Bad News: Change in room rates for 2008

[GoinGoofyPlanninThisTrip]

My poor sister and her husband are junior high teachers and have two children under 10. There is no way they could afford Disney.

They should teach in our district. They could enjoy Grand Floridian stays at least twice a year. Example: Elementary school librarian = $100,000 for a nine month a year job.

Disney is expensive, always has been and always will be. You just need to find your family's "best deal". Once you're there, it is worth it.

[Catzle]

Wow! That is a lot of money to be a librarian, I am an assistant librarian and only make about a 1/3 of that. Our head director, the boss, the highest position you can achieve only makes $70,000!

[Cinderelley]

that my friend is 100% correct. IMHO, The middle class "which i am" has plenty of disposable income...IF they MANAGE money wisely. We only have 1 cell phone, that saves us at least 40.00 per month. There is many examples of "things" these days we have"society" but we certainly dont NEED. Disney vacations are in NO way a right or an entitlement. It isnt supposed to be something EVERYone can afford. NOTHING nice in life is. My point from the start is..MOST people CAN afford a Disney vacation every 3 years or so. Some can afford to go MANY times a year. Some can only afford to go once every 5 years or so. Thats called capitalism and a free market society..We all arent the same economically. Im am perfectly happy going once every 2-3 years. We can afford that and EVERYtime we go Disney NEVER lets us down. We love every minute of it!

IMHO, that's a very narrow view of the middle class. There are many people in the middle class who are trying to raise their children, care for their parents, live in areas of the country where the cost of living is higher, etc, etc, etc. I'm glad that it works for you, but for some people, the "plenty of disposable income...IF they MANAGE money wisely" method doesn't work. They do manage their money wisely, but that's to make it stretch as far as possible to cover their life's necessities. I see it all the time at the hospital.

[chasgooses]

I didn't say Disney was a charity. I said it's a very expensive vacation.
Do you disagree ?

Why do they have to raise their hotel and ticket prices every year ?

If they do raise them every year as you suggest they do, then don't you think at some point it's going to become unaffordable to most families ?

I don't disagree that Disney is a very expensive vacation, but I don't think that is necessarily a problem. Disney is under no obligation to make Walt Disney World affordable for everyone. From their perspective, as long as the resorts are full, they should charge as much as they can. Of course there is a point where they would charge too much and occupancy would fall, but they have armies of accountants and computer programs to make sure that they don't do that. As long as they think that people will still come, Disney will continue to raise prices.

Cynical as this may sound, Walt Disney World's main reason for exisitng is to make money. Yes it achieves that by bringing magic and happiness to many people all over the world, but that doesn't change the fact that it exists to make money for the Disney corporation.

[lockedoutlogic]

Alot of good thoughts....

A couple of things I noticed:
1. Disney is, has never been, and will never be...a "right" to the entire public. That is not because someone's trying to be malicious and overly greedy (though they are at times)...it is because WDW is a cash cow that is a significant prop for all the other Disney multimedia enterprises world wide. It's just that simple...they want two things out of WDW: operating capital and brand exposure. and it workds brilliantly. They are a publically traded company...if you have the time to look through an annual report...then you'll see what I mean.
That being said, the businessman that call the shots will never attack the prices at WDW by taking into account "what's fair for everyone". It just won't happen. The cold hard truth...the place was constructed with concrete, steel, fiberglass, wood, and good old fashion sweat.....pixie dust was unavailable due to back order.....

Second, there are two sides to the issue of "affordability"...Disney controls the first: pricing. but the general economy controls the second: cost of living.
If you paid 180 a night for wilderness lodge back in 99...it might have seemed like nothing.
But if you have to pay 215 a night in 2008..even though cost of living increases at work would have far eclipsed that measely little increase on the whole (9 years times 0.03% COL = 27%....as opposed to 180 divided by 215 = a 16.5% increase in hotel rates)...it might seem like a fortune.

Now I know...that math is far too simple to take at face value...but the point is that there are many things that affect how we view the cost of going to WDW....and alot of them have nothing to do with a $2 bump in tickets or a $10 bump in room nights.
Several things in the American enocomy right now are having people rethink how they spend their money: fuel prices (which drives up everthing that we buy except cars), out of pocket health care expenses, and the ridiculous spiraling of education costs....just to name a few....

So right now, the money isn't as free flowin' as it was during the "Disney Decade"....that could change at anytime....and in the future many of us could be laughing at this discussion...

of course.....don't count on rates not steadily increasing....they always have and always will

[Donald Duck]

Cynical as this may sound, Walt Disney World's main reason for exisitng is to make money. Yes it achieves that by bringing magic and happiness to many people all over the world, but that doesn't change the fact that it exists to make money for the Disney corporation.

There's a difference between making a profit and squeezing every last dime out of everyone. My impression of Disney nowadays is the latter.

[Donald Duck]

Here are the prices of a one-day ticket from 1980 to 2007. Disney has raised prices every year except 1984, 1988 and 2007 (although they did raise water park prices in 2007).

1980 - 8.00
1981 - 9.50
1982 - 15.00
1983 - 17.00
1984 - 17.00
1985 - 21.50
1986 - 26.00
1987 - 28.00
1988 - 28.00
1989 - 29.00
1990 - 31.00
1991 - 33.00
1992 - 34.00
1993- 35.00
1994 - 36.00
1995 - 37.00
1996 - 38.50
1997 - 39.75
1998 - 42.00
1999 - 44.00
2000 - 46.00
2001 - 48.00
2002 - 50.00
2003 - 52.00
2004 - 54.75
2005 - 59.75
2006 - 67.00
2007 - 67.00

[MNNHFLTX]

Unfortunately, there are not two, but three things in life that are certain--death, taxes and that Disney will increase their prices each year. (Meant tongue-in-cheek, but true nonetheless). As long as we all keep going, they will continue to do so.

