Just What Is The $Tipping$ Point?

Everyone's situation is different, so my tipping point is different. I plan in all areas of my life not only for vacations, but for anything else I may need or want. I just got all my windows replaced at home...not a cheap proposition. Paid cash for all of it. I budgeted and saved (money and PTO so I could be home and an alternate place for the pups to stay while the world was being done).

I do the same with vacations. I know my limits and how to save a few bucks here and there: cash back apps, promotions, discounts, etc. I don't buy $3 water anywhere, let alone a park. I don't stay at the fancy hotels (unless there's a great deal). I squirrel away money every paycheck for the trip, even if I don't have one planned. I don't complain or whine or snark the prices...like others have said, this is a vacation and it's not designed for everyone just like a 4k TV or a three bedroom house or a Mercedes. There's lots of places to vacation and things to do. I choose to spend my money on the Mouse.
 
We've not as avid as many on here, but we do like to visit DLR every other year. We're gritting our teeth through the price increases, but we're already starting to talk about other destinations for vacations after our upcoming Disney trip. Are kids are 8 and 10 and we feel like DLR is such a great vacation for the whole family, but as they get older we'll transition to a little more "non-theme-park" trips, like Hawaii and the Caribbean.

The price increases are the biggest factor in this, so I guess you'd say we're pretty much at that tipping point. That said, we did always feel like it would come to this, so it's not unexpected. And I'm sure we'll still throw in the occasional Disney visit.
 
We've not as avid as many on here, but we do like to visit DLR every other year. We're gritting our teeth through the price increases, but we're already starting to talk about other destinations for vacations after our upcoming Disney trip. Are kids are 8 and 10 and we feel like DLR is such a great vacation for the whole family, but as they get older we'll transition to a little more "non-theme-park" trips, like Hawaii and the Caribbean.

The price increases are the biggest factor in this, so I guess you'd say we're pretty much at that tipping point. That said, we did always feel like it would come to this, so it's not unexpected. And I'm sure we'll still throw in the occasional Disney visit.

I still find value in DLR - at least I have as good a shot as anyone else in the park that day for getting the rides (I'm aware of maxpass before anyone makes that comment - and to me it is reasonable and at least it isn't limited to people staying on Disney property). Like you, I wouldn't go every year, just go when I can.
 
Do you think disney will just keep increasing the prices at the rate they've been doing to ' see how far they can'? I mean, if the crowd keep coming, what is to stop them? If I were in it, to please the stockholders, which is what any for-profit public company does these days, why not keep increasing the prices?

Do you think there will be a tipping point where folks say enough is enough?

I'm a financial professional and I cringe when I see folks spending thousands on repeat vacations but not investing in their future. I'm starting to wonder, where else can we go instead...Pigeon's forge? I don't know...I think I'm starting to try and have a talk with myself. Do you have a tipping point?
Well, as to the question on Disney just keep increasing prices, yes. They have their statistics and analysts obviously, and if they think certain price increases will work when they run and plug the numbers and it's not arbitrary to them when they come up with prices, then you'll see price increases. Sort of obvious there.

I couldn't say where folks say enough is enough. Definitely specific to individuals and what each is willing to pay.

My personal tipping point, I'll know when I get there. Not there yet. Now, do I think some of the prices are crazy? Absolutely. I guess I'm crazy enough at the moment to pay. But, I also think the same at some other places I've been to, it's comparatively crazy.
 


For me the tipping point to WDW is more likely to be the hassle involved and what a planning nightmare it has become. As someone who has no desire to stay on site (we rent a villa offsite), I can't book fastpasses until all the good ones are gone, etc. And no, I don't want to stand around hitting refresh on some app all day hoping to ride a good ride.


