With all the price increases is it worth even going?

[fanoforlando]

This is actually a really good question. Where is your breaking point where you decide not to go because it is far too expensive?

Inflation has many people wondering if it is worth it.

My wife and i have been doing very well lately where we have the extra income to go for the day. But any more than a day we might decide to sit it out

Despite the rise in prices , are people still making the trip?

 

[Love Tink]

You’re correct that purchasing 1 day tickets is very pricey. Our most expensive trips/day were when we used to visit for just 2 days.

I’m guessing @CampbellzSoup was looking at longer lengths of stay and suggesting ways money can be saved.

And I think you're reading something into a 22-word post that absolutely isn't there.

 

[fireflyer]

I think if you go with a negative attitude, nothing is worth it. For me, the sheer magic of Disney is priceless. No vacation will be cheap - I look at the price as the cost of doing business.

I loved Disney and didn’t have the negative attitude until I had all the negative experiences at the 4 parks last spring… and now just found out there are NEW price gouges since then (daily parking, variable Genie, higher $ILLs, higher ticket). And STILL the street characters are reduced, and extra-evening hours has been taken away from Moderate and Value guests.

And don’t be fooled into thinking that all the price gouging and deficiencies (dirty-ness, breakdowns) right now is the cost of doing business… It’s not. The theme parks were already highly profitable. Now they’re overflowing in profits but Disney is desperate to keep gouging visitors because of the extended losses in the Disney+ division. Disney is gouging park visitors to subsidize its money losing streaming business. Park-goers are paying WELL above the cost of doing business.

Source: the quarterly 10-K’s the file to the SEC

 

[fireflyer]

We’re hooked now and still go…but yeah, WDW is not the screaming deal it once was. For our family, it will be a while before we are priced out. Unless we start cruising again. I’ve always liked cruising but it has always been more $$ than a WDW trip so I’ve generally chosen the parks. I bet now it’s different.

For 3 adults: 2 parkhopper days at Disney & 2 nights on-site with Genie+ and $ILLs and hotel parking and rental car (no food) in March 2023 FAR EXCEEDS the cost of our 7-day balcony cruise on Norwegian Escape (including food).

2 days vs 7 days. Cruise ships are definitely cleaner than the parks now, and no stress, no hunger, no thirst!

I’m really struggling with the fact that Disney prices & gouging are even HIGHER now than last March, and now the extra morning hour is only 30 min, and the extra evening hour has been taken away from Moderate & Value guests. I say “struggling” because I really wanted to take my older parents to see the new rides & this might be the last time they can still walk without assistance… but feel like I’m being excessively wasteful if I pay current prices.

To top it off, now that Disney is digitally tracking all my in-park spend and all my in-park movements, they can actually calculate how much I’M worth to them as a customer. And how much YOU are worth to them. Chapek has already stated they want to reduce the ratio of A.P-holders to 1-time visitors, because the 1-time visitors are more lucrative. Disney is now on the cusp of being able to calculate your personal worth to them as a customer. They digitally track how much you personally spend per day per visit, per food, per merchandise, per attraction. A customized dollar amount is assigned to YOUR IDENTITY. If Disney so chooses, they can dictate how many people with your same value get to enter the park each day, versus people who have a higher spend-value than you.

If Disney so chooses, they can limit park & hotel reservation openings for people of a certain “spend”, to allow others instead. And Disney sure as heck won’t tell us when that policy will officially start. (Although Chapek basically revealed the end-goal in his last statement.)

 

[dunailie]

We are still going, but our trips look very different now than they once did. On our first visit in 2005 (with three young children) we flew down, stayed at a deluxe resort, ate table service daily, and spent a week at the parks with park hopper tickets. Now the children are mostly grown, so I may go with one child at a time. We drive down. We go for a long weekend, so maybe 2-3 park days. We eat quick service food. We stay nearby, but definitely offsite (generally using credit card points).

So our priorities have changed, but we've found a way to make it work for us.

 

[Kingoglow]

So our priorities have changed, but we've found a way to make it work for us.

