Breaking Point for Disney Cost

[mhconley]

Our upcoming trip is a deluxe resort for around $633 per night all inclusive for our family of three. My father thinks I'm nuts. He says he spent $1500 total for a 2 week vacation for 4 that included 3 nights at WDW and a week on Sanibel Island; of course that was in the early 70's. Our upcoming Disney cruise is right about $800 per night all inclusive. I cannot see stopping anytime soon but one cannot predict the future... except that prices will continue to rise.

Martin

 

[jeepwreck]

we really don't have a breaking point when it comes to disney

but for our trip in Nov its more that the Canadian dollar is so low that is causing us concern.

 

[Lee & Kerry]

Never; it would just be cutting back on things, like food, gas , clothing, paying taxes,light bills, water bills, house payment. Lol

 

[DisneyPrince1982]

Never; it would just be cutting back on things, like food, gas , clothing, paying taxes,light bills, water bills, house payment. Lol

Or not paying them, lol. Think about how many Disney trips you could squeeze in before the IRS caught on to you! lol

 

[rotlex]

Honestly, I don't know at this point. Cost is very relative. Disney is still VERY reasonable compared to most other vacation destinations. Example. Our upcoming 13 day, 12 night trip staying at CBR with free dining and 10 days of park tickets is $3800. A 6 day trip to Myrtle beach last week ran us $1500. Take that trip out to 13 days and the cost is about the same with not even close to the number of things to do, or dining experiences.

I live in PA, and someone earlier in this thread mentioned that when Disney costs more than a trip to the Jersey shore they would think it was too expensive. I concur completely. My Myrtle trip was an example. However, if we went to say Wildwood, stayed in a hotel even half as nice as a Disney resort, ate all the same meals, and could even find as much to do, a trip comparable to our upcoming Disney trip would probably run 6K. And I don't think that's an exaggeration at ALL.

With all that said, I think we'll be heading to Disney for a very long time into the future.

 

[MomofKatie]

We still love WDW, and definitely save up to go- we just won't be able to go every year to 18 months like we did when DD was younger. The cost now makes our trips closer to one every 3-4 years.

DD is starting her senior year in HS, so WDW (and all other vacations) will be put on hold until she finishes college. We are worried about being able to afford the cost of higher education for her.

 

[2Pirates2Princesses]

We are still rather new to WDW and we also don’t go every year. We would like to continue going every 2 or 3 years as that’s the most financially practical choice for our family, and it also gives us the chance to do other things. The steadily rising price of park tickets in particular does make me nervous, especially as our kids are getting older. But we love the Disney experience and instead of throwing our hands up at the prospect of ever going back I think we would instead just have a bigger hiatus in between trips and aim for every 3-4 years instead of every 2-3 years. However, I do think that the value for our dollar is still there with the parks (not so much with the hotel resorts) considering the level and assortment of entertainment you get when you break down the per day cost of a week long trip. In terms of reaching a breaking point, I think we are reaching our breaking point with the cost of airline tickets. We could loosen up our Disney trip budget quite a bit and could probably stay longer or even go more often if airline fare alone didn’t cost us a small fortune! The joys of being a large family. I’m still trying to convince DH that doing the 16 hour drive down to Orlando with our five kids won’t cause him to grow anymore grey hair

 

[Megsmachine]

If they actually do the tiered pricing it will be the last time that we go.

What does tiered pricing mean....

 

[DisneyPrince1982]

What does tiered pricing mean....

Ticket prices vary based upon season and day of week. It's nuts, absolutely nuts.

 

[Yahweh]

For us it is getting harder to justify the cost...we bought an annual pass this year and will get three trips out of it...We rent DVC points for hotels, and/or we stay at the Swan and Dolphin. This all makes a big difference. Flying down from Canada is often more expensive than from the US, plus our dollar is tanking. I think after this trip, we'll take a few years off and let some of the construction finish...fingers crossed a few things will actually be finished, and hope for a different Canadian federal government!

