But from the excerpt posted, they're leaving out quite a bit. Sure, you can get a $115 steak...or a $9.00 hamburger. Yes, you can pay $2100/night for a bungalow on Seven Seas Lagoon...or you can pay $89 for a regular hotel room.

And yes, admission has gone up, but that's to be expected.

Universal, on the other hand, is our second home.

Universal has much more to offer anyway, IMO.

We love the Harry Potter world, but the cost is a major reason that we don't go to Disney.

Single day tickets for both places are over $100. I think Universal is $101 and Disney is $105.

https://www.universalorlando.com/Theme-Park-Tickets/Florida-Resident-Tickets.aspx

To the OP, I think both parks have done a really good job of pricing out the middle class. Not just a Disney thing.

Universal Studios is awesome.

Disney is still stuck in what was awesome in the 60's.

They need to dig themselves out of nostalgia and thinking people want these 50 year old relics if they want them to drop over a hundred dollars to visit this place.

Didn't they finally get rid of Carousel of Progress?

Marvel just signed a contract with them and is moving from Universal to Disney. Correction: Frozen. They are planning something big wit Frozen.

Still, the cost of the ticket wouldn't compel me to go. I'll save up for the day we have to bite the bullet when we have grandchildren. That's where they really win out because everything old is new to the little ones.

She's on The Mummy

My daughter knows exactly where that camera is and gets a great picture every time.

The last time I was there I finally braved the Rip Ride Rocket and I wanted the picture as proof. Damn if I hit a wind sheer at that moment the picture was taken and my hair completely wrapped around my face. I looked like Cousin It.

I LOVED Escape from Gringott's last time we were there.

and rode it five times before we finally caught up with her.

Every Labor Day, we stay at Animal Kingdom Lodge. During Christmas time we'll stay at another resort, last year was Boardwalk. Year before was Wilderness Lodge. This is the first year we haven't gotten an annual pass in about 8 years. We do have annual passes to Busch Gardens/Sea World and go to Tampa about 3 - 4 times a year.

But we usually go to the one where you can jump on a boat to get into the Park. Polynesian?

Season tickets for six and fly down three times a year. There annual passes are a huge bargain. Their daily admission is expensive.

3 gallons of milk in 1971, the price of admission is now about 25-30 gallons of milk...sounds a lot like greed to me..in addition Walt Disney was a fucking Republican to boot!

At one time, a brand new car was 2,000 dollars and my grandparents bought a house for 2,900 doars with 8 bedrooms. Times are different and people flock to Disney. Space Mountain is still a 90 minute wait. Disney was a republican back when they were somewhat sane which had nothing to do with the story though.

All republicans are shit to me!

You had to buy a ticket book of A to E tickets to ride on anything. That raised the price considerably. Today the entry fee includes entrance to all attractions and you can ride on ithem as many times as you want.

When I was a kid my parents would occasioonally go to Disneyland together and buy just entry tickets for the evening because big bands played there like Duke Ellington and Harry James. It was a very cheap way for them to see these top notch performers.

That being said, Disneyland is terribly expensive today even so.

Pretty sure a compliment of ride tickets (they had various 'books' with different numbers of the A-E tickets) would cost somewhere in the $15-25 range circa 1971, which is right about when I first went to Disneyland.

That's how i remembered it too, although i was only at Disneyworld once with the family. Spent a lot more days at Disneyland in SoCal. Went there 4 different times and i remembered the A to E tickets and being 13 and having all the A tickets left because the Dumbo ride and Teacups didn't do much for me.

I also recall, but could be wrong, that the Monorail was actually a ride that required burning a ticket at one time. Sound familiar?

So maybe it is visitors from other countries filling the parks, but I tell you a ton of Americans are going too. If you are a family of 4 and go for a week, you can get some good deals if you look around.

are all upper class folks?

That's nonsense. Spend some time in the airport in Orlando watching the families leaving with armloads of Disney stuffed animals and other stuff -- they're not richie rich's.

Is it expensive? Yes. Are there packages and deals to be had? Yes. Has the middle class been priced out of going there? Apparently not since they still come in droves.

They make plenty from the wealthy, and from foreigners--but it's insanely expensive for a family of two parents and three or four kids. Just not a good vacation value, anymore.

When they fired the workers and replaced them with overseas contract help, that moved me from the "don't care" club to the "actively discourage Disney vacations" outfit.

