Anyone else staggered by ticket prices?

[AndrewC]

And Universal's room can accomodate 5 people.

Neither the Hilton or the Sheraton are honestly all that nice. The Hilton is the nicer of the two but still doesn't feel Disney resort nice (even Paradise Pier!). It's very "business," I guess the rooms could accommodate five people, but it would be pretty tight in one of their 2 queen rooms.

Even with that, some nights are pretty good at ~$200 rates but a lot of nights you'll be up in the $300s, especially after tax. Still way cheaper than Disney, but you could easily spend $1000 staying three nights over near Universal. (I'm spending over $400 a night two different nights the first week in October, likely because of Halloween Horror Nights, though to be honest I also booked a Universal view room. They've got great views of the park!)

 

[bsjs0708]

Ticket prices are crazy these days, but it is a matter of supply and demand. Too many people want to go, so one of the levers Disney is using is ticket pricing. Granted, it’s a very self serving lever, but they couldn’t do it if they didn’t have too many people who want to go.

I don’t necessarily have an issue with the ticket prices - on a per hour basis, I spend far more at an arcade, or the movies these days ($25 for a 2 hour IMAX showing). My head is spinning from all of the associated costs. We’re leaving for WDW on Friday, and it’s close to $1500 per day for our family of 3. Im thinking a trip to London or Paris (with a required stop at the PETROSSIAN counter at Harrod’s) will be a cheaper alternative for our next trip.

I went to the UK for 3 weeks a few years ago and spent 3500.00! The hotels, castle stays and B&B stays were split with a friend. The rest includes airfare...Disney no longer holds a value for our family, we vacation elsewhere, that includes a couple trips to Europe, the West Indies, all over Wyoming and Utah for a month...and Never spent as much as we have for 7-10 days at Disney.

 

[LAS2AMS]

These threads are silly. WDW and DL have underwent minimal expansion in recent years. Simultaneously, people are traveling more than ever (just a few years ago, few people under 25 traveled, today more than half make at least three trips per year). Put simply... there's more demand than capacity. Of course prices are going to increase. And yet there are oodles of threads complaining about the crowds. As long as you're willing to pay the price, you shouldn't complain.

Neither the Hilton or the Sheraton are honestly all that nice. The Hilton is the nicer of the two but still doesn't feel Disney resort nice (even Paradise Pier!). It's very "business," I guess the rooms could accommodate five people, but it would be pretty tight in one of their 2 queen rooms.

Even with that, some nights are pretty good at ~$200 rates but a lot of nights you'll be up in the $300s, especially after tax. Still way cheaper than Disney, but you could easily spend $1000 staying three nights over near Universal. (I'm spending over $400 a night two different nights the first week in October, likely because of Halloween Horror Nights, though to be honest I also booked a Universal view room. They've got great views of the park!)

Do you know what's more magical about non-Disney properties? That I could spend 5 nights at a really, really nice hotel... and save over $2,000. Disney properties are nice, but I'd bet my left arm that most people staying at DL/WDW Deluxe Hotels aren't saving enough for retirement, emergencies, etc. If you're not saving any money, and you're spending $1,000 a night on a hotel...

 

[Chili327]

Do you know what's more magical about non-Disney properties? That I could spend 5 nights at a really, really nice hotel... and save over $2,000. Disney properties are nice, but I'd bet my left arm that most people staying at DL/WDW Deluxe Hotels aren't saving enough for retirement, emergencies, etc. If you're not saving any money, and you're spending $1,000 a night on a hotel...

DVC basically makes that null and void.

 

[irlandaise]

Disney properties are nice, but I'd bet my left arm that most people staying at DL/WDW Deluxe Hotels aren't saving enough for retirement, emergencies, etc.

That's an odd assumption. People staying at onsite hotels may have ample discretionary funds, or they might have tighter budgets but they save up for a Disney vacation while simultaneously funding their 401(k)s and other savings plans. Is it just your own hunch that "most people" are prioritizing a Disney vacation over saving for the future?

