This one is gonna get salty.
I’ve recently done some Disney content on Fortune that has generated an, ahem, spirited debate on social media. The TL:DR is that I posited that it’s cheaper now for many families to go to Disneyland Paris than it is to Disney World. Tickets to Disneyland Paris are so much cheaper than tickets to the Orlando park that the savings can account for the increased airfare it takes to get to Europe. My friend Leslie over at Trips with Tykes made a compelling argument as to why Disneyland belongs in the conversation and her math makes sense.
I then added my commentary onto the fact that Disney World ticket prices have risen at 9X the rate of inflation over the last decade. I even shared the reason I decided not to update my book, Disney World Hacks, for the first time in public: I visited Disney World a number of times post-Covid and found the experience underwhelming.
The last time I visited, I stood back from my own experience and just observed and talked to families who were visiting the parks. Again and again I heard disappointment: disappointment that they couldn’t get access to the rides they wanted without paying or standing hours in line, disappointment that the restaurants they wanted to visit were booked, disappointment at the limited experience they were getting for their hard earned vacation dollar.
Disney stans have entered the chat
I lovingly say this to my fellow Disney stans as a recovering Disney obsessive: Some of you guys have lost the plot.
The main complaint I heard about my pieces was that with proper planning and due diligence, a Disney World vacation can be had for less than I expressed in my Paris piece (which was around $6,900 for a family of four to visit for a week in April). And factually, that can be true.
But it can also be true that well-meaning and not-wealthy families can find a week at Disney World running into five digits due to factors beyond their control. Consider being married to a school schedule, having only two weeks of vacation a year, and most importantly having limited time to plan their vacations because they are busy trying to live daily lives.
Here’s where I think a healthy dose of perspective is lacking among many in the Disney community.
For those who love Disney, reading blogs, watching TikToks, and generally immersing yourself into the trip before you go is fun. That time just enhances the excitement and adds to the anticipation.
For those who are just trying to give an experience to their kids while enjoying a modicum of relaxation with limited leisure time, all of that sounds like another item on an already-full to-do-list. For those whose minds are bursting at the seams, the detailed level of research required to maximize a Disney trip may sound like torture.
But it’s only five grand!
For the one-third (numbers are wooly here, but I think that’s a fair estimate) of Disney World visitors who choose and can afford to stay at a Disney World property, I think a Disney travel agent is a great idea. I’ll even recommend a couple of them: Joe Cheung and Patty Holliday (hit me up if you want an intro).
Joe diplomatically stepped in the Disney Facebook conversation with some helpful numbers. He priced out a summertime trip including hotel, a meal plan and tickets and came up with a quote around $5,000 for a week at Pop Century, a value resort. Remember that does not include airfare.
So the main argument “for” a Disney World trip seems to be: It doesn’t need to cost $10,000! It can “only” cost $5,000 for a stay in a, let’s face it, well-decorated budget motel, four days in a theme park and a “free” quick-service meal plan.
Um…You can have a Disney World vacation for the bargain-basement price of five grand is your argument?
Do you have any idea what that sounds like to a lot of people? I’m not just talking about the people for whom a $5,000 vacation is out of the question. I’m talking about the people who are willing to spend $5,000 on a vacation, but are most certainly not willing to drop it at a theme park.
That $5,000 or more spent on many other types of trips will require less planning than a Disney World vacation, even with the help of a travel agent. Most families are stressed for time as much as money and are stunned when they realize how much time putting together a Disney World vacation takes. Or even worse, they’re stunned when they don’t do that time (because they didn’t know they needed to) and arrive at Disney World to discover all that is closed to them because they weren’t in the know.
Disney World is a theme park
I need Disney influencers to understand this most of all: For most people, Disney World is a theme park.
I think it’s the best theme park (although Universal is certainly playing catch-up), but for most people Disney is not a lifestyle, it’s not a personality trait, and it’s not an “experience”. It’s a fun day or week at a theme park. And it should be priced and valued accordingly.
That means that most people have no interest in learning how to maximize Lightning Lanes, no interest in setting an alarm clock to get a restaurant reservation, no interest in spending $766 a day in theme park tickets, and generally no interest in a lot of things Disney influencers are more than happy to do.
That lack of interest doesn’t make them lazy, or misguided, or deserving of a second-class experience.
It makes them normal.