This is where we landed. All-in deluxe trips to Disney will never be something we do again. But we can make a vacation work if we pick a value resort or off-site hotel, skip table service and only go to the parks 2 or 3 days.

Disney doesn't need me book Deluxe rooms or reserving ADRs anyway. They have plenty of other people fooled into that.

 

[DCLMP]

This is where we landed. All-in deluxe trips to Disney will never be something we do again. But we can make a vacation work if we pick a value resort or off-site hotel, skip table service and only go to the parks 2 or 3 days.

Disney doesn't need me book Deluxe rooms or reserving ADRs anyway. They have plenty of other people fooled into that.

My trip in January will be the cheapest Disney trip I've ever taken. Maybe not staying deluxe and eating TS will be a good thing.

 

[dunailie]

My trip in January will be the cheapest Disney trip I've ever taken. Maybe not staying deluxe and eating TS will be a good thing.

Honestly, we've enjoyed our budget trips just as much! There are plenty of wonderful QS places! This next trip in January we may spend visiting some of the resorts--we don't need to spend the night there to enjoy them.

 

[brentm77]

We are still going, but our trips look very different now than they once did. On our first visit in 2005 (with three young children) we flew down, stayed at a deluxe resort, ate table service daily, and spent a week at the parks with park hopper tickets. Now the children are mostly grown, so I may go with one child at a time. We drive down. We go for a long weekend, so maybe 2-3 park days. We eat quick service food. We stay nearby, but definitely offsite (generally using credit card points).

So our priorities have changed, but we've found a way to make it work for us.

We are following a similar pattern. Between WDW and Disneyland, we made four trips last year. One was a very expensive nine day WDW trip over Christmas week, staying at a moderate resort, with many expensive sit-down meals. Same with Christmas the year before that. This year, we did one shorter trip to Disneyland, and my wife and I will do an extended weekend at WDW in December without the kids. In other words, we have greatly reduced how many of our travel dollars Disney will get (outside of cruising).

We have no plans to visit Disney parks next year, but if we do, it will be a short extended-weekend visits only. While we appreciate much about the parks still, we find that we are much more pleased with our purchase when we spend the travel dollars somewhere else these days. Sometimes, that is with the cruise line, which is still meeting our expectations. These days, Disney parks just aren't matching the product to the price for us. We don't mind paying premium prices when the experience matches it, but it seems that it just isn't matching up like it used to. For the price we spend at Disney, we can travel Europe in very nice hotels with much better meals, or we can go to tropical locations and stay at truly premium resorts. It's getting easier and easier to bypass Disney parks (and all the planning, stress, and work a visit takes these days) for us.

 

[RoseGold]

I stayed in a Little Mermaid Art of Animation room for $120 in 2018. That wasn't so long ago!

I mean, what happened here? Why is it simultaneously so expensive and yet so crowded? I guess Disney finally cracked the code on the money printing machine.

 

[HopperFan]

Don’t stay at their hotels
Don’t purchase their overpriced food

Disney is very reasonable if you don’t add all the extras in

I agree.

Well if I wanted to take my family of five for the day tomorrow, tickets would cost $820.05.

Clearly, you and I disagree about "very reasonable"

Tickets for 5 to go to a 2 hour NFL game in the nose bleeds would cost more, tickets for 5 to see Wicked (not a new show) on tour (not NYC) would cost about the same for 2 hours ... in relation to the cost per hour for entertainment ... I think Disney tickets are reasonable.

That said, I wouldn't buy one day tickets, I would stay longer and bring the per day cost down. And I would probably go (example) from annual trips to every other.

You’re correct that purchasing 1 day tickets is very pricey. Our most expensive trips/day were when we used to visit for just 2 days.

I’m guessing @CampbellzSoup was looking at longer lengths of stay and suggesting ways money can be saved.

And I think you're reading something into a 22-word post that absolutely isn't there.

I agree with @scrappinginontario - I think PP was talking about a Disney vacation, not a one day pop in.

This is actually a really good question. Where is your breaking point where you decide not to go because it is far too expensive?

Inflation has many people wondering if it is worth it.

My wife and i have been doing very well lately where we have the extra income to go for the day. But any more than a day we might decide to sit it out

Despite the rise in prices , are people still making the trip?

