Is Disney too expensive for us Brits?

[Plague]

Technically it does not allow you to do a change, you have to cancel your existing park reservation and make a new one.

Yes, I understand that - spent a lot of time shuffling them last year before it all got flushed away

That does raise the question: If PPs are here for years to come why can't they get a better integration with MDE, or at least a more intelligent interface then the current one?

 

[Wakey]

Once things are back to normal I don’t see Disney wanting to stop walk ups.

He’s already said he will keep it for ‘yield’. They tailor staffing exactly now (probably reduced) to the bare minimum. Many staff are called in as and when needed. The park pass system was never about limiting numbers for Covid as anyone who has been will tell you. It was a cover to increase ‘yield’ - Mr Chapek loves to say that word on earnings calls. I’d call it margin.
Part of the ‘yield increase’ strategy is seriously clipping the wings of APs and trying to stop many of them coming in- there is someone else willing to pay $200 a day.
They are riding the crest of a wave currently in parks due to pent up demand. That will fall back. Many, myself included, feel badly burned by the Parks this past year, with the experience well below what it was before, mainly due to Genie+ and lack of park investment over the years (Epcot a building site 4 years on with no real work witnessed, Tron 3 years, now put back some say to 2023, Guardians 4 years, still not open, Ratatouille finished after 2.5 years but purposely held back for the 50th), and general cost cutting. They could have chosen to fast track these developments like Universal did with Velociraptor. As a result, despite owning a large amount of DVC points, we won’t be back in the parks for the foreseeable.
The US market is more dependent on stock markets than we are, they seem to invest more, and spend it when the stock markets are up. The markets are currently taking something of a hammering. When the pent up demand goes, Bob Chapek may find he has alienated a little too many of his bread and butter customers. But he is making over $30m of bonus a year, despite the shares being in decline the past year when the markets have substantially bounced (until very recently) and Disney dividends have dwindled away, so what will he care.
They‘ll have another headache then with the massive Epic Universe opening. I’d love to see the competition ramped up.

 

[WelshMorgan92]

As much as I've complained I do miss Disney and probably will go back once some restrictions are lifted!

Luckily I have my project management qualifications to be able to plan a disney trip haha

 

[Lilsia]

Yes, I understand that - spent a lot of time shuffling them last year before it all got flushed away

That does raise the question: If PPs are here for years to come why can't they get a better integration with MDE, or at least a more intelligent interface then the current one?

Well that would cost them more money on IT. Frankly, ever since they outsourced their IT there have been a bunch of problems. They can't seem to get things to work right. I guess you get what you pay for.

 

[Lashed34]

Having watched and read countless vlogs about all the changes at Disney over the past 18 months- Genie+, park reservations, LL...and, more importantly how it's all impacted on lines and waiting times it is all far too much to even think about dealing with.

Added to that there is the physical availability for genie+, you're lucky if you get 2 LL for attractions in any one day and an even longer wait if you buy a LL if you're not up early enough (or it's sold out at 0701am). Meanwhile the standby and LL lines get longer and longer.

Added to all of that are the general price hikes for on site hotels, with less extra magic time in the parks, and generally less reasons for staying on site.

When we last went in Dec 2019 we had a fantastic holiday with minimum planning but this doesn't sound either fun or relaxing, which any holiday should be.

For us Disney has become a no go area now, as much as we love it we will stay on site at Universal and visit other theme parks and attractions around Florida - probably Disney Springs, but definitely not one of their parks, it's become a huge rip off for too many reasons now.

 

[Plague]

I guess you get what you pay for.

I don't think we are getting it

 

[McCrae]

Having watched and read countless vlogs about all the changes at Disney over the past 18 months- Genie+, park reservations, LL...and, more importantly how it's all impacted on lines and waiting times it is all far too much to even think about dealing with.

Added to that there is the physical availability for genie+, you're lucky if you get 2 LL for attractions in any one day and an even longer wait if you buy a LL if you're not up early enough (or it's sold out at 0701am). Meanwhile the standby and LL lines get longer and longer.

Added to all of that are the general price hikes for on site hotels, with less extra magic time in the parks, and generally less reasons for staying on site.

When we last went in Dec 2019 we had a fantastic holiday with minimum planning but this doesn't sound either fun or relaxing, which any holiday should be.

For us Disney has become a no go area now, as much as we love it we will stay on site at Universal and visit other theme parks and attractions around Florida - probably Disney Springs, but definitely not one of their parks, it's become a huge rip off for too many reasons now.

Interesting I have read and watched a number of YouTube visits to Disney where they highlight how well things are working with Genie +. I guess you can only be sure after you have visited. Our visit first post Covid is this March.

