Raising prices yet again!!!! enough is enough!

[Miss Bella]

What line did you sail on? Was airfare or anything else included in that price?

Our last cruise was a 7 night on carnival magic in the Caribbean and the cruise alone was $2500 for a family of three. Airfare was $1200. Add in excursions, hotel before, taxis/bus/Uber, drinks, specialty food/food on-island, etc. (This is neither here nor there but I’ll pay more for a big RCI boat over Carnival every time in the future.)

This was on the Carnival Vista when it was new. Loved the ship. iIt was a great itinerary. I think totall for everything excursions, hotels etc. taxis excluding airfare it was around 5k

My last two trips to WDW I’ve taken just my son. Room food and tickets around 5k. We stay deluxe, but I have gotten 30% off. We don’t eat at the most expensive table services. Nor do I buy merchandise. I realize airfare makes Europe a more expensive destination, but for a domestic destination WDW is pretty darn expensive. It is after all a theme park so comparing it to an Alaska or European cruise is rather difficult. They are totally different types of vacations. I’ve been to Alaska and Europe a few times both are totally amazing. I still find WDW amazing, but if Wdw becomes so expensive I have to eliminate other vacations then we’ll stop going.

 

[Miss Bella]

No not DCL. The cost is flights to Seattle (we used points so no “real” cost ), hotel for 2 nights (~800-900 Seattle is not cheap for a nice hotel on the bay), and sailing on Royal Caribbean in a balcony room ($4650), + excursions, merchandise, food in town ~$1500. At 9 nights we are at $7,250. Mind you we are using CC for the flights so I did not add on what that would cost.

We wont sail DCL because we can’t justify the price point until we have kids (maybe).
For us WDW is not drastically out of line on price for how we travel, but I did wish they would stop cutting quality and variation.

I would be intrested to know how a 10 night med cruise, with a family only cost you $3400 without one heck of a discount. For that price yeah, any other destination will look over priced.

No discount. You can find some pretty good prices on cruises in Europe. 700 to 1000 a person is completely doable.

 

[WDWobserver]

Interesting discussion on the cost for people to go to WDW on vacation. This really is a hard argument to debate because there are so many variables to consider. On one hand yes it is expensive to go to WDW on the other hand look at all there is to take in….. You have major operations going on simultaneously all for the price of one admission ticket. Disney is charging a lot but they are also spending a lot. This is not like they are pocketing all the revenue they get. When Disney builds a new attraction it is millions and millions of dollars spent to develop and build the new attraction. The new Disney reflections resort is 350 million dollars. Easily with the entire various project going on at WDW you are talking over a billion dollars. Maintaining these new attractions adds operations running costs. Then you have the refurbishments. If Disney did not have the reserve capital to do these things there is no way it would happen. How does WDW get the reserve capital…. Through the ticket prices, food, and retail. When Epcot is renovated that will easily coast over a billion dollars by itself. New hotel, Spaceship Earth, new plaza area……. New monorail fleet…… Nobody donates this stuff to Micky. You have to keep the gyroscope spinning and the scale in balance all the time….

 

[eliza61nyc]

Interesting discussion on the cost for people to go to WDW on vacation. This really is a hard argument to debate because there are so many variables to consider. On one hand yes it is expensive to go to WDW on the other hand look at all there is to take in….. You have major operations going on simultaneously all for the price of one admission ticket. Disney is charging a lot but they are also spending a lot. This is not like they are pocketing all the revenue they get. When Disney builds a new attraction it is millions and millions of dollars spent to develop and build the new attraction. The new Disney reflections resort is 350 million dollars. Easily with the entire various project going on at WDW you are talking over a billion dollars. Maintaining these new attractions adds operations running costs. Then you have the refurbishments. If Disney did not have the reserve capital to do these things there is no way it would happen. How does WDW get the reserve capital…. Through the ticket prices, food, and retail. When Epcot is renovated that will easily coast over a billion dollars by itself. New hotel, Spaceship Earth, new plaza area……. New monorail fleet…… Nobody donates this stuff to Micky. You have to keep the gyroscope spinning and the scale in balance all the time….

I think the disconnect is that people compare it to the prices 20-30 years ago and feel it should stay in line with inflation. which I don't get because nothing has done that. and when you mention that you get the old "Walt wanted some thing different for his parks" or "Disney has always been different".

I always want to know where folks travel that is the same price or only slightly higher than 20 years ago?
I tend to compare my vacations against other vacation destinations. every year we sit down and we decide where we'd like to go.. I;ve mentioned this before, we went to Atlantis at Paradise Island/Nassau. you want to talk about pricey. A cruise? we generally do RC, just as costly.
Has Disney gotten expensive yes, it has. I am in no way saying it's cheap but it's definitely in line with the outside world.

