They actually do have a few more in the works. They might be trying to saturate global ports a little better. I think the market will handle 2-4 more without so much as a hiccup.
If you look through the annual reports, you can see the profit margins for Parks & Resorts is not that high. To the point that even if they lowered prices to their break-even point, many people would still consider it overpriced.
I think Disney is inching towards it. Even those who would pay double would not stomach a 2x'ing in prices overnight. I think there will be continued price hikes until it makes a significant dent in attendance. Then the increases will slow.
When I was a kid (80's) and my parents paid for Disney the impression I got was that it was incredibly expensive. I'm older, have my kids, and pay for the trips myself, it seems reasonable compared to the cost of other things (sporting events/movies). We have annual passes and have gone enough so the pass-price per day at the park is not bad. However, the WDW hotels are expensive. The deluxe are not really luxury. We stayed at the Four Seasons nearby for a conference my wife was presenting at, and that qualifies as a real luxury hotel - my wife loves it. However, you can't walk or monorail, and its buses make the WDW resort buses look fast. Location is to a large degree what you're paying for with the deluxe hotels.
Inflation includes things that have gone down in price - what would you pay for a 20MB hard drive today vs. what my dad paid in 1982. Other things have gone up - gasoline for one. The other big increase is labor costs. Revenue for the parks & resort segment was $17B for fy2016. Operating income was $3.3B. Their margin was roughly 20%. So they reduce prices 20%, they break even. Even at that reduction prices are still 2.4x inflation adjusted costs. They're charging what they can, but also what they need to.My point is that the cost of a Disney vacation is going up at a rate that far exceeds the decline in purchasing power of a dollar and that is not simply an issue of anecdotal evidence.
In other words; WDW is about three times more expensive in real terms today than it was in 1983.
Beyond that I have no idea what Walt wanted and it is up to you and everyone else to decide if it is "worth it" . But it is empirically more expensive even when accounting for the purchasing power of a dollar (how much stuff you can get per dollar). I am returning this summer so I must think it is worth it and from your post it is clear that you also still think it is worth it too
just for fun in case anyone is interested the bureau of labor statistics has a very user friendly calculator to compare costs through time here :
https://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm
What? Ever read their 10K? Pratically nothing about the theme park business is “pure profit.” They make reasonable margins and have huge maintenance, labor, and capital expidenture costs.
They break out consumer products as a stand alone business.
I'll be there in late August, last time I was there at that time period a few years ago crowds were not terrible
