If Disney were alive today, would he like or dislike want his going on in his company?

[MrsCobraBubbles]

Low income people have always been priced out of Disney vacations.

My parents (70 and 72) were not able to vacation at Disneyland when they were growing up. A Disney World vacation was not an option when my sister and I (50 and 49) were growing up.

My son, nieces and nephews have all grown up going to Disney( and on other amazing vacations). Their reality was nothing more than a dream for their parents and grandparents.

Disney vacations have always been out of reach for many.

You're right. I only went once during my childhood, and that vacation was paid for by my grandfather because my mom couldn't afford it. But I feel like the prices have risen steeply recently. Just took my daughter for her first trip for her 7th birthday and the trip cost almost twice as much as we paid for my son's 7th birthday trip 8 years ago. We stayed on-property both times, at a moderate hotel for my son's birthday trip and a value hotel for my daughter's trip. We had 6 day park hopper tickets for my son's trip, 6 day base tickets for my daughter's trip. We bought the meal plan for my son's trip, no meal plan for my daughter's trip. I could go on but I think you get the idea; both trips were scheduled during the value/off season and I cut costs where I could but our more recent trip was significantly more money. Inflation hasn't risen that much in the last 8 years.

 

[barkley]

Disneyland admission was $1 in 1955. Rides cost 10-30 cents. Maybe 9x that to account for inflation. I remember even as far back as the 1980s we always thought of visiting as relatively affordable.

i think it was much more affordable 'back in the day'. we never did specific disneyland vacations when i was a kid but if we were visiting family we might be able to go b/c our parents could opt to pay admission but not tickets for themselves which made it much more affordable for middle income households (we saved all our unused tickets to use on subsequent visits so that offset cost too). i also remember that back in the 70's (maybe into the 80's?) disneyland held some evening events that had no/low entry fees (dixieland jazz concerts, some big band dances). none of the rides were open but there were dining options that people availed themselves of. it got people into the parks and spotlighted the performers. heck, i remember when you could call blue bayou at disneyland, order food to go and they would call up and leave your name at the front gate so you could get free entry to pick up your food.

it just felt more accessable vs. now where it's all or nothing w/park entry and then high costs for special events.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

Even with $1 admission, there were low income families that couldn't afford that WANT.

Your experiences were not the same for every family in America. In the 80s, Disney was just a dream for me and pretty much everyone I knew. Disney did not become a reality for me until I was firmly planted in the middle class.

It’s on a whole different level now. My dad made $.75/hour as a teenager in the 1950’s. In a single day, he’d have made enough to take the whole family, and maybe ride some rides. Not so, today. The biggest expense used to be getting there. Not so anymore. I don’t know what Walt would have thought about it, but in the early days even a very poor family could scrounge up ticket money if they happened to be in the neighborhood. Maybe they couldn’t have stayed in the hotels or ridden a ton of rides. But, if they were nearby, they could get IN. Today, a family of 4 is looking at neaerly $500 just to get inside the gate ONE TIME.

I consider myself pretty solidly middle class. And the last time we had a free day in Orlando, we all decided we just couldn’t justify the cost of a single day in AK.

 

[LSUmiss]

It’s on a whole different level now. My dad made $.75/hour as a teenager in the 1950’s. In a single day, he’d have made enough to take the whole family, and maybe ride some rides. Not so, today. The biggest expense used to be getting there. Not so anymore. I don’t know what Walt would have thought about it, but in the early days even a very poor family could scrounge up ticket money if they happened to be in the neighborhood. Maybe they couldn’t have stayed in the hotels or ridden a ton of rides. But, if they were nearby, they could get IN. Today, a family of 4 is looking at neaerly $500 just to get inside the gate ONE TIME.

I consider myself pretty solidly middle class. And the last time we had a free day in Orlando, we all decided we just couldn’t justify the cost of a single day in AK.

