When WDW re-opens: Price hike or lots of discounts??

[jamescanuck2001]

Often Disney raises prices as a precursor to offering discounts. It's a common sales tactic.

 

[StitchesGr8Fan]

Both. Discounts to get you down there. Price hikes on food and souvenirs to make up for what they have lost.

 

[whiporee]

While i'm confident WDW opens June 1, I don't think Disney can lower prices or even offer huge discounts, because i don't they can afford to be seen as trying to entice people to go to the parks right now, and probably through the fall.

It's one thing to be open and allow those who want to go to go, and it's one thing to do something to try to compensate those who had vacations cancelled. But it would be a very bad look if they made moves to tempt customers into coming against what might be their better judgement.

After 9-11 there was a patriotic "don't let the terrorists win" mentality to the economy and things like football games and theme parks. During the recession, it's normal to try to get people to spend during hard times. But for this, they can't allow a perception of trying to bribe people to do what some people consider reckless. So I while I don't think there's anyway you'll see hikes, I also doubt you'll see substantial discounts or offers until the general consensus in the country is all clear, and I doubt that will be before Januaury.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

Travel will be cheap everywhere for a while. I say through 2022.

 

[Goofcoaster]

While i'm confident WDW opens June 1, I don't think Disney can lower prices or even offer huge discounts, because i don't they can afford to be seen as trying to entice people to go to the parks right now, and probably through the fall.

It's one thing to be open and allow those who want to go to go, and it's one thing to do something to try to compensate those who had vacations cancelled. But it would be a very bad look if they made moves to tempt customers into coming against what might be their better judgement.

After 9-11 there was a patriotic "don't let the terrorists win" mentality to the economy and things like football games and theme parks. During the recession, it's normal to try to get people to spend during hard times. But for this, they can't allow a perception of trying to bribe people to do what some people consider reckless. So I while I don't think there's anyway you'll see hikes, I also doubt you'll see substantial discounts or offers until the general consensus in the country is all clear, and I doubt that will be before Januaury.

that's a viewpoint i hadn't considered....i think you could have a point here.

 

[lovethesun12]

While i'm confident WDW opens June 1, I don't think Disney can lower prices or even offer huge discounts, because i don't they can afford to be seen as trying to entice people to go to the parks right now, and probably through the fall.

It's one thing to be open and allow those who want to go to go, and it's one thing to do something to try to compensate those who had vacations cancelled. But it would be a very bad look if they made moves to tempt customers into coming against what might be their better judgement.

After 9-11 there was a patriotic "don't let the terrorists win" mentality to the economy and things like football games and theme parks. During the recession, it's normal to try to get people to spend during hard times. But for this, they can't allow a perception of trying to bribe people to do what some people consider reckless. So I while I don't think there's anyway you'll see hikes, I also doubt you'll see substantial discounts or offers until the general consensus in the country is all clear, and I doubt that will be before Januaury.

I agree with this, but I think the answer to discounts or not is really going to depend on when they open.

If they open soon, they are going to have to somehow practice social distancing, which has to mean less people in lines, rope drop, counter service, etc.

If they are going to have less people in all those places, they are going to have to have less guests.

If they have less guests, to pay to keep the park open, it makes sense there would be limited rooms (especially if there are more competition for them) that they would not have to offer discounts on.

Now on the other hand if they wait to open to operate normally, they might need discounts to entice people to come back.

 

[1GoldenSun]

I don't know but I'm just about willing to have my paychecks directly deposited to Disney, I'm so desperate to get out of this house and do something FUN.

 

[cm8]

Discounts. People aren't going to flock to Disney. Sure, the locals and some APs - but Disney can't survive on them. We're going to be in a major recession, if not depression. Disney is going to be at the very bottom of the priority list for most.

As it has been said before - history sets precedent - after 9/11, during the last recession, they offered good discounts.

Now, everyone’s dollar will have a say... The “riff raff” and all.

 

[anthony2k7]

I would expect price rises and heavy discounts.

Raise prices 10% and then do extra offers to attempt to convince people they are getting good deals.

Well that was my view a while ago. Now I think prices will go up by more than 10% and no discounts to start with.

They'll want to limit number of guests but maximize money so they may significantly increase prices for a while and use that to limit the number of visitors. Maybe 25% increases coming?

 

[TropicalDIS]

While i'm confident WDW opens June 1, I don't think Disney can lower prices or even offer huge discounts, because i don't they can afford to be seen as trying to entice people to go to the parks right now, and probably through the fall.

It's one thing to be open and allow those who want to go to go, and it's one thing to do something to try to compensate those who had vacations cancelled. But it would be a very bad look if they made moves to tempt customers into coming against what might be their better judgement.

After 9-11 there was a patriotic "don't let the terrorists win" mentality to the economy and things like football games and theme parks. During the recession, it's normal to try to get people to spend during hard times. But for this, they can't allow a perception of trying to bribe people to do what some people consider reckless. So I while I don't think there's anyway you'll see hikes, I also doubt you'll see substantial discounts or offers until the general consensus in the country is all clear, and I doubt that will be before Januaury.

They have already gone and offered a free dining deal to entice people to rebook this year rather than cancel and wait. That is enticing people to come this year rather than wait it out.

I don’t think prices will drop, nor do I think there will be a price hike. But I do think you will see travel discounts offered everywhere. Airlines, hotels, Vegas, Disney, you name it.