 

[Miss Bella]

I think the disconnect is that people compare it to the prices 20-30 years ago and feel it should stay in line with inflation. which I don't get because nothing has done that. and when you mention that you get the old "Walt wanted some thing different for his parks" or "Disney has always been different".

I always want to know where folks travel that is the same price or only slightly higher than 20 years ago?
I tend to compare my vacations against other vacation destinations. every year we sit down and we decide where we'd like to go.. I;ve mentioned this before, we went to Atlantis at Paradise Island/Nassau. you want to talk about pricey. A cruise? we generally do RC, just as costly.
Has Disney gotten expensive yes, it has. I am in no way saying it's cheap but it's definitely in line with the outside world.

I don't know about everyone else but I'm only comparing it to 8 years ago not 20 years ago. Our first trip in May of 2010 with 2 adults and 2 kids 9 nights. I paid 5,200 for a garden view room at the poly, tickets, hoppers, water parks and deluxe dining.

Just for fun I priced out a 9 night trip in January at the BWI using the 25% room discount. I put my kids ages at 6 and 8. Garden view room tickets, hoppers, water parks and deluxe dining it was 8000. That's a pretty significant price increase and we all know January is the cheapest month to visit WDW. I can't imagine what 9 nights at the Poly would cost in May. I didn't compare the two because discounts aren't out for May. My guess is the same vacation I took in 2010 for a little over 5K would be well north of 10K. I wish I could say my income has doubled over the last 8 years, but sadly no.

The only reason I continue to go is my husband and my 16 year old aren't interested. I can stay deluxe for 7 nights and come in around 4-5K total with park hoppers and food no ddp for just the two of us. 5K is the max I will pay for WDW trip and I refuse to downgrade to a mod. If it gets over that I stop going. I have a bucket list of places I wan't to go and I'm not willing to throw all my vacation money into a theme park every year.

All that being said I'm very excited about our upcoming trip in January.
As far as other vacations we've been on a number of cruises, European, Alaska, Hawaii etc. We've visited NYC and DC. I don't sit down and compare the cost of "other vacations" to WDW. The "other vacations" take priority and if there's money left over then we'll go to Disney.

 

[Stitch826]

I don't think anyone is asking for 15 years ago. At this point, how about 3 years ago.

The economy is in the best shape it has been in in ages. Business is booming at Disney. As others point out throughout other threads, Disney really has very few "slow" periods of the year anymore. Disney has no reason right now to offer the deep discounts it was offering when the economy was poor.

 

[eliza61nyc]

Argh. How about offering us a product worth the money? And the economy will not be booming forever. These things come in cycles.

And when we hit a recession then they will offer more discounts. absolutely correct it comes in cycles. 'Worth" once again is subjective. obviously a whole lot of folks are happy with the product, maybe not every aspect but overall they are happy, they keep giving wdw money.

 

[Stitch826]

Argh. How about offering us a product worth the money? And the economy will not be booming forever. These things come in cycles.

Someone else posted a good comment recently, though I'm not sure which thread it was on. The poster wrote that for around $120 admission, you receive a full day of entertainment (rides, shows, etc.). Compare that to spending the same amount of money on a concert, theater, NFL, MLB, etc. ticket. Each of those only last around three hours and can easily cost a similar (or greater) amount of money. At Disney, you get 8-12 (or more) hours of time for the same price.

 

[eliza61nyc]

Sorry, one more thing - how many times do we have to hear about how folks are happy with the product? Why don't we just open a thread here called -- no criticism because the populace finds it wonderful. This is a discussion board. We are allowed to air our indifference to the company for which we have poured tens of thousand of dollars (if not more). Obviously, if we wanted to discuss this with people who have an explanation for everything, I'd go to the Politics board.

lol, then why are you getting so mad when others have different opinions. ie the above post telling people what not to say or post

Yes we are allowed to air any thing we desire, this is a discussion board as you say. so no one is "explaining" any thing to you, no one is saying you have to make an explanation. we are doing exactly what you claim we are allowed to do. giving our opinion.
talk about hypocrisy. as you once said to me, if you don't want to read how happy people are, skip those post.

Have fun where ever you wish to have fun and may I suggest the "ignore" function. you can screen out anyone you don't wish to read their opinions.

 

[21stamps]

What line did you sail on? Was airfare or anything else included in that price?

Our last cruise was a 7 night on carnival magic in the Caribbean and the cruise alone was $2500 for a family of three. Airfare was $1200. Add in excursions, hotel before, taxis/bus/Uber, drinks, specialty food/food on-island, etc. (This is neither here nor there but I’ll pay more for a big RCI boat over Carnival every time in the future.)

