Middle Class Priced Out???

[golke]

The cost to go to disney for a family of 4 has become ridiculous. Our last trip was around 7,000 for a week.

Our last trip we stayed at an all star resort and ate fast food and it came out to around about 3,000 total. Pretty affordable option for a middle class family. I don't understand why people like the pricier hotels. If you are hitting the parks you hardly spend any time back at the room.

 

[crisi]

Our last trip we stayed at an all star resort and ate fast food and it came out to around about 3,000 total. Pretty affordable option for a middle class family. I don't understand why people like the pricier hotels. If you are hitting the parks you hardly spend any time back at the room.

There is a lot you don't know about the budget - its isn't necessarily pricier hotels.

For us, our family of four is $2000 in airfare (we live in Minneapolis, its an expensive airfare city - about $416 before taxes, fees, luggage charges, etc. per person is usually where I end up). We are four Disney adults - five day base tickets are another $1600+. We haven't booked a room yet, or bought a single Mickey Bar, and we are already over your $3k. Now the airfare isn't something Disney controls, but its included in the price of my vacation.

 

[Darcy03231]

Our last trip we stayed at an all star resort and ate fast food and it came out to around about 3,000 total. Pretty affordable option for a middle class family. I don't understand why people like the pricier hotels. If you are hitting the parks you hardly spend any time back at the room.

A lot depends on the size of your family and where you're traveling from. I just did a mock reservation and for a family of four (2 adults, 2 children ages 7 & 9) for a week in the least expensive All Star resort with 6 day base tickets is $2500. From where I live it would run a minimum (if you're lucky) of $1000 to fly. It's usually closer to $1200. You're now up to $3500-$3700 before you've bought food, souvenirs, etc. Even going on the extreme cheap side for that (QS dining only, no character meals), the family probably going to spend another $1000.

Another misconception is that "you hardly spend any time back at the room." For me, I like to hang out at my resort. We're doing a 4 day/3 night trip post-cruise this summer and I only bought a 2-day park hopper ticket. We enjoy our resort (this year its AKL). We've had multiple trips and don't feel the need to be in the parks from opening to closing. Even when my kids were young and we usually built at least one resort day (of not two) into our trips.

 

[janicept]

Honestly I don't know how people with kids have money for much of anything without going into debt. I guess that's why people might only go once every three to five years. Not having kids has saved me a lot of money. Don't get me wrong that's not why I didn't want kids . It all depends how you want to spend your money. I would like to believe that if I did have kids and didn't make much money I would take them on vacation but probably not Disney. I grew up in a family where my Mom was a school teacher and Dad was disabled and couldn't work - below middle class. We went to Disney once for maybe one day but I have very little memory of it I and don't recall seeing pictures of it either. Most of the time we would go to the beach and stay at cheap motels which was fine for me. I'm glad my parents didn't try to go on expensive vacations they couldn't afford as it helped me know how to manage my money better. I would say my husband and I have more upper middle class incomes so vacation money is not an issue. We are more limited by vacation time off at work but still we try to spend less money when possible. For Christmas we get tons of gift cards for restaurants that we can use in Orlando. We buy APs to save money on parking and other perks they provide.

Our vacation recently was 11 nights. We drove from Charlotte so we had a car and didn't need to rent one and saved money not having to buy airfare. We stay in our condo so we were able to stay for 11 night and pay only $75 for them to clean it. Oh course there are carrying costs of about $800 a month but we do get some rental income to offset. I bought the dining plan with my SeaWorld AP so we would eat there for lunch and split the half chicken or chicken fajitas. We might have spend $100 (not including gas) on food outside of our gift cards for the entire time there. Super cheap if you think about it. Of course I end up going five times a year for 11 to 9 days each trip so our APs are worth every penny. My husband thinks I'm crazy but I consider vacationing a hobby .

 

[lorac4disney]

I haven't read all of the responses, but I believe that there is a middle class price out going on to some degree. When I first went to WDW in 1998, costs were lower, but so was our income. A trip to WDW costs a larger chunk of our disposable income back then.

Fast forward a decade. WDW's advertising and target market shifted. You start seeing ads on TV for this incredibly cheap and affordable trips to WDW. If my memory serves me right, they were advertising a 5 day trip for a family of 4 for less than $2000.

