Up-charge extra hours experiment starts tonight at Magic Kingdom

Disney Early After MyMagic Hours +Plus

I say take a slow day like Monday, and close the park to regular guests and offer a limited number of entries (10,000?) for a higher prices. You would need to factor in the cost of lost merchandise saled of course. Hmmm...that could get really expensive now that I think about it...

So they added DVC members to the event tonight, for free. Might be a bit miffed if I was a paying guest that found that out.

EDIT: Should add that this was by invite emails, and not all DVC members staying on points seemed to get them. Still...

From what I've heard so far guests aren't buying into these paid upcharge events. They're too expensive for what you get during this season.

janfrederick said:

I say take a slow day like Monday, and close the park to regular guests and offer a limited number of entries (10,000?) for a higher prices.

It's impossible to maintain revenue and profits with this model. The price point would be somewhere around $1,000 per head.

You're not going to find 10,000 people in a slow period who are willing to spend that kind of money. Many of these people are visiting during this time because it is slow and there should be no need to pay a large sum for an uncrowded experience.

If you want to close the park one-day during Christmas break you might be able to find more people who are willing to pay a huge sum, but again during that period the price point may be closer to $2,000.

Many nights of the Christmas and Halloween parties are evenings when you can pay a separate price and really get to enjoy all that Magic Kingdom has to offer with limited or no waits.

Disney is gouging their customers who are like lambs to the slaughter. They will pay and be bleed out of their cash for whatever value they think that they are getting. The reason why amusement parks can gouge their customers is that they can as long as the customers allow it.

Screamlord said:

Disney is gouging their customers who are like lambs to the slaughter.

Nope. Disney is charging prices that Disney's customers are clearly willing to pay. A Disney vacation isn't food or shelter -- no one has ever died from not having a Disney vacation.

They will pay and be bleed out of their cash for whatever value they think that they are getting.

Damned for-profit companies making profits!

The reason why amusement parks can gouge their customers is that they can as long as the customers allow it.

Customers don't "allow" it -- customers willingly choose to pay the price asked.

I've seen a few reports that the crowd was light. Cast members seemed to outnumber guests and there was no wait on any attraction. Whether that's because the event was truly exclusive or because no one was interested in the upcharge, I guess we'll see.

This article has a chart of wait times throughout the day:

http://www.easywdw.com/easy/blog/wait-times-during-first-disney-aft...c-kingdom/

While the price point is undeniably high, one might find some value in it if they only had one evening to spend at Walt Disney World. Instead of buying a $115 1-day ticket, you could purchase the $149 event-ticket and probably experience more attractions in a shorter period of time.

We did the Christmas Party one year for this reason. We flew into Orlando the day before our cruise set sail, and only spent that one night at Disney. We did the entire park, including a parade and a show, and also made several stops for the "free" (included in admission) cookies and hot chocolate, for less than the cost of a one day ticket. One of the best days I've had in the Magic Kingdom.

If they offer this going forward, I see this as the more likely use case as opposed to being an add-on for people already spending 6+ nights on property.

Oh no! Now Disney is pricing the middle class out of Mickey's holiday parties!

Attempting to disperse the crowds more evenly is a good idea.

I'm pretty sure there's nothing new about tiered pricing for the holiday events. We went to the Halloween event at MK during our trip in early October and I know prices varied between days and that it was more expensive during the week of Halloween.

They're going to jump the shark when they start offering the 3am-7am time block "special access visits" so you can pay to watch the employees clean and maintain the park and attractions.

They already offer Utilidor tours, which are kind of the same thing. And Cedar Point's Sunrise Thrills tour will likely have guests see cleaning and maintenance going on.