Bookings for WDW packages significantly down according to Pete Werner?

[Fancealot]

To be fair (and some people on this post have said it), it is expensive BUT compare it to other destinations, in 2010 my honeymoon to the maldives was £5000, this trip we're going on is shy of £6000 it's an expense we as a couple are willing to pay, but we do BIG holidays every 3 years or so to save up inbetween, we still holiday but to a more short haul destination, we don't expect to go back to disney for at least 6 years so we can see the changes and experience everything different. Also don't forget whilst numbers are down income is up, so Disney are doing the thing people want - lowering crowds by the only thing they can do - increasing prices, yes its unfair but if you don't want 3 hour queues for rides this is what has to be done, it will probably be that the annual disney world visitor may drop to every two or three years or even more

[ely3857]

Originally Posted by Fancealot

To be fair (and some people on this post have said it), it is expensive BUT compare it to other destinations, in 2010 my honeymoon to the maldives was £5000, this trip we're going on is shy of £6000 it's an expense we as a couple are willing to pay, but we do BIG holidays every 3 years or so to save up inbetween, we still holiday but to a more short haul destination, we don't expect to go back to disney for at least 6 years so we can see the changes and experience everything different. Also don't forget whilst numbers are down income is up, so Disney are doing the thing people want - lowering crowds by the only thing they can do - increasing prices, yes its unfair but if you don't want 3 hour queues for rides this is what has to be done, it will probably be that the annual disney world visitor may drop to every two or three years or even more

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We price up alternatives and while the overall cost doesn’t come close to our WDW holidays I do find them too expensive for a non WDW trip (if that makes sense!) so yeah, I’m paying for WDW however I can see a time when I just can’t afford it (I can always justify it &#129315

[neilhd]

Originally Posted by Fancealot

To be fair (and some people on this post have said it), it is expensive BUT compare it to other destinations, in 2010 my honeymoon to the maldives was £5000, this trip we're going on is shy of £6000 it's an expense we as a couple are willing to pay, but we do BIG holidays every 3 years or so to save up inbetween, we still holiday but to a more short haul destination, we don't expect to go back to disney for at least 6 years so we can see the changes and experience everything different. Also don't forget whilst numbers are down income is up, so Disney are doing the thing people want - lowering crowds by the only thing they can do - increasing prices, yes its unfair but if you don't want 3 hour queues for rides this is what has to be done, it will probably be that the annual disney world visitor may drop to every two or three years or even more

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Fair point, I'd love it if I was the only person there!

For context though, 4 adults and 1 child next year, 5 nights at HRH and then 9 nights at AKL (free dining plan), with flights, spending etc, is looking like over £20k all in.

For a holiday, that's mad. I'm paying it though...

[Moorlandman]

Originally Posted by neilhd

Fair point, I'd love it if I was the only person there!

For context though, 4 adults and 1 child next year, 5 nights at HRH and then 9 nights at AKL (free dining plan), with flights, spending etc, is looking like over £20k all in.

For a holiday, that's mad. I'm paying it though...

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£20k😮
You can buy a house in Stoke-on-Trent for that

[Moorlandman]

Originally Posted by Fancealot

so Disney are doing the thing people want - lowering crowds by the only thing they can do - increasing prices, yes its unfair but if you don't want 3 hour queues for rides this is what has to be done

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If Disney were serious about reducing queues they could get rid of annual passes or increase them significantly in price especially the Floridian passes. Epcot in Autumn and spring is full of pass holders enjoying the special events

Also they could always add more attractions to spread the crowds out.

[Nimbus]

Well, people were complaining that WDW was getting too crowded. It's about time that the price increases started affecting visitor numbers. Otherwise, the parks would just get busier and busier.

I'm still expecting to see posts from DIBBers saying the parks are more crowded than they used to be though.

Originally Posted by Mexy02

If onsite bookings are down that doesn’t have to mean the parks will be quiet just perhaps people are looking at alternatives offsite instead. It would be interesting if villa owners posted and agreed that bookings are down . Let’s see universal prices once the new park opens.

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If the parks are continuing to get busy then clearly hard times are not coming for WDW and Disney did not get too greedy. More people are still willing to pay the current prices for tickets and passes than ever before.

Unless the OP only means the price to stay at a Disney hotel is getting expensive? If so, it should make room availability easier in the future. I know some people have complained that room availability seems to have reduced in recent years.

