AACK!! UT WDW pre-10/16 tix GONE!

[prink022]

I expect ticket sales in general to go sharply down with this change. Even if they make it more obvious that the flexible option is still available, a lot of people will be put off. Of course Disney won't feel it until people have used up the tickets that they bought before the change, but hopefully someone at Disney will notice if there's a big decline of ticket sales. Of course in the end, that might be what Disney wants if they feel they're overcrowded

I will also respectfully disagree. Disney is a dream destination for many people, they will make it happen regardless.

 

[Robo]

Yup.

 

[Dezign]

Not seen BATB in DHS? Heck, I don't even know what BATB is! With all the acronyms. I can't even. Poor newbies. Anyone coming to DIS for a tutorial better have a translator as well. ha ha

Okay, yeah, I worked out that it is Beauty and the Beast--but honestly--I've never seen it, either--because we're not much interested. So there's that.

I'm going to come down on the side of saying that the price of the tickets won't keep all that many people away. It isn't going to keep us from *EVER* going, BUT we won't go every year any longer. (Take THAT, Disney! But I bet they don't even miss us.) For us, it has become an every other year thing, or even every two/three years. SEE: PP's numbers re: inflation/wages/Disney price increases for reference.

I grew up going to Disneyland. I miss the laid back touring that was Disneyland. WDW is a whole other animal. ADRs and FP+ and transportation headaches....planning a WDW visit is hard work. FWIW, Disney has always been pretty pricey, when adjusted for inflation. It was no easy feat for my parents to take we 4 kids--my parents saved all year and we went once per year. It costs 100 dollars (!!!) for a family of six to spend the day at Disneyland. Tickets, food, souvenirs. 100 bucks now about won't even get you out of the airport. Parking, Starbuck's, tipping and chewing gum and boom! !00 bucks gone.

 

[MomOTwins]

MOST people don't even know that FastPasses even exist.

This is so true. I went to WDW over Christmas last year, and found out from a coworker afterwards that she happened to be in MK on one of the same days. She was complaining they could hardly ride anything because the lines were all 2 hours. I agreed it was nuts, but we were at least able to get in a few rides with our three fastpasses before we gave up on MK and park hopped. She then said "we saw those fastpass queues, but we didn't have any fancy fastpass tickets, just the regular cheap tickets." I felt soooo bad for her because it was too late for her, but I felt so terrible for her that she missed out by thinking it was something she had to pay for.

Yes. I am not an expert in disney at all but I did some research before our trip last year and hung out here enough to realize there is so much more to know.
But the majority of people I know say ‘I’m thinking of going to Disney next month’ and think they can still dine with characters.
I tell everyone to come here for a little tutorial.

This cracks me up just a little, because almost all of my trips are planned one month or less out and I have zero trouble getting character meals for our family of every day of our trip. In fact, the BEST time to book character meals is last-minute. Open your app and check for reservations for dinner tomorrow--there are reservations for parties or two, four, or five people between 5 and 7pm at 1900 Park Fare, Chef Mickeys, Cinderella's Royal Table, Garden Grill, Hollywood & Vine, Crystal Palace, Be Our Guest, and Tusker House.

 

[epcotty]

You are completely right. Most people do not “Know” Disney like many of us do.

I am amazed at the ignorance of some people. Not putting anyone down, just saying they are not informed. You all probably have a similar string of things you have heard or encountered over the years. Mine includes:

A sister-in-law (again, knowing how often my wife and I go), planning a whole trip to go over Christmas break, without talking to us. As she mentioned, everyone goes to relatives at Christmas time, so the parks will be empty. Plus it is Florida, so the weather will be perfect!

Another person telling me how you can buy all the fastpasses at Disney, so you can do all the parks in just a couple of days.

One friend (after spending two days with us at WDW), calling us on the phone at noon the next day as we were driving back home. She was telling us they need our help because they have been at the parks for three hours on their own, and only gone on two rides.

Don’t get me wrong, we are Disney veterans, and have scheduled a trip on Monday night to head down on Thursday night. However, we have also done everything 100 times over, and I know if we do not ride Sorrin’ that weekend because there is a 2 hour wait, it is ok. We will be back another day.

Having said all of that, I keep saying, we only have so much money to budget to our entertainment choices. We know enough tricks that to us, we still call Disney a good value. Then again, our current annual passes were bought in 2017 thru a special sale with DVC. They cost us about half of what they cost the general public now. We shall see what happens beyond the summer of 2019. If enough people ae turned off by the ever increasing cost, perhaps DVC will have another special discount for AP.

