The Interpreter Posted September 27, 2009 Share Posted September 27, 2009 ...Most worrisome for analysts is Disney's aggressive theme park discounting -- such as offering 7 nights for the price of 4 -- to combat the recession and keep up attendance volume. The fear is that Disney is pulling consumers likely to go to its theme parks next year into this year, making comparisons tougher and likely triggering a revenue decline in fiscal 2010. In a blog post Friday, Pali Research analyst Richard Greenfield said that "the combination of weak attendance trends and two separate discount offers likely implies that fiscal 2010 will get off to a very rough start." Staggs disputes Greenfield's thesis. "Our research shows no indication of a material pulling forward of visitors this year to create a hole in some future date," he said, adding that Disney will continue to watch the economy before deciding on how fast or steeply to change its promotional activities.... http://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/era_...2t8mAN1tlvOWacN Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KIfan1980 Posted September 27, 2009 Share Posted September 27, 2009 There is also another danger to this strategy - it's called consumer expectations and they are ofter very hard to change. Once you've set a precedent with pricing integrity (or lack thereof), you will often find it very hard to entice consumers without the offering the same deal. A couple of examples to illustrate the point: - At some point in time the US auto manufacturers decided to offer 0.0% financing for the first time. Once they had, it set a new benchmark and consumers began to wait for 0.0% again because 1.9% no longer seemed like the best possible deal - Grocery Stores sales of 2-liters of pop is directly related to pricing. Consumers know that it will go on sale for 99 cents or as part of a 5 for $5 type sale. This is when they stock up - they are often not willing to pay $1.39 or $1.59 or even 4 for $5 "sale" prices Not to say that Disney doesn't have some pricing power, but how many people do you know nowadays who only go to Disney when they offer the free meal plan discount. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bkroz Posted September 27, 2009 Share Posted September 27, 2009 7 days for the price of 4 is a pretty substancial discount. But I've been planning a Florida trip recently, so I beg you to keep in mind that that doesn't include park hopper pass, etc. Meanwhile, Universal is offering 7 days with park-hopper for $99.99 and, all-you-can-eat at select restaurants from noon til park closing is $19.99. That's prompted me to actually stay on-property where the hotel room are severely discounted, as front-of-the-line access is included with your room key... In other words, I'll be staying on-property at Universal for seven nights, eight days, I have the Meal Deal four of the days, plus flight and transportation for a total of about $600... That's nearly the price of the Walt Disney World Annual Pass you'd need to buy to visit those parks for 7 days! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Avatar Posted September 27, 2009 Share Posted September 27, 2009 All the Disney offers have been offered before and and truth be known they are starting to go up but in subtle ways. If your are staying at one of Disney;s moderate or deluxe resort you need to look for the 40% off deal otherwise your locked in. Kifan1980 – all I can say is that you all know at least one who goes every year for the free dinning. This is our forth year in a row and if it was not for the free dinning we would not be going this year. Trying to compare Universal tickets, Resort deals and Dinning deals to Disney's is like trying to compare apples to broccoli, really! Many of you know me and know I go down to Florida often and I will be down there by this time tomorrow. I take pride in getting the best deal possible either through the special offers by the venue, by AAA discounts or even by buying a annual pass to get a better deal. Both Disney and Universal have some good deals in some areas they are better than the other but again it is apples to broccoli in comparison. Goodyellowkorn18 I have worked the numbers and visit various paid member sites to get the best deals and if you are getting the 7 for 4 deal at a onsite Universal resort for under $600. please tell me how and where and the time of year because there are thousands of Universal fans who would like to know how you can do that. I can tell you that you can get a Disney value resort with free dinning for six days for $636.00. The Universal dinning deal does not give you a drink. I am not ripping Universal and infact we are looking forward to our on site visit this next week and our on site visit to Disney the following week. Here is the true honest assessment. When we have added up dollar for dollar for what we get at both places that include food, resort and tickets our Disney visit actually comes out a bit cheaper. I will be showing the number break down in the trip report like I did last year. The thing that I want to make sure that most families understand both places offer deals and in the end it comes out about the same and they both are in my opinion very family affordable when you look for the deals. Edit to add: A 8 day Disney magic Your Way ticket is $252.41 http://www.mousesavers.com/wdwticketprices.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coasterfun Posted September 28, 2009 Share Posted September 28, 2009 All the Disney offers have been offered before and and truth be known they are starting to go up but in subtle ways. If your are staying at one of Disney;s moderate or deluxe resort you need to look for the 40% off deal otherwise your locked in. Kifan1980 – all I can say is that you all know at least one who goes every year for the free dinning. This is our forth year in a row and if it was not for the free dinning we would not be going this year. Trying to compare Universal tickets, Resort deals and Dinning deals to Disney's is like trying to compare apples to broccoli, really! Many of you know me and know I go down to Florida often and I will be down there by this time tomorrow. I take pride in getting the best deal possible either through the special offers by the venue, by AAA discounts or even by buying a annual pass to get a better deal. Both Disney and Universal have some good deals in some areas they are better than the other but again it is apples to broccoli in comparison. Goodyellowkorn18 I have worked the numbers and visit various paid member sites to get the best deals and if you are getting the 7 for 4 deal at a onsite Universal resort for under $600. please tell me how and where and the time of year because there are thousands of Universal fans who would like to know how you can do that. I can tell you that you can get a Disney value resort with free dinning for six days for $636.00. The Universal dinning deal does not give you a drink. I am not ripping Universal and infact we are looking forward to our on site visit this next week and our on site visit to Disney the following week. Here is the true honest assessment. When we have added up dollar for dollar for what we get at both places that include food, resort and tickets our Disney visit actually comes out a bit cheaper. I will be showing the number break down in the trip report like I did last year. The thing that I want to make sure that most families understand both places offer deals and in the end it comes out about the same and they both are in my opinion very family affordable when you look for the deals. Edit to add: A 8 day Disney magic Your Way ticket is $252.41 http://www.mousesavers.com/wdwticketprices.html Avatar, Are you still planning to visit the Busch parks on this visit? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Avatar Posted September 28, 2009 Share Posted September 28, 2009 Thanks for asking but no. Sadly the Busch parks (in particular Discovery Cove) was what we where looking forward to the most for this year. We decided to scale things back this year so that we could stretch our budget so that we could do some much needed things around the house but also so we may purchase some other personal wants. Discovery cove and to include the other Busch Central Florida parks would have cost us over $1000.00, we considered just doing that this year and not doing the other parks. Then we decided to just go to Gatlinburg Tennessee, well the planning was going well for that until my brother in Deland Florida called and suggested we should still come down and stay with him and to use our free Universal ticket, also that he had a extra car for us to use while we stayed with him. We just love Florida too much and just could not resist his offer. Well one thing lead to another and Disney called and offered us that even after a month of our reservation was to be canceled that they would still honor the deal of Free Dinning. How can I refuse that so here we are under 8 hours from taking off and looking forward to another great trip. My wife and daughter do not know that we will be staying on site at Universal or that we are staying for an extra day at Disney to do some extra activities that they both like, they think we are leaving on the 7th after a half day at Typhoon Lagoon. I'll surprise them with a new Picture Itinerary on the air plane or at the beach tomorrow. Here is the picture itinerary except the one picture uploaded on line does not show a final lunch at Tusker House at Animal Kingdom on our last day (scored a reservation last night). Lots of new things to do while we are there, we like it because we know next year we will be able to focus our trip around the Busch Parks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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