A new study shows that nearly half of families visiting Disney resorts take on debt, and 60% of those who haven’t yet visited cite cost as the reason they haven’t visited.
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New Study Finds Disney Resorts Are Too Expensive
A study from Lending Tree finds that Disney Resorts are pricing out some families, pushing others to take on debt to pay for it. Interestingly, the study found that the biggest shock in their expense was not the theme park ticket price but rather concessions and then accommodations.
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“…Disney is sending parents into debt. Among the 77% of theme park-going parents with children younger than 18 who’ve been to Disney, 45% have gone into debt for a Disney trip, with 83% acquiring it most recently in the past five years. Among Disney-goers, 24% have gone into debt for a trip — a 33% increase from 18% in our 2022 survey. (emphasis mine)
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Overall, parents of young children took on an average of $1,983 in Disney-related debt.
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Concessions broke the budget for many Disney-goers. When asked what expenses cost significantly more than planned, 65% of those with Disney debt said in-park food or beverages, 48% said general transportation costs and 47% said accommodations. Fortunately, 41% of Disney parkgoers were able to use a discount on their most recent trip.
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Cost is the biggest factor for those who haven’t visited a theme park. Of the Americans who’ve been to a theme park, just 25% haven’t visited a Disney park. 60% of those who’ve never visited a theme park say it’s too expensive. Meanwhile, 31% say it’s too far away and 26% say they can’t stand the lines. Across all Americans, 40% say their willingness to visit Disney has been affected by its political views — either positively or negatively.” – Lending Tree
It’s not just younger generations taking on debt to see the House of Mouse. Generation X (now 45-60) accounted for 20% of the pile that couldn’t quite afford the theme parks, and surprisingly another 7% from the Baby Boomers, the most financially fit demographic in the country.
It’s important to note that it’s not just the lower end of the market struggling. While 32% of respondents made less than $50,000 annually, 33% of Disney debt holders made six figures or more. The answer to the question, “how much does Disney cost” is always the same: more.
Trouble On The Horizon?
Competition From Universal
Disney is investing heavily in its Parks division. In Orlando, this is all but a necessity to combat Universal’s sprawling Epic theme park set to open next year. The mega park is as large as both Universal theme parks, City Walk entertainment district, all parking, and hotels combined. Universal will likely expand its park hopper options with the new park which will be the first located away from the rest of the complex, about three miles away.
Walt Disney World Resort last opened Animal Kingdom in Orlando to complement Hollywood Studios, Epcot Center, and of course its Magic Kingdom.
Hotels
Disney World hotels are also facing competition as room rates climb but benefits don’t. As former annual pass holders, my own family would opt for hotel stays at Disney Good Neighbor properties giving the same benefits as Disney World Vacation resorts but available with more amenities for a fraction of the cost. We recently stayed at the JW Marriott Bonnet Creek which falls under this category for less than $400 per night (the neighboring Waldorf-Astoria is available for about the same) compared to a low-end hotel on Disney property. Even its motel-style, exterior entrance value line of hotels like Disney Art Studios is more expensive than the full-service Walt Disney Dolphin and Swan resorts operated by Marriott under the Westin and Sheraton flags.
Nosebleed high prices also contributed to the closure of what might have the most innovative hotel design in recent years. The Star Wars-themed Star Cruiser lasted less than two years and was purpose-built behind Hollywood studios to allow guests to live completely inside of the Star Wars universe. Rather than lower the price per person per day, Disney opted to shutter it altogether.
Segmentation
Before Bob Iger returned to his role as CEO, the resorts also underwent a transformation in the form of Disney Genie and Lightning Lane. This allows guests to purchase skip-the-line opportunities for specific rides but the price varies on the day and demand and can exceed Disney World ticket prices.
What Does This Say About Disney, The Wider Economy?
