Will this Washington Post Article Affect Your Planning?

[larryz]

Why would this article affect my planning? It's an article claiming "They have priced the middle-class families out", which is completely unbased. Middle-class families (young parents of children 3-9) are the bread and butter of Disney World and make up the vast majority of guests and profit to WDW. Think of you. You're going to Disney World. Are you middle class? It may be expensive to take vacations, but it's doable with some planning and saving. I can't stand completely false articles. Could you imagine if the middle class was priced out, and only upper class people were actually able to afford it? The US population is what... 320 million? So the upper class (5%) is 16 million? So if the upper class is 16 million, but Disney World hosts 50 million guests per year, OBVIOUSLY the middle class is not priced out. Even if every rich person in the US went to Disney World every year, that would only make up for about 1/3 of their actual attendance, and that's not even considering Disneyland, Universal, and every other theme park lumped in the "parks like Disney World" blanket statement that would have 0 attendance unless these same 16m rich people are single handedly keeping all theme parks afloat. Silly articles.

Clearly, the article will not affect your planning.

Some people might read it, however, and decide they need to go NOW before any further admission price raises occur. And others may read it and decide it's too late for them.

Still others will identify with the phrase "I don't care how much it costs"... For some, it will entail sacrifice. For others, just a blip in their cash flow.

I highlighted this article to (a) show the mainstream media is starting to note the escalating price structure (sure, in part due to discussion boards like the DIS) and (b) see how that kind of publicity might impact DISers' perceptions of value.

Thanks for sharing.

 

[larryz]

A couple years back we were looking at going somewhere other than Disney. To spend a week at the beach in a rented house was going to be the same as Disney. Granted, we do get military discounts at Disney which help, but I was really surprised when I priced everything out. We're road tripping this year, and our hotel costs for 8 nights is right around $1000. Then there will be gas, food, and entrance fees to the various places we want to see. I can see this easily being around $2500 by the time we're done.

I personally love road trips, especially those that end up at a Disney park... but there's a lot to be said for taking a trip to another destination from time to time.

 

[larryz]

misposted...reserved for a future reply.

 

[CampbellzSoup]

They keep raising the prices every year and now their making record breaking attendance numbers.

I'll tell you honestly I don't plan to go AS often, but it's better. I broaden my horizons and try out new things.

Of all things why raise ticket prices that much when room and food cost too much

 

[WillAustin]

Of all things why raise ticket prices that much when room and food cost too much

They need to get the offsite guests too.

 

[Flight]

If the middle class has been priced out and the parks are attended by huge numbers, who are these people?

 

[Jennytoon]

I went once as a kid. We stayed at a budget hotel, and I can remember looking at the Contemporary like it was nirvana.

I think this is a very slanted article. It focused on premium experiences, which are not the norm ... the bungalows for instance.

It feels like the author wanted to write about how expensive DisneyWorld is, and found examples to support that ... which, let's face it, is not hard to do. However, we don't do VIP tours or stay in $2,000 per night bungalows. We stay offsite and buy multi-day tickets.

I agree -- I was in a fighting mood reading this from line 1, where they noted that admission cost about as much as 3 gallons of milk in 1971, but failed to also note that that admission fee covered the park only and not the rides (which were extra) and therefore cannot be directly compared to the ticket prices of today. Sorry, but this kind of deceptive journalism never makes me that interested in the author's point even if it does turn out to be valid.

 

[BuckeyeBama]

Nothing new here. I will stop going when Disney crosses the line with me, and they haven't come close yet - in pricing or anywhere else.

 

[akaDaddy]

Stop me from attending...no. Maybe keep the next generation from attending as often...probably.

The one thing I learned from Disney is they have an exceptional grasp on what they need to do succeed, no matter how silly it seems at the time. From buying up tracts of swamp in seperate companies, to stopping construction on a resort site for almost a decade to being willing to partner with non proprietary licenses like Star Wars, they take want works and improve on it.

As long as there is a demand for their product, they will find a way too...you know the rest.

