News Round Up 2020

[rteetz]

Obviously, but they aren't filling the park with weeklongers.

Unless an AP holder is displacing a higher value guest, they are making more off that AP holder than the empty void not taken up by the mythical higher value guest. Not filling the parks with APs when it's clear they aren't going to be filled otherwise is leaving money on the table.

Not to mention, many Plantum APs are weeklongers.

I think you all are reading way too much into what Chapek said about AP vs non-AP. It's not like they are turning people away and are choosing to only let in the high rollers.

Like I’ve said before. Disney is always going to favor the vacationer who stays onsite, buys tickets, meal plans and everything in between. Yes that’s not in demand right now. Disney has on a weekly or so basis been opening AP spots where they see fit as well. They are not going to give away their resort guest base though for the AP visitor.

 

[Tiki Birdland]

Disney isn’t selling APs right now because they can’t guarantee those people access. You can renew of course. Disney still hasn’t done anything for those who have water park options.

Chapek in the latest earnings call said right out that locals are not the spenders and their week long guests are.

That still doesn't explain why they're not honoring their promise to AP holders. To say, "You don't like it? Get your money back", doesn't address the issue since the amount given back hasn't been fair. Heard they were refunding only half the price of the park hopper option..

 

[afan]

Like I’ve said before. Disney is always going to favor the vacationer who stays onsite, buys tickets, meal plans and everything in between. Yes that’s not in demand right now. Disney has on a weekly or so basis been opening AP spots where they see fit as well. They are not going to give away their resort guest base though for the AP visitor.

But they could. They know today how many people are checking in every day this week. Might there be a few very last min people who suddenly decide to plan a trip, sure but they could accommodate that.

So if tomorrow total for the 4 parks there's 2k in slots open, Tuesday has 1500, Wed 2500 etc they could easily open up 75% of those or some number, and dump them into the AP bucket so those locals could get a spot day of or a couple days before. We know they have the data and can figure it out.

The fact that they aren't doing this, except for cms, is a slap in the face to local APs. They'd rather make 0 money by no one taking that spot than let a local in and making a small bit of money. It's stupid, it's rude and I can totally understand why people are upset. You can apologize all you want for Disney and give yet another excuse, but there's no reason for them to be holding back.

 

[rteetz]

That still doesn't explain why they're not honoring their promise to AP holders. To say, "You don't like it? Get your money back", doesn't address the issue since the amount given back hasn't been fair. Heard they were refunding only half the price of the park hopper option..

Not sure what you’re getting at. What’s the promise? I’m sure in the fine print that no one reads Disney is far and away doing things they can. I’m an AP. I got my 5 months extension and I’m fine with that. I don’t have water parks which if I did probably would not be so great. I’m not a local tho either. The world isn’t exactly in a normal place right now. Most places didn’t have a major pandemic plan in place but they sure will now.

 

[rteetz]

But they could. They know today how many people are checking in every day this week. Might there be a few very last min people who suddenly decide to plan a trip, sure but they could accommodate that.

So if tomorrow total for the 4 parks there's 2k in slots open, Tuesday has 1500, Wed 2500 etc they could easily open up 75% of those or some number, and dump them into the AP bucket so those locals could get a spot day of or a couple days before. We know they have the data and can figure it out.

The fact that they aren't doing this, except for cms, is a slap in the face to local APs. They'd rather make 0 money by no one taking that spot than let a local in and making a small bit of money. It's stupid, it's rude and I can totally understand why people are upset. You can apologize all you want for Disney and give yet another excuse, but there's no reason for them to be holding back.

I love being called a Disney apologist so thank you. Everyone is different. As an AP I don’t have a problem currently. If I was local maybe I would. Not to mention we are in the middle of a pandemic still.

 

[Tiki Birdland]

Not sure what you’re getting at. What’s the promise? I’m sure in the fine print that no one reads Disney is far and away doing things they can. I’m an AP. I got my 5 months extension and I’m fine with that. I don’t have water parks which if I did probably would not be so great. I’m not a local tho either. The world isn’t exactly in a normal place right now. Most places didn’t have a major pandemic plan in place but they sure will now.

