Is Disney too expensive for us Brits?

[WelshMorgan92]

I've been pricing up trips and the average of all the trips to disney for 14 nights with tickets (with virgin).. By the time I'd add on airport parking, transfers etc. + spending money we are at about 10% of our household income which seems crazy. Am I the only one feeling this tight?

This is without adding genie+, LL etc

 

[Rach P UK]

I know how you feel, it's painful. We've been a lot over the years and this is the first time (have a 2022 trip planned) I've questioned the worth. I think part of it for me is the anxiety around the many changes that have happened since we were last allowed to go. If the trip is like the last time (and the times before) we went, I would be more than happy to pay. But I'm worried it's slipped into being unjustifiable with a lot of the 'x factor' and the magical parts stripped back.

I've always said it's worth it as one of life's luxuries, but I'm worried I'm not going to be able to say that anymore. I badly hope I'm wrong though!

 

[RossK]

I guess it's a very personal question and situation. Prices have gone up, but this isn't confined to Disney. e.g. the price of cruises has increased significantly. Holidaying right now is just more expensive because the world is still in turmoil, with supply chains and general international movement of anything is still quite fragile. It's more a question of "are two week holidays to expensive destinations fair value right now". Disney has always been very expensive when compared to, for example, a two week stay in a villa in Spain. Both of those types of holidays have risen in price, but one is considerably more affordable (as has always been the case!).

Personally, if I did not have DVC, then I highly doubt I would continue with an annual vacation to Disney. But this is less about the affordability, and more about the perceived value. In my view, the price has risen and the experience has worsened. That's a fairly tough pill to swallow. For example, on my last trip in 2019, I felt that my experience in most Disney signature restaurants was poor. The food was generally "just okay", the service in general was lousy (every server seemed to have just far too many tables), but meals were priced similarly to one or even two Michelin stared restaurants, when really it just felt like you were treated like cattle. And that really does seem to be the theme with Disney right now - you are just cattle to be herded around by Disney Genie. It's a lot of money to pay for that experience.

That all being said, things tend to go full circle. The magic will be back, at some point.

 

[TikiRob]

Well, 14 days is 4% of the year so just don't do anything for 20 other days this year! #DisneyMath

 

[Brett Wyman]

I mean 14 days is a LOOOONNG trip. Maybe it should be compared to 3-4 years worth of income?

 

[RossK]

I mean 14 days is a LOOOONNG trip. Maybe it should be compared to 3-4 years worth of income?

Can I take a guess that you're American and not a Brit?

A 14-day vacation is very standard for us Brits, so its not considered unusually long here - just the norm! And particularly Florida, a 14 or even 21-night stay is (or was!) very common! Your average Brit has 25 days of paid vacation days a year (with some getting 30 days as standard). I actually have 35 this year, so even after three 14-night vacations, I still have an entire week left over for the holidays

 

[Karin1984]

No, I don't think Disney is getting too expensive for Brits. I think Disney gets too expensive in general. I'm in Europe with the same problem, but on the other boards, you hear Americans complaining about the same. Disney is getting more and more a place for people with money.

Comparing my 12-day solo trip in 2012 with my 11 day friend-trip in 2015. I remember the price was about the same or a bit more expensive even. In 2015, I had a day less, I split my hotel costs and I had a normal instead of deluxe dining plan (Lot of money went to tips with all those table services in 2012!) In those three years the prices had gone up already. Now it's another 7 years later for my next trip and yeah... it's getting expensive. We got a good deal for 7 days, but the price is far away from my 2012 trip.

Besides the good deal, we did chose a shorter trip on purpose, to have more vacation days left to see other parts of the world.

 

[Ruttangel]

2 weeks Port Orleans with Genie +tickets for family of 4 last 2 weeks of August £5.2k, food /drink between £1.5k and £2.5k, Flights £2.5k. Transfers £200
Being frugal you could do this for £10k, that's a heck of a cost for any holiday let alone a Moderate hotel.
Same package with flights and free dining about £6k only a few years back.
Asking UK guests to find £4k extra is tough

that's obscene, that is

 

[csimon]

Out of interest, I was looking up past ticket prices that I've paid:

2014: 14-day for 7: £272
2018: 14-day for 7: £399
2019: 14-day for 7: £399

Going forward:

2022: 14-day for 7: £586 (£489 plus £98 for Genie+, the facilities of which were included before, although it's more restrictive now and you might have to pay even more for select FPs.)

 

[Ruttangel]

Out of interest, I was looking up past ticket prices that I've paid:

2014: 14-day for 7: £272
2018: 14-day for 7: £399
2019: 14-day for 7: £399

Going forward:

2022: 14-day for 7: £586 (£489 plus £98 for Genie+, the facilities of which were included before, although it's more restrictive now and you might have to pay even more for select FPs.)

Universal 2 park 14 day ticket £120pp in 2015 now £275pp, also crazy. Got to remember the wonderful impact of Brexit on the dollar rate as well.

 

[Plague]

Got to remember the wonderful impact of Brexit on the dollar rate as well.

But that is history now. It did drop hard at Brexit time early 2020 but it's been not too bad (in the 1.3s-1.4s the last year or so.
On a quick search these are stats* from Oct 2009 to now:
Highest: 1.7161 USD on 02 Jul 2014.
Average: 1.4523 USD over this period.
Lowest: 1.1492 USD on 19 Mar 2020.

