Paid FP options coming soon to WDW?

[Iowamomof4]

Also it irkes me when disney makes the mistake, but we have to spend the time to get it fixed..... for example dining credits system is down so you have to stand in line at the front desk to get it fixed.

We stayed club level ONE time and dh says he has almost no desire to do it again because our reservation was so messed up, he spent (what felt like) hours sitting at the concierge desk instead of enjoying our trip. Dining credits were messed up, magic bands were messed up, etc... Plus he was dealing with our sick daughter at the time. We did get some compensation, but time really can't be replaced by money.

 

[holden]

I haven't read all 46 pages of this thread so forgive me if I'm repeating something.

None of the recent upcharges or increased prices has decreased park attendance. I believe Disney will continue to get every penny they can out of their guests.

The majority of the United States has not been to WDW. First timers don't know any different. They never experienced lower ticket prices, low crowds, etc. To them, paying for FP+ is easy to accept. It's just how it is. I'm sure Disney will offer packages that include FP+ and other "perks" for these guests.

For those of us who have visited WDW, the recent changes are frustrating, but how many of us will actually stop going? Sure, some will but not enough to make an impact. I for one don't want to pay for FP+, but if that's what it comes to, I will.

Disney was status quo for a very long time. They are now upping their game. We either have to agree to play or find somewhere else to spend our money.

 

[Grumpy6264]

I am trying image what will be done to continue to differentiate onsite from offsite.

If there aren't any 'perks' for staying onsite, I will be very disappointed.

I guess we will have to wait and see.

 

[familyman123]

I don't know the impact for later int he day, but I think 10 mins for BTMMR is fine - but 30 mins for the speedway right after opening is definitely pushing it too far.

Also, i think society is a bit more impatient so are more willing to pay to get what they want when they want it vs in the past people were more ok with waiting in their standby line and FP wasn't needed at all.

When it comes to short staffing, I understand trying to save labor costs, but they pay ride operators $10 an hour. They choose to increase the Speedway wait time to a half hour for a bunch of guests to spare paying another person $10/hr?

Len Testa has stated before that people need a certain number of "experiences" to feel satisfied with their park visit (around 10 I believe). So I think Disney wants everyone to have about 10 ride experiences. When some people regularly get 15 experiences, 10 feels like a disappointed. Solution, limit the maximum and condition people to not to expect more than 10 experiences. It also would explain eliminating fastpass "rerides."

As far as impatience - cell phones have conditioned us to always be distracted. Interesting that SWGE is going to rely heavily on being on your phone to explore the not attractions, or to have fun in the line.

 

[scrappinginontario]

We love Disney and visit often but I will say, this summer for the very first time I am looking into alternative vacation locations and I've never really done that in the past.

Yes, we will still visit Disney but possibly for shorter trips and not as often and choose to spend some of our vacation dollars elsewhere.

 

[jade1]

Logically, I think almost everyone understands it's a business.

But Disney uses emotion and nostalgia in almost every aspect of that business. As such, I don't see how it's unreasonable that people react emotionally about the things it does. You reap what you sow.

That's a little more dramatic sounding than I really intend, but it gets the basic point across. People are emotional about it because Disney has fostered and grown those emotional tendencies and feelings over decades of business. You don't get to use it one way and not expect to have it thrown back the other direction.

Yea, but that's exactly what they are doing as well.

Like you say, those "feelings" aren't just from theme parks, its the product (IP) and it's additions leading to the popularity.

 

[jade1]

As far as impatience - cell phones have conditioned us to always be distracted. Interesting that SWGE is going to rely heavily on being on your phone to explore the not attractions, or to have fun in the line.

I will say those handheld computers (phones) have given much more to do while in lines, good and bad I suppose.

Sports scores and video, games, google info on subjects including all things WDW, politics, Snap chat, email-even those who prefer to know what's up at work instead of wondering and wringing hands.

 

[jimim]

I just had this conversation regarding pricing custom cabinetry work for my buddies business. He always says prices change based on what the market can handle. If people want something they can’t get somewhere else and he knows, he charges. If he wants to get the business of someone who he knows is shopping around he will play the game to get the job. But he always goes back and says his prices are based on what the market for his job can handle at the time. Same goes for here. People pay so Disney will think of new ways to make them pay till they stop spending.

