EE's at the Parks

[Halle]

A previous post stated that there had to be 30-35% attendance at EE for Disney to make a profit on EE. I don't feel that enough rides were open during EE nor enough CM's manning the rides to accomodate 30-35% attendance. Perhaps had they had more rides open they would have experienced higher attendance

 

[Captain Crook]

Damo, I think you might be missing the big picture. Sure you're getting this great rate & FOTL at US/IOA now, in the middle of a crisis, but the proof will be what happens 'over there' when their next hotel opens and (when an if) the crowds build to a point where they no longer have to offer bargain basement prices for deluxe accomodations. You can't believe it was in Universal's strategy to offer HRH for 150 per night. Surely you realize that they see this as a 300 per night hotel...The problem is they can't fill it at 300 per night so instead they compete with a Disney moderate & try to lessen the loss anyway they can.

Disney offered the EE before all this internet hubub, before the discount frenzy, before all of the moderate & budget hotels. They offered it when they were able to charge and get exactly what they needed to hit the bottom line figure. The perq was just that for those high paying guests whom used to fill the Resorts. Now we have discount mania, Disney doesn't get to set & stick to their prices nearly as well as they once could and becase of all this plus we hit a slow economy & budget cuts. It's simple, if EE can't be qualified then it had to go. Obviously the cost of offering this service had become just too great with little return in the green column. Only time will tell if they were right or wrong, but I suspect EE is a thing of the past that only a few will continue to mourn (my condolences gcurling ).

 

[raidermatt]

I don't see paying $100 per night for the All Stars when we can stay at the Hyatt for $35 on priceline.

I haven't used Priceline, so maybe I'm wrong, but don't you give a price your willing to pay, and if its accepted at a hotel in your category, you are booked and charged? Similar to Hotwire? If so, there just aren't that many people willing to book their accomodations this way, so of course you can get cheaper rates. So until more people start booking based solely on a price, its not realistic to expect anybody to match these prices. Disney has never had the cheapest hotels in town, and they never will. Most guests didn't even use EE, so clearly they will be able to see paying $100, (more or less, depeding on when). Of those who did, the only question is how many of them considered EE to be as important as you did.

There's still plenty of benefits to staying on-site. If EE was the only one you saw, that's fine, but I highly doubt that most of Disney's guests feel the same way.

We stay at the Hard Rock Hotel for $150/night in a room that is more beautiful and larger than the GF room we stayed in for $499/night.

Hotel room beauty is a subjective thing, and if you feel HRH is more beautiful than GF, so be it. But suffice it to say I'm sure there are a significant number that would disagree. Larger? That's fine, but most people don't really care how big the room is, provided it meets their requirements/expectations. If space were that important, square footage would be in all of the travel books. As for the price, Captain Crook nailed that one.

We get a season pass for $99 and we get express access for every ride. For us, this is the perfect vacation because we don't have to wait in line and thus can do the parks in a lot less time and this allows us to do other things in Orlando (like shop, golf, etc.)

That's fine, as you said, for you. I could counter with an argument that says, for us, even $99 bucks is too much for a prettied-up Six Flags. At WDW we can golf for discounted rates at a Golf Magazine Gold Medal Resort (including free taxi service to and from, club cleaning and storage/transfer). There are far more things for our family to do at WDW than Universal, there's plenty of shopping, water recreation, spas, shows, restaurants, etc, etc, etc. Shopping elsewhere in Orlando? Not much different than shopping anywhere else.

(Also, if Universal ever does acheive the scale of WDW, surely you understand FOTL will not be offered in the same way it is now...)

So, it sounds like EE really had very little to do with your decision, which is fine, but lets not confuse not liking Disney decision-making with Disney just not being right for you.