Has disney crossed the price threshold for most families?

[Miffy]

My answer to the thread title is: No, they haven't.

I say this because you can still stay off-site, where prices are far more reasonable than onsite. In the '70s, when CR and Poly were the only onsite resorts, I couldn't afford them. I stayed off-site. Thought nothing of it. Still always had a great vacation.

My take is that perhaps onsite has become more expensive than many families can afford. If they want to go, they'll stay off-site. Many of these families will have no idea what they're missing, since they'd never stayed onsite. Others won't care--they're there for the parks.

To me, staying onsite is a huge part of the WDW experience. If I get priced out of Deluxes, I'll probably just start staying at Mods. Or stay fewer days or only once a year instead of twice.

WDW has always been a pretty darn expensive vacation. At least, to me it has been.

 

[jennyq87]

I don't know if it's so much as outpricing as not being worth the money it costs.

100% agree with this. It's becoming a value thing.

 

[crisi]

They have been aiming for the “one and done” family for years. There is always a fresh new wave of parents who are willing to spend whatever the Mouse wants and allow Mickey full access to their wallet. Returning guests with APs don’t spend nearly as much per day.

And DVC members (disclaimer, I'm a DVC member), who having bought in, are willing to overlook a lot to keep up their own bias. DVC members - having given Disney a HUGE amount of capital, don't have huge hotel bills when they travel, making the cost of park tickets, dining, etc. seem more reasonable. If I choose to ignore the buy in cost and dues on my DVC, and pretend that I am going to do some cooking in the room to save on cash, I can take my family of four for the cost of tickets and transportation - Disney becomes "cheap" - especially if you live close enough to drive or get bargains on airfare (I live in an expensive airfare city - getting anywhere is not cheap). And the amount of DVC members who do their vacation math this way is not zero.

Another disclaimer.....we've owned DVC for two decades now - and bought in a post 9/11 bargain period. Our initial buy in cost has more than paid for itself and our dues are pretty reasonable since we don't have a huge number of points. So our hotel cost is pretty much down to dues at this point in time.

 

[tinkerbelletreasure]

We also go skiing in Colorado, the price points are similar its 400 for lift passes, equipment rental is $250 the resort is 3-500 a night a coke is $7 and the mountains are packed. So I guess it's just how you want to vacation.

This is how we feel. Every time we decide to do something else, or stay offsite, I start pricing it out and get close enough to Disney prices to decide I’d still rather do Disney. We are looking at going 10/2022 and I priced air B&B houses A few weeks ago. $100/night sounded great until all the cleaning fees and stuff were added and I realized I could stay at POP for $200 more and that’s without any discounts. We generally spend $5/6k for our family of 4 for 5/7 nights at Disney. Hubby and I taking a cruise in April (I hope) and with shore excursions, we are looking at close to $3500 and that’s just for the 2 of us.

 

[ClapYourHands]

It’s not the price; it’s the value. Our family has taken (and will continue to take) vacations that cost more than Disney. But we continue to take them because they’re worth it to us. Disney used to be good value even when it was expensive, but the experience has been downgraded so much that it’s not worth my money or my time. If Disney can (or will?) build it back to (at least near) the former level of service and entertainment, I would probably be willing to pay for it. But right now, it sounds not just expensive but stressful, too.

 

[scrapquitler]

Based on our trips that have included both Disney and Universal, I don't think Universal is any less expensive than Disney is. And personally, I don't think I get anywhere near the value from Universal that I do from Disney, but that's jut my opinion.

 

[sponica]

Based on our trips that have included both Disney and Universal, I don't think Universal is any less expensive than Disney is. And personally, I don't think I get anywhere near the value from Universal that I do from Disney, but that's jut my opinion.

I can blow through Universal in a couple days and I have one kid who hates rides and another who is too short for big rides....so in the future Universal would be a side trip, not the main destination.

I don't care about cost for this trip, I never spent my refund from a cancelled 2020 trip. So in my head I'm only paying 6k for a trip that's longer than our normal stays AND at a deluxe resort.