[mttafire]

Unfortunately, there are not two, but three things in life that are certain--death, taxes and that Disney will increase their prices each year. (Meant tongue-in-cheek, but true nonetheless). As long as we all keep going, they will continue to do so.

Agreed....And we ALL WILL keep going!!

[Pirate Granny]

Personally I like the idea of changing rates...we stayed at the Pop for New Years Eve and New Years Day...the rate changed $50 less for New Years Day...we had to actually check out and check back in to get the cheaper rate...there were many of us in the line...and you had to re-check in (not move luggage, you got the same room) before 10am...but $50 is $50... This was this year, so I don't know about changing the reservation system in October...we still had to rebook if we wanted a cheaper rate...believe me, people were asking what we were doing, and then mad when they found out that they could've had the room for the lower price had they booked two reservations...now, I will admit, I didn't use MJ so possibly they could've helped out...

[rnin02]

Maybe I'm being naive, but if we want Disney to add new attractions every year, keep the old ones looking and running great, hire people that will provide awesome customer service and train them...can't you expect that rates will go up? I don't like it at all, but if gas, food, living in general increases for us on a day to day basis, doesn't it also increase for coorporations, amusement parks, hotels, etc? Do you really expect them to just say, "oh the heck with our increased expenses, lets just keep our income the same!" Now if prices are going from say $90/night to $180/night for the same room at the same time of year...that's ridiculous. But modest increases (say $90/night to $95/night) seem normal and expected.

[little disney lovers]

I agree that it is fair for the prices to go up in line with petrol, etc... I don't like it, But it has to happen if we all want the parks quality to stay the same. The unfortunate thing is that all our compulsory amenities keep going up, but our wages don't go up the same percentage. Companies are putting prices up to allow for petrol, etc... but are not inreases their employees wages. Therefore we don't have as much disposable income.
Anyway, We're all getting worried and worked up about a rumour, a likely rumour, but a rumour all the same.
Intercot is going to explode on the 23rd, Is that when the price release is?!?

[Bruegge]

While I tend to be a realist and understand Disney WILL make money, and more money, and...so on...

I must admit I was under the impression that the 4 different price points (seasons) for hotels thru the year... value,regular, peak, holiday etc....

was in lieu of the "dreaded weekend price hike" we now (probably) face.

IT COULD BE WORSE... In my travels thru north GA... I traveled from Valdosta to Cincinnati several times in the early 2000"s.

I always stopped at a nice New holiday inn express... just north of dalton to break up my trip..

Normally it was 65-68 a nite... no biggie... One June day it was $118.00 ... because of a big softball tourney going on in the neighborhood......

Can you imagine Poly charging nearly 100% more a nite cause Tiger woods is playing golf at the palm/magnolia golf course the week you are there...(it happens every october kids...)

So.. while it does stink.... it is not as bad as I've seen..

Tough it out... and go hug a princess... you'll feel better

Scott

Oh and FYI.... those lite up themed spinny things (kid toys) we bought in epcot in 2002 for $13.00 ... bought one for $10.00 last month... go figure..

[magicofdisney]

Oh and FYI.... those lite up themed spinny things (kid toys) we bought in epcot in 2002 for $13.00 ... bought one for $10.00 last month... go figure..

I bought a pair of Mickey sneakers a couple of years ago at Epcot for $25. Now they're $24.

If one needs more money to enjoy things....work more. When gas prices went up i just made a decision to work few more hours O.T. everyweek or so. If there is a WILL there is ALWAYS a way.

Well that's nice you have the luxury of that decision. My husband is salary and O.T. pay is pretty irrelevant.

[mttafire]

Well that's nice you have the luxury of that decision. My husband is salary and O.T. pay is pretty irrelevant.[/QUOTE]

I completely understand that...However, I have a very close friend who works for Honda of America (in Ohio) that is salary. His neighbor payed a lawn service 70.00 per month to have her lawn mowed. He now mows her lawn for 50 per month. That saved her 20.00 and makes him an additional 50 bucks a month tax free. For him that makes up the additonal money for gas. That was my point...If folks need extra money there is ALWAYS ways to make it..Salary or not.

[Dsnygirl]

Although I have to admit I don't like the idea of weekends being priced higher than weekdays, I have to also say I am glad that people will no longer be able to check-in on the last day of a promotion, and basically personally extend the promotion for the length of their stay. That has always been a pet peeve of mine, although I honestly wasn't aware that it happened @ WDW. (I've seen it at other hotels, but was under the impression that Disney didn't allow you to do that, as they have so many specials running all year long.) My personal belief is that if you want to use a special to get a lower price, you should only be able to use it on the days it's specified - and that goes for changes in rates for different times of year, too.
For someone to be able to use the early December pricing for the length of their stay, by checking-in on the last "value season" day and then getting as close as possible to Christmas w/o paying the premium that others pay who check-in a day later during "peak season" later just isn't right, IMHO.
But that's just my ... which probably isn't worth much!
If this allows Disney to even things out a bit, than I guess I'll just have to accept a little higher price for Sat/Sun and just be happy I'm there...