In that video that was linked above, the guy makes an interesting argument that Disney discovered during the pandemic that no matter how difficult or limited they made it, people were still willing to pay - and pay full price. Maybe they are changing their strategy to not care about pricing people out bc for every one they price out, there’s someone else with disposable income ready to step in.
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How sustainable is that strategy though?
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Yep… all that makes sense but we know that disposable income for the masses is disappearing.
yes, my point exactly… eventually the disposable income will dry up. Who are they going to get into the parks then?
It’s not about “need” the money, but the CEO and board’s obligation is to maximize value for shareholders. It’s just a matter of deciding which things are too damaging in the long run to wring more profit out today. The wealth gap continues to increase, and the top x percenters are way way more profitable than the rapidly shrinking middle class. If they can raise prices and still sell the same amount of tickets/merch/etc, it’s practically their obligation to do so.
It’s disheartening, especially when a company has positioned itself around values and family-friendly traditions, but it’s still a publicly traded company and money always comes first for the leadership.
I don’t want to heart this awful truth 
I know Walt’s granddaughter tried to speak out about this but I guess the founding family has no more say or pull.
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Maybe we need Universal to start eating up more of Disney’s customer base. Come on Epic Universe!
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US savings rate spiked to over 32% during COVID. Highest before that was 17% in 1975. I think Millenials and Boomers saved something like $2-3 trillion during the last year. So lots of pent up monies to be spent. So arguably, discretionary spending it is at a high as the economy unfurls.
Yes but once the savings are spent… it’s done. Savings are not infinite unless you’re a Gates or Jeff B.
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No it will be available for everyone. But they could give onsite guests an advantage by being able to buy earlier than others who would have to wait until they were in the park after official opening.
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The Club Level FPs were $50 per day per person. That’s about $17 per FP. So the Shanghai pricing is at least in line with that.
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Then they’ll start offering more/deeper discounts again.
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Except you could book 90 days out and you could choose anything (other than repeats). That makes the CL FPs more valuable IMHO.
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My family has saved more, but we saved to our retirement funds. I’ve read that this seems to be a trend during the pandemic. That’s not really accessible to pay for for vacations.
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Very true. Lots of retirement savings. Also there are roughly 92 millenials and we have been behind in home building to the tune of about 5-14 million homes. So lots saved for this purpose. But most skipped the 2020 vacation(s) so there are plenty of funds earmarked for this purpose in 2021. Disney didn’t fall off that much post 2008 with the financial crisis as far as demand. Large discretionary items often don’t fall off much. Folks that buy Louis Vuitton’s and Bugatti’s spend regardless. And then the middle class typically save for vacation specific needs. So it’s doubtful it will fall off much post COVID in my opinion. I think people that love Disney will just adjust the number of days they stay or their resort choices to make it work.
We are using our funds from our cancelled May 2020 trip. After that, we are taking a long Disney break. It’s just turning into too much of a money grab. And I agree, it’s not sustainable. But stock holders don’t care about that. They want to make their money now. They’ve bankrupted other businesses. Disney is not immune.
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I think a lot of people have divided up the extra savings/stimulus monies into portions. For example:
Emergency Fund
Kid’s College Fund
Home Improvement Fund
Vacation Fund
General Savings Fund
Retirement Fund
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*Leave NY fund.
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That works 
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Since we already had money in the vacation fund, we did home improvement, retirement, and musical instruments for my kids. We plan on using some of the child tax credit for their 529’s.
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