But I'm also paying more than 40 dollars for every lobster roll this year and have managed to rationalize that

 

[ClapYourHands]

Based on our trips that have included both Disney and Universal, I don't think Universal is any less expensive than Disney is. And personally, I don't think I get anywhere near the value from Universal that I do from Disney, but that's jut my opinion.

I think the cost issue is that you are including both Disney and Universal in one trip. At both parks, a ticket for a day or two is expensive. But at Universal, the price for tickets drops very quickly. The price of a seasonal AP is roughly equal to the cost of a 3-4 day park-to-park ticket. And unlike Disney, UO allows out of state residents to buy all four tiers of tickets, rather than just the most expensive one. I bought 4 seasonal APs to UO for the cost of one WDW AP because I am only eligible for the most expensive one at WDW. I paid $300 each for a 15-month AP (before the last price increase to $350). I did 4 days (plus the evening before) in April, and the same in August. I'm heading down tomorrow for another 4 day trip, but this one is costing me more because we're getting tickets to Halloween Horror Nights. I'm staying just offsite, and my 4 night hotel stay is under $300 with all taxes included. Even when I stayed on property, the cost of a premier resort that included express passes was less than a WDW moderate with my AP discount.

Now the value is entirely subjective. For my family, the value is definitely there. I've taken both trips so far with my 6-year-old who is too short for many rides, and too timid to ride others that she considers "scary." But there are several play areas, kiddie rides, and whole-family rides she loves. Plus UO has multiple shows in full operation, along with interactive elements like the Harry Potter world interactive windows. She gets more out of UO than she would get our of AK or HS right now because of the paucity of gentle rides, and elimination of entertainment. Depending on the evolving character meet and entertainment situation, Epcot may or may not be worth it. Which basically leaves us with MK as a worthwhile destination. For my older kids, one of whom loves all the big coasters, and the other who rides everything except the big coasters, UO is even more worth it because while they are happy to do all the rides at Disney, they like the rides at UO more. My big kids would love to go see GE at HS, but that's a one-day experience, with no guarantee they'd even be able to get on RotR. On our last trip to HS, they adored the Indiana Jones show and made a point of seeking out the streetmosphere actors because they were enchanted by those performances, but those have been cut. Right now UO is delivering a better overall experience for a much lower price point.

 

[ClapYourHands]

Deleted a double post. Sorry - glitchy wi-fi

 

[HopperFan]

I just left my hairdresser who is also a big disney fan. Her family normally goes every year. She just told me that tDisney is crossed off their family list as it has gotten too expensive. I wonder how many others feel the same way. Will Universal Studios be the likely landing place for those who feel disney has become too expensive?

DISNEY: I don't think they have crossed a threshold when we are talking price of tickets. I think the value is still there and honestly that is the only thing I can't control. Have they crossed the threshold on price of hotel rooms - a while ago and now, it is comical what they want for the product they are putting out. Have they crossed the threshold for food and souvenirs - food quality continues to decline while prices rise, souvenirs have always been pricey and I don't see much change in price point but have in range and quality of product offered. We are park centric, we don't travel all the way to Disney to sit in our hotel or spend hours eating TS after TS. Really depends on your idea of a Disney trip.

If a family can not imagine staying off-property, not getting the DDP or doing all table service, or not eating lots of snacks and not doing lots of shopping, then yes the threshold may have been broken for them. There will be other places that give them the value they want for the spending pattern they want. But we have now moved off site and some trips that is free because now I can use points, we try to keep our in park meal down to ONE and we try to be wise in our choosing to not feel ripped off, we barely go in the stores let alone spend lots of money in them and we might do one snack a day. We actually go to Disney for much less $ than we used to because we don't lock ourselves into Disney products. It leaves us money for events and upsells we want to do.

UNIVERSAL: I have Universal Annual Passes and no I don't think that Universal is less expensive. Ticket prices are not much less and they only have two parks as opposed to Disney's four parks. Do the math and that kinda makes Universal more expensive. Universal has minimal table service restaurants so with counter service only your food will be less. Overall I think UO has better quality with bigger servings of quick service. The attractions .... is a more narrow market, definitely older and more thrill oriented. Like I will go in November with just one DS who can't ride everything. IOA - No to Velocicoaster, Dr Doom and Hulk. I don't do water rides or FJ. So we have really eliminated half the attractions when just the two of us. Important to look at what you will get to do for the price. I much prefer Disney, but I don't see them as the same product so try not to compare. I do think Universal hotels are a much better value for your money, especially the deluxe but we continue to stay offsite to save for more trips.

