How do people afford to stay at the Disney hotels?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’ve seen rates much cheaper than $1k but the Disney hotels always seem overpriced to me. We have gone a few times but have stayed in Disney Springs or a timeshare. Lots of the other parents at my kids school stay on site though.

Well sure, there's a demand for them so they will charge as much as they can.

I price out hotels for Disney trips often, and when I look at offsite hotels they usually aren't such a bargain (for the times I'm looking anyway.) Many of them charge high parking fees, and some even have additional "resort fees." Also, many of them have a much more limited shuttle to the parks, if they even offer one at all.

I tried looking at off site Hampton Inn, Springhill suites, etc. and after those fees, the fact that I'd have to go to the "Ticket and Transportation center" instead of being dropped off directly in front of Magic Kingdom, then fact that I wouldn't get the early entrance to the park, etc. made it not worth the savings. I'd rather stay at All Star Sports or other value on site.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The trick for us was buying DVC before we had kids. It was all paid off when kids were born and affordable because we didn't go crazy with points.

I can't imagine being trashy enough to buy a timeshare at Disney; especially not before kids.

What kind of person says this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just a friendly reminder that you do not need to buy DVC to do Disney affordably. We love Disney, but I just can’t get the DVC math to work for us. Or the lack of flexibility to book last minute.

I’m happy to take whatever hotel Disney is offering on sale and keep the flexibility to spend my travel dollars on something else. But kudos to the Boomers who bought 30 years ago and can plan their years around Disney trips!

Gen X in same boat. I need more flexibility. But I also think that if those Boomers had invested same amount in stock market, the net return would be higher.

Why are you comparing it to the stock market? That's idiotic.

It's a prepaid vacation.

If the money is sitting in the stock market you aren't going on vacations with it

I understand that. But here’s the question. If you took X dollars (the buy in fee) and invested it in year Y (buy in year), but each year subtracted the amount you would spend on the lodging for an equivalent vacation (minus the annual maintenance fees, would you be ahead or behind? I don’t know the answer to that question but the stock market has outpaced inflation over those years so I’m a little suspicious that the Boomer DVC buyer actually would come out ahead. But it might be close and then the question is how you value the psychic value of not stressing about the annual vacation cost against the psychic and other value of having more flexibility with your vacations.

But the flaw in your theory is you would have to wait years for any kind of return big enough to take Disney vacation.

We have been at least 70 times in the last 30 years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just a friendly reminder that you do not need to buy DVC to do Disney affordably. We love Disney, but I just can’t get the DVC math to work for us. Or the lack of flexibility to book last minute.

I’m happy to take whatever hotel Disney is offering on sale and keep the flexibility to spend my travel dollars on something else. But kudos to the Boomers who bought 30 years ago and can plan their years around Disney trips!

Gen X in same boat. I need more flexibility. But I also think that if those Boomers had invested same amount in stock market, the net return would be higher.

Why are you comparing it to the stock market? That's idiotic.

It's a prepaid vacation.

If the money is sitting in the stock market you aren't going on vacations with it

I understand that. But here’s the question. If you took X dollars (the buy in fee) and invested it in year Y (buy in year), but each year subtracted the amount you would spend on the lodging for an equivalent vacation (minus the annual maintenance fees, would you be ahead or behind? I don’t know the answer to that question but the stock market has outpaced inflation over those years so I’m a little suspicious that the Boomer DVC buyer actually would come out ahead. But it might be close and then the question is how you value the psychic value of not stressing about the annual vacation cost against the psychic and other value of having more flexibility with your vacations.

But the flaw in your theory is you would have to wait years for any kind of return big enough to take Disney vacation.

We have been at least 70 times in the last 30 years.

+1 if DVC were an annuity that paid out the cash value of the rack rate for the rooms I book less the annual dues I pay, it would be very obviously a winning investment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The trick for us was buying DVC before we had kids. It was all paid off when kids were born and affordable because we didn't go crazy with points.

I can't imagine being trashy enough to buy a timeshare at Disney; especially not before kids.

What kind of person says this?

An honest one?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just a friendly reminder that you do not need to buy DVC to do Disney affordably. We love Disney, but I just can’t get the DVC math to work for us. Or the lack of flexibility to book last minute.

I’m happy to take whatever hotel Disney is offering on sale and keep the flexibility to spend my travel dollars on something else. But kudos to the Boomers who bought 30 years ago and can plan their years around Disney trips!

Gen X in same boat. I need more flexibility. But I also think that if those Boomers had invested same amount in stock market, the net return would be higher.

Why are you comparing it to the stock market? That's idiotic.

It's a prepaid vacation.

If the money is sitting in the stock market you aren't going on vacations with it

I understand that. But here’s the question. If you took X dollars (the buy in fee) and invested it in year Y (buy in year), but each year subtracted the amount you would spend on the lodging for an equivalent vacation (minus the annual maintenance fees, would you be ahead or behind? I don’t know the answer to that question but the stock market has outpaced inflation over those years so I’m a little suspicious that the Boomer DVC buyer actually would come out ahead. But it might be close and then the question is how you value the psychic value of not stressing about the annual vacation cost against the psychic and other value of having more flexibility with your vacations.

But the flaw in your theory is you would have to wait years for any kind of return big enough to take Disney vacation.

We have been at least 70 times in the last 30 years.

+1 if DVC were an annuity that paid out the cash value of the rack rate for the rooms I book less the annual dues I pay, it would be very obviously a winning investment.

And that is how it has worked for us.

It's not a traditional time share and you are not "locked in."

I can easily sell mine, for the price I paid and probably a bit more.

[Anonymous]

The NY Times did an article in 2025 about Disney, called "Disney and the Decline of America’s Middle Class," which talked about how they now focus on people with money, because the middle class is no longer driving the economy like it was when Disneyland and Disney World first opened. Here's the link:
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/28/opinion/disney-world-economy-middle-class-rich.html?smid=url-share

There is a significant population that can afford whatever Disney costs.