Disney Resorts remain full, the company is flush with cash and is full steam ahead on adding to the Parks with additions planned in both California and Florida and renovations underway in France. But the most troubling statistic in the entire report is not that a trip to Disney World puts visitors underwater by $2,000 – it’s that the number of those going into debt for it has almost doubled over the last year.
What does that say for the economy? That wages are not rising to meet costs? This is an objective truth. We also know that inflation is up well over 26% in the last four years (which does not include food and energy, putting the real number far higher.) The real issue is that despite those factors, visitors continue to spend more than they have to attend the parks and the rate is climbing fast. Perhaps the reason that the economy hasn’t slowed is that unlike in decades past when costs rose, spending was curtailed, it’s that now spending remains the same but debt climbs.
Conclusion
It’s no surprise that Disney’s price hikes (per park per day ticket prices are up again this year) have many families either taking on debt or deciding not to go. It’s further concerning that segments of the population that should have nearly no need for borrowing for a trip to the Happiest Place on Earth, are doing so, and that despite ever-elevating prices, nearly twice the amount of people are willing to stay the course and add to their debt rather than save up for a trip next year. At some point, the rooster has to come home to roost, but it looks like that won’t be right now.
What do you think?
Stupid. But maybe dementia Joe will pay off these loans too.
I’ll always have nice memories of Disney because I had grandparents that lived a good 90 minutes or so from it and we visited when I was young. Disneyworld opened around 1971 and I was still in elementary school. We probably visited it 3 or 4 times in my childhood back when they had ticket books for rides.
I went another 3 times as an adult but the place is just too expensive and crowded. Its sad since it should be a nice place for kids to go and escape the real world and have some wonderful memories. This was probably 5 years ago but we were sharing a table with a family of 4 and they told us the trip was costing them about $5K. I’m sure now it might be doubled that.
I’m sorry but any “park” that has to charge $100+ per day is out of control. And they also need to limit crowd sizes.
Maybe they are following Phoenix Sky Harbor airports method of control where they recently submitted a request to raise parking fees at the airport. Their reason? Too many people are using the parking lots and they want to reduce the crowding. I thought that was strange.
Unfortunately most things in life now are just money grabs so they can keep stock prices rising and pay excessive salaries to CEOs who honestly don’t earn that money.
Most americans can’t come up with $500 for an emergency situation. What is surprising about this news?
This Disney economic phenomena is interesting, but presented in a vacuum. A visit to a Disney resort is in the category of luxury travel. You have to compare it to other types of luxury travel of a similar length of time and not to your local school carnival. How does the debt load of a family visit to a Disney resort compare to the debt load taken on for all types of vacations and luxury travel? Do families tend take on more debt with a Disney resort visit or on a cruise? How about compared to taking the family to Hawaii or Las Vegas or anywhere else where you have to pay for hotels, meals, and entertainment? And how does luxury travel debt compare to luxury goods purchase debt? This may not be a Disney phenomena after all. Spending more than you have leads to problems. I know a lot of people who complain about paying taxes, but don’t see their interest debt load as being far worse. Credit card interest is a tax that you continue to pay a bank in the future for a purchase you already consumed in the past.
Is it really luxury? The cost may be but I don’t think the experience ranks up there with luxury hotels.
This is largely why I gave up on Di$ney long ago. I’m about to embark on a 15-day trip through Quebec and the Canadian Maritimes with the family. Hearing what my kid’s friends parents are saying about what they’re spending to go to Di$ney for a week, I’m probably going to end up spending the same or less for a much more rewarding experience. I think the real problem here is, everyone has this idea in their head of Di$ney as a family budget friendly type of place, but it hasn’t been in years.
I’m just glad I have family in both CA and FL, so if my son wants to go, we can do it as a day trip where there’s not much expense aside from tickets and $20 for a lousy burger and fries.
Most Americans are financially illiterate. Anyone that gets into debt to go to stupid Disney deserves to go bankrupt.