I have to say that cruises are a tough comparison, unless you’re looking same dates and same stateroom category.

Our cruise on NCL last Thanksgiving, was priced at $3800 basic fare.. for 2 people.
Our specific dates in June to Bermuda on NCL is $4300.

I do think it’s comparitive to Disney, and often times more than a Disney trip.. depending on which resort is chosen at Disney. Add in hotel night for pre cruise, transportation to and from port, excursions, incidentals etc., and you’re higher or equal to Disney World.

 

[Raineman]

lol, then why are you getting so mad when others have different opinions. ie the above post telling people what not to say or post

Yes we are allowed to air any thing we desire, this is a discussion board as you say. so no one is "explaining" any thing to you, no one is saying you have to make an explanation. we are doing exactly what you claim we are allowed to do. giving our opinion.
talk about hypocrisy. as you once said to me, if you don't want to read how happy people are, skip those post.

Have fun where ever you wish to have fun and may I suggest the "ignore" function. you can screen out anyone you don't wish to read their opinions.

You have described one of the major issues on this board-too many people (on both sides of the coin, either bashing Disney or defending them, let's be fair) are so passionate and emotional about their viewpoint, that they begin to think that their opinion is fact, and when someone offers a differing opinion, they are basically told that they are wrong. If someone has an opinion, and they can back it up with data or unbiased research results, or anything else that cannot be disputed, then that is the kind of information that can back up their opinion, and maybe, start to make the person with the differing opinion change their views on the subject being debated. Emotional statements that basically say "I'm right because this is what I think" will never make anyone else rethink their opinion, it will only make the other person strengthen their resolve to further defend their own views.

 

[21stamps]

You have described one of the major issues on this board-too many people (on both sides of the coin, either bashing Disney or defending them, let's be fair) are so passionate and emotional about their viewpoint, that they begin to think that their opinion is fact, and when someone offers a differing opinion, they are basically told that they are wrong. If someone has an opinion, and they can back it up with data or unbiased research results, or anything else that cannot be disputed, then that is the kind of information that can back up their opinion, and maybe, start to make the person with the differing opinion change their views on the subject being debated. Emotional statements that basically say "I'm right because this is what I think" will never make anyone else rethink their opinion, it will only make the other person strengthen their resolve to further defend their own views.

I think though, what a lot of people view as “Defending Disney”, is really just the acknowledgement of reality, nothing to do with being a ‘Disney defender’ or ‘pixie duster’ at all.
Entertainment prices have risen dramatically, almost everywhere.. this is a statement which shouldn’t need links or graphs to back it up.

 

[Raineman]

I think though, what a lot of people view as “Defending Disney”, is really just the acknowledgement of reality, nothing to do with being a ‘Disney defender’ or ‘pixie duster’ at all.
Entertainment prices have risen dramatically, almost everywhere.. this is a statement which shouldn’t need links or graphs to back it up.

I think your post is a great example of what I mentioned, in a good way. Your first statement is one I don't necessarily agree with, as the term "reality" can be based on perception as well-but I am definitely not going to sit here and tell you you are wrong, I am stating my opinion in a non-confrontational manner. Your second statement actually refers to real data-rising prices of most entertainment products-so really, you could use links or graphs to back it up, if that was what was required to prove your point, as I'm sure there are people out there, maybe only a few, who will tell you that prices haven't gone up, and presenting them with data, for example the average cost of a WDW vacation each year for the past decade, or the average ticket price for an NFL game over a certain time period, etc. Unfortunately, alot of the subjects discussed on here do not lend themselves to being able to use hard numbers for proof, hence the opinionated arguments we see.

 

[RustySpork]

QFT

 

[Miss Bella]

I have to say that cruises are a tough comparison, unless you’re looking same dates and same stateroom category.

Our cruise on NCL last Thanksgiving, was priced at $3800 basic fare.. for 2 people.
Our specific dates in June to Bermuda on NCL is $4300.

I do think it’s comparitive to Disney, and often times more than a Disney trip.. depending on which resort is chosen at Disney. Add in hotel night for pre cruise, transportation to and from port, excursions, incidentals etc., and you’re higher or equal to Disney World.

When I cruise I’m going to new destinations. To me there is more value in that then visiting the same old theme park. How do you compare a cruise through the Norwegian fjords, Alaska or the Mediterranean to walking around Epcot. There is no comparison. The cruises I mentioned may cost more then WDw, but Wdw is not that far behind. A week in an Epcot resort for a family of four can is going to cost at least 5k and that’s without food. It’s a lot of money for a theme park.