Disney, is it really that expensive?

[danjoealexis3006]

I really wish Disney hadn’t done away with the 10 day hopper with water park fun & more no expire tickets. We invested in those and used them over 3 to 4 trips. After doing the math, it was the cheapest way to do tickets for my family even though it was a big upfront cash outlay. We still have a couple of days left on our last set. I didn’t have the cash on hand to buy another set when they announced those tickets were being discontinued.

We feel the same way over here! We loved those tickets and were able to take multiple trips that way when our boys were growing up! Just like you we didn't have the cash on hand when the tickets were being discontinued. We used our last days last year. Such a bummer...

 

[goodeats]

Do we spend that kind of money for tickets, and then have crowded parks, long waits in line and rides or the monorail broken down?

Yes, when we spend this kind of money I have high expectations.

 

[sk!mom]

Agreed. On the @$2500 price of the one Disney vacation, tickets were @$1600, so roughly 64% of the total cost of the trip. No matter how much you try to save, its hard to save on the tickets.

For me, its about the opportunity cost. What else could we have done with that kind of money? Truth be told, the past 10 years have not been good financially to my family and money is tight. And, what do we get from that money? Is the value real or just perceived? For example, a sit down meal for a family of four at Crystal Palace was @$150. The food quality was about what I could get at Shoney's breakfast bar for @$50. Do we spend that kind of money for tickets, and then have crowded parks, long waits in line and rides or the monorail broken down?

Sure it's an expensive vacation. Some people make it less so by staying offsite or cooking. My last trip was my least expensive because I went with my sister and could take advantage of military rates for hotel and park tickets. I was also sharing a room with my sisters so only 1/4 of the room cost came out of my family's vacation budget.

Bottom line, though, some people have an income and budget that allows for large annual vacation expenditures. If you can truly afford it, it's not too expensive. Expensive but not too expensive.

For me, my DH never loved it. I enjoy it BUT my recent trip has pretty much turned me off for a while. FP+ was a disappointment. We tried at the moment we were allowed for onsite guests and still had a hard time getting some that we wanted or times that worked well. Our last two trips RnR broke down for a significant amount of time which made the day spent at that park a bit of a waste since it was our top priority and our plans were to ride it more than once but it was down at rope drop and throughout the morning. Then the line was a nightmare due to so little to do in the park and everyone wanting to ride. Almost all of our trips over the years have been in the summer and I was always able to manage the lines and Fps with planning. That seemed impossible this last time.

Honestly, I think I'm just kind of over a vacation that takes so much planning, is so crowded, and so costly. I wouldn't have gone last fall if my sisters hadn't invited me. The ROI just isn't there for me right now.

This year we're spending our vacation dollars in Key West and a destination to be decided this winter. Next year we are starting to plan for Italy.

 

[mom2rose&john]

Disney is definately a more expensive vacation for our family of four than some other vacations we have taken. In years past it has been justified because of the amount of value we received. Our last Disney vacation was in 2016 and during the month of April. For us it wasn't nearly the value of past vacations that were in the off season. The lines were too long after we used the fast passes and the crowds were a little too congested for us. And the planning was so immense that I was worn out before the start of vacation. We tacked on three days in Cocoa Beach and that saved us because we had a chance to relax and truly vacation.

Unfortunately that trip made Disney not so special and we have not had the desire to go back. The summer of 2019 my daughters Dance Studio is going to perform at Disney. Perhaps it will reinstate the Disney Magic feel that we had on our previous 3 trips befor 2016.

 

[edk35]

We are DVC members and our stays are paid for now BUT....Disney has definitely gotten more expensive the past few years just like everything else in life. We do not go as often as we used to (2-3 times a year)...more like once a year now. Dining has gotten a lot more expensive, park tickets and AP's have gone up too. I do believe that you can go other places for far cheaper but WE choose to vacay in Disney so we pay the price. LOL

 

[Gigi22]

It’s all about the perceived value for me. I have enough of the older “non-expiring” WDW tickets that I will probably never need to buy another ticket. The friends I travel with don’t see the value in Disney, but I can easily get them to go on a non-DCL cruise. I can go on a non-DCL cruise for about the same/less money as a trip to WDW, and all meals are included in the price of a cruise. I also get some good perks from my favourite cruise line, like free laundry and pressing.

 

[Carrie Ellis]

I love Disney vacations. My entire family does too. I also am pretty darn good at finding all the ways to save money and cut cost. When we go somewhere else I have a huge learning curve! It is nice to know how. Of course, it is high but boy you get a lot of entertainment for the price.

My biggest complaint right now is the 30 day vs 60 day fast passes. I have 4 kids and they are all 17 and above now (two sets of twins). The older set each have a girlfriend but they are in college so we still pay for vacations that we invite them on. There is no where to stay on Disney property that does not cost a crazy crazy amount. We would need 3 value rooms and that is way over the $100 mark each. I mean where can a larger non rich family stay now? We both work and do well but we are surely not going to pay $600-$2000/night!

So we do what we have to do now. So we can go to Disney (which I assume the company wants us) which is rent a house. But......we can only do 30 day fast passes (unless we know someone staying on property and link). My parents stayed at the Fort with RV last trip and that saved us. But, if we did not have them, we would not have been able to ride some rides like avatar. I mean the wait to get in the park was long and the standby line was super long. Pretty much impossible to even ride with out FPs. What is the point of going if we can't ride rides? The new ones are the main reason we go. I don't mind waiting but it is not fun to wait 3-6 hours at all. My parents are too old and my sister also has younger kids.

