Anyone else feeling priced out of disney?

[sweetdana]

I wouldn't say necessarily that we have been priced out but we have cut back. Last year we went 4 times. This year we are only going once.

2 of those trips last year were 10 day trips with all 5 of us and 2 of those trips were 6 day trips with just DH and myself.

I don't even want to admit out loud how much we spent going to Disney in the last 14 months so I won't.

But when DH realized how much we were actually spending going so many times he said we need to cut back to just once a year.

Twice in 12 months then a bunch of months off is better. Getting 2 uses out if an AP . We go 3-4 times over 12 months then take off from Disney for 15-20 months. DH n I had same conversation.

 

[disykat]

I'm in agreement that WDW prefers other guests over me in general. I'm frugal. We eat cheaply, we don't buy souvenirs. I'm also not the ideal credit card customer since I pay off monthly and just use them for the perks. I'm not the ideal restaurant customer because I really do prefer to drink water. Even fast food places don't like me because I don't really want fries with that.

I don't find it insulting or offensive at all to know this. It's just reality. Businesses like people who spend money. That's how they make their living.

It doesn't mean I'm treated poorly, kicked out, or have my food spit on. I'm still respected as a customer. It simply means I'm not their ideal customer, so I'm not who they are targeting to try to get through their gates.

 

[ChristineOH]

Why do some try to make it look like this is racist. Read what the poster I answered said.

Because it is racist to point out that the family is black when being black has nothing to do with being "riff raff."

The higher prices also keep out the riff raff.

The poster did NOT mention race.

I was just in a restaurant sitting next to a black family of 5. Their dress indicated they were far from rich.

YOU mentioned race. I asked why. Why did you feel the need to say that the family was black? Why was that important to the story? Would you have said "white family" had they been white?

I just found it odd that you needed to point out that it was a black family. If you don't have a good explanation, then okay. So be it.

 

[TriniandBre]

All I can say is wow and shake my head at some of the comments on this post....Anyways, I do feel like we will be coming to an end for our vacations in Disney the way that we are use to doing them. I've always been spending around the same amount of money for our trips to Disney but that is because we wind up buying too many souvenirs, the room is already paid for, we stay for so long of a time, and since it's our big vacation we just live it up and enjoy it. I know that the prices have went up and hate that the ticket prices for the kids are just $18 shy of the adult prices (doesn't make any sense to me). I just hope to continue to take my kids until my oldest hits the "Disney Adult" age and then when that happens I will find a new vacation spot or enjoy the Disney Cruise line.

 

[jpeppers]

Last May we went to Disney and we booked the Beach Club through a DVC member. We did not go to any Disney parks but still very much enjoyed stormalong bay and the Boardwalk. We did Seaworld parks and saved a ton of money. I love the Disney parks but just can't afford it anymore. We are doing a 4 night cruise on the Dream this May but we'll be staying offsite on our non cruise days!

 

[TnTWalter]

the most expensive part of a disney vacation are the tickets for our family of 5 with everyone over 10.

food budget + lodging for a week = 7 day base tix for 5

lol.

going to beach for a week house + gas + food is 1.5 x price of tickets.

 

[teacher100]

The last time we went we knew it would be our last time on property with the whole family. We are a family of 5 and my youngest was 9 and oldest 17. We stayed in POR. Now my youngest is too old to be the 5the person and my oldest is an adult. It will be much cheaper for us to stay off site with 3 adults and two teenagers. The family suites are more expensive than two value rooms and I really don't want two rooms because they don't guarantee they would be together. Don't know how we will like off property. Honestly we may be doing more at Universal since the kids are older and not into princesses (they are all boys).

 

[Bob NC]

In life, you must be a very unkind person.

Come on, really?

 

[maxiesmom]

The last time we went we knew it would be our last time on property with the whole family. We are a family of 5 and my youngest was 9 and oldest 17. We stayed in POR. Now my youngest is too old to be the 5the person and my oldest is an adult. It will be much cheaper for us to stay off site with 3 adults and two teenagers. The family suites are more expensive than two value rooms and I really don't want two rooms because they don't guarantee they would be together. Don't know how we will like off property. Honestly we may be doing more at Universal since the kids are older and not into princesses (they are all boys).

The Family Suites are not always more expensive than 2 rooms. It now depends on time of year.

I will say that recently I was checking off site prices. And even with getting the 35% off bounceback rate at CSR on 2 rooms, we could save $1000 staying off site for the week instead. And that includes the rental van. And so far the rest of the family is undecided on if the savings is worth being off-site.

 

[DawnM]

No, if Disney really wanted to keep out people who didn't care to spend $15 per person on a hamburger, they wouldn't allow you to bring your own food into the parks. However, they do allow you to bring in your own food.