The breaking point for most is when the cost does not reflect the enjoyment. I mean so many vacations are simply stupid priced so you always have to get your heart's worth. Our last cruise wasn't as great as the two before that so ..... what I paid suddenly hurt and has impacted my desire to return.

For Disney World ~ prices have really soared so if you want to go for less, you probably have to change your style. If you won't enjoy it if you aren't staying the same places and eating the same way then I think it's time to try something else. I would hate to be heading on vacation already disappointed I'm not getting what I want to make me happy. It doesn't matter if you can afford the same trip or not, it's the value you get for that money that matters.

 

[brentm77]

I agree.

Tickets for 5 to go to a 2 hour NFL game in the nose bleeds would cost more, tickets for 5 to see Wicked (not a new show) on tour (not NYC) would cost about the same for 2 hours ... in relation to the cost per hour for entertainment ... I think Disney tickets are reasonable.

That said, I wouldn't buy one day tickets, I would stay longer and bring the per day cost down. And I would probably go (example) from annual trips to every other.


I agree with @scrappinginontario - I think PP was talking about a Disney vacation, not a one day pop in.


The breaking point for most is when the cost does not reflect the enjoyment. I mean so many vacations are simply stupid priced so you always have to get your heart's worth. Our last cruise wasn't as great as the two before that so ..... what I paid suddenly hurt and has impacted my desire to return.

For Disney World ~ prices have really soared so if you want to go for less, you probably have to change your style. If you won't enjoy it if you aren't staying the same places and eating the same way then I think it's time to try something else. I would hate to be heading on vacation already disappointed I'm not getting what I want to make me happy. It doesn't matter if you can afford the same trip or not, it's the value you get for that money that matters.

You're not wrong, but the reasons you listed are the reasons Disney isn't really working for us anymore. I don't want to go to Disney and pack in food or leave property to eat meals. I don't want to stay offsite with all the entails. I don't want to visit Disney like we are young broke newlyweds again. So for me, it's either all-in or I will pass and go somewhere I can go all-in. And all-in as Disney, just isn't what it used to be. It's not a matter of it being more expensive for me, it's a matter of the expense no longer matching the product provided. I don't want to go "all-in" and feel like I am getting ripped off and a sucker, which is what I have been feeling lately. We know what we used to get for the money, and we aren't getting it anymore.

It's why the comparisons to Broadway-style shows and NFL games don't really work for me. Generally, those tickets are 95% of your expense to attend, where as Disney is much more than the ticket price for out-of-town visitors like myself. Also, games and shows condense all the "fun" into a short time period, so you get much more bang for your buck in those three hours than you would at a typical day at the park, where a good portion of that three hours may be spent standing in long lines or navigating uncomfortable crowds. In other words, I don't think they are apple-to-apple comparisons.

It's great that Disney still works for some people, and that people are cool buying a ticket and nothing more. But I am not willing to sacrifice our style of travel to help Disney make more money while providing less and less. Changing our travel style also doesn't address the issues with diminishing customer service, ease-of-use, cleanliness, and ride maintenance either, which are important to us.

 

[HopperFan]

You're not wrong, but the reasons you listed are the reasons Disney isn't really working for us anymore. I don't want to go to Disney and pack in food or leave property to eat meals. I don't want to stay offsite with all the entails. I don't want to visit Disney like we are young broke newlyweds again. So for me, it's either all-in or I will pass and go somewhere I can go all-in. And all-in as Disney, just isn't what it used to be. It's not a matter of it being more expensive for me, it's a matter of the expense no longer matching the product provided. I don't want to go "all-in" and feel like I am getting ripped off and a sucker, which is what I have been feeling lately. We know what we used to get for the money, and we aren't getting it anymore.

And that is exactly what I am saying. Value is in the eyes of the person booking the trip. It's not about the cost but the value to the buyer based on the requirements they hold for their trip.

It is totally possible to go to Disney World and it not cost nearly as much ~ 2/3rd of Disney Park guests are spending much less than the 1/3rd that stay on property. Most are likely doing just as much in the parks, likely more.