But I do think more ppl from different economic backgrounds go now. Maybe that says more about spending habits than anything. But I also think it’s b/c of how you can make payments etc. I hardly know anyone now who has not been at least once & that includes low income clients whom I have worked with. And now ppl from upper middle class families go multiple times a yr when they used to go just once every few years.

 

[luvsJack]

Even with $1 admission, there were low income families that couldn't afford that WANT.

Your experiences were not the same for every family in America. In the 80s, Disney was just a dream for me and pretty much everyone I knew. Disney did not become a reality for me until I was firmly planted in the middle class.

To be fair, that would be the case at any price. I don’t think anyone meant that every single person would be able to afford it. But now it’s out of reach for a lot of people, even many who have been before.

 

[luvsJack]

It’s on a whole different level now. My dad made $.75/hour as a teenager in the 1950’s. In a single day, he’d have made enough to take the whole family, and maybe ride some rides. Not so, today. The biggest expense used to be getting there. Not so anymore. I don’t know what Walt would have thought about it, but in the early days even a very poor family could scrounge up ticket money if they happened to be in the neighborhood. Maybe they couldn’t have stayed in the hotels or ridden a ton of rides. But, if they were nearby, they could get IN. Today, a family of 4 is looking at neaerly $500 just to get inside the gate ONE TIME.

I consider myself pretty solidly middle class. And the last time we had a free day in Orlando, we all decided we just couldn’t justify the cost of a single day in AK.

I was just pointing that out to Dd (they are planning a quick trip in a couple of months). Now the biggest expense is getting IN the parks. Not the travel, not the room, not even the over priced food.

 

[L&Lfan]

My biggest expense is the deluxe room. I find a multi day park pass quite reasonable. It’s the deluxe hotel rates that are killer. JMO

 

[luvsJack]

My biggest expense is the deluxe room. I find a multi day park pass quite reasonable. It’s the deluxe hotel rates that are killer. JMO

But that is a choice. You could stay moderate or value (keeping it IN Disney). If you want to go in the parks you don’t have as many options. But I do get what you are saying. Deluxe rooms are a bit ridiculous in their cost

We have stayed Deluxe once. Couldn’t justify the cost for a bed lol. We only see the room right before we fall into bed and swooping around in the morning to get out the door.

 

[Cannot_Wait_4Disney]

I feel like Walt would disapprove of the way lower income people are being priced out of Disney vacations. !

This is an example of why the question what would Walt think or what would Walt do isn't really the right question to ask. Instead let us ask what Walt did.

A lot of people would like to think that Walt would disapprove of poor people being priced out. However, he never built a value hotel at Disneyland and had no plans to do so at WDW. Plus, he is on record as not liking the value hotels that sprung up around Disneyland. We'll never know what Walt would think of WDW's value hotels now. But we do know what he did then. And what he did then doesn't indicate he'd disapprove of some people being priced out.

 

[Cannot_Wait_4Disney]

Disneyland admission was $1 in 1955. Rides cost 10-30 cents. Maybe 9x that to account for inflation. I remember even as far back as the 1980s we always thought of visiting as relatively affordable.

To ride everything once, and there were a lot fewer rides then, for one adult would cost $8.70. That is $80.33 today. That is considerably less than a one day ticket today. But still not cheap by the standards of 1955 either. And that doesn't cover food or lodging. Sure if you wanted to just go in to say you were there, it wasn't too bad. But to do the things we do today plus food and hotel wasn't cheap.

 

[Sandeep1]

To ride everything once, and there were a lot fewer rides then, for one adult would cost $8.70. That is $80.33 today. That is considerably less than a one day ticket today. But still not cheap by the standards of 1955 either. And that doesn't cover food or lodging. Sure if you wanted to just go in to say you were there, it wasn't too bad. But to do the things we do today plus food and hotel wasn't cheap.

I'm going to guess that food was considerably cheaper (adjusted for inflation) in the 1950s than it is today.

 

[kaytieeldr]

He'd be almost 118 years old and probably not much care.

 

[vacationer1954]

What do you think?

