Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/28/opinion/disney-world-economy-middle-class-rich.html?unlocked_article_code=1.hk8.F_tG.sVWX9WZOpUYk&smid=url-share

I found this article quite relevant. As someone who has been to Disney four times, but is by no means a Disney person, I have no desire to do Disney again. The cost is part of it.

These issues are relevant to Universal's Epic Universe as well. Between the Express Pass that costs as much as your park ticket (yet doesn't include the most popular rides), the Power Up Bands, all the wands for the Harry Potter crowd, and the fact that the Helios costs $800 a night and DOESN'T include the benefits you get at other top tier Universal Hotels, the top Orlando amusement parks are starting to look like a trip for the global elite, and the global elite alone.

And why should entertainment like this be accessible to the poors, exactly?

It’s this sort of sense of entitlement that is ruining this country!

I’m not sure if this was sarcasm or not, but I do think that’s where American society is headed. Back to the Gilded Age. The years after World War II really were the outlier, not the other way around.

The financially smart thing is not to go. It’s getting easier and easier for companies to exploit the consumer because of the technology access they have.

I opt out of most vacations. We do day trips. Sometimes I feel bad for it, but that’s pretty silly. If you really think about it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We had a Disney week and had fun, but see no need to do that again. The ratio of price to planning work was very off

For any other trip/experience, the extra money, extra organizing and hoops would have resulted in some superior and seamless experience however with Disney it’s just getting you to enjoyable level

I find that any trip takes SO much planning these days. We went to UK and France this summer and I couldn’t believe the amount of preplanning I had to do and really didn’t enjoy it. Same with national park trips with lots of stops. I am familiar with Disney so those trips are actually easier for me, but unless you are just going to the beach most trips require a lot of research and planning if you want to see “the good stuff” - whatever that means for where you decide to go.

I like theme park trips because I know where we will be all day, what we will eat, where the parking is etc. When I price out a day of meals and activities from other vacations Disney isn’t always more expensive either

Exactly and when we went to Europe this summer all the tickets and tours I had to buy for sightseeing really added up! And the hotel prices were outrageous because I needed two rooms for 4 people. It easily cost as much as Disney.

Oh, a trip for four people to another continent cost as much as going to a theme park in Florida? Crazy

One thing I hate about trying to plan a trip to Disney World or Universal Studios Orlando is how pricing is not transparent at all and they make it hard to understand what makes the most sense. The whole thing is designed to try and upsell you on more days and staying on property and paying for extras to skip lines and have other experiences. On the website, there's no obvious "basic experience" package that is clearly labeled and tells you exactly what is in it that would make sense for the average middle class family. They expect you to read a million blog posts or hire a Disney trip planner. It's ridiculous.

Same with Universal Studios. My kid is really into Harry Potter so I was looking into doing two days at Universal Studios this winter. I knew from other people telling me that Harry Potter is of course spread across multiple parks so I'd need a multi-park ticket. But then I went on the website and HP is actually at THREE parks. But the multi-park ticket only covers two of them. So you need to buy a separate ticket to the third park for the second day. It's idiotic to me that they don't just have a "HP Package" that will get you access to everything HP over two days. I'm not even expecting a deal on it, I just want it to be packaged in a way that is easy for me to understand and so I know where to go and don't miss something obvious until we get there and realize, like, the thing my kid is most into is in a park we don't have passes to, or we're doing them in the wrong order or whatever.

Like why make it so hard and confusing. I'm not dumb, I plan lots of vacations that involve difficult logistics. But I look at these theme park websites and just feel like I'm missing something because nothing makes sense.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We had a Disney week and had fun, but see no need to do that again. The ratio of price to planning work was very off

For any other trip/experience, the extra money, extra organizing and hoops would have resulted in some superior and seamless experience however with Disney it’s just getting you to enjoyable level

I find that any trip takes SO much planning these days. We went to UK and France this summer and I couldn’t believe the amount of preplanning I had to do and really didn’t enjoy it. Same with national park trips with lots of stops. I am familiar with Disney so those trips are actually easier for me, but unless you are just going to the beach most trips require a lot of research and planning if you want to see “the good stuff” - whatever that means for where you decide to go.

I like theme park trips because I know where we will be all day, what we will eat, where the parking is etc. When I price out a day of meals and activities from other vacations Disney isn’t always more expensive either

Exactly and when we went to Europe this summer all the tickets and tours I had to buy for sightseeing really added up! And the hotel prices were outrageous because I needed two rooms for 4 people. It easily cost as much as Disney.

Anonymous wrote:The article made me a little sad. I have fond memories of my parents just driving us to Disneyland in the early 90s. They surprised us and bought tickets at the door. No fast pass, etc. it was great. I’ve never taken my kids because it sounds so complicated now. I stick to Busch Gardens, which is super nice and we can just show up.

I think you can still do this. Disneyland is more manageable because it is so much smaller. Disney world in Orlando is the real nightmare that requires a degree in trip planning to manage your Lightning Lanes and wake up at 7 to make reservations.
Anecdotally I went to Tokyo Disney on New Years Eve (i.e. one of the most crowded days of the year) with zero pre-planning, just waiting in line, and it was fine! The longest line was 45 minutes for the Pooh ride. Popcorn and ice cream were like 3 dollars! I don't know why Orlando has to be so awful and expensive. I told the kids this was their childhood Disney trip so enjoy.

