Last week, Disney announced a new upcoming service: you can parkhop from Tomorrowland in Magic Kingdom straight to, say, Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster at DHS. Since the bus service would use backstage areas and roads, there would be no need to go through security again. Sounds like a dream, right? You’re not dreaming! This can be yours… for $15/person per day. Welcome to the era of Disney upcharges. Except in some ways, we’ve already been here for a long time.

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There’s a long history of upcharges at Disney parks. To put all this into perspective, let’s go all the way back to the beginning. In this case, the beginning means even before Disneyland itself opened. Walt was benchmarking amusement enterprises, shopping his ideas around, and the carnival and fair operators famously thought Walt had lost his mind, mostly because he didn’t want barkers, those midway upsell people constantly harassing (and in some cases conning) people into parting with their money. Walt didn’t like the atmosphere of barkers. Let’s put a label on what that looks like: I will posit that Walt didn’t like the “hard” upsell, the in-your-face style you still see, to this day, on display at state fairs on the midway. The kind of thing where they try to get your attention even as you walk, stony-faced, past them specifically so you don’t have to acknowledge their existence (because if you do, now you’re almost guaranteed to spend money since they know how to manipulate you).

There’s some evidence that Walt didn’t like upselling at all. Indeed, he was so far ahead of his time, he advocated for “loss leader” products long before the rest of the marketing world caught up and gave the concept its name. Specifically, Walt didn’t want the souvenir pictorial guide to cost very much money. His sales people advised him to raise the price to actually turn a profit on the thing, but Walt demurred. People would buy a cheap souvenir like this, he argued, and their neighbors, when visiting their house, would see the highly visual souvenir, and plot their own trip. Lose money on this one item, in other words, to gain even more profit when they visit. Hence the name “loss leader”.

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For many decades, this ethos of affordability permeated the Disney culture. It was there in the training materials of new Cast Members, and it was there on the printed menus. Disneyland was for EVERY Guest and was not meant to be a playground only for the rich, the argument went.

As many Internet discussion boards since then have pointed out, the supposed equality of even early Disneyland was always an illusion. If you were rich, you did not have the “same” experience as someone with a modest income. In those days there were A-D (later “E”) tickets, and the affluent could buy more of the high-priced tickets. No doubt about it, even in 1955 it was NOT the same experience for the lower-middle class as it was for the upper class (the lowest class probably didn’t bother to attend).

Blue Bayou at Disneyland
Blue Bayou at Disneyland

All that changed in 1982, with the advent of the all-day passport. Now it didn’t matter who you were or how much money you made, your ticket was the same as the next guy’s. On one hand, that was entirely true, and this made the entire experience more democratic. Rich or poor, you had the same shot at getting on 28 rides in one day (this was my childhood record at Disneyland, by the way).

But in another way, it was also an illusion. Rich people could dine at table service restaurants without blinking an eye, while others munched the more-affordable hot dogs. Rich folks could buy souvenirs whenever they appealed, while others wistfully eyed keepsakes and clothes they would have dearly loved to afford.

Let’s label this middle era of Disney price differentiation something like “veiled upsell.” Or perhaps “faux-egalitarianism” captures it better. From the outside, it truly looked like equal outcomes for everyone. If you scratched at the surface, you could find better experiences for the rich. But there was no barker in your face trying to get you to spend more, and there was no jealousy on display because if the rich were having a better time of it, the less-rich never really noticed. This era is probably where the modern-day myth of “equal outcomes” at Disney got its start.

Statisticians and business professionals have long had a word for all this: the long tail of distribution.

Image courtesy of Wikimedia.com
Image courtesy of Wikimedia.com

 

At the extreme left end of the chart, you’ve got the extremely popular widget/toy/hamburger/Disney experience/whatever. It appeals to everyone. This is where, historically, it made sense to focus marketing efforts. As you move rightward along the chart, the various types of services (widgets, hamburgers, etc) become less and less popular. In the very old days, that meant there was no reason to cater to those populations, as there weren’t very many of each. But as the world transitioned from mass-production to “just in time” production, it started to become profitable to pay attention to even slices of the pie that didn’t have much population in them. This is referred to as the Long Tail of Distribution, and the Internet is the great equalizer when it comes to the Long Tail. The Internet has made it profitable to cater to those populations in the Long Tail, because production costs have gone down, as have advertising costs. If you have it, and if you can offer it, then you can make it profitable. End of story.

I’m not entirely sure where to draw the line when Disney started “visible” upselling again. The early era of all-day passports was labeled as “faux egalitarianism” partly because any actual rich/poor divide was invisible, and there was no visible upselling. I can only speak to my personal experience, and the switch for me began in 1993. A manager right there in my own department (New Orleans Restaurants) named Kimi came up with the idea to upsell a dessert experience for the still-new Fantasmic show, using the balcony of the Disney Gallery as the venue. I’m not sure what caused her revelation–maybe she saw how people queued up early in the day ever since Fantasmic opened in 1992 for the right to be on that balcony and realized it could be monetized. Right or wrong, this is when my personal recognizance of “Disney visible upselling” began. It was my first moment when it became obvious that rich visitors could have something the poorer visitors could not. (Last time I looked, Kimi worked in HR in Disney’s Orlando operations. I wonder what she would think of the upsell opportunities now. As a point of reference, in those days the desserts were all you can eat; now they give you a box of goodies when you get seated).

