Zazu wrote:I agree that planning my future activities two months out isn't my style. But look at it from Disney's perspective. If they discourage locals and those who stay off-site, they fill the parks with hotel guests, who tend to spend more.
We've about maxed out the capacity of the parks themselves. Now fiscal growth has to come from shifting to higher revenue per guest. Just jacking up the ticket prices alone won't do that. Adding perqs that only apply to hotel guests is something that should do that.
As a local (who may never again ride the big attractions without a 3-hour wait) I'm not terribly happy about this move. As a cast member, I look forward to more and more regular hours. As a stockholder, I'm delighted.
And in show business, the business will always trump the show in the short term (unless Walt comes back, then look out!).
I guess it's OK as long as they have figured out a way for whatever revenue was generated by those that are local or stay offsite can be sacrificed. I believe that on-site people do spend more than the others, they have too, they have no choices, but, there is still just so much that they are realistically able to spend. Let's face it most extremely wealthy guests are vacationing in the south of France or wherever is in this year. If I had to guess it is moderate income people that populate the resorts the most. Just staying there has taken most of their resources and they run everything else pretty close to the line.
As much as I have loved Disney over the years, as soon as I can no longer have the opportunity to see my favorite attraction without a three hour wait, I will no longer be going there.
Now I know that I personally am only a drop in the bucket in the overall scheme of things, still have contributed quite a bit to the cause. Since my divorce in 2001, my Quicken program tells me that I have spent over $38,000.00 on Disney trips. My estimate is that 60% of that was directly to Disney. That is just me! I doubt that I am alone. What that means is as a CM, over the course of time the numbers of visitors will decrease. That means that either you or perhaps someone you know will be let go because they have to trim the budget. As a stockholder, that same decline will mean a loss in revenue and a decrease in the value of your holdings. My feeling is that someone had better acknowledge that those of us that do not choose to sleep with the mouse are not automatically deciding that now they will. We are a pretty stubborn group. I lived well and prospered for 35 years before I ever set foot in a Disney Park. I think I can go on without them now, especially seeing as how I have a couple of fallback places that will give me my theme park fix that seem to care about us "little" folk. :mad: