What is going on with Disney parks?

[mshanson3121]

SO just keeping things in perspective. Its hard to do a comparison with any other "theme" park group but since it is in proximity:
Universal - WDW
Hotels June13-20

Hard Rock	401​
Portofino	395​
Royal Pacific	375​
Aventura	163​
Cabana	170​

In comparison WDW:

Saratoga	297​
Pop	159​
Port Orleans River	221​
Carribean	213​
***	131​
AKL	300​
Coronado	222​
Riviera	425​
Cont	450​
BDW	372​
Beach Club	419​
Poly	498​
GF	410​

ALL now have parking fees so thats a wash. To say Disney is outpricing their hotels,,,,ummm nope dont see it here other than Poly being out of line which is typical, nothing else is out of line.

So tickets There is a difference:

Uni	2park	3park
Uni 3 Day	272​	285​
Uni 5 Day	315​	373​

	Hopper
WDW 3 Day	419​
WDW 5 Day	502​

So WDW tickets are more expensive..Difference 4 parks vs 2..if I total up attractions across all parks, Disney dwarfs the # of attractions at Universal.

Nighttime shows daytime parades---Not even a contest here...WDW has waaaay more options

Disney gives you 3 Free FPs a day plus the ability to make as many more as you want. Unless you stay at Hard rock, Portofino or RP you have to pay for it at Universal.

Park Hours: Complain all you want. Facts are facts..Where in June WDW has MK open till 10 or later much of the month, Epcot 9, Studios 9, AK 9.....Uni is open till 8..Yaaaay.

EMH- Disney does it for on site guests at one of the parks pretty much daily...Well Uni does too and they will let you in Harry Potter land for one of the 2 rides available....Oh my.

With my AP I get discounts galore, my food options (TIW), entertainment ( Springs is much more fun than Citywalk), 2 water parks vs 1, etc etc.

So when you put it in perspective to the closest competitor..its not unreasonable for what you get in comparison. The complaining rings hollow when you look at real comparisons

Now take all those numbers and compare them to what they were 4-5 years ago at Disney, especially park hours. Then you'll see why people are complaining. They're not complaining because they're comparing to Uni. Prices are rising exponentially, while park hours are being cut rather drastically.

 

[Farro]

Now take all those numbers and compare them to what they were 4-5 years ago at Disney, especially park hours. Then you'll see why people are complaining. They're not complaining because they're comparing to Uni.

where the heck are they seeing $410 for Grand Floridian?

 

[SaintsManiac]

You know why Hard Rock is worth every penny? The rooms are huge, employees amazing, we walked into The Kitchen and were seated without a reservation. Huge selection of coffee, snacks and breakfast on the go. We walked to the parks in minutes. We had Express Pass through checkout day. I've stayed at Beach Club and Contemporary and they don't hold a candle to Hard Rock. AKL is the only one that came close.

 

[jkh36619]

SO just keeping things in perspective. Its hard to do a comparison with any other "theme" park group but since it is in proximity:
Universal - WDW
Hotels June13-20

Hard Rock	401​
Portofino	395​
Royal Pacific	375​
Aventura	163​
Cabana	170​

In comparison WDW:

Saratoga	297​
Pop	159​
Port Orleans River	221​
Carribean	213​
***	131​
AKL	300​
Coronado	222​
Riviera	425​
Cont	450​
BDW	372​
Beach Club	419​
Poly	498​
GF	410​

ALL now have parking fees so thats a wash. To say Disney is outpricing their hotels,,,,ummm nope dont see it here other than Poly being out of line which is typical, nothing else is out of line.

So tickets There is a difference:

Uni	2park	3park
Uni 3 Day	272​	285​
Uni 5 Day	315​	373​

	Hopper
WDW 3 Day	419​
WDW 5 Day	502​

So WDW tickets are more expensive..Difference 4 parks vs 2..if I total up attractions across all parks, Disney dwarfs the # of attractions at Universal.

Nighttime shows daytime parades---Not even a contest here...WDW has waaaay more options

Disney gives you 3 Free FPs a day plus the ability to make as many more as you want. Unless you stay at Hard rock, Portofino or RP you have to pay for it at Universal.

Park Hours: Complain all you want. Facts are facts..Where in June WDW has MK open till 10 or later much of the month, Epcot 9, Studios 9, AK 9.....Uni is open till 8..Yaaaay.

