eliza61nyc
Well-Known Member
then if we are not that market, why are we even having the comparison??
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News Walt Disney World theme park ticket price increases go into effect March 12 2019
- Thread starter wdwmagic
- Start date
freediverdude
Well-Known Member
This is part of the situation- I used to work in an office where there were a fair number of people who made well into the six figures. The problem was, these people thought they were middle class. They only saw the .1% as wealthy or well off, and they spent most of what they made on keeping a certain lifestyle, i.e., buying a sizable home in a gated community, driving a premium car, taking expensive vacations, etc. And yes they could afford it, although just barely, and spent most of what they made, just like lower income or middle class people do, only they spent it on more expensive items.
And there is a good number of people in this category, millions of them in the US alone. And these are the people Disney and other brands who want to be seen as premium brands target (Apple and Lexus also come to mind). And that is because these consumers are the most profitable. They want to be seen using certain brands, and are willing to pay quite a bit to do so. My point is, Disney could probably triple their prices tomorrow, and still keep a lot of these people- in fact they would be seen as even more exclusive and desirable. Disney still has a lot of room to increase prices with this group before they would be seen as only for the wealthy by them. It is unfortunate though, as appealing to this group was not the original intention of building Disneyland or WDW. Maybe someone else will come along to build another brand that is more like the early days of Disney.
It is not just Disney. Universal gets a free ride on this site because they are smaller. The cost of entry into the themepark business in the US is too high. Cedar Fair and Six Flags are the only ones. Maybe SeaWorld if they merged with Hershey and Herschend. I actually see more mergers in this industry not less. I would love to see AT&T buy back Six Flags and reenter the market. They would take back HP from Universal and could build up a true third competitor. Universal would be fine because they have Nintendo and all the Dreamwork IP now. If Cedar Fair, SeaWorld and Herschend merged they would have the Peanut IP, Sesame Street and animals. I don't want the Chinese to come here and buy one of our regional themepark companies but they may if they get the chance.
Anyway, the regional parks are fun. They have lots to offer at reasonable prices. I am a Six Flags Diamond Elite member. I love the Great Adventure Safari. In some ways its actually better than Disney's. Not the theming but the number of animals and the guides animal knowledge. The pass also includes preferred parking and two front of line access every day and access to every Six Flags Park, including water parks. Plus my annual cost for my wife and I is less than one of our WDW annual pass and includes 2 meals a day, a snack and unlimited soft drinks.
the.dreamfinder
Well-Known Member
There’s an assertion that Disney has to raise prices to keep guests out becuase the parks can’t handle the crowds. TDR tickets are affordable and they figured out that a mixture of dated tickets, which don’t have pricing tiers, and very expensive APs avoid the clogging these price increases are meant to “stop”.
And the holiday events are included with park admission.
You are proving the point. In Japan, Hong Kong and other parks they dont get the crowds so Disney charges less. Do you really think if their parks were suffering from gridlock that they wouldn't raise their ticket prices? Ticket prices are based on supply and demand.
GusEzra
Member
Another thing to consider is that its not just Disney or theme parks that are raising prices. I have a friend that use to scoff at the price of taking a family to Disney till she priced it in comparison to taking them to Yellowstone for the same amount of time. Disney actually came in cheaper and that's where they are going for their vacation.
You have an excellent point. It is the total cost of the vacation that counts. Prices of individual tickets are one part, but only one part. Family size is a major part because if the average size of the family used to be 6 and us now 3, parents have more to spend on a per person basis. Flying is actually still cheaper today than it was in the 1970s. Doubling ticket prices would actually cost the same amount of money. Food could go up substantially but doubling would actually cost more because children eat less. As for rooms, maybe they used 2 before and could use one but let's assume they used one before and one now so any increase in cost would add to the price. But if they saved 600 in airline fares it would make up for doubling the rates. (Figuring 100 a ticket each way per airline ticket)
Now taking the fact that incomes have more than doubled since WDW opened and family size, taking everything into account makes yesterday's ticket increase reasonable when compared to family cost in 1971. Note this includes adding the ride tickets, admission price, hotel cost, food cost and transportation to the park. Every cost has to be included not just the ticket price or hotel cost or food. Families live on budget and budgets are not solely dependent on one item or family size they are based on family income.
Not this "Disney's never been for the masses" nonsense again... I guess my family was "rich", then, because we went every other year or every third year? We flew from MN and stayed with my grandmother in Sarasota for most of the time we were in FL, with a couple of nights at a Days Inn to do WDW. We were firmly middle class. My dad worked overtime every Saturday to save up enough money for our family of 4 to go every 2-3 years, and I don't ever remember going to the parks more than 3 days at a time until 1991, when there was more to do and you could fill up 4-5 days.
