Now at Disneyland: Mouse vs. Scalpers

How do you make sure customers take advantage of a promotion the way you want them to take advantage of it?

The question comes up at Disneyland. The Mouse people are currently offering a deal that allows park goers to get a break on multiple visits. Specifically a 3-Day Park Hopper pass lets customers visit multiple parks over three days. The days don’t have to be consecutive but you have to use the second two days within two weeks of using the first day. If you really want to spend a lot of time at Disneyland, this is actually a pretty good deal. An adult three-days pass goes for $220 while a one day pass goes for $125. (For those under nine, the comparable numbers are $205 and $119.)

Now there is clearly a problem here in that if two families split a three-day passes with, say, the Jones going one day and the Smiths going the next, they would come out ahead even if the third day went unused. If Smiths and Jones can recruit a third family, they’ve got an even better deal. Of course, a stumbling block in making this happen is transaction costs. If the Smiths and Jones live on the same cul-de-sac, maybe then coordinate this deal easily. However, if the Smiths are flying in from Chicago, it is much harder for them to take advantage of this deal — unless a middleman steps in to help broker the deal. And this just what is happening (Disneyland fights multiday pass abuse by photographing holders, LA Times, Jan 9).

Disney has been struggling to stop several ticket brokers in Anaheim from buying multiday park passes and then “leasing” or “renting” them to visitors for individual days.

The scenario works like this: A ticket broker buys a three-day “park hopper” pass for $205 and rents the ticket to three guests for $99 a day. The broker makes a profit of $92, and the guests, who would otherwise pay $125 for a one-day “park hopper” ticket, save $26 each.

Disneyland prohibits visitors from sharing multiday passes, but the practice does not violate local laws.

Read Full Post »

Disney Queue Management, The Next Generation

Few companies are as celebrated for their ability to manage queues and customer waits as Disney. As we have posted about before, The Mouse has raised moving people through lines to a science (even as their Anaheim neighbors have screwed up queues). Now Fox News reports on a Disney program called NextGen that will take managing queues to a new level (Disney’s ‘NextGen’ plan is expected cut wait times for rides and more, Apr 18).

Outside of one announcement over a year ago, The Mouse has been pretty hush hush about their plans. That, of course, has left room for rampant speculation that one would usually associate with just how sharp the screen on the next iPhone will be. But here is the basic idea.

According to [entertainment blogger Jim] Hill, one major initiative of NextGen focuses on what is being called an xPASS, which would allow guests to book rides weeks or months in advance. Here’s how Hill says it will work: Visitors planning their trip would go on the xPASS website and use the free service which allows you to reserve experiences, including ride times, exclusive meet-and-greets with Disney characters, even viewing spots for the nightly fireworks. The xPASS system would also help to avoid lines at restaurants by ordering food in advance.

“This xPASS/NextGen effort is going to fundamentally change how people visit the Disney parks,” said Hill.

Currently, Disney’s line-skipping system called FastPass allows guests to book a time for an attraction, leave to do other things, and return at an allotted time. Last month, Disney began enforcing return times, which many Disney watchers saw as the first step to the implementation of the xPASS system.

Read Full Post »