The state of affairs at WDW increasingly looks like a "the center cannot hold" kind of thing to me. Being a public company, the typical short-term thinking is to keep the shareholders happy, which means maximizing profits. But it really does feel like WDW is about to price themselves out of most peoples' budgets, which can't be good for the stock price, either. 11 years ago, I stayed at a moderate for less than what it now costs to stay at a value. It was a AAA-package deal, not rack rates, but still...
I joined DVC a few years back, and am thankful that I did. And when people complain about why they should join DVC whe there's always another free-dining or pay-4-get-7 promotional offer, I point out that the prices of rooms are not going to get any cheaper. And eventually, even a comparatively "great" deal isn't going to seem as great as DVC. If WDW continues at this rate, within 10-12 years moderates will be at or near 300 a night. And that's not factoring in how much it costs to get into the parks. Snark like LarryStoken aside (which I'm going to go on record as saying is 100% malarkey intended to rile you up and nothing more), it's going to reach a point where a lot of formerly dedicated "Regular" visitors will become more irregular, and the ones that can afford to go more often, quite frankly, have the options to go anywhere, so you can't rely on them going more often.
In a way, perhaps this is intentional. We all now how difficult it can occasionally be to get a room. The overpricing may be a means to prevent people from going as often, so people don't go as often, thereby "freeing" up rooms. If this is the case, I'd argue that WDW still, to a degree, is shooting itself in the foot. A large chunk of their profit seems to come from people (like many of us) who love WDW and go often. Start pricing them out of their ability to do what they love, and they may go on to love something else. Sure, you still have the rest of the world as a potential customer base, many of whom you've outpriced as an option, many others will still look for a value for their dollar...leaving the bourgeois who will dump thousands of dollars into a trip without thinking twice, and may never come back. So aside from the lucky ducks who get PIN codes to return (AND still have the time and money to do so), the sticker-shock of going to WDW is going to outweigh the potential "Magic-ness" of it all very soon. The center can not hold.
