Originally Posted By tashajilek "Sorry Tasha...hopefully one day..." I hope sp too. "..Cars Land is Great...We went thru the single rider line a lot..you might not sit together all the time...sometimes you do...other times one is in the front " We did this a lot lasy Xmas at WDW too and sometimes the CM's were nice and let both of us ride together. As long as my Husband and i can ride once together it should be fine. I hope you have a great time!
Originally Posted By TINK-MOBILE Tasha..we had a Wonderful time..were there for ten days..our LP Friends...The Parsecs came up from San Diego and spent four days with us...we went to Mickeys Hall-o-ween party nite...it was fun..lots of candy....but really was not worth the 69 dollars a ticket...the parade was really short...how ever the costumes of many of the guests were amazing..the lines for pictures and the rides were just way too long..we did have fun... though...being with good friends always turns the cheek..We had such a fun trip...my friend Robbin , another LP'ER spent time with us as well...sharing some fast passes with us all..so kind of her.. too bad I miss you by a day...darn it.. have fun when you guys go...ho ho ho : )
Originally Posted By Bellella BTW, this may be off-topic, but do you think there will be any sweet deals this summer? One August my best friend and I spent 3 days at both parks (not with park-hoppers, D-land for 2 days and DCA for the third) for the generous price of 90 bucks apiece. This was about two years ago. Do you think there's any chance of a deal like that popping up in the near future?
Originally Posted By Mickeymouseclub Is a Disney Pass on your Santa Wish-list this year? hoping the prices do not increase...
Originally Posted By cerise667 Me neither... I have to say, I think it is a fair price, all things considered. But reduced income, old appliances (etc) and the price increase met in the middle and I just can't do it. We'll be back. Several friends decided to wait until we can all purchase. Hopefully, things will improve for everyone.
Originally Posted By cerise667 I agree with TINK, I understand why not, but variations would be cool, we rarely stay all day, we clear out when it gets crowded, and do not add our bodies to excessive lines. We walk rather than use the tram when the lines are long, do we get a "small foot print discount"? ;-) I'm going to brag... a friend I go with often is renewing my pass. She says she is being selfish (generous soul), we have such a nice time and it is such a complete break from work (home management and other the obligations) where else can you hang out with pirates or get hugged by a giant chipmunk?
Originally Posted By cerise667 I am surprised at the number of people who think the prices are excessive... I walk around there and while I am enjoying it I see the physical arrangement, the costumed cast members dancing in attendance... every square inch of Disneyland is made for effect and every square inch of it is constructed and maintained, lighted, heated or cooled... cast members training, costumes... transportation of items across the parks, security, insurance, supervision at all levels... a coworker who pays $100's for designer purses complains about a $3.00 soda at Disneyland... it's not Costco... the soda is not slapped onto a shelf, into your basket and into the car... I don't get why people don't get the expense and the numbers of employees never seen who maintain everything from the landscaping to POTC.... I bet a glance at the budget would be mind boggling. In good times or bad it all needs to be paid for. Like our mayor (LA) who does not understand when the raise taxes and water and power rates, saying it add up to a few pennies per home owner (thanks dude), it adds up to thousands for businesses... why so many are leaving I suppose. While I might not be able to afford it I think they need to charge what they need to charge to keep it up or all is lost and hundreds of thousands of employees jobless, right? I walk around and think of the people who complain about the cost thinking, you are kidding, right? Ride the Mark Twain around the rivers of America... POTC, Radiator springs racers, TSM, the fireworks shows and parades, the Aladdin show...... think of what it cost to develop, build, maintain...
