Disney’s Magic Your Way ticket promotion has become the cheese in the mouse trap that’s Walt Disney World. Guests realize that it’s only $20 to go from a four day to five day pass and less than $30 to go from a four day to a six day pass. Those fifth and sixth days were traditionally the SeaWorld and Universal Studios portion of the vacation. With Magic Your Way more and more families are choosing just to return to Walt Disney World and spend the savings on souvenirs.
Now the Orlando Sentinel is reporting that Universal Studios is countering with an $85 two-park ticket that is valid for seven consecutive days. This is coming off a very successful ‘Kids Free’ promotion where
Universal’s two theme parks saw a 7 percent increase in total attendance, but only a 3 percent increase in ticket revenue compared with the same quarter in 2005. However, the parks sold a lot more food, drink and souvenirs in the second quarter of 2006, so their overall revenue went up 9 percent.
That’s the theory. Those $2.50 cokes and $3.95 popcorns are almost all mark up and add up quickly. Plus Disney has had some success offering a premium item when you spend over $75 in a store. Disney’s goal is to get every family to spend at least $80 a day on food and souvenirs. That’s where they make their money.
Of course, Universal’s biggest problem is….they aren’t Disney. Quite frankly, they already do quite well in their competition with the giant of childhood fantasy. Without changes (and snide anti-Disney ads certainly don’t fit the bill) I don’t see them grabbing much more market share than they have now.
The name “Universal Studios Orlando” just doesn’t have the pull and appeal of “Walt Disney World”.
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