 

[Minniesgal]

We haven't found ours yet. We do Disney fairly cheaply. We stay deluxe but we have DVC so it no only costs us our dues, we book a few ADRs but we also eat in. If park tickets feel outrageously expensive we would just have a no park trip.

 

[cjparker0110]

One interesting thing I'm observing is that it seems quite a few folks are either making adjustments to compensate for the increased prices and/or taking fewer trips altogether. This is occurring despite a fairly strong economy mixed with some fairly low gas prices (at least relative to the past 5 years). If the economy were to ever take a nosedive, I'm guessing Disney park attendance would get destroyed to its core.

The economy took a major nosedive in 2007/8...and tourism took a big hit for a time after 9/11. Seems like neither of those truly hurt WDW and instead we have since higher attendance and costs. I think for many people WDW is an escape from the stresses of everyday life. More so than other vacations. It is so isolated from the real world that you forget about everything else. I think it would take a lot for attendance to suffer.

Our upcoming trip is a deluxe resort for around $633 per night all inclusive for our family of three. My father thinks I'm nuts. He says he spent $1500 total for a 2 week vacation for 4 that included 3 nights at WDW and a week on Sanibel Island; of course that was in the early 70's. Our upcoming Disney cruise is right about $800 per night all inclusive. I cannot see stopping anytime soon but one cannot predict the future... except that prices will continue to rise.

Martin

A lot of the cost is perspective as well. We stayed at CR when I was a kid and I've personally stayed at the Poly once before when I went as an adult. I would not do deluxe now because the cost (for me) is too much. However, I have an extremely low income and am the sole income for my family. If I had a median income or more I would be willing to spend that. One thing I keep in mind is the value of WDW. I live in MN and my family lives in VA. Flying for us is expensive and cumbersome (2 adults, 3 kids 4&under, 3 car seats, luggage, comfort toys, anything else we may need). So when we visit my family it becomes a road trip across the country. For the sanity of the kids (and us adults) we take 3 days to get there and 3 days to get back. That means 2 hotels each way. While we tend to pack food for the trip, we still eat out at least once a day. That said, with gas, food and hotel, visiting my family costs us at least $1000...sometimes more. That's not counting souvenirs and anything fun we might do when we get there (or along the way). Our last trip was $1500...to visit mom and dad. If you look at a trip simply based on cost, I feel that's a rip off compared to WDW. However, the time with my parents, and my kids seeing their grandparents...that is priceless. There is no cost too high. Cost is all in our perspective...as it should be. If someone can afford spending $633 a night and wants to do so, that's great! Not for me. But I'm glad people can enjoy that.

 

[DisneyPrince1982]

The economy took a major nosedive in 2007/8...and tourism took a big hit for a time after 9/11. Seems like neither of those truly hurt WDW and instead we have since higher attendance and costs. I think for many people WDW is an escape from the stresses of everyday life. More so than other vacations. It is so isolated from the real world that you forget about everything else. I think it would take a lot for attendance to suffer.

But remember... in 2008, things were so bad that Disney was offering a 4/3 deal. It was truly the Disney deal of a lifetime. And since then, costs have gone way way way up while the product has more or less stayed the same, possibly decreased because of the change from FP- to FP+. So I'm thinking if the US suffered another horrific economic collapse, things would get even worse for Disney than they did back in 2008 and 2009.

 

[mom2rtk]

But remember... in 2008, things were so bad that Disney was offering a 4/3 deal. It was truly the Disney deal of a lifetime. And since then, costs have gone way way way up while the product has more or less stayed the same, possibly decreased because of the change from FP- to FP+. So I'm thinking if the US suffered another horrific economic collapse, things would get even worse for Disney than they did back in 2008 and 2009.

Disney is very good at reacting to lower occupancy rates or dips in attendance with great deals. That makes it very hard for us on the outside to know when attendance is suffering.

I agree that recent park management has left them quite vulnerable when there is another big economic downturn.