Some of us don't have low income but choose to spend our money differently. Often those who are frugal *do* have money.

Everyone is free to spend as much or as little as they choose on a Disney vacation.

Dawn

I think Disney wants to keep the poor people out because they are the ones who bring in their own food and who doesn't buy as much merchandise. From a business perspective it makes sense to want to bring in those with money to spend versus people who are scrimping for the bare minimum Disney vacation and only buying park tickets and nothing else. I don't know why anyone would find it offensive that Disney would rather have more well to do people vacationing there than those with low income. If you owned an amusement park which would you rather have...a poor family who will only purchase park tickets or a family with money to blow who will buy expensive character buffets, overpriced souvenirs, $4 bottles of water, $300 night resort rooms, etc.?

 

[2Pirates2Princesses]

I think Disney wants to keep the poor people out because they are the ones who bring in their own food and who doesn't buy as much merchandise. From a business perspective it makes sense to want to bring in those with money to spend versus people who are scrimping for the bare minimum Disney vacation and only buying park tickets and nothing else. I don't know why anyone would find it offensive that Disney would rather have more well to do people vacationing there than those with low income. If you owned an amusement park which would you rather have...a poor family who will only purchase park tickets or a family with money to blow who will buy expensive character buffets, overpriced souvenirs, $4 bottles of water, $300 night resort rooms, etc.?

I think we need to be very careful with making these kinds of generalizations. Frugal spending choices is certainly not indicative of socioeconomic status.

 

[maxiesmom]

I think we need to be very careful with making these kinds of generalizations. Frugal spending choices is certainly not indicative of socioeconomic status.

You hae got that right! The people I know who have the most disposable income have it because they are so frugal. One is a family friend who has traveled all over the world, and now owns and sells condos in Florida. When he goes out to eat he only has water to drink (no spending $2 on a pop) and when he road trips he only eats off of fast food dollar menus.

I don't think people are poor because they chose to bring food into WDW. Could be they just don't like the park food, and can bring in food they do like.

 

[Marionnette]

speaking of savings, anyone hear anything about pin codes? i feel like i haven't seen a pin code post in ages. my mother wants to go back this fall so im starting to run costs and i feel like i have booked for sept in april last time and discounts were out.

There have been PIN codes for room discounts. The free dining PIN codes went out in Jan. (or Feb?). The current bounceback offer is for room discounts and they run through the end of the calendar year and any PINs that have been mentioned recently also were for room discounts.

A lot of people are sitting on pins and needles waiting for the next public discount to come out. Since the booking window for the current discount closes on March 31 (a Sunday), I would expect the next one to be announced in the second week of April. I don't envision a new discount coming out the very day after the old one ends. Disney usually offers Visa cardholders a head start on discounts, so they will need a couple of days for them before opening it up to the general public.

 

[pocomom]

I think I'm priced out of the type of vacation I have taken in the past- but not priced out of the Disney experience- The first time I went my older dd were very young infant and 3. We stayed with my mom in two rooms at the Polynesian for a week. We ate one character meal, had some bagels in the room for breakfast and ate everything else at the parks on a whim, ts and cs, and went to the parks everyday. This last trip we stayed in our RV at the campgrounds and the time before we rented a house. On both of those trips we hardly ate at the parks at all, one breakfast in cinderella's castle on one, some snacks. The kids are bigger, they all need tickets now, the tickets are more and they eat more too. Five in a room won't work either, heck 2 rooms seems too tight lately. In the RV we have our own room, the kids all have their own bunks with the oldest having some privacy and a queen size bed overthe cab. We don't go to the parks everyday, we always bring water, snacks when we do. The first day is grocery shopping. Every expense is planned now. And even our time is planned more now too. I think we see and do more in one day at the park then we did in a week that first time. 10 days came in under 3k this last trip including gas getting there. And we loved it. We vacation yearly for a week or two, if there's a point when I can't get a week for 3,000 I probably won't go at all- or maybe we will switch to a small weekend trip. For us it will probably come when our kids are tired or "too old" for disney. There are many other experience to be had! And maybe we'll do a week at the polynesian once the kids are grown, and play eat our way through Epcot again

 

[ilovemk76]

No, if Disney really wanted to keep out people who didn't care to spend $15 per person on a hamburger, they wouldn't allow you to bring your own food into the parks. However, they do allow you to bring in your own food.

Some of us don't have low income but choose to spend our money differently. Often those who are frugal *do* have money.

Everyone is free to spend as much or as little as they choose on a Disney vacation.

Dawn

An angus bacon cheeseburger with a side is $9.99 plus tax at Cosmic Rays. I don't now where you got your prices. A regular hamburger is less and you can order it without a side. They will give you a free filtered glass of water. A soda is $2.99 for the large. If you add a dessert then you could spend $15 but that is a real pigout and artery clogger. You can eat for far less in the parks than you seem to believe.

