Matt_Black
Well-Known Member
And that's very true. However, they are very popular destinations, just like WDW is a very popular destination. Therefore, I think that is comparing and contrasting one of those spots to WDW is more than fair.
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Disney and Prices
- Thread starter FutureCEO
- Start date
And that's very true. However, they are very popular destinations, just like WDW is a very popular destination. Therefore, I think that is comparing and contrasting one of those spots to WDW is more than fair.
Mr Toad
Well-Known Member
In general, any vacation destination can get very expensive. It's all in what you want to do. The house rental for our vacation at Topsail Island, NC is about what we paid for our recent WDW trip. We could have rented a larger house on the beach for more $$$ but decided to stay on the sound side because it was less expensive. You just have to look at all options and shop around. I am currently saving for Hawaii 2016. I already know where I want to stay and about how much it will cost me. It will easily run me $8-10K. The airfare is the killer but once we get there, we only eat at local places...no resort or upscale eating for us!
draybook
Well-Known Member
Well, I've done the math to go to Europe as well and other places too. Wouldn't you consider the most expensive theme park comparable to the most expensive state?
Mr Toad
Well-Known Member
Yes.
flynnibus
Premium Member
I'd compare the alternative experience... Not bias the comparison by picking one based on price.
draybook
Well-Known Member
I'm not following you. I'm actually saying that Disney is worth the money given the experience that you get for the buck, whereas Hawaii is something way more expensive. However, that also translates into other places, even SoCal and other places that have theme parks or comparative entertainment.
Matt_Black
Well-Known Member
Californian Elitist
Well-Known Member
Again, why are people comparing going to a theme park to going to a city/state? The experiences are completely different. I gave up renewing my DLR AP to save for a trip to New York last Christmas, and I'm glad I did. I never got to see the Statue of Liberty, but I did get to see the Rockefeller Center, Manhattan, I got to take the subway, see the famous Broadway, Fifth Ave, etc. That, in no way, compared to riding Matterhorn and seeing World of Color. Just because prices may be similar, doesn't mean the actual experience and what you get from the actual experience will be similar.
Mr Anderson
Well-Known Member
Personally, I would NEVER go during the months of June, July, or early August. From the reports I've read and crowd calendars I've seen, it would just be far too busy. And that makes sense that they're so slammed during those months, what with all the families that go at that time of year, having to wait until their kids are out of school. September is quite pleasant, however. Make sure you check out Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party... it's an absolute blast, and the park really isn't that crowded as far as rides go; just make sure you check out the Boo-to-You parade and Hallowishes!I hate crowds.
I love WDW.
Sucks to be me with that mix
We have pretty much decided that we are done going to Orlando in June, July or Aug. It's just too crowded for us to enjoy. We are planning to go in Jan or Feb or Sept or Oct from now on. Jan of next year is our next trip to Orlando.
I really don't think Disney is overpriced at all for what your get. I don't even think the resorts rooms are, again for what you get. Value on things like WDW and Uni is based on personal perspective so everyone has a different view on it.
BigTxEars
Well-Known Member
I am a HUGE fan of NSSSP, by far my favorite thing at the parks
With kids in school the summer makes make the most sense, but we are still not going back in the summer again. Just too many people for us
I think Sept has been pour favorite month so far, but I am interested in seeing what January holds.
BigTxEars
Well-Known Member
... Can we do a kickstarter for this?!?
Oh yeah baby.....see you in the 150,000 gallon margarita pool!
The Empress Lilly
Well-Known Member
I too wish that Disney would adress its overcrowding. At WDW, they do seem to have taken a leaf from your book and use increased pricing to limit attendance, and to use price differentiation to spread the crowds over the year.
Me I'd rather capacity were increased. Why not build a 'second MK', a kiddie cartoon park. That would solve so many logistic and thematic problems of WDW. Put Elsa's castle in there, and whatever princesses and pirates and pixar and m&g's both Disney's marketing department and its less discerning customers demand.
The overhaul of the MK and nearby infrastructure in recent years has come with a price tag getting close to that of a second park.
My buddy owns a 7-11 next to a small county park. We can essentially camp at the park for free since we'll pitch our tent on the 7-11's property. Further, he turns the other way whilst we have some "five fingered discounts" on sundries. These vacations are much, much less expensive than going to Magic Kingdom and Busch Gardens at Walt's World of Disney.
Chef Mickey
Well-Known Member
I would agree and think they'll eventually do both. If people think prices are high now, just wait. Expansion takes years and the right leadership to realize. Disney currently doesn't have a park friendly CEO and I believe it will ultimately hurt the parks business. The lack of investment will Leave them starving (arguably that day is here now) for massive updates. EPCOT needs about a $500m to $1b investment. Hollywood is wasting space and getting dated. Animal Kingdom has tons of space but not enough to do and Magic Kingdom is reaching capacity and is arguably too crowded today.
You hear a lot more chatter about it being a "beating" to go to Disney and I believe it's a real issue.
People will get sick of fighting crowds and quality will go down. It's starting now. Disney is going to address it and there are two levers: prices and expansion. Too slow on the expansion side so they are in dollar extraction mode. Once Disney studies customer satisfaction and does more customer behavior modeling and analytics, I believe they will realize these crowds, lack of updates, and poor expansion execution has damaged their guest experience to the point people are returning less and staying fewer days. There are so many first time visitors and worldwide appeal that I'm not sure if they are too concerned...yet. However, the gravy train will stop at some point and that will be the catalyst for change. Iger is milking the parks.