 

[Beer Me]

my favorite parts of the threads that complait about pricing is when they compare Disney to Six Flags......Yeah, same thing. Also, I guess people want the employesees to be paid more and have Disney eat all the increased costs due to supply chain issues on merchandise and even construction. That seems reasonable. Good luck buying a car if you're anchored to what you paid 5 years ago too. My second favorite part is the "we use to go 3x a year but now we're only going twice and won't buy annual passes." So you're going end up paying roughly the same price for admission for the year, multi day ticketsx2 vs. annual pass and the parks will be less crowded overall. Thats like their dream scenario and I always find it hilarious that people that travel from out of state 3x annually previously are balking at prices. You must really be suffering! From the time I was born until 20 we went twice, stayed at a Howard Johnson and took their bus every day after eating in the restaurant downstairs and then a time share another family member gifted us for a week off property. Some of the comments here are so ridiculous it's embarrassing. Many of them are probably being made while drinking a $6 cup of coffee. The lack of introspection here sometimes is really sad. The people who are actually being priced out don't even know this message board exists.

You make some good points (you can’t compare Disney to other theme parks) but Disney prices have far outpaced most other vacation options. I’m trying to do an apples to apples cost comparison to the Disney vacation we took 3 years ago and it’s coming out about 50% higher to book it now. And the experience is arguably lessened now vs then which makes the increases even more unpalatable.

I’m not sure it would be as enjoyable now even taking cost out of the equation. And even if the same unique “magic” exists there is a limit for everyone. Maybe yours hasn’t been hit but there is a point where you would stop going.

 

[BonnieJean925]

It hasn't for me. I will go only every couple of years and will work any new costs into my vacation budget.

 

[DISNEY1975]

Its not the price, its the value. I'll pay $60 for some potatoes and eggs at a character breakfast, but not without the characters (just did at Ohana last month ). Ill pay $600/night at a resort, but not when 70% of the resort is under construction and the "faster" transportation..ferry/monorail is not operating. I'll pay $130/day at the park, but not when rides arent operating and shows are cancelled. I wont pay to ride a ride after paying $130 to get in and I wont wait in a 2 hour line. Even their dining has gone downhill...less for more. I only do more for more!

 

[notatallmagic]

I also think it's a value issue - almost across the board higher prices, with LESS offered. Less hours, less live entertainment, less food quality, less cleanliness, less food options, no DME, less ease of travel (no checked bags to my room), less service (no package delivery to my room), less transportation/longer waits, less enjoyable park time (longer lines and obscene overcrowding this summer), less pool hours, less resort activities, less character interaction - and MORE stress and time needed on my phone - in summary - FAR less magic.

And that was what I WAS willing to pay MORE for. The magic. The immersion. The ability to relax, and surround myself with beauty and joy. That is what my past memories of Disney were all about. The "Disney Magic" and the quality of the cast members and the experience. It is missing now, and although we COULD continued to find a way to visit, it simply isn't the same.

My challenge is to find somewhere where our family can relax and have something close to that type of experience - not sure where to find that. As a single parent (or any parent I would think), one of the joys of Disney USED to be the ability to "un-adult" from the time we got to the airport - I didn't have to drive, didn't have to wrangle luggage or car seats, didn't have to plan (that was all done ahead of time, with much fun and anticipation!!!), didn't have to budget (used to LOVE those free dining plan promos!), didn't have to clean, didn't have to take all the pictures and not be in any, didn't have to carry packages...we ALL got to be "kids again" at this magical place. The new system seems like a nightmare to me. I hate being on our phones on vacation. Blech.

We still have 7 months left on our annual passes, and I cannot get excited about returning. My 15 year old is out - he has no interest in coming back after this summer - and will only come for one "last" trip if I insist. My daughter - the former biggest Disney Fan I've ever met - has not mentioned returning at all since our July disaster. We used to talk about Disney all the time; watch DFB videos almost every day; read Disney news. It's a total shutdown. Their favorite place isn't magical anymore, and that makes me super sad.

