Still the happiest place on earth ... not in my experience.

[Beachclubmum]

I still find Disney a good value, as compared to other entertainment. A round of golf at Harbour Town is in the $200+ range. That round lasts about 3 hours. For about $100 you can get 12 hours (or more) in the Disney parks.

 

[TravelTime]

I have no impression that anyone here has put down disney because it is fake. People have said too crowded, too expensive, and a few say it is just not for them. I believe those are all valid reasons to not go to disney. Also you will have to explain to me what you mean by less healthy,artificial experiences. I honestly have no clue. People like different things. We took family vacations backpacking. Most people would consider that torture and would pay not to do it.

This is a general criticism I hear. Less healthy, more artificial might be Las Vegas or a mega cruise. I guess you could lump Disney into mass market vacations like Las Vegas and mega cruises too actually. Also any city vacation is quite artifical since cities are all manmade.

 

[TravelTime]

You know, everyone always is complaining about how expensive Disney is, but how does it compare to other popular family all-day entertainment activities?

So being from Colorado, skiing is a major entertainment activity around here. Guess what? Lift ticket prices make a day a Disney seem like a bargain!

Vail, Beaver Creek’s single-day, window lift ticket price breaks $200

And that is just the lift ticket. Then you need to add in equipment rental / costs, parking, food, etc. A family of 4 could easily have to drop $1000-1200 for a day's entertainment -- and that just for 6-7 hours! Puts Mickey to shame.

Kurt

Yes good point. We have a season pass to Squaw and a season locker. That is $3000+ a year and depending on the weather, we may or may not get our money’s worth. We still have not skied this season. Not to mention the thousands it costs to buy or rent gear. At Squaw a one day gear rental is about $60 a day. A few hours of group or private lessons can easily put you out hundreds of dollars. I have not even mentioned room and board. That could easily put you out $1000+ for the weekend.

The ski lockers at Squaw are sold out and they have a waiting list now. Otherwise we might consider giving it up but we have a locker in “prime real estate” at the base of the mountain in front of the ski lifts. I call it our ski condo.

 

[TravelTime]

I probably should stop commenting on pricing issues. I am not that price sensitive if I feel there is some value. I made reservations to go to WDW later this year and I signed up for 4 private tours - 3 at Animal Kingdom and 1 at Epcot. I also signed up for a bunch of signature restaurants as well as an Epcot dinner/concert combo experience with reserved seats for the concert. I doubt most people would do all this due to the extra expense on top of tickets/passes, rooms, and meal expenses. I also stay at 1 bedrooms even when I travel by myself. So I am certainly not economizing in any way and my opinion on prices is skewed entirely. It is time for me to acknowledge this to myself. Living in the SF Bay Area, it is very easy to get a warped view of the world.

 

[Brett]

I probably should stop commenting on pricing issues. I am not that price sensitive if I feel there is some value. I made reservations to go to WDW later this year and I signed up for 4 private tours - 3 at Animal Kingdom and 1 at Epcot. I also signed up for a bunch of signature restaurants as well as an Epcot dinner/concert combo experience with reserved seats for the concert. I doubt most people would do all this due to the extra expense on top of tickets/passes, rooms, and meal expenses. I also stay at 1 bedrooms even when I travel by myself. So I am certainly not economizing in any way and my opinion on prices is skewed entirely. It is time for me to acknowledge this to myself. Living in the SF Bay Area, it is very easy to get a warped view of the world.

point taken. There is a range of disposable income among TUG members
When I travel to Florida next month (birds and wildlife, not WDW) I may stay at a Super 8 Motel and not a 5 star resort. And I stay a few days for free at a relatives house.
But occasionally I get a room at a Marriott when there is perceived value

 

[mdurette]

As a DVC owner, I am not finding the DVC forum to be very helpful. It saddens me to read the misinformation that is posted, mainly for future Tuggers who may become misinformed as a result.

I think the best forum for DVC owners is mouseowners.com

 

[Crafty71]

At least they haven't started charging to beat the queue like the other parks, yet.

And you say that because...?! Have a look at this:

https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/en_CA/events-tours/vip-tour-services/

Cheers!

