Anecdotal evidence of Disney dissatisfaction and discounting

What numbers are those?

I'm probably the minority, but I don't carry a phone in theme parks, so yeah, Disney sucks with its app dependencies.

OhioStater:

Previous two trips (no airfare included) we did this for just under $5,000 both times. Right now booking the exact same trip tops out at just over $8,000.

In fairness, almost half of that is inflation. $5K in 2017 dollars is about $6.4K now.

And yes, leisure travel has been expensive all over. It’s not just Disney. I did notice that Tokyo was downright reasonable—I paid probably half to go to a Tokyo Swallows baseball game (including an authentic jersey) than I would have to do the same thing with the Detroit Tigers, and I was sitting in some prime seats.

PS: Japanese pro baseball is Not To Be Missed even if (and maybe especially if) you are not a baseball fan.

But that means a little more than half the $3k increase isn't just inflation.

And that prices have increased, isn't necessarily the issue. If prices are increasing for various forms/types of travel but attendance/crowds are still high (Disney was there up until recently--maybe--still not clear if there is an actual issue that exists beyond stories), there isn't an issue. But its a problem if increased prices hurt your attendance/crowds (at least enough to negatively impact profits). Sounds like Disney may be there (though again, not clear if actual results show this). May be a blip. May be normal fluctuations Disney always had (and they used discounts of various types to fill in the gaps). We shall see.

Minor league parks in the US typically have a ton of activity/entertainment beyond the game itself.

Totally anecdotal, but our Florida beach condo that we've visited for the last 6 years had increased by more than $1000 a week over last year when we started looking in May for a trip in July. We abandoned the idea and went into June with our vacation plan up in the air. By the second week in June and by cutting one night, the price had fallen to slightly less than what it was last year. Completely worth the wait and the price cut made sense when we arrived because it was obvious the building was not booked to capacity.

Also anecdotal, but I read a recent trip report type post on a Disney Facebook group today where the poster talked about how great of a time they had with no Genie+ and few dining reservations. That goes to my point that most people go to a park like Disney expecting to wait in lines and some are oblivious to the tools for avoiding them. And they still manage to go with the flow and have fun. I'm starting to believe that the idea of dining reservations being a deal breaker is a complete myth. During our trip in May, we had 2 reservations before we arrived and ended up cancelling one of those. We managed to get plenty of other reservations with no issue whatsoever once we were on property. Yes, if you want Royal Table or any other popular character meal, you probably need to plan ahead, but I've never had trouble getting the mid-level or even some premium options like Be Our Guest or Le Cellier when I'm on property.

Interestingly, I am also seeing reports of pullback on e.g. Hawaii timeshare rentals. A lot of folks over on TUG who used to routinely rent their oceanfront condos for $5K+/week are having a much harder time of it this year. Consensus has been that demand for condo rentals in domestic vacation destinations is definitely down.

And I realized I made a mistake, so the plot thickens.

I mentioned this to my wife (who is our "banker"), and she reminded me it was the second trip we took that was right around $5,000. But we did something different on trip two; we actually stayed 6 nights, not 5, which gave us 1) one arrival day to relax, 2) one days at each of the four parks, and 3) a "rest day" in between park days. We went to Disney Springs and just relaxed in the middle of park visiting.

So I went back and just added one day. It was arriving on Monday and leaving on Sunday.

The current price is right around $9,200

It's not like we're planning a trip, but if we were we would definitely not be replicating what we did before.

And I would absolutely expect it to be somewhat more expensive, but not that more expensive.

Another anecdote; we know two families amongst our kids friends who did this recently, but they were also perfectly comfortable going into credit card debt in order to pull it off.

No thanks.

Yikes. Financing a Disney vacation at mid-20's interest is....a thing.

Spend it like you've got it! That is the American way.

GoBucks89:

Minor league parks in the US typically have a ton of activity/entertainment beyond the game itself.