Anonymous wrote:That's really sad. The people who most need the escape from reality it offers can afford it the least, and when they do splurge the actual experience is objectively miserable given the costs involved.

The movies are cheap as free at home though. And there are affordable alternatives like Dutch Wonderland and Hershey.

Anonymous wrote:Ugh.

Disney is something I feel I should do with my kids but I can’t bring myself to go. It’s such a miserable experience of being cramped and stuffed with too many people in a concrete jungle.

Every year when we talk about vacations they’ve always been more excited about other options. Hopefully my luck doesn’t run out and the kids can go to Disney in a school trip or something.

Why "should" ? It's just insanely over the top. It was once nice and special but it just kept growing to ridiculous levels.

That's really sad. The people who most need the escape from reality it offers can afford it the least, and when they do splurge the actual experience is objectively miserable given the costs involved.

Ugh.

Disney is something I feel I should do with my kids but I can’t bring myself to go. It’s such a miserable experience of being cramped and stuffed with too many people in a concrete jungle.

Every year when we talk about vacations they’ve always been more excited about other options. Hopefully my luck doesn’t run out and the kids can go to Disney in a school trip or something.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We had a Disney week and had fun, but see no need to do that again. The ratio of price to planning work was very off

For any other trip/experience, the extra money, extra organizing and hoops would have resulted in some superior and seamless experience however with Disney it’s just getting you to enjoyable level

I find that any trip takes SO much planning these days. We went to UK and France this summer and I couldn’t believe the amount of preplanning I had to do and really didn’t enjoy it. Same with national park trips with lots of stops. I am familiar with Disney so those trips are actually easier for me, but unless you are just going to the beach most trips require a lot of research and planning if you want to see “the good stuff” - whatever that means for where you decide to go.

I like theme park trips because I know where we will be all day, what we will eat, where the parking is etc. When I price out a day of meals and activities from other vacations Disney isn’t always more expensive either

Right. I don’t necessarily spend $250/day on entertainment on other types of trips, but I generally spend more on fights and hotels. The difference in daily spending is probably around $150/day for me. So that means a 4 day Disney trip costs $600 more than a different 4 day trip which is likely offset by cheaper flights and hotels.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do Disney in late August. There are often ticket deans like $99 a day for a 4 day park pass, hotel deals, and flights to Orlando are cheap. It’s hot but if you live in DC, it’s really not any different. Just go early and in the evening, take advantage of stuff with AC during the day or hotel pool. So much less crowded then and really fun.

Oh, its a totally different type of hot in August.

It actually is not - IF you have been active in the DC summer. In DC we are out and about a lot in the summer walking, but exercising and biking and acclimate. I routinely compare the weather in Orlando to the weather in DC in the summer and they are almost always very close. Orlando is a tad more humid but essentially the same. We did an August trip to Disney last year and it was totally doable - we didn’t have any fancy gear, just hats and water and the same clothes we wear in DC on hot days outdoors.

Orlando is actually more different from DC in other seasons. Like you may go to Orlando in January and have 80+ degrees or in May and have 90 degrees.

Yup. We always go in August exactly because it’s so similar to DC August.

Anonymous wrote:We had a Disney week and had fun, but see no need to do that again. The ratio of price to planning work was very off

For any other trip/experience, the extra money, extra organizing and hoops would have resulted in some superior and seamless experience however with Disney it’s just getting you to enjoyable level

If you don’t enjoy rides and theming then sure I can see this! If you do, then it is worth it. My kid loved it so that makes it worth it to me.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We had a Disney week and had fun, but see no need to do that again. The ratio of price to planning work was very off

For any other trip/experience, the extra money, extra organizing and hoops would have resulted in some superior and seamless experience however with Disney it’s just getting you to enjoyable level

I find that any trip takes SO much planning these days. We went to UK and France this summer and I couldn’t believe the amount of preplanning I had to do and really didn’t enjoy it. Same with national park trips with lots of stops. I am familiar with Disney so those trips are actually easier for me, but unless you are just going to the beach most trips require a lot of research and planning if you want to see “the good stuff” - whatever that means for where you decide to go.

I like theme park trips because I know where we will be all day, what we will eat, where the parking is etc. When I price out a day of meals and activities from other vacations Disney isn’t always more expensive either

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do Disney in late August. There are often ticket deans like $99 a day for a 4 day park pass, hotel deals, and flights to Orlando are cheap. It’s hot but if you live in DC, it’s really not any different. Just go early and in the evening, take advantage of stuff with AC during the day or hotel pool. So much less crowded then and really fun.

Oh, its a totally different type of hot in August.

It actually is not - IF you have been active in the DC summer. In DC we are out and about a lot in the summer walking, but exercising and biking and acclimate. I routinely compare the weather in Orlando to the weather in DC in the summer and they are almost always very close. Orlando is a tad more humid but essentially the same. We did an August trip to Disney last year and it was totally doable - we didn’t have any fancy gear, just hats and water and the same clothes we wear in DC on hot days outdoors.

Orlando is actually more different from DC in other seasons. Like you may go to Orlando in January and have 80+ degrees or in May and have 90 degrees.

Anonymous wrote:Disney does allow you to bring in your own food/drinks, and happily accommodate and holds grocery deliveries for you at their hotels. You really can do it in an affordable way for everything but the park tickets.

+ 1. And if your budget allows for a longer hotel stay (like 6-7 days) then you can get the longer tickets and the marginal cost of tickets goes way down - especially if you would need park hopper for the shorter stay (like we would).