Shanghai Disney ticket 599 yuan includes fast access to 8 popular items? Behind the "discount" is actually...
"Shanghai Disney Tickets Fast Pass Exclusive Card, skip the queue for 12 luxurious items, the cheapest is only 599 yuan" - seeing such product information, are you very excited for tourists who want to come to Shanghai during the holidays? The official mini program of Shanghai Disneyland Resort shows that since September 28, the price of a single-day adult ticket for the park has been 599 yuan or more. If you buy the above services, you don’t have to spend more money and you can experience more projects in less time. Isn’t it a great deal?
A reporter's investigation found that the "599 yuan Fast Pass Exclusive Card" is just a gimmick. As the holidays approach, some merchants and "scalpers" take advantage of information asymmetry to fabricate "discount tickets", "reservation tickets" and other products to sell through Internet platforms, and even price free reservation services as tickets to mislead tourists.
Can you see or buy the “599 Yuan Fast Pass”?
Products called "Shanghai Disney VIP Service" are on sale on many online travel platforms. Most bundle park tickets with in-park experiences. Among them, some merchants offer very low prices. For example, a merchant’s product page shows that the “VIP service” of “skip-the-line entrance to the park with 8FP shuttle bus connection” on September 27 is only 599 yuan, while the official adult ticket price of Shanghai Disneyland on that day is 475 yuan.
Ticket quotation from Shanghai Disneyland applet
"VIP service" quotation provided by an OTA platform merchant
The reporter asked the merchant if "I bought it now, can I use it in the afternoon?" and was told that "VIP needs to be booked in advance." It is several times or even dozens of times the normal selling price, rather than using low prices to "prevent shooting" like this merchant did.
The merchant first used the "anti-auction price" excuse and said that he could not provide same-day service.
The reporter asked again if the page showed that there were services available on the same day, so could it be used immediately after taking a photo? However, the merchant told him that "orders require a second confirmation" and "if no arrangements are made on the same day, a refund will be automatically issued."
The merchant made it clear that even if the photo can be taken, the service cannot be arranged.
It can be seen that the "599 yuan" offered by the merchant is just a bait, you can see it but you can't buy it.
So, are "off-the-day" products a good deal? maybe.
Taking this merchant as an example, its "Ticket Skip-the-Line 8FP Shuttle Bus Transfer" service on September 28 is 1,135 yuan, and the "Disney Wonderful One-Day Package" on the Shanghai Disneyland official mini program on the same day is 1,339 yuan, including The official price is 599 yuan for same-day adult tickets and fast-pass service for 6 experience projects.
On the surface, it seems that the merchant is much cheaper, but when the reporter consulted the merchant about the service on the 28th, he was told that the price of 1,135 yuan was also unavailable. The ticket price for entering the park around 9 a.m. on the 28th was 1,450 yuan. . It can be seen that the price gap between merchant selling prices and official pricing has narrowed again.
The service "today" cannot be arranged, and the price "tomorrow" cannot be purchased either.
Some people familiar with the matter revealed that Disney’s fast-track service actually has floating pricing. Although the "ticket package" of the official mini program is a fixed price, consumers can purchase tickets separately and then purchase them through the official App after entering the park. Fast lane services vary according to passenger flow conditions, and the prices during off-peak and peak times vary greatly. Therefore, even under the premise that "the merchant's service is genuine", there is no guarantee that the merchant is offering a preferential price.
Personal experience: I thought I could "skip the queue", but unexpectedly there was even more queues
Why did people familiar with the matter mention "fake services"? Many consumers have already had painful experiences.
Tourist COCO took her children to Shanghai Disneyland during the summer vacation. Since it was the first time to visit the park, she wanted to have a better experience, so she purchased a "quick play package" that did not include tickets and cost more than 400 yuan per person through the short video platform. "The short video shows that the tour guide will lead tourists to each project, go through the reservation channel, and have reservation waiting cards. I didn't expect that we would queue up by ourselves at the scene." She said that the "tour guide" had a very good business, and one person brought 20 people with him. Several people were running in the park. "People like me with children are very tired and have a bad experience."