I honestly don't think that old racist reprobate Walt would have approved of this--even he had some standards.

But it certainly can be affordable for an average family. $3400 for two adults and three kids (6 nights, 7 days), including resort, tickets and meals is very affordable.

I don't agree with what they did with the H-1B visas either, in fact I think it was probably a violation of the law for which they should be held accountable. But if you think they're only making money off of the wealthy and foreigners, you're not living in the real world.

We did historical stuff instead--went to Saint Augustine, toured Flagler College for the interesting architecture, and saw a few other historical sights. Spent a lot of time swimming and sunning, too.

Sorry--this is just OBSCENE...and it's not a good bang for the buck. I'd rather take the money and go to Jamaica or Puerto Rico.


https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/tickets/

But we never go for less than 7 days, so the per day cost drops considerably.

With my daughters both in college now, trips have been cut back considerably, but we'll make a trip next year to celebrate oldest daughter's graduation, and a trip two years later to celebrate youngest daughter's graduation.

Disney World used to be the annual trip that all four of us took together, then for a couple of years after the divorce, it was the dad and daughters trip. Since my daughters entered high school, it's all four of us again; my ex-wife shares a room with one daughter, I share with the other daughter, and we split all of the expenses.

I think more than two days, three tops, and I'd go nuts. I guess I don't get as much of a kick out of rides as I used to...!

But it is what it is. My ex-wife is a great person, and we made two great kids together. We weren't necessarily good together as a married couple, but we're great together as parents, so we focus on that. We both figured that we're always going to be connected by our daughters...there will be graduations, weddings, grandchildren, etc., so we decided that we needed to be able to stay connected on our own terms as well.

One of the reasons we stay for a week is because we do much more than the parks...no more open to close for us. We go for a few hours in the morning, then back to the hotel for pool time, or mini-golf, or just playing cards together in the lobby or at the pool. Then we go back to the park after dinner.

It does sound like the set-up for one of those LIFETIME movies, though!

The "happy ending" ones, where the divorced couple reunites... not the ones where some poor woman gets stalked by a creepy guy who starts out almost too good to be true!

And Flagler College has a beautiful campus.

The price was right, too!

Some families will stretch their budget because they want to please their kids or they buy into the whole Disney image. But that's a significant expense for most families, no matter what way you cut it.

That $3,400 doesn't even include travel expenses. It just covers lodging, park admission and food plans in the park. So that means if a family has to fly there, you have to figure in airplane tickets for that family of 5 (average fare is $385 round trip per person, so that's an extra $1,925).

Or if you go by car, it means gas--if you're more than 300 miles from Orlando or Anaheim that's at least one tank of gas, and average price of gas being $2.80 with a 15 gallon tank means $42 a tank. Plus you have to figure in things such as food and lodging on the way down (assuming you are more than 6-8 hours away from a park and don't have a friend or relative to stay with on the way.) And that's if you drive your own car and don't rent one.

I just planned out my vacation for my family (me, wife and two kids). Eight day trip. We're driving from Florida to Atlanta and staying several days in Atlanta, and also staying a few days in Florida and seeing some attractions there. We're renting a car so not to put additional miles on our own car. The hotels I booked were all Marriott brand lodging, so they're all decent places to stay. And we have the Atlanta city pass which gives us flat rate admission to the Atlanta aquarium, zoo, natural history museum, and several other area attractions. I added up the raw cost (car, gas, hotels, food and attractions) and estimated it to be a little over $1,700, or half what it costs for a week at Disney not counting travel expenses. (Mind you I do have credit card points and some gift cards that will decrease that raw cost significantly).

But basically that's a $1,700 premium to turn what I think should be a fun vacation into a Disney one for that same amount of time. That's just not worth it.

Salary for majority of Americans is not that bad.

That is the average wage today.

Which can give a false perception of working class income because it is distorted by highest incomes like the 1%. But it is nowhere near the average wage or even median household income.

$3400 (more likely closer to $5,000 if you include getting there) is not "affordable."

1. It is more expensive to go for one day, the more days you go, the cheaper the park price and if you are staying on property, the deals start to make it more affordable.

2. They charge more for Magic Kingdom park than all the others because of it's popularity.


A family of 4 staying on property for 5 days will get you in all the parks with 2 meals a day for around $3000 not including transportation and other junk. Price a similar experience elsewhere.

As long as they keep filling the parks, they can set a high price. We were just after Christmas this last year and one of the days, they closed Magic Kingdom mid-day due to crowding.