Go to Tokyo Disney. It’s dirt cheap. Not even the food or beer is overpriced. If you can’t afford Disney, don’t go. If you can’t afford to have kids, don’t have them.
@Dave – Or just save for a year and take them when you can afford it. Alternatively, I think the writing is on the wall for Disney too that if the economy slows down (and it has to at some point) they will face a reckoning. So far, this economy has defied every metric that should have brought it back to reality, but it’s fending it off. Credit card debt, however, is at an all-time high of $1 trillion in the US and at some point banks are going to have reduce limits and extend fewer approvals.
I grew up in Florida so I went to Disney lots of times as a kid and increasingly rarely as an adult. I’m upper middle class but in order to not wait in crazy long lines you have to fork out eye watering sums of money. Even that doesn’t avoid the lines but it makes them palatable. Ditto for Universal where my wife and I paid hundreds of dollars (I think about $400) each for entry and a line jumper ticket for one day.
Ultimately, the reason I’m most reluctant to return isn’t the horrific price as much as paying the horrific price to stand in long lines. What Disney should do is build another couple of parks, one in Texas and one somewhere around Virginia. That would offer lots of growth opportunities for the next few decades.
Given a choice between a five day trip to “see it all” with Disney in Florida or a trip to Europe for the same expense, I would chose the 5-20 day trip to Europe. You could probably even toss in a one day visit to EuroDisney outside of Paris and get your Disney fix while at it.
I went to Disney in 1990 (as a kid) and in 2000 (high school with marching band). Those were the days. Going with my family as a kid, my parents paid for everything. In high school, the marching band held fundraisers throughout a period of 2 years so the band can go to Disney and pay for everyone’s airfare/hotel/park entry fees every 2 years. Fast pass back in 2000 was free (you have to physically walk to the ride and get a slip of paper telling you to come back at a later time slot to skip the line) and there’s something about delayed gratification that helps appreciate a ride more with friends after waiting 30-45 mins.
I’ll admit at the time I definitely had more fun going with high school friends but now as I fondly look back, I’m also grateful going there when I was a kid as everything was so new and magical. With current prices, I have no plans to go to Disney World with my family.
You don’t love your children unless you’re willing to take on crippling debt so they can ride some rides and take photos with actors in costumes.
If you need to go into debt to go to Disney, perhaps you should not be going to Disney
Disney no longer is for the working classes
Growing up in Anaheim I have fond memories of trips to Disney. A few years ago our whole family went to Disney World for 3 days to celebrate my parents 50th wedding anniversary since they actually met working at Disney Land.
We’ve talked about going back but honestly at this point I’m not seeing it. A trip to Disney costs stupid money and for those prices we could take the family to Europe for crying out loud. I’m
Just not willing to spend that much money on an amusement park.
I don’t blame Disney for this really. They have a product where demand even at these prices is massively outstripping supply. Even at their sky high prices crowds and lines remain a real problem. So why shouldn’t they keep prices high since they clearly have more than enough people willing to pay it. They are a business after all.
This is the result of rising income inequality* paired with the old-school “everyone should go to Disney” dogma. Disney Parks have limited supply, is a business, and will price as high as demand will allow. The problem is that middle class families are competing with a growing number of upper class families.
*As AEI says, the middle class is shrinking because they’re moving up.
The middle class was never large to begin with.
For some reason, we have said here that the working class is the middle class.
The middle class is the class between the wealthy and the working class. If you have to work, you are working class. Period! Middle class are those who do not have to work to survive, but choose to work to maintain a lifestyle. Their investment income alone can sustain at least a basic life
If you are going to opt for the Europe trip over Disney World, skip Disney Paris. Go to Puy du Fou in France for a park experience unlike any other. I loved Disneyland and Disney World as a kid, but you would have to pay me to go to one now, they are just not enjoyable any more.
That is a very good suggestion, but Puy du Fou more out of the way for average American tourist flows in Europe than EuroDisney is.