WDW Price Increase Thread

[Cup_Of_Coffee]

Video Games are huge, but the idea that legions of children aren't sitting around watching Disney stuff nonstop is just not reality.

Bluey (and yes I know that isn't a Disney property) is insanely popular, and American kids are only getting that on Disney channels or D+, which leads to them getting hooked on a myriad of other shows and movies.

I think the "grown up content" on D+ (and I struggle to call it that with how badly childish a lot of D+'s "blockbuster content" is written) is atrocious, but they still know how to get kids hooked.

I don’t even necessarily disagree with you. I think though for a lot of kids, if they aren’t watching Disney, they’re playing video games. Again even if it’s just a minor thing on their phone. The same way watching Disney as a kid is ingrained in society I really do feel Video Games are one of if not the closest thing to that, if that makes sense. It’s a big challenger in terms of a theme park visit.

Also, if the interactivity of this park is a hit, that really opens up the door to guests who don’t go to Universal because the rides are too much. They’ll have plenty to do as well. The gaming aspect as a whole is untouched as guests are rarely involved in attractions unless it’s a shooter ride.

 

[fryoj]

One problem with the "Disney just needs to build more stuff to make it a better value" line of thought, is that any time they do build anything, it draws more people in, including those who really can't afford it. So you get more value, but it's also more overcrowded, so you lose value. And being overcrowded also tells disney they can charge more. Not saying they shouldn't build more, just that building new things isn't going to fix this.

The economy is bad right now. All of these pay raises have been well outpaced by inflation. People have to put food on the table first. That means entertainment waits or they choose to go deeper in debt. Crowds lately definitely suggest they are putting entertainment on hold. At the same time, prices for everything are up for the parks too. I'm assuming that's what led to these latest price hikes. I just don't think this slowdown is better by next summer. If anything, with everything going on and an election coming, I think things get worse. I think these increases end up biting them in the butt, and they either reverse course or do more sales to draw people in.

 

[Mad Dog]

Orlando seems to be flat, or down, since April for both Disney & Universal, But Disneyland has become fairly crowded again. Kind of a tale of two cities. There's two different customer bases though. Disneyland is primarily locals in a huge population base, but not a lot of out of state or international tourists. WDW has a much smaller local population base, and is primarily beholden to out of state and international tourism. Presently, those are divergent paths and probably a large part of the reason Anaheim price increases were larger and more broad based than Orlando......US Economy is doing well though, by most measurements, and way better than the rest of the western world. . The present inflation rate of 3.7% also, by historical standards, is right about where it normally is. There was really just one year of abnormally high inflation. Labor raises in the past year are actually a tad higher than the inflation rate. Not many people are making those absurdly low minimum wages anymore. That recent decade of very low 2% inflation after the housing disaster in 2008 is a historical aberration. The media has a bad habit of accentuating the negatives about economic issues and ignoring the positives to get clicks. What is true though, is that there was a lot of funny money, especially for families, from the many stimulus'. That's mostly gone and a lot of those 2021 and 2022 WDW visits were propped up by that. We're basically back to normal. So the parks are going to have to work harder to get attendance back up.

 

[fryoj]

Inflation slowed down because people can't afford to buy anything. It already maxed out the last couple years. 8% mortgage rates on top of highly inflated housing prices has cratered the real estate market. Food prices are ungodly. This thread is literally about a theme park racing prices and people saying they can't justify paying it. I'm not sure where you are, but if this is normal, I'd hate to see what you consider bad.

 

[Mad Dog]

Inflation slowed down because people can't afford to buy anything. It already maxed out the last couple years. 8% mortgage rates on top of highly inflated housing prices has cratered the real estate market. Food prices are ungodly. This thread is literally about a theme park racing prices and people saying they can't justify paying it. I'm not sure where you are, but if this is normal, I'd hate to see what you consider bad.

In the 70's, 80's and 90's we considered it fortunate if you could get an 8% mortgage, There were periods when mortgage rates hit 20%. All of those low rates in the past decade or two actually caused the recession of 2008 housing bubble, and the 2% inflation was a result of a slow economy and really low wage gains. Housing prices boomed in the 80's and 90's too. None of what we're experiencing now is much different than the past. We had real bad recessions about every ten years too.We're kind of back to normal. What is different though is the explosion of social media and the propaganda, and false information that distorts the national and world view, and creates hostility in order to further agendas. All of these economic issues happened about the same way before.....People are still going to the parks, and most are still paying the way they always did, namely with credit. That's been the American way for a very long time. The parks just need to get their operating act together and the customers will flock in.

 

[Jake S]

Alright folks, let’s get back on topic.

 

[OrlLover]

One problem with the "Disney just needs to build more stuff to make it a better value" line of thought, is that any time they do build anything, it draws more people in, including those who really can't afford it. So you get more value, but it's also more overcrowded, so you lose value. And being overcrowded also tells disney they can charge more. Not saying they shouldn't build more, just that building new things isn't going to fix this.