The worst thing is that the route designed by the "tour guide" is not reasonable. COCO and his team took many wrong paths and missed many projects. In the end, the "tour guide" found a reason to leave them alone. Afterwards, COCO went to the platform customer service to argue, but found that the "tour guide" asked them to confirm the order during the gathering. The relevant money had already been transferred to the "tour guide" account and the platform could not process it.
The cost of visiting Ms. Wu is not small either. She purchased fast-track services for 12 projects on the OTA platform at a price of 2,000 yuan per person. It turned out that the "tour guide" only booked 6 projects for her; the full-time escort she had arranged was also reduced to a "tour guide" who issued a position. Join him with your children. "If I hadn't felt that there was a problem with the experience process and consulted the staff, I wouldn't have known that he had purchased less than half of the fast-track services for the items." Ms. Wu said that the "tour guide" also required confirmation of receipt of the goods before providing services. In the end, she negotiated with the platform and received a refund for half of the fees paid.
The reporter's investigation found that using "'tour guides' to lead queues and queuing wherever there are fewer people" to pretend to be "VIP services" and "shrinking the purchase of official fast-track services" are the main manifestations of this type of VIP service scam. Some speculators or unscrupulous merchants take advantage of consumers' unfamiliarity with attraction ticket information, routes, etc. to fabricate "VIP" services under different names.
In fact, on the official channels of relevant attractions, such as official websites, public accounts, mini programs, and apps, there are usually introductions to the attractions, and various services are clearly priced. Consumers can avoid traps by purchasing according to their needs.
Taking advantage of the information gap to make profits not only exists in paid attractions such as Shanghai Disneyland, but also in some free and open "Internet celebrity" landmarks where speculators and unscrupulous merchants have sniffed out "business opportunities" and even publicly bid for free services.
When tourist Miaomiao took her children to visit Shanghai, they fell in love with the Duoyun Academy flagship store in the Shanghai Tower in the Lujiazui area. Before she could find the bookstore, she was accosted by a "scalper" who told her that she needed to make an appointment to go to the bookstore and that "tickets" were in limited supply at 10 yuan each. Miaomiao believed it to be true, paid on the spot, and received a screenshot of her mobile phone with a QR code. But when "checking in", she was told that the screenshot of the reservation voucher was invalid, and that reservations in the bookstore were only to control the flow of people and did not charge any fees.
Tourist Xiaobo knew that admission to Duoyun Academy was free after making a reservation, but she discovered that online scalpers were charging as much as 45 yuan per person. "Because the reservations were full, I wanted to check on the social platform to see if there was anyone who was not available and negotiate. I didn't expect to find a lot of scalpers."
The reporter contacted a merchant selling the Duoyun Academy reservation code on a second-hand trading platform. The merchant said that reservation codes are available every day during the holidays, priced at 19.9 yuan per person.
However, if you search Duoyun Academy’s official reservation app “Bipeng Mall”, you will see that except for the Lujiazui flagship store, which requires reservations, other stores do not require reservations. The appointment rules of the flagship store not only inform the time, but also clearly state that the screenshot voucher is invalid.
The reporter tried to find out that although the quota before October 3 has been filled, reservations have not been opened for subsequent dates. Many enthusiastic netizens also shared their experiences through social platforms and said that if you make an appointment according to the opening time of the official mini program, the probability of getting an appointment is not low.
The official mini program of Duoyun Academy has a detailed introduction to the reservation method.
It can be seen that there are ways to avoid the traps of "fake VIP services" and "fake tickets":
On the one hand, necessary preparations should be made before traveling. You can learn about reservations, ticket purchases and other information through the destination's official website, official public account, etc., to prevent false advertising and "scalpers" from taking advantage of it.
On the other hand, don’t be cheap and try to purchase tickets or related services through official channels as much as possible. Even if you use a third-party platform, you should try your best to choose the self-operated merchants of the scenic spots to avoid buying "fake services".