So what happened? The floodgates opened. Everyone was packing into WDW. The parks use to be crowded, but there was a whole new level of people packing into the parks. It was insane.

But something else happened. The "specialness" factor dropped. Big time. Since everyone could afford to go to WDW, they did so. In great numbers. New resorts continued to be built to accommodate them and the already stretched resources (such as bus transportation) was stretched even further to deal with it all.

So fast forward another decade. If anyone has a business background, you will know that Disney's business model is founded on a growth formula. They have to keep the income growing or their investors suffer by not getting the return on their investment like they expect and demand. IOW, they expect to make money when they buy Disney stock. Since they have played out the option of bringing in more people, their only option left is to make more money on the existing traffic that are coming in. So they have chosen to nickle and dime their customers through paid perks while raising prices where they can.

So to me, WDW is doing nothing more than cleaning up from the many years where they made Disney vacations affordable for everyone. Now the prices are playing catch up. Just as not everyone could afford to go to WDW in the days of old, it is returning to those days where most people can't afford a trip to WDW yet again.

Let's face it. A trip to WDW would not be special if everyone can afford to go. Trips to WDW are still possible for the middle class, but it is also possible to spend as much as you could possibly want on a Disney vacation. If you are going to spend more, you can bet you expect to have a better experience and you expect to do things that are beyond what the masses enjoy.

 

[havaneselover]

Well Disney just became more $ reasonable then Universal, who just went up to $160 pp/day with no price break until the 3rd day ... and Universal has a lot less to do than Disney. If you take the time to research and plan, or hire a good travel agent .... Disney is still the better bet for 4+ days of family amusement for all ages. This is coming from a family who travels in our RV a lot and does multiple amusement parks per year. Although Disney better get some more high power rides soon or my 9 yr old roller coaster fanatic son is going to want to stop coming.

Not for me. For $800 I got park-to-park 14-day three park tickets for myself and my two children. $800 will buy me two days of WDW tickets I believe.

 

[Revf]

In some ways all vacations have been priced out of reach of middle class families.

I priced a week at a cheap to middle income beach vacation...$3000+ for 1 bedroom condo that hasn't been updated since the 80s.

Six Flags Over Texas is approaching $60 per day per person plus parking!

Water parks, the same.

Yes airfare has gotten way too high. I have a family of five. We cannot afford to fly.

 

[jsmla]

I would say we've also been "valued out" as well. Our kids are grown and out of the house and DH isn't a fan so most of my trips are solo these days. I remember paying something like $125/night for the Yacht Club/Contemporary as recently as 2010. (2010 was a banner year-1 week split between the Contemporary and Yacht Club and another week CL at the Grand Floridian!) These days it's Pop Century or offsite. I don't really need luxury at WDW and would rather save that kind of money for when it will buy something truly spectacular at another destination.

I love the ease of staying onsite but I can get a week in an offsite condo for <$300. I usually drive and have an AP so the free parking and DME on-site perks go unused. Especially as I find very little value in the Disney eateries these days (To be fair, I've never been a huge fan.) the convenience of a kitchen is slowly coming to outweigh the luxury of easy park transportation for me.

 

[MillauFr]

Honestly I don't know how people with kids have money for much of anything without going into debt.

It helps to live in a city with high salaries. Our household income would be cut in half if we moved to a city with lower salaries.

 

[Mrs. Ciz]

I haven't read all of the responses, but I believe that there is a middle class price out going on to some degree. When I first went to WDW in 1998, costs were lower, but so was our income. A trip to WDW costs a larger chunk of our disposable income back then.

Fast forward a decade. WDW's advertising and target market shifted. You start seeing ads on TV for this incredibly cheap and affordable trips to WDW. If my memory serves me right, they were advertising a 5 day trip for a family of 4 for less than $2000.

So what happened? The floodgates opened. Everyone was packing into WDW. The parks use to be crowded, but there was a whole new level of people packing into the parks. It was insane.

But something else happened. The "specialness" factor dropped. Big time. Since everyone could afford to go to WDW, they did so. In great numbers. New resorts continued to be built to accommodate them and the already stretched resources (such as bus transportation) was stretched even further to deal with it all.

So fast forward another decade. If anyone has a business background, you will know that Disney's business model is founded on a growth formula. They have to keep the income growing or their investors suffer by not getting the return on their investment like they expect and demand. IOW, they expect to make money when they buy Disney stock. Since they have played out the option of bringing in more people, their only option left is to make more money on the existing traffic that are coming in. So they have chosen to nickle and dime their customers through paid perks while raising prices where they can.

