Walt Disney World starts the annual Orlando theme park price hikes

I'll tell you what, I just returned from a quick weekend WDW trip and from the crowds, they could raise pricing another 25% (or whatever) and still not take a hit. Seriously, they keep on raising pricing and the crowds keep on coming. Even the mini-van service was raised $5 to $25 (each way) and you have to be living under a rock to not know that the longest Uber/Lyft ride within WDW property is not much more than $10, most times closer to $5.

Gonch, looking at your cost breakdowns of the package deals make me feel *a little* better about our late September trip last year.

$2875 for the 5 of us at Caribbean Beach for 5 days with tickets.

That is likely going to be our only Disney trip. Like you, I didn't find much value in dropping that amount of money, doing a huge amount of walking, spending even more money on food, and the resort busing was simply awful. When you have kids who focus on the clock for the next bus arrival and getting worked up over the time changing to a later time, we simply went with Uber or Lyft to get us to the park. After our 'vacation' I felt like we needed another vacation just to relax from what we did.

Next family vacation has already been booked on a cruise. We'll see how that goes...

I haven't been to Disney since the 80s...and because my wife and kids have never been, it's something we discuss as a potential vacation nearly every year. Cost (and other priorities) have prevented us from going every time, and it just seems to get further and further out of reach.

HeyIsntThatRob? said:

After our 'vacation' I felt like we needed another vacation just to relax from what we did.

Yeah, I never felt that "Disney" and "relax" were words that could typically be associated with each other.

For people who approach it as a once-in-a-lifetime endeavor, it's probably not relaxing. As someone who would typically go every other year, I always thought it was chill.

HeyIsntThatRob? said:

...doing a huge amount of walking...

To me that's the best part. I feel good when I've spent a lot of time walking.

I'm the opposite. I relax at Disney all the time. I'll be there in a few weeks, staying at the Yacht Club, with 7 day tickets and the dining plan. The parks are open really late, so extra magic hours let us get there late and stay later. We won't get up and go right to the parks - we'll enjoy coffee on the balcony, then maybe head over to a park for a bit, then come back and spend the afternoon hours at the pool/in the sun, then stroll over to EPCOT for dinner.

The dining plan includes alcohol with the 2 meals (one drink each adult), so that is a decent perk in the plan, as well as having 2 snacks, etc.. There's a lot of food. Basically acts like an almost all-inclusive vacation. It's not cheap - For us, there's a lot of value in it because when we get bored, we go to the parks. Even just people-watching and eating makes it worthwhile for me.

I'm not one to open-close parks anymore, or rush around doing things or waiting in lines. It's all in what you make it, and I choose to make it a relaxing vacation.

Jeff said:

To me that's the best part. I feel good when I've spent a lot of time walking.

Walking makes me feel great, too. Please don't zero in on one thing as the reason I didn't find as much value in my Disney experience because there was so much more to that.

Your current Disney experience doesn't match what it takes for my family to do Disney because we don't live there. It would be the same thing as you trying to find value in getting up to Cedar Point now and trying to enjoy a day or two there. It would be crazy expensive in your POV for you to stay onsite and buy a one or two day ticket in comparison to the value of living nearby and having a season pass where you can leisurely enjoy the park for the whole summer.

I recently had the “my kids are grown Mickey can go to hell” discussion with my brother after his recent trip. He said that they find so much more value in a Disney trip now that my nieces are older (20 & 18) compared to when they were kids.

The girls always enjoyed and appreciated the parks but it is so much easier to justify the cost now that they can appreciate more that WDW has to offer than it would be to take kids. They are all still very much open and close the parks type of people but it is a different and more worthy experience now.

He said if they were kids at the current price he wouldn’t pay to take them back but as it is they are planning a trip for before/when they graduate from college.

Here I sit saying "I cant believe they didn't up the cost more..."