Yesterday the rate was 1.358 USD which is 6.5% below the average since 2009.

[ * Full GBP USD exchange rate history (ExchangeRates.org.uk) ]

 

[gismo1554]

I think this next 12 months are going to be expensive for anyone wanting to travel. That said I've had 2 years worth of holidays in effect cancelled so am lucky to still be able to afford to travel. I appreciate that for some the cost seems daunting but I keep thinking of it was 3 holidays in one and then it feels more manageable. I think anyone travelling this year either needs to wait until last minute before booking any sort of travel in which case they may get a decent price or needs to accept the extra cost. I really don't see prices being around pre-pandemic levels even for bargain destinations like Spain for 2022.

 

[Lilsia]

I think that you guys got some pretty good deals in the past through vacation packages. Disney is not really offering much discounts at the moment and it is expensive for everyone. And I agree that every place is expensive now. I am planning on going to London next year and hotel prices are getting really high there also.

 

[Ruttangel]

But that is history now. It did drop hard at Brexit time early 2020 but it's been not too bad (in the 1.3s-1.4s the last year or so.
On a quick search these are stats* from Oct 2009 to now:
Highest: 1.7161 USD on 02 Jul 2014.
Average: 1.4523 USD over this period.
Lowest: 1.1492 USD on 19 Mar 2020.

Yesterday the rate was 1.358 USD which is 6.5% below the average since 2009.

[ * Full GBP USD exchange rate history (ExchangeRates.org.uk) ]

You can't include past 5 years in a long term average, the real comparison 5.5 years either side of Brexit is
Pre-Brexit 1.58
Post-Brexit 1.32

 

[Plague]

You can't include past 5 years in a long term average, the real comparison 5.5 years either side of Brexit is
Pre-Brexit 1.58
Post-Brexit 1.32

The real problem with all these is that Brexit and pandemic were almost coincidental. It's virtually impossible to say what changes are due to either.

If you look at this graph for the last 50 years it was around 2.5 in 1970 and, with a few big fluctuations here and there, has been generally declining since then.


The last several years is really just part of the noise.

I think the bigger problem is that inflation has been pretty low for many years now and the pandemic has put a big, sudden increase through which is really obvious - and painful.
And Disney was expensive anyway - food prices are just insane.

 

[Ruttangel]

The real problem with all these is that Brexit and pandemic were almost coincidental. The last several years is really just part of the noise.

I think the bigger problem is that inflation has been pretty low for many years now and the pandemic has put a big, sudden increase through which is really obvious - and painful.
And Disney was expensive anyway - food prices are just insane.

You normally talk a lot of sense but that's nonsense, Brexit was 4 years earlier and the pandemic hit all economies equally.

 

[Plague]

You normally talk a lot of sense but that's nonsense, Brexit was 4 years earlier

If you are taking brexit back to the referendum on 2016, then yes there was slight hit. (Though on the chart above it looks to have started down a few years before that even.)
But it's been bouncing around the 1.2-1.4 level for about 6 years since then (actually up a bit recently), so you can't really say the price rises of the last year or two are because of that.

the pandemic hit all economies equally.

I don't have any data for that, but I'd be surprised if it did/does since the government reactions to it have been so different.

 

[Deebee_7]

Sorry to comment on here as a non-brit (I live on the continent). I also booked a holiday to disneyworld 2 years ago and then moved it up 1 year and then again 1 year. I must say that compared to going april 2019 as initially planned, our trip does not cost much more now in 2022.
I guess it's the choices you make as well. I booked a package through a well known disney travel agent in Ireland. Includes 14 day disney pass (no genie +), POP century for 7 days, villa rental for another 9 days, car rental for 9 days and plane tickets for all 4 of us. Total cost = 5800 pounds. Ok, still a lot of money but not much more then you would spend on another holiday for 4. We still have about 350 pounds in meal voucher/gift card to spend.
This is not more than our holiday in 2019.
And yes, I could have made a more expensive choice in disney resort but I figured we would be in the parks all day so just needed a place to sleep with good skyliner access.
I was hoping for free dining as this will be an extra cost compared to 2019. And I realise other perks also fell through but it's everybody's choice to determine if it's still worth the price then.

 

[PeachyBubba]

I do believe at some point flights and car hire will go back to pre-covid prices or very similar. I don't see Disney doing the same unfortunately, and their prices now are the new norm. On a personal level, I've never seen the attraction of a family sharing a small hotel room for 14 nights and so always booked off site in an actual house. Doing it this way has massively kept costs down especially as we always go in the 2 week Easter break when the weather is great, rather than August. I manged to get flights for 3 adults & 1 child with car hire, a 3 bedroom townhouse and 14 day Disney world passes for just under £5,600. It's still way too much and there does become a point when enough is enough and this year may well be my last for a long while.

 

[Ruttangel]

I don't have any data for that, but I'd be surprised if it did/does since the government reactions to it have been so different.

There are many indicators including that Both the federal reserve interest rates and Bank of England interest rates have been between 0 and 0.25% during pandemic.

If you are taking brexit back to the referendum on 2016, then yes there was slight hit.

A slight hit? a full nuclear attack more like