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The Empress Lilly
Well-Known Member
Oh, how you are missed when you don't grace us with your presence!
Kristamouse
Well-Known Member
We are departing Chicago after a nice 5
day work/fun trip with my husband and children. We stayed 5 nights downtown at an Embassy Suites. We were able to use our home museums membership to tour the Field. We ate leftovers from a few dinners for lunch the next day. We had free breakfast at our hotel every morning and took
advantage of happy hour. Our 5day trip Cost us about 2,000. Our room was
359.99 a night, Navy Pier was out of control expensive with parking we pied 100.00 for about 3 hours of entertainment. Food and parking at
the Field was also very overpriced.
On several occasions my DH and I would talk about what a deal WDW is for our family. Chicago is a great city and we had a great time. But as many of
Us had pointed out Disney is expensive but competitively so.
day work/fun trip with my husband and children. We stayed 5 nights downtown at an Embassy Suites. We were able to use our home museums membership to tour the Field. We ate leftovers from a few dinners for lunch the next day. We had free breakfast at our hotel every morning and took
advantage of happy hour. Our 5day trip Cost us about 2,000. Our room was
359.99 a night, Navy Pier was out of control expensive with parking we pied 100.00 for about 3 hours of entertainment. Food and parking at
the Field was also very overpriced.
On several occasions my DH and I would talk about what a deal WDW is for our family. Chicago is a great city and we had a great time. But as many of
Us had pointed out Disney is expensive but competitively so.
mjmoral
New Member
As someone who lives there, I can say that this is one of many reasons that most Chicagoans won't set foot on Navy Pier unless an out of town guest is bugging you to take them there or you have tickets to Chicago Shakespeare.
I agree that WDW is surprisingly affordable when compared to other vacation destinations. The thing that makes it seem more expensive is that most people get a package that seems so expensive upfront because it includes airfare, lodging, tickets, etc. Other places seem less expensive because everything is bought piecemeal, so so it's a bunch of smaller prices compared to one big price. However, when all those little prices add up, they can be just as if not more expensive than a WDW trip.
No doubt any trip is expensive, but some research will show how to save money. I'm a theatre teacher, and take an annual trip to NYC to see what's on Broadway. I do my research to save on airfare and hotels, including the nicer ones in Times Square. Instead of waiting in the TKTS line or paying hundreds of bucks for a Broadway show, we'll wake up early and camp out for Rush Seats. That's how we sat in the front row of "Waiting for Godot" with Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellan for $30 a seat, and we met some cool people in line. We eat at local restaurants instead of touristy places.
For WDW, we use Undercover Tourist for tickets, rent DVC points, and fly Southwest. We do one or two nice meals a day and don't go crazy on souvenirs. Everybody has their own way of going, but this saves us a lot of money. I don't know if we would every pay rack rate.
Dwarful
Well-Known Member
Disney has gotten more expensive over the years. I really miss the days of e-ride nights...paying the $12 per adult and $10 per child for the extra hours in the evening with less than 5,000 people spread out. They had many characters around the hub with no lines waiting for people to come up for photo ops...some of our best family photos from any of our trips. We rode BTMR at least 7 times in a row without getting off the ride because the line never backed up. In todays prices that would still be less than $20 for an adult. Instead we get these limited engagement extras for $50 - $80 per person and many don't have the rides open. Yes, we had to buy our own food and drinks but the ride and character interactions were awesome.
So, comparing WDW from 10 years ago (I think 2004 was the last year we did the E-ride nights...but I could be wrong, I still have the wrist bands though..different colors for different nights and only resort guests could be the tickets but not far in advance, we had to buy them at the resort only I think or maybe the park too?). Disney offered us an upcharge event for about $16 - $20 in todays economy vs. upcharges of $50 - $80.
We still do Disney. We are going back in Feb with a school band trip. After that, we have decided to skip WDW and try the other options for awhile. Maybe hit DL again.
Side note: We have passes for Six Flags, Silver Dollar City and sometimes Dollywood. At our local SF we NEVER buy ice cream comes....they are now $6.99 for a single cone. I am not about to drop $30 for four cones...nope, never, no way. Every time they send me a customer survey this is the one thing I tell them. Perhaps that is why the ice cream shop never has a wait.
So, comparing WDW from 10 years ago (I think 2004 was the last year we did the E-ride nights...but I could be wrong, I still have the wrist bands though..different colors for different nights and only resort guests could be the tickets but not far in advance, we had to buy them at the resort only I think or maybe the park too?). Disney offered us an upcharge event for about $16 - $20 in todays economy vs. upcharges of $50 - $80.
We still do Disney. We are going back in Feb with a school band trip. After that, we have decided to skip WDW and try the other options for awhile. Maybe hit DL again.
Side note: We have passes for Six Flags, Silver Dollar City and sometimes Dollywood. At our local SF we NEVER buy ice cream comes....they are now $6.99 for a single cone. I am not about to drop $30 for four cones...nope, never, no way. Every time they send me a customer survey this is the one thing I tell them. Perhaps that is why the ice cream shop never has a wait.
got2lovedisney
Well-Known Member
- In the Parks
- No
I used to think a stay at the Poly was out of our budget until I realized we were paying $200+ a night to stay on Duval Street in Key West. That comparison made the cost a little more paletable, in my mind.