I expect Disney to monetize SWGE as much as humanly possible, but I wonder if this might be too wide an audience for this? Successful market segmentation depends on striking the right balance and not making the majority feel like their experience is far less than those in other market segments. With something as popular as SWGE will be, I'd worry that making those FPs available to all deluxe resort guests -- and advertising that widely -- pushes that envelope quite a bit. A tiny CL test is a far cry from this.
That said, I assume there will be other PAY opportunities open to anyone willing to shell out $$$ to get in earlier or stay later in SWGE. Perhaps the being out there would mitigate upset at an advertised CL FP program open only to deluxe resort guests.
Right. Look at the popularity of
MNSSHP and
MVMCP, which are open to anyone who can pay, and which limit the park for other guests. Or dessert parties which take away prime viewing spots. Disney is long past caring whether their pay-extra programs alienate other people.
Keeping it as Club Level only encourages booking that most expensive category of room. Right from the beginning of fastpass there has been speculation about if Disney will ever “tier” them: give more for deluxe, less for moderates & minimal amount for value resorts. Paid club level FPs give CL guests an additional “perk”, Disney makes even more money & it doesn’t put other non CL guests at a disadvantage.
But it
does put other non-CL guests at a disadvantage, just a small one that most of them don't know about. And booking the most expensive room is precisely the point. The Deluxe resorts fill last, we know that from the steep discounting they do. Extending the perk to them will help fill those rooms. People stayed club level before the CLFP became available and they'll continue to do so. Aside from having a bit of extra cash, people who pay to enjoy CL may even not share the characteristics of those who would pay to ride 3 more headliners in a day.
The FPP itself was a huge step in the privileged tiering direction, a
much bigger step than CL passes and I remember people saying then that it would anger other customers- but it hasn't turned off enough of them to even make a dent. The vast majority of Disney's guests still come from off-site. And it created FPP shortages just as more CLFP would. As for caring about on-site guests, they added the DS hotels to the FPP program and that helped push those hard-to-get FP back to 60 + 3 or more. Disney doesn't care as long as people keep coming. They'd be willing to risk losing a value or mod guest as long as someone will step in and take their place, and if they could entice some of those guests into deluxe lodgings.
However, impact on FPP supply is sheer speculation, anyway, as none of us even have a clue how many CL people participate now. I get the feeling it's not the majority. Deluxe resort & DVC guests are probably less than 5% of total park attendees. Not all of them would buy the CLFP- heck many of them don't even do
regular FPP as crazy as that sounds to us! SO it's not that many people, and if Disney could use the program to put more heads in beds at the Deluxe, I think they'd do it.
People don't do that in a galaxy far, far away!