EMH- Disney does it for on site guests at one of the parks pretty much daily...Well Uni does too and they will let you in Harry Potter land for one of the 2 rides available....Oh my.

With my AP I get discounts galore, my food options (TIW), entertainment ( Springs is much more fun than Citywalk), 2 water parks vs 1, etc etc.

So when you put it in perspective to the closest competitor..its not unreasonable for what you get in comparison. The complaining rings hollow when you look at real comparisons

On your dates I'm seeing the GF @ $495 and the Poly @ $712 with the Sun and Fun discount

 

[Firebird060]

I wonder how many people the price increases in deluxe rooms Sans dinning has pushed people to the Swolphin I know I dont mind trading the no Magical Express for a room that is more closer to the deluxe category then the moderate and still part of the disney transport bubble when i cant find a room the night i want it

 

[SaintsManiac]

I wonder how many people the price increases in deluxe rooms Sans dinning has pushed people to the Swolphin I know I dont mind trading the no Magical Express for a room that is more closer to the deluxe category then the moderate and still part of the disney transport bubble

We are staying at the Swan next year. I'm done with Disney deluxes. I will gladly pay for a car service, because I hate DME.

 

[LSUmiss]

And to be fair, they've added a lot to make the increased costs on the lower levels seem more palatable. You have gondola access, and refurbed rooms.

I agree & our stay at Poly in July was not worth the extra $ at all this time!

 

[Farro]

I wonder how many people the price increases in deluxe rooms Sans dinning has pushed people to the Swolphin I know I dont mind trading the no Magical Express for a room that is more closer to the deluxe category then the moderate and still part of the disney transport bubble when i cant find a room the night i want it

Pushed us to book Gran Destino! Looks so nice that we don't mind buses, and it's a very short ride to all parks. Can always Uber if long waits.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

SO just keeping things in perspective. Its hard to do a comparison with any other "theme" park group but since it is in proximity:
Universal - WDW
Hotels June13-20

Hard Rock	401​
Portofino	395​
Royal Pacific	375​
Aventura	163​
Cabana	170​

In comparison WDW:

Saratoga	297​
Pop	159​
Port Orleans River	221​
Carribean	213​
***	131​
AKL	300​
Coronado	222​
Riviera	425​
Cont	450​
BDW	372​
Beach Club	419​
Poly	498​
GF	410​

ALL now have parking fees so thats a wash. To say Disney is outpricing their hotels,,,,ummm nope dont see it here other than Poly being out of line which is typical, nothing else is out of line.

So tickets There is a difference:

Uni	2park	3park
Uni 3 Day	272​	285​
Uni 5 Day	315​	373​

	Hopper
WDW 3 Day	419​
WDW 5 Day	502​

So WDW tickets are more expensive..Difference 4 parks vs 2..if I total up attractions across all parks, Disney dwarfs the # of attractions at Universal.

Nighttime shows daytime parades---Not even a contest here...WDW has waaaay more options

Disney gives you 3 Free FPs a day plus the ability to make as many more as you want. Unless you stay at Hard rock, Portofino or RP you have to pay for it at Universal.

Park Hours: Complain all you want. Facts are facts..Where in June WDW has MK open till 10 or later much of the month, Epcot 9, Studios 9, AK 9.....Uni is open till 8..Yaaaay.

EMH- Disney does it for on site guests at one of the parks pretty much daily...Well Uni does too and they will let you in Harry Potter land for one of the 2 rides available....Oh my.

With my AP I get discounts galore, my food options (TIW), entertainment ( Springs is much more fun than Citywalk), 2 water parks vs 1, etc etc.

So when you put it in perspective to the closest competitor..its not unreasonable for what you get in comparison. The complaining rings hollow when you look at real comparisons

You clearly have a preference towards WDW over Universal. Is that an issue? No but it's going to interact with your viewpoint on value and money spent (regardless of how the costs pan out).

An AP for Universal is $781.70 (inclusive of tax) for all 3 of their parks and that's the highest tier with no blackouts. It comes with EP at 4pm as well. WDW's AP is $1,379.18 (inclusive of tax) for the highest tier no blackouts and unless you're staying on site you don't get any advantage on FP and in fact you're restricted even more with the 7-days worth (I believe it's 7). Even those aren't tit for tat comparison but you mentioned what you get with your WDW AP without respects to there being the same and depending on one's outlook (the EP aspect) better perks with a USO AP.

