Are any Disney guests average income people?

[Pickles516]

Another post by an average income person. Our income is average for the rather expensive shoreline area of CT where we live. The mean income in our town is over $149k, with the median being $129k. We have 2 kids, both of whom are in public elementary school. We did a trip in November 2020 for 8 nights (we were in the parks for 7 days), another in May 2021 for 9 nights (we were in the parks for 8 days), and we have one coming up from the end of December 2021 to early January 2022 (it will be 10 nights). We have DVC and Gold passes, though we likely won’t renew our passes again now that the older one will soon be at a point where she can’t miss school for vacations. We fly and check our bags. The last two trips we had to fly Southwest because of credits from our cancelled May 2020 flights. Previously, we usually flew either JetBlue or Southwest. The December trip, we are trying out our first ULCC with Avelo.

I think it’s important to acknowledge that we aren’t “average income”. I may not make a lot for my area, but I make a significant amount more than national average.

I’m still trying to wrap my head around an annual trip as you describe, even a single 10-day trip. Forget the$30,000 dvc purchase. I honestly don’t know how you swing it. The math doesn’t add up for my household in Long Island.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy you get to do these annual trips, it just isn’t average. As someone who makes above national average, I could never swing annual trips to Disney.

I don’t know what cost of living is like in coastal CT as compared to LI, but I don’t think it’s as drastic as if I were comparing to someplace like Ohio or whatever. Your circumstances are 100% private, but if there are any factors at play like having your home paid off, any sort of significant inheritance providing a cushion, no car payments, etc. etc., that places your situation even further from the average. Again, that’s awesome, but I think it’s easy for us to perceive our circumstances as average even when they aren’t.

 

[RamblingMad]

I mean, if we're going to play that game, why waste your money on travelling to a national park? Setting up a tent in your backyard will be a fraction of the cost. You can even split the cost of the tent with 15 of your neighbour's.

Again, I'll reiterate. At no point in history has a 7 day trip to WDW been comparable cost to 7 days camping (or splitting a vacation rental with several different families) with no entertainment costs built in. So to compare it to current day WDW with the argument that the increases in prices will drive people to national parks as an alternative makes no sense.

What point are you trying to make? Lots of families are visiting NPs this year. Yellowstone had huge numbers of people going to them.

I can afford to VIP tour WDW for a week. I fit the target demographics that they're trying to get into their parks. But I don't see the value at today's prices. A NP park visit is just as entertaining of an experience as going to a theme park. It just happens to be cheaper and timeless. And once you get to the more challenging hikes, you have the park to yourself.

Sleeping in my tent in my backyard is not the same as going to a NP and renting a vacation home. I go to at least one NP a year. This year I've been to four. And I still haven't begun to spend nearly as much as a WDW trip would cost me.

How do you justify the costs? Frankly, I don't like seeing middle America priced out. The last time I remember WDW being affordable was when I was able to afford to go while working part time while in university back in the 90s. Then, it was affordable to most adults while in the Great Recession. I don't like the idea of the parks being just the playground of the rich. That's nuts.

 

[Disneyfan754321]

I think it depends on how you define low income. Also if I remember correctly you are from the UK which wouldn't correlate as well to the US which is what my perception is based around.

Not to make light of it because everyone has their own struggles but when you come to the US your money is worth more. Its basically like when I moved to Texas in my past and I joked I got a 5% pay raise since income taxes went away. In the US there have been surveys and like 10-15% of people have never even traveled outside their State they were born in.



I would say though Ski vacations are for the elite. Just like people will say WDW is for the rich. Vacationing is not expensive, its those two specific examples which are expensive.

Where I am at its huge to go camping and some of the primary vacation locations were built off the density of good camping which now have resorts as well to give people options if they want something more upscale or less "roughing it".



I will say we got a great deal going to Alaska last second on a cruise. That being said if you are planning 12-24 months out it will be more expensive.

I can also say I walked to in Walmart and the whole meat sections was "clearanced". I was like WOAH what is going on and when I looked at the pricing it was a 40% price increase on the sticker price vs a couple months ago.

With these vacation places I think the same will be said. They are trying to charge more and while some people will pay more its yet to be seen how many will and if they can keep these inflated prices or will need to come back down to more in the range of a normal price uptick.

I know for me I don't plan on booking anything far out and will just look for last minute deals for anywhere other than WDW (since I own DVC and in a sense my "deal" is already locked in).

We are not rich and definitely not elite, we just choose how we spend our money. We have paid for cars, we don't have credit card debt. I am a stay at home mom the only money I make is swagbucks. We like spending our money on experiences. 2 vacations a year spending about 3-4 thousand each time on a family of 4. When we go to Colorado, Disney or what ever we dont go crazy spending money.