 

[IndianaRRT]

I've said it before, and I'll say it again--Disney is broad enough to have something for everyone, and IMO, that includes budget. I also think the article has a narrow focus. I do think Walt would be a little shocked at some of the price-tags, but I like to think that he had a business mind to understand the supply/demand for those with that money to spend. One can be frugal (I like to point out our 2010 trip at Pop Century for 6 nights/4 people for less than $2000), or one can break the bank. There are enough resources out there to help anyone have the Disney vacation they can afford.

 

[mummabear]

As many others have said, nothing new in the article and not a great article, concentrates a lot on what you can spend but leaves out that there are cheaper options.
I find it interesting how they "blame" Disney not only for their own ticket prices but also US and SW and then all the way down to SF because of how Dis eu do their pricing

 

[brooke789]

I have to say that most of the Disney stuff seems out of reach for us...and we fall right into the income they list as the average for a WDW family (and say it is 20K above the above family). We have only stayed value and we take our own food, etc. We go budget and really just don't have a choice in that. There is also no way we could do a WDW vacation every year. We'll be doing a trip probably every 3-4 years and do even more budget trips in between! There may be a day when we can't afford a WDW vacation but we'd probably just look at staying offsite, etc before we just totally didn't go!

I grew up poor with a single mom. I literally never heard about WDW. Knew nothing about it and was 30 for my first trip.

 

[loves to dive]

I voted no and am firmly in the middle class. We started going when I was a single mom to a 3 year old. We would go every other year because it took me two years to save, back then there was no such thing as value and moderates and we stayed on site. In the year we didn't go to Disney we would always go somewhere else, the beach, the mountains and usually it was a couple of long weekend trips a year instead of a week long one. My 3 year old is now 35 and married and just recently bought DVC, he is military she is a pharmacist and they have no kids and love going. I go at least once a year now and sometimes twice a year, I admit when I go twice a year and am going solo I do split stays with the first day or two either at a value or moderate and the last 3 or 4 nights at a deluxe and I do look for bargains. Renting DVC points, going on Orbitz during the time when Disney is offering discounts and combining with Orbitz discounts. I also have an AP and get discounts in price when I renew and even do that through AAA to get a little discount. An article would never influence my decision to do anything, just as an ad on TV would never influence my decision to buy something. Is it possible prices will get to the point I can't go as often as I do, yes it's possible. Is it possible prices will get to the point that I would never go back, that is a big no.

 

[Ladyfish77]

No for now. I would re-think if they did tiered pricing. I think they will find that they will lose revenue in some parks due to people choosing one over the other. The beauty of the park hopper is it distributes visitors throughout the parks and gives people the option of visiting multiple parks in a day to make more of their ticket prices.

I've seen some pretty creative ways here and on the FB pages of how families save and plan for their vacations. It is expensive, but it is possible to find ways to make it work (camping, 5 to a room, off-site stays, using disney visa, disney vacation accounts, etc).

 

[HiHoWeGo]

Most kids never go... I'm sure for a variety of reasons but one is definitely cause the parents didn't want to pay for it.

Or, couldn't afford to pay for it.

I think the article fails to mention that it is entirely possible that a similar percentage of families today are priced out of a Disney vacation as were priced out in 1955. Disney has always been the "Caddy" of the amusement and theme parks, at least for as long as they've been in the business. While a $3-$4 ticket sounds quant and reasonable today, back then that was a good bit more money for a family to part with than it is now. And the top 1% have never had financial reason not to attend the Disney parks.

 

[LATJLP]

It doesn't change our planning to go, but over the years we have definitely adjusted our plans to keep within a budget. We've only stayed onsite 3 times.....4th will be this September for free dining and our shortest length ever. We made the realization early on that we could afford to stay onsite for a short trip, or stay offsite and stay for longer....kids opted for longer stay.

We used to eat at TS a lot more often....now we pick a couple favorites and eat at our rented vacation home more often. We have always shared meals, so that hasn't changed, but as the kids have grown older the three of us are up to 2 meals between us (used to be able to get 1 and an appetizer).

We don't do the special ticket events nearly as often......we will be there in September for the MNSSHP, but won't be attending.....we're still debating whether during our Nov/Dec trip we'll go to MVMCP. The cost is one factor, of course, but it's also that there just isn't the magic that was around a few years ago....too much merchandising, selling upgrades, and a lot less attractions. We visit often enough that ride with short lines aren't a reason to pay $70 for a party....used to be the meet and greet and shows had us coming back....shows are few and far between, and the lines for the characters means you get two or three in an entire evening. Eh....the kids are old enough now that it's a "nice" but not a must anymore. Thank heavens the M&G lines for Princesses were relatively short when they went through that phase!