I agree, even for those who can afford to go on a pricey Disney vacation, the excessive planning involved is annoying and the overall VALUE isn't there anymore. And those dreadful Disney IT applications that never seem to work reliably.....LOL. We went recently after not having been there in many years. All of the parks were SO crowded that even with our 3 daily FastPasses, we had ZERO interest in standing in 60+ min lines for any other rides and just walking around the park was a challenge. A vacation for us it partly to get away from the structure and rigid schedules of our jobs, so having to do that for a vacation is NOT our idea of fun. We will never use spreadsheets to setup a daily vacation timeline, seems too much like a job.

For the price, we can go on 2 vacations to a lot of others places we enjoy as much (or more), so have no interest in going back anytime soon.
 
I agree, even for those who can afford to go on a pricey Disney vacation, the excessive planning involved is annoying and the overall VALUE isn't there anymore. And those dreadful Disney IT applications that never seem to work reliably.....LOL. We went recently after not having been there in many years. All of the parks were SO crowded that even with our 3 daily FastPasses, we had ZERO interest in standing in 60+ min lines for any other rides and just walking around the park was a challenge. A vacation for us it partly to get away from the structure and rigid schedules of our jobs, so having to do that for a vacation is NOT our idea of fun. We will never use spreadsheets to setup a daily vacation timeline, seems too much like a job.

For the price, we can go on 2 vacations to a lot of others places we enjoy as much (or more), so have no interest in going back anytime soon.


We've lost much of the interest, too. Our upcoming trip is the result of thinking we could convince my DH's much older family (80s) to go with us after a series of losses - we had a DVC Grand Villa booked - they changed their mind at the last minute (sort of) - we downsized but I had borrowed some points from next year that I had to use or lose and we already had APs.

We had planned to take a few years off - unless our grown children requested a trip or my beloved FIL his family wanted to go. At this time, we really only enjoy the trips through the eyes of newbies, little ones or with friends and family that are super excited to go.

I used to love the spreadsheet planning but now that my job has decided templates are holy and infinite - I want nothing to do with the 180 60 30 day plans for something I can do in my head.
 
For those of us here on the DIS we are fairly educated in all things Disney. Disney as we all know is pretty smart. They normally keep the increases fairly small percentage for the most part. However we know when and how often they increased ticket prices in the past few years. We know how much a Castle view room was 5 years ago and how much it is today so we know it's gone up say $95 a night in that time. We remember when a bottle of water was only $1.75 in the park. For us we see how much things have increased from either going to the parks or seeing things posted here. I work at a place (public transportation) that didn't have a price increase for about 10 years, then when they did it was huge. People were pissed and the biggest complaints was that they would rather see gradual prices increases every 2-3 year they one big one every 10. For others that want to go to Disney and it's maybe a once in a lifetime trip they will do what they can to afford it but they look at the prices as they are what they are and their tipping point isn't not going but not staying where they want to.

I think it will take a lot for Disney to reach a lot of peoples tipping point as there are so many variables involved and it would take some time. Disney will also throw things in from time to time such as free dinning in that encourages people to go. There are enough people who hear "free dining" and think it's the best deal going. But for them if they did some math they would realize that due to heir dining habits it would be less expensive to take the discounted room rate and pay OOP for meals. Add in that they might not normally park hop but now have to because it's a requirement and they could be spending a lot more. But again they hear "free" and feel it's a great deal even though it might not be and that helps to fill the parks.

For some people who stay on property a tipping point mean maybe they no longer stay at the the Contemporary/Poly or a deluxe resort and scale back to Moderate, those in a Mod scale back as well to either a Value or even off property, and those in a Value go off property. Maybe they don't go every year and still stay at their preferred resort. For those staying off property they scale back and don't go as often. Or they scale back and don't go as long. But for the most part for everyone who would scale back resorts there will be someone who will take their place.

These are all great points and I agree with most of them.

DW and I look at the cost of things now, combined with the reduction in value, compared to what it was when we started doing family WDW trips 15 years ago and we're not planning on going back to WDW anytime soon. But we're also starting to talk about retiring to central Florida in a few years and one of the things we discuss is how nice it will be to be close enough to have Florida APs and take day trips.

