It used to be that the best way to do that was to arrive early, with ticket in hand. That way, you could get into the park right when it opened and do many of the most popular rides before long queues formed. But with Walt Disney World now offering advance ride reservation times, and many parks now offering early-admission plans, just showing up at park open won't always help get you on top rides with little-or-no wait anymore.
Whether fans like it or not, more and more about visiting theme parks is becoming "pay to play." It's not just the ticket at the front gate. Now, it's whether or not to buy a front-of-line pass, whether to buy a dining package that includes reserved show seating, or whether to pay extra to get into the park before opening or to stay after close — all to help you get on more rides, with less wait, during your stay.
Rather than shaking our fists at the wind and demanding that parks quit trying to make all this extra money, let's instead just go with it and try to imagine where all these changes will lead. What happens when theme parks assign a price to everything?
People with business degrees might argue that slapping a price on everything would make parks more efficient. After all, paying for something tests how much you really want it. And it's not like you are getting on all those rides and into all those shows without paying something more than for your admission ticket right now, anyway. It's just that you are paying extra with your time — the time you wait in line — rather than your money.
Imagine a theme park where you could pay with money instead of time to get into any attraction you want. Everything would be offered on a reserved return-time basis. And those return times would be up for bid. Want to meet Anna and Elsa at 2 in the afternoon on the day of your visit? Instead of logging into My Disney Experience 30 days before your visit and hoping that spot is available, you would log in and place a bid on that return time, at your convenience.
You could place bids on all the rides, shows, and character meets you wished to experience during your trip, then set a maximum bid you'd be willing to pay for each one. If you were flexible on time, you'd tell the system that. You could set a maximum budget for all your bids, too, so that you don't price yourself out of your own vacation.
The amounts of the bids tell the system how much you really want to do each of these things in the park. But if you really, really must do something on your trip, you could declare it a "must do." If the price of a "must do" rose to near your maximum bid for that attraction, the system would withdraw your bids on less-popular attractions in order to avoid going over your budget while keeping you in the bidding for the must-do ride or show. The risk is that, if your overall budget wasn't large enough, you could end up with your "must do"... and not much else to do in the park that day.
But if the price of your highest bids went beyond what you were willing to pay, the system would reassign that bid money to other, less-popular attractions, potentially allowing you to see more stuff on your visit... just not the really good stuff.
You could tell the system at what time you wanted to enter the park, what time you want leave, how many people would be in your party, if anyone is skipping certain attractions, whether you are doing child swaps, and if you want to keep time clear for resting or shopping during the day.
The auctions would close the day before the day of your visit, so that you would know the night before what your day's itinerary would be. With your winning bids scheduling your day, you could walk from attraction to attraction with no wait to experience them. If you didn't end up with a full day's worth of activities, the system could schedule you to arrive late (sleep in — yay!) or call it a night early. No matter what, your day would be planned completely in advance.
Want to stretch your budget? Parks could throw a bone to those who couldn't afford to bid on a full day's worth of attractions by allowing visitors to "bid" with time, too. Standby lines would be the easiest way to do this, but if a park wanted to ensure that everyone's day was planned in advance, it could create a system where people would bid in advance with time instead of money.
Just submit a bid of how much time you'd be willing to wait for an attraction. The people who bid with the longest waits get the assignments. If you "won," you'd be required to show up at the attraction entrance to begin waiting your time before riding. If you didn't show up on time, you would lose your ride time. Obviously, the trade-off here is the same that it is now. The longer you wait for any single attraction, the less time you have to do anything else in the park that day.
You could bid with a mix of money and time, if you wished. Parks would need to hire math geeks to write the algorithms that would balance visitors' money and time bids, to make the tradeoffs that would allow guests to see as much as what they wished to see, given their budgets and the amount of time available in the day.
If not enough people bid for all the available return times on some attractions, the system could assign those return times to people who didn't have a full day and were already scheduled to be in or near that land at the moment, as a no-wait "freebie."
Missing the spontaneity of an old-fashioned day in the parks? The park could end the day with a one-hour "free ride" period, after the fireworks, in which you could go on any and all attractions you wished during that hour, with traditional queues for rides where demand exceeded capacity. (Just for fun, I will call this rule-free hour at the end of the day "The Purge.")
Now, to be even more cynical, admission to The Purge itself could be an extra charge... available for bid, with money or time waited.
What would you think about planning a day to visit this theme park? Would you find this a joy — to have everything planned in advance, with no worry, stress, or guesswork in trying to figure out what to do next? Or would you find it stressful — even embarrassing — to have to spend time in those waiting areas, declaring to everyone with your presence that you could not afford to pay to skip that wait?
Would you enjoy visiting a park that would know exactly the return on investment for every attraction it created, allowing it to spend money precisely on the rides and shows that it knew for certain that its visitors most valued experiencing? Or would you fear that such a system would reduce themed entertainment to "Buzzfeed — The Park?"
Would you love the efficiency of everyone getting to do the stuff for which they most were willing to invest time or money, instead of being in a park where those who knew how to game the system got more at the expense of those who didn't?
