New ticket system coming to WDW - Begins October 16th

[rteetz]

This. Mechanically speaking, there's nothing all that original or special about most of the rides at Disney (yes there are some exceptions). So, as far as rides, you can get that experience anywhere else for a fraction of the price. And Disney certainly isn't the only theme park that offers characters, shows, parades, and/or themeing (though I would argue they're probably the best at it). What they have the market on is... Disney. It's *the* theme park for all of those who have grown up/are growing up, watching Disney movies. It's the nostalgic/emotional connection that makes Disney what it is.

Yes and no. Some Disney attractions are technological marvels. Some are not. Theming is a huge aspect in today’s theme park world. The character connections certainly have a big piece as well.

 

[amberpi]

You mean no longer sell a PH ticket? I can't imagine how that would benefit them. It will only serve to hurt them. It would completely counter what they "claim" they are trying to do, spread guests out.
Why do you think this is even something they would consider?

I sincerely hope they never discontinue ph tickets. But they like to know where people are going to be; ie, which park. Ph gives you the ability to flex much more.

Wdw is getting fewer and fewer of my dollars despite small kids.

 

[Doug M]

I sincerely hope they never discontinue ph tickets. But they like to know where people are going to be; ie, which park. Ph gives you the ability to flex much more.

Poor EPCOT and their restaurants if this ever happens. We went to EPCOT specifically to dine 2 times on our anniversary trip in 2015 using PH. Had we not been able to do that, 1 day at EPCOT maybe since Sorin and TT are not really huge draws for us (we were there for XMAS stuff for 1 full day).

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I sincerely hope they never discontinue ph tickets. But they like to know where people are going to be; ie, which park. Ph gives you the ability to flex much more.

Wdw is getting fewer and fewer of my dollars despite small kids.

Park hopping is about the only extra add on that I'm willing to pay for (guess we'll see if the Flexible Date Option becomes like that in the future for us). I'm not sure if they will get rid of it either at least anytime soon especially when it can boost guest spending. At least in a small way they know a bit where you are if for instance you made your FPs for DHS but an ADR for Epcot.

 

[amberpi]

Park hopping is about the only extra add on that I'm willing to pay for (guess we'll see if the Flexible Date Option becomes like that in the future for us). I'm not sure if they will get rid of it either at least anytime soon especially when it can boost guest spending. At least in a small way they know a bit where you are if for instance you made your FPs for DHS but an ADR for Epcot.

Phing forever.

I wish they would fix their flipping hotels though. All I want is park hoppers and a good hotel. Is that too much?

 

[OrangeCountyCommuter]

Phing forever.

I wish they would fix their flipping hotels though. All I want is park hoppers and a good hotel. Is that too much?

Yes.

 

[amberpi]

Yes.

That's why I'm offsite. With Uber carseats I'm gtg.

 

[Roxyfire]

Yes, which I acknowledge, if A THEME park is your destination. Matter of fact, I venture to guess, if it's a theme park you want, it's probably thrill rides too. Disney wouldn't be high on a list of someone that is after thrill rides.
Y'all must not know the types of families with kids that go to DGD's school. These families plan trips to DISNEY. I know, I am asked for advice every time I go to the school.
Not trips to any theme park. Disney is their destination and they use part of their vacation time and budget to go there. These kids are going to meet/see Mickey/Minnie, princesses. And maybe get in a ride or two. If rides alone are what they want, at a theme park, we have one of those 5 min away.
And these are the families that will go, no matter what price Disney puts on their tickets/resorts, etc. They don't even follow the prices enough to know they've changed as much as they have. They don't care, they are going to Disney. I guess that just isn't making sense though, no one is getting it. It's ok though

If it's any consolation I know exactly what you mean. The first year I had the money and time to go on vacations again I wanted to go to Disney and Universal and built everything around that first. It wasn't a matter of I have N dollars where do we want to go? It was location first. Yes the prices were high and I knew that going into it. And now I guess we still do things from that mentality regardless of where we go. "Oh we're going to Memphis, how much is that going to cost?" and so on. If someone wants to go to a Disney park then in the US they have 2 choices. Being a midwesterner and a brief resident of the south, I will pick Florida every time. So as you stated that gives me the one choice. If I want to do other things and fight with traffic all at once then I might go to CA. But probably not for a while.