The economy is bad right now. All of these pay raises have been well outpaced by inflation. People have to put food on the table first. That means entertainment waits or they choose to go deeper in debt. Crowds lately definitely suggest they are putting entertainment on hold. At the same time, prices for everything are up for the parks too. I'm assuming that's what led to these latest price hikes. I just don't think this slowdown is better by next summer. If anything, with everything going on and an election coming, I think things get worse. I think these increases end up biting them in the butt, and they either reverse course or do more sales to draw people in.

I was trying to make a similar point in another thread but couldn’t explain it very well. Thank you putting into words what I was trying to say.

 

[UniversalRBLX]

One problem with the "Disney just needs to build more stuff to make it a better value" line of thought, is that any time they do build anything, it draws more people in, including those who really can't afford it. So you get more value, but it's also more overcrowded, so you lose value. And being overcrowded also tells disney they can charge more. Not saying they shouldn't build more, just that building new things isn't going to fix this.

The economy is bad right now. All of these pay raises have been well outpaced by inflation. People have to put food on the table first. That means entertainment waits or they choose to go deeper in debt. Crowds lately definitely suggest they are putting entertainment on hold. At the same time, prices for everything are up for the parks too. I'm assuming that's what led to these latest price hikes. I just don't think this slowdown is better by next summer. If anything, with everything going on and an election coming, I think things get worse. I think these increases end up biting them in the butt, and they either reverse course or do more sales to draw people in.

Building more does in fact bring more people in... but it also spreads out crowds if done correctly. Look at the Magic Kingdom/Disneyland parks as the perfect example. Waits rarely exceed 60 (Seven Dwarfs the exception due to having low capacity for its popularity)

When Potter opened at IOA, attendance increased significantly... and wait times for everything else didn't really change much. Same with every other new attraction after that. Kong became the new thing, would average 60-90 each day and everything else benefitted from that. Velocicoaster opened and Hulk rarely ever reaches waits over 60 nowadays. Hagrid opened and Forbidden Journey rarely sees waits over 45 most days. It's usually a walk on the first/last hours of the day.

If done properly, new attractions bring in more guests and keep wait-times the same (or even reduce).

 

[Nick]

Building more does in fact bring more people in... but it also spreads out crowds if done correctly. Look at the Magic Kingdom/Disneyland parks as the perfect example. Waits rarely exceed 60 (Seven Dwarfs the exception due to having low capacity for its popularity)

When Potter opened at IOA, attendance increased significantly... and wait times for everything else didn't really change much. Same with every other new attraction after that. Kong became the new thing, would average 60-90 each day and everything else benefitted from that. Velocicoaster opened and Hulk rarely ever reaches waits over 60 nowadays. Hagrid opened and Forbidden Journey rarely sees waits over 45 most days. It's usually a walk on the first/last hours of the day.

If done properly, new attractions bring in more guests and keep wait-times the same (or even reduce).

It will be interesting what the wait time for SDMT goes to once people can actually wait standby for Tron.

 

[JungleSkip]

Building more does in fact bring more people in... but it also spreads out crowds if done correctly. Look at the Magic Kingdom/Disneyland parks as the perfect example. Waits rarely exceed 60 (Seven Dwarfs the exception due to having low capacity for its popularity)

When Potter opened at IOA, attendance increased significantly... and wait times for everything else didn't really change much. Same with every other new attraction after that. Kong became the new thing, would average 60-90 each day and everything else benefitted from that. Velocicoaster opened and Hulk rarely ever reaches waits over 60 nowadays. Hagrid opened and Forbidden Journey rarely sees waits over 45 most days. It's usually a walk on the first/last hours of the day.

If done properly, new attractions bring in more guests and keep wait-times the same (or even reduce).

Correct. New stuff brings some new people in, but when a park has enough stuff to do, it doesn't *feel* like more people are coming in. The problem with DAK and DHS is they don't have enough to do, and I'd say Epcot is closer to their side of things than it is MK.

But MK, DL, and parks of its ilk handle their crowds flat out better because they have a plethora of things to do.

 

[UniversalRBLX]

It will be interesting what the wait time for SDMT goes to once people can actually wait standby for Tron.

Not much, the target audience is a bit different. I think Splash reopening would make a bigger impact next year.

Correct. New stuff brings some new people in, but when a park has enough stuff to do, it doesn't *feel* like more people are coming in. The problem with DAK and DHS is they don't have enough to do, and I'd say Epcot is closer to their side of things than it is MK.

But MK, DL, and parks of its ilk handle their crowds flat out better because they have a plethora of things to do.

Yeah, a new thing for DAK/DHS at the moment wouldn't make that much of an impact, unfortunately. It will improve guest flow a bit though. Whenever Dinoland happens, it'll take the heat away from Africa/Pandora.