 

[joestein]

Is the middle class booming, or just racking up CC debt?

Racking up CC debt. It seems that people don't care what they spend if they can afford the monthly payments.

 

[presley]

I am a Disneyland junky and I agree with everyone who says it costs too much and is too crowded. Whenever the prices go up, I think I won't renew my pass. I always end up getting a new pass a few months after mine expires. It doesn't matter how much it costs. I usually only visit for a few hours and that's enough time for to check out of all the agonies of life for a while and be refreshed to get back to all my responsibilities.

 

[paxsarah]

I still find Disney a good value, as compared to other entertainment. A round of golf at Harbour Town is in the $200+ range. That round lasts about 3 hours. For about $100 you can get 12 hours (or more) in the Disney parks.

And if you're like us, our typical ticket is more like a 7-day non-hopper, which can currently be had for $403 from UCT - so for less than $60 a day you get seven days in the parks. I know this is part of the trap that they keep you in the bubble, because at that point it's cheaper to add a day to the ticket than to go do some activity outside of Disney, but we're okay with that. And we leave after that seven days still saying, "Wow, we never got around to doing X attraction that we wanted to do." We certainly don't run out of things to do with a week in the parks.

 

[WVBaker]

Racking up CC debt. It seems that people don't care what they spend if they can afford the monthly payments.

I may be in the minority but, I don't believe credit card debt is always bad. Perhaps that vacation at Disney is just what the doctor ordered.

You must respect any debt, borrow only when you need to, and borrow with purpose.

 

[joestein]

The prices don't necessarily keep me out. However, the perception that the wait times have gotten out of hand and that fastpass plus system makes it very difficult to get onto the popular/new rides does keep me out.

Maybe a VIP tour is the way to go. I am not sure what the cost of that entails. Is it $1000/day extra?

I did go to one of the Halloween parties at MK this past August. I thought it was pretty good. A decent value plus limited people in the park. I would do that again at one of the other parks.

 

[Magic1962]

Its funny to read most people complain about the higher prices... same thing about RCI... Timesharing in general... folks what did you pay for a gallon of gas when you started driving? how much did you pay for groceries? how about your first home? this is the cost of life... you can partake or not... I will partake... Dave

 

[paxsarah]

The prices don't necessarily keep me out. However, the perception that the wait times have gotten out of hand and that fastpass plus system makes it very difficult to get onto the popular/new rides does keep me out.

I think this is more of a perception than a reality. We've been happy to exchange into SSR on our last couple of trips, but if we stayed elsewhere and had to book fastpasses at 30 days instead of 60, I think there are about five rides that we wouldn't have been able to get fastpasses for - the two new Toy Story rides (which actually weren't open for our last trip, but I'm including them because they are now - edit: I just checked, and actually only the coaster is unavailable at 30 days from today), the Avatar flight simulator, the Mine Train - and maybe it's only 4 after all (actually, it's possible at the time that the Avatar river ride wouldn't have been available at 30, but they are now). (Obviously Star Wars will add to this list.) We make full use of our fastpasses and rarely wait more than 20-30 minutes for an attraction (and usually much less). There is not a lot of need to stand in a standby line during prime hours if you use the fastpasses available to you and either arrive early or stay late.

 

[bluehende]

Its funny to read most people complain about the higher prices... same thing about RCI... Timesharing in general... folks what did you pay for a gallon of gas when you started driving? how much did you pay for groceries? how about your first home? this is the cost of life... you can partake or not... I will partake... Dave

Challenge accepted

I paid about 40 cents a gallon in 1972 when I started driving.

The dollar experienced an average inflation rate of 4.05% per year during this period. In other words, $100 in 1972 is equivalent in purchasing power to $599.18 in 2018, a difference of $499.18 over 46 years.

That translates into 2.40 a gallon. I filled up yesterday for 1.91. Delaware has cheap gas.

The same disney ticket would be from 4.50 for the adventure pass to 26.00 using inflation and about 21.00 if disney prices followed gas prices.