You still have to house and feed the rugrats, and there's always souvenirs, never mind getting there, which, if you're not rich, means trying to do it by motor car, and gas and time enroute (how much vacation can two working parents cobble together--and get it at the same time?) .... it's difficult. It's expensive. That's why a lot of folks will take the cheap-o Six Flags option, or wait for the county fair to fire up, or the cheesy carnival with the rides operated by child molesters.

It's a haves/have nots situation. It's entertainment for the upper echelons.

Disney is affordable but not to everyone. Heck the beach is not affordable to everyone.

If not free, most beaches only cost a few dollars to park at.

Getting a hotel on the beach is another matter.

I'd have to starve myself one day a week for nine months to come up with the price of admission. I'd also have to give up the Internet because I already starve myself for that.

Of course, I haven't been part of the middle class for a decade, and it's abundantly clear that I don't count in anyone's calculations.

Too bad there's not 40 million others just like me, maybe someone would listen....

We just don't talk about them because they'd by too inconvenient for someone's narrative. (I too had to laugh about $3400 being affordable.) That's why I invested in camping gear 40 years ago. Has given me thousands of hours of pleasure and I know where all the free camping spots are in the Sierra so all I need is a 1/2 tank of gas and I can almost always afford that.

(And yes, I know it hasn't been open that long, so no jumping on me for that. Okay?)

It, like Las Vegas, is for folks with particular tastes.

I don't share those tastes.

I also have a huge distaste for the tactics of the Disney Corp when it comes to their policies in building parks, among other things. Also always found "Uncle Walt" to be pretty creepy. He was a business genius, but ruthless and by all accounts, mean.

Anyone who loves Disney is going to continue to love Disney. And will continue to contribute to their bottom line.

From Carl Hiassen's 1998 book, "Team Rodent: How Disney Devours the World"

TEAM RODENT
How Disney Devours America

"Revulsion is good. Revulsion is healthy. Each of us has limits, unarticulated boundaries of taste and tolerance, and sometimes we forget where they are. Peep Land is here to remind us; a fixed compass point by which we can govern our private behavior. Because being grossed out is essential to the human experience; without a perceived depravity, we'd have nothing against which to gauge the advance or decline of culture; our art, our music, our cinema, our books. Without sleaze, the yardstick shrinks at both ends. Team Rodent doesn't believe in sleaze, however, nor in old-fashioned revulsion. Square in the middle is where it wants us all to be, dependable consumers with predictable attitudes. The message, never stated but avuncularly implied, is that America's values ought to reflect those of the Walt Disney Company, and not the other way around."

Nazi propaganda film maker Leni Riefenstah to Hollywood

I've also read that the Disney archives largely sugarcoat this

Although it is up to debate:

https://skeptoid.com/blog/2013/07/04/was-walt-disney-an-anti-semite

for me, also I've never watched Saving Mr Banks

very exclusive to white, Xian, straight youths- like from the 50s. So they went to work for 'Pizza Rut' instead and had some hilarious times.

Re price increases for admission, when a corporation pays their last chief exec/CEO Michael Eisner $1.4 Billion between 1993-2013, how else can they get by, except to lay off experienced domestic employees for much cheaper foreign guest workers, and raise costs for US families? Geesh...(sarcasm).

The disney kids who make it big all seem to turn out very messed up.

the poor kid movie stars in the 1930s. Not liking Miami, my brother went on to college in DC and settled in NY where he worked in the music industry and founded a national magazine for current issues. He was a wonderful young man, brother, relative and friend to all.

it opened! The one in Orlando came much later, of course...! FWIW, I agree with your observations!

The real world is a whole lot better. Yeah, travel is often more expensive, but you generally come back a better person and a lot more relaxed too. Neither will happen after a couple of days at Disney.

In general they treat their employees pretty well, have always taken environmentalism seriously and have been on the forefront of equal rights for gays.

I agree the outsourcing of computer jobs sounds pretty bad so they certainly aren't perfect but on the whole they are better than a lot of other companies.

...in the name of profit.

Once in the park, everyone is treated the same, AFAIK.

I'm damned sick and tired of researching for others.

IT'S fucking out there...

As you're unwilling or unable to back up a claim that you made, then I'll just assume that the claim is false.

They pay a dividend of less than two percent. They pay out way less than half their profits as dividends.

If you don't need the cash you've done really well though as its stock price has more than doubled in just a few years and quadrupled in just a few years more.