We'll still go, I'm pretty sure.....but we'll do a lot less eating onsite, a lot less special events, and stay offsite. So, from our perspective, Disney is shooting themselves in the foot...higher prices and they're not getting more of our money, but less....and yet we still use their parks. Given the number of days that we attend each year, our AP is less than $10 a day......so when we only spend average of $30 a day in food for the three of us....that works out to about $20 a day for each of us. Pretty cheap for all the entertainment we get. By staying offsite and eating 2 of the 3 meals at "home"...Disney loses our money. If it wasn't 3x as expensive to stay onsite, we'd do it.....but the 11 days of Sept free dining is costing us about the same as we will be paying for 37 nights in Nov/Dec.

 

[midnightlouise]

Will it affect my plans? Yeah, probably to an extent. We are very definitely in the middle class (to be honest, we're probably on the lower end while I'm in grad school) and I have noticed that each time I plan, the trip costs us more, factoring in inflation vs cost of living raises, than the last trip. We'll still go if prices keep increasing, but if the status quo remains the same, we won't stay as long, we'll be staying at a different resort, and we'll be leaving the parks to eat.

 

[FTM22]

I don't believe WDW is the only thing which has risen in price over the past years. It seems to me that everything everywhere has increased in price.

As far as I am concerned, WDW is my favorite place to be for a vacation. I find it safe, enjoyable, fun, and magical. Yes, there are other places I could go and yes they might be less expensive. But when I go to WDW, I FEEL the magic and I can't say that about anywhere else I have been. It was that way on my very first trip when there was only MK. It's where I wanted to go for my honeymoon. It's been where I always want to go when asked for an opinion.

As for right now, we have gone multiple years in a row because of good health for my mother and the opportunity to make memories. Life is about experiences rather than stuff. WDW is the best place for an experience to me.

 

[PirateD]

I don't think that the article itself would change our plans but I did find it somewhat sobering. It made me not worry about being priced out of Disney, but more about how at a certain point I just might not even care because it is beyond what I can justify. Some things are already there for me. For example, we have eaten at CRT several times prior to 2012. This trip we didn't consider it as reasonable to pay for a meal there and none of us even care that we aren't going. Another example is the Wishes Dessert Party. At $25 per person, I would have considered it as a special treat for my family. At $50, I see it as a huge waste of money and it truly becomes unappealing to me. My thought is not even if we would have the money, but more how could sugar and fireworks ever seem worth $500 for the 10 of us. It's funny what a price tag can do to your attitude! (Sometimes clothes are not as cute when I see the price!) I think grabbing a Mickey bar and catching the fireworks from Fantasyland sounds like more our style! There are still plenty of other options at WDW that do seem worth the value that we are excited to do and I know we will have a great time.

This is just my own personal opinion and feelings. I know that others may see the value in some of those things and it may be worth it to them and I don't have a problem with that. I just wanted to share my perspective. I hope that WDW does continue to have options for everyone. I love Disney and as PP have posted, I believe that our family can and will look for ways to continue to go, but I can't help but to wonder if at some point even "value" might feel like it's exorbitant--at least in price.

 

[BudgieMama]

I had friends who went to WDW as a child, and they would all have been upper middle class, rather than generally middle class. Working class families like mine had no hope or dream of making it to WDW (at least in my experience- I'm sure some did, but it wasn't the norm).

For what we get on a Disney holiday, we find good value for money. To know alll out accommodation/transportation once we're there/food/entertainment is sorted is very pleasant, and 2 weeks for us as 2 adults traveling in August works out around $4000 for us. As long as Disney keep putting together good packages and offers for us, we'll try to come back.

What will price us out is the airfare. We will need to budget around the same again for the flights. I work in a school, so we have to travel at peak times, and we can only ever fly in economy, which isn't a lot of fun for 9 hours, and there's only so many routes or airlines to try before we can't afford any of them and the grip becomes unviable. Not a day I look forward to.