Prices just hit my threshold :-(

[Jhondy210]

The funny thing is all the people complaining about the costs going up also want a raise every year.

I would love to get a raise every year…we haven't gotten raises in more years than I can count. I prosecute all the sex assaults and domestic violence crimes in my county. I think I work hard but my paycheck sure says differently…so maybe I don't work hard according to some of you. I work way over 40 hours and most weekends…and that is not even counting when I'm preparing for a jury trial and I go to jury trial more than any other attorney in my county. Let's not forget how much school I went to in order to get my mediocre pay (and before anyone thinks all lawyers make 6 figures…I'm not anywhere close to 6 figures for a paycheck but I do owe 6 figures in student loans). On the other hand, my husband makes way more money than I do and rarely works more than 40 hours. He also has no student debt because he didn't need a college education for his job. All this to say that people who are claiming they work hard for their money so they get to go to Disney while those who don't make as much money must not work as hard and therefore don't get to go to Disney are just being irrational.

Now on topic, I love Disney. Disney is my escape from the terrible things I see day in and day out at my job. Disney is one of the few places that I forget where I work and I can truly just have a good time. Everyone who knows me knows I love Disney and I would live there if I could. That being said, with all the increases in prices and the decreases in quality of product I am questioning how often we will go to Disney. My husband promises we will go every other year if that is what I want (although recently I have been going every year) but I'm not sure I can continue to justify it. While I love Disney, there are so many other things I can do with that money that are just better value. Maybe once Disney opens Star Wars land, Avatar Land, and Toy Story land then it will be worth the money again but if I'm waiting years and years and the outcome is something similar to the 7DMT then it likely won't be worth the money. Yes, that is my view the value of the Disney is lower than the cost of Disney and you can disagree with me. However, it doesn't make my opinion wrong nor does it mean I'm acting entitled nor does it somehow mean that I don't work hard for my money.

My parents used to have DVC…when they paid for DVC and I got to use it to pay for the hotel, I went to Disney so many times because the cost was a mere fraction of what I would have had to pay if I was paying for the hotel. To say otherwise is foolish. My parents have since sold DVC because they didn't see the value in DVC and my parents no longer go to Disney because they don't like what Disney has become and they don't enjoy themselves when they are there. Yes, Disney doesn't notice that my parents aren't there and Disney won't notice when my husband and I stop going as often but I don't care what Disney notices. I don't post on this board to hope Disney notices what I'm saying. I post on this board to share the excitement of Disney and to share the disappointments of Disney with other people who love Disney. Loving Disney doesn't mean everything Disney does is perfect or that I agree with.

 

[ellie05]

My problem with the price increases is that right now there aren't really any new attractions in fact there are many closures and no end in sight. We have been trying to take a break from Disney but family has made that impossible. What we have done is spend less days at Disney because there is just so many times in a year that I can ride SM and not get bored. So while we have spend 10+ days per trip in past years, now we do 4-5 day trips and it is plenty of time for what we want to do. Also we definitely eat less at TS because quality isn't there, plus since we are there less days = less time to waste. We don't plan on going back to Disney after our October trip until new things open. However we are planning on doing a trip to universal next fall, first time we ever consider skipping Disney, I honestly never thought this day will come.

 

[sharadoc]

Also as our business model has gone to the 401(k) retirement plan, investors demand return on their investment. Disney has a "duty" to shareholders to provide a certain return. Who knows, the price increase could be a reason why your 401(k) does ok this year. It's a crazy circularity.

 

[WillAustin]

Well, someone has to fill those $1200 per night bungalows at the Poly.

I think you're a bit low on the price of those.

 

[crostorfer]

I think you're a bit low on the price of those.

I just realized that. O........................M...........................G..................................$2500-$3000 PER NIGHT?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!? Were these built for the exclusive use of the Saudi Royal Family?

 

[btk2333]

I just realized that. O........................M...........................G..................................$2500-$3000 PER NIGHT?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!? Were these built for the exclusive use of the Saudi Royal Family?

I would imagine very few people are paying cash for those rooms- they are likely mostly booked using DVC points and that price point is similar to overwater bungalows in many exotic resort locations such as the Maldives so they're not too crazily priced IMO (not that I would ever pay that price)

 

[WillAustin]

I just realized that. O........................M...........................G..................................$2500-$3000 PER NIGHT?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!? Were these built for the exclusive use of the Saudi Royal Family?

The best part is that every morning you'll be awakened bright and early by the horn of the water taxis from the Poly to MK.

I would imagine very few people are paying cash for those rooms- they are likely mostly booked using DVC points and that price point is similar to overwater bungalows in many exotic resort locations such as the Maldives so they're not too crazily priced IMO (not that I would ever pay that price)

I think I'd rather go to the real bungalows...

 

[kandb]

Last I will say, and then I am done as well:

From Walt -

"Disneyland is a work of love. We didn't go into Disneyland just with the idea of making money."

How many years ago was that? And unfortunately, Walt does not own Disney anymore, a big corporate company does and they want to make
money, just like any other big company. Sorry but that's reality!

 

[mesaboy2]

I think I'd rather go to the real bungalows...

With real clear blue water.

 

[kandb]

Classist? Calling folks classist around here regarding Disney price hikes? To quote Phineas and Ferb: "Why yes. Yes I am." Cause that's how the tone is reading.

Disney belongs to everyone, not just the wealthy middle/rich. I'm not saying that it isn't pricey or inexpensive. I'm saying that the cost should stay in a realist and affordable range, relative to the average American family budget. These costs are in clown-town land. The price tiering is in clown-town. Disney isn't a privilege, it's...it's...not a luxury...it's a theme park that ought to be affordable for everyone. And now it's not.

