Why give Florida residents a discount?

[Bluegrrl]

They own the land and have been getting taxs cuts yearly. They use out emergency services (fire/er). They indirectly stress our environment - Florida has a delicate water table. They make backdoor politics deals, most notably destroying downtown Orlando with Pleasure Island.
A ticket discount is a small price for them to pay.

 

[MinnieMe129]

The FL resident passes that are the cheapest, have blackout dates - including ALL weekends, the majority of the summer, Christmas, and Easter. This is inline with the theory they are trying to fill the park during slower times.
My parents live in Florida and purchased this pass for my daughter. We live in Texas. However, we go 4-5 times a year, "because we can". At least 2 of those trips we stay on property for several days. We spend WAY more money at WDW with the FL Ap, than we would otherwise....

Just my 2 cents.

 

[CAS239]

Sure in one trip most Florida residents are spending far less for that trip vs people from out of state. But majority of Florida residents go to Disney far more often than those from out of state. So while you might have a family that lets say goes for one week every 2 years..we personally go for about 3 days every 1-2 months. Save money through AP's with Florida discount..but that doesn't mean we don't spend money in the parks.

So the reason parks give discounts to local residents is so they visit more often and spend more in the parks.

 

[Robo]

Florida.
The sunshine state.

 

[book_junkie]

And so we'll bring family, and our out of town family, and out of town visitors, and come for and evening stroll instead of spending it in some other Orlando venue.

 

[epcotty]

There's so few FL resident deals anymore that this question is almost becoming irrelevant. About 4 years ago they removed a discount on 1 day, made it so you couldn't get tickets that went past 4 days, put a lot of blockout dates on those tickets, and made them expire after 6 months. Now the Discover Disney/Wild for 3/4 passes are also gone (they were better than the newer standard tickets since they were a better day rate and less blockout dates). So what's left is not that good anymore. Really it's only significantly beneficial on APs and getting less so all the time. We haven't gotten FL resident tickets in recent history because of the restrictions mentioned above.

Anyway, I heard the reason was to make it up to FL residents for all the traffic, etc. Also of course they want FL residents to be loyal customers. However it seems they feel they don't need us that much anymore so they're cutting back.

 

[TiffanyA]

When we were kids, my parents started off our Disney obsession by getting all of us FL Seasonal Passes (this is a family of five). We were there every single month because my parents believed if you got it, you better make it worth it (plus we loved it). When you add it up, this a lot more days than the average Disney aficionado from out of state can swing. We only had a 3-4 hour drive in the car. I think Disney gives those discounts to Floridians to lure them in and once they've bought them, there are few people who wouldn't try to get their money's worth of them - and that includes spending across all the other platforms Disney offers. I have a friend who still lives in FL and he and his now wife (just married) have FL seasonal passes. They've also been just about every month of this year and they are huge Star Wars fans too so they pay the extra up-charge for all of that too.

 

[lovethattink]

Tourism is such an integral part of Florida's economy that we don't pay a state income tax.

Most of my central Floridians friends, do not go to Disney parks. In fact, we've even had trouble giving away comp tickets that inadvertently ended up expiring. I don't understand why. If we didn't have AP, we'd jump on the chance to go!

Neighboring states are often given great discounts too.

Our television commercials are filled with local park commercials. Not only Disney is reaching out and offering discounts to FL residents.

Lots of advertising $$ spent on FL residents.

 

[fla4fun]

I have to agree. I am sure Florida residents spend a lot less money at the parks then out of state guests. It would make total sense. Most Florida residents go and probably drink/eat/buy sourvenirs minimally, unlike people who are going on a "real vacation".

I don't understand why everyone assumes that Floridians don't take "real vacations" at WDW. This comes up all the time, and it's just not true. I was there for ten days in January, I'll be there for ten days later this month, and have plans to spend another couple weeks in the fall at WDW. All staying on property, eating Disney food, buying Disney souvenirs, etc., the same way any out of state vacationer would. All this and I can see WDW from my house - so I wouldn't have to stay on property if I didn't want to. But why would I not want to have the full vacation experience at one of the most popular vacation spots on the planet, just because it's literally in my own back yard? However, as a local, I know when the parks are going to be busy and I stay away during those times. No one who has a choice of when to go would choose to go when it's peak season. I would guess that if you took a poll in July and you took a poll in January, you would find a higher percentage of locals in January. The only time I can see where locals may be a problem is during Food and Wine weekends at Epcot. I could see where a partial blackout for resident tickets on the weekends for the festival could be appropriate.

If you travel much around the country, you will find that most tourist areas offer discounts to the locals. As another poster mentioned, these places can't afford to alienate the locals because when things turn ugly (from the economy to war, whatever it might be) those locals will mean the difference between staying in business and closing the doors.

 

[Slapshot1188]

The new ticket prices are about increasing revenue, not reducing crowds.

