DrewFallin

scrambledmeggs:

mousetrapclothing:

disneyphilia:

This really interesting article by Al Lutz discusses the failed Summer Nightastic! dragon, the possibility of Captain EO returning for Halloweentime, the problem with too-many-AP and what’s being done to rectify the swarms of AP’s (numbering nearly 800,000, apparently), among other things.

PS: While I see the how this is prob ably generally true, I resent the view that AP’s don’t spend as much dinero as multi-day tourists. Run our AP numbers, Disney. You can SEE everything we’ve purchased since December - as we use it for nearly every purchase — we’ve easily spent well over $2,000 on pins ALONE.

Here’s the rub. You’ve spent your $2000+ on pins this year, but after getting that “Piece of Disney History” release on Sunday morning, are you sticking around for breakfast? Hitting a few rides, grabbing lunch, followed by more casual shopping? Probably not. You get your pin and go home.

Parks don’t make money off admission - that ticket price covers fixed expenses. It’s what visitors spend when they’re in the gates on food, merchandise, etc. that drives profits. The longer you’re in the park, the more you’re likely to spend. So while your $2000+ is much appreciated, your full-paying guest down from Oshkosh for their once-a-year trip will very likely spend several times more in one day than what you spend on average per trip. And if they’re spending a couple of nights in a resort hotel? They’re probably exceeding what you’ve spent all year in the course of one vacation. Passholders might keep parks busy year-round, but single and multi-day guests keep them financially solvent.

Al goes into more detail about the increasingly bad logistical problems the mass convergence of passholders create when new attractions and shows open, and his frank assessment is a refreshing break from the usual “TDA is bad” rhetoric. But I think this question boils down to simple economics. I’d rather have a premium AP than a courtside seat to a Lakers game, because the AP is a full year of quality entertainment. And yet, the courtside seat ($2500 per game last year) costs over six times more than the premium AP (currently $389). Something is way, way wrong with that dynamic.

[photo: Guests waiting in the former Rocket Rods queue for a LE pin release on 2/3/09, via.]

Well said.