They are already packed and only raised the price by $4? I thought they would go up alot more because they have to start thinning out the crowds now for two HUGE lands coming very soon (Star Wars and Toy Story). I would bet people now and in the near future will be more then willing to pay $150-200 to get into the parks with less waiting times in line. I cant even imagine what the parks will be like when those areas open up.

As for me...Millennium Falcon = TAKE. MY. MONEY.

Our recent experience with WDW is to hit the parks, usually MK and Epcot, hard on the first half of the trip when we're on the adrenaline high of being there, slow down in the middle for AK and the Studios with capping off nights at one or both of the other parks, and then hit it hard again to close out the trip with maybe a later than usual start. That's given us the chance to do what we want to do and relax just enough so that we don't feel like we're missing something.

Since others are jumping in with their planning experiences, we're (3 of us) doing 6 nights during the first week in June. Right now we have hopper passes for six days and we'll decide when we get there if we want to take an off day in the middle or add another day. We booked at the end of our last trip and free dining was the incentive, but we bought up to the middle dining plan (1 table, 1 quick, 1 snack). The cost with Memory Maker was $3100 with a $700 savings for dining. Flights will run around $1000 and we should be able to keep the incidental expenses under $1000. That puts the trip at around $5000 give or take. Our kid is 7, right in the sweet spot where the characters are still magical and she'll ride just about anything. It's still a great value for me.

Still not worth the price of admission, even without the "price hike". Side note, I am not one of those "must have 15 coasters to be a great park" type of people, I actually ride less than I ever have and really look at the entire experience at a park.

I'll be honest, I don't care much for Disney and only go when we have comp tickets from friends and such. Even then, while the parks are beautiful and all that, I just don't "get it" like so many others do. We hopped between Animal Kingdom, Epcot and Hollywood Studio's a few months ago and got bored really quick. Again, you can't beat the cleanliness, technology stuff going on, food, etc... No doubt. We still had fun, don't get me wrong... But the overall guest experience to me, between the attractions, wait times, etc... Is lacking for us.

We did the parks two years earlier and had the same opinion and again years before that. We try the parks over and over again, but I would never pay to go... Not to mention the fast pass program is idiotic and a solid ride (or two) in each park just doesn't make it worth it... Then you have the ridiculous waits because you didn't get there in the first 10mins to get fast pass in the morning. Meh. I almost feel bad for all the young kids walking around those parks, because I don't see how it would live up to the "hype"... Sea World, IMO, would make a much superior park for kids and of course Universal/IOA for more the teen/adult crowd. IMO, the Disney "magic" is all smoke and mirrors.

I'd rather go to a local Zoo in all seriousness if I want to just walk around and get the exercise *shrug*.

Now I will admit, Disneyland and California Adventure I really did like. Those parks, I would pay to go again. I found the experience overall quite a bit better than the Florida parks. But in the Orlando area? Universal/IOA and Sea World/Aquatica are superior for the "entire package", IMO.

SteveWoA said:

Not to mention the fast pass program is idiotic and a solid ride (or two) in each park just doesn't make it worth it... Then you have the ridiculous waits because you didn't get there in the first 10mins to get fast pass in the morning.

Fast Pass hasn't worked like that at the Florida parks for more than 4 years, but I get your point.

IMO, the Disney "magic" is all smoke and mirrors.

Seriously? Theming and magic is all smoke and mirrors, whether you're at a Sea World park or a Rainforest Café. That's not something that's exclusive to Disney.

I really enjoyed the California parks as well, but for different reasons than why I like WDW. That said, I was not prepared for the massive crowd at Disneyland on a random July Wednesday, especially after being tricked by a much lighter crowd at DCA the day before. I can't imagine what it's like on a weekend or a holiday.

Anything is worth whatever someone will pay for it. There are enough people that enjoy Disney enough that the park is insanely busy at current pricing. That's really all that matters.

You could cut all the prices we're talking in half and, given my current place in life, I still probably couldn't justify the cost/benefit ratio.

