Should Disney Park Tickets Be Cheaper on Days With Early Special Event Closure?

[JJZMgailey]

When arranging my park reservations for my trip this April, I started to think about the warning notice that appears on the same dates as the party, cautioning that the park will close at 8 pm for a special ticketed event. Of course, I’ve seen this countless times before, but this time, it sparked a new train of thought: Is that really fair? Of course, paying an additional fee to attend the event is understandable, but if my park day is being cut short because of it, should I be paying the same cost as a regular day-pass ticket?

While planning her next Disneyland trip, Zoë shares her thoughts on theme park ticket pricing for days where a special event is being held as opposed to days where there isn't one. Read the rest of the article HERE and share your thoughts on how you feel about this interesting practice.

 

[lovethattink]

At MK at WDW, the day of event has much lower attendance and you can accomplish so much more in a shorter time. Making it more bang for your buck.

 

[FreeTime]

No. A business can price themselves however they see fit.

Also, think about the number of hours you are getting and even though they close early, it is still less per hour than if you were paying for the after hours event.

 

[SaintsManiac-vol.2]

Should they? Probably. But since it deters crowds you can get a lot done without even needing G+.

 

[bobbiwoz]

I don’t think that’s necessary. People spent different amounts of time in any park on any given day. Should the price depend on how much time you spend in the park? You know what’s available and decide if you want to go. Maybe the park will be less crowded on the shorter day.

 

[elvispursley]

No--you're given notice that the park is closing early. If you feel it's "unfair", go to another park on that day. And as mentioned above, park attendance is generally lower as people tend to visit other parks. And 8pm is not significantly earlier than when parks close at 9pm (or even earlier).

 

[scrappinginontario]

I hope they don’t change the price as party days are a bonus day for many - us included. We can get so much done in the MK on a party day, with shorter hours and shorter lines!! We’re happy to pay full price for a better experience.

 

[Marthasor]

Definitely not. They give ample warning. If a guest feels the park hours are too short, then plan to go to a different park that day.

 

[Genie+]

Fair? Bring back attraction ticket books! Do more, pay more. Do less, pay less.

Maybe they should just let us buy credits. You can buy 100-500 credits for each date. $100 - 100 credits, $160 - 200c, $200 - 300c, $275 - 500c. APs give base amount of credits daily and you can buy more at a different rate schedule.

Then you go about your day using credits for every experience. Ride, show, character meet, parade/firework view, etc.

 

[RoyandWalt]

I agree with some of the above posts. Every year for our early December trip, we plan our 1st day at MK to be on a party day because of the smaller crowd. Last December was especially nice, we were able to do all the attractions we wanted. That and with help from DAS, Genie+ was not needed.

 

[Genie+]

Let us strap an EZ Pass transponder on our heads and let it rip! You’re in the 35 credit preferred view zone for Festival of Fantasy Parade - cha ching! You just watched Frozen Singalong for 20 credits - cha ching! Oh and when it comes to ride lines, the shorter the line the more we pay. People will start waiting for SDD to exceed 50 minutes so they can get the discounted credits price. Don’t laugh - I’m sure the idea has been explored. They just rather us think the potential of our tickets is greater than typical ability.

 

[OKW Lover]

Lets also consider the converse - should Disney charge more on days the parks are open late?

 

[mickeyluv'r]

Yes, but they already do this to some degree.
And it isn't just ticket prices that fluctuate, but also hotel rates.

One thing WDW now does that they didn't used to do nearly as much is to change park hours just a few weeks out. It is somewhat annoying to have to book something like an Easter week visit when short park hours are posted.
These are the current Easter day park hours:

MK-9am-9pm
Epcot 9am-9pm
HS 9am-9pm
AK - 9am- 6pm

Todays park hours are:
MK8am - 11pm
Epcot 9am-9pm
HS - 8:30am - 9pm
AK 8am-8pm

Parties/after hour events are only part of knowing the week's park hours.

Onsite vacation packages are due 30 days ahead of arrival. Often the trip is paid in full before final hours are posted. And we don't know the price of G+/ILL's until the day we go to buy them. Too late to change plans.

 

[DebbieB]

I think on days they close really early, like 4:00, they should give free park hopper for that day.

 

[Bound4DisneyWorld]

I like the idea of paying for fewer crowds and shorter lines as much as the next guy, but these events really stick in my craw.

They started with the Halloween and Christmas parties as a way to draw crowds when they needed them. I get that. Offer extra, charge for it and make money where otherwise wouldn’t. But then it started becoming a cash grab. Celebrating Halloween in August? And 3-4 times per week? As they added more events, and started them early, they also started taking entitlements away and jacking up the prices.

I encourage people to read this. It’s by Al Lutz from 2019 about everything that was cut from Star Wars. There’s one passage that sticks out to me.