Originally Posted By fkurucz >>think of what it cost to develop, build, maintain<< The truth is that those costs are irrelevant. Disney will charge what the market will bear, and lately it seems very willing to bear a lot. Some years ago I read a textbook about doing business with German companies. The book explained that in German culture there exists a concept of "charging a fair price", with the idea being that if a vendor quotes you a price, that said price should be considered "fair and reasonable" from the get go with a reasonable profit margin built in. The book further explained that if you want to offend your German supplier, all you need to do is ask if they can lower the price. Such a question implies that they were overcharging you, even gouging you. We like to believe in the US that the "savings are passed onto the customer", but the truth is they seldom are. Hence the phrase "caveat emptor" - "let the buyer beware". Sometimes I think that's the slogan we should print on our money.
Originally Posted By cerise667 I guess there is my heritage in a nutshell. But again, the concept that costs are irrelevant... of course the costs the primary base of determining admission (income to balance expense, if you get that wrong you fail fast). And profit is not "greed" in the new common parlance, additional money beyond running expense is needed for development, unexpected expenses... inflation... I have this theory, in early days of agrarian societies, humans understood the circle of self (family) maintenance, now too many seen to think everything should just come to them without effort and anyone who has more is greedy and should share... right? When people harvested the wheat, ground the grain... they understood bread better. For a lot of people Disneyland just "happens" and should not cost so much (if anything). The Germans are a smart people, you make a good product, charge a fair price.... and everyone in Europe asks you for money.
Originally Posted By fkurucz >>But again, the concept that costs are irrelevant... of course the costs the primary base of determining admission<< Only in that if you can't cover your costs then you go out of business. In other words, if your costs are more than the market will bear, you will not have sales. Imagine if the Disney Co. announced they were going to build a "Disneyland 2.0" and that as an experience it would blow away anything you ever experienced. So they build it and have the usual celebrities experience it preopening, on a live show on ABC. The places lives up to its promise, and all of the young and pretty celebs go on camera telling the public that its simply unbelievable. So next morning they open to the public, who line up at the ticket booths to find out that a single day's admission is $10,000. How long do you thing Disneyland 2.0 would stay in business? It wouldn't matter how much it cost to provide the experience. No one would go. Likewise, you can sell purified tap water in a bottle at at huge mark up. What you can charge has NOTHING to do with the production cost.
Originally Posted By cerise667 Do you buy a house, a car, sign an agreement for cell service you know you cannot afford? Do you think all the economic staff at Disneyland thinks less about the business? Production cost has to be met somewhere along the line, without some very solid anticipation of that, your fantasy park would never happen. Savvy? The mark up, sure it has to fall into a range guests will pay for, but it also has to fall into the need to meet the actual cost or be covered by other income.... my point holds that the "purified tap water in a bottle" (the same you pay a big price for in Whole Foods (who often buy their organics from farms cited for cheating on "organics")), is cooled, then kept in ice in a cart in a location that requires the delivery of ice, served by cast in costumes..... etc (too long to list all the people payed to handle, deliver, the environment of Mainstreet, etc)... not being taken off the shelf in a case in Costco... hence part of the greater price than Costco.
Originally Posted By disneylandfan8 My pass expired Dec. 8. 20 days without one. It's not a good feeling. I will probably cave soon.
Originally Posted By fkurucz You're missing the point. The pricethat is charged is detached from the production cost. They are unrelated. You charge what the customer is willing to pay, plain and simple. You do market analysis to determine if you can sell the product at a profit. >>Production cost has to be met somewhere along the line<< Of course it does, otherwise you become insolvent. But just because something costs "$X" to produce does not guarantee that you can sell it at a profit ($X+$Y). In fact, you might have to sell at a loss until you can find a way to lower your costs. A great example is housing. The price you can sell your house for is detached from it's replacement cost. During boom times houses sell for more than their cost (and sellers make bank). But during bust times it's not unusual for houses to sell for less than replacement cost, and sellers sometimes have to write a check at closing or do a "short sale" if they are underwater.