But they do not treat their employees very well at all. Not even those in the transportation union.

So I'll dispute your claim that they somehow take environmentalism seriously. Especially since the place was built via a covert, secretive land grab.

We're seeing this with Uber Cab too. Oh, you want a ride home RIGHT NOW??? That'll be $650!

I don't know how many would be needed for a family, but there were costs beyond general admission that are not present today.

...and the "books of tickets" nearly bankrupted Mom.

The first POP (pay one price) amusement park I went to was Hersheypark (followed by Roseland Park in Canandaigua, NY). The POP price made amusement parks afforable, where the "ticket books" were designed to be for increased profits, and decreased accessibility to the park by lower-income families.

and they were still building parts of it. Remember the books or strips of tickets bit. That was a year after they opened Great Adventure in Jersey (that we also went to literally a month after it opened, where an admission that included driving through the Safari Park, was something like $27 in 1974).

"The POP price made amusement parks afforable, where the "ticket books" were designed to be for increased profits, and decreased accessibility to the park by lower-income families."

It meant more fun and less profit for the corporations.

Yeah, I'm an unrepentant socialist.

As in, comparing some experience to the really good rides at Disney.

The last time I was in Disney World was 1982 and I had the opportunity to get free passes a couple of times.

Some families are unquestionably being priced out, but Disney still sells as many tickets as the parks can handle. They will continue to raise prices until demand starts to slacken.

Makes no business sense to lower prices if your planes are still full.

Once was enough.

her mom. Over priced, tacky and way too many people for my liking.

I asked the mom: Did you have a good time? Her reply: Not for what it cost and not for the joy of standing in lines that were out of sight.

Yuck!

one is thanksgiving

My family amd i really enjoy WDW. Cheap? Nope. In fact, very expensive. But it's great fun if you like that sprt of thing. We're doing a trip there next month.

All you curmudgeons can do something else! Maybe it wont be so crowded!

nt

It took them 6 months to pay off their credit card for that trip. They wanted their kids to experience Disneyland like they did as children and were willing to take on the debt.

nt

Always smells so strongly of weed you can get a contact high.

Probably because that's the only way to get out of the experience with one's sanity.

though when I was little it might have been nice to go, now with my mom dying last June it like much in this world just doesnt matter.

The loss of a parent is one of the hardest things to deal with.

Last edited Sat Jun 13, 2015, 03:28 PM - Edit history (1)

Middle Class won't spend the same on food and souvenirs so why cater to them? It only makes the lines longer. Better to price the riff-raff out and attract the bigger money.

Was this necessary? I mean, really?

Welcome to DU.

And even then admission was $65.00, and don't forget the $20.00 parking. Cha Ching!!!

I'm DVC and even we look for savings. Ck out various FB groups... ordering food from the green grocer for you family cuts out food costs and its delivered to your room. There are even dining discount cards which might prove a better fit than expensive dining plans with 20% discounts (including liquor).

http://dvcrentalstore.com/ is one example of booking an on property family vacation for a fraction of the costs.

There are plenty of specials going around from lodging to free meal plans.

I've been a DVC member for a while and happily treat family and friends to visits to Wally World (or Mauschwitz, if you pay notice to some former cast members). It makes affordable a vacation that they'd otherwise be unable to handle financially.

Along the way, I've found ways to entertain myself and others in central Florida without setting foot in a theme park, something I highly recommend!

When I bought into DVC in 2000, I'd heard from a cast member that the typical family of four who stays "on property" spent $1,000 for a week of fun in the sun, excluding transportation there and back again. I can just imagine what that would cost now. It's no secret that many (most) "middle class" families who visit WDW max out their credit cards in the process. But then, there are plenty of other places -- including Unversal Stupidos -- that are more than happy to take your money. And the availability of easy credit should be attributed to banks and other card issuers (don't get me started).

Personally, I prefer the Disney cruise line as one venue for my escape from reality. I also have family in other parts of the world whom I can visit and vice versa. And yes, I know what cruise ships do to the environment, but they're not going away any time soon either, are they?

We always wanted to buy into DVC, but figured we didn't have the money. Once the daughters are out of school, I'll have the money, but question whether or not it would be worth at my age. Maybe when there are grandchildren LOL.

We used to go every year...would buy annual passes, then get two trips out of them. With the APs, I was always able to get room discounts and buy a dining card that got me 20% savings on sit down meals (and counter service at the resort we stayed at).