 

[Pickles516]

We are not rich and definitely not elite, we just choose how we spend our money. We have paid for cars, we don't have credit card debt. I am a stay at home mom the only money I make is swagbucks. We like spending our money on experiences. 2 vacations a year spending about 3-4 thousand each time on a family of 4. When we go to Colorado, Disney or what ever we dont go crazy spending money.

I apologize if this comes off rude or presumptuous, but a lot of people who are more privileged than the average person use the “we just choose to spend out money differently” line. Having the option to spend 8k annually on vacations places you well above the average person. Are you rich? Maybe not, and that’s definitely a subjective term, but if you can afford to spend 8k a year on vacations then you are more privileged than the vast majority of people. That’s cool. That’s definitely not a fault, and I’m not trying to come off in a way that others or dehumanizes you for it,I’m just saying that “we choose how we spend our money” is the very definition of being way outside the bounds of average in terms of income.

 

[Disneyfan754321]

I apologize if this comes off rude or presumptuous, but a lot of people who are more privileged than the average person use the “we just choose to spend out money differently” line. Having the option to spend 8k annually on vacations places you well above the average person. Are you rich? Maybe not, and that’s definitely a subjective term, but if you can afford to spend 8k a year on vacations then you are more privileged than the vast majority of people. That’s cool. That’s definitely not a fault, and I’m not trying to come off in a way that others or dehumanizes you for it,I’m just saying that “we choose how we spend our money” is the very definition of being way outside the bounds of average in terms of income.

No I get it, i did not take it bad most of the money comes from not having car payments.. saving about 600 a month + we also only have liability insurance so more of a saving... My DH has said if we get a new car we will have to spread out the vacations

 

[CampbellzSoup]

I don’t stay in their deluxe hotels or either their overpriced food and still feel like a rockstar

I come in and enjoy with my family - ride the rides see the shows and watch the fireworks. All the accouterments just….don’t do anything for me to be completely honest with you. However more power to you if you go and live like a king!

 

[pigletgirl]

"Rich" is relative. There are people that will charge the whole vacation to a credit card and never pay it off and there are others who will pay cash (at any tier). Every family/traveler is a unique situation. Yes, Disney is expensive and a luxury, IMO. Even being booked at an All Star resort is far beyond what many families can afford.

 

[fumanchu2488]

I apologize if this comes off rude or presumptuous, but a lot of people who are more privileged than the average person use the “we just choose to spend out money differently” line. Having the option to spend 8k annually on vacations places you well above the average person. Are you rich? Maybe not, and that’s definitely a subjective term, but if you can afford to spend 8k a year on vacations then you are more privileged than the vast majority of people. That’s cool. That’s definitely not a fault, and I’m not trying to come off in a way that others or dehumanizes you for it,I’m just saying that “we choose how we spend our money” is the very definition of being way outside the bounds of average in terms of income.

This may be a bit misleading to say that anyone who spends $8k a year on vacations is privileged. I know quite a few people who make less than our family and don’t manage their money in a way I agree with, but that doesn’t make them privileged. For example, they put bare minimum to get matching contributions into their retirement accounts every year but spend at least $5k or $6k on vacations. For me, I would never think of spending money on a vacation if I was not maxing out retirement savings. It is a ‘waste’ of money IMO and why our family didn’t start taking by vacations until we were in a position to do so. To be clear, I do consider myself lucky that I am in a position to do so. And I also wouldn’t judge anyone who decides they would rather spend their money on vacations than save for retirement.

 

[fumanchu2488]

"Rich" is relative. There are people that will charge the whole vacation to a credit card and never pay it off and there are others who will pay cash (at any tier). Every family/traveler is a unique situation. Yes, Disney is expensive and a luxury, IMO. Even being booked at an All Star resort is far beyond what many families can afford.

This is kind of my point. Regardless of income, people can and will spend their money how they want even if conventional wisdom says they shouldn’t.

And back to the original question, that is why i don’t think Disney gives a damn about what people make. It is what they will spend. A family making $60k a year is no different to them Than a family making $260k a year if they both are spending $8k per year on a vacation. Who cares if it is cash vs credit card or if they are appropriately saving money for vacation or their mortgage.

 

[CanadaDisney05]

What point are you trying to make?

The last time I remember WDW being affordable was when I was able to afford to go while working part time while in university back in the 90s.