Come on, that's the company line there, Ryan. The promise has always been, "visit the parks whenever you want". Platinum APs are promised, "visit all four parks in one day if you want". Yeah, the fine print says that the parks may not be available for some days due to weather and some APs have blackout days that are known beforehand. But, to tell them you've got to make resort reservations if you want to use your AP is not fair. Frankly, it's insulting to not provide access to the water parks, keeping them closed while VB and other water parks around Orlando are successfully navigating the CDC guidelines.

I think fair would have been offering additional months to those APs affected by the closure of the parks and to those losing their park hopping privileges. Seems that would be the MINIMUM TWDC could do. If I had an AP under these conditions, I would have requested a full refund.

 

[afan]

I love being called a Disney apologist so thank you. Everyone is different. As an AP I don’t have a problem currently. If I was local maybe I would. Not to mention we are in the middle of a pandemic still.

I'm not the first to have said it. And you don't need to be a local like others in this thread to underatand their irritation with it and understand why they they could and should be doing something. Posting again about what was said on the earnings call doesn't help or show you understand their problem.

Disney is showing they would rather make $0 tomorrow from any empty slots than open them up to APs. How do you not see anything wrong with that?

I live about as far as you can get from wdw in Seattle and I get it, location has nothing to do with it. Experiencing good customer service and bad customer service does. This is bad service and it's starting to become a habit and yes we call all talk with our dollars but what are APs supposed to do now? They can't exactly take their money elsewhere.

 

[rteetz]

Come on, that's the company line there, Ryan. The promise has always been, "visit the parks whenever you want". Platinum APs are promised, "visit all four parks in one day if you want". Yeah, the fine print says that the parks may not be available for some days due to weather and some APs have blackout days that are known beforehand. But, to tell them you've got to make resort reservations if you want to use your AP is not fair. Frankly, it's insulting to not provide access to the water parks, keeping them closed while VB and other water parks around Orlando are successfully navigating the CDC guidelines.

I think fair would have been offering additional months to those APs affected by the closure of the parks and to those losing their park hopping privileges. Seems that would be the MINIMUM TWDC could do. If I had an AP under these conditions, I would have requested a full refund.

Yes of course but we didn’t have a reservation system previously either. You can’t be guaranteed to come whenever you want when there is a reservation system and capacity limit right now. We are still in a pandemic. I do get what you’re saying. I think if things don’t improve we will see them open more spots for local APs. They are still going to try to get that resort guest money first because that’s advantageous for their business.

 

[rteetz]

I'm not the first to have said it. And you don't need to be a local like others in this thread to underatand their irritation with it and understand why they they could and should be doing something. Posting again about what was said on the earnings call doesn't help or show you understand their problem.

Disney is showing they would rather make $0 tomorrow from any empty slots than open them up to APs. How do you not see anything wrong with that?

I live about as far as you can get from wdw in Seattle and I get it, location has nothing to do with it. Experiencing good customer service and bad customer service does. This is bad service and it's starting to become a habit and yes we call all talk with our dollars but what are APs supposed to do now? They can't exactly take their money elsewhere.

Sure, that’s fine. Earnings calls are public comment for Disney on these matters so I think they are pertinent to this type of discussion.

Does it matter though if I see anything wrong with it? Disney right now apparently doesn’t.

As for customer service all of us Disney fans should know the service levels vary greatly with this company. Yet many of us still shell out the money for these trips.

If things don’t improve I certainly can see things changing though. Disney is going to try and continue to get that resort money.

 

[Tiki Birdland]

Yes of course but we didn’t have a reservation system previously either.

Sorry, should have pointed out that the ONLY REASON why APs can get additional days is because of the reservation system. The reservation system is specifically tilted against APs. I agree with others that TWDC would rather capacity go unused before providing those spaces to APs. I don't understand the reason for that. I haven't heard any reasonable explanations either. Maybe your perspective is different because you own only one AP? Several here have multiple APs to cover their family. So, they've got the value of a used car involved here....

 

[skeeter31]

Sorry, should have pointed out that the ONLY REASON why APs can get additional days is because of the reservation system. The reservation system is specifically tilted against APs. I agree with others that TWDC would rather capacity go unused before providing those spaces to APs. I don't understand the reason for that. I haven't heard any reasonable explanations either. Maybe your perspective is different because you own only one AP? Several here have multiple APs to cover their family. So, they've got the value of a used car involved here....