 

[LAS2AMS]

That's an odd assumption. People staying at onsite hotels may have ample discretionary funds, or they might have tighter budgets but they save up for a Disney vacation while simultaneously funding their 401(k)s and other savings plans. Is it just your own hunch that "most people" are prioritizing a Disney vacation over saving for the future?

Not a hunch, but an educated guess from the data I've seen in the past.

Among other things... in the past, I've written about my experiences volunteering to assist low income families, and the large number who participated in every government social safety net you could think of, yet had AP to DL. Disney has transitioned into a luxury but unfortunately some people view it as a necessity.

 

[irlandaise]

Not a hunch, but an educated guess from the data I've seen in the past.

Among other things... in the past, I've written about my experiences volunteering to assist low income families, and the large number who participated in every government social safety net you could think of, yet had AP to DL.

Were those locals who were doing day visits to WDW or DL? If so, I could see scrimping to get APs for the family so they could have one nice thing to look forward to occasionally. But your previous statement referred to people who stayed at Deluxe hotels, which would be the DLH, the GCH, or the Deluxe category at WDW. Are you sure your clients were doing that?

 

[SpaceMan5]

Not a hunch, but an educated guess from the data I've seen in the past.

Among other things... in the past, I've written about my experiences volunteering to assist low income families, and the large number who participated in every government social safety net you could think of, yet had AP to DL. Disney has transitioned into a luxury but unfortunately some people view it as a necessity.

I can definitely see both sides but I feel there are so many variables involved that I find it hard to draw any hard line conclusions. Still an interesting topic...

 

[LAS2AMS]

Were those locals who were doing day visits to WDW or DL? If so, I could see scrimping to get APs for the family so they could have one nice thing to look forward to occasionally. But your previous statement referred to people who stayed at Deluxe hotels, which would be the DLH, the GCH, or the Deluxe category at WDW. Are you sure your clients were doing that?

There's no data to prove the argument one way or another, but yes, I believe that a large % - and probably more than half - of the people who stay in Deluxe Disney hotels are spending beyond their means.

 

[Foxhound3857]

There's no data to prove the argument one way or another, but yes, I believe that a large % - and probably more than half - of the people who stay in Deluxe Disney hotels are spending beyond their means.

It's thankfully within my brothers means as an OM (Operations Manager) for a Tech Support company, but he has told me that he has to "replenish the bank a bit" after his annual 3-day stays at the Grand Californian. Usually 3 grand a trip for them, factoring in park expenditures.

Luxuries aside, the cost of living is stupid high in California.

 

[SpaceMan5]

It's thankfully within my brothers means as an OM (Operations Manager) for a Tech Support company, but he has told me that he has to "replenish the bank a bit" after his annual 3-day stays at the Grand Californian. Usually 3 grand a trip for them, factoring in park expenditures.

Luxuries aside, the cost of living is stupid high in California.

I can say the same for myself. I do well for myself in sales but opt for a longer stay at an off-site hotel for 5 to 6 nights and in hand get the 5 day hopper passes and then pay more for meals. Egads! What have I done?!?!

Read on....

I still find value in the trips since we have made so many memories over the years. I can look at a picture or bit a bit of memorabilia from past trips, even 2004, and it will take me right back to that moment in time and it brings a huge smile to my face. Can one truly put a price on a forever memory?!

 

[MillauFr]

DVC basically makes that null and void.

DVC is very expensive. You can buy some very nice timeshares near Orlando for little or nothing. You can buy a week in a two bedroom unit at the Marriott properties for less than $1000.

 

[DizMe]

There's no data to prove the argument one way or another, but yes, I believe that a large % - and probably more than half - of the people who stay in Deluxe Disney hotels are spending beyond their means.

You may be right. I think most people in general are spending beyond their means. But sometimes it's more a matter of priorities. If you really love something but it's a big expenditure, you might spend less elsewhere in order to afford it.

