Growing up, my family could not afford a vacation to Disney. For various reasons in my adult life, I've gone to Disney World/Disney Land three times--usually related to a professional conference nearby or a friend who wants to go--my income as an adult allows me to do anything I want. But when I go to Disney, I feel sad and uncomfortable. I find the price disconcerting especially because I am aware of the plight of low income families and the little children who fall in love with Disney characters but cannot fully grasp why they cannot go to Disney as their wealthier peers do. Still, low income families are bombarded by Disney marketing and I see that they purchase Disney items for their children when they can. Through aggressive marketing Disney earns money on the backs of low income families, yet these same families can not afford to take their Little Ones to Disney. Disney: Your long term relevancy in society requires a more balanced approach with concern for the greater good, especially the most vulnerable in our society. Please consider having deeply discounted tickets for low income children who have so many strikes against them, but who will rise like I did to become discerning, advantaged members of society (through education and hard work) who may not choose Disney or advocate for Disney.

I have been going to Disney parks in Orlando for 40+ years. I was a member of the Magic Kingdom club until Disney phased that out, an annual pass holder for 20 years, and an overall Disney nut. I'm done. Disney has reached my breaking point. No more annual passes and 4-6 visits a year to the parks. The service level has declined and the price has increased. Disney has successfully priced themselves out of my market.

The other thing to mention is How does this affect those with multiday non-expiring tix? Will they be doing away with that option or with they only be available in a certain category? We currently rarely stay on property. For us, it is cheaper to drive, rent a house and visit the parks when we want during our visit. So when we buy tickets we buy 10 or 14 day tickets with all the options + the non-expiring option and use them for a few years.

Disney already does this with Resident tickets and it works really well. We plan our trips on weekdays which means we pay $239 for a yearly weekday only pass. 4 parks with some blocked dates. Then we buy a $65 water park after 2 pm pass. This could work out very well for families coming in from out of the area.

I don't see how this is a problem as most hotel prices already operate this way. Hotel rates go up on the weekends and drop on weekdays and are hiked even higher during peak seasons and holidays. It just gives the advantage to people who are good planners with flexible schedules. It works for me since I don't have kids and don't have to arrange my vacations around breaks from school. I've always loved being able to plan vacations during the "slow" season no matter where I go.

The people that don't like this are just reading too much into it, and yeah, if you go during a certain time you'll pay three different price points, but also, if you go during a time like that, you'll also deal with different crowd levels each day as well as sometimes special events or shows for higher crowds. Disney definitely takes crowd levels into account when it comes to entertainment. I don't see this as a problem, just as an easier way to predict the crowd when you go to the parks.

As for passholders, I pay for the weekday annual pass and already only go Mon-Fri with blocked out dates around peak times. I don't think it'll change our passes all that much.

It will make Universal and SeaWorld very happy

So how will affect passholders? Will it change the way we pay on the monthly plan?

Makes sense. After all, hotels and airlines already use this pricing model. I'm actually surprised Disney didn't do sooner.

Sounds like the airlines model to fill planes at off peak times. I can save $150 if I leave at 5:45 am for Orlando, but do I want to to save $$$? Lots of families would think about it... And it is going to be the norm, people will complain but in the end "adapt or pay". As a shareholder, boffo!!! As a guest, wtf...

One thing you missed... I'm sure Disney would still incentivize multiple-day visits. So if your visit spanned Bronze and Silver, for instance, you would just buy a multi-day ticket at the Silver level and it would still come out cheaper than buying separate tickets. If you managed to hit all three levels, you'd just buy Gold multi-day tickets and you'd be good to go and would save money vs. buying separate tickets for each day. But, of course, the goal here is to keep attendance down on the busier days and bring it up on slower days. The most likely scenario of all is that people - or at least those who do any planning for their trips - would plan their trips to use only one level if at all possible.

I took the survey. You wouldn't pay different prices based on which days you went. You would pay the higher priced ticket amount for the whole trip. Like if you were buying a 5-day ticket and one of those days was a silver day but the other were bronze days, you have to buy the silver 5-day ticket. That's how the survey was explained as I was taking it.

This will increase the crowds on what was formerly slow days. Will Disney be willing to increase the park hours or # of ride cars to compensate? Not likely, as that would cut into profits. In the end the peak traveler will pay more, and the off peak traveler will see a more crowded park.

this is not dissimilar to the current annual, seasonal, and weekday select passholder pricing. I cannot imagine they would do away with one day tickets. i think someone misinterpreted the survey.

The most common thought here seems to be that on the "gold" days people will flock to the competition. Remember - every time one Orlando attraction raises ticket prices, the others quickly follow. If Disney does this, expect Universal to quickly follow suit.
Also, how will this affect annual passholders?

Sad to see yet again the whole focus of Disney is profit. Also sorry that we hold tickets for several more days at Disney. Would prefer to simply withdraw from the whole experience.