If not, well there are plenty of other places that are clamoring for our entertainment dollars. For the last four years, my gross income has gone up 1.60%, 2.36%, 1.54% and 2.77%. That is not too far off from the inflation rate of 0.7%, 2.1%, 2.1% and 1.9% for the same four years.

As a comparison, Premium Annual Pass prices have gone up 3.32%, 6.42%, 4.83% and 9.21%, based on the price in June of each year. There was another increase this month (the second for 2018), adding an additional 4.74%.

If you could not already tell, I am a numbers guy. Clearly the growing cost of Disney is outpacing both the general inflation rate as well as the growth of my income. That is not a good thing…

Yeah, disneyflation is definitely a thing, and gets worse all the time. I know it never used to be anything like as much as it's been in recent years

 

[MinnieMSue]

It is incredible to me that people don’t know about fastpasses. You get a booklet in the mail when booking a trip that tells about them. How the heck to they not see that? I guess many people are not detail oriented

 

[isabellea]

I have never seen BATB in DHS just because I don't want to. I saw the real thing on Broadway. Just because someone hasn't been to a specific attraction doesn't mean much of anything really.

I agree. We go to WDW yearly and I still haven't seen BATB, Fantasmic! (saw the Disneyland version), visited Tow Sawyer island or rode People Mover. Not because I didn't know they existed but they never seem to fit in our schedule or what we want to do while there.

 

[MomOTwins]

It is incredible to me that people don’t know about fastpasses. You get a booklet in the mail when booking a trip that tells about them. How the heck to they not see that? I guess many people are not detail oriented

Lots of people just show up and buy tickets at the gate like you would at six flags. There was a cringe-worthy article by a New York times travel writer who showed up at AK with no ticket planning to ride FOP, got tired of waiting in the ticket line and gave up and left. Just as well—if she couldn’t handle the wait at the ticket line she was in for a nasty surprise when she got to the line for FOP!

 

[wendow]

Anyone ever find a reseller still selling the old tickets? I went to UCT's site today also thinking they would still have them but they are gone.

 

[lanejudy]

Anyone ever find a reseller still selling the old tickets? I went to UCT's site today also thinking they would still have them but they are gone.

I don't think they are available for sale anymore. The information I read indicated the resellers would be allowed to sell old tickets until 10/29. I understood that to mean they must sell the new date-specific tickets now.

 

[shannon104]

Anyone ever find a reseller still selling the old tickets? I went to UCT's site today also thinking they would still have them but they are gone.

Depending on when you're going it might actually be a little cheaper. I bought 2 adult & 2 kid 5day park hoppers a few weeks ago from UCT for a February trip and when I looked today it would have been $12 cheaper if I had waited.

 

[mom2rtk]

Depending on when you're going it might actually be a little cheaper. I bought 2 adult & 2 kid 5day park hoppers a few weeks ago from UCT for a February trip and when I looked today it would have been $12 cheaper if I had waited.

Except if you bought them now you'd have to pay more if you want the same date flexibility.

 

[Hootch]

We bought our tickets from UT shortly after the change was announced. We usually skip one day for water parks. The UT tickets were selling cheap. We included WDW tickets for the day when we are heading to Universal in case someone wanted to hit a park early.

I suspect that they thought people would even even think about available cheap tickets.

 

[Tomh]

I agree. We go to WDW yearly and I still haven't seen BATB, Fantasmic! (saw the Disneyland version), visited Tow Sawyer island or rode People Mover. Not because I didn't know they existed but they never seem to fit in our schedule or what we want to do while there.

We saw BATB One time. It was the most miserably hot, insufferable experience I've ever had in Disney World, and on top of that, I found the show to be kind of lackluster. I *might* see it again one day, IF they ever enclose the theater, and air condition it. I will never suffer through that monstrosity again in the heat, no way, no how.

 

[wendow]

I don't think they are available for sale anymore. The information I read indicated the resellers would be allowed to sell old tickets until 10/29. I understood that to mean they must sell the new date-specific tickets now.

That is what I thought too but I couldn't find any on 10/29 either. Maybe they just sold out early...?

 

[wendow]

Depending on when you're going it might actually be a little cheaper. I bought 2 adult & 2 kid 5day park hoppers a few weeks ago from UCT for a February trip and when I looked today it would have been $12 cheaper if I had waited.

It's not cheaper for us but it seems we have no choice but to conform to the new way...!