So to me, WDW is doing nothing more than cleaning up from the many years where they made Disney vacations affordable for everyone. Now the prices are playing catch up. Just as not everyone could afford to go to WDW in the days of old, it is returning to those days where most people can't afford a trip to WDW yet again.

Let's face it. A trip to WDW would not be special if everyone can afford to go. Trips to WDW are still possible for the middle class, but it is also possible to spend as much as you could possibly want on a Disney vacation. If you are going to spend more, you can bet you expect to have a better experience and you expect to do things that are beyond what the masses enjoy.

I totally remember those commercials. $1600 for a family of 4 for a week (6 nights in a Value Resort, 2 adults, 1 junior, 1 child)! The one below is my favorite (posted to youtube in Jan 2007). It got me on the WDW website pricing trips and begging my DH to let us go! Took a couple more years to convince him, and when we did finally go in 2010, we stayed in an offsite condo.

This is also from 2007:
Hungry for some fun? Now you can book this 5-night/6-day Walt Disney World®
vacation package for only $455* per adult. Enjoy Theme Park tickets,
and get the Disney Dining Plan FREE, a savings of over $194 per adult.**

Kids stay for a great rate, too. $223 - junior (10 – 17) / $184 - child (3 – 9)

 

[Sabathamk]

In some ways all vacations have been priced out of reach of middle class families.

I priced a week at a cheap to middle income beach vacation...$3000+ for 1 bedroom condo that hasn't been updated since the 80s.

Six Flags Over Texas is approaching $60 per day per person plus parking!

Water parks, the same.

Yes airfare has gotten way too high. I have a family of five. We cannot afford to fly.

Neither can we. Our trip goes up by $4000 to fly and rent a van. That is insane.

I would say we've also been "valued out" as well. Our kids are grown and out of the house and DH isn't a fan so most of my trips are solo these days. I remember paying something like $125/night for the Yacht Club/Contemporary as recently as 2010. (2010 was a banner year-1 week split between the Contemporary and Yacht Club and another week CL at the Grand Floridian!) These days it's Pop Century or offsite. I don't really need luxury at WDW and would rather save that kind of money for when it will buy something truly spectacular at another destination.

I love the ease of staying onsite but I can get a week in an offsite condo for <$300. I usually drive and have an AP so the free parking and DME on-site perks go unused. Especially as I find very little value in the Disney eateries these days (To be fair, I've never been a huge fan.) the convenience of a kitchen is slowly coming to outweigh the luxury of easy park transportation for me.

I actually find that the rates for hotels in Florida are a lot cheaper than here where we live. I won't stay a night at a hotel here because it is easily $120 for something that has a pool. If I want a room that can accommodate a family of 6, looking at $160-210+. We found a place for less than $100cdn that accommodates our whole family PLUS has continental breakfast and is pretty similar a chain to the ones that are $180 or more up here (haven't booked yet. Want to weigh our options first and decide a little more). The Pop on Disney property is the normal price for a hotel of much lesser value here.

 

[manning]

Another misconception is that "you hardly spend any time back at the room." For me, I like to hang out at my resort. We're doing a 4 day/3 night trip post-cruise this summer and I only bought a 2-day park hopper ticket. We enjoy our resort (this year its AKL). We've had multiple trips and don't feel the need to be in the parks from opening to closing. Even when my kids were young and we usually built at least one resort day (of not two) into our trips.

Sitting at the pool watching the bikinis go by is cheap.

 

[azdisneylover]

Out of curiosity how do people here think Disney can reduce demand if they don't increase the price? Sell tickets by a lottery system? The biggest problem with Disneyworld and Disneyland are they are too crowded.

I don't know about Disneyworld, but I do know, get rid of payment plans for APs for Disneyland, that would make a difference in the crowd size. Prices in Disneyland, Anaheim, CA have gone through the roof, while the quality of the parks have gone down. The little details, rides, food, gifts, etc exclusive to Disneyland are disappearing bit by bit and being replaced with standard/substandard stuff.
It seems the suits keep grabbing what ever is the cheapest and replacing it in the parks. It it isn't broke, DON"T FIX IT. Value is dropping faster and faster.

