High compared...to what, though? As myself and others have pointed out, a lot of this depends on where you come from. My local, suburban Econolodge (which has less services than even a Disney value resort) costs more per night than Pop Century.
Your "moneys worth" is always going to be subjective. I think it's insane people pay $5-6 for a cup of coffee at a Starbucks, yet other people think I'm daffy because I am addicted to buying TV-DVDs for $50/whack. I don't get the value out of a $5 cup of coffee (can't stand coffee to begin with...), and others don't think watching reruns on DVD is a value ($2 an episode in perfect quality makes it a bargain to me). It's all about personal experience, wants, needs, and choice.
I find the higher priced hotels at WDW too much for me. Personally, I spend literally minutes a day in the room that I am not sleeping or showering. Sure, it would be nice to stay at a Monorail resort more often just for the fun of it, but paying for anything more than a clean room and a shower is overkill for my purposes most of the time. But for others, they get a value out of it I don't (or they have more disposable income than I) and it works for them.
Base prices for staying on-property, though, really aren't that high unless you really are considering the $35 a night Motel 6 deals you get in Orlando because the local off-site market isn't nearly what it used to be. Most people I know that take "fly away" vacations (i.e. getting on a plane and going somewhere) are shocked when I tell them how cheap they can stay at Disney. Compared to most other tourist destinations there are many more price options available.
It doesn't sound like you are finding on-site a deal. Unless you are going to stay at the aforementioned $35/night places (which actually I do sometimes, depending on my budget and needs), you are going to be hard pressed to find that convenience anywhere else. It is true Disney is so booked all the time they could charge more and get away with it, but really when you compare vacation to vacation WDW is really not in the "overpriced" category for a populated east-coast tourist destination. You pay more at Fenway park for a dog and soda than you do at WDW, and you can't get a closet to sleep in in a major city for under $150/night. Travel is expensive everywhere.
AEfx
And because you have even more posts than I do, allow me to say, excellent post! You really nailed it!
Here's an example of an expense I can't justify (I'm with you on the anti-coffee, pro-DVD season sets, BTW): tickets for concerts & theater. I like going to concerts in a club or theater, but there are very few bands I like enough to warrant paying the ridiculous sums of money necessary to see them in a stadium. It's cyclical, bands and agents and promoters see what scalpers and ticket agents get for tickets, they raise their prices accordingly, scalpers and ticket agents raise THEIR prices exponentially, people are still stupid enough to pay those prices, so the promoters raise their prices again, and so on.
Seeing professional theater is more of a value for me, though to be sure, I don't often opt for orchestra seats. Mezzanine or balcony is the same show a little farther back, just fine for me. And I never go to a ticket agent, no matter what the event. If I can't get them at the box office or ticketmaster (expensive enough IMHO) I wasn't meant to go.
Not a sports nut so I never have to deal with the astronomical prices people pay to see baseball or football game. If I were a sports fan, I'd probably be happier going to a friend's house or a bar and watching it on a big TV and getting drunk for much less than the 9 dollar stadium beers.
Value IS subjective, and some of you out there may have paid 5x the face value of a conert ticket or a playoff game. I can't justify it, but maybe you can.
Hey, skyline, I got an idea, for chucks and giggles. If you have a minute, go online and look for a website for one of the nicer non-Disney resorts you've stayed it somewhere in the world recently. If that website allows you to book online, see what the current rack rate is for a room. I'm willing to bet a hiny red apple you didn't pay nearly that much for that room compared to your family connection-travel agent rate. You earlier compared the rack rate for a Savannah room at AKL with the passholder rate, and said the rack rate isn't worth it. Your opinion, and you're entitled to it, but is the rack rate for a resort you stayed at before "worth it" compared to the rate you paid for it from your travel-agent mom? Your perspective of a value might be skewed because the prices you paid for most rooms are probably even less than what most people who go to travel agents pay, let alone people who arrange thier own vacations and don't know how to look for the absolute best value or get a "I'm related to the travel agent" discount. Nothing to gripe about. When I was younger I sold TVs and appliances and gave my discount to any friend or family member who needed or wanted something we sold. But it was obvious I was giving them a discount, they saw the retail price of the thing they were buying, and they sae the price I was giving them, and could factor the value. On the flip side, if you're going up to your mom and saying, say, "I want to go to Quebec in the spring, what do you think?" Then she gives you a package price, and you might not have any idea just how much of a value it is compared to what the rooms normally go for, let alone any other amenities or airfare. That is, unless you've done the research beforehand or afterwards and KNOW what the rooms normally go for.
I could be wrong, but I suspect you might not do that research, so your perception of what a "value" is for a resort or hotel room is skewed because you've always gotten better prices than most people can get.
