Disney World Has Gotten Too Expensive

[flynnibus]

Maybe not as much as the dry/water parks, but they hound you with all the different packages that can be added to your day (drinks, cabanas, dolphins, photos, etc.) .

Maybe it's changed - but not in my experience.

Everything was setup before and at checkin.. and then it was a relaxing day. Not "oh you want a wet suit? Here, but it costs $35 plz"

 

[JMcMahonEsq]

The reason ppl think Disney is too expensive is because they no longer get the satisfaction for what they've spent.

That's the problem. Ignore 'demand', Ignore 'inflation', etc. That's the fundamental Customer Satisfaction issue. If you can't afford something, but you love it, you do it less and still love it. (your favorite high end restaurant, etc). When something gets expensive but you don't feel the return is there for the spend.. that's when customers get frustrated.

The Disney fans that keep running into the wall over and over and can't figure out why their head hurts need to reset and try a different style of vacation and reset.. and remember what they used to love about vacations. Goto Discovery Cove and learn what it feels like to not be nickle and dimed left and right... or feel what crowd management used to feel like. Go somewhere with actual customer service where your room is turned down, and staff are aplenty.

I would have to disagree, I think at least as it applies here.

Sure for some things, as they get more expensive, if you still love them, you will continue to do them, but just less often. I agree with you as to the high-end restaurant analogy. But not necessary as it pertains to a weeklong WDW trip. The price impacts, difference between a fancy night out, and a week long vacation are too extreme to be lumped into the same category. There comes a point in time based upon your budget that no matter if the customer satisfaction is still there, spending thousands, or tens of thousands of dollars for a WDW trip just becomes cost prohibitive, no matter how much enjoyment you are getting out of the trip.

As to your second point, I will never understand this thinking. If people are going to WDW, and you want them to remember what they love about vacations, why in the world would they be thinking about Discovery Cove. It can be a fun place to spend a day sure, but it has almost nothing to do with what a person who found WDW trips to be magical would remember. There's no Mickey and Minnie greeting you there. There's no dressing up your daughter as a princesses. There is no taking your kids on their first ride, there first haunted mansion, there first roller coaster. Personally, even if they are not nickel and diming me, I wouldn't travel to Orlando to hang out at a day all-inclusive when I could sit by my pool and drink beer, or travel a much shorter distance to any number of beach locations along the east coast and do the same thing. I am paying not for some perceived objective value of a trip, but my own subjective personal what do I get out of the trip. Disney fans are....fans of Disney. Telling a fan of something to just go spend maybe less money on something else doesn't seem to make sense. As a Sox fan I could find alot cheaper baseball tickets at say Baltimore or Citi field, and hell recently the O's are probably objectively playing better baseball. But that's meaningless to me as a Sox fan because I don't care how much/little money I am spending to watch the O's, because I don't like the O's.

 

[Mark Dunne]

Let me start by saying how much I love this community at WDWM, I come from the uk , have travelled many times to this wonderful country USA, coast to coast we’ve been lucky enough to travel over the last 30 plus years, the people we’ve met have been so welcoming through the years, and the trip that tops it all for us is WDW , I fell in love with WDW 1993, it was stories from a cousin way back in the 80’s speaking of this huge ball that had a ride inside it, and that became my fav park to this day , the cost has gone up so much over the years, but it has everywhere, honestly try vacation in the uk for 10 night for under £5000, staying in London , it is a stretch no doubt, but it’s the most fun you’ll ever have in a world where there’s not enough, I still get emotional every time I walk through Epcot, it’s just so special, I try to explain to people that have never been , they don’t get it , when I see people in the parks that are far less fortunate than I am , it hits me! There smiles , laughter, pure love for the joy that there feeling, you simply can’t beat that,so we will always try and save to come over, yes it’s expensive, but the memories my wife and I have are timeless, and so many of them in WDW, so thank you all ,and see ya real soon

 

[flynnibus]

I would have to disagree, I think at least as it applies here.

Sure for some things, as they get more expensive, if you still love them, you will continue to do them, but just less often. I agree with you as to the high-end restaurant analogy. But not necessary as it pertains to a weeklong WDW trip. The price impacts, difference between a fancy night out, and a week long vacation are too extreme to be lumped into the same category. There comes a point in time based upon your budget that no matter if the customer satisfaction is still there, spending thousands, or tens of thousands of dollars for a WDW trip just becomes cost prohibitive, no matter how much enjoyment you are getting out of the trip.

I think it very much applies here... because within the Disney bubble there is this trait of incredibly high frequency of consumption. Within this Disney bubble it's not unusual for people to make Disney trips every year... if not MULTIPLE times a year.

This is incredibly distinct and unique from how so many other holiday/vacation products are consumed. How many people do you know that goto Fiji every 6 months? Or just visit their favorite beach or ski destination so frequently?

When people are dropping a few K per trip, and can afford to go multiple times a year... including travel.. That says to me there is still plenty of room in the system to simply CUT BACK and start making something more special, and stop treating it like checking out a movie.