 

[MillauFr]

I don't know about Disneyworld, but I do know, get rid of payment plans for APs for Disneyland, that would make a difference in the crowd size. Prices in Disneyland, Anaheim, CA have gone through the roof, while the quality of the parks have gone down. The little details, rides, food, gifts, etc exclusive to Disneyland are disappearing bit by bit and being replaced with standard/substandard stuff.
It seems the suits keep grabbing what ever is the cheapest and replacing it in the parks. It it isn't broke, DON"T FIX IT. Value is dropping faster and faster.

Not sure I agree that the quality of the parks have gone down. If anything I think they are making great improvements. Carsland is top notch. Also Disneyland has far better rides than Disneyworld in Florida.

Disneyland should eliminate annual passes. The demand situation at Disneyland is critical and they are risking a disaster if they don't control the crowds.

 

[MKCP5]

It's like everything else in life. People choose an opportunity cost. I'm choosing to go on a reunion trip with other college program alumni and splurging on treehouse villas at Saratoga Springs. That means I won't take a big vacation with DH this summer. Just a weekend away and a family wedding trip. And I am very grateful to be able to do these things, There was a time where it would not have been possible. There was a time where the choice would have been vacation or food on the table for the family. Vacation or paying that months rent. Everything in life has an opportunity cost, whether it is in time, money or emotion. You just need to choose wisely and recognize that not everyone gets to do everything. Is it fair? Nope. But it's how life is.

 

[Traveling on cc points]

Our last trip we stayed at an all star resort and ate fast food and it came out to around about 3,000 total. Pretty affordable option for a middle class family. I don't understand why people like the pricier hotels. If you are hitting the parks you hardly spend any time back at the room.

There is nothing wrong with staying at an all star resort and eating fast food every meal if that works for your family. To me, that is not a vacation. Part of what we enjoy on vacation is the amenities that the "pricier hotels" offer. I can't speak for everyone but one of the big reasons we choose to pay more for the room is less children. I realize that this is disney and there are going to be children but there are far less screaming children at the pool at grand floridian than at all star. As for the food, I am a strict vegetarian and it is very difficult to find meals at the counter services that fits my needs. (With the exception of food & wine at Epcot) my biggest complaint about disney is their lack of vegetarian options at their counter service restaurants. If disney were to have a subway or moe's that would change out budget completely.

 

[tzolkin]

Well Disney just became more $ reasonable then Universal, who just went up to $160 pp/day with no price break until the 3rd day ... and Universal has a lot less to do than Disney. If you take the time to research and plan, or hire a good travel agent .... Disney is still the better bet for 4+ days of family amusement for all ages. This is coming from a family who travels in our RV a lot and does multiple amusement parks per year. Although Disney better get some more high power rides soon or my 9 yr old roller coaster fanatic son is going to want to stop coming.

Why do you believe Disney is more reasonable on ticket prices?

Universal
1 day Park to Park ticket is $165
5 day Park to Park ticket is $295

Disney
1 day Park Hopper ticket is $170 ($174 peak season)
5 day Park Hopper ticket is $445
(prices above do not include tax)

Plus, you can find discounted tickets for Universal that you can't for Disney. We recently purchased 5 day PH tickets for Universal for $253 (tax included). That's over $200 less than Disney ($474 w/ tax) per person. So for our family of 5 the tickets alone were over $1000 cheaper than Disney.

 

[Jake&IzzyLand]

Why do you believe Disney is more reasonable on ticket prices?

Universal
1 day Park to Park ticket is $165
5 day Park to Park ticket is $295

Disney
1 day Park Hopper ticket is $170 ($174 peak season)
5 day Park Hopper ticket is $445
(prices above do not include tax)

Plus, you can find discounted tickets for Universal that you can't for Disney. We recently purchased 5 day PH tickets for Universal for $253 (tax included). That's over $200 less than Disney ($474 w/ tax) per person. So for our family of 5 the tickets alone were over $1000 cheaper than Disney.

Where did you find the discount tickets? That's a great deal!

 

[Darcy03231]

Sitting at the pool watching the bikinis go by is cheap.

I'll be sure to let my husband know!

 

[havaneselover]

Where did you find the discount tickets? That's a great deal!

I got 14-day three park park-to-park tickets for $270 including tax. I bought from Park-tickets.com but they apparently were only supposed to be selling Explorer tickets to UK residents.