Disneyland Paris is implementing dynamic pricing. The principle is simple, no more fixed prices. The more visitors there are, the more it will cost you to enter the park. Until then, each time of the year had its well-determined price. And this change is far from unanimous among visitors.
Disneyland Paris is implementing a new pricing policy. From now on, the ticket price varies depending on the attendance. The more visitors there are, the more it will cost you to enter the park. It’s called dynamic-evolutionary pricing.
If prices varied until now depending on the period, they were fixed all year round. Whereas now, it is park attendance which will set the prices. A novelty that is causing a lot of talk and which is not unanimous among theme park lovers.
“The average price will not necessarily change”
It’s a bit like visiting a travel booking site now. On the Disneyland Paris online ticket office, prices vary from one day to another, and even several times in the same day. For a given date, you could end up with other people who paid a different price depending on the date of purchase.
“The average price will not necessarily change for the consumer. But it will create a disparity, or even an inequality between consumers,” explains Grégoire Mialet, consumer expert at C-Ways, this Monday on RMC.
And that’s where the problem lies: it should benefit those who are able to book in advance, to anticipate. “And obviously it will handicap those who book at the last moment,” concludes Grégoire Mialet.
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“Today, it’s like a trip. You have to plan it, budget for it”
To pay less, Matthieu will therefore have to do it well in advance. “It’s not a bad thing, because a stay at Disney is planned,” he says.
This is in fact what the park is relying on to justify this new feature: “This range [de prix] “wider encourages visitors to book in advance to maximize the possibilities of obtaining the lowest prices”, assures Disney’s communications department to RMC Conso.
Planning, organizing, that’s precisely what Diane, an absolute Disney fan, doesn’t want. “We can no longer say on Wednesday what are we doing, we are going to Disney. Today is like a journey. You have to plan for it, budget for it, it’s less magical than it could have been before,” she regrets.
Loïc, a hospital worker, plans to go there at the beginning of 2025. With train tickets from Agen, it costs 1,300 euros for two days there for two adults and two children.
“It’s not dynamic pricing but tyrannical, for once. For us, small provincials, it costs a fortune,” he laments on RMC.
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An opacity that makes the French suspicious
If the entrance ticket on a low-traffic day has been reduced by a few euros, prices can however increase by 45 euros when the park is crowded. This pricing system remains little appreciated by the French because of its opacity explains Grégory Caret of UFC Que Choisir.
“They have the feeling of being cheated, because we don’t know the right price,” he denounces.
And if management defends itself by justifying a better variety of price options, according to the specialist, the objective is above all to better fill and make the fleet more profitable during off-peak periods.
Ameline Lavechin with Guillaume Descours