Disney will be fine.

As an aside, I just came across this article:

The average spent on an engagement ring is $6351.

I feel like I'm in Bizarro world. I'm still going with the Boxster.

I moved to LA 2 years ago and was so excited about being so close to Disneyland (45 minutes on a good day, but 2-3 hrs on a weekday evening, so weeknight visits are off the table). Then I looked up the Annual Pass situation. The "Socal" pass is only $369, but it is blacked out every single Saturday, Sunday, Holiday, and Summer day. Basically every day the kids are out of school. The next tier is $729, and STILL has a ton of blackout days, including many Saturdays and most weekends in December.

For $3 less, I can get annual/season passes to Universal Hollywood ($169) Knott's Berry Farm and Soak City ($113) Magic Mountain and Hurricane Harbor ($85) Legoland, Sea life Aquarium, and Legoland waterpark ($199) and Sea World + Aquatica ($160). 9 amusement/water parks plus a (tiny) aquarium. For $3 less.

If i lived in Anaheim and could pop over for a few hours at a time, enjoying their generously late closing times, I would probably be able to justify it. But obviously they don't need my money, as the park continues to be packed year-round.

Lord Gonchar said:

As an aside, I just came across this article:

The average spent on an engagement ring is $6351.

I feel like I'm in Bizarro world. I'm still going with the Boxster.

Note the average salary of a 25 - 34 year old, which is the average age of marriage (27 for women, 29ish for men).

About $39,000.

And of course that's before taxes, the cost of Trump's wall, health care, rent, internet, chicken wings, etc...

Then again, that fiance gets to wear that engagement ring the first year (the average length of engagement) for the crazy low price of just $17.40 a day, or 72 cents per hour. Assuming she doesn't take it off in a fit of rage when she finds out how much her future husband is about to burn through as he plans their Disney honeymoon.

HeyIsntThatRob? said:
Your current Disney experience doesn't match what it takes for my family to do Disney because we don't live there. It would be the same thing as you trying to find value in getting up to Cedar Point now and trying to enjoy a day or two there.

That's not the comparison I was making. I said before I lived here that I was going on an ever-other-year cadence, and I wasn't rushing around to do stuff (basically, what Josh is explaining). If I go back to Cedar Point for a few days, I wouldn't kill myself to do everything there either. My original point is that the more you go, the more "relaxed," in the context of the earlier comments, a visit can be.

And I totally get why people are turned off by the expense, but not not why people wanna be hipsters about it. I'll remember how much fun you didn't have next time I eat amazing food, tie one on and go see Sugar Ray perform for the millionth time. :)

Lord Gonchar said:

As an aside, I just came across this article:

The average spent on an engagement ring is $6351.

I feel like I'm in Bizarro world. I'm still going with the Boxster.

Lol. I had no idea what to buy and thought the advice on buying a ring was outrageous so I proposed to my wife and we picked out her ring together. She chose something significantly less expensive and we took a sweet vacation.

Me too. She has small hands. A big ring would have looked silly and pretentious.

I'm almost embarrassed to admit how little I paid for my wife's engagement ring (it was less than my wedding band). But the diamond was my great grandmother's, so all I had to do was buy the setting.

Sugar Ray? They should pay you to have to sit thru that crap.

My wife didn't want a ring (had a really bad broken engagement previously), so I got out of that one unscathed.

We're in the early stages of considering a 2019 early December trip and even though the cost is astronomical (we're budgeting $10k when all is said and done), our kids will be pretty close to the (first) sweet spot: 10, 8, and 6. It's a lot to drop on a family vacation, but I honestly can't think of something we'd rather do more than that. We save a bit off the top of every paycheck every month so we can blow it all on a big vacation and start this fall, all of our kids will be out of daycare (yay!). For us, at this stage of our lives, the value is definitely there. We also live in the Bay Area, so $10K is what they charge for a coffee at Starbucks.