 

[Disneyhappy]

Before purchasing DVC over 10 years ago, we would stay in deluxe and buy length of stay passes. Dining plans were a good deal when they first came out. We looked to add a day at the end of our WDW favorite resort, Polynesian, last year and were floored at the cost per night with an annual pass discount. If we did not own DVC where we enjoy at least breakfast in our room, we would not go nearly as often. Now they took away non-expiring tickets as well. Fortunately, we love Universal Studios and have increased our trips there per year and removed one from WDW. Not everyone will agree with me but we feel we get a much better bang for our buck at US and our favorite Orlando area resort, Portofino Bay with the AP and so much less stress. FOTL passes beat FP+ tenfold. That said, we will always love WDW and continue to go but US continues to get more of our disposable income that previously went to WDW.

 

[momof2n2]

My family is very close to the point. For 8 of us 5-day tix alone are over $2500.
For me I completely evaluate things based on the return I get for my investment. Our upcoming trip is in limbo because I am quite concerned it will not be as successful as our previous trips (due to FP+). If we resuscitate the trip I will most certainly be critiquing and comparing throughout our touring.

 

[Angel Ariel]

The economy took a major nosedive in 2007/8...and tourism took a big hit for a time after 9/11. Seems like neither of those truly hurt WDW and instead we have since higher attendance and costs.

To put it in perspective, attendance in 1991 was 18 million in MK. So at some point, attendance did take a nose dive. It's just in 2013 and 2014 that MK's attendance has surpassed what it was in 1991. Obviously MK has recovered at this point, now that they've surpassed the 1991 number, but I was honestly surprised when I read that chart at what the attendance history really was for WDW. Sadly, Epcot doesn't seem to have recovered the way MK did according to that chart. It would be nice if TPTB would put some money into Future World updates.

Source

 

[TXHauntedMansionFan]

But remember... in 2008, things were so bad that Disney was offering a 4/3 deal. It was truly the Disney deal of a lifetime. And since then, costs have gone way way way up while the product has more or less stayed the same, possibly decreased because of the change from FP- to FP+. So I'm thinking if the US suffered another horrific economic collapse, things would get even worse for Disney than they did back in 2008 and 2009.

I couldn't agree more on the deal of a lifetime quote. That deal was the only way that we have been able to stay at a Deluxe resort at WDW. We did the 4/3 deal and got to stay at the AKL right before Christmas that year. Was an awesome stay with the tree in the lodge etc....probably going to be a while before we get to do something like that again!

 

[DisneyPrince1982]

To put it in perspective, attendance in 1991 was 18 million in MK. So at some point, attendance did take a nose dive. It's just in 2013 and 2014 that MK's attendance has surpassed what it was in 1991. Obviously MK has recovered at this point, now that they've surpassed the 1991 number, but I was honestly surprised when I read that chart at what the attendance history really was for WDW. Sadly, Epcot doesn't seem to have recovered the way MK did according to that chart. It would be nice if TPTB would put some money into Future World updates.

Source

This makes sense. A decade ago, Epcot was by our family's favorite. But each year, I notice we spend less and less time at Epcot and have shifted that time toward MK.

 

[johde]

I'm not sure what my "breaking point" is but I've long past my bending point. As Disney's pricing along with airline costs have changed I've bent my vacation patterns. I own a small DVC contract so my hotel is mostly paid for. When I first got the contract I went 5 nights every year. When MYW first came in I bought 10 day NE tickets and split them amongst 3 trips and started making side trip to Universal/Sea World Etc.

Because of Airline, I'm not going every other year (or so) and doing 8-10 nights split between Disney and Universal. Now, with the removal of the No Expiration tickets my Florida trip are going to change again. The trip I took last January included a 1 day 4 park Disney extravaganza off of some old No Expiration Tickets I still have and the rest of the trip was Universal/Sea World/Busch Gardens. The next big trip will probably be 7-8 Disney days and 1 Universal day off an old Universal comp ticket that never expires. I'm not sure when that will be. I'm looking at maybe taking the next Disney trip to Disneyland again for the second time. My first trip was while DCA was under construction for Carsland.