 

[Starport Seven-Five]

DVC is very expensive. You can buy some very nice timeshares near Orlando for little or nothing. You can buy a week in a two bedroom unit at the Marriott properties for less than $1000.

What about cost to get to/from the parks? And what do you have to do to get out of that Marriott timeshare?

Last time I did a calculation on our per night costs using DVC it was around $225/night. My personal feelings are that it's worth it for the advantages and accommodations it gets us but everyone has a different threshold.

 

[GatorChris]

Luxuries aside, the cost of living is stupid high in California.

I do believe we've found something we can all agree on. But based on this thread, who knows.

 

[MillauFr]

What about cost to get to/from the parks? And what do you have to do to get out of that Marriott timeshare?

Last time I did a calculation on our per night costs using DVC it was around $225/night. My personal feelings are that it's worth it for the advantages and accommodations it gets us but everyone has a different threshold.

Isn't the cost the same since I would rent a car no matter where I stayed in Florida? How much does DVC cost to buy one week a year in a 2 bedroom? Isn't it way more than $1,000?

 

[DodgerGirl]

The only other way Disneyland could lower it's prices is that they offer special deals by teaming up with a Southern California supermarket such as Vons or Ralphs and offer special coupons for local residents and the coupons would be printed on the back of the reciept and be anywhere from $30 to $40 and when people would get to Disneyland they would show the reciept coupon and they could get in for the price on the coupon. Because it used to be during busy times during the summer and spring theme parks would team up with stores and sell deals on tickets and something like this would be smart for Disneyland to do. I think that if you had travel coupons for deals or went through a travel club like AAA or Shell Travel or a place like Costco Travel you could easily get deals for Disneyland trips quickly. When one of my teachers at school used to take her nephew to Disneyland every month she always got great deals with Costco Travel because my other teacher was a Costco member and it really helped her a lot. But when my family went to Disneyland our trips were easy because my mother had a Magic Kingdom Club membership and we scored a lot of deals on our hotel rooms and discounts on character dining too. But once 2024 begins Disneyland will begin selling lower priced tickets and get a lot of people to buy them

 

[Forevermarypoppins]

I'm with you!!!
I'm actually leaving tomorrow for DisneyWorld and there is the overwhelming sense of being nickled and dimed to the Nth degree.
I'm of the mindset to find the positives and once there, I'll feel wonderful. Once I'm home again, and the pixie dust settles we'll see how I feel about breaking the bank!

My biggest gripe is the LL/ILL. I'm not going to try it for at least a few days and if we feel like we can't do very much w/o it, maybe we'll spluge. IDK

I'm back and from my experience last week, I would not buy Park Hoppers again. I would instead use that $ to buy a day of LL. There are so many variables and imho, if you have never been to WDW or maybe just once or twice a long time ago, you could end up spending a huge fortune needlessly on the "extra ticket costs" because you don't know not to.

 

[Chili327]

I'm back and from my experience last week, I would not buy Park Hoppers again. I would instead use that $ to buy a day of LL. There are so many variables and imho, if you have never been to WDW or maybe just once or twice a long time ago, you could end up spending a huge fortune needlessly on the "extra ticket costs" because you don't know not to.

But a hopper is literally only $60 for your entire trip whether its 3 days or 10. You'll spend that on LL in one day. lol

 

[Forevermarypoppins]

But a hopper is literally only $60 for your entire trip whether its 3 days or 10. You'll spend that on LL in one day. lol

Indeed, but for me, I'll do what I had been doing for years and stay in one park a day and spend extra ( IF I FEEL LIKE IT) on LL. The F&W festival was the temptating decision for PH

But a hopper is literally only $60 for your entire trip whether its 3 days or 10. You'll spend that on LL in one day. lol

PH again after not doing it for years was enticing because of F&W festival. I know for me and whomever, we can be can perfectly happy doing one park a day!