Disney Parks are hurting....

[Amy&Dan]

Yes, Disney parks are definitely hurting. WDW is offering the "stay four nights get three nights free" on lodging and tickets. I wonder is DL doing anything comparable? I know their discounts are always different.

25% tax increase would put me in the poor house.

Casey's Mommie: That pic of your daughter hugging Goofy is so cute! Disney could use that to promote their parks, it just says it all!

 

[MickeyNikiNaka]

5-10% is nothing! Our lovely mayor yesterday announced at 25% tax hike.

Good ol' DB knows how to make everything better!

 

[Dory'sMom]

I can't believe how many Calgarians are on here...

 

[MickeyNikiNaka]

I can't believe how many Calgarians are on here...

That's because Calgary is where it's at!

 

[JenDisneylandlver]

It sure does add up, especially when you are literally scraping together money to do things anyway, which many folks are. It adds up the opposite way too, in terms of discounts - for example, on my recent trip in October, we ate 7 meals over the course of a 3-night stay at the PPH, with about 1.50 days spent in the parks, and the rest of the time spent in DTD or one of the other hotels. After using my Premium AP (which I got for $191) for seven meals and a couple of very small purchases, I came home with about $40 - $45 extra bucks in my pocket that I wouldn't have had without the discounts. So a few bucks here and there over the course of just a few days can add up, either in terms of saving money when you have a discount or paying out extra when the taxes are raised. Disney's all around prices are so high anyway that the higher taxes will make a bigger dent in everyone's wallets, and those dollars will add up in multi-night trips.

So, perhaps a lot of people will either start looking at the offsite hotels to stay in, or just taking shorter trips, or less frequent trips - like every other year instead of every year!

Oh I agree, there are ways to do it cheaper. We do more budget trips then we do staying on site for that reason. Otherwise we wouldn't go every year.

I just think of the people that I talk to who can't go at all because they can't afford it. Makes me sad that some of their kids never have seen DL.

 

[kiwitravel]

Everything's going to go up initially as short sighted managers try and cover their reduced income with higher prices, but eventually as the recession really hits prices will start to come down as demand dries up, its the same every recession.

 

[Sherry E]

Oh I agree, there are ways to do it cheaper. We do more budget trips then we do staying on site for that reason. Otherwise we wouldn't go every year.

I just think of the people that I talk to who can't go at all because they can't afford it. Makes me sad that some of their kids never have seen DL.

I wonder if all the folks struggling to go to DLR are going to start using the cheaper ways to go, staying offsite, and then that will ultimately result in an increase of the cheaper prices? I wanted to come out of my 6-year Disney slumber by doing a couple of onsite hotel stays last year, which I did, and then, if possible, try to do a couple more this year. Not sure yet if the December plan will work out - it is tentative. And then I think that will probably be the last hurrah for a while. I MAY try to do an offsite HoJo's stay down the line, maybe by myself or something, but I mainly wanted to get in good handful of trips with DLR hotel stays before I have to go back into DLR hibernation again! I got in three trips between last year and this past October, and December is yet to be determined!

I know what you mean about the folks who can't go. I have a friend who lives in New Orleans and he and his family have been really struggling financially since Katrina, and he has two boys who have never been to DLR at all (or even WDW, which is closer to them, but that would be really out of their price range for now) and there are no immediate plans for them to go. They simply cannot afford it at the current Disney prices, no matter what hotel they stay in (even the cheapest of the Good Neighbor hotels would be too much for them right now) or whatever way they whittle the cost down. It just can't be done. Lord knows I don't have a pot to p*** in financially, but I even offered to get some little souvenirs for my friend's boys when I was at DLR because I felt so bad that no one is able to take these poor kids to DLR and maybe they would like to have a Buzz Lightyear DLR thingy or a Cars knick-knack of some kind, or whatever. My friend turned down the offer. He said he felt that giving them stuff from DLR like that would only raise their interest in wanting to go to DLR, and he didn't want to do that until he knew he could take them! He didn't want to "rub Mickey Mouse in their faces" and then not be able to take them yet! I felt so bad about it!

Aren't there times where you just wish you had a whole bunch of money - not for yourself, because we all want that for ourselves - to be able to just hand to another person and say, "Here is a gift from me. Buy yourself a house," or whatever? (Like that person/people who just tipped the waitress in their restaurant $14,000 to help her with her money problems. Amazing!)