 

[Lilsia]

I don't think we are getting it

No, but Disney is getting the IT that they are paying for. They decided to not pay skilled workers and instead took a bunch of the jobs and sent them to another Country, with less skilled and lower paying people. That is what I meant when I said that they get what they pay for. It is sad that they want to put such an emphasis on this technology, but won't hire people who can do the job right.

 

[Tony]

Have you got a link to the article. I'm still trying to wrap my head around what the best approach is going to be for our trip in August.

The site won't let me post a link to you I'm afriad.

It's a page called wanderingindisney dot com. In the search box top right type "the value of" and it should be the first item returned, from October 19th.

Now obviously things change but it offered me some reassurance that I didn't need to sell a kidney just to fund these co-payments on the rides.

 

[zavandor]

Interesting I have read and watched a number of YouTube visits to Disney where they highlight how well things are working with Genie +. I guess you can only be sure after you have visited. Our visit first post Covid is this March.

Personally, in early December I've hated Genie+ both when I had it and when I hadn't. Maybe now with lower crowds? But then, I'd argue that with lower crowds it's not really needed in the first place.

 

[Lee Matthews]

Disney world is becoming way too expensive for Brits and when I price up 2 a week trip for this August staying at only pop century for over £8k (2 adults and 1 child) with Tui, I can see why.

we want to go to Disney world most years so for us we decided it’s down to us to be smarter.

so we decided to buy DVC resale. 320 points at AKV and 100 points at Vero (to give us variety for times when we don’t want park holidays)

It’s still a big investment but it really is buying against inflation over the next 35 years and I can’t imagine what the room rates will be then.

we are getting Deluxe resorts at value pricing.

Flights can be cheap with hard work. Shop at sainsburys and collect Nectar points, convert that to Avios and do as much shopping through the Avios store. It all goes through the Amex which also gives 2 for 1 companion tickets.

Next years flights we are expecting to probably be £600 max for the 3 of us, which is just the tax and duty.

Then next year if the annual passes are back we will probably have one person buy a Sorcerers pass for the discounts while the other adult and child get regular UK tickets. Then make sure that annual pass covers two trips so late august first year and late July the 2nd year.

Genie+ doesn’t interest us really, especially on a pre-pay for the whole trip so we probably won’t spend much on that.

 

[Tony]

OK, getting on my moral high horse here as this is utterly misleading and I really hope no one reads the post and says "oh wow, I do this then I get as good as free holidays at disney"

so we decided to buy DVC resale. 320 points at AKV and 100 points at Vero (to give us variety for times when we don’t want park holidays)

Not being rude but you do realise you can use points across different resorts, don't you?

It’s still a big investment but it really is buying against inflation over the next 35 years and I can’t imagine what the room rates will be then.

we are getting Deluxe resorts at value pricing.

Remember you're on the hook for something like $4000 a year in dues on that deal - and that number will increase at an above inflation rate, too. Our dues at BLT have doubled over the last 10 years - inflation certainly hasn't.

Flights can be cheap with hard work. Shop at sainsburys and collect Nectar points, convert that to Avios and do as much shopping through the Avios store. It all goes through the Amex which also gives 2 for 1 companion tickets.

Next years flights we are expecting to probably be £600 max for the 3 of us, which is just the tax and duty.

Well, not really. To get the flights to Orlando for £200 each on Avios, assuming you're travelling on peak dates so you're going to need 70,000 Avios each. 70,000 Avios can be cashed out into a Sainsbury's shop for £560. And whilst you get one "free" on the amex card, that now costs £295 a year.

So in all reality your idea that you're buying 3 tickets for £600 is misleading for others. They're really costing you £600 + £560 + £560 + £295 = £2015. (And going really off topic, I'd wager with a bit of digging you could find flights to Florida for less than that, quite likely in premium economy. And if you're using the free AMEX card to get the 2-4-1 that's a mistake, too.)

You can model your DVC justification however you like and assume there's no opportunity cost for the money, or try and predict inflation rates 30 years out. Reality is by tweaking it people can get the answer they want to see. But suggesting that you're getting an £8k holiday for £600 now that you've bought DVC really couldn't be any further from the truth.

What you have done is brought the cost down by about £3k but you're also gifting Disney £40k (that will be worth zero when the contract expires), but that money could be earning you an average of 8% a year if invested in big company stocks, and you'd get your capital back, too. Oh look, 8% of £40k is £3.2k. And as the final line, I'll guess that the TUI deal included your park tickets, too?

There's no such thing as a free lunch. As I said at the start of the thread, Disney isn't designed for a 2 week holiday. The way to make it affordable is to go for a more appropriate length of time.

 

[Lee Matthews]

Someone’s woken up a bit grumpy.

Im not saying to go and copy what I’ve said. It’s what we do and it works great for us.