I can totally understand why there is the limit of 3 days on APs. There are tons of people that would abuse the system and book hundreds of days through the rest of the year and next year and then not show up. By not putting a penalty into the system for not using your reservation days, they had to institute a cap. If there wasn’t a cap, I guarantee APs wouldn’t have any available days until January or February.

 

[rteetz]

Sorry, should have pointed out that the ONLY REASON why APs can get additional days is because of the reservation system. The reservation system is specifically tilted against APs. I agree with others that TWDC would rather capacity go unused before providing those spaces to APs. I don't understand the reason for that. I haven't heard any reasonable explanations either. Maybe your perspective is different because you own only one AP? Several here have multiple APs to cover their family. So, they've got the value of a used car involved here....

The entire WDW experience has been radically changed by all of this. In all honesty I’m not sure they have really figured out what to do with APs. I also think Disney believes that they can get away with more with APs because they are locked in more so than a average guest.

 

[Tiki Birdland]

By not putting a penalty into the system for not using your reservation days, they had to institute a cap. If there wasn’t a cap, I guarantee APs wouldn’t have any available days until January or February.

Isn't that what Universal did? Don't show up for the reservation you made? You get a strike. 3X? you get no more reservations.

 

[New Mouse]

Not sure what you’re getting at. What’s the promise? I’m sure in the fine print that no one reads Disney is far and away doing things they can. I’m an AP. I got my 5 months extension and I’m fine with that. I don’t have water parks which if I did probably would not be so great. I’m not a local tho either. The world isn’t exactly in a normal place right now. Most places didn’t have a major pandemic plan in place but they sure will now.

Care to bet on that?

 

[rteetz]

Care to bet on that?

What are we betting on?

 

[New Mouse]

Sure, that’s fine. Earnings calls are public comment for Disney on these matters so I think they are pertinent to this type of discussion.

Does it matter though if I see anything wrong with it? Disney right now apparently doesn’t.

As for customer service all of us Disney fans should know the service levels vary greatly with this company. Yet many of us still shell out the money for these trips.

If things don’t improve I certainly can see things changing though. Disney is going to try and continue to get that resort money.

Yes, it does matter if you do or not because people just blindly accepting leads to more of the status quo.

If things dont improve, the next step will be to reduce prices because youve already lost your ap base. You can go after resort guests all youd like but that market is non existent right now...in large part because prices are alhigh and services are low.

 

[New Mouse]

What are we betting on?

That Disney has the right to do what they are doing based on the fine print. I can assure you they do not. Im not going to be the one to take them to court, but they would lose.

 

[afan]

I can totally understand why there is the limit of 3 days on APs. There are tons of people that would abuse the system and book hundreds of days through the rest of the year and next year and then not show up. By not putting a penalty into the system for not using your reservation days, they had to institute a cap. If there wasn’t a cap, I guarantee APs wouldn’t have any available days until January or February.

It's not about the 3 day limit, it's about reservations for tomorrow and the next day and the next day etc not being used by resort guests that AP holders that aren't holding 3 days can't book. I saw a tweet, a cm got days because they opened them but but bf can't get any of those days with his AP because they are all booked yet all days are open for resort guests. Ok, so why can't they open them day of to AP's if they aren't being used.

There shouldn't be anything for disney to figure out at this point that may change in the coming months, if there are empty spaces open a % of them day of or the prior for AP's. It's not rocket science, they just don't want the money. They aren't going to suddenly fill all of the empty spots for tomorrow with new hotel res, it's just not realistic at any time, that last minute of a trip may happen but not enough of them that it'd take up all the spots. They don't even have to open them day of or day prior for DHS since it's been hitting capacity close to it, but at least let AP's that don't have 3 days booked, which wasn't even the discussion, book them today for tomorrow or day of. It's silly, as is the discussion about it because I still don't see why anyone would see a reason why they shouldn't be doing this unless it's because they don't want money or as we know, don't care about local APs.

 

[rteetz]

Yes, it does matter if you do or not because people just blindly accepting leads to more of the status quo.

If things dont improve, the next step will be to reduce prices because youve already lost your ap base. You can go after resort guests all youd like but that market is non existent right now...in large part because prices are alhigh and services are low.

And that there is pandemic going on and non-essential travel isn’t encouraged...

 

[rteetz]

That Disney has the right to do what they are doing based on the fine print. I can assure you they do not. Im not going to be the one to take them to court, but they would lose.

If that’s the case why haven’t APs taken them to court yet?