As to your second point, I will never understand this thinking. If people are going to WDW, and you want them to remember what they love about vacations, why in the world would they be thinking about Discovery Cove. It can be a fun place to spend a day sure, but it has almost nothing to do with what a person who found WDW trips to be magical would remember.

I think you are way to single tracked and missed the entire point of my comment. I said "Goto Discovery Cove and learn what it feels like to not be nickle and dimed left and right... or feel what crowd management used to feel like"

This has nothing to do with the kind of attractions or activities you are doing or going there for - but pointing out that the being treated like cattle and fleeced at every opportunity is NOT how every place needs to be. People have gotten so addicted, they just keep taking the abuse and then wonder why they feel so bad afterwards. WDW exploded for more than just kids not because of meeting Mickey Mouse - but because of THE EXPERIENCE. We were treated well, we were impressed, we were suprised, we were SATISFIED. You paid huge amounts of money, but you felt so good about the sum of things you felt the money was worth it, and were eager to do it again.

If you don't feel that way (SATISFIED) because of the money - stop blowing so much money on repeat trips. You're not going to beg Disney into being cheaper.. you either going to modify your behavior or keep praying for a savior or keep going as you are and get more and more miserable after each time. Many people are finally in that last category now.

If you want to stick to your 'fans of Disney' rail... then go do a Disney cruise... or an ABD. A 5-7 day WDW trip is not the only way to get a Disney fix... in fact I'd rank it one of the worst experiences right now. Many people are simply too conditioned and too scared to believe there can be something better out there.

I love Disney - but I also remember how Disney made me love them... and it's not because I have a thing for mice over something else. It's because of the PRODUCT and EXPERIENCE. And if they don't deliver on that, I'm not going to keep repeating the same thing hoping it will just magically appear.

 

[FutureCEO]

Let me start by saying how much I love this community at WDWM, I come from the uk , have travelled many times to this wonderful country USA, coast to coast we’ve been lucky enough to travel over the last 30 plus years, the people we’ve met have been so welcoming through the years, and the trip that tops it all for us is WDW , I fell in love with WDW 1993, it was stories from a cousin way back in the 80’s speaking of this huge ball that had a ride inside it, and that became my fav park to this day , the cost has gone up so much over the years, but it has everywhere, honestly try vacation in the uk for 10 night for under £5000, staying in London , it is a stretch no doubt, but it’s the most fun you’ll ever have in a world where there’s not enough, I still get emotional every time I walk through Epcot, it’s just so special, I try to explain to people that have never been , they don’t get it , when I see people in the parks that are far less fortunate than I am , it hits me! There smiles , laughter, pure love for the joy that there feeling, you simply can’t beat that,so we will always try and save to come over, yes it’s expensive, but the memories my wife and I have are timeless, and so many of them in WDW, so thank you all ,and see ya real soon

I did London and surrounding area for half that. Of course, you could really go all out if you wanted too.

 

[DisneyHead123]

Not an economist, so maybe this is totally wrong. But my assumption is that Disney is in a bit of a precarious position with supply and demand, because they do still rely on mass consumption, to an extent. I think the difficulty there is that you don’t have a smooth gradient where a few consumers drop off with a price bump, then a few more, then a few more. I think that at these higher prices, you hit price points where you risk losing a ton of customers very quickly.

I think that they’ve gotten around this to an extent with “add ons” like Genie+… the issue with that is that Genie+ just seems like such an ill conceived product, so I think their brand reputation took a hit with it and the accusations of “nickel and diming” started. I always compare it to the extras they used to offer, like early morning tickets, FP tours, etc. I never heard complaints about those because they really were viewed as something “extra”.

 

[Mark Dunne]

I did London and surrounding area for half that. Of course, you could really go all out if you wanted too.

So 10 nights , food and a shows, remember even if you see say 4-5 shows that’s serious money, remember the flights as well , yeah I can stay in London for half that, because I live down the road, but I can tell you that when we visit New York for say 4 night nights, that’s £2000 without food or shows, or general spending money , it won’t be far off £5000 , for 4 nights ,

 

[Lilofan]

One not expensive but a freebie offering is on " check in day " at your WDW resort is free entry to the water park currently operating . This begins in 2025.

 

[Mark Dunne]

One not expensive but a freebie offering is on " check in day " at your WDW resort is free entry to the water park currently operating . This begins in 2025.

Great! Arrive at say 17.00 from uk, drop cases off, then take a bus to a shut water park. look forward to that

 

[marni1971]

At least ticket prices arent going up.

 

[Lilofan]

Great! Arrive at say 17.00 from uk, drop cases off, then take a bus to a shut water park. look forward to that

When I arrived back in the US, the red eye from Europe got us back to the states at 6am. Perhaps put your luggage at the bell services area, then head to the water park to enjoy prior to checking into the resort late afternoon.

 

[monothingie]

At least ticket prices arent going up.

