Per guest spending increases 30% at Disney Parks, further cuts may come to park restaurants

[Disney Julie]

They used to charge for oxygen at Typhoon Lagoon shark reef!

[Clare]

We all have different opinions but pre dining plan and certainly free dining the food I felt had more variety, was better quality and whilst dining at Disney always afforded a premium it was better value than it is now.
I’ll still go to a couple of my old favourites but I like the restaurants at the Swan and Dolphin so will mainly go there and also make use of my 15% dining discount at the Waldorf.
This morning I really felt like changing my reservation and staying at universal but I’m not a lover of rollercoasters or water rides so am sticking with the Waldorf, I can relax more plus spend time in the spa, shopping at Disney Springs and generally take a more relaxed approach in Epcot and probably Animal Kingdom. I’m hoping tours will be up and running as I’d like to do a couple.

[Tinkerbell]

Originally Posted by Nimbus

This was brought up in relation to absorbing inflation increases. That is, the price of the raw ingredients, energy to cook/make the food, staffing costs (etc) will all be increasing and Disney are considering ways to absorb that increased cost and limit any price increases they pass on to the customer.

I still expect the food prices to increase (this is Disney after all), but it perhaps won't increase quite as much as it could have done, assuming they do reduce portion sizes (They were just discussing it at the moment, not saying they are definitely going to do it).

It's a fairly common practice in the food industry. Reduce the size of the portions, switch to cheaper ingredients, reduce the amount of costly ingredients, etc so that the price increase for the customer can be kept to a minimum.

Of course, Disney could've said that they're simply going to pass the full cost of any increases straight onto the customer and not consider any other alternatives. But I'm sure that wouldn't have gone down well with DIBBers either.

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If portions are reduced should we tip less.. asking for a friend 😂

[YorkshireT]

As to whether prices are too high, apparently it’s crazy busy. This was yesterday. Bob needs to build a new park, his increasing prices supposedly to make it less busy and increase guest experience (think that’s a ruse myself) isn’t working and a new park is required. Instead 2.5 years after they started, we are still seeing painfully slow construction on some buildings in Epcot and it’s still a building site. This is the company that once built the entire Disney World in about 18 months. Bring on the new Universal Park, that will up the competition.

[Clare]

Crikey YT so much for my thinking of a more relaxed approach!

[YorkshireT]

Originally Posted by Clare

Crikey YT so much for my thinking of a more relaxed approach!

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Dread to think what Xmas will be like, will be glad to be heading for Miami on the 24th. In 2019 myself and Mrs YT went in the park Xmas morning then didn’t go in much between Xmas and New Year, and left the kids to it and went to Tampa Riverwalk and one day we went to Anna Maria Island. And we had free unlimited Fastpass for all of us too, due to significant room issues at BLT. Even with those I thought I’d rather not bother. Kids didn’t mind it though.

[Moorlandman]

Despite the parks being rammed they are offering new deals to attract Florida residents to the parks with 25% off room rates😮

[Nimbus]

Originally Posted by Tinkerbell

If portions are reduced should we tip less.. asking for a friend 😂

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Yes, you should tip 20% instead of 22% that Disney asks for at the bottom of their bills.

[YorkshireT]

Originally Posted by Nimbus

Yes, you should tip 20% instead of 22% that Disney asks for at the bottom of their bills.

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It was 18% does it now say 22%?

[Nimbus]

Originally Posted by YorkshireT

Bob needs to build a new park,

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Building a new park will not reduce the crowds at the existing parks. It didn't when they built AK (average attendance at the other parks remained the same - overall guest numbers increased) and it didn't when they built new lands in the existing parks (new lands attract more people, increasing crowds at the parks). Adding more to WDW will only attract more people to WDW, as we've seen time and time again.

Bob is trying to reduce crowd levels by applying the old "supply and demand" pricing model. Demand is currently too high so increase prices until demand lessens and meets supply. This will reduce the number of people in the parks, increasing guest experience, whilst extracting more money per guest, which in turn increases profit.

The problem at the moment is that prices don't seem to be high enough to reduce demand. It doesn't seem to matter how much Disney increases prices, more people keep on visiting (as your photos show). Bob needs to rise the prices higher!