This is the exact point I am trying to make. WDW has never (atleast not in the past 20 to 30 years), been affordable for families that truly earn median incomes. Neither has cruising, or going on all inclusive vacations, or travelling to Europe, or spending a week in a large city and exploring the sights. WDW has never been competing for the vacation dollar of those who would rather go camping in a national park. That simply has never been their target market. The recent uptick of those travelling to national parks is not a result of WDW raising prices. It's a result of Covid and people not wanting/able to travel to their preferred vacation destination for safety/convenience reasons.

The recent change in direction with things like Genie+, no magical express, lightning lane, and increased prices may result in some people swapping out their vacations for other options. But I don't personally see the masses of those people swapping out for options that cost significantly less. If pricing was the reason for making that swap, they would have already done so years ago

 

[Miffy]

Not trying to be rude, but do you mind if I ask what you consider average, and where abouts you live? And how long these trips generally are?
We’re a ~120k/yr household with 4 kids in the NY metro area, and 2 trips to Disney in a year is unfathomable to me.

@Pickles516: I'm not really sure what's an average income. I'm not comfortable talking about my income on a public forum, however, I can say that together, my traveling companion and I do not make as much money as your household does. So we're hardly wealthy or high earners.

I also live in the NY metro area, but I don't have kids and the person I go to WDW with also doesn't have kids. So I think that makes a huge difference in comparing your situation to ours. If we had 4 kids between us, I seriously doubt we'd be going to WDW once a year, much less twice. As it is, we often go for a week in December and a week in the beginning of May, not counting 2020, when we didn't go at all.

The key here is, I'm pretty sure, that neither of us has children, so we both have more discretionary income than we might otherwise have.

If the cost of an onsite trip to WDW continues to rise, we'll probably alter our traveling style--going for fewer days or staying in a different resort. Hope this answers your questions.

 

[LovesTimone]

Late extra magic hours and early access to free fastpasses are the big two. And Magical Express was a Disney decision. They paid Mears for the service and chose to stop paying for it.

From what I understand as a local, that Mears wanted a whole lot more money, and Disney said No. Business decision pretty basic... because if Disney would have said yes, then the cost would have been passed on to the guest, to which people would have been mad about..... so either way... People are mad...

Mears is offering transportation so that now its up to Mears. Are they going to give you the Disney service that everyone is use to, or will it be different?

 

[LovesTimone]

My thoughts..

Disney is a for Profit Business... and it is up to everyone to decide if it worth it or not to visit and how they spend their hard earned money.

No-one is fussing about the cost of cruising or a vacation in Europe or what a hotel room cost on the beach, which is alot in some case a regular hotel is the cost of a Disney Deluxe hotel -... it just depends on how you personally want to spend your money...

As a single mom years ago, I worked 2 jobs so that I could give my DD the extra's... Disney being one of those things... I would ask for Disney GC for birthdays, Christmas and such... to that we could spend a few days at the happiest place on earth... Those memories are priceless to both of us.

 

[Pickles516]

@Pickles516: I'm not really sure what's an average income. I'm not comfortable talking about my income on a public forum, however, I can say that together, my traveling companion and I do not make as much money as your household does. So we're hardly wealthy or high earners.

I also live in the NY metro area, but I don't have kids and the person I go to WDW with also doesn't have kids. So I think that makes a huge difference in comparing your situation to ours. If we had 4 kids between us, I seriously doubt we'd be going to WDW once a year, much less twice. As it is, we often go for a week in December and a week in the beginning of May, not counting 2020, when we didn't go at all.

The key here is, I'm pretty sure, that neither of us has children, so we both have more discretionary income than we might otherwise have.

If the cost of an onsite trip to WDW continues to rise, we'll probably alter our traveling style--going for fewer days or staying in a different resort. Hope this answers your questions.

Ah, that makes much more sense to me. They do make for expensive luggage!

 

[hsmamato2]

I mean, your not really comparing apples to apples. You can easily find cheap air bnbs near wdw and split it with friends too. You also didn't include flights, food, rental car, other entertainment. I'm sure over 7 days you spent more than the national park entrance fee on entertainment. It just may not have been at one spot.

Disney tickets are only over $100/ day if you go for 3 or less days. 7 day tickets are about $500. 10 day tickets aren't much more.

Flights to mco are going to be on par or cheaper with most other airports.

Food is relatively expensive at Disney. But I don't personally find it unreasonable considering your in a theme park and a major tourist destination. Canadas Wonderland for example charges 17.99 for a hotdog and a small fry at a quick service.

My point is, if you factor in flights, hotels, food, transportation, even if a trip to a national park ends up being cheaper, the difference isn't that significant. Maybe 20% cheaper overall?

