Rumored Changes to G+

[Jrb1979]

Maybe. I go to a lot of amusement parks. At the moment I am holding valid annual passes to parks from three different operators. It's not hard to see the value in a day at Disney, even at current prices.

Plus, things are expensive all over. The four of us are going to Ohio State/Michigan this weekend. The "get-in" price at TicketIQ as I type this is $550 per person. I have a bad feeling about this one...but there's no way I'd miss it.

It's anecdotal but I find I see more complaints about long waits at Disney than you do for regional parks. While people don't like waiting in long lines all day, at regional parks guests understand that it's part of going.

 

[Brian Noble]

I compare like to like.

And that’s fair. I love Cedar Point. Love. It. And I’ve been to most of the Cedar Fair parks. But they are a different beast from a theme park in the mold of Universal or Disney. So sure the chain-wide Cedar Fair passes cost a fraction of a UO or WDW pass. But relative to one another, those are all reasonable.

That whole "expensive" thing though has been said ever since I joined the DIS 8 years ago.

It’s been going on a lot longer than that.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

It’s been going on a lot longer than that.

Indeed as I said in the sentence directly following the comment you quoted...

And I'm sure it was said for eons before.

__________
I used the join date for the DIS because I was speaking about my personal experience with what I have read over the years on the Boards. I didn't lurk before joining so no I can't speak to what was exactly said before my join date but can surmise that the overall viewpoint on ticket pricing has been "it's been high" has been going on for quite a while before that.

 

[Brian Noble]

Every single increase in prices is met with sackcloth and ashes, plus a rousing chorus of "This time they've gone too far!"

Hasn't happened yet.

 

[New Mouse]

I just looked up Silver Dollar City, having never heard of it. It's half the size of the smallest park at WDW and about 1/4 the attendance of the least-visited WDW park. No surprise that they can do things differently there.

So based on scale it proves the point that Disney could do it if they want to.

Disney used to do it before fastpass as well.

 

[mamaofsix]

Yes, you're right. That paragraph does seem to indicate something with 'advanced booking' will be coming. I really should go back to 'page 1' of more of these longer threads!

On the other hand, the bulk of speculation around "this is coming" or "that's going away" is often rumor or wishful thinking..... Hopefully, we hear something soon.....

I often miss what's on post 1, too.

It really is strange that we haven't heard anything yet.

 

[starlite_]

Every single increase in prices is met with sackcloth and ashes, plus a rousing chorus of "This time they've gone too far!"

Hasn't happened yet.

And then someone will inevitably say "It's not expensive enough!" with the same breath.

 

[SL6827]

$35 the new high so far?

 

[Cfabar1]

I don’t mind paying for quality. I do think Disney has had some missteps, but everything is expensive now. Just go to a fast food restaurant and see how much a combo meal is now!

Disney’s bigger issue to me is that as they have raised costs, they have lowered the guest experience at the same time. By the way, they seem to be getting away with it.

If their metrics suggested otherwise, they would reverse course - as they have done with some modest changes under Bob Iger (free parking With AP comes to mind as the biggest example).

 

[New Mouse]

I don’t mind paying for quality. I do think Disney has had some missteps, but everything is expensive now. Just go to a fast food restaurant and see how much a combo meal is now!

Disney’s bigger issue to me is that as they have raised costs, they have lowered the guest experience at the same time. By the way, they seem to be getting away with it.

If their metrics suggested otherwise, they would reverse course - as they have done with some modest changes under Bob Iger (free parking With AP comes to mind as the biggest example).

How have the costs associated with Genie gone up that much?

 

[Cfabar1]

How have the costs associated with Genie gone up that much?

Well one could argue they went from 0 to $30 per customer Or whatever it costs now.

But it was more to me a comment overall about Disney than Genie specifically.

 

[New Mouse]

Well one could argue they went from 0 to $30 per customer Or whatever it costs now.

But it was more to me a comment overall about Disney than Genie specifically.

Yeah but my point is yes the fast food costs have gone up typically due to increased cost of goods and labor. What aspect of Genie justifies it going up?

It's cost other than the development cost and what should be minimal maintenance is 0. The rising price in Genie isn't due to supply and demand or actual cost, it's literally Just a money grab for a somewhat functional product.

 

[voxparse]

Yeah but my point is yes the fast food costs have gone up typically due to increased cost of goods and labor. What aspect of Genie justifies it going up?

It's cost other than the development cost and what should be minimal maintenance is 0. The rising price in Genie isn't due to supply and demand or actual cost, it's literally Just a money grab for a somewhat functional product.

The lightning lanes are too long and they are trying to find the sweet spot where the price is high enough to discourage too many people from paying but not so high that no one pays. They will keep increasing it until they see a downturn in the number of people paying for it.

 

[starlite_]

It's cost other than the development cost and what should be minimal maintenance is 0.

I guarantee you that the maintenance cost is not anywhere close to zero.

 

[thanxfornoticin]

The lightning lanes are too long and they are trying to find the sweet spot where the price is high enough to discourage too many people from paying but not so high that no one pays. They will keep increasing it until they see a downturn in the number of people paying for it.

And with it selling out recently with the latest 'highest' pricing yet, we certainly haven't gotten there!

 

[New Mouse]

I guarantee you that the maintenance cost is not anywhere close to zero.

I guarantee you the costs haven't risen substantially from the original projections to justify a significant cost increase in the product.

The maintenance costs on this should be equivalent to maintaining a low maintenancr website/app. Once it's functioning it should be relatively hands off from the tech side.

Did Disney design it that way? Probably not.

 

[starlite_]

I guarantee you the costs haven't risen substantially from the original projections to justify a significant cost increase in the product.

The maintenance costs on this should be equivalent to maintaining a low maintenancr website/app. Once it's functioning it should be relatively hands off from the tech side.

Did Disney design it that way? Probably not.

I didn't say that they had risen substantially. I said that they are not close to zero.

You are also assuming they are not modifying it which we know it's not true since they have added new features to it and the whole point of the thread is that changes are supposedly coming to it.

Hate on the app and it's cost all you want, but let's not devalue the work of the app developers and spread misinformation.

 

[Minnie1222]

What aspect of Genie justifies it going up?

The demand justifies the increasing price. As someone who's been using G+ since its first appearance, I can confirm that the $15 introductory rate was too low, resulted in subpar experiences (subpar for G+, but still better than FP in terms of ride selections and shorter queues).The $35 fee brought a better experience. The $27 was good, but not good enough during busier times.

 

[New Mouse]

I didn't say that they had risen substantially. I said that they are not close to zero.

You are also assuming they are not modifying it which we know it's not true since they have added new features to it and the whole point of the thread is that changes are supposedly coming to it.

Hate on the app and it's cost all you want, but let's not devalue the work of the app developers and spread misinformation.

I mean sure you could create a broken product and then I guess increase the cost to cover the "fix" if you want to look at it that way.

 

[Disney Bobby]

I guarantee you the costs haven't risen substantially from the original projections to justify a significant cost increase in the product.

The maintenance costs on this should be equivalent to maintaining a low maintenancr website/app. Once it's functioning it should be relatively hands off from the tech side.

Did Disney design it that way? Probably not.

Ridiculous. A solution like this would need multiple IT teams to support it. This isn't some generic godaddy site.