They've raised prices at Disney Theme Parks again and I don't know why the press even thinks they have to tell us this anymore. Breaking News would be if they didn't. In the unlikely event they ever lowered them, the network carrying the Super Bowl could interrupt the last quarter with a bulletin and no one would think that was unwarranted.
Many of the press reports about the price increase have delved into discussions of The Cost of Living and spiraling inflation but I think they've missed a very simple point which was made in this article about the increases. The person being quoted here is Pete Werner, CEO of wdwinfo.com, one of the oldest Disney fan websites…
The bottom line is "make more money with fewer people. And we don't care who we price out to do it." And I'm going to tell you that the quality of the product is less, in my opinion, is less now than it was prior to the pandemic, yet the price has gone up considerably.
For 25 years, I've heard that "I'm not going to Disney World" on one hand, while they're handing them their wallet with the other.
Inflation and rising prices in so many areas can explain certain money squeezes and increases. But sometimes, people who set prices for their products just say, "Y'know, I think we can get more money for this." This has happened a lot in Las Vegas since they reopened after the COVID shutdown. Many a hotel discovered it was cost-effective to raise the price of a buffet or a show or a weekend suite. Sometimes, you didn't lose a single customer when everyone was told they had to pay ten or twenty dollars more. Or if you did lose a few, that loss was more than made up for by the folks paying more.
But for some reason, the press treats a lot of these increases like they're forces of nature…Disney had no choice but to up the price of playing in their playgrounds. The folks who own the company gotta eat, right?
I have not been to Disneyland in many years. The last time I was there, it was with an executive with the Disney Channel who wanted to walk around with me and discuss the feasibility of taping a show there which I would write and maybe produce. Even though I just about talked her out of the idea — and therefore myself out of a job — I had a mostly-good time. Everything was free and we didn't wait in any lines. She kept saying, "We're going in through a Michael Jackson entrance," meaning it was some secret route that bypassed the main line for The Haunted Mansion. I guess that's how Michael used to get around The Magic Kingdom.
That, obviously, was quite a while ago.
Maybe I got a bit spoiled by that visit. Maybe it also has something to do with knee problems that do not make walking and standing in line as simple as they once were. But in the past few years, I've occasionally been given free passes to the place and I've allowed them to expire, unused. This was well before the need for masks and six-foot-distancing. COVID was an ideal excuse to not use the last batch of passes I had. By letting them lapse, I avoided the physical challenge and I also avoided the expense.
About that expense: My friends (I hope) would tell you I am not a cheap person. It's just that there's a difference between spending money for which you feel you are receiving something of roughly-equal value in return…and spending money where you feel like a Cash Cow being milked for all they can get out of you. Even with free entrance passes, Disneyland can make you feel like the latter.
And when I have been there, it always kills the joy for me a little to see children practically ordering their parents, "Buy me that!" I once saw a father who looked like he was about to tell his demanding son, "Sure…if you'd rather have a Pluto hat than go to college!" Perhaps if I was a parent, I'd feel differently.
People often say of some exorbitant expense, "It's not the money, it's the principle." That can be valid but so can, "It's not the money, it's the feeling of being played for a sucker." Even when I've had a great time in Disneyland — which has happened and which I'm sure will happen again someday — I was never able to totally view it as a day of pure fun.
Even when that lady from The Disney Channel was getting us into everything a.s.a.p. and charging our food to her expense account, I kept looking at all the families, some of whom had spent thousands of dollars for Disneyland vacations, and I just couldn't enjoy the place as much. And when I'm paying, I sometimes feel like they should send the guy playing Dopey home because I'm doing his job for him.