Or... would you mourn that a day in a theme park would be further reduced to a platform for sales — where immersion and discovery didn't matter, because every experience has to be planned and transacted in advance?
Here's a quick history lesson: Disney's theme parks used have an explicit "pay to play" system to try to ensure that people paid more to go on the most popular attractions. Granted, neither Disney nor anyone else had the computer power in 1955 to program a system that supported real-time auctions for assigning return times throughout the day. So Disneyland used something much simpler — A through E tickets. The A tickets were the cheapest, and got you on the simplest, least popular rides and shows. The Es cost the most and got you into the biggest, latest and best rides in the park. Almost every ride requires one of these tickets, and if you ran out of tickets, you had to buy more to ride more.
But by the early 1980s, Disneyland and Disney World abandoned the ticket system, in favor of unlimited-admission "Passports." Why? Because people valued the ease and convenience of paying one price for the day, instead of the hassle of managing all those individual tickets. (For what it's worth, Six Flags actually was the first major park chain to implement one-price-gets-all tickets.)
Eventually, people willingly paid more for an unlimited day at a Disney theme park than they ever paid under the old ticket system. Visitors recognized that the whole was worth more than the sum of its parts. Once people started seeing "Disney" as a destination unto itself — and not simply a collection of rides such as Pirates, Mansion, and Space Mountain — the company moved to a new level of success and prosperity.
So as we try to look ahead to anticipate the future of the theme park industry, let's recognize that we might find it... in its past. Sure, parks might be rushing to price every component of their experience today. But, at some point, leaders in the industry might recognize — as Six Flags' Angus Wynne, and later, Disney executives, did — that what people often value most is... the joy of simplicity.
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In contrast Universal is adding more high capacity rides and plusses less desirable rides/areas to serve the growing demand. Forbidden Journey was the first in a string off huge e-ticket rides that was put on unused land. Transformers, the replacement of Jaws by Diagon Alley, plussinig of the Simpsons adding a flat riden updating an old ride with Dispicable Me and now adding Kong, their longest ride on an area the size off a stamp. When closing rides for a make over they added etertainment instead of taking it away. In that way they can ensure their hotel guests their complementairy front in line pass without having a impact on the general public.
If the Disney company would have used their 2 billion to re-theme the tired and old and undesirable Epcot it would pull more people away from MK. If AK would have more and longer rides there would be no problem to serve more people and if Disney used theire tired old rights for the Star Wars ip (they had forever) to create an amazing Star Wars land at the studios years ago, if they would build what the guest want (beastly kindom, vilains land etc) there would be no NEED to frustrate their customers. But this is much cheaper. Add a small highly themed kiddy coaster at fantasy land and be wondering why wait times are so long and sell then privalige to ride it of an uocharged "event".
I used to love Disney, and I have to money to spend to do every upcharge thing they would like me to do, but instead I stopped going because I have to much selfrespect. Disney doesn't feel "magical" anymore. The spirit of Walt left the park long ago and is replaced by a stonecold company that doesn't want me to have a great vacation, that doesn't build rides that make me to pull my wallet to buy expencive souvenirs but only wants my money by under delivering and overpricing and in addition make my vacation extreamly stressfull, no thanks.
You could close one entirely for the offseason (what there is left). You could make one only for onsite resort guests and maybe a few golden ticket guests. You basically doubled the capacity of the most popular place in the world.
You could direct every special needs guest and their families to one.... I'm gonna stop here before i send this conversation someplace dark.
Google the Copyright Extension Act of 1998. Ask yourself: Would Disney be getting away with price gouging, if Mickey Mouse and friends were now in the public domain?
Going back to the ticket books won't work, especially for locals laden Disneyland, because I think a large portion of the crowd would just pay for the lower admission-only fee and hang out and watch the Paint the Night parade, Fantasmic and the fireworks, I think it would make the crowd problem even worse.
This makes economic sense...the moment people aren't willing to pay, the prices will come down. Until then, get used to price increases.
Does this price people out of their vacations? Yes...but apparently not enough people.
Now, I am a planner and tend to create a touring plan when I visit a theme park, but the key element is that I can modify it at will as needed. When I get to an attraction, if I don't feel like riding or the line is too long I can just do something else. If everything were to be planned in advance, this would not be possible. What happens if you underestimate your endurance and get too worn out to do the next big thrill ride? Or better yet, what happens if there is a delay that causes you to miss the time of your biggest must-ride attraction, so you now cannot experience it at all? The fun of the visit would disappear rapidly, the line at guest relations would quickly build (or would you need to reserve a time to complain as well?), and the percentage of return visitors would fall off a cliff. Very few visitors are going to know exactly what they want to do before visiting, and it is the flexibility of a visit that prevents a minor glitch in the plan from escalating into a vacation-ruining disaster. The day you can no longer queue standby at the park at whatever time you choose is the day I will stop visiting.
