Disneyland: Priciest Place on Earth

[serendipityaey]

There simply wasn't the massive local population back thenthat there is now. It's pretty simple.

Plus a local discount?

 

[Aurora0427]

The Smart Water at Disneyland is $9. That's robbery. I think the Dasani comes to about $5 with tax. That's not AWFUL. I've seen $8 for a 20oz bottle of water at a concert recently.

We never buy water at Disneyland. We bring insulated plastic sports bottles and refill at the soda fountains.

Food at Knotts is both more expensive and FAR worse quality. I've never been so disappointed with a plate of chicken tenders and fries in my life as I was at Knotts.

LOL never ever buy smart water. Ha. If we get stuck, we buy Dasani but we really try and bring water bottles and refill.

My 6 year old had mild food poisoning from Knotts….. the food is SO gross. Disneyland has really perfected the art of good quick service. It’s much better than WDW, although WDW has much better table service options!

 

[dieumeye]

This is something a lot of people don't understand. Airfare costs have gone down dramatically which has increased the number of travelers by a huge amount. We grew up going to WDW in the 90s but we drove every year.

Older chart but gives a good reference for just how much airfare costs have fallen:
View attachment 697111
Source: https://www.theatlantic.com/busines...50-in-30-years-and-why-nobody-noticed/273506/

If you look at Disneyland attendance year to year, it really started taking off since 2005 in a way that it hadn’t prior. That lines up really nicely with where airfare bottomed out after 2001-2004. So airfare might be playing a large role.

I’d be curious what percentage of Disneyland visitors over the years use air travel.

I’m also curious if the rising cost of “airfare with fees” will impact attendance. Certainly there are people on here who have complained about current airfare cost. Maybe that rising airfare cost is contributing to the recent unfavorable attendance mix?

 

[DCLMP]

This is something a lot of people don't understand. Airfare costs have gone down dramatically which has increased the number of travelers by a huge amount. We grew up going to WDW in the 90s but we drove every year.

Older chart but gives a good reference for just how much airfare costs have fallen:
View attachment 697111
Source: https://www.theatlantic.com/busines...50-in-30-years-and-why-nobody-noticed/273506/

If you grew in the 70's and 80's this is why you did family road trips.

 

[Ladyslug]

I have a few ideas as to why it may not have been as busy in the past.

First, getting there. Most people who went to Disneyland in the long-ago past didn't travel too far. There weren't super cheap flights with easy access to DLR like you can find today, and most families just didn't travel like that.

Second, many families were still single income.

Third, family dynamics in the past were not the same as they are today. Families vacationed differently--it was much less common to stay in hotels, have expensive meals, etc. Going to Disneyland was, for many (most?) families, a one-day experience.

This was my family. Of the (small number of) times went to Disneyland when I was a kid, it was because we were already visiting family friends in San Bernardino and we could stop by Disneyland for a day visit on the drive back to the Bay Area. We could pay for the day ticket (there was only one park at that time so no question about park-hopping), lunch, and maybe a small souvenir, but that was it. It was never a special trip on a plane with a hotel stay and a multi-day visit, that's for sure.

 

[DizMe]

This was my family. Of the (small number of) times went to Disneyland when I was a kid, it was because we were already visiting family friends in San Bernardino and we could stop by Disneyland for a day visit on the drive back to the Bay Area. We could pay for the day ticket (there was only one park at that time so no question about park-hopping), lunch, and maybe a small souvenir, but that was it. It was never a special trip on a plane with a hotel stay and a multi-day visit, that's for sure.

Mine too. We didn't live that far away (100 miles) but we rarely went more than once a year, and even though my grandma lived pretty close to DL (Huntington Beach), it was always only a day trip to for us.