I have been to many minor league games in the US, and there is no comparison to Japanese baseball. Minor league fans do not have songs they sing for every player. They do not cheer the entire time their team is at bat - I mean, every second. They do not have beer girls who carry kegs on their back and pour you a draft at your seat. And yes, in Japan the cost of food is what you would expect to pay outside the ballpark.

Yeah. All of that. It was wild. They made your average rabid (non-US) soccer supporters look like disinterested passersby. And this was the "other team" in Tokyo, not the name brand Giants.

hambone:

Over at another coaster website there's an article concluding that it's currently cheaper to go to Tokyo Disneyland than Walt Disney World.

If you don't live in a US the sums are even clearer. Furthermore, the general level of politeness in Japan is vastly superior to the general level of politeness in Orlando, especially when queues are involved :)

If circumstances allow in a few years my daughter's first Disney park may well be in Tokyo.

I didn't see anything in the linked video that looked very crazy in terms of the Japanese game. Looked similar (from what I saw) of some US minor league games I have attended. And I actually find all of that distracting. Prefer to watch the baseball game. Don't drink so none of that is an appeal either.

Just that if you find MLB games boring, and many people do, minor league games may be more to your liking. And few people (on an relative basis) are traveling to Japan to see a baseball game. :)

Trust me. I’ve been to a lot of baseball games. I split a set of Pirates season tickets with a group every year I was a grad student at CMU. I’ve seen my fair share of major, minor, and college games.

Japanese baseball is a different beast. Not the game—that’s the same. And it’s not even that entertainment is provided. The fan participation is off the charts.

Is it the reason to fly to Japan? Nope. But it’s on my top-few things to recommend if you are already there. It’s a way to experience a completely different culture as a traveler and not a tourist.

Back in the day, I managed to get a couple of Konami's Jikkyō Powerful Pro Yakyū baseball games for the Super Nintendo (SFC). I really enjoyed playing these, mainly because they did a great job of capturing that atmosphere y'all are describing - fully engaged announcers, fan-cheer to the music that intensifies as men get on base, etc. American baseball video games were just dull and drab by comparison. I think they're still making these games for modern consoles; if you enjoy Japanese baseball they might be worth checking out.

Thought of this thread when I read this article about going into debt to travel:

https://www.cnn.com/2024/07...index.html

Yikes, with credit card interest rates over 20%, there's no world where I would do that now. I did when I was in my 20's, but I could almost always get promo rates at 2% or even zero. I just kept moving balances around. That's not possible now.

To the point of that article, I do think that there's a generational difference in expectations. I'm not saying that student debt isn't a problem, but after college, I expected to have a roommate, eat a lot of rice, buy cheap beer and stay in Motel 6's if I traveled much at all. And I knew I was gonna make exactly dick until I worked for some years, because my degree did little more than open an initial door. My first trip to Orland as an adult involved an unusual deal to stay at Universal for three nights (think 2001 when the parks were empty), and I only saw Disney because my previous wife's snowbird grandparents knew a guy who retired from Disneyland (with a laminated ID) who front-gated us in, and we went to three of the four parks in one day. I was 50 last year when I finally got to Europe (and went fairly deluxe).

That article was infuriating for a whole host of reasons. I do agree that housing costs have spiraled completely out of control over the years to where being able to afford a house on a single blue-collar income isn’t really viable in a lot of cases, but then I read stuff like that article and it becomes a lot harder to feel bad for certain people.

I was able to travel like I did in my 20s because I worked for an airline and lived at home, and even then, I shouldn’t have traveled like I did because I could’ve saved more. I never went into debt over it, though, nor would I even have considered that option. It doesn’t matter if it’s a drop in the bucket compared to the other debt these people have: you don’t spend money you don’t have.

I agree with the comment in the article about influencers giving the wrong impression about the affordability of travel, but I’ve ranted enough for one post. I don’t want to get started on a social media rant, too.

Tokyo is not to be missed. Period. Especially if you like trains, like me. :)

The people making the most noise about not being able to afford a house have unrealistic expectations… like living in California. There is some sarcasm and some truth to that statement. Carry on.