 

[Ayla]

At least ticket prices arent going up.

I figured they weren't stupid enough to announce a price increase immediately. Obviously, I was wrong.

 

[Mr Ferret 75]

Great! Arrive at say 17.00 from uk, drop cases off, then take a bus to a shut water park. look forward to that

Have to say this was one of my first thoughts. Most transatlantic flights don't get in early enough to take advantage of this "deal".

 

[flynnibus]

Not an economist, so maybe this is totally wrong. But my assumption is that Disney is in a bit of a precarious position with supply and demand, because they do still rely on mass consumption, to an extent. I think the difficulty there is that you don’t have a smooth gradient where a few consumers drop off with a price bump, then a few more, then a few more. I think that at these higher prices, you hit price points where you risk losing a ton of customers very quickly.

The problem with this line of thinking is that pricing is the only way to control crowds. Pricing should be about ensuring you are maximizing revenue within the customer volume you have. But pricing isn't the only way to steer customer volume or the resulting customer satisfaction from that customer volume.

You can control the impact of crowds by limiting the crowds with actual limits. This caps growth within your pricing, so you have to work a lot harder to keep growth in such a model. Which is why it's hard in a public company to keep driving continuous double digit revenue growth. But if you want that kind of growth, you can also increase your limits by increasing supply (expanding capacity). The problem with that is it increases your running costs.. aka your recurring spend, even if customers don't spend.

This is why the easiest path is price manipulation to try to steer crowds... but it does so at the expense of your customer tolerance. But if you don't care about customer satisfaction... they will keep using the excuse of "its busy, so we can charge more..."

Old Disney would have worked harder to make the park work better with those crowds (Like how EPCOT was built for scale)

 

[DisneyHead123]

The problem with this line of thinking is that pricing is the only way to control crowds. Pricing should be about ensuring you are maximizing revenue within the customer volume you have. But pricing isn't the only way to steer customer volume or the resulting customer satisfaction from that customer volume.

You can control the impact of crowds by limiting the crowds with actual limits. This caps growth within your pricing, so you have to work a lot harder to keep growth in such a model. Which is why it's hard in a public company to keep driving continuous double digit revenue growth. But if you want that kind of growth, you can also increase your limits by increasing supply (expanding capacity). The problem with that is it increases your running costs.. aka your recurring spend, even if customers don't spend.

This is why the easiest path is price manipulation to try to steer crowds... but it does so at the expense of your customer tolerance. But if you don't care about customer satisfaction... they will keep using the excuse of "its busy, so we can charge more..."

Old Disney would have worked harder to make the park work better with those crowds (Like how EPCOT was built for scale)

So I definitely don’t argue that there are other ways to control crowds and maximize experience. My speculation was that, once you get into five figure vacation prices, you risk a very big drop off in attendance with a shift of ye old price levers. It’s one thing to pay a few more dollars for eggs if you really want frittatas, it’s another to pay $5,000 more on a $10,000 trip.

Like I said, I’m not an economist, so maybe you do expect a modest, even drop off with every price increase. If you do reach sort of “critical mass” thresholds where suddenly you’ve priced out an entire income bracket, though, then I don’t know that the “just raise prices for crowd control!” method would work for Disney (mentioned because I know some posters here are in favor of this method, in the hopes that Disney will price out crowds). In that case, the shifts would be too large for things to run smoothly.

 

[Mark Dunne]

When I arrived back in the US, the red eye from Europe got us back to the states at 6am. Perhaps put your luggage at the bell services area, then head to the water park to enjoy prior to checking into the resort late afternoon.

Unfortunately we buy package flights from uk , latest flight are 15.45, so working that out we arrive approximately 4 pm so no way , plus your 5 hrs behind , so no it won’t work ,

 

[erasure fan1]

then I don’t know that the “just raise prices for crowd control!” method would work for Disney (mentioned because I know some posters here are in favor of this method, in the hopes that Disney will price out crowds)

I'm in favor of the just raise prices mentality. Not for crowd control, but as a social experiment. I just want Disney to push it as high as they can. Just make a magic kingdom day ticket $250 bucks. I would love to see the reaction and the people still showing up.

 

[Lilofan]

I'm in favor of the just raise prices mentality. Not for crowd control, but as a social experiment. I just want Disney to push it as high as they can. Just make a magic kingdom day ticket $250 bucks. I would love to see the reaction and the people still showing up.

Build it market it with classic PR spin and people will come. One industry that fared well in 23' was the casino industry. Forbes advised slot machine and other gaming revenue was up 10% compared to 22' with $65B . Those one arm bandits took many to the cleaners.

 

[J4546]

Even Vegas is getting crazy. Parking fees everywhere. $80 for a 6 oz filet. Resort fees everywhere. It’s getting crazy.

Yeah Vegas is not worth it at all anymore lol. Just 10 years ago it was all super cheap so you'd go and spend money at casinos...now it's just as expensive as anywhere else and there's really no value anymore.