So, the fact that neither of them have expressed any interest in returning - despite having Passes? Speaks volumes to me. It's just not worth it anymore - the magic is gone.

 

[SG131]

Its not the price, its the value. I'll pay $60 for some potatoes and eggs at a character breakfast, but not without the characters (just did at Ohana last month ). Ill pay $600/night at a resort, but not when 70% of the resort is under construction and the "faster" transportation..ferry/monorail is not operating. I'll pay $130/day at the park, but not when rides arent operating and shows are cancelled. I wont pay to ride a ride after paying $130 to get in and I wont wait in a 2 hour line. Even their dining has gone downhill...less for more. I only do more for more!

Yeah, I think that's more of the issue for people on the board. The value has decreased while the price has increased so it doesn't seem as worth it anymore. The tickets were worth more than six flags or universal because Disney had superior entertainment and such high standards comparatively. Now, the trash is overflowing much like six flags and other parks even my local Cedar Pointe have stepped up their entertainment, while Disney's entertainment has declined. I'm DVC so I will at least continue going to the hotels, though I no longer buy a park ticket for every day of my trip and will likely spend some trips exclusively at Universal parks once my guy gets a bit taller!

However, I'm that person that talks about Disney a lot in real life too. And for a lot of the people I know that have taken their kid once and would love to take their kid again, it starting to get daunting. Typically, I'm the person saying Disney is so magical it's worth it to try to make it work. But I've stopped saying that. When it takes so much of their savings to go and so much of the convenience and magic is gone, I can't recommend it and a lot of them likely won't end up going back when they previously would have. For the people that are diehard fans or have a decent amount of disposable income, they'll keep coming. But for those that have to forgo multiple years of vacations to afford this one trip, I don't think Disney is special enough anymore to be worth the sacrifice.

 

[wfjny]

I think that most families basically have a budget for entertainment.

For Disney, especially as out of state residents, we could “layer” our discounts.

• We own DVC, used to get a great AP discount
• We have AP, so we could get TiW
• AP also gave us free parking if we stayed off-site

I think Disney was a good value for us. And that was the case for years. It was only a few years ago that what we paid for our platinum AP was about $100 more than a 7 day parkhopper.

In the past 11 years, we only “skipped” the WDW AP twice. Once was the year my oldest daughter got married. I had to slash the entertainment budget that year. The other time was when we did our Cedar Fair “rollercoaster Tour”, where we visited most of their East Coast Parks over a couple of weeks.

As we start getting less value for our dollars, we will continue to re-evaluate.

But I also look at what I was told when I worked my way thru school working in a supermarket (too many years ago). Substitution. People will still eat. People will still go to the supermarket. If times are tough, people may buy skirt steak instead of ribeye, or hamburger instead steak. They may buy spaghetti instead of chop meat.

What I have noticed with us. We tend to go to Olive Garden instead of Biergarten for half the price. We try to get food from Publix. We stay off-site more. Perhaps we leave mid-day and hit Nathan's instead of Casey's. In other words, we are finding ways to do things cheaper. I am sure many people are in a similar boat. But when we do that, then that is less money heading to the Disney coffers.

While Disney may keep appealing to the top of the market people, I think they sometimes miss, we are the bread and butter people. Sure, we are not dropping $3500 on a VIP tour, but we keep coming back. However, as we make the moved from Biergarten to Olive Garden, that will probably be more of a permanent change. Which means Disney misses out on that $400 dinner that we would do several times a year.

 

[FutureMrs.Incredible]

Disney crossed the price threshold for MOST American families long ago - especially regarding regular trips which is the norm on the DisBoards.. The median American household income is $61k. Half of Americans don't bring in more than $61k into their households. The average rent on a ONE bedroom apartment was $1000 a month.

I think this hits the nail on the head. For the average American family, yeah, it is too expensive to go more than once. I would be interested to know what the average household income is on the Disboards, because I know from personal experience that Disney is expensive when you go every year...