Epcot is very close, the problem is that a lot of the higher-capacity rides there are outdated and not popular. Figment has like double the theoretical hourly capacity of Frozen, and yet Frozen pushes more people through. Really stupid decision on their part to not give Frozen a high-capacity boat ride for 2K+ guests an hour.

 

[Nick]

Correct. New stuff brings some new people in, but when a park has enough stuff to do, it doesn't *feel* like more people are coming in. The problem with DAK and DHS is they don't have enough to do, and I'd say Epcot is closer to their side of things than it is MK.

But MK, DL, and parks of its ilk handle their crowds flat out better because they have a plethora of things to do.

I think Epcot is a bit closer to MK tbh. It still needs about 2-3 more rides in WS, even if some are small scale, but I think Epcot has enough to do where another round of additions/changes and it feels pretty solid. I'm probably not a good person to weigh in on this though because as a local Epcot is just a fun park to go to and hang out.

DHS/DAK on the other hand... i've been to DAK one time in the past two years of having an AP and not many more for DHS. The fact that nothing new is even under construction makes both feel all the more stale aside from the low ride counts.

 

[UniversalRBLX]

I think Epcot is a bit closer to MK tbh. It still needs about 2-3 more rides in WS, even if some are small scale, but I think Epcot has enough to do where another round of additions/changes and it feels pretty solid. I'm probably not a good person to weigh in on this though because as a local Epcot is just a fun park to go to and hang out.

DHS/DAK on the other hand... i've been to DAK one time in the past two years of having an AP and not many more for DHS. The fact that nothing new is even under construction makes both feel all the more stale aside from the low ride counts.

Go to DAK after 5PM, do Dinosaur > Everest > Safaris > Eat at Satu'li > Flight of Passage

Only way to do DAK unfortunately

 

[TheCodeMan95]

Epcot never feels overly crowded for me only because it's so large and spread out. Adding a few more attractions to World Showcase would make it even better (and if they ever decide to do standby for Cosmic Rewind)

 

[Mad Dog]

Go to DAK after 5PM, do Dinosaur > Everest > Safaris > Eat at Satu'li > Flight of Passage

Only way to do DAK unfortunately

Yes. DAK is kind of the opposite on the best way to tour parks. Generally you do better on lines by starting at rope drop. At AK you're better to stay late, and skip the early morning, because the park crowds disperse after 4 or 5 PM. ....On the question of more to do at a park results in shorter line times, Touring Plans does a weekly average stand by time breakdown. MK, which has a lot to do, generally averages 20 to 25 minutes in standby. DHS, that hasn't anywhere near as much to do, usually averages 38 to 42 minutes per attraction. That's a considerable difference. Epcot is pretty good too, with an average in the high 20's.

 

[JungleSkip]

I think Epcot is a bit closer to MK tbh. It still needs about 2-3 more rides in WS, even if some are small scale, but I think Epcot has enough to do where another round of additions/changes and it feels pretty solid. I'm probably not a good person to weigh in on this though because as a local Epcot is just a fun park to go to and hang out.

DHS/DAK on the other hand... i've been to DAK one time in the past two years of having an AP and not many more for DHS. The fact that nothing new is even under construction makes both feel all the more stale aside from the low ride counts.

This is also my personal bias against Epcot, because most of the stuff there...kinda sucks IMO. Then again, I haven't ridden GOTG or Ratatouille yet, and good Soarin is back so that's a plus.

I'll probably be salty until they fix JII. lol

 

[Nick]

This is also my personal bias against Epcot, because most of the stuff there...kinda sucks IMO. Then again, I haven't ridden GOTG or Ratatouille yet, and good Soarin is back so that's a plus.

I'll probably be salty until they fix JII. lol

Fixing JII is one of the only things left to refurbish or redo aside from SSE now with Test Track getting an update again.

 

[JungleSkip]

Fixing JII is one of the only things left to refurbish or redo aside from SSE now with Test Track getting an update again.

I think if they made the Imagination Pavilion worth visiting and added another few small rides in WS I think the park would finally feel "complete" again, even if I personally am not much of a fan of things like Test Track, Mission Space, etc.

 

[UniversalRBLX]

Fixing JII is one of the only things left to refurbish or redo aside from SSE now with Test Track getting an update again.

JII, Pixar Short Film Festival, Wonders of Life, and Mission Space are "black holes" in the park... along with (I hate saying this) the American Adventure and the 360 theaters from a capacity perspective.

If they are expecting to rely on APs over the next year or so, they should bring back Captain EO to help a bit.

 

[Nick]

JII, Pixar Short Film Festival, Wonders of Life, and Mission Space are "black holes" in the park... along with (I hate saying this) the American Adventure and the 360 theaters from a capacity perspective.

If they are expecting to rely on APs over the next year or so, they should bring back Captain EO to help a bit.

Mission Space just got a bit of an upgrade about 5 years ago. Now eventually it needs to be replaced because no one rides it, but JII, Wonders, and even SSE need to be fixed first.