[disney20042012]

20K, that must be a lot of spending money ?

[ravenwing]

Originally Posted by Zigby

I obviously can’t speak for any of the other locations mentioned, but this is one of the smaller rooms in the least expensive hotel at Bognor.

holidays.butlins/virtual...amily-room.htm

Whilst the furniture may perhaps be viewed as more Ikea than Disney's furniture, I still think that this is a better layout for families, and don’t understand why Disney doesn’t offer similar room layouts as standard.

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I can't really compare the holiday we had in 2017 with anything else because that's all we've done as a family, but we did stay at Legoland for a couple of nights the previous year. We were surprised that the Legoland theming in our pirate room was much better than anything we saw when looking through Disney hotel options, but also that the layout of the Legoland room was much better with the kids bunk beds separated by the bathroom.

However, we did pay about £600 for 2 days/nights there. So 14 days would have been 4200 in 2016. I've paid 4500 for 14 days at CBR for 2020, including free QSDP and park tickets. Obviously have to add flights onto that, but just comparing those figures I know which I think is better value! And the buildings and grounds at CBR beat the Legoland hotel hands down even if inside the rooms don't quite.

For us the onsite convenience is worth paying extra for. We can pay it gradually in advance, save up for it so that when we go we don't have much extra to spend. Next year's trip wasn't supposed to happen but I decided I could save enough to do it again before the kids reach critical exam age. But it has to be a proper holiday for us grown ups too, which means no driving and no catering. I will stoop to putting a load of washing on while we enjoy the Jamaica pool

[YorkshireT]

Originally Posted by Nimbus

Well, people were complaining that WDW was getting too crowded. It's about time that the price increases started affecting visitor numbers. Otherwise, the parks would just get busier and busier.

I'm still expecting to see posts from DIBBers saying the parks are more crowded than they used to be though.



If the parks are continuing to get busy then clearly hard times are not coming for WDW and Disney did not get too greedy. More people are still willing to pay the current prices for tickets and passes than ever before.

Unless the OP only means the price to stay at a Disney hotel is getting expensive? If so, it should make room availability easier in the future. I know some people have complained that room availability seems to have reduced in recent years.

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I was referring to the report (via Pete Werner's Dis Channel on Youtube) that apparently the numbers are well down, and revenue is plummetting. He sells the packages (Dream Unlimited Travel) and says packages are well down. Not necessarily just hotel rooms, but costs of passes (he is a wealthy man and says its the first year he has not got the coast to coast pass), food, merchandise etc is just pricing people out possibly.

Disney themselves always justified the price rises in that they desired bringing down crowd numbers. But they wanted more high spenders, because they have to maintain and continue to increase revenue.

The speculation is this has backfired, with now a big sudden drop off in attendance, packages etc.

I think there must be something in what he is saying, as he is one of the biggest US Disney travel agents.

I agree- there seemed to be an unlimited amount of people willing to pay the sums being asked- and why wouldn't WDW just keep increasing the prices in these circumstances for short term gain. Also hotel occupancy was near 95% which in the trade is basically fully occupied.

The big question is, is this temporary and as you say will it pick up and be crazy again at Xmas etc anyway, or is there something deeper here. Also, how much has the price gouging put customers off for good?

[neatfrk]

Unequivocally they are pricing themselves out of reach for the normal consumer...however that seems to be their stated goal. Reduce demand via increased costs.

For me, there are two factors that have kept me and my family away...and they are quite obvious. Dramatically higher costs and dramatically lower value. You simply do not get from Disney what you once could and did at WDW. You pay more (much more) and receive far less in return. The tickets cost more, yet your odds of riding more and waiting less are nil. The dining plan is more $, yet the food is all homogenized and mediocre in quality. The firework show is reinvented, yet the best spots are reserved for those paying more. The entire experience is more expensive, yet park hours are reduced to make way for hard ticketed events. Costs more to walk in, yet parks are staffed not by people who happily greet you and share a love of the place...but by college kids who (not all..but many) just don't care. I'm sure everyone on here could easily lengthen this list of WDW gripes.

What's happening is no secret...we've all seen it coming in wave of change after another. Perhaps now they've reached the nexus between supply, demand and market price. The next year will be interesting as the US economy is likely trending down.

I think lower attendance actually bodes well for sites like The DIBB; as many of us will skip the real thing and use this community to get our 'Disney fix' vicariously though others.