It's certainly possible for middle class families to visit Disney.

with a niece. With the points alone we have ended up spending 5 weeks there. Heading for the food & wine festival in
Sept. along with Halloween horror nights at Universal. We have a group of friends going so were all getting together.
I like to wander around and we use this as a base for travel. We going to try Tables in Wonderland discount card this time.
It just seems that it will be less that the dining plan...after all the food sampling & wine.

I think it was called Disney Dining Experience? Anyway, we liked it better than the dining plan; we got the dining plan one time, and it felt like we were always counting credits, and really ate more, trying to get our money's worth. Since we always stayed at a moderate that didn't have a sit-down restaurant, the 20% was good at the food court. That's where we normally ate breakfast, so it was well worth it to us.

for a drive down the brand new Golden State Freeway (I-5) freeway to a new place called Disneyland in Anaheim. A book of ride tickets, plus park admission cost about $5, with only three coupons for the desirable C-Ticket rides.

$5. But that was 1955. At the time, my father was earning about $2.50 an hour as an auto mechanic. $5 was a lot of money then, but my parents bought ticket books for their three kids, and just a park admission for themselves. I'm guessing that $5 in 1955 was worth more than $100 is in 2015. Truly.

Disney theme parks are not daily visit sorts of places. They're a rare treat that parents enjoy giving their children. Back then, we could drive there, do the park in a day, and drive right back home. Had we stayed in a hotel, the cost of the rooms would have been equivalent in 1955 to what people pay today. Meals, too, had pretty equivalent prices in 1955 dollars to the cost today.

People take their families to theme parks. It's expensive now. It was expensive in 1955, too. The whole family never went to Disneyland again. I went, while in high school, after I had a job and could pay my own way. It was a rare treat back then. It still is.

...would be in 1955.

$5.00 would be $44.14 in 2015.

Inflation Calculator, Bureau of Labor Statistics

Not $100, but not an insignificant amount.

I went to Disneyland in 1967, as part of a summer trip from Chicago to Los Angeles.

I was 12, probably a good age to go - not too young, but not too old.

My favorite "ride" was the one where Monsanto shrunk you down to microscopic size so you could experience the world from that perspective.

On edit: The Monsanto ride is long gone, and I am no fan of them.

When I moved to L.A. in the mid 70s, the ride was still there, and that was one of the rides on which we'd smoke weed.

It still amounted to a hefty expense for my parents, though.

My favorite ride that year was the Autopia ride. I was just tall enough to drive the little cars myself. Whee!

The Jungle Boat and the Canoes were others I liked. There was a lot to like at Disneyland for a kid. I even got to play in a Dixieland band there one time with a group from my high school. That was really cool.

...which was probably 18-20 years ago.

Another thing I recall, though I wasn't there, was when a band of Yippies took over Tom Sawyer's Island, and raised a Viet Cong flag over the attraction.

I think that was the first time Disneyland was abruptly shut down, so the Authorities could rout out the Yippies - early 70s Viet Nam War era.

I loved the shrinking ride. Sorry to hear it was Monsanto. Sorry to hear the Captain Nemo sub is gone. Also loved the trip to Mars, house of the future on the rotating stage, barbershop quartet on a bicycle. I was too small too drive the cars.

Hubby and I had many good times by arriving early enough to be first in line for the Blue Bayou restaurant, then waving at the people riding by in boats as we brunched. Then we'd see shows and go on the rides with short lines.

I can't help thinking that the prices must have been low by historical standards at that time - we're doing OK, but I can't picture paying $100 each, plus gas, parking, and food, as often and casually as we used to.

And, yeah, I'm not crazy about the Disney empire. This perpetual copyright is not what the founding fathers had in mind. To mention just one issue.

Universal is right behind Disney. Nearly $100 to go in their parks.

Other competitors are not far behind. They are raising prices too.

And attendance is STILL hitting record numbers at these places. They will keep going up and and up until people stop going.

I think we visited in 1988, and it was a trip that took a big chunk out of our middle class life savings. We had four kids then; 6, 9, 11 and 13. It was perfect. We had a hotel across the street from the Disney Hotel, and we had a wonderful time. I feel for the families today that try to make that trip with the same incomes, the same expenses, and the same dreams.

The fact that Disney is hiring H1B's and replacing American youth is disgusting, but not a bit surprising. A "corporation". Disgusting.