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The onslaught of upsell opportunities ever since then has been slow to build, but relentless in its own way, and some would say that this year in particular it has achieved critical mass. We had them at a low level for many years via the various Tours (Backstage Magic, etc). And you could always pay extra to get a Guest Relations Cast Member to escort you around the park–raise your hand if every time you see such a party, you examine the Guests to see if someone famous is being escorted for free!!

But it slowly gained speed. For me in Orlando, the turning point was Wild Africa Trek in 2013. This very-expensive walking tour of Kilimanjaro Safari was noticeable because it involved marring the view of the regular safari in favor of its purchasers. Now everyone would see the rope bridges constructed for this thing, despite not being open for everyone to explore that area. It kind of set the stage to say that, for once, there are areas of the Disney theme parks that not EVERYONE can explore, only those that pay for the right.

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You could call the additions of upsell opportunities a slow burn. I could probably cite 2-3 (or is it 8-10??) that get added per year. You know the names if you hear them. There’s a fireworks party with a pirate cruise in the Epcot resorts. There’s the idea of fireworks dessert parties showing up at Magic Kingdom and Disney Hollywood Studios (and sometimes, at Epcot). These days it seems that the best fireworks viewing is not available to…”the rabble” (with apologies to the Walt Disney-approved 1959 movie Sleeping Beauty). I’m sorry, did I say the last passive-aggressive observation out loud?

The larger point, and I think I’m not exaggerating this time, is that the very Disney brand itself is built around certain expectations. In the Disney parks from the 1950s until the 1990s, you could expect no hard upsell. There was even the expectation of a “faux egalitarianism” in those years after the all-day passport was added, with the visible appearance that every person gets the same experience.

So it’s with something of a shock that Walt Disney World has started to monetize things that used to be “for free” (what that really means: built into the price of the experience back then, which of course was cheaper than now). There are plenty of examples. Free photos of your family at Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party (2005) now cost money. Or the free wine tasting at Epcot’s Food and Wine Festival now cost money. In some ways, it’s another example of “declining by degrees,” where expected perks are reduced one by one and no one complains or notices because they are so subtle at first.

Free family photos - not any more!
Free family photos – not any more!

That brings us to late 2016. You might think to yourself that we’re dealing with the classic “frog in boiling water” scenario, where the frog doesn’t recognize until too late that it’s in water which is too hot. The upsell offerings are coming so fast and furious now, it’s possible more and more people are realizing the water is bubbling around them! Consider the evidence.

  • November 27: Cabanas at Magic Kingdom near Space Mtn ($650/day)
  • November 29: Tiana’s Riverboat Party ($49/adult)
  • December 2: Highway in the Sky Dine-Around ($150/adult)
  • December 7: Parkhopping via van ($15/day per person)

I don’t mean to imply a future where we pay for every last thing. The visual of Mel Brooks snapping a can of “Perry-Air” in Spaceballs leaps to mind. Disney is never going to make you pay for a snoutful of clean air. At least I hope so?

But what we do have, in the meantime, is a middle ground of “keep what you have, or pay to upgrade.” I refer to this in my internal system as the soft upsell. It’s different from the hard upsell (barkers in your face) or the faux egalitarianism. But it’s an upsell nonetheless, and it’s becoming more and more visible.

You can keep your Standby tickets to Fantasmic as you like, but they are subordinate in terms of prime seating to the #1 Dining Experience and #2 Fantasmic FASTPASSES.

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As we slowly grind forward in the history of Disney upsell opportunities, arguably we find ourselves back where we started. If there are enough upsell opportunities, and there are enough social media outlets to spread the word, arguably we have something that looks a lot like the barkers of the midway of yore. If the Disney consumer keeps hearing “Upsell!” “Upsell!” “Upsell!”, doesn’t that start to resemble an in-your-face midway? The very thing Walt Disney didn’t want… the perception that this company, like all other seedy amusement operators, wanted to connive to get every last dollar out of your wallet no matter the cost. The message starts to be louder than the experience, and that’s what turned Walt off in the first place.

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Every seven days for the past month, Disney has unveiled a way to “spend more money.” Is this just a variation of the Long Tail discussed earlier? Or is it a money grab, designed to make profit off the venerable Disney name and coasting on the theme park laurels long ago established? Maybe. That’s the devil in this problem–you never really know. But from the outside, it certainly looks like Disney is now targeting the Long Tail and even the center part of distribution for “paying more”. And if you agree to buy there, it will cost you extra.

Are you excited or irritated that there is a Disney van to take you from one park (backstage) to another (backstage) for $15/person?

Your views are welcomed and encouraged. Do you think Disney is charging too much? What’s the straw the broke the camel’s back for you? Are we there already, or not yet?

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Kevin Yee
Kevin Yee is an author and blogger writing about travel, tourism, and theme parks in Central Florida. He is a founding member of MiceAge and has written numerous books about Disney parks (see http://bit.ly/kevinyee).