So while we may have reached our tipping point on the week-long WDW vacations we used to take, I don't think we'll ever give it up entirely. And being empty-nesters we're probably not WDW's target demographic anymore, anyway. They'll take what they can get from us but focus more on those who don't understand or care how it used to be.

What could radically change things is another recession like we had after 9/11 or 2008. Disney had to make some big moves to keep park attendance going. It'll come eventually and I think we'll see WDW expand on their offers, at least until the economy recovers.
 


I agree, even for those who can afford to go on a pricey Disney vacation, the excessive planning involved is annoying and the overall VALUE isn't there anymore. And those dreadful Disney IT applications that never seem to work reliably.....LOL. We went recently after not having been there in many years. All of the parks were SO crowded that even with our 3 daily FastPasses, we had ZERO interest in standing in 60+ min lines for any other rides and just walking around the park was a challenge. A vacation for us it partly to get away from the structure and rigid schedules of our jobs, so having to do that for a vacation is NOT our idea of fun. We will never use spreadsheets to setup a daily vacation timeline, seems too much like a job.

For the price, we can go on 2 vacations to a lot of others places we enjoy as much (or more), so have no interest in going back anytime soon.

For us this is also a major factor in our "tipping point". The cost definitely plays a role (the ticket price alone for our family is more than we used to pay for an ENTIRE 12 day trip), but it's honestly just too crowded and too much planning to be as "magical" as it once was for us.

We did a trip this spring with my parents and my children (teens/adult). We did have a good time, but we would have had a much better time if we did not go to the parks. We felt like we "had" to take advantage of the parks because the tickets were so expensive, but we have already decided that if/when we do go back we will just enjoy the resorts. (We did a split stay at Poly/AKL and we were all disappointed that we missed out on enjoying the resorts because we "wasted" our time in the parks).

Between the crowds, the new FP system, and things breaking down we just were not able to do a fraction of what we used to be able to in the same amount of time. I understand the prices of things increasing over time and I don't think I would mind if I felt that I were getting the same value, but it just seems ridiculous to me to be spending double or triple the price and receiving significantly less for my time and money.
 
I think they've passed the tipping point for me. The three major things, from my perspective, are: (1) the cost; (2) the excessive amount of advance planning; and (3) the crowds. Beyond that, there's not much to hold the interest of my kids---youngest is now 13, and they'd all rather travel anywhere else. We did Universal this spring, which was fun...but that's not likely to happen again in the foreseeable future, either. We've introduced them to international travel--probably not the wisest financial move--and now they'd rather do that. Frankly, the costs are comparable, but there's nothing at WDW that's going to compare to Pompeii, truffle hunting in Umbria, or seeing the Eiffel Tower twinkle at night. Perhaps I'll feel differently when grandchildren come along.
 
I hit my tipping point about 5 years ago. We still go, but now it's several years between trips and then only as an add-on to another vacation. Last time was in 2017 when we added a couple of days on to a cruise. Stayed three nights and got a 2 day park hopper. DH really wanted to see Pandora so that's pretty much what we went for.

Like QueenIsabella this may change once we have grandchildren, but we've found we can travel to other locations (both domestic and international) for longer periods of time than what a WDW vacation now costs. I also don't have to do as much advance planning.
 
My tipping point is more than just the cost, it is the value I get and sadly it just isn't there for our family anymore. The last trip I had was in 2016 and it was just dh and me, but it was just for F&W, we did not visit any other park except Epcot. I would love to go again and my 3 kids have said they would but I don't think the cost is worth it for all of us. We are considering a trip to Hawaii and it will definitely cost more than WDW, I consider that vacation money well spent compared to going to WDW anymore.
 
