Disney hates poor people

If I could get so-so to not come out as do-do I'd appreciate it.

Shout out to all those poor people that Disney hates!

On A Tight Budget: 5 Disney World Alternatives That Are Just As Fun

Hey, Cedar Point is just as fun! Hooray!

HeyIsntThatRob? said:
Speaking of autocorrect, it won't be long until 'ducking' is a swear word.

My auto-correct seems to have learned "shpxvat" and no longer tries to 'fix' it.

What can I say? I'm an old-school geek.

--Dave Althoff, Jr. (V pna'g or gur bayl bar urer jub xabjf bung guvf vf!)

Your Apple ][ has autocorrect?

^^ Dave- Is that Klingon (which my iPhone auto-corrected to capital K)?!!

Anyone that can afford a $2,000 vacation is fortunate. Saying that this should be affordable to a lot of families isn't being realistic and also sounds unappreciative of the fact that one can afford this kind of vacation.

Many people in this country simply cannot afford to go there and will never have the privilege of seeing it once. Which the first visit is pretty amazing and magical. After that it starts loosing its luster because of the miserable crowds.

If it was affordable to everyone, it would be absolutely unbearable and unmanageable as the crowds would be beyond the infrastructure.

Assuming two people in a household each make $10/hr and work full time, that's a budget of around $2,600/month after taxes. I don't understand how (in most places) that isn't something you can live off of, let alone tuck away a little for a vacation.

And the crowds are not miserable unless you insist on going during the holidays or spring break, in which case, you get what you deserve.

I totally agree with Jeff. I would like to say that some people think that they are poor, and they are actually okay. It's in the mindset. I have a relative who's family makes six figures. They are millionaires. They live in an huge mansion, drive brand new luxury cars, all paid for, and live an extravagant lifestyle, and yet they sometimes claim to not be able to afford to go on vacation.

I had to struggle with my money mindset at a point in my life. I definitely don't make six figures, but I'm okay. I haven't visited Disney in over a decade when I lived in Florida, but I think that has something with being burned out after seeing it almost once a month for a year straight. I could probably afford to go there again, but there are so many other places I want to see. Disney (Orlando, actually) is getting closer to the top of my vacation list though, especially with the new additions at Universal. lol

Now that I think about it, my family vacations cost a few thousand dollars. Also add the two or three theme park trips I take per year. I am thankful I can afford that. I know people who maybe have a household income of around $1000 a month. I don't know how they make ends meet. They could not afford Disney. I can relate though, because I was like that when I was younger. One job, just me renting an apartment. No public assistance because I was too proud. That was not easy.

Reminds of a dear friend who takes me out to dinner a couple of times a year; he always pays, and the primary conversational topic is how tough he has it making ends meet.

The last time we dined together, dinner included several appetizers, steak, lobster, pasta, wine, and a glass of port each to end the meal; the conversation centered around how he and his husband had just closed on their house in Hawaii, but they didn't even have an offer yet on their house here, and how terrible it is finding a company to move all the stuff to Hawaii for less than $25,000, not to mention how much it's going to cost to move both SUVs to the island....

I wish I had those problems. :-)

It's funny that you mention the well-to-do people who "don't have any money," because I think that's extraordinarily common, and pretty stupid. I'm always amazed to meet people who spend insane amounts of money to maintain a lifestyle and image that pushes the limits of what they can actually afford, and clearly way beyond what they actually need.

Here's the thing, as a family of three with a McMansion and two (relatively small) car payments, we could pay all of our bills on net $2,900 per month. Sell the cars and get decent used cars for the cash, and we could get that down to $2,500. Sell the house and find a small rental in a suboptimal neighborhood, and I bet we could get under $2k as the bare minimum net income. So either many people can't budget their money, or I'm completely out of touch.

Jeff said:

I'm always amazed to meet people who spend insane amounts of money to maintain a lifestyle and image that pushes the limits of what they can actually afford, and clearly way beyond what they actually need.

No one really needs a trip to Disney either.

Which, to me, is the funniest thing about the article and the whole discussion.

...or I'm completely out of touch.

Only a little, but you also are looking at your specific situation with your sensibilities attached. Plus, you're using your established position to do things unavailable to the $10/hr crowd - like selling your cars and using the cash to get decent used cars.

We're talking the typical family of four, right? At least we have been up to this point.

Average rent for a 3BR house = $1000-1100 (this is tough to find, but check multiple sources and areas and this will get you an average place in an average town)

Food for a family of four = $239/wk (according to this from 2013, using the middle of the road number - seems reasonable to me) That's $960 per month.

Just for housing and food, that family of four is spending a little over $2k per month. So yeah, you might be a little out of touch.

Even if I use the low end for rent and the 'thrifty" food plan, I'm at $1600 just for food and housing.

Add utilities, insurances, savings, clothing, school costs, etc and you, sir, get a tip of my hat for your skills in black magic.