 

[bluehende]

I think this is more of a perception than a reality. We've been happy to exchange into SSR on our last couple of trips, but if we stayed elsewhere and had to book fastpasses at 30 days instead of 60, I think there are about five rides that we wouldn't have been able to get fastpasses for - the two new Toy Story rides (which actually weren't open for our last trip, but I'm including them because they are now - edit: I just checked, and actually only the coaster is unavailable at 30 days from today), the Avatar flight simulator, the Mine Train - and maybe it's only 4 after all (actually, it's possible at the time that the Avatar river ride wouldn't have been available at 30, but they are now). (Obviously Star Wars will add to this list.) We make full use of our fastpasses and rarely wait more than 20-30 minutes for an attraction (and usually much less). There is not a lot of need to stand in a standby line during prime hours if you use the fastpasses available to you and either arrive early or stay late.

Did you do a trip in 2018. I am asking because we were planning a feb trip last year and a Jan trip this year using an annual pass. We canceled when the complaints started on disboards about waits of over an hour in a lot of the fast pass lanes along with the slowing of ride capacity generating long lines for everything. I will qualify that a lot of the problems seemed to come from multiple major rides breaking down over and over again. They were giving out fast passes as compensation and it made the parks in general a mess.

 

[Magic1962]

Challenge accepted

I paid about 40 cents a gallon in 1972 when I started driving.

The dollar experienced an average inflation rate of 4.05% per year during this period. In other words, $100 in 1972 is equivalent in purchasing power to $599.18 in 2018, a difference of $499.18 over 46 years.

That translates into 2.40 a gallon. I filled up yesterday for 1.91. Delaware has cheap gas.

The same disney ticket would be from 4.50 for the adventure pass to 26.00 using inflation and about 21.00 if disney prices followed gas prices.

but gas prices are lower because of Gov. subsidies so that is NOT a fair comparison.... lets look at real gas prices in Europe etc... I am not trying to start a fight.... I just find it funny how people complain about the rising prices on everything.... my father in law and brother in law EVERY time we get together complain complain complain....

 

[paxsarah]

Did you do a trip in 2018. I am asking because we were planning a feb trip last year and a Jan trip this year using an annual pass. We canceled when the complaints started on disboards about waits of over an hour in a lot of the fast pass lanes along with the slowing of ride capacity generating long lines for everything. I will qualify that a lot of the problems seemed to come from multiple major rides breaking down over and over again. They were giving out fast passes as compensation and it made the parks in general a mess.

We were there May 25-June 1, 2018. Other than the usual suspects (e.g. Test Track down in inclement weather - which worked in our favor with anytime fastpasses given when this happened during our FP window), we didn't have any major issues with lines or breakdowns. Oh, and Space Mountain was down at opening on a day when we were planning on rope dropping it, but we managed to shuffle things around and fit it in anyway. To be fair, though, there are long standby lines for almost everything during prime time (e.g. after 11am or so), we just don't wait in them. We manage to do what we want at rope drop and with FP.

 

[WVBaker]

but gas prices are lower because of Gov. subsidies so that is NOT a fair comparison....

Just a suggestion however, we may wish to leave Government and/or Politics out of the picture.

 

[bluehende]

but gas prices are lower because of Gov. subsidies so that is NOT a fair comparison.... lets look at real gas prices in Europe etc... I am not trying to start a fight.... I just find it funny how people complain about the rising prices on everything.... my father in law and brother in law EVERY time we get together complain complain complain....

I wasn't the one bringing up gas prices. Also europe has huge taxes on fuels so like you said not a good comparison. I do not have the energy to normalize european prices over almost 50 yrs to their inflation rate. I am just trying to point out that disney's increases have outpaced inflation by a large margin. Good for them as it seems they continued to squeeze that golden goose for a long time. Pricing has slowed our trips from every few years to every once in a while and not in about 9 years at this point. Last year I felt the new stuff added balanced out the cost increases and planned to go. In park experience as expressed on the dis boards changed that.

 

[slip]

I have never been to any Disney. We were middle class and lived in Chicago when I was growing up but we vacationed in Wisconsin. We had a large family and it would have been too expensive for us to all go that far.

As I had my own family the situation was similar. We only took a few vacations and we mostly went to Minnesota or northern Wisconsin. We live very close to the Wisconsin Dells.