You are wrong. Disney has a fiduciary duty to their shareholders to get the most out if their products. The consumer is 100% to blame for this. People line up to buy every one of these add on services, they jack up the price, no effect. Until consumers push back they will, and really should, keep raising prices. Really wish I bought some stock years ago so I would be on the receiving end.

 

[Hikergirl]

Logically, I think almost everyone understands it's a business.

But Disney uses emotion and nostalgia in almost every aspect of that business. As such, I don't see how it's unreasonable that people react emotionally about the things it does. You reap what you sow.

That's a little more dramatic sounding than I really intend, but it gets the basic point across. People are emotional about it because Disney has fostered and grown those emotional tendencies and feelings over decades of business. You don't get to use it one way and not expect to have it thrown back the other direction.

I understand why people may have an emotional reaction. It's our memories, our nostalgic feeling and most of all our money we are earning and spending. We want what once was, we don't want to have to pay more for it, we want Disney to do right by usm afterall we are the reason they are successful. We keep spending our money, and they keep asking for more.
What I stop at is the thought that because I am "emotional" about it, that Disney should do "the right thing" according to how I feel.
The pp's comment is exactly that- they shouldn't do something, but why not? What logical reason is there for a business to not make more money, especially if there is a market for it? There are obviously people willing to pay for the service.
If you (general you) oppose what they are doing, then don't spend your money with them anymore.

 

[Mome Rath]

So, the main answer given to "what should Disney do to solve the crowd issue" is "people eaters." The canceled theater project was mentioned. I would mention announced the Play Pavilion over in EPCOT. These things will also take money to build and staff and maintain, in other words, they will have to have the budget to cover these people eaters as well. Then they need them to be good, but not so good that it actually increases the crowds in the park more... I think an MK theater was a good idea, but, I don't think they would be enough to solve the crowd issue, maybe they would, but as long as the economy is booming I don't think it's going to hack it. I'm also one that can't see a fifth gate being a good thing for the longevity of Disney and it's profits, or even for guests.

Reading the "Disney to cancel FP's/room cancelled" thread it's obvious there is already a statistically significant chunk of people willing to pay money toward FP's one way or another (throwaway rooms, umbrella reservations, CL FP's, etc...). Add that with sold out "extra" events and I posit that it's groups of guests themselves that have pointed to monetizing FP's in some way. That means another answer is guest behavior; as others have pointed out, those of us discussing this to death are more hardcore than the regular guest. And, apparently, regular guests are seemingly happily paying for extras, even seeking out a way to pay to game the system before Disney catches on and tries to shut them down.

Disney is progressing on adding rides, adding entertainment, adding restaurants, adding resorts, and apparently adding paid FP options all in an attempt to control crowds and make money. As long as the data gives them signs that those things are what people actually want (despite what people say they want)... they will continue in that direction. I was nervous when I first read about paid FP's, but the more I read and think about it, it makes sense from Disney's perspective and I'm willing to wait to see what they come up with, and then to read the responses, and monitor the company's numbers (attendance, profits, etc...).

 

[Carrie Ellis]

Of course they should. Disney is a corporation, it's function is to make a profit.
I realize alot of you have this emotional attachment to it, but it doesn't have one for you. It provides a service for you to pay for.
It doesn't "care" about your feelings. It "cares" about what you are willing to spend.

A company doesn't grow without profit. It doesn't survive in down times without profit.
You want new and exciting things at the parks, it comes from profits.

I agree that they do not but I do believe the reason it has grown to be as big as it is; is the emotional connection. If the emotional connection goes away it will be like Six Flags to me which means you would have to PAY me to go! ha

I believe this is the same concept why Chick Fil A does so well. They act like they care, they try to make your experience great, they stay fresh and clean, try to make a excellent product, etc...

 

[Miffy]

I haven't read all 46 pages of this thread, so maybe someone else has speculated about this but it seems to me that WDW could put up an entrance in front of SWGE and charge admission, making it, effectively, the 5th gate. A very expensive one, since you'd have to pay for admission to DHS in order to get to that 5th gate. I'm not suggesting they do this, but it doesn't seem unlikely, especially since Star Wars is such a huge draw for so many people, including, I'm guessing, many people who otherwise don't care about WDW or Disney at all.