And I hear you on not getting as much as before. Chapek's vision is not the same as the company had for decades. He sees dollar signs only. We are regulars, and now when someone comes to me to help them plan a trip - I tell them DON'T GO. Now one friend went anyway, extended family, Genie+, character meals, matching clothes and I was waiting for her to come home disappointed. They had a great time, they felt they got their monies worth and from their pictures they could have been a commercial.

It's why the comparisons to Broadway-style shows and NFL games don't really work for me. Generally, those tickets are 95% of your expense to attend, where as Disney is much more than the ticket price for out-of-town visitors like myself. Also, games and shows condense all the "fun" into a short time period, so you get much more bang for your buck in those three hours than you would at a typical day at the park, where a good portion of that three hours may be spent standing in long lines or navigating uncomfortable crowds. In other words, I don't think they are apple-to-apple comparisons.

I stand by this comparison. Disney park tickets are only for Disney park entertainment. Rides, shows, parades, fireworks, live music, characters etc. And even if you want to add Genie+ to the ticket to reduce your lines, it still costs less than most other expensive entertainment options.

Traveling to get there has nothing to do with the park value, that is a separate part of one's vacation.

It's great that Disney still works for some people, and that people are cool buying a ticket and nothing more. But I am not willing to sacrifice our style of travel to help Disney make more money while providing less and less. Changing our travel style also doesn't address the issues with diminishing customer service, ease-of-use, cleanliness, and ride maintenance either, which are important to us.

Agree again. Vacations are priceless times in our lives. No one should go somewhere that doesn't fulfill their expectations or they go home unhappy.

Disney still gives many people great enjoyment, obviously because the parks are as crowded as they've ever been. Everyone has their own experience and should do what is best for them.

 

[kathy884]

This is where we landed. All-in deluxe trips to Disney will never be something we do again. But we can make a vacation work if we pick a value resort or off-site hotel, skip table service and only go to the parks 2 or 3 days.

Disney doesn't need me book Deluxe rooms or reserving ADRs anyway. They have plenty of other people fooled into that.

Welcome to the club. This is the only way we've ever done Disney going all the way back to 1971 when the parks opened (We did Fort Wilderness too or offsite campground when we used to have a motorhome). The only time we've ever stayed deluxe has been when DH had work related conferences at the Contemporary and his company was paying for the room lol.

Our most common place to stay these days are in some of the nice timeshare condo properties that are offsite (rent from owner or do timeshare trade - have a one week resale timeshare for Sedona, AZ resort we sometimes trade for Orlando). We most often stay at the Sheraton Vistana Resort, Cypress Point, or Hilton Grand Vacation Club SeaWorld.

 

[DCLMP]

Honestly, we've enjoyed our budget trips just as much! There are plenty of wonderful QS places! This next trip in January we may spend visiting some of the resorts--we don't need to spend the night there to enjoy them.

Not only is it about Disney's prices, but it's also about the current cost of food and energy. Less disposable income means less money to spend on vacations...that's if run you household with a balanced budget.

 

[drenalin'junkie]

Some good points made both ways.
We'll likely still go occasionally. But like has been mentioned, compared to other forms of vacationing, Disney isn't as competitive as it was for us . We stayed onsite for the most part and tried to do a TS for lunch and dinner. Doing 20 to 30 days a year in Disney every other year and SW/BG/UO/IOA in between has become more expensive than international travel and cruises.
As the rest of world has found a way to make all inclusive experiences more reasonable and simple Disney has found a way to upcharge every incremental aspect and complicate visits.

 

[Princesca]

For me, Disney has always been a 'I will go but for the least cost possible while staying on property.' I like the convenience of just being there, not having to have a car, etc. We do quick service with *maybe* one table service meal in a week, both for value and also because I don't like paying to burn time that I could be spending on attractions. That hasn't changed, and probably will never change, unless I up and ever decide to do that one bucket-list stay at a deluxe.

But I will say, for awhile I was a 'trip every 2-3 years person' and now I've become more of a five-year plan. We are taking our son this spring, he'll be 2.5, but we're talking about his next trip being to Universal when he's six, and probably won't be back to FL before that. We might try to get some Disney days in that trip, but we would stay at Cabana Bay, because I've always wanted to immerse myself in MCM-esque decor.

