Any word on the Give a day, Get a day for 2011?

[disneydoug]

we loved volunteering this year!

[Strmchsr]

No. I'm sure with the 40th anniversary coming up they'll be on to a different focus for next year (supposedly something to do with the Disney Bear). However, keep volunteering! It's needed!

[DizneyRox]

I doubt it will happen next year. With Disney wanting to get rid of the discounts, this seems like a no brainer. The "free" ticketscould be thought of as the equivalent of some $75 million dollars from ticket sales. To give that up in addition to all the other discounts offered next year seems far fetched from here in the bleachers.

[Imagineer1981]

I doubt it will happen next year. With Disney wanting to get rid of the discounts, this seems like a no brainer. The "free" ticketscould be thought of as the equivalent of some $75 million dollars from ticket sales. To give that up in addition to all the other discounts offered next year seems far fetched from here in the bleachers.

I seriously doubt they lost money. In fact it probably made people either stay an extra day for their free day or it brought more money in from purchases within the park. Think about a family of 4, buying a 4 day pass, then used their volunteer days as a 5th day. Yes Disney didn't make any money on them entering the park that 5th day on tickets, but they still probably bought food and merchandise, plus they stayed probably a day longer then they would have before, which is another night at a Disney hotel perhaps?

[mrmcgiv]

We had 4 GAD passes this year for our Aug trip that I had planned to use for the magic fastpass which would have been no cost to disney. However, they were not needed much due to crowds and also I was not too happy that some of the attractions stated on the list did not take the Fast Pass. The only ridews I got any use out of them was Osarin' and TSM. SO we traded them in for the hat souveniers with 4 pins which could not have cost much to produce.

In retrospect I wish I had used them to buy park tickets and I would have saved the cost of one day for each of us and I would have retained my 7 day passes from our package for a future trip - but once I realized the fastpasses were not that useful it was too late, we had already used our 7 day passes to get in. Oh well.

I do think that it probably encouraged more people to go to the parks(when they possibly would not have) and spend more in most cases.

[PopPhan]

I seriously doubt they lost money. In fact it probably made people either stay an extra day for their free day or it brought more money in from purchases within the park. Think about a family of 4, buying a 4 day pass, then used their volunteer days as a 5th day. Yes Disney didn't make any money on them entering the park that 5th day on tickets, but they still probably bought food and merchandise, plus they stayed probably a day longer then they would have before, which is another night at a Disney hotel perhaps?

Actually, since the GADGAD pass could be upgraded to a multi-day MYW ticket, it would have been used as the FIRST day rather than the FIFTH in your example, so it would have been a loss of $79 on the price of a multi-day ticket.

It might have brought more people in, and/or caused some to add days to their stays, but it definitely subtracted from ticket income based on number of entries into the parks.

The additional income from room/dining/souvenir sales MAY have offset that amount, but that would rely on how the numbers were crunched.

[Scrappy2]

I really doubt Disney lost money. People like me who were not planing a trip to Disney went, had a blast and spent tons of money. We did not even use the tickets for park entry we used them for the fastpass because we went durning the summer. So in our case it cost Disney nothing but we bought 5 day passes, 6 nights hotel, food, souvenirs for a total of 9 (seven adults and 2 children). Disney came out much better. Plus I upgraded 2 of the tickets for annual passes and I booked a bounce back offer for December.

[Mickey91]

I'm sure it was a right off anyway. So they saved on taxes and got you into the parks and resorts to spend, spend, spend.

[bouncer]

I doubt that Disney would run a promotion that would lose money. I'm sure they crunched the numbers every which way to make sure they come out ahead. It's all about how the "promo" is perceived. It's the whole "oooohhh you mean I get a free {insert item here} pass, fastpass, dining". You get the idea--market it well enough and it will look to the public like an offer that CAN'T be passed up. :thumbsup:

[DizneyRox]

You get the idea--market it well enough and it will look to the public like an offer that CAN'T be passed up. :thumbsup:
I did... I figured for a 10 day trip, volunteering would have saved me about $3. I'd spend more on gas getting to wherever.

[Polynesian Dweller]

The GAD promotion would have been part of the advertising budget. All companies have money in their advertising budget for promotions and that's what this would have been. They payoff to the company is the adverstising they get for their product, WDW in this case, not the direct money returned from people using GAD tickets.

The coming year is the 40th anniversary so its likely that the advertising money will go into advertising whatever they will do for that and not likely a GAD type promotion.