What logical reason is there for a business to not make more money? Well, for one, perhaps there's a breaking point where "more money" = "far fewer customers." WDW could, of course, just decide it wants to become a vacation for people with a particular income. If they could make the same or lots more money off significantly fewer people, then maybe they'd decide to do just that. It's their business, why not?

I have no idea what the number of visitors to WDW is every year, so I'm just going to set forth an example--it's completely fictional, but I think it may show my point. Let's just say that currently 20 million people visit WDW every year and they each spend $200. I'm just making up these numbers for the sake of comparison, btw. That would mean a gross profit of $4 billion.

But, you know, 20 million people put a lot of wear and tear on the property, necessitate the need for a large staff of CMs, etc. WDW could just decide to make that exact same $4 billion--or maybe $4.5 billion or $5 billion--off a much smaller population. They could reduce the number of guests down to a mere 4 million--20% of the 20 million--as long as they all spent $1,000/day.

This would fix several problems. (1) There'd be no need for FPs, since there would be far fewer people in all the parks. If attendance is equally divided among all the 4 parks (which it isn't, but I'm just laying out a very hypothetical case here), then over the course of a year, each park would have only about 2,800 people per day in attendance. No more crowds, no more need for FPs. (2) They could fire a lot of CMs, reducing costs. Taking care of 2,800 people is a heckuva lot easier than taking care of tens of thousands of people. (3) They could turn all their resorts into high-end places, thereby getting even more revenue. No more selling rooms at the All Stars for $175/night. The rooms there would be repurposed into luxury suites and cost $2,500/night. (4) They could stop a lot of their low-end advertising, saving the company scads of dough. Just a few discreet ads in the WSJ or Fortune or something similar and they'd have their attendees.

However, I think WDW is about more than just making money. Aren't they at least trying to give a lot of people a fantastic--in every sense of the word--experience? That's why they have accommodations at several different price points.

Sure, there are events and experiences there now that are very expensive, but one doesn't have to hire a private tour guide for $7K/day in order to enjoy the parks.

But perhaps I'm deluded. Perhaps WDW just hasn't figured out what it took me about 2 seconds to figure out and once they do--either by reading this post or having a revelation of their own--the days of anyone making less than a few mil a year being able to vacation at WDW will be over. Want the Disney experience but can't afford the price tag? Enjoy the experience via one of your favorite influencers on Instagram.

 

[SaharanTea]

I haven't read all 46 pages of this thread, so maybe someone else has speculated about this but it seems to me that WDW could put up an entrance in front of SWGE and charge admission, making it, effectively, the 5th gate. A very expensive one, since you'd have to pay for admission to DHS in order to get to that 5th gate. I'm not suggesting they do this, but it doesn't seem unlikely, especially since Star Wars is such a huge draw for so many people, including, I'm guessing, many people who otherwise don't care about WDW or Disney at all.

It won't get this bad for one very big reason: Merchandise. Even a rich person is only going to buy so many Mickey towels. They need lots of people to be positive enough about the company to buy all that stuff even when they aren't in the parks. If that many people hate the park and Disney, no one's lining up for orange bird sippies. There are other reasons, I know, but this is one of the biggies why they have to care about "a lot of people" vs. "a few rich folks."

I think it will get worse than it is. I just don't know if it's going to get the kind of worse that pushes me out or not.

 

[saskdw]

But if the crowds (and hence lines) are what everyone is complaining about... how else is Disney supposed to limit that? They have worked on spreading out the crowds, and have had some success with that. One of the key things was Pandora, and it worked at getting some of us back into AK, and having an actual E attraction that functions as intended in AK definitely pulled crowds that direction. Then people complained about the wait times for Pandora and that there wasn't anything new to balance it out... now we have GE, Tron, GG, and MMRR all coming. We have revamping of EPCOT, etc... So, more people want in. And, Disney is shelling out big bucks to add in new things. What else is it supposed to do rather than raise rates on things?