Universal, Seaworld, Busch Gardens and Legoland all wait for the big monster to post their rate hike every year, then they follow suit. They do this to make Disney look bad. They ALL wait for Disney. Been that way for years

Sucks! MGM - Mighty Greedy Mickey!!

I would add a 4th possible side effect: some people simply can't travel outside of peak times. Summer is their vacation area and that's that. If they can't re-arrange their entire Walt Disney World vacation to obtain off-peak / bronze pricing, it's more likely they'd attrition a few of the "Gold Price" days at Disney, and head over to normal priced days at Universal Orlando Resort instead.

It's stuff like this that is driving Annual Pass Holders like us to take up on Universal Passes. Many other people we know with AP’s also are getting disgusted with the way Disney is sucking everyone dry in these cost increases and have no intention to renew when their passes end. It’s not like Disney is loosing on profits. They make record revenue every quarter. Disney is like Rome – One day the mighty blood sucker shall crumble.

We are WDW DVC members because we love WDW. We did not become members to be forced to go to other theme parks on certain days of someone else's chosing. Will buying an annual pass eliminate this problem? We were looking into buying more points, but why if your going to limit my access to the parks. We try and visit every two years and buy annual passes with the park hopper option. We always plan our trips on lower volume time frames specifically because the parks have less people. We say leave it alone. You are already building options that only the rich can afford. We've waited since finding out about the expansion to Polynesian so we could stay at a bungalow. The pricing, even using 3yrs of points, makes it impossible to stay there. I'm assuming the addition to Wilderness Lodge in the future we be the same. With the amount of people that come into the park daily I would think you are making a huge, HUGE, profit. Give those of us who have to save 2 or 3 yrs for a trip a chance.

Well, that's it for me. Goodbye Disney. I've enjoyed my 30 years with you and I am sad my 4yr old cannot say the same.

How would it affect annual passholders?

Can't see how this would work for those of us that buy 14 or 21 day tickets. We would certainly be crossing weekdays and weekends.

This sounds more like their pricing for annual passes rather than their regular ticket prices. It would make spontaneous visits a thing of the past, and clog up the actual ticket lines more than they already are if they did this, which is very counter-intuitive to how Disney performs. Not only that, but it over complicates all of their Sea and Land vacations as well, meaning that if you get an add on package to your cruise vacation, you are completely at the whim of when you get off of the boat, eliminating the freedom of choice that they seem to be trying to give.

I don't think that this will be implemented at all, unless it was just for Florida residents, or for annual park passes yet again. It's too much work for too little payoff.

We always get the annual pass, I suppose this will impact that in some way also.One of the "solutions" to park over crowding is build another park. I always wonder what would happen if everyone woke up and all decided to go to the same park. I always thought part of the fast pass system was that they could estimate attendance by # of fast passes issued.
If they are looking at it, they are considering it.
Planning a trip and scheduling meal reservations to coincide with fast pass reservations is already like a part time job, I might need to hire an assistant if this goes through. They should think long and hard about this as there are tons of other places to visit in Orlando.
Right now other thane the plane ticket Disney gets pretty much all of our Florida dollars. Magic express - stay on property - eat on property - go to parks on property. We haven't rented a car in the last 5 years down there. That would definitely change. GUARENTEED.

It is just crazy that they always raise the prices but so much is under construction or closed. Most people plan their vacations around the school year so obviously they will pay more!! I think Walt is rolling over in his grave when he sees the pricing the cost of feeding your family and that the average family not even being able to go. It seems crazy.. the only great thing is the fast passes!! I have loved Disney all my life even have half my house done in Disney but starting to loose interest with all the price changes upgrades and same food they have had for years??.. Come on who is enjoying the Happiest Place On Earth if they are paying for their trip for a year or more???

Walt Disney would not be pleased.

Another unintended consequence they might see if the proposed sustem is adopted; families will chose to visit their competition on the "gold" day during their stay. Universal, Legoland, Sea World, and Busch Gardens probably would be happy for Disney to send them buisness.

just another way to raise prices to keep the middle class and under out.

Here's how I see these ticket proposal playing out. We typically go the beginning of November, so now instead of going from Monday-Sunday we will go Monday-Friday, then transfer to Universal Studios for Friday and Saturday.

Instead of breaking it up by month, if they really wanted to do tiered pricing why not adopt a similar calendar like the DVC rentals are based on. Instead of, for example, January having all three tiers, just have all of January be the "Adventure" season and price accordingly. You may still end up with a vacation that falls within two tiers, but that's the same issue you run into if you book a DVC trip that falls into multiple tiers there as well. Looking at the DVC calendar, you know the Christmas week and spring break will run you more for a room, so a corresponding increase in ticket pricing wouldn't be as hard to swallow as say doing it for one weekend just for MLK day or Memorial Day.

PLEASE BE TRUE!!!!