Park ticket prices...Am I getting something wrong!?

[Moorlandman]

Originally Posted by Bal

How do you qualify that statement? Again, they both trade in Sterling and hold assets and pay salaries in the UK. There is no import / export process with a ticket, it's a Contract sale.

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Because they report their profits in Dollars not sterling.

Same reason why Apple UK and Microsoft UK have increased prices by upto 25%.

[Bal]

Originally Posted by Moorlandman

Because they report their profits in Dollars not sterling.

Same reason why Apple UK and Microsoft UK have increased prices by upto 25%.

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Nope, they don't. Go look on Company House's website.

Again, the Stock Market report (Fundamentals), which I think you are referring to, which is reported by the parent company is in dollars. But this doesn't mean the assets have been liquidised to dollars. Disney have millions of pounds of assets in the UK, and pay wages as well. Why would you convert, for example, to dollars if you have to pay salaries in sterling? It makes absolutely no business sense what so ever.

What Disney (UK) does have is a foreign exchange policy (as confirmed by the accounts). Which circling right back to what I said at the start, is likely basically a policy to pick and choose when to make exchange.

Apple and Microsoft sell goods. They are subject to tariffs.

A ticket is a Contract Sale.

[Nimbus]

Originally Posted by Bal

How do you qualify that statement? Again, they both trade in Sterling and hold assets and pay salaries in the UK. (For Disney this is worth 10's of millions of pounds per year). There is no import / export process with a ticket, it's a Contract sale.

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Although they trade in sterling Disney Travel UK is effectively buying admission to the US theme parks and then selling on those admissions to UK customers. And the admission to the US theme parks now costs more in sterling due to poor exchange rate. Some of the money the UK side of Disney earns from the sale of the tickets is passed onto the American theme parks (to pay wages/energy costs/etc) whilst some some money is kept by the UK business.

It's the same as buying an American product from a UK company. The sterling price will have gone up because the UK company will now have to pay more to the US company for the 'product'. Similarly, if I want to book a US hotel using a UK travel company I will find that the price I have to pay now has gone up.

[Bal]

Originally Posted by Nimbus

Although they trade in sterling Disney Travel UK is effectively buying admission to the US theme parks and then selling on those admissions to UK customers. And the admission to the US theme parks now costs more in sterling due to poor exchange rate. Some of the money the UK side of Disney earns from the sale of the tickets is passed onto the American theme parks (to pay wages/energy costs/etc) whilst some some money is kept by the UK business.

It's the same as buying an American product from a UK company. The sterling price will have gone up because the UK company will now have to pay more to the US company for the 'product'. Similarly, if I want to book a US hotel using a UK travel company I will find that the price I have to pay now has gone up.

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Correct. Just about, that not exactly how a contract sale works, there not buying anything, but for arguments sake close enough.

But how do you qualify 50%?

[Guest]

Originally Posted by geoffa

The secret with the Ultimate tickets is wait for the get 14 days but pay for 7 offers.

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If a pebble has been dropped into a pond and it doesn't make a ripple, did it exist

Could just be a sign of too much turbulence for the ripple to be noticed.

I see you Geoffa.

[Guest]

Weird. I'm sure loads of my posts have been removed. Oh well.

Well this developed into something interesting. Either way.

I shall wait and see what the prices are like after march/april. I agree in that I think it's too early to have a true idea of what 2018 prices will be like as I have a suspicion they haven't actually been released yet.

End result:

Cabana Bay cancelled - Universal will have to make do without my attendance this time round.

Disney and Seaworld parks will be the ones we go with

[Oliver123]

Originally Posted by ghostmark2005

Weird. I'm sure loads of my posts have been removed. Oh well.

Well this developed into something interesting. Either way.

I shall wait and see what the prices are like after march/april. I agree in that I think it's too early to have a true idea of what 2018 prices will be like as I have a suspicion they haven't actually been released yet.

End result:

Cabana Bay cancelled - Universal will have to make do without my attendance this time round.

Disney and Seaworld parks will be the ones we go with

See more...

Disney tickets rose more than Universal this year, If you go twice within 12 months I would look at getting an AP for Universal as they can work out cheaper than buying tickets.

[Mexy02]

Originally Posted by ghostmark2005

Weird. I'm sure loads of my posts have been removed. Oh well.

Well this developed into something interesting. Either way.

I shall wait and see what the prices are like after march/april. I agree in that I think it's too early to have a true idea of what 2018 prices will be like as I have a suspicion they haven't actually been released yet.

End result:

Cabana Bay cancelled - Universal will have to make do without my attendance this time round.

Disney and Seaworld parks will be the ones we go with

See more...

It's a shame you have had to choose this way. I'm sure you will have a fab time with your new plans x

[Guest]

Originally Posted by NITR8

Universals prices are nothing to do with Brexit and more to do with them paying for Volcano Bay. As per the famous field of dreams quote, "Build it (put prices up) and they will come."

In fact the UK prices we pay for should not be affected by the fall in sterling as they have no dollar value, they are for UK guests only.

P.S Sterling is currently down 18% not 25% (1.5 to 1.25) In fact it is less than that as it was trading at 1.44 to 1.48 prior to Brexit.

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Most the cost increase (tickets, flights, hotels) is down to Brexit (well the destruction of the £) most tour operators pay suppliers in $ so the prices are going up as the pound go down, or they will go bust.

There is of course a some increase by the companies, but the majority is thanks to the devaluing of the pound.

It its the same with the increase in Apple products.

The contracts would have also been drawn up a few months ago, when the £ was lower than it is now - that is why we saw a slight sale with some ticket sellers I imagine.

Brexit will increase the base cost of holidaying in Florida.

[Nimbus]

Originally Posted by Bal

But how do you qualify 50%?

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Sorry for not answering your question sooner.

The 50% figure was a very rough estimate. Here's how I quantify/qualify it.

Take Disney's tickets for example. Disney's UK ticket prices rose by from £330 (2016) to £420 (2017), before Disney started the 25% discount. At the same time, the dollar exchange rate changed from around $1.45 to the £ to $1.25 to the £ (roughly).

£330 * 1.45 / 1.25 = £380 (approx)

Therefore, you could consider £50 (~55%) of the increase to be due to the exchange rate and £40 of the increase to be due to Disney raising their prices.

Take Universal's tickets as another example. These were £150 and now £215.

£150 * 1.45 / 1.25 = £175 (approx)

Therefore, £25 (~40%) due to exchange rate, £40 due to Universal raising it's prices.

Now admittedly it could be that both are significantly increasing their prices more than they have done in previous years just to simply make a larger profit and/or because demand is significantly higher than previous years. Personally, I think that some of the increase is because there are now less dollars heading back to the US parks because of the exchange rate. Whether it accounts for 50%, 60%, or 35% of the increase is debateable.

(Interestingly, if you look at the price increase of a US 1 day ticket to Disney from 2016 to 2017, it only went up by ~5% - which is similar to previous years. So it's not like Disney is trying to grab lots of money from the Americans).