 

[Genie+]

The breaking point for us is when we can get something better with that money. That time has arrived. We used to split our vacation budget 50/50 between WDW and other places. Now it will be 25% WDW, 75% elsewhere. Going forward we’ll do half the trips, leaving much longer gap between visits. We just got back from WDW and instead of visiting again in 2023, we’re waiting until 2024. The 2023 WDW trip has been replaced with an Italy/Mediterranean trip. Our 2025 trip will be Universal instead of WDW after Epic Universe opens. We’ll return to WDW in 2026. Higher per capita spending makes for a sweet budget elsewhere. I can’t imagine being disappointed using it in Italy or UO.

 

[boogienights]

Just over ten years ago my family stayed offsite in a rental home with a rental car. We went to WDW (4 days), UO (2 days), SW (1 day), BG (1 day), AQ (1 day and DC (1 day). At WDW we avoided parks with EMH (level playing field), used fast passes and never waited more than 30 min for any ride. Crowds were more than managable.

Fast forward 10 years and we felt compelled to stay onsite at Swan to take advantage of EE and Deluxe hours, spent loads on genie, ILL to avoid lines. Spent loads on food as no car, house to cook meals. And, yes, that was money we didnt necessarily need to spend. No one forced us to buy genie or stay on site. BUT genie and hotel perks allowed us to enjoy the trip. Without it we would have spent hours in lines everyday and bern miserable. We have no tolerance for lines. With genie and hotel perks we were able to do rides with little wait and then escape back to the hotel to avoid the worst of the crowds. The crowds were awful. Even though we saved time not standing in line thx , we didn't spend that time enjoying atmosphere in the parks because of constantly having to navigate through throngs of people, strollers. Walking through shops was an ordeal. World Showcase was a sweaty wall of humanity. We couldn't wait to escape back to the serenity of the hotel. So the choice is either spend a shocking amount of money to avoid lines (stay and eat on site, buy genie, ILL) or stand in line all day.

This time around we were at WDW for 3 days and UO for 4. We spent almost 3 times what we spent for those 10 days 10 years ago. I suppose if you spend more than 3 days at WDW you can can pace yourself more but, for myself, I don't want to use up half my vacation time at WDW and UO when there are so many other places I want to go to as well.

So, is it worth it with all the extra expense? It really depends. This was our first family trip in 10 years. A reunion of sorts as the kids had grown, started their own lives, moved away etc. Covid kept us apart for the last 2 years. We went back to Orlando for fun and nostalgia. So, yes, the added expense was worth it to maximize enjoyment. But if we the circumstances were different... if we had all been there together more recently, then I would say no. I'm so glad we went but this was the last time as it's just too expensive if you want to avoid standing in line all day and spending more will not help with the crowds. Next family trip will be a road trip through Eastern Europe. I'm betting Romania will be less crowded and expensive than WDW

 

[brentm77]

The breaking point for us is when we can get something better with that money. That time has arrived. We used to split our vacation budget 50/50 between WDW and other places. Now it will be 25% WDW, 75% elsewhere. Going forward we’ll do half the trips, leaving much longer gap between visits. We just got back from WDW and instead of visiting again in 2023, we’re waiting until 2024. The 2023 WDW trip has been replaced with an Italy/Mediterranean trip. Our 2025 trip will be Universal instead of WDW after Epic Universe opens. We’ll return to WDW in 2026. Higher per capita spending makes for a sweet budget elsewhere. I can’t imagine being disappointed using it in Italy or UO.

Did Italy/Greece this summer instead of a big Disney trip or two. It was literally the best vacation of my life. Disney is fun for what it is, but nothing compares to seeing real places and eating real local food. We liked Rome so much that we constantly talk about when we can go back. The Amalfi coast was unbelievably beautiful too. Athens was knock-your-socks off interesting, with great food. Even getting around a major city like Rome is more relaxing than a day in a Disney park these days. Enjoy!

The per-day cost in Italy was much less than a day of vacation at Disney parks too, and we really did it in style.