I think it is way too easy to project one's own biases onto someone else, and effectively put words/thoughts into their mouths. I think it takes a lot of work, and perhaps too much work in the context of a forum post, to really put one's self into the mind of someone else, and then live as that person for the 52 years that that person didn't actually live through, which is a necessary step to actually project what that person's opinions would be today.

I don't think he'd be upset about the cost of the place. The company was never a charity and a day at the park is less than 25% more expensive, adjusted for inflation, than it was when Disneyland opened. That's a fair premium for how much more popular the idea of theme parks and the Disney characters are. And the food was less expensive, and it was much lower quality food than is offered today. People were far less concerned about gluten and saturated fat and artificial preservatives and such 60 years ago.

And I don't think he'd be upset about quality. He'd recognize that the quality of the park is as high as it was in comparison to the competition as the park was when he was in charge.

And Walt would be a really bad leader and bad manager if he micro-managed every single creative decision his creative people make. Of course, he had a reputation for that. Early in the thread someone speculated that the company wouldn't exist. They probably meant because of financial reasons, but I could see it happening because Walt himself brought the the place down by failing to improve his own skills, and as a result alienating so many of the creative people.

 

[luvsJack]

I think it is way too easy to project one's own biases onto someone else, and effectively put words/thoughts into their mouths. I think it takes a lot of work, and perhaps too much work in the context of a forum post, to really put one's self into the mind of someone else, and then live as that person for the 52 years that that person didn't actually live through, which is a necessary step to actually project what that person's opinions would be today.

I don't think he'd be upset about the cost of the place. The company was never a charity and a day at the park is less than 25% more expensive, adjusted for inflation, than it was when Disneyland opened. That's a fair premium for how much more popular the idea of theme parks and the Disney characters are. And the food was less expensive, and it was much lower quality food than is offered today. People were far less concerned about gluten and saturated fat and artificial preservatives and such 60 years ago.

And I don't think he'd be upset about quality. He'd recognize that the quality of the park is as high as it was in comparison to the competition as the park was when he was in charge.

And Walt would be a really bad leader and bad manager if he micro-managed every single creative decision his creative people make. Of course, he had a reputation for that. Early in the thread someone speculated that the company wouldn't exist. They probably meant because of financial reasons, but I could see it happening because Walt himself brought the the place down by failing to improve his own skills, and as a result alienating so many of the creative people.

Except it’s not. The lack of quality seen in the new Toy Story area is not high in comparison to their competitors. Not at all.

And there are areas that many have seen as drops in quality while competitors are staying or increaseing these areas.

I don’t believe those things would have happened under Walt.

Perhaps you mean he would not have continued to improve his skills? Because he did improve his skills during his earlier years. And he paid for his animators to improve their’s.

 

[Skellingtonj]

These types of posts never go well. I remember the outrage over Starbucks opening in magic kingdom. Now it has the longest lines. Things change, people change. No one can say one way or the other how he would feel.

 

[FlightlessDuck]

I'm not sure what the point of this mental exercise is. Walt was a man of his time. He'd have just turned 117 last year. What would 117 year-old Walt think of Disney now? Or are we asking if 50 year-old Walt traveled to 2019 what he would think?

 

[FlightlessDuck]

These types of posts never go well. I remember the outrage over Starbucks opening in magic kingdom.

And those reactions totally ignored all of the corporations that were in Disneyland in the 50's and 60's, anyway. Like the Carnation Ice Cream Parlor or the Sunkist Citrus House.

 

[L&Lfan]

Or Aunt Jemima’s Pancake House.

 

[Klayfish]

I'm not sure what the point of this mental exercise is. Walt was a man of his time.

Seriously. Even if we brought 50 year old Walt into 2019, we'd have no clue what he really would think. It's a vastly different wold. Besides, none of knew him personally.

You could pose the same hypothetical question in a different way. What if Walt were 50 years here and now and the Disney Company didn't exist. Would he still build DL and plan WDW in todays' world?

 

[Floridaman999]

Whatever he thought, I'm sure he'd be spinning. I hear he does that a lot.