Volcano Bay Construction & Preview Discussion

[Parkscope Joe]

/does a move with my arms

The Aristocrats!

 

[fryoj]

Exactly. They really don't want single day people. They need the lines down due to Tapu Tapu. How do you do that? Price out day guests. It's not greedy, it's smart.

So Disney is also smart for jacking up prices to thin and redistribute crowds?

 

[anihilnation]

So Disney is also smart for jacking up prices to thin and redistribute crowds?

It often irks me how people are so unwilling to just admit to greed, and instead say stuff like smart economics.

 

[Andysol]

So Disney is also smart for jacking up prices to thin and redistribute crowds?

Of course they are. Less attendance and wear/tear, more income, more profit? Sign me up if I'm the CEO.

The thing that is annoying is that because of MM+/MDE they have mastered the art of crowd sourcing. They know exactly how many CMs to staff for which park and what 2nd rides (2nd dumbo, 2nd primeval whirl, 2nd space mountain, etc) to open when they need to open it. So if it is a low crowd day when they have one side running and less staff- you'll get a similar amount of rides in as a busy day (when they have both sides running and more staff). MM+/MDE/FP+/Infrastructure might have cost a billion or more, but its coming back to roost now for sure. I know that's not a popular opinion- but I don't see them having close to these profit numbers had they not done MM+.

Ive always said I would gladly pay a significant % more if it meant significantly smaller crowds- i.e. a significant reduction of the wait times. But Disney has managed to raise price a significant % (ok) and having smaller crowds (yes!) all while keeping the same wait times (Darth Vadar: Noooooooooo!)

But in their defense- spending in 2016 domestically was the most theyve spent by a decent margin in 15 years- even taking inflation into account. And 2017 looks to be on track for their biggest spending domestic year in all of Disney's history. Not just in real dollars (850M as the record in 2016)- but also in inflated dollars (with 1982 being the biggest at 1.5Billion). Granted, they spend like government contractors- but they are reinvesting unfathomable money into the parks and infrastructure finally. All thanks to Universal

 

[Imperius]

So Disney is also smart for jacking up prices to thin and redistribute crowds?

Yes.

 

[fryoj]

Just as a point of comparison, the water park at Atlantis in the Bahamas is $129 a day. Not exactly apples to apples, but not unprecedented.

 

[adjjb]

Just as a point of comparison, the water park at Atlantis in the Bahamas is $129 a day. Not exactly apples to apples, but not unprecedented.

They price it high for the cruise tourism. They want the one-day tickets sold as tours on the ships.

There's a lot of people that go to Orlando that don't stay on any property. That may do a day at Disney, a day at Universal, beach, Seaworld. Pricing VB this high plus non resident parking probably won't make those types of tourists choose VB.

 

[MattA]

Just as a point of comparison, the water park at Atlantis in the Bahamas is $129 a day. Not exactly apples to apples, but not unprecedented.

There are ways to cheat that though. There was an off-site hotel that offered free tickets to Atlantis for guests, and it was only 130$ a night. So four of us got in for 130$ XD

 

[JoeCamel]

I think they look at VB as a communal pool with slides for the resorts. Primarily for the resort guests like the pools but if you want to come for a day you can. I hope they can get the cost back with this strategy but maybe down the line there will be some "adjustments".
Would be very hard to roll the one day price back without looking desperate though.
The tweet refered to APs here you go but I am not sure that really is what will happen. Maybe first year you get an included day's admission or something along those lines, could not see a doubling for a three park AP.

 

[Alicia]

Just as a point of comparison, the water park at Atlantis in the Bahamas is $129 a day. Not exactly apples to apples, but not unprecedented.

The best thing about Discovery Cove is that they actually limit the number of guests each day. When I go there I never pay extra for the dolphin swim, I'm just there for the relaxing and more quiet water park experience. (Free beer is nice too.)

Sometimes you gotta pay more to get less (people).

Except Magic Kingdom, for some reason they keep jacking up the price and people just keep on coming.