Now I totally think it's fair to compare WDW and DLR in terms of dollars spent and value there. I mean we prefer WDW over DLR because of some reasons you mentioned like we have 4 parks at WDW and only 2 parks at DLR. I think it would also be fair to compare Universal Hollywood over Universal Orlando.

I mean you can compare all you want but you're coming at it from a personal subjective viewpoint between two vacation destinations but trying to discuss this as if it's a matter of fact this is what it is there's no opinion to that and I just don't see that in your comments above.

 

[LSUmiss]

Now take all those numbers and compare them to what they were 4-5 years ago at Disney, especially park hours. Then you'll see why people are complaining. They're not complaining because they're comparing to Uni. Prices are rising exponentially, while park hours are being cut rather drastically.

Exactly. I have no desire to go to Uni. I just want wdw to be what it used to be.

 

[dlavender]

SO just keeping things in perspective. Its hard to do a comparison with any other "theme" park group but since it is in proximity:
Universal - WDW
Hotels June13-20

Hard Rock	401​
Portofino	395​
Royal Pacific	375​
Aventura	163​
Cabana	170 ​

In comparison WDW:

Saratoga	297​
Pop	159​
Port Orleans River	221​
Carribean	213​
***	131​
AKL	300​
Coronado	222​
Riviera	425​
Cont	450​
BDW	372​
Beach Club	419​
Poly	498​
GF	410​

ALL now have parking fees so thats a wash. To say Disney is outpricing their hotels,,,,ummm nope dont see it here other than Poly being out of line which is typical, nothing else is out of line.

So tickets There is a difference:

Uni	2park	3park
Uni 3 Day	272​	285​
Uni 5 Day	315​	373​

	Hopper
WDW 3 Day	419​
WDW 5 Day	502​

So WDW tickets are more expensive..Difference 4 parks vs 2..if I total up attractions across all parks, Disney dwarfs the # of attractions at Universal.

Nighttime shows daytime parades---Not even a contest here...WDW has waaaay more options

Disney gives you 3 Free FPs a day plus the ability to make as many more as you want. Unless you stay at Hard rock, Portofino or RP you have to pay for it at Universal.

Park Hours: Complain all you want. Facts are facts..Where in June WDW has MK open till 10 or later much of the month, Epcot 9, Studios 9, AK 9.....Uni is open till 8..Yaaaay.

EMH- Disney does it for on site guests at one of the parks pretty much daily...Well Uni does too and they will let you in Harry Potter land for one of the 2 rides available....Oh my.

With my AP I get discounts galore, my food options (TIW), entertainment ( Springs is much more fun than Citywalk), 2 water parks vs 1, etc etc.

So when you put it in perspective to the closest competitor..its not unreasonable for what you get in comparison. The complaining rings hollow when you look at real comparisons

Have you stayed at Cabanna?

We are a fam of 5 and can get a family suite for $179. Closest at WDW would be AoA suite or ASMu suite. Those go for $350/249. Cabanna is twice the resort.....

 

[disneyseniors]

How much are you paying for airfare? Port Orleans shouldn’t be that expensive for 7 nights at a standard room. My relatives are going there for a week in September and with 8 day tickets and air it’s a little over 3000. I still think that’s a lot but I’ve always thought the moderates and deluxe resorts were too much for the amount of time that I spend there and I’ve been going consistently since 2009.

We pay a lot in airfare. We have to get a connector flight (we live 5 hours north of Minneapolis) that has a very limited number of flights. Then we go to Mpls/SP air port in Minneapolis and get a direct flight from there. We always get a direct flight, after our connector. They really sock it to you. We usually have to pay around $550 each for our flights totaling 1100 plus tax. We adjusted our days back one day and saved about $140 each that way. So we paid $380 each round trip = $760.00., plus tax. We got 8 day tickets with park hoppers,, garden view room, for 3703.34. Total: $4463.83, unless I added wrong. So we are a little short of $5000. but still not much considering it's Hawaii vs Florida. We don't do the DP, so out of pocket for everything else. It's well over that at the end because we don't scrimp on our vacation.