No way do I want to eat premade PB&J sandwiches.

When they still had the double burgers. We could get a single burger without a side for $6.

 

[DawnM]

Maybe I should have said MEAL. Good grief.

With a drink and tax it can run close to $15. Ok, to be technical, it is just under $14.

There are many, many other choices to eat besides PB&J with just a little imagination.

But we simply do Disney differently, I don't understand the need to nit pick over minor differences in pricing. I also don't understand the need to call someone who orders dessert a pigout and artery clogging machine.

I think you can clog your arteries on their burgers and fries just fine!

Even with just water, we are looking at $50 plus $8 in tax for the 5 of us to eat counter service.

An angus bacon cheeseburger with a side is $9.99 plus tax at Cosmic Rays. I don't now where you got your prices. A regular hamburger is less and you can order it without a side. They will give you a free filtered glass of water. A soda is $2.99 for the large. If you add a dessert then you could spend $15 but that is a real pigout and artery clogger. You can eat for far less in the parks than you seem to believe.

No way do I want to eat premade PB&J sandwiches.

When they still had the double burgers. We could get a single burger without a side for $6.

 

[Sagginit]

There have been PIN codes for room discounts. The free dining PIN codes went out in Jan. (or Feb?). The current bounceback offer is for room discounts and they run through the end of the calendar year and any PINs that have been mentioned recently also were for room discounts.

A lot of people are sitting on pins and needles waiting for the next public discount to come out. Since the booking window for the current discount closes on March 31 (a Sunday), I would expect the next one to be announced in the second week of April. I don't envision a new discount coming out the very day after the old one ends. Disney usually offers Visa cardholders a head start on discounts, so they will need a couple of days for them before opening it up to the general public.

thanks! i have a disney visa for that very reason, i learned the first year with free dining that ADRs go fast once people start booking, so last trip I booked my trip and then that day made as many ADRs as I could, even canceled a few in the end but it was totally worth it to get the restaurants i wanted as oppose to the first year when I did not have the card and booked with the public.

 

[robinb]

An angus bacon cheeseburger with a side is $9.99 plus tax at Cosmic Rays. I don't now where you got your prices. A regular hamburger is less and you can order it without a side. They will give you a free filtered glass of water. A soda is $2.99 for the large. If you add a dessert then you could spend $15 but that is a real pigout and artery clogger. You can eat for far less in the parks than you seem to believe.

No way do I want to eat premade PB&J sandwiches.

When they still had the double burgers. We could get a single burger without a side for $6.

I think that $15 was a pretty good estimate for a CS these days. The Angus burger you mention is $9.99 and a drink is $2.99, that's $13.82 with tax. Add an "artery clogging" dessert at $3.79 and you're up to $17.86. So ... her estimate of $15 is really between the two actual values. Personally, I don't eat dessert but I always buy a drink and a side but I would probably still use an estimate of $15 per person for a CS because it's easy to calculate.

 

[amylevan]

Vacationing is expensive. We took our camper to Bar Harbor last summer and paid over $100/night for a campsite. You know, a piece of ground. And the campground didn't even have very many amenities.

We're camping in Ocean City, MD this summer. Same prices.

Believe it or not, the Fort Wilderness is cheaper than those prices in value season - for a much nicer campground and many more amenities.

Try getting a hotel room in NYC or Hawaii. You'll pay similar prices to Disney.

And last I checked, they are a company looking to make a profit. And since there is really no slow time at Disney these days, I'd say there prices are right where they should be. Max profit without diminishing the crowd.

 

[crisi]

No, if Disney really wanted to keep out people who didn't care to spend $15 per person on a hamburger, they wouldn't allow you to bring your own food into the parks. However, they do allow you to bring in your own food.

Some of us don't have low income but choose to spend our money differently. Often those who are frugal *do* have money.

Everyone is free to spend as much or as little as they choose on a Disney vacation.

Dawn

They don't provide you with a place to eat it however.

Disney does a lot of things to discourage "low margin" guests and encourage "high margin" guests - or encourage low margin guests to become high margin guests. They'll let you bring in your own food, but they don't have anywhere to picnic and will upsell you on food at every opportunity. They give you extra magic hours to stay on site. Almost every ride ends in a gift shop.

Where people have taken advantage of savings opportunities, Disney has closed loopholes. Bar coding mugs. Making the YES program almost as expensive as just buying tickets.

By the way, as someone who has studied Disney as a business from way back in the Walt era - Walt was a union buster interested in getting the most money from his company and his employees. He'd be perfectly happy how this all turned out. He was in the business of selling magic. But he was in the business of selling and he was very good at it. The business world has changed since Walt died, but I doubt he'd be disappointed.