The avios on my sainsburys shop isn’t really costing me anything though is it? I’ve shopped with them for over 15 years but it’s only been in the last 2 years they’ve partnered with avios, so I would have shopped there anyway. They do really good point boosts too.
6 points for every £1 through the BA store, that’s 300 points on a £50 food shop.Then probably another 500 avios a week on the nectar conversion.

700 avios a week (worst case) x4 is giving me 2,800 a month. 30K+ points a year from just food shop before I’ve even added regular spending, cashback and using the Amex.

yes there is a Fee for the Amex but the extra points and flexibility on the companion voucher it gives makes it worth it.

Annual dues are of course part of DVC but you can’t avoid that. We just separate it and count it as a separate household bill.

not Sure why your on about investing money in stocks.

At the end of the day, for us we feel we are getting great value. This upcoming trip for 3 of us (3 weeks) in August is costing us about £4.5K including tickets, food and travel compared to when we went in 2017 and it was like £8k for 2 of us for 2 weeks staying an Cabana bay

yes I am well aware I can use DVC at most resorts but we wanted Vero for 11 month mark and not eat into our AKV points for trips there

 

[zavandor]

You may want to look into the Barclays rewards, you pay £12 a month and get 1,500 Avios (more if you have other Barcays products) but crucially, one upgrade certificate a year, so if you book an economy ticket with Avios, you'd get an upgrade to Premium economy. Not sure if it can be combined with the companion voucher, probably not, but it can be useful for the third ticket.

 

[Kaz65]

Been watching the feedback for the last 18 months and still have an overwhelming feeling of sadness and resignation as a family we will be deferring our next trip for a good 5yrs plus. We tended to visit every 2nd year from our son being 5yrs old and were last scheduled for 2020 when DS would have been 18yo. Just way too expensive now with all of the added 'extras' removed which turned an expensive but affordable holiday into now out of reach. Take heart however about American comments that we should reconfigure our attitude to lengths of stays onsite and make better use of outlying areas and now the perks of staying on site are non existent that makes sense. I still laugh when the daily adverts come on TV saying 14 days pass for price of 7 as if that's a thing when all of us who have visited regularly know that has been the 'deal' for at least the last 20yrs!! Good luck to all that make it across the pond this year and I look forward to reading of realtime experiences and hope with all my heart that it is still magical rather than a case of begrudging what we don't have these days compared to the past.

 

[itf]

Been watching the feedback for the last 18 months and still have an overwhelming feeling of sadness and resignation as a family we will be deferring our next trip for a good 5yrs plus. We tended to visit every 2nd year from our som being 5yrs old and were last scheduled for 2020 when DS would have been 18yo. Just way too expensive now with all of the added 'extras' removed which turned an expensive but affordable holiday into now out of reach. Take heart however about American comments that we should reconfigure our attitude to lengths of stays onsite and make better use of outlying areas and now the perks of staying on site are non existent that makes sense. I still laugh when the daily adverts come on TV saying 14 days pass for price of 7 as if that's a thing when all of us who have visited regularly know that has been the 'deal' for at least the last 20yrs!! Good luck to all that make it across the pond this year and I look forward to reading of realtime experiences and hope with all my heart that it is still magical rather than a case of begrudging what we don't have these days compared to the past.

I think the conclusion we've come to is this is one-and-done at least for five years or so. So we're just embracing the pain at this point, have upgraded the tickets to G+, will pay for the lightning lanes, do Boo Bash if it's on in August as we think it might be, and do a day VIP Group or Express Pass at Universal and just consider it done and go on other holidays until prices either become more sensible or things have changed enough for it to be interesting to return. Nothing magical about any of it so far.

 

[Cheburashka]

I've been pricing up trips and the average of all the trips to disney for 14 nights with tickets (with virgin).. By the time I'd add on airport parking, transfers etc. + spending money we are at about 10% of our household income which seems crazy. Am I the only one feeling this tight?

This is without adding genie+, LL etc

A 14 night overseas trip anywhere would be pretty expensive, I imagine.

 

[meanwoodwhite]

I think yes it has become too expensive for our holiday habits.

You could never convince me that £8k for a family of four to stay on site and tickets for two weeks is value for money.

I think people have to start thinking about split stays 3-5 nights at disney rest at Universal/Idrive/Kissimee

Luckily I have DVC so my prices don't increase very much

 

[itf]

Think you'd be lucky to do it 8k on site for a family of 4, impossible during school hols by the looks of things at the moment.

 

[Ruttangel]

A 14 night overseas trip anywhere would be pretty expensive, I imagine.

It depends really, going to somewhere in Europe like Corfu would only be about £2-3k. Long haul would be all inclusive and at least double that