 

[epcotty]

Opened the browser in incognito and got my answer. Wow, as I thought/suspected they might do, they even ruined the FL resident 3 and 4 day tickets with this. Good thing we got ours before this. How can FL residents decide specific dates for their 3 or 4 day ticket (6 month range) when buying it? So ridiculous. This is probably a much more significant change than most of us on the boards realize. Most people on this site will go no matter what but that does not necessarily speak to the population in general by any means. With this I predict they'll lose a whole lot of return guests who will throw up their hands at all this. If not for the exorbitant cost, for the unnecessary confusion, and definitely for principle of the thing. Even the FL residents are treated like dirt by this, with the annual pass being the only viable option anymore. Disney needs the return guests a lot more than they ever realize, and they're seriously risking losing a huge percentage of them now. While this might work in the short term, when the one time guests don't return, without their former return guests (probably a lot larger percentage than the one timers) the parks will be much less crowded. Maybe this is what they want. Maybe they're feeling they're overcrowded so they go the unnecessarily high priced route and gouge whoever goes to make up for the guests they lose. Their mascot should be Scrooge Mcduck at this point. No longer is it a company that puts on a nice face, now they're just obviously extremely greedy and needlessly money grubbing, and a lot of people will be repulsed by this.

 

[ArwenMarie]

Opened the browser in incognito and got my answer. Wow, as I suspected, they even ruined the FL resident 3 and 4 day tickets with this. Good thing we got ours before this. How can FL residents decide specific dates for their 3 or 4 day ticket (6 month range) when buying it? So ridiculous. This is probably a much more significant change than most of us on the boards realize. Most people on this site will go no matter what but that does not necessarily speak to the population in general by any means. With this I predict they'll lose a whole lot of return guests who will throw up their hands at all this. If not for the exorbitant cost, for the unnecessary confusion, and definitely for principle of the thing. Even the FL residents are treated like dirt by this, with the annual pass being the only viable option anymore. Disney needs the return guests a lot more than they ever realize, and they're seriously risking losing a huge percentage of them now. While this might work in the short term, when the one time guests don't return, without their former return guests (probably a lot larger percentage than the one timers) the parks will be much less crowded. Maybe this is what they want. Maybe they're feeling they're overcrowded so they go the unnecessarily high priced route and gouge whoever goes to make up for the guests they lose. No longer is it a company that puts on a nice face, now they're just obviously extremely greedy and needlessly money grubbing, and a lot of people will be repulsed by this.

I agree with you, I loathe the picking of dates

But why is this worse for FL Residents versus anyone else?

 

[epcotty]

I agree with you, I loathe the picking of dates

But why is this worse for FL Residents versus anyone else?

With FL residents, dates are much more flexible than out of staters. And like I said, the tickets are a 6 month range so it's really impossible to pick 3 or 4 specific days in that range for a FL resident.
Before, we had the freedom of changing our mind due to weather or any other reason. Even fastpasses could be changed around. With this, we have no way of knowing anything that might make us change our dates and are forced and locked into the dates we pick when buying it. FL residents especially will balk at this change due to it being extremely limiting whereas before it wasn't. Some will go to an annual pass instead, others will give up. In any case, I definitely think the sales of the FL resident 3 and 4 day tickets will go way down

 

[ArwenMarie]