We make what to me would have been an obscene amount of money if you told me 20 years ago where I'd be today. Realistically, we're toiling away somewhere in the very bottom of the upper-middle class barely staying above the line that separates us from those middle class commoners (and hats off to my old lady because as essentially a one-income family and that makes our financial standing pretty damn rare - if she hadn't married a schlub like me, she could be doing pretty well), but I'm often surprised at how far that kind of money doesn't go.

I don't think we can easily generalize what someone else can and can't do. I tend to believe we are spoiled and our expectations much too high, but I'm also realistic about the cost of things.

With all of that said, we've only been to WDW once since we left Florida 13+ years ago. Not because we can't afford it, but instead because it is a high cost vacation (to me, at least) the value proposition isn't quite there and I feel like that money can be spent better on other pursuits.

$239 a week for food? That seems insanely high. We spent $250/week last year for three of us, and that includes an insane amount of eating out and at theme parks.

Still, you got to food and housing at $1,600, and as I said, two people working full time at $10/hr are looking at $2,600 monthly after taxes. That still seems pretty doable to me. I may make considerably more than I did 15 years ago, but the single biggest difference is that I don't use credit cards that I can't pay off every month. And if anyone wonders how they're doing in that department, the total amount you pay annually in interest and fees has to be included on your statement.

Lord Gonchar said:

Food for a family of four = $239/wk (according to this from 2013, using the middle of the road number - seems reasonable to me) That's $960 per month.

Thank you for posting that. I have a credit card that I use exclusively for groceries and gas because it gives me money back on those two things, and each month that card is around $1000. Every month I want to pull my hair out thinking I'm doing something wrong, but apparently that's just what stuff costs.

We make what to me would have been an obscene amount of money if you told me 20 years ago where I'd be today. Realistically, we're toiling away somewhere in the very bottom of the upper-middle class barely staying above the line that separates us from those middle class commoners (and hats off to my old lady because as essentially a one-income family and that makes our financial standing pretty damn rare - if she hadn't married a schlub like me, she could be doing pretty well), but I'm often surprised at how far that kind of money doesn't go.

GET OUT OF MY HEAD!

My wife and I were talking about this exact thing last night, and except for the one income thing I'm right there with you. I can't believe how much we make, how we live, and how much we have left over.

Prolly still taking the kiddos to Disney next year, though, and I better not see any poor people.

Jeff said:

Hey, Cedar Point is just as fun! Hooray!

I already knew that, which is why I don't really care that I'm too poor to go to Disney.

Jeff said:

$239 a week for food? That seems insanely high.

Keep in mind your perspective is that of a three person household. It doesn't quite work out this way in real world situations, but on paper that second kid is a 33% increase in everything.

kpjb said:

...each month that card is around $1000. Every month I want to pull my hair out thinking I'm doing something wrong, but apparently that's just what stuff costs.

My wife and I were talking about this exact thing last night, and except for the one income thing I'm right there with you. I can't believe how much we make, how we live, and how much we have left over.

We need some kind of support group or something.

We are ridiculously careful with our money (excel spreadsheet tracks every penny) and had 2 kids up until Tues. (3 now!) We spent about $400/mo on groceries, $200/mo on gas and car maintenance (will be more now since we got a minivan), $750 ob mortgage (TX is absurdly cheap), $400 on car payments, $300 on insurance, $300 on utilities. Throw in a couple of dinners out and a medical bill or two and you're already at $2600. And that's before college debt, any kind of savings, home repairs, and the behemoth expense of daycare. Obviously we make certain choices based on our means, but there's no way we could get by on $2600/mo and still afford Disney. Even if we decided things like saving for college or retirement or giving to causes like GKTW weren't important , (sadly, probably pretty typical for an American) we'd have to dramatically change our fairly conservative lifestyle to get below $2600/mo.

For us a Disney vacation is planning smart. Read a lot of Disney fan sites. I work with guys that are DVC members. Book when they run specials on the dining plan. It makes me feel like we are getting our value out of it.

You stay at a moderate resort it includes 1 quick service, 1 table service, and 1 snack per person per day. If you stay at a value resort you get 2 quick service meals and a snack. To upgrade makes a 6 night stay $3600 for park hopper with water park and fun option for 7 days. We booked at the Coronado Springs resort for $3800. It was no brainer.

Since I am taking my 11 year old daughter for the first time we are just doing Disney. We want to make sure she'll ride everything. She just rode the Great Bear at Hersheypark for the first time last season. She won't ride Storm Runner, Skyrush, or Fahrenheit. We figure she can handle everything at Disney.

Our package includes, hotel, park hopper(with waterpark and more option,) dining plan, and rental car(we like to hop how we want to.) Airfare is separate. Our package costs $180.95 per person for 6 nights. I think that's a good value. We already made all our dining reservations and can set our fastpasses 90 days before we arrive. They do make you semi plan out our whole vacation by dining reservations and fastpasses.

It's come to this.

I could get behind that sort of movement.