Now that the kids are grown and on their own we have no desire to make a trip just for Disney. If we were in the area we would probably go for a day or two. It would have been more likely if my daughter was staying in Florida but she just took a new job in Denver and will be moving soon. So with no grand kids on the horizon, we don’t see a visit in our future right now.

 

[bizaro86]

I wasn't the one bringing up gas prices. Also europe has huge taxes on fuels so like you said not a good comparison. I do not have the energy to normalize european prices over almost 50 yrs to their inflation rate. I am just trying to point out that disney's increases have outpaced inflation by a large margin. Good for them as it seems they continued to squeeze that golden goose for a long time. Pricing has slowed our trips from every few years to every once in a while and not in about 9 years at this point. Last year I felt the new stuff added balanced out the cost increases and planned to go. In park experience as expressed on the dis boards changed that.

The inflation rate is a hugely unfair comparison to Disney tickets. They normalize the inflation rate to the increase in quality of goods purchased. So a sedan in 1970 that cost $2,000 may cost $20,000 in 2019. But the inflation rate over that time isn't 10X on that sedan, because the 2019 model has all sorts of stuff the 1970 model didn't have. (A backup camera, heated seats, anti-lock brakes, etc).

If you were comparing a disney ticket that only included the original rides then using the reported CPI inflation rate is fair. Disney doesn't sell a ticket like that, so you can't.

Disney is quite a bit better even compared to when I went as a child in the 1990s...

 

[Magic1962]

I wasn't the one bringing up gas prices. Also europe has huge taxes on fuels so like you said not a good comparison. I do not have the energy to normalize european prices over almost 50 yrs to their inflation rate. I am just trying to point out that disney's increases have outpaced inflation by a large margin. Good for them as it seems they continued to squeeze that golden goose for a long time. Pricing has slowed our trips from every few years to every once in a while and not in about 9 years at this point. Last year I felt the new stuff added balanced out the cost increases and planned to go. In park experience as expressed on the dis boards changed that.

Yeah, I wasn't trying to go politics either we were at Disney a few years ago with our one daughter and her family.... IT IS EXPENSIVE... we have told our other daughter when our Grand Daughter turns 5 or older we will go with them and stay at Bonnet Creek... through a trade... then if they want to go more then a couple of days that's on them... we go to the Village and other things... don't spend lots of money, just go to spend time with our loved ones.... now when you can trade into a 3 bedroom at Bonnet Creek through RCI.... THAT is a STEAL!!! We did that the last time.... loved it there... the pools... the fireworks every night from our room... putt putt golf.... THAT is WHY we timeshare.... Dave

 

[bluehende]

The inflation rate is a hugely unfair comparison to Disney tickets. They normalize the inflation rate to the increase in quality of goods purchased. So a sedan in 1970 that cost $2,000 may cost $20,000 in 2019. But the inflation rate over that time isn't 10X on that sedan, because the 2019 model has all sorts of stuff the 1970 model didn't have. (A backup camera, heated seats, anti-lock brakes, etc).

If you were comparing a disney ticket that only included the original rides then using the reported CPI inflation rate is fair. Disney doesn't sell a ticket like that, so you can't.

Disney is quite a bit better even compared to when I went as a child in the 1990s...

And we will complete the circle for the second time. You are paying for one day of entertainment. Yes with 1972 technology the pandora ride would have to cost 200 dollars to ride, but I believe a top of the line entertainment day in 1972 is equivalent to a top of the line entertainment day today. If you want to insist that everything in the basket they use for inflation has to have been exactly the same in 1972 there is almost nothing there. We do measure inflation and a lot of things in our world use that number for very real decisions. I will use an example that does not fit your premise. Movies cost a lot more to make today than in the past. Movie tickets have risen much less than the cost to make these movies. In 2018 avengers cost 410 million to film. In 1972 the Godfather was the most expensive film costing 6 million. That is 68 fold. Ticket prices went from 1.76 to 8.97. Those are averages from a trade group and seem low on both years but are averages. Here we have costs to produce the entertainment going up 68 fold while the tickets for consumers went up only 5.

 

[silentg]

A fun place