Walt Disney World introduced a new paid after hours event called Disney After Hours. For $149, guests are able to buy a ticket that will grant them access to The Magic Kingdom for three hours after the park closes.
Well, the first night was far from successful. Attractions Magazine estimates that there were only 1,000 people in attendance.
But those were not all paying guests. Attractions Magazine is also reporting that free tickets were given out to travel agents, ticket sellers, and Disney Vacation Club members.
This was not a good start for this new extra cost event. Motley Fool is reporting:
Disney World’s $149 Experiment Is a Flop — for Now Leading theme-park operator Disney is trying to get folks to pay up for an exclusive after-hours experience, but the first night of Disney After Hours appears to have been a dud.
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They need to scale back costs to the public. It is out of hand. Even expensive for DVC members. Not the quality that they used to be. Cheap labor affecting their quality now.
Might not be a flop from Disney’s perspective – $150K in revenue for just three hours of greatly reduced park staffing and operational costs may be very profitable. Assuming, of course, that the next round of 1000 guests are all paying customers.
Since free tickets were given out to travel agents, ticket sellers, and Disney Vacation Club members, we don’t have any idea how many tickets were sold, so we cannot know the revenue. I’ll bet it was less than $150k.
We’re also not taking into account the money that guests spent while in the magic kingdom… Folks that were given complimentary tickets may end up spending more in the shops.