My husband cannot fathom how many times I've been to Disney, and at today's prices I could not fathom my kids ever going to Disney as much as I did either. My parents were able to trade into DVC with their non-DVC timeshare back when it was possible to do so into basically every DVC (I've stayed at OKW, SSR, BR, BWV, and BC all on trades, we could have done AKL too but decided against), so accommodations were significantly less than what we're looking at now. We could get APs and go multiple times in a year, but now the cost of an AP is just staggering. Then you get into the cost of food. We probably went 3X for what it cost to go 1X now, and the quality of the vacation seems to be deteriorating.

We have financial priorities and I just cannot justify a trip to Disney. Maybe one day, but for the foreseeable future we will not be making any trips to the Mouse.
 
I think they've passed the tipping point for me. The three major things, from my perspective, are: (1) the cost; (2) the excessive amount of advance planning; and (3) the crowds.
That's the rub. We have to pay a fortune for something you need to schedule for more than 60 days in advance and then you have to fight crowds when you get there.

I am meeting friends at WDW for food and wine. Three days ago they booked the SAFARI for 11:30 on 10/10. Two days ago I matched their FPs and couldn't get the safari at the same time. I couldn't get the SAFARI for my preferred time at 61 days in advance <smh>. Let that sink in.
 
We plan to spend a certain amount on vacation every year. If we want to go to Disney it can’t be over that amount.

We have tentative plans for Disney in 2021. We are trying to keep the 2020 vacation budget low and carry the savings forward so we can splurge on Disney.

In theory the tipping point won’t be reached if we are willing to sacrifice elsewhere to save money. In reality the tipping point is getting pretty close for me but I plan to work hard to find the most economical way to have a nice WDW vacation. I think we can make it work but if not we will do something else.
 
That's the rub. We have to pay a fortune for something you need to schedule for more than 60 days in advance and then you have to fight crowds when you get there.

I am meeting friends at WDW for food and wine. Three days ago they booked the SAFARI for 11:30 on 10/10. Two days ago I matched their FPs and couldn't get the safari at the same time. I couldn't get the SAFARI for my preferred time at 61 days in advance <smh>. Let that sink in.


And yet--if you were meeting those same friends in Rome, you could all go together to see the Sistine Chapel with just a few days' notice. Sure, you'd have to wait in line to get into the Vatican, but...the Vatican Museum and the Sistine Chapel! Of course, this is in my fantasy world where you can just jet over to Rome at the drop of a hat...
 
And yet--if you were meeting those same friends in Rome, you could all go together to see the Sistine Chapel with just a few days' notice. Sure, you'd have to wait in line to get into the Vatican, but...the Vatican Museum and the Sistine Chapel! Of course, this is in my fantasy world where you can just jet over to Rome at the drop of a hat...
Heck, I planned a whole cruise out of San Juan in less than 45 days last year. I booked it in October and was onboard the first week of December. I was even adding excursions on board the ship. Oh, and the whole thing cost less than $2000 for 10 days, including excursions, specialty dining and the beverage package.
 
And yet--if you were meeting those same friends in Rome, you could all go together to see the Sistine Chapel with just a few days' notice. Sure, you'd have to wait in line to get into the Vatican, but...the Vatican Museum and the Sistine Chapel! Of course, this is in my fantasy world where you can just jet over to Rome at the drop of a hat...

I may or may not be in Prague and London in a month - my husband is traveling on business - but his plans aren't firm yet. When they are, if there is decent airfare, I'll go.
 
Individual people do have their tipping points but those are blips in the radar--people will come and fill their spots.

I think the rapid increases in the last several years has probably turned off more people than in the past but again people just come and fill their spots. I dislike all the price increases but I am also intrigued with how they will handle things in the next few years with all the construction they are doing..will they slow the increases once that is done or will they steamroll ahead with the excuse that there's new stuff to be seen, etc.
 
It is the crowds that turn our family off. Not the prices. Anything Disney does to control the crowds is a plus in our opinion. The new flex pass that allows Disney to balance supply and demand in real time seems like a big plus in my opinion. Hopefully they will stop selling the unlimited annual passes.
 

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