 

[Dan B]

A Couple updates from Bioreconstruct:

 

[fryoj]

I think they look at VB as a communal pool with slides for the resorts. Primarily for the resort guests like the pools but if you want to come for a day you can. I hope they can get the cost back with this strategy but maybe down the line there will be some "adjustments".
Would be very hard to roll the one day price back without looking desperate though.
The tweet refered to APs here you go but I am not sure that really is what will happen. Maybe first year you get an included day's admission or something along those lines, could not see a doubling for a three park AP.

They can roll the prices back come fall. They can call it peak and non peak pricing. Then come next peak season just don't raise the prices.

 

[Mad Dog]

Looks like they're going to use VB to sell vacation packages that increase guest length of stay. The economics for a tourist work for that, since the prices are OK in a package. But, as others have said, it sure discourages day guests. Those popping down from WDW for one or two day trips, will have to make a choice on whether to stay at Universal for a few days, splitting off from their WDW stay, if they want to try all three parks.....My guess is that after the opening year fanfare, Universal will have to adjust their prices downward to keep the park filled during non peak weeks. As I said before, it's easier to start high, then go down if circumstances warrant, then it is to go the other way.

 

[Honor_Knight]

 

[Cheezbat]

Unless Volcano Bay is going to be decently priced added to the Pass opinions, looks like I may only go once.

My girlfriend and I were debating on where to get waterpark passes to...and price plays a big role. Disney might just win our money this year.

 

[Parkscope Joe]

I say don't worry too much about pricing unless you have to go this summer.

 

[LieutLaww]

I am still trying to decide if I want to head there as I wont be staying at Uni this year.

 

[Mad Dog]

Looks like they're going to use VB to sell vacation packages that increase guest length of stay. The economics for a tourist work for that, since the prices are OK in a package. But, as others have said, it sure discourages day guests. Those popping down from WDW for one or two day trips, will have to make a choice on whether to stay at Universal for a few days, splitting off from their WDW stay, if they want to try all three parks.....My guess is that after the opening year fanfare, Universal will have to adjust their prices downward to keep the park filled during non peak weeks. As I said before, it's easier to start high, then go down if circumstances warrant, then it is to go the other way.

A few more rambling thoughts to add to my previous post....*Universal may be of the mind set that if they priced it in the Blizzard Beach/Typhoon Lagoon/Aquatica price range that it would be looked at as primarily a water park instead of their water theme park designation. Pricing it as a theme park equivalent more readily allows them to market it as a theme park. ....*Blizzard Beach & Typhoon Lagoon are the largest attended theme parks and they really only average apx. 5,000 to 6,000 people a day. So it doesn't really take many people to fill one of these up. So, if there's very heavy demand at the beginning (and there probably is), Universal may feel the need to keep the price up high so the park doesn't have to turn away people.....*But, I can't see Universal being able to have any kind of crowd in VB during the slow seasons (example: times like this past week when the parks were very slow, and unlike Disney, Universal still has some pretty slow seasons). I think they're going to have to ultimately price it like they price their on site hotels, whereby VB has different prices for value season, peak season, and holiday season.....And I think it will, in final analysis, be looked at by people as primarily a water park, albeit an over the top variety. If it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, walks like a duck, it is a duck.

 

[Scott W.]

I think if that's the single day admission it's ridiculous but I doubt as a tourist I'm ever going to be in a position where I'm only going to buy a 1 day ticket.

If it restricts the numbers of guests per day I can see the benefit. I also think with the queueless system, there's going to be a lot of bugs to get ironed out.

 

[fryoj]

I think if that's the single day admission it's ridiculous but I doubt as a tourist I'm ever going to be in a position where I'm only going to buy a 1 day ticket.

If it rescues the numbers of guests per day I can see the benefit. I also think with the queueless system, there's going to be a lot of bugs to get ironed out.

That might be some of this. Make the prices astronomical at first to keep the crowds low, so they can fully test everything and see how the queueless is going to affect park capacity.