Originally Posted By fkurucz Look, I understand what you are saying: If your costs go up you have to charge more to cover them, or you'll go out of business. That makes sense. But that's not how Disney (or any corporation) sets their prices. They do demographic studies of their customers and in many cases adjust their product to attract certain demographics. Then they figure out how much to charge to hit the "sweet spot". Charge too much and the parks will be empty. Charge too little and you're leaving money on the table. The goal is to MAXIMIZE profits. You set your prices with that in mind. If your marketeers say that the public is willing to pay more, then you charge more. Costs play no role in this price determining process (unless they exceed what you can charge, in which case you are in trouble).
Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan >>They do demographic studies of their customers and in many cases adjust their product to attract certain demographics.<< Yep, and in the case of Disney, AP holders are mostly made up of their most ardent fans, which means most of them will grumble but go on ahead and renew their AP when the time comes.
Originally Posted By mickeymorris1234 I wonder if there are other ways Disney can do tickets. What happened to those night passes and things? I think they should make the southern california pass not be an AP (both kinds) it should be you get X number trips in a year period and all AP have to go online and book their trip online that way they can control crowds better. Basically your reserving a spot in the park. Thats just me. I wouldn't mind downloading an app thats connected to my phone and "check in" I do it all the time for flights anyways. Then go to the park and get in and the crowds are not crazy. Now will they do that? Probally not, Disney is amazing but they are there to make money. A packed park = packed bank accounts and those unlucky people who are locked out because they didn't get there in the morning you can go to the wonderful shopping world of Downtown Disney instead until the park reopens at 5 to guests. If they were to lock down guest numbers more you would need to see AP prices higher than they are, Southern California passes on a limited number of trips per year system with a check in that makes it so on any given day the park cannot exceed X% being AP's and the rest day tickets which would have to go down in price a little. Then they would make their money and it would be a better guest experience for everyone. Imagine if no matter what 40% of the park capacity can be AP's and its a tuesday. Only 41% of the park will be full and it will be all AP's! Just a thought. (I'm sure they would do a sliding scale anyways, higher % on off days and lower % of busy days but I digress.) Man I hope someone from TDA is reading this, I like it!
Originally Posted By hbquikcomjamesl I blame a lot of it on Magic Mountain. They introduced the whole unlimited use concept (at least, for the Southern California market), as a means of getting people to drive clear out to Valencia, to a less-than-magical park that was far too hot and arid. DL and KBF at least felt they had to offer at least an unlimited use option, in order to compete. Then they went to a pure unlimited use model, because the "unlimited use tag option" was less profitable than either ticket books or pure unlimited use. But that led directly to the present situation, with insanely expensive general admission, overutilization of E-ticket attractions, and under-utilization of all other attractions. Pricing any product or service is a matter of BOTH production costs AND what the market will bear. Where the market won't bear much (e.g., most consumer products), you see extraordinary efforts made to cut production costs, and the consequences thereof: production moved to countries where the labor is cheap and the government turns a blind eye to human rights violations, and then retailers like Wal-Mart start pushing the vendors to squeeze their workers even harder. And you see computer peripheral manufacturers whose names once stood for quality putting their names on cheap junk. And on the other hand, when the market will bear a great deal, you see absurdly high prices: you want a broadcast video camera, you're going to probably end up spending enough money to buy a pretty decent new car, and then spend enough on a lens to buy another car. But the people buying them will pay that much, because they know that the camera will make them far more money than it cost, can be fully depreciated long before it needs to be retired, and can then be sold for more than half the original cost. And when buyers can be manipulated into thinking something's better than it actually is, they'll bear an enormous mark-up (see the bottled water example cited by "fkurucz").
Originally Posted By Dabob2 <They introduced the whole unlimited use concept (at least, for the Southern California market)> Actually, they were preceded here by Pacific Ocean Park, or P.O.P., which some bright person figured out could also stand for "Pay One Price." They were doing it in the 60's, but then went under. Magic Mountain revived the concept (already in place in Six Flags parks - this was before MM WAS a Six Flags park) in SoCal.
