Ready to be done with Disney

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know families that go annually, sometimes more than once a year. It blows my mind.

That’s us! Why does it blow your mind? We love everything about it. We stay at a luxury hotel (club level) and have a blast at the parks. It’s our happy place. We’ve taken other vacations with the kids but they don’t have nearly as much fun as they do at Disney. They’re 14 & 16 now and we’ve been going routinely for about the last 12 years.

Do you use the concierge service to bypass the lines? How does Disney club level compare to a four seasons?
Genuinely curious. We spent close to 15k for 4 days last year and I thought it was a waste of money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Our last time here was 4 years ago. We're spending way more for a worse experience. Never again!

I remember when we went 7 years ago (only child’s 5th birthday) and it was great! I never thought I’d go again but then we had an oops baby. So off we went this year and it was terrible. I hated that everyone referred me to the app. There was no “magic”. Lines to long - we did not pay extra.

My kids liked the hotel pool better. The r room was nothing special for the price.

I won’t go again.

[Anonymous]

We enjoyed the Universal property and park. Reasonably priced and fun. Then we did a Disney cruise that was perfect for us. I’m not sure the parks are for us, though we’ve not tried them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We enjoyed the Universal property and park. Reasonably priced and fun. Then we did a Disney cruise that was perfect for us. I’m not sure the parks are for us, though we’ve not tried them.

+1 for Universal. The express pass system works really well and the rides are fun. I really wish I could come up with something overpriced and paint it as a must have for a kid. I'd make a killing.
Our trip to Universal was roughly 1500 per day for a family of 4. There is no way the average family can afford this yet the parks are packed!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just spent 4 days at Disney. Overpriced and very poor experience. It must be an absolute mess for families that don't want to shell out for all the extras. Extras, which are slowly become necessities if you want to actually get on rides at the park.
I told my kids for this kind of money we could have spent a week on my home country and lived like kings!
Rant over

Have never been, but from what others have told us, one interesting thing is the incredibly diverse nature of the visitors, clearly from across all income levels (except probably lower 20-30%?), races, many international, from everywhere in the US, etc.

Seems like the way they do this is for middle-lower income folks, its a once in a 10 year thing, they stretch money, maybe drive down, can't afford the extras and wait in lines. Meanwhile the richer people go maybe every 2-3 years, fly down, pay for the Disney hotels, extras, etc, and have a vaguely similar side-by-side experience, but really quite different. In a way, props to Disney for being able to appeal to such a broad audience. Unusual nowadays.

There are people with bad taste from all races and nationalities.

[Anonymous]

Someone needs to launch a mutiny.

The prices won’t come down and the service won’t improve until the crowds stop.

The whole experience changed dramatically in recent years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just spent 4 days at Disney. Overpriced and very poor experience. It must be an absolute mess for families that don't want to shell out for all the extras. Extras, which are slowly become necessities if you want to actually get on rides at the park.
I told my kids for this kind of money we could have spent a week on my home country and lived like kings!
Rant over

Have never been, but from what others have told us, one interesting thing is the incredibly diverse nature of the visitors, clearly from across all income levels (except probably lower 20-30%?), races, many international, from everywhere in the US, etc.

Seems like the way they do this is for middle-lower income folks, its a once in a 10 year thing, they stretch money, maybe drive down, can't afford the extras and wait in lines. Meanwhile the richer people go maybe every 2-3 years, fly down, pay for the Disney hotels, extras, etc, and have a vaguely similar side-by-side experience, but really quite different. In a way, props to Disney for being able to appeal to such a broad audience. Unusual nowadays.

There are people with bad taste from all races and nationalities.

I think its proof that Disney marketing works. I'm curious what their profit margin is. They seem to employ a ton of people and their labor cost must be sky high.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
I think its proof that Disney marketing works. I'm curious what their profit margin is. They seem to employ a ton of people and their labor cost must be sky high.

If only Disney published their financials.. ahh but they do since they are a public company:

https://thewaltdisneycompany.com/app/uploads/2023/02/2022-Annual-Report.pdf

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just spent 4 days at Disney. Overpriced and very poor experience. It must be an absolute mess for families that don't want to shell out for all the extras. Extras, which are slowly become necessities if you want to actually get on rides at the park.
I told my kids for this kind of money we could have spent a week on my home country and lived like kings!
Rant over

Have never been, but from what others have told us, one interesting thing is the incredibly diverse nature of the visitors, clearly from across all income levels (except probably lower 20-30%?), races, many international, from everywhere in the US, etc.

Seems like the way they do this is for middle-lower income folks, its a once in a 10 year thing, they stretch money, maybe drive down, can't afford the extras and wait in lines. Meanwhile the richer people go maybe every 2-3 years, fly down, pay for the Disney hotels, extras, etc, and have a vaguely similar side-by-side experience, but really quite different. In a way, props to Disney for being able to appeal to such a broad audience. Unusual nowadays.

There are people with bad taste from all races and nationalities.

I think its proof that Disney marketing works. I'm curious what their profit margin is. They seem to employ a ton of people and their labor cost must be sky high.

A lot of their employees are on the Disney college plan and they make next to no money. I don't blame them though. When I was in college, I would have volunteered to work there for free. My friends did and enjoyed it.

[Anonymous]

It's no longer a good middle-class vacation. If you don't want 90-minute waits on the premier rides then you need to be prepared to buy Genie+ and Lightning Lane, at around $50 per person per day. For a family of five going to the four main parks, that's an extra thousand dollars, on top of record-high prices for park tickets and resort stays.

We still enjoy WDW, but I can see why it's a poor experience for anyone on a budget.

[Anonymous]

We went a few months ago. Never waited more than 10 minutes in line. Used the app and fastpass or whatever it's called to book rides in advance, and for other rides just looked in the app to see which ones had the shortest lines atthe time. Stayed at a Disney hotel on the monorail. Overpriced compared to a typical hotel, but you pay for the location. Rooms were clean.

Food was decent. We prebooked restaurants and places like that Beauty and the Beast restaurant were expensive but pretty good food for a theme park -- steak, wine, french onion soup, etc.

We can afford it, but one way we keep the costs down is not to go too long. We'll go for 2-3 days of park visits at most. Diminishing returns after that.

[Anonymous]

Last time I checked, in my home the adults control the finances not the children. You get to decide where you go on vacation, not them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know families that go annually, sometimes more than once a year. It blows my mind.

Same I know a family that spends close to 20K per year at Disney. I don't get it.

Everyone has a different idea of fun for vacation. Some people spend $20k ar Disney, and others pay that same amount to rent some huge ocean front beach house for a week. Why judge?

[Anonymous]

Do a Disney Western Caribbean cruise instead.
Night and day a better experience.

[Anonymous]

It is starting to feel like a fairground amusement park where you pay per ride, because it is not worth going to spend an hour plus in line for each ride, so you have to pay extra. A friend went this week and couldn’t believe how crowded it was - a random week in September - and how long the lines were.