I agree with the quality concern, but that too means they need to raise more revenue because the jobs market is so tight. They keep offering more hotels which means more jobs, but they will have to pay more to fill those positions and keep them filled. The crowds impact the quality as well, so we are back to decreasing crowds while maintaining the business... what does everyone believe they should do? That's an actual question not a rhetorical one.

I hear what you are saying. i think the workforce in Orlando for jobs in this wage bracket is maxed out. They won't be able to find more workers and more training to the ones they have will have a minimal effect with the crowds so massive and the workforce picked so thin.

The only way the service/experience gets better is to thin the crowds. Of course how do they do that without cutting profits?

 

[Gryhndmom]

This will be interesting to see how this all comes out. I really do like how DL does their FP system and the max pass. a friend and I went last year to DL staying onsite and took advantage of early entry and max pass and we both felt that not being able to reserve fp’s until you entered the park made it more fair to everyone and eliminated the throw away rooms and other work arounds that seem rampant at wdw.

I would guess that DH and I would take advantage of paid FP if the advantage was given to those staying onsite. We feel
Like the current FP system takes more planning than we both had to do for our masters thesis!

 

[scrappinginontario]

This will be interesting to see how this all comes out. I really do like how DL does their FP system and the max pass. a friend and I went last year to DL staying onsite and took advantage of early entry and max pass and we both felt that not being able to reserve fp’s until you entered the park made it more fair to everyone and eliminated the throw away rooms and other work arounds that seem rampant at wdw.

I would guess that DH and I would take advantage of paid FP if the advantage was given to those staying onsite. We feel
Like the current FP system takes more planning than we both had to do for our masters thesis!

Personally I think the biggest challenge to use a similar system such as max pass at WDW is the cost. My understanding is that DL is normally a 2 or 3 day park (please correct me if I'm wrong) whereas it's not uncommon for families to visit WDW for 5+ days. I know our family gets 8 day passes when we go. $15/day/person adds up quickly when there a 4 parks to visit and some of those parks take more than 1 day to see.

 

[aleh021]

I'm sorry if this has been said or mentioned on here already...I just didn't want to read through 47 pages

Almost all other Disney Parks (except for WDW & TDR) offer some form of a paid FastPass system now.

Disneyland California
- Offers MaxPass

Disneyland Paris
- Offer Super FastPass & Ultimate FastPass (unlimited FastPasses)

Shanghai Disney
- Offers Premier Access

Hong Kong Disney
- Priority Special Tickets

So by default a paid FP option for WDW were bound to come sooner or later.

 

[Carrie Ellis]

I hear what you are saying. i think the workforce in Orlando for jobs in this wage bracket is maxed out. They won't be able to find more workers and more training to the ones they have will have a minimal effect with the crowds so massive and the workforce picked so thin.

The only way the service/experience gets better is to thin the crowds. Of course how do they do that without cutting profits?

My son was accepted into the Disney College Program for this summer and fall. I think they get a lot of workforce through this program! It is cut throat to get into too! His pay will be $10/hr as a lifeguard. They don't have to pay for insurance, retirement or living with all these interns either!

 

[crvetter]

Disneyland California
- Offers MaxPass

MaxPass is an add-on service, you aren't paying to access FastPass you are paying to make the FastPass on your phone and their version of the Memory Maker. I do agree it is a monetizing of the FastPass system, but in theory you have the same access to the paper FastPass at DLR.

So really DLR and WDW are eventually going to see some pay to access FastPass eventually, neither of which have like the other resorts.

Also don't forget Tokyo, has FastPasses baked into some on-site Resort stays and you can chose which package you want, so it is sort of a Pay to access FastPass.

 

[aleh021]

MaxPass is an add-on service, you aren't paying to access FastPass you are paying to make the FastPass on your phone and their version of the Memory Maker. I do agree it is a monetizing of the FastPass system, but in theory you have the same access to the paper FastPass at DLR.

So really DLR and WDW are eventually going to see some pay to access FastPass eventually, neither of which have like the other resorts.

True it is the same access to paper FastPasses.
I guess you could get your FastPass quicker using MaxPass? Meh idk.

I like MaxPass. I always use it when in DL/DCA it nice not having to race for the paper FP but still having a fair shot.