With FL residents, dates are much more flexible than out of staters. And like I said, the tickets are a 6 month range so it's really impossible to pick 3 or 4 specific days in that range for a FL resident.
Before, we had the freedom of changing our mind due to weather or any other reason. Even fastpasses could be changed around. With this, we have no way of knowing anything that might make us change our dates and are forced and locked into the dates we pick when buying it. FL residents especially will balk at this change due to it being extremely limiting whereas before it wasn't. Some will go to an annual pass instead, others will give up. In any case, I definitely think the sales of the FL resident 3 and 4 day tickets will go way down

I hear you. I think a common theme for most everyone is the increasing lack of flexibility. For tourists, for example, a bad weather day or a sick day is a mess now if you have that coveted FoP FP, for example. This new date system and tightened limits on usage adds another layer of aggravation for sure

 

[mshanson3121]

Yes and no. Some Disney attractions are technological marvels.

Hence why I said there are exceptions

 

[StacyStrong]

With FL residents, dates are much more flexible than out of staters. And like I said, the tickets are a 6 month range so it's really impossible to pick 3 or 4 specific days in that range for a FL resident.
Before, we had the freedom of changing our mind due to weather or any other reason. Even fastpasses could be changed around. With this, we have no way of knowing anything that might make us change our dates and are forced and locked into the dates we pick when buying it. FL residents especially will balk at this change due to it being extremely limiting whereas before it wasn't. Some will go to an annual pass instead, others will give up. In any case, I definitely think the sales of the FL resident 3 and 4 day tickets will go way down

If you're buying 3-4 days, you still need to travel to the park or take time off unless you live really really close. I'm not a Florida resident, but I really just don't understand how that's a different from a non-FL resident.

 

[epcotty]

Update: found out the 6 month range on the fl resident tickets is GONE. Fl resident tickets expire like other ones now. So it's far worse than what I thought. In many ways that's even more restrictive to residents, who are used to the 6 month range and forces them to do all their days really close together. It was bad enough with losing no expiration, but now this too?

 

[epcotty]

If you're buying 3-4 days, you still need to travel to the park or take time off unless you live really really close. I'm not a Florida resident, but I really just don't understand how that's a different from a non-FL resident.

If you live within 2 or 2.5 hours as many in FL do, you can do day trips there so it wreaks havoc with all that

 

[StacyStrong]

I didn't realize FL resident tickets were that flexible before!

 

[epcotty]

I didn't realize FL resident tickets were that flexible before!

Yeah, but we lost the no expiration option a few years before they removed it from the regular tickets

 

[DVC4US]

Update: found out the 6 month range on the fl resident tickets is GONE. Fl resident tickets expire like other ones now. So it's far worse than what I thought. In many ways that's even more restrictive to residents, who are used to the 6 month range and forces them to do all their days really close together. It was bad enough with losing no expiration, but now this too?

I agree, I think FL residents are really going to be upset about this. I'm glad I pulled the trigger and purchased a 3-day pass for my daughter on Monday night. I saved $48 and we still have the flexibility - as least from what I have been reading. We were originally thinking about doing 4 days - 12/22, then 7 day cruise, 12/30, 12/31, 1/1 - and the 4-day pass prior to 10/16 would have worked for us but the new pass would not. I am a DVC member and long time Disney fan but they are sure making it hard with all the new ticket rules and price increases on everything to justify our trips to Disney. We already do not do any of the extra events: dessert parties, paid extra magic hours, parties, etc and we have decreased the number of table service dining reservations we make due to the cost of everything. May just end up finding alternate vacation destinations.

 

[amcc]

Update: found out the 6 month range on the fl resident tickets is GONE. Fl resident tickets expire like other ones now. So it's far worse than what I thought. In many ways that's even more restrictive to residents, who are used to the 6 month range and forces them to do all their days really close together. It was bad enough with losing no expiration, but now this too?

It’s not completely gone, now you have to purchase the flex option and it gives you 6 months from first date of use. So pay for something that used to be included. I hope they still do the special ticket prices at the beginning of the year. It was already annoying last year when they removed the option to buy the water park add-on separately from park hoppers.