I know this has been circulating on The Facebooks for a few days but was wondering what you all thought of the points raised in this article... http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...ke-disney-world-left-the-middle-class-behind/ Come back and discuss!
This is something I have wondered about a long time. At what point will I no longer be able to afford a trip to WDW? While I am not there yet, this is going to come a time when I can no longer justify the pricetag that comes with it. Time will tell.
Like the end of the article stated, maybe as the price becomes to high for some it will thin out the long lines and wait times...
Certainly as more and more people are priced out the wait times will be reduced. Hopefully the Brazilians get priced out first. On a serious note, like John I wonder when I'll be priced out. I know the day will come, but I hope it isn't soon.
Easier for me as a single guy, or traveling with friends or family who have their own money - and with the extra Florida resident perks, annual passes, and DVC, very little of the price fluctuations really hit me when metered out on a per-day basis. I get the article's point - but as they also mention, it's not just Disney but all parks, from Universal to smaller local parks. I think also with far fewer Americans traveling abroad due to fears and current conditions, more are willing to spend their 'one big trip' cash on going to Disney and staying in the U.S. borders...so that's probably keeping the impact of higher prices from really being noticed by all but the poor...middle class is just spending money that might have been spent elsewhere, and the rich are unimpacted. I suppose the middle class family who has always included Disney as part of their travel plans would be the ones most impacted - sadly that's probably a big part of our boards! Because they notice the difference year-to-year, and because a vacation for 4-5 at those prices is much harder to account for than it is for me, where I only have to pay my own way. I admit greedily I wouldn't mind the parks being thinned out and lines dropping back, even some backing off of the relentless marketing and tie-in events and stores and meet-n-greets...I'd gladly pay extra for the privilege of going to a less crowded park, if I could. I also wish more Americans were more willing to travel abroad again, so there aren't as many traveling only within the US, which pumps up the crowds at Disney - stupid terrorists may not always have the big impacts they want, but it's those little impacts that just mess with the normal, old routine life that dig at me. When I travel outside the U.S. each year, I find I'm surrounded more and more by Brits, Canadians, Latin Americans, Chinese, Indians, etc - and less by other Americans.
I keep wondering the same thing, but the lines at Disneyland are as long as ever. I know I'd go more often if it were cheaper.
We do the AP every other year. Got them last August (Aug 2 to be exact) and used them for our summer trip, 10 days, 9 nights. So now this summer we do not need to buy passes at all, just planned our trip to be ending before August 2. This summer we are staying 9 days, 8 nights. Total park days for the summer trips is 19. Cost for 9 and 10 day park hoppers for the 3 of us would be $2706. Our cost for the AP's last year was just over $1500, so a saving of about $1300. Having DVC and the loan for it being paid off really helps as our expenses for a trip are travel (we go by car), food and the typical crap we purchase each time. But I can see some time in the future where we may need to bank our points and just do a bigger room every other year instead. College tuition will help with that decision in 4 years.
The AP thing still easily works out for me - I go to Disney enough each year to more than make up for the cost - if I spend roughly 20 days in park, and hopping parks many days, which is just about the least number of days I'd ever be at Disney in a given year, I'm still ending up with a $563 pass, or abut $28 per day. And some years I'm there more than 20 days, so it works out to even less. My mother on the other hand is getting less out of hers - she only goes up about 8 days a year, so her per-day cost is around $70. Still cheaper than the actual per-day park costs, but not the same super-discount bonanza I get out of mine. Indeed the DVC part helps too, in that I can cover 25+ days of staying at Disney on my points, so just the annual dues cost gets factored in (my average per night resort cost is running around $70 at current dues - which often includes 1-bedroom villas, so that's a pretty good cost too). And being so close to Disney means getting there by car is just a hair past 1 tank of gas, both ways - so around $50 in gas each trip...about $12 per day average. Where I definitely DON'T get my money's worth is in food & drink costs - even with DVC discounts and other discounts, I and my family tend to go more 'high end' when at Disney, and just accept that dinners are often going to be $70-80 per person eating at the better establishments...saving money in so many other areas makes it easier for us to justify the higher food costs. Still, it was not long ago at all that the APs were around $325 (2006 Florida resident AP cost)...they've jumped up considerably in the past 10 years - 58% inflation! Compared to 10-year US inflation during the same time of 19.4%, no question they're staying WAY ahead at Disney.
The article does contain some misleading information. Sure, it only cost $3.50 to enter the Magic Kingdom in 1971, but that's all you got: in. You want to ride attractions? Buy the ticket book with A through E tickets. You want to do to one of the other four theme parks? Epcot was still 11 years in the future. I'm not defending them. Prices are getting (already are) ridiculous. They are clearly marketing towards the affluent. And those annoying South American kids? I've heard that they're mostly from well-to-do families, so price increases won't likely decrease their numbers. At some point I know I'll have to reduce the duration of my visits. I'll still go three times a year if I can, but, for example, my Star Wars Weekend trip will be a weekend instead of a week-and-a-half.
The South American invasions are almost exclusively the children of wealthy people - private schools and private tour events. Brazil is a massively poor country, and probably 85% or more couldn't afford a bus ride out of their town, let alone a flight to Florida and trip to Disney. It's a very populous country, so even 5-10% of the wealthiest class means thousands upon thousands of rich Brazilian kids traveling around. I see them down here too - we have a big supermall down here called Sawgrass Mills - and there are tour companies that fly people in to Ft. Lauderdale, get a hotel for 2-3 nights, and get busses to bring them out to the mall to shop. It's just like Disney - you go through the mall, and coming the other way are 40 yellow shirts following a flag...except many are adults too. There's a private airport nearby where the very very wealthy fly themselves and their friends in, shop, and bring home tens of thousands of dollars of goods that are hard to find in Brazil.
