News Story: Has the cost of Disney World become unaffordable for the average American family?

SteveH

Where's my Mai Tai?
Joined
Sep 8, 1999
Has the cost of Disney World become unaffordable for the average American family?

Pretty good look at the costs at Disney from FoxBusiess - interesting comments by Jason Cochran from Frommer's guidebook, as well as a lot of things DIS regulars already know. The key comment from him that bothers me most about the current Disney trajectory is Has a Disney Vacation "become something that's only for the wealthy, or the upper-middle class." As well has concerns about how of the vacation cost is just getting heaped on to a Credit Card.
 
The thing is that Disney is always been a high-end destination, but it was within reach of your upper-middle and middle class families, at least for the ocassional trip. However, the middle class has been shrinking for some time, and that leaves more people on one side of the line or the other. Right now it doesn't matter because there are definitely still enough people who can afford to go and want to go (clearly based on crowd levels), but that equation may change if things continue to push in the direction they are going. It's also something that may self-correct if Disney sees a downturn in business from wealthier travellers who may not want to continue to go for whatever reason - they will then court the middle class again (or what's left of it) with dicounts, etc. It's hard to know how it will all play out though. I tend to think it will settle into a reasonable place eventually, but right now it sure is getting crazy!
 
Has the cost of Disney World become unaffordable for the average American family?

Pretty good look at the costs at Disney from FoxBusiess - interesting comments by Jason Cochran from Frommer's guidebook, as well as a lot of things DIS regulars already know. The key comment from him that bothers me most about the current Disney trajectory is Has a Disney Vacation "become something that's only for the wealthy, or the upper-middle class." As well has concerns about how of the vacation cost is just getting heaped on to a Credit Card.

I'm concerned that folks will just keep debt spending by throwing things onto credit cards.
 


We decided that our July trip will be our last at WDW. We can still afford a WDW trip but we find the value isn't there anymore. For the same price tag we can go to Hawaii, Europe and even Asia so that is what we will do.
 


If you can spend 10 thousand on a Disney vacation you can’t tell me there’s no where you can’t save money lol we’re a family of 5 and I’ve never spent more than 4000 total for everything. Like every penny.

If Disney has people budgeting 7-10k to go there why would they not oblige?
 
I'm sorry but if you are concerned about making a vacation affordable, choosing the $945 dollar a night hotel room is not it.
I don't disagree, but there are a few segments to the story, my greater concern when I read the article wasn't about the first family it's when a regular Disney person like Jason Cochran starts talking about affordability.

My gut says if you are even somewhat willing to pay $945 a night you've lost the argument on caring about being affordable 🤪
 
It's like the Be Our Guest is now 62 dollars for lunch.... That is crazy!
Agreed that is ridiculous. Especially when there’s no character interaction or anything to justify that price point.

But there are more affordable options. I wonder if Disney is hesitant on bringing back dining plan because they’re getting people to pay higher prices right now
 
These stories pop up all the time and like PP said, was DW ever affordable? Nope. I've been going since the early 80s. I was a single mom in a lower middle class/upper lower class salary range (I was a secretary in a small Georgia town). I usually saved for two years for my son and I to go for a week. We always stayed on property, which back then was deluxe MK resorts and the campground. It was much easier to stay on property as a single mom then to try to stay off property, I tried it once. During those two years of saving the only vacations we would take would be long weekends to places within driving distance. We did a lot of visits to the local park, a lot of sharing happy meals and a lot of toys from the dollar store. My son was always aware of why we were saving and was very much all for it. So, no, it has never been affordable. It just depends on what you want to spend your dollars on. Can you travel to places overseas for less? Maybe but for certain people for certain reasons that is not always an option. It was less expensive for us to drive to Disney then to fly out west in the US, driving was not an option because that would take up most of our vacation time.

Currently, going outside of the US isn't an option for me. Hubby hates to travel except for long weekends in our RV. Because of his job, we can't take it cross country because he has to be available at a moment's notice to be anywhere within the southeast. He doesn't like going out of the country, we have been on dive trips to the Caribbean and the south Pacific but because of our current dog, those trips are not an option. He will never travel to Europe, has no interest. So if I wanted to it would have to be solo since my son is grown with a child of his own now. I have travelled over seas and would love to continue to do so, but it's just not in the books for me.
 
Disneyland/DisneyWorld was ALWAYS this 'dream vacation' growing up in the 70s and 80s in my middle-class neighborhood. Only about half of the kids in my school ever went. Half the kids never went as their parents couldn't afford it.

I would bet it was something like this:
50% of kids went once or twice in their entire high school years
5% of kids went 'every' year
45% NEVER went

I was part of the 50% which my parents saved and saved for YEARS to be able to take us once every 8 years. And when we went, we stayed at All-Star-Movies or off-site, even camping to save money. Never went to a restaurant that needed advance reservations. In fact the only restaurant inside Disney I ever remember going to was the Sci-Fi Drive-in restaurant.

It was a LUXURY, and it's always been.

Harper's Magazine actually did a study and found that 70% of people had been to Disneyland/DisneyWorld at least once in their lifetime. 30%, or ONE THIRD never go their entire lives. So, in my estimate if 55% of people went while in school, only 15% more ever went after finishing school (like as adults for the first time).
 
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I see articles on this topic and people making comments about the price of a Disney vacation really frequently. And yes, Disney World is for sure a pricey proposition.

Buuutttt..........unless you're talking about going to your local KOA for a weekend, vacations in general are expensive. We have looked into going to places like Gatlingburg, Chicago, and Washignton, DC and it never seemed like the price of going to those places was much different after you add up hotel costs, food, and entertainment.

And forget about skiing. That is every bit as expensive as Disney World.

I marvel at the people who say they can go to Europe or Asia for the same price as a Disney vacation. For our trip to Europe this fall airfare is $1400 each. That's a lot of park tickets.
 
Sorry I was searching and was in wrong thread… deleted and will post in childrens Disney face mask thread…
 
Fox News seems to have an agenda against Disney. But at the current price of a WDW vacation, I wouldn't expect the working class family to be able to afford to go without some good budgeting. You can cut a lot of corners, but that also means you're not likely to experience the better rides without considerable wait times right now.

As for brand damage, we'll have to wait and see.
 
Disneyland/DisneyWorld was ALWAYS this 'dream vacation' growing up in the 70s and 80s in my middle-class neighborhood. Only about half of the kids in my school ever went. Half the kids never went as their parents couldn't afford it.

I would bet it was something like this:
50% of kids went once or twice in their entire high school years
5% of kids went 'every' year
45% NEVER went

I was part of the 50% which my parents saved and saved for YEARS to be able to take us once every 8 years. And when we went, we stayed at All-Star-Movies or off-site, even camping to save money. Never went to a restaurant that needed advance reservations. In fact the only restaurant inside Disney I ever remember going to was the Sci-Fi Drive-in restaurant.

It was a LUXURY, and it's always been.

Harper's Magazine actually did a study and found that 70% of people had been to Disneyland/DisneyWorld at least once in their lifetime. 30%, or ONE THIRD never go their entire lives. So, in my estimate if 55% of people went while in school, only 15% more ever went after finishing school (like as adults for the first time).

In the 80s, it was super affordable if you didn't stay on property.

https://allears.net/walt-disney-world/wdw-planning/1980s-walt-disney-world-tickets/
 

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