Yesteryear's WDW clientele is most definitely NOT like today's. The proliferation of credit has seen to that. I'm out...
What about implications woment?
the.dreamfinder
Well-Known Member
Nope, TDL and TDS (3rd and 5th in WW attendence in 2017) see more guests on a per park basis than the non MK parks. And as @Animaniac93-98 pointed out UNI Osaka (4th WW), which is UNI’s most popular park, has much lower admission prices than the other UNI parks.
From the 2018 TEA/AECOM Report
I am glad your Grandmother lived in Florida and you were able to visit her. I hope you look back at those trips and realize the best part was seeing her. However, people like you who did that are not the ones people say are being priced out. I think families should always visit their parents and grandparents every year before wasting money on a WDW vacation. Family is what life is all about.
All we hear on these boards is Disney charges too much for the average person to have a Disney World Vacation. You had a visit Grandma, stay at Grandma's and have a few days at WDW. Far from the same circumstances. I seriously doubt your parents would have taken you if it weren't to visit your grandmother. I was fortunate to visit Martha's Vineyard in the summer when I was growing up to visit my Grandfather. My parents could not have afforded to take us there if they had to pay for a place for us to stay. We were not rich but were middleclass
Club Cooloholic
Well-Known Member
All interesting numbers. Shanghai Disney is about 45 bucks US. And guess what you can fly there for around $650 from the US too.
eliza61nyc
Well-Known Member
See it's not sad to me. What is sad is that people place ridiculous importance on wdw. WDW is not college tuition, it is not a mortgage so if John q public cannot recognize where a vacation to a fake, playland should fall why should someone feel bad?
Why is the fake narrative keep going around that every kid "deserves " a wdw vacation.
It is simple, you either can afford it or you cannot. You either think its worth the money or you don't. There have been untold number of times i could not afford stuff.
When did the memo go out that everyone csn afford every thing they want??
If that's the case who do I see about that Audi q8, I've been drolling over?
Da Bird is Da Word
Active Member
Does anyone know if this price increase affects Sept 4 thru 11?
Patcheslee
Well-Known Member
I understand this completely. Vacations were never in the realm of possibility growing up, Disney might as well have not existed. I didnt grow up traumatized by lack of what is simply a luxury. Kid wants to go to Paris but she knows if she wants that, start saving her money and put herself in a position to do that. What she'll have deserved is the right to spend her money as she see fit nothing else.
Or I could be wrong and I deserve to win the Powerball because I bought a ticket lol
flynnibus
Premium Member
I believe your cite to counter the point was bogus. If I agree or not with the statement you were trying to debunk is another matter entirely.
"Rich" is a relative term. I also think the Disney fan community is incredibly skewed by two factors that make sampling within the community a very bad example of the larger customer base. The Disney fan community (those that actually engage in online discussions, or recurring Disney communities on a daily or weekly basis) are skewed in that:
- They are the types that often make multiple trips within a single year - their level of commitment to THIS entertainment vs other options is not representative of how most people act
- They tend to be the types that dedicate far more of their disposible income to this company that the general public
As such, Disney 'fans' don't have to be rich to be able to do Disney... but I think DIsney gets far more of the $$ from faithful.
And once you step outside of the faithful... Someone doing Disney once every 5-8 years is achievable because they don't do it a lot. But I bet they still spend more on their Disney vacation then they do on their other typical vacations.
We know that most people who do travel to Disney from the general population are not poor by any means.
Missing20K
Well-Known Member
mikejs78
Premium Member
When MK only serviced 16M guests per year, it was a much more pleasant park. Apples and Oranges.
MrMcDuck
Well-Known Member
Americans charge everything these days. And many DON'T pay it all off every month. That's today's reality.
As for trips elsewhere, some of my fondest memories as a child were a roadtrip plus camping when I was a kid. That is certainly still much cheaper than Disney. But in today's world one doesn't merely do camping even if the goal is an outdoors trip. Oh, no, one has to "glamp" rather than camp, and take photos of all the kiddies in their new outdoor clothes that they'll wear once. Even if one hasn't quite saved up for the total cost, there's always that VISA to cover the rest.
As for trips elsewhere, some of my fondest memories as a child were a roadtrip plus camping when I was a kid. That is certainly still much cheaper than Disney. But in today's world one doesn't merely do camping even if the goal is an outdoors trip. Oh, no, one has to "glamp" rather than camp, and take photos of all the kiddies in their new outdoor clothes that they'll wear once. Even if one hasn't quite saved up for the total cost, there's always that VISA to cover the rest.
Great Adventure has a real one night camping experience. You have to have a 10x10 foot tent and set it up in their small area in the middle of their safari. Last year it was only 85.30 and included dinner and some minor Entertainment. We enjoyed it and will do it again this year.