 

[jkh36619]

Do we know the mix on that yet?

I predict that it becomes more DVC than hotel over the years....

And if the economy stumbles, DVC is guaranteed income through maintenance fees.

 

[Farro]

And if the economy stumbles, DVC is guaranteed income through maintenance fees.

Only if people can keep paying...

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Exactly. I have no desire to go to Uni. I just want wdw to be what it used to be.

Even if you did want to go to Universal if you're talking about your disappointment in how WDW is these days it's not going to matter how the other competition has been doing. Not unless the point of discussion is Universal has been just as bad as WDW in terms of all (and I do mean all) the things that have been talked about. And for comparison sake Universal hasn't even done a fraction of what WDW has done in terms of what's been talked about. It's not even in the same realm lol.

 

[dlavender]

And if the economy stumbles, DVC is guaranteed income through maintenance fees.

They are guaranteed to have the Capex paid for.

The fees are a little dicier.

And if it stumbles bad enough (not wishing that at all) contracts flood the resale.....

 

[firefly_ris]

SO just keeping things in perspective. Its hard to do a comparison with any other "theme" park group but since it is in proximity:
Universal - WDW
Hotels June13-20

Hard Rock	401​
Portofino	395​
Royal Pacific	375​
Aventura	163​
Cabana	170​

In comparison WDW:

Saratoga	297​
Pop	159​
Port Orleans River	221​
Carribean	213​
***	131​
AKL	300​
Coronado	222​
Riviera	425​
Cont	450​
BDW	372​
Beach Club	419​
Poly	498​
GF	410​

Super confused over here... I plugged in those dates and get $272/night for CBR (those rooms are worth $180 tops, sorry), $563/night for Beach Club, $424/night for a FW Cabin (that's a 'moderate' pricing...??), $277/night for POR, $691/night for GF, $586/night for Poly, and $607/night for Riviera. We are too big for Pop, Coronado and Saratoga so I couldn't compare those. Mine are clearly way higher rates. I'm unsure what the deal is. But as you can see, crazy town.

[eta] so for what I'm looking at Hard Rock is still hundreds of dollars cheaper per night plus you get unlimited express pass with that.

 

[Firebird060]

the oro

They are guaranteed to have the Capex paid for.

The fees are a little dicier.

And if it stumbles bad enough (not wishing that at all) contracts flood the resale.....

talking about that it it does stumble hard enough, I wonder how bad the resale market will take a hit. People will be trying to unload as quick as possible and cheap and I dont see Disney buying back all of the them, but the benefits of buying resale have been stripped pretty good in the past 5 years by Disney. I dont see them adding them back if a recession happens. Do they just burn money buying back contracts and points to bank them for the next economy rise to resell them or do you think they will let the market bottom out? For the current resorts they sell they can just offer better "promotional pricing" without hurting there non promotional price but for the older ones? Im not sure.

 

[Remy is Up]

Where are you getting those Disney rates? I don't see those when I plug in your dates.

Should've clarified
Both rates for rooms at uni and wdw for that exercise were resident or pass holder rates.i can pull them for both so that's what came up

I still feel it's an unfair comparison because uni isnt the magnitude wdw is not does it have the offerings. It's hard to compare wdw to anything as it stands pretty much alone. I go to both. Wdw much more than uni. I find bg tampa and sea world matches uni on attractions. Bg tampa in particular. I think comparing wdw toanything is difficult but since people insist on using uni I just pulled that. I can find comparable prices roo.s at wdw, there are more attractions over more parks and I can pull all the fps I want at zero. Most whether I stay on property or not

 

[Itsnotmykitchen]

Have you stayed at Cabanna?

We are a fam of 5 and can get a family suite for $179. Closest at WDW would be AoA suite or ASMu suite. Those go for $350/249. Cabanna is twice the resort.....

Cabana Bay is amazing - I am staying there just to go to SeaWorld since my kids wont get anything out of Universal parks but the pool area there is fantastic. I feel like AoA really highlights that people are willing to pay crazy prices for certain Disney things. There is no reason that rooms there should be closer in price to Riverside than the AllStars but they are. The gondola adds to it now but its still pricier than POP despite being the exact same resort and the prices have been out of whack since it opened so before most people on this board are claiming Disney got crazy with resort pricing. Disney has always been crazy with resort pricing.