, maybe with the exception of the Universal parks, which used to be just marginally cheaper. I've almost never bought into prepaid meal packages, so I accepted that factor to be a dynamic one, but I always had a good estimate of what that factor would be, the same for the odd souvenir. I don't mind them making the same on the ticket when the park is just open for 8 hours compared to 12 on other days (those shorter days usually are also far less crowded, so if you go for attraction count alone, you can get a lot more done on those days). I don't mind THAT much paying a premium for my food and drinks (although prices really have gone through the roof right into infinity lately), someone needs to pay for those expensive attractions, the cast members, the whole operations after all. But what I don't want is to feel like a cheap target for the next money grab. Also, those cheap money grabs are exactly what Walt Disney strongly opposed to himself, he didn't want his park to become a cheapskate carnival.

Maybe, my mindset is different than others and if you're doing this on an extremely tight budget or if you're a local with an annual pass, things probably work out differently. But if I'm on vacation, especially to a destination like a Disney park, I don't want to be confronted with "budget management" or "time management" all the time. That's the stuff I need to deal with on a day-to-day basis and that's exactly the stuff I want to get away from for a few days. That's why I like "flat fee pricing", I know what it will cost me upfront and I know what I get in return. The only thing you really needed to do the last 15 years or so, was to book a few reservations at a bunch of restaurants in advance, if you wanted to eat at one of those more "high end" offerings and this already annoyed the hell out of me.

But with this full-on dynamic pricing and "add on" pricing for amenities which used to be free now being a paid option, I start to feel like this object for continuous cash grabs. It's like paying double-premium for a low-cost airline experience, where they charge you extra for every fart (heck, when will they start offering the Disney Premier Toilet service?).

[Kenneth Wuepper]

While the concept of "all inclusive price" appeals to some purchasers, the need to explain (defend) your need to charge that price becomes an irritation to the provider. So the next alternative is to shift the price choice to the buyer. This "al a carte" concept makes many customers angry. By listing all of the choices and the cost for each, the merchant is placing the customer in complete control of the purchase.

So you can decide which customer you want to be, all in one or item by item.

It appears that some merchants have decided which method of purchase they will offer to their prospective customers. Supplier control or individual customer choice.
If there are no optional sources for this service, the supplier is in control (monopoly)
If there are competitors for the service, then the choice of how the service is priced becomes supplier critical.
In any case, knowing the customer base is what matters.

Which are you?