Here's one thing I know....flying into hubs like Orlando and Vegas is definitely cheaper than most other places (from where I live) so I tend to start from there when building a vacation...which naturally leads to my first consideration being local (to those airports) places to vacay.... but I'm now using the locations as starting point, not my vacation destination,which saves me $$$,KWIM? I love a good National Parks trip myself,and we don't spend much beyond the cost of getting there,food,and decent gear for exploring. I'll say this,I understand the "easy button" of WDW for those who aren't into nature activity etc....but to say WDW is on par price with just any vacation is plain silly. It's the most pricey choice by a long shot in any scenario I've planned out. And for the "average family" to try to create what those commercials are portraying is even more absurdly priced. There's just no way currently to have that fantasy without a LOT of $$$. (Yes, I know you can discount certain things here and there-I'm talking about the commercials dreams now)

 

[CanadaDisney05]

Here's one thing I know....flying into hubs like Orlando and Vegas is definitely cheaper than most other places (from where I live) so I tend to start from there when building a vacation...which naturally leads to my first consideration being local (to those airports) places to vacay.... but I'm now using the locations as starting point, not my vacation destination,which saves me $$$,KWIM? I love a good National Parks trip myself,and we don't spend much beyond the cost of getting there,food,and decent gear for exploring. I'll say this,I understand the "easy button" of WDW for those who aren't into nature activity etc....but to say WDW is on par price with just any vacation is plain silly. It's the most pricey choice by a long shot in any scenario I've planned out. And for the "average family" to try to create what those commercials are portraying is even more absurdly priced. There's just no way currently to have that fantasy without a LOT of $$$. (Yes, I know you can discount certain things here and there-I'm talking about the commercials dreams now)

That's the thing. I never said that WDW was on par with any vacation. I actually said the opposite. What I actually said was that WDW pricing has never been on par with taking local camping trips, or vacations of that nature.

Because WDW has never been in a similar price range of those types of trips, a 10 to 20% increase in price will not make the vast majority switch their WDW vacations into local camping trips.

WDW is on par, and in some instances cheaper than vacations like cruises, all inclusives, flying to large cities in North America, European vacations, etc....My main point was that although WDW prices have gone up, so have the other options that fit in the same tier. It's not unique to Disney

 

[npatellye]

I think it’s important to acknowledge that we aren’t “average income”. I may not make a lot for my area, but I make a significant amount more than national average.

I’m still trying to wrap my head around an annual trip as you describe, even a single 10-day trip. Forget the$30,000 dvc purchase. I honestly don’t know how you swing it. The math doesn’t add up for my household in Long Island.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy you get to do these annual trips, it just isn’t average. As someone who makes above national average, I could never swing annual trips to Disney.

I don’t know what cost of living is like in coastal CT as compared to LI, but I don’t think it’s as drastic as if I were comparing to someplace like Ohio or whatever. Your circumstances are 100% private, but if there are any factors at play like having your home paid off, any sort of significant inheritance providing a cushion, no car payments, etc. etc., that places your situation even further from the average. Again, that’s awesome, but I think it’s easy for us to perceive our circumstances as average even when they aren’t.

I think the key difference here is that we only have two kids, which means more “fun” money. If we had four children, as you do, I don’t know how often we would go or for how long we would go.

 

[jimmymc]

From what I understand as a local, that Mears wanted a whole lot more money, and Disney said No. Business decision pretty basic... because if Disney would have said yes, then the cost would have been passed on to the guest, to which people would have been mad about..... so either way... People are mad...

Mears is offering transportation so that now its up to Mears. Are they going to give you the Disney service that everyone is use to, or will it be different?

Disney could have shopped around, insourced the service, or rolled it into hotel prices and very few people would've noticed given the raises that are already going on. I think people really loved the convenience of just having it with every reservation, and Disney was supposedly surprised how much people missed it.

 

[CBMom01]

These discussions always make me….I don’t know, a little sad maybe. 99% of us quibbling over whether someone making $100k/year can afford to go to WDW annually, when for the actual rich in America $100k is their kids’ walking around money.

The wealth gap is so huge, I wonder if Disney is intentionally banking on Disney vacations making people *feel* rich for being able to pay for upgraded experiences.

I see a lot of “I could pay for X but don’t want to” posts lately

 

[CampbellzSoup]

These discussions always make me….I don’t know, a little sad maybe. 99% of us quibbling over whether someone making $100k/year can afford to go to WDW annually, when for the actual rich in America $100k is their kids’ walking around money.

The wealth gap is so huge, I wonder if Disney is intentionally banking on Disney vacations making people *feel* rich for being able to pay for upgraded experiences.

I see a lot of “I could pay for X but don’t want to” posts lately

well I’ll pay if theirs value like the boo bash sure I could pay for it but I won’t however I’m in the minority for that