Once they get the go ahead to open, I don’t see companies sitting around waiting for bookings. The discounts will be offered to get people travelling again.

 

[Lewisc]

BOTH There will be discounts to attract guests. Free dining. Room discounts.

I can envision plenty of increased costs. Increased menu prices. You want to ride more then one or two e rides a day. You may have to pay for extra fast passes. or Maybe the parks will be closing early, all indications are no fireworks, parades or other night shows. Extra cost night hours.

 

[BuckeyeBama]

Honestly, I don't even want a discount. I just want the world to get back to where it was last fall so we can enjoy things like WDW and cruises again.

 

[gatour]

I think at first neither. They need to see what demand will be. If there is less demand they can't raise prices to make up for loss revenue during the closure. It would just drive away more business, decreasing revenue even further. If the demand is there to support the current prices then there is no reason to offer discounts.

If the demand is less, first you will see rates reduced at the hotels as people are used to hotel prices fluctuating. If demand is bad you may get "buy an x-day pass and get and additional day for free". One thing you won't see is an actual price decrease on the cost of entry to the parks.

 

[keishashadow]

When WDW re-opens, do you expect there to be a price hike, to try and make up for their lack of park revenue? Or tons of discounts, because it will be awhile before people start to feel safe coming back?

Initially, neither option. They will keep rates at current levels.

That would still be ‘challenging the market’ IMO. Even if they have limited CRO & DVC properties open

Only if their targeted room occupancy levels aren’t met will they offer extraordinary deals & those would likely be packages

 

[MeridaAnn]

I think, from a PR angle, it will be best for them to do neither for at least a few months after opening. Raising prices will look callous and greedy. Offering discounts will look like they're being careless about the virus by trying to cram extra people together when it's still best to minimize contact where possible. They will face enough backlash from being open at all, no matter when it happens - they'll want the focus of the news to be on all the protective measures they've put in place and how they're supposedly doing everything they can to protect the people who are there and feel good stories about families finally enjoying life again. It would not be in their best interest to have the headlines about them be about price changes in either direction instead, because either option can be made to look really bad with a simple twist of wording.

 

[Julie Amber]

When this whole mess and all the closures started, I thought for sure that they would have to offer discounts to come later in the year because of the fear and limited offerings they would have. Now that I'm starting to see that the most likely plan is for them to strictly limit hotel and park occupancy to a fraction of maybe even 50% of "normal," I'm thinking that they'll keep the pricing exactly where it is to self select out those that would have only traveled with a good discount. Usually, fall discounts would have been out by now. However, if you want to book anything Sept 1 forward, there's no discounts for you at all. Typically, we would have seen a second wave of free dining, maybe a room only discount, etc leading up possibly to the holidays. No sign of discounts anywhere right now.

 

[Jhoyer5150]

I agree with the previous poster (Julie), in terms of a limited capacity inherently eliminating (much of) the need to offer discounts. WDW can probably pull half their normal traffic, even operating with one hand tied behind their back, even in the midst of a fairly severe recession, without offering discounts. That said, I doubt they'd have the gall to actively RAISE prices or much ability to. However, they could push prices increases on upcharge experiences both existing and perhaps new (additional paid FastPasses, etc). That way even if you had 25000 or 30000 in the MK (ie half of a normal day), the average spend per customer could be higher, which would mitigate some of the attendance shortfall - though certainly not all. Then you cut your entertainment budget, labor, etc so the margin impact isn't that bad. Depressing all the same though.

Another poster put the optics also look bad if WDW is advertising deals and packages as an enticement to lure visitors - ie actively soliciting the masses when everything about a mass gathering is frowned on or looks very shaky right now, understandably. So this would thread the needle: base hotel and park tickets are unchanged, zero discounts, increased fees for hard ticket events and other upcharge experiences. Cost cuts everywhere other than outlay for increased sanitation/security/procedural changes.

 

[dd316]

I voted for discounts, but now I'm leaning more towards price hikes. If people have their minds set on going to Disney, they'll go to Disney. Every time there are price hikes we all complain, then we all suck it up and pay it. Virus or not, I don't see that changing when the parks open back up. With the demand that will be waiting, I think they'll make more money with upping prices on everybody already coming versus enticing a few people with discounts - if they didn't want to come for health reasons before, discounts aren't going to change their minds.

 

[midnight star]

I voted for discounts, but now I'm leaning more towards price hikes. If people have their minds set on going to Disney, they'll go to Disney. Every time there are price hikes we all complain, then we all suck it up and pay it. Virus or not, I don't see that changing when the parks open back up. With the demand that will be waiting, I think they'll make more money with upping prices on everybody already coming versus enticing a few people with discounts - if they didn't want to come for health reasons before, discounts aren't going to change their minds.

I agree. I also think they may have some discounts here and there if the parks are very low crowds. But I think there will be ways they make it up. Like higher merch prices, food prices. They may even add new charges on if there are any new regulations that come after the closure. So up front it seems like you're getting a discount but after the trip you end up spending the same amount of money as a regular priced disney trip.

 

[smmco]

Initially, neither option. They will keep rates at current levels.

That would still be ‘challenging the market’ IMO. Even if they have limited CRO & DVC properties open

Only if their targeted room occupancy levels aren’t met will they offer extraordinary deals & those would likely be packages

The already have a modest Summer discount. I don’t think they will offer anything better. It will be interesting to see the Fall discounts and what Disney offers.