Your not being realistic. That's like saying every family would love to drive around in a nice new midsize vehicle so the automakers should make new midsize vehicles affordable to ALL families. That's distorted thinking!

 

[Disneyliscious]

Your not being realistic. That's like saying every family would love to drive around in a nice new midsize vehicle so the automakers should make new midsize vehicles affordable to ALL families. That's distorted thinking!

To me, your comment is distorted thinking. Why wouldn't automakers (or any business) want to appeal to as many demographics as possible? Thats why they offer incentives on vehicles. If a Lexus kept the same features but continued to go up in price while a Camry added more features and didn't go up in price (or went up reasonably as in not a 30% price hike) then more people would start buying the Camry. Businesses are in the business of making money. Consumers are in the business of saving it. There has to be a middle ground met and Disney has now stepped off that middle ground for many.

 

[hopemax]

No I do not but I would be willing to bet they have gone up 20%.

And to keep the profit margin where it needs to be they need to raise the costs.

In 5 years these prices we will consider cheap.

There is a guy over on WDWMagic who reads Disney's financials and converts it to plain English for us regular folks. He just posted, and it was a look back at the last 5 years. In Parks & Resorts,

Costs over the last 5 years are up 37%, so above what you thought.

But operating income, over that same period is up 129% from 1.002 Billion to $2.293 Billion.

Disney is not your brother's small business, trying to cover costs and take home a sufficient salary.

He had another post about how Disney will amortize the $3.5 Billion they are investing between now and whenever the DHS expansion opens, and the quarterly impact is nowhere you might think when hearing a number like billions. But it was a couple months ago, and now I don't remember which thread it was, but basically showing how "little" it is for Disney even though to mere mortals it sounds boggling. He also likes to point out that in the last 9 years, Disney has spent $39.7 Billion on stock repurchases.

This price increase has NOTHING to do with covering costs for their new expansion.

 

[NotTheBatesMotel]

The issue with this argument is, how many people outside of the internet message board echo chamber no longer find value in it. If you spend a lot of time on the internet, you will find that there are many, many opinions that seem to have an overwhelming majority on forums just such as this one, on any number of topics. But most of the times, if you get off of the message boards, you will find that the actual majority opinion is quite different.

In this case this isn't true. I had 3 separate people message me (and 1 coworker discuss with me) the pricing changes. 4 people. All of them thought it was ridiculous, and none of them are on this board. All of them are frequent park goers. In this case the news and disappointment is spreading well beyond a Disney-centric forum.

 

[Bluegrrl]

Well, if you are talking about cars here.....Henry Ford paid every worker a decent wage so that they could afford the car that they made. As well as making the cars affordable for the general public...

Maybe Disney should think about that too.

 

[crostorfer]

I would imagine very few people are paying cash for those rooms- they are likely mostly booked using DVC points and that price point is similar to overwater bungalows in many exotic resort locations such as the Maldives so they're not too crazily priced IMO (not that I would ever pay that price)

Comparing the Poly Bungalows to those in the Maldives is comparing apples to oranges. Or rather, clear blue salt water to brain eating amoeba filled stagnant lake water. Or clown fish to water moccasins.

 

[RedAngie]

I'll give you the Cliff's Notes version.[about Universal]...the parks are less crowded, the rides are more elaborate, and you can go and have a ton of fun without a touring plan or ADRs. Oh, and you can walk to the parks and City Walk from their deluxe resorts in under 10 minutes.

And if you're lazy like me, they even have relaxing boat rides to City Walk instead of overcrowded busses.

The prices are insane.

Unlike Crazy Eddie, the prices are insane in the wrong direction.

My goal is to NOT work hard but still make lots of money.

I prefer the old fashioned way.....do as little as possible to get by and wait for the inheritance to come through.

 

[Networth]

Most upper middle class families and above are in that tax bracket because they see value not because they enjoy paying higher prices just because.

Same reason casinos comp whales. Can the whales afford the upgraded suite. Yup. Do they really want to spend their own money if they don't have to. Nope. Anyone saying they don't have to worry about price increases because they can "afford it" is either a bit slow or foolish. As they don't understand the first rule of wealth management and asset growth.

 

[Networth]

.

 

[the advocate]

I think the end of the price increases will come when people are embarrassed to admit that they took a Disney vacation.

 

[mummabear]

From another thread, could not have put it better myself:

I read an article the other day about how American companies have been delaying investment in capital improvements for the last couple decades and that one day it's going to come back and bite them in the tushie. Disney has a crowd control problem because they have failed to invest in new capacity.

Take the Frozen ride that is coming to Epcot. It will be the most popular thing, since...the last Frozen thing, and Disney has chosen to put it in a building with a ride system of 900 people per hour. By comparison, Universe of Energy can carry 2400 people per hour for a 40 min attraction and Horizons could carry 2700 for 15 minutes, and World of Motion was king at 3240 people per hour on another 15 minutes. So while you are waiting too long for a 3-5 minute ride wondering why there are so many people, remember when Disney used to design like that. Sure those rides might have gotten stagnant, but that's not an excuse for changing from ride systems that would carry 2000+ people to ones that are significantly less, and are so much shorter.

Disney can control crowds by having people on rides, watching shows, etc. But they let attractions stagnate, shutter things, reduce capacity, reduce ride times, empty queues via fastpass and then whine they have no other choice but raise prices.

And for real Disney Geeks, I can't remember which one, but there is a series of books with raw interviews with Disney old timers, called Walt's People. One of the later one has an interview with Dick Nunis, who talked about the major capacity initiatives the Magic Kingdom had to take in the 70s when they realized that more people were coming than they anticipated, and they had to start building more attractions...yesterday. Different philosophies.