We are lucky that we make good money. We're pregnant with our first (and likely only anyway) child. But we have a ton of student loans and have had to make sacrifices to be able to go to Disney. Our house could use some remodeling, and we don't drive new cars. Its a very expensive trip, but that still won't deter us from continuing to go. Its our happy place, and I would rather sacrifice elsewhere to be able to go to Disney.

 

[robinb]

And DVC members (disclaimer, I'm a DVC member), who having bought in, are willing to overlook a lot to keep up their own bias. DVC members - having given Disney a HUGE amount of capital, don't have huge hotel bills when they travel, making the cost of park tickets, dining, etc. seem more reasonable. If I choose to ignore the buy in cost and dues on my DVC, and pretend that I am going to do some cooking in the room to save on cash, I can take my family of four for the cost of tickets and transportation - Disney becomes "cheap" - especially if you live close enough to drive or get bargains on airfare (I live in an expensive airfare city - getting anywhere is not cheap). And the amount of DVC members who do their vacation math this way is not zero.

Another disclaimer.....we've owned DVC for two decades now - and bought in a post 9/11 bargain period. Our initial buy in cost has more than paid for itself and our dues are pretty reasonable since we don't have a huge number of points. So our hotel cost is pretty much down to dues at this point in time.

We are also DVC members and we paid cash for our contracts, one over 20 years ago. Our only resort expense is our dues and we can stay at WDW for less than $1,000 per week in a studio in a deluxe resort. We rub elbows with people who are paying $2500+ a week for a smaller room. We don't buy souvenirs and we rarely eat at TS restaurants. As a general rule, we don't pay for extra upcharges. We don't do after hour parties or dessert parties (with the exception on the MK on 12/30) or tours or specialty dinners (like Fantasmic! and Candlelight Processional) or anything extra. Our wallet is firmly closed to the extra 4-fingered Mouse grab.

Disney is very good at making people spend more money so their vacation can be extra-supercalifragilistic-magical. Many longtime DVCers are immune to that, although it's obvious that we fell prey to it at one time .

 

[thanxfornoticin]

I think this hits the nail on the head. For the average American family, yeah, it is too expensive to go more than once. I would be interested to know what the average household income is on the Disboards, because I know from personal experience that Disney is expensive when you go every year...

We are lucky that we make good money. We're pregnant with our first (and likely only anyway) child. But we have a ton of student loans and have had to make sacrifices to be able to go to Disney. Our house could use some remodeling, and we don't drive new cars. Its a very expensive trip, but that still won't deter us from continuing to go. Its our happy place, and I would rather sacrifice elsewhere to be able to go to Disney.

Congrats on the new one on the way!

You have some excellent points here. People always talk about cost and value when it comes to Disney. But that can be said for many decisions we make in our lives. For you, college was expensive, but you took out loans to pay for it, knowing the value down the road would be great. You don't spend $50K every few years on a new car, because you don't see the value in it. The list goes on for all of us. For us, DIsney is still magical and holds great value. Things are currently cut back at Disney (and everywhere) due to the unpredictable world pandemic. We're giving DIsney a little slack at this point in time due to that pandemic - hoping, and and expecting their offerings will get back to more "normal" in the next year or two. If that doesn't happen, we'll evaluate then. For now, we're still planning for and enjoying Disney entertainment at WDW and DL because it makes sense for us.

 

[bakerworld]

This is really subjective. Back in the 90's our kids were 4, 8, 10 and we really wanted to take them to experience Disney. My mother chipped in the air and transfer to WDW so we could wrangle a 5N/6D vacation. 18 months later I found a small AD in the back of a magazine and managed another 4N/5D vacation. It was another 3 years before we found another way. Now there's just us two and we go 3 to 4 times a year for 4/5/6N stays. My point being Disney has always been expensive and staying on property is always a few hundred extra that staying off-site. People afford what they're motivated to afford and once you've had the experience multiple times some people veer off into another direction.

BIL/SIL use to go once a year. Few weeks ago BIL mentioned that after our cruise sandwich in March they'll be done for a while. SIL just batted her eyes cause a bit earlier she just got done telling me she wanted to take the grandkids in a few years.