This is what is getting me now. Would it be possible to go if we were a family of 4 with 2 little kids, definitely. It would be easy and I could afford it. But they are not making it possible with over 4 or 5 at all to stay there. We have an RV. We used to bring it to the fort. I looked into renting two RV spots (Over $125 per night now each), pulling our RV and renting another. The RV spots at the Fort are really going up in cost too. It was way over the cost of a VRBO and a lot less bathrooms and sleeping areas.

I am trying! But they are sure making it hard now to justify. I understand it is supply and demand. The demand is so high right now.

 

[Donna M]

I really wish Disney hadn’t done away with the 10 day hopper with water park fun & more no expire tickets. We invested in those and used them over 3 to 4 trips. After doing the math, it was the cheapest way to do tickets for my family even though it was a big upfront cash outlay. We still have a couple of days left on our last set. I didn’t have the cash on hand to buy another set when they announced those tickets were being discontinued.

That was a great deal, and I really miss it. I was able to buy us 10 day non expiring tickets before it ended and have about 6 days left. We own DVC, which saves us a lot of money since we bought in 14 years ago. At today's prices Disney would be too expensive for us. We only go into the parks once when down for a week because we know we'll be back. We spend time just enjoying the resort and being out of a cold New Hampshire winter. Eating most meals in our unit saves a huge amount too.

 

[Chrislovesdisney]

The price of tickets is a little more manageable when I think that I can spend $1200 for my family to spend 3 days in the parks, or 3 hours at their broadway production of frozen. We live in ny and can hop on a train to see that. We are going to spend $ on a hotel room on a yearly vacation anyways. So for us, the biggest $ difference is airfare.

 

[kathy884]

I don't do onsite unless someone has a seminar and someone else is paying. Offsite for the places I typically go on vacation, VRBO rentals, timeshare rentals from TUG2.net and Redweek.com, and retail hotels for the quality of the room and amenities for the price are a better value in Orlando than anywhere else I typically travel. Flights fall into the middle for places we fly to in the US, so not overly high or overly low.

The expensive part, but I think it's a good value, are the tickets to go into the world class theme parks. Compared to tours that are pretty pricey, Broadway shows, concerts, etc., a day at one of the world class theme parks seems like a good value over all. This can really add up though. For those with large families I can see places where the main activity is free or practically free being very appealing -- beach days, hiking, freebie ranger tours at a national park. Or let's say my parent who recently paid for all of their children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren to do a family reunion vacation in Sedona, AZ (great choice) might have considered Orlando. A day at Disney or a few days at Disney for 16 instead now -- ouch.

For vacations though (a fun and frivolous thing), for us we have a vacation budget and the fun part is deciding what we want to do that is within that budget. Going somewhere you really don't want to go because it's a great value certainly doesn't make any sense. On the other hand, our family as ruled out some expensive good sounding trips to be able to do two trips for the year that sounded pretty good instead of just one.

DH doesn't care for Disney, so it's more often that not that I'll just fit in a short budget trip every year or two with just me and DS, maybe four nights/three days and leave it at that for Orlando/Disney. And usually we'll just visit one Disney park, do one day at SeaWorld, and maybe do something like the Titanic, Disney Springs, and visit relatives one of the days too.

 

[kathy884]

The price of tickets is a little more manageable when I think that I can spend $1200 for my family to spend 3 days in the parks, or 3 hours at their broadway production of frozen.

You've got that right. We love doing Broadway shows and love to do the quick NYC trip when we visit relatives in NJ. And lol DS 23 wants to see Frozen, so I figure I'll be picking up three tickets for this on our next NYC trip. Makes the one day pricey tickets I'm doing next March to the MK with DS seem like a bargain.

 

[kathy884]

This year we're spending our vacation dollars in Key West and a destination to be decided this winter. Next year we are starting to plan for Italy.

We did Key West instead of Orlando this past year -- end of February / first week in March and had a great time/really enjoyed it. The main thing that is pricey in Key West is lodging.

 

[monica9]

Yes.

If it weren't for our Disney addiction, we would never blow $13,000 on a vacation. I could take 5 separate week-long luxury beach-front trips to Cape Cod for what I pay for one trip to WDW. Unfortunately, we got sucked in by all of it, the deluxe resorts and their amenities, the magic, every last hidden Mickey. We are out of our minds.

Oh, and DD wants to get married in WDW. God help me.

right, I agree but Cape cod doesn't compare to disney. I'd rather spend an extra 5k to not sit on a beach and do nothing all day and swim with the sharks in the ice cold water. I think vacations should be based on preference and like you, I am addicted to disney and all it has to offer even for adults. No other vacation compares. I enjoy my cruises, I think islands are so boring and sightseeing would be too much for my kids at their age. We can try to go to other amusement parks like Sesame Place, Hershey Park, Six Flags but it's not the same. I feel the only part about Disney vacations that is expensive is if you do fewer than 5 day park tickets and if you stay at a deluxe. I think the other categories are reasonable and even cheaper than we would find in New York or Boston and you get so much more. I have that disney addiction like you and am a kid when I step foot on the magical express and I think my husband is becoming one too!

 

[kymom99]

We did Key West instead of Orlando this past year -- end of February / first week in March and had a great time/really enjoyed it. The main thing that is pricey in Key West is lodging.

We stopped in key west on a cruise the same time you were there. Loved it! We jokingly said we were shopping for our retirement home and we looked up real estate listings when we saw houses for sale. 1.7 million or something like that for one we saw. Wow! But it was beautiful.