I think a lot of theme park fans, particularly those who are frustrated with the price increases and apparent decrease of quality in the destination parks, owe it to themselves to explore other options. I've visited over 70 parks, each with different attractions and different operating styles. While Disneyland is still a fun day out, I've found that I often enjoy myself more at parks that offer less immersive attractions and environments but few or no upcharges. Yes, it means you can't pay to skip the line or get in early, but it also means that you are't subjected to watching hundreds of people enter before you despite arriving after you did. I do think bigger parks should offer a premium option for those who really want/need it, but it needs to be priced high enough that only 5-10% of the visitors actually go for it. Everyone else should be entitled to the same experience with their ticket purchase regardless of whether it amounts to small change or their one vacation per year.
Okay, enough of this snarky comment. Nobody could afford it. Then again, who's got some extra DVC credits.
From my first visits in 2001 I held Disney in the highest esteem regarding quality, but they are losing out due to lack of investment.
I also miss the original fastpass system which worked brilliantly on busy days. I have not been tempted at all by the wrist bands and the way they are pushed as a 'souveneir' piece feels tacky while also possibly running up incredible bills due to it not feeling like spending real money.
Our next visit will be to the Universal parks due to the incredible reviews they get, haven't been to a UV Park since 2002.
The idea that a 'bidding war' could be created to manage popular park attractions would stop me going altogether, as I would be up against people with deep pockets for their more spoiled children.
Parks have a capacity and that should be more strictly controlled, that way queues can also be managed.
WDW also has an app that allows you to check wait times. It's called My Disney Experience. Now, having never been to Europa Park,(but it is on my bucket list) I have obviously never used that app before. As such, I don't know how it works or if it's better than My Disney Experience.but aside from checking wait times, the app also allows you to check showtimes, provides you with a very detailed map of all four parks, you can make all your reservations on it, (FP+, dining etc) and it let's you know if a certain attraction is closed for the day, they'll let you know.
Also, I'm not gonna say that I disagree with the statement that is Disney is extremely expensive. However, I don't really think that UO is really that much better in terms of pricing. Sure, the admission prices are lower, but that's just on the surface. If you read between the lines, it's a different story.
Say what you will about FP+, but at least it's free and you can use it for practically every attraction. Universal Express costs actual money (about $85) and there's a couple attractions you can't use it for, most notably Forbidden Journey.
Also, despite all the times I've visited Universal, I've never spent the night on property. Yet I've I've spent the night at an on-site Disney hotel multiple times. Why? Because Universal's on-site hotels are a lot more expensive than Disney's. Yeah, you read that right. I swear, the cheapest deal I can find to stay on Disney property is $100 per night. The cheapest is can find for Universal Is $300 per night.
And, of course, Universal's biggest cash cow of all, WWOHP. I mean, do I even have to explain this one? If there's any theme park land out there that seems to just scream "GIVE ME MONEY!!!NOW!!!", it's WWOHP. Just look at all the neverending Potter-themed merchandise and food! And I would like to remind everyone that before they could actually cast spells, you were still basically paying $80 for a cheap piece of plastic. But even nowadays, that first day you purchase it is probably the most that wand's ever gonna get used. Let's face it, once you take that wand home, unless you're over the age of 10, it's most likely gonna spend the rest of it's existence sitting on a shelf and gathering dust. And, last but not least, the big elephant in the room, the Hogwarts Express.Hey, are you a huge Potterhead who wants to see everything WWOHP has to offer but only has enough money for admission to just one park? Well, I'd hate to break it to you, but unless you can pay for both parks, you won't be able to! Why? Because now you have to choose between either Hogsmeade or Diagon Alley, and you can't ride the Hogwarts Express. I'm pretty sure Universal could have just taken out some backstage area and turned that into Diagon Alley and have the train take you there, but nope, they had to have it take to the other park instead to make you pay for that extra admission ticket.
So yeah, ton those of you choosing to visit Universal over Disney because you think it'll save you money, to quote Tony Stark, "Not a great plan."
We need spontaneity and the ability to make on the spot decisions and changes. I don't want my whole day programmed. Someone mentioned ride breakdowns. Well what about good old rain for your outdoor attraction? TP's have been trying this cash cow stuff long enough. Six Flags is so bad they have THREE kinds of "bot" levels. No one has mentioned how much longer the regular queue wait is because there's always a steady stream of privileged (read: rich) people going in. So you are stuck even longer in an ordinary queue. That clock at the entry that reads "30 minutes from this point" is now going to be more like 50!
Finally, I'm a roller coaster junkie. That's why I go to amusement parks. I don't care about spinners, games, nor 90% of the packaged shows, animatronics included. I really don't ever need to go into Tiki Birds again. So how do I manage to get 6 or more rides on Space Mrn. or Big Thunder Mtn. per visit? That's the kind of day I want at Disney. The "system" probably won't even let me.
Their theming, entertainment and rides are consistently better than Knott's and especially Universal--most of their rides are VR, which is less immersive and makes many people (myself included) incredibly nauseous.
Plus, DLR's food has really good and really inexpensive options. A mediocre meal at Knott's will easily set you back $15-20 per person, whereas you can get great food at DLR for under $10 each; Universal's almost as bad and neither will let you bring in food, but DLR doesn't care if you want to save money and picnic.
I wish the mouse would quit it with the price increases, but I also know their goal is to lower park attendance, and I still get a much, much better experience out of their park, even when it's crowded.
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