Is there a "typical or average" WDW visitor/family?

[mdcpr]

Once you go you'll be hooked. I predict twice a year for you!

Let's see what happens. Is just that WDW is so expensive that a week in London might be the same cost. And yes, I admit it, we're going overboard with luxury resorts and restaurants--but I figure that if this is the only time we go, let's go Big!

 

[eliza61nyc]

Let's see what happens. Is just that WDW is so expensive that a week in London might be the same cost. And yes, I admit it, we're going overboard with luxury resorts and restaurants--but I figure that if this is the only time we go, let's go Big!

And that changes over time also. When we took our 1st trip we splurged for a lot of bells and whistles, now we don't need souvenirs or dessert parties so those things are gone.

 

[Roakor]

There will always be people that just don't make that much money and can not afford even basic items let alone vacations. Poverty rate in this country is about 14%. We are talking about averages here. My response was to kap91 who thought that mostly midwest and southern people were priced out. I don't believe that is true because not all of the midwest is rural and poor. That is just how the people on the coast see us. We have thriving(albeit smaller) cities with all kinds of demographics. It is just like there are plenty in the big cities that would never be able to afford a Disney vacation. I don't think that being poor is localized to any one specific area in the country. That is what I am saying.

Its not about being poor. just because your Rual doens't mean your poor. Its about cost of living, not standard of living. Two faimlies could have the exact same standard of living but have vastly differnt cost of living depending on where they live. My point being that Disney's prices are more in line to what you would pay at the highest cost of living areas in the US. So an average family who lives in one of those areas is going to more easily be able to afford to go than an average family living in an area with a much lower cost of living. Even though, with respect to the areas they live in, both faimly's have the exact same standard of living.

 

[MAGICFLOP]

I don't think that there is an average family spending by income... I know people that make very little and have a lot of money stashed... its mostly discipline..

A coworker of mine make $15/h and her husband $30/h and they spend every penny, constantly battling to keep the lights on. Husband got hurt at work and they got a 10k settlement, so they decided the vacation of a lifetime was in order, they spent 13k on the vacation and when they got home, the water was shut off..

I don't think Disney is or was ever priced for the multiple trips per year, but more to hook you every few years or so.

 

[Lensman]

Disney doesn't release their demographic data. But you can glean a lot of it from other sources.

For example, the Bureau of Labor Statistics has data that shows how much the average American household spends on vacations each year, broken out by quintile. Here's that data from 2017, summarized:

View attachment 365073

It's pretty clear that even a day at Disney World for a family of four is going to be beyond the annual budget for the bottom 40% of households. And from Disney's own travel agent media, it's pretty clear they're targeting the top 20%. They're almost certainly targeting the top 10%, 5%, and 1% specifically too.

One interesting thing we got from our (the Unofficial Guide/TouringPlans) surveys is that around 33% of our users' trips involve just adults. That's a higher number than I expected.

Seems impossibly low across the board. It’s basically saying people go on road trips exclusively, stay at Motel 6, and eat sandwiches in the car.

It costs a family of 4 almost $1K for flight tickets and more than the top 40% fly. They also plan on doing stuff, eating, and sleeping at their destination. I put almost zero faith in government reporting.

Look at the average of 63 cents spent by the top 20% on aircraft rental (did they really need to have this be a category?). That number speaks far more for how few people rent aircraft than how much people spend on aircraft rental when they rent one.

To answer some of the questions you want answered from this data, you really need to data mine the underlying dataset. Here's the page that documents the underlying dataset and links to it:

PUMD Documentation

Consumer Expenditure Surveys (CE) Public Use Microdata Documentation

www.bls.gov

For lodging, in addition to accounting for people who did not go on vacation, you also have to account for people who go on vacation and stay with friends or relatives. I'm also not sure how package vacations were broken down in @lentesta's dataset.

I keep my phone on do not disturb when on vacation. It only lets my favorites in and I have two co-workers on it that I will answer for as they will only call if something terrible happens at my site. And they only call once they have exhausted all of their options as sometimes knowledgebases dont cover the really crazy issues. All of the older people on my site (40's to 60's) cash in all of their PTO and dont take PTO other than when they are sick.

I took a 3 week vacation back in September and one of the older guys said if I can leave for 3 weeks then my job shouldnt exist. Apparently he doesn't know about the 16 other people in my work-group that help cover each others sites when we are out and the fact it was approved by my manager.

A former employer of mine used to have a forced vacation policy where depending on what level of the company you were at or what your job role was, you had to take either a week off or 2 consecutive weeks off.

Outside of banking, in technology roles we encourage people to take time off to ensure business continuity. All essential business operations have to be able to continue should any individual get run over by a bus or otherwise leave the company.

There will always be people that just don't make that much money and can not afford even basic items let alone vacations. Poverty rate in this country is about 14%. We are talking about averages here. My response was to kap91 who thought that mostly midwest and southern people were priced out. I don't believe that is true because not all of the midwest is rural and poor. That is just how the people on the coast see us. We have thriving(albeit smaller) cities with all kinds of demographics. It is just like there are plenty in the big cities that would never be able to afford a Disney vacation. I don't think that being poor is localized to any one specific area in the country. That is what I am saying.

Do Texas and Oklahoma count as Midwest or South? My friends and colleagues there definitely make enough to vacation at Disney. Admittedly anecdotal.

As I said in another thread, even my bottom 20-percentile in-laws took at least one or two trips to Disney. It just takes some saving up and a bit of luck in not having unexpected expenses for a few years.

Almost anyone can afford to go to Disney at least once. There are exceptions, of course, but I stand by that statement. You don’t have to stay at the Poly to have a good vacation.

Here, here!

That said, I don't think the bottom 20-percentile income demographic is typical/average and it's certainly not being targeted by Disney. That said, I do think that Disney used to target the lower income percentiles harder back when the value resorts really provided value and Disney was playing the long game of trying to lock in upwardly-mobile families. Maybe this was back in the era where upward mobility itself was more possible?

 

[Walt Disney1955]

My brother, sister and I have the same face structure and you can definitely tell that we are siblings. My girls are complete opposites. One is petite with brown hair, brown eyes, and round face. The other is taller, blond, big blue eyes, and a longer face. My hubby is a tall, skinny, ginger and I am light brown hair, hazel eyes, and olive skin. None of us look anything alike. If you stretch it a bit, my oldest might look like she can be mine. LOL When my kids were young, people would ask me if they had the same father because they are so opposite. Yes they do.

They'd ask if they had the same father? That's a bold thing to ask someone you barely know.

 

[jaklgreen]

They'd ask if they had the same father? That's a bold thing to ask someone you barely know.

I know, I would just be pushing them in the stroller at the mall and people would come up to me and ask that. It was weird.

 

[Trackmaster]

You have to respect Disney to a certain degree. At most parks, they make the base price for the tickets and season passes pretty cheap, but then charge a ton for priority passes.

Disney builds the price of Fast Pass into their ticket. And they obviously just spend a lot more on their rides, staffing and experiences. So they don't get you in the park, and gauge you for a decent experience, they're just up front that its going to cost a lot, and don't bother coming if you can't afford it. I think that Disney does a great job of allowing you to pre-plan and pre-pay for your trip, so there aren't really any surprises. Its like getting angry at Ferrari for not selling you the latest 2019 model for $20,000.