 

[Disneylover99]

Why not give Florida residents a great discount? Everyone loves a good deal.

I would imagine lots of Floridians purchase AP's with every intention of getting to the parks as often as possible. But reality, life and lack of time sets in and I bet most people don't use their passes to their advantage. Disney counts on this. Offer a good deal to the people living closest to them and watch as they put off their visit to next weekend every week. Disney's making money with this, not filling up their parks.

 

[lustergirl]

another thread

 

[eliza61]

When you say Disney uses Florida's land. Does that mean Disney doesn't own the land the parks are on? Just curious, I was under the impression Disney owned all the land they have their parks on. Does Disney pay their fair share of taxes to Florida? I would imagine all the taxes that Disney brings into Florida really helps the Florida residents, not vice versa.

It's a symbiotic relationship. a lot of times company's actually get huge tax breaks for doing business in a state. So I'm willing to bet Disney doesn't have a huge tax burden.

One shining example of how pissing your return visitors off can bite you in the you know where is the Casino industry in AC. Which is for all purposes dead as a door knob. Now a number of folks say it was because local casinos popped up but it really started with the casinos cutting little perks and customer service issues. AC used to have tons and tons of daily bus trips, especially with it's seniors, who people laugh at but seniors have disposable cash to spend.
raised the bus prices, cut the free drinks, cut the staff. then when the local casinos started popping up, people started asking "why go to AC"?

Now I absolutely know it's not the exact same industry but losing your tried and true business can cost you

 

[lovethattink]

Why not give Florida residents a great discount? Everyone loves a good deal.

I would imagine lots of Floridians purchase AP's with every intention of getting to the parks as often as possible. But reality, life and lack of time sets in and I bet most people don't use their passes to their advantage. Disney counts on this. Offer a good deal to the people living closest to them and watch as they put off their visit to next weekend every week. Disney's making money with this, not filling up their parks.

Typically we go to Disney once a week to one of the parks. We use to stay on site for each weekend of SWW. Go to the SWW merchandise event. Eat on property. But in the past year food at WDW has gone up so much that we've become the type of AP that Disney doesn't like. We eat before or after going. Decreased the number of nights we stay. 3 nights in Jan 2016 ($124/night at CBR) and 2 coming up in April for much more.

We also have AP to Busch Gardens and Sea World. We have the monthly payments and our bill hasn't gone up since we began in the early 2000's. $19 total/month for 4 of us combined for both parks. Last time at Sea World was October and last time at Busch Gardens was when Cheetah Run opened.

We also have AP for Universal parks. Same scenario. The pass prices haven't increased since we bought them years ago. Monthly payments still the same. However, we haven't been there in a year or two, so they are making money off us.

 

[thegajone]

It's not just Disney though, most of the parks offer FL resident discounts. If Disney didn't do it they would lose all that revenue to the other parks.

To me this reason makes the most sense, and in fact is the only reason I've read in this thread that I can't really find any flaws in.

 

[kbelle8995]

If not for the Floridian discount, I would not go to Disney. And it's not just Disney that offers it. And one day Disney might need those Florida Residents again. And some of my fellow citizens already have a sour taste in their mouth about Disney do you really want to increase that?

And for those who state that FL. Res do not spend money. I live far enough away that I need a hotel to go to Orlando. I also purchase food and merchandise in the parks.

 

[a742246]

The Mouse loves Floridians, and that's why the discounts!

 

[ArwenMarie]

They own the land and have been getting taxs cuts yearly. They use out emergency services (fire/er). They indirectly stress our environment - Florida has a delicate water table. They make backdoor politics deals, most notably destroying downtown Orlando with Pleasure Island.
A ticket discount is a small price for them to pay.

Yes to this. Florida resident discounts are a small price to pay for the goodwill they receive from those discounts.

The new ticket prices are about increasing revenue, not reducing crowds.

I also agree with this. I don't believe the new ticket prices are about reducing crowds, it's just a money grab because they can.

 

[Mikie]

I'd imagine the discount is to be a good corporate neighbor coupled with a monetary benefit (suggestions above like bringing family, coming in slower times, additional spending from food and incidentals - although I suspect the per person on that may be lower than other guests).

I don't know that it's all that common to have local discounts at other venues around the country. I'm hardly a scientific sample, but I live in the St Louis area, which is not a tourist destination, and our Six Flags has no local discount. You can get season passes for a value, but anyone could get those, not just locals. Most other venues around town have no local discount, presumably because the majority of visitors ARE local, so there's no benefit to discounting most tickets you sell. We often visit family in Chicago and it's similar there - no locals discounts usually - except sometimes free resident days once a month or so. I'd calculate that those days are again about keeping up a good corporate name, getting locals in the door so they tell friends and family about it and attract more visitors.

 

[DSLRuser]

they fill unused rooms, and spend money in the parks.