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Quick: is Walt Disney World expensive? Or is it on sale now, if you know
where to look (and given the recent credit market turmoil and resulting lack
of vacation bookings)?
You can be forgiven if you don't know how to answer that question. The
truth is actually that both extremes are true in today's Walt Disney World.
How did we get here? My own pet theory is that this is the natural outgrowth
of years of overpricing (and greed), and we're in the throes of a
price correction driven by market forces. But more on that in a moment.
Let's start with the evidence before us. In the first corner, we've got
ample indications that WDW is presently on sale. To whit:
Many WDW stores now feature a Wal-Mart-like bargain section, often
replete with banners gleefully proclaiming "$10 and Under!!", as if this
kind of overstock were something to be proud of.
This past weekend, the World of Disney store held a magnificent sale
for annual passholders, with major discounts on select items. I didn't
go, but I imagine it was an absolute madhouse.
Let's not forget the biggest discount of all: a free $75 if you
travel to WDW on your birthday. You can get a free day's admission, or a
$75 gift certificate for use in the park that day.
Hotel rooms have started to become seriously discounted. Already
announced are the "seven nights for the price of four" campaign and some
other very cheap rooms for annual passholders, to the tune of almost $40
per night per room. Amazing!
Tusker House lunches now grant you reserved seating to the Finding
Nemo Musical, as a kind of lure to get you to buy the expensive buffet.
Even the nearby Disney Cruise Line has gotten into the act, with the
"bounceback" offer: buy one regular priced cruise in spring 2009, and
get a second cruise in fall 2009 for only $100 per person. That's a
serious discount.
Of these offers, the most visible to the general public has been the
birthday celebration, a typical "loss leader" type of promotion that lures
folks to the parks, knowing they'd lose a bit of money on admission (or that
gift card), but more than making up for the money with all the other food
and merchandise (not to mention admission!) everyone else in the party would
be paying.
Some element of this loss-leader concept has always been around in the
Disney parks. Some experiences were left free, or very nearly so, as a kind
of value-added discovery in the parks, even back when you had to shell out
cash or an A-E ticket for each attraction. But some of the corporate
sponsored exhibits were always free, and some "quiet zones" in the parks
that don't generate money have been allowed to sit around. Snow White's
Wishing Well in Anaheim leaps to mind, as does the One Man's Dream exhibit
in Hollywood Studios. Even the much-maligned Pooh Playground in the Magic
Kingdom meets this criteria of "something free" that is nevertheless
something they'd never actually advertise in the mass media. Since they get
no mileage out of it as a way to get folks in the door, it simply costs
money without directly bringing new folks in. Pixie Hollow might fall into
this category too.
New Fantasyland decorations? Oh
wait, it's set dressing for the DVC sales unit they added this year.
Most things have to have a (sales) reason to exist.
But there's something different recently. This entire series of discounts
just feels different, and there's a major gulf emotionally between a "free
experience" you stumble across and a cheap endcap full of $5 trinkets. One
of those bespeaks a premium event and venue, while the other screams the
exact opposite.
Even the seemingly-harmless loss-leader in the form of free birthday
admission conceals its own dark side. While it may seem innocuous enough to
offer free admission just for 2009, as a way to drive attendance when travel
is otherwise down, the downside is that people start to expect it. A luxury,
once sampled, becomes a necessity. Will folks pay full price in 2010? Or
might they perhaps be thinking "hm, we had free admission in 2009… maybe
I'll just wait to see if they do it again in 2011." And the result is a
cosmic game of chicken. Who will blink first? Will the consumers come back
as paying customers, or will they make do without the product until the
price (free) is right again? It's a risky game for a company to play.
Will the new Hilton discount when it opens
in 2009? That seems hard to imagine.
Over in another corner, we can witness a different phenomenon taking
place: cost-cutting. Attractions are opened later and closed earlier than
had been the case a decade ago. Fewer Cast Members are employed in a given
attraction, so things run more slowly and the line moves more slowly for the
visitors. Expensive prime rib is removed from buffet menus and replaced with
cheaper cuts of meat. Character meals were discontinued at the Liberty Tree
Inn.
How are we visitors to reconcile the bargain prices with the reduction
in services? Is this a move toward a cheaper, more "local," less extravagant
kind of vacation?
Until recently, this was
PetriFries, and sponsored by McDonald's. An apparent good change for
theme.
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