Disneyland’s aggressive ticket pricing is controlled by the Senior Vice President of Commercial Strategy for the Disneyland Resort. That SVP role was brought to Anaheim in early 2017 by Bob Chapek and Michael Colglazier specifically to try to monetize as much of the park experience as possible and carve out every penny of profit imaginable. Based on the belief that crowds would be record-breaking for Star Wars, the Peak ticket price soared to $149 for 2019.

See a familiar name in there? Bob Chapek created an executive position for someone to figure out how to squeeze every penny out of Guests. There is lots more information in this article that shows a corporate culture of money-centric decisions and not Guest-centric decisions.

Between the shrinkflation that has been happening at Disneys Parks & Resorts (e.g., housekeeping every other day at value and moderate resorts, dining plans that include neither a dessert nor the extra snack that was added when dessert was taken away, no more Magical Express, Genie+ instead of Fastpass, etc.), and a history of moves that feel like money grabs, raising admission prices while charging extra for longer hours at After Hours events continues to make it feel like Disney no longer cares about Guests.

Do I think Disney should have lower base rates on date-based tickets for days with After Hours events? For the reasons I talked about I'll go against the majority and say that yes, I absolutely think they should.

 

[HopperFan]

While planning her next Disneyland trip, Zoë shares her thoughts on theme park ticket pricing for days where a special event is being held as opposed to days where there isn't one. Read the rest of the article HERE and share your thoughts on how you feel about this interesting practice.

RESOUNDING NO!

There are no set open/close times, never has been. Each day you are paying for the hours that day, whatever they are. If you don't like the hours, don't go to that park, there are other parks to go to - or buy a hopper pass and just hop.

Tickets are expensive but so is a NFL game, a Broadway Show, a Concert .... we all have decide which entertainment gives us value for the price and is in our budget. I think compared to those I mentioned Disney tickets are quite the bargain.

Disney is optional in life and if you don't like the price of tickets ~ find another place to go. If you only want to complain about every aspect of the Disney business, time to find another place to visit.

 

[rdaky]

What a slippery slope of a bad idea. Sometimes the park closes at 9, sometimes it's midnight. Are we going to expect discounts when the parade only goes out once per day instead of twice? Or when Tinkerbell doesn't fly during the fireworks? Or maybe we should all get discounts because Tiana's Bayou hasn't opened up yet, so that's one less ride available.

 

[HopperFan]

What a slippery slope of a bad idea. Sometimes the park closes at 9, sometimes it's midnight. Are we going to expect discounts when the parade only goes out once per day instead of twice? Or when Tinkerbell doesn't fly during the fireworks? Or maybe we should all get discounts because Tiana's Bayou hasn't opened up yet, so that's one less ride available.

What about the folks in wheelchairs that can only do a few rides? Or Grandma that does no rides? All those kids that can't ride because their not tall enough, not their fault they get less rides. Or those who can't handle fireworks, do they get a rebate because they have to leave the parks early? I struggle to get there at opening because my DS who is disabled struggles to get out that early, can I get a rebate? What if you don't get a Virtual Queue time ~ rebate right? I mean you didn't get your full value?

As I said before, if you feel ripped off ~ go somewhere else.

 

[Yarbogash]

I like the idea of paying for fewer crowds and shorter lines as much as the next guy, but these events really stick in my craw.

They started with the Halloween and Christmas parties as a way to draw crowds when they needed them. I get that. Offer extra, charge for it and make money where otherwise wouldn’t. But then it started becoming a cash grab. Celebrating Halloween in August? And 3-4 times per week? As they added more events, and started them early, they also started taking entitlements away and jacking up the prices.

I encourage people to read this. It’s by Al Lutz from 2019 about everything that was cut from Star Wars. There’s one passage that sticks out to me.



See a familiar name in there? Bob Chapek created an executive position for someone to figure out how to squeeze every penny out of Guests. There is lots more information in this article that shows a corporate culture of money-centric decisions and not Guest-centric decisions.

Between the shrinkflation that has been happening at Disneys Parks & Resorts (e.g., housekeeping every other day at value and moderate resorts, dining plans that include neither a dessert nor the extra snack that was added when dessert was taken away, no more Magical Express, Genie+ instead of Fastpass, etc.), and a history of moves that feel like money grabs, raising admission prices while charging extra for longer hours at After Hours events continues to make it feel like Disney no longer cares about Guests.

Do I think Disney should have lower base rates on date-based tickets for days with After Hours events? For the reasons I talked about I'll go against the majority and say that yes, I absolutely think they should.

Spot on. Very good post.

Too often Disney fans are their own worst enemy. This thread highlights that quite well.

 

[PaladinButters]

Sure, why not? Take the underused park and bring in the people willing to come in for a partial day. Didn't they already used to have resident tickets that were cheaper but only good in the evenings or something?