Lightening price inflation since launch

Walt Disney World
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This is a budget buster for sure. I went back to my spreadsheet when this trip was originally conceived - and I will spend 2x more than what I planned a year ago on LLMPs and LLSPs. (Also Due to no VQs).

Darn if I’m not having buyers remorse on my MVMCP purchase (it’s non refundable)! There is also a compound cost of Xmas party in that rope dropping AK was off the table the next day which = more LLMP.

WAT ($200 pp) and the Processional dining package (70x4) are the next biggest investments that I can cancel.

My family’s tickets will include a water park day (not the free day of arrival one) so instead of WAT we could do that on our last day to change things up - although late Nov in central FL has never felt like ‘water park’ to me (my parents lived in st Augustine when I was in college and my last trip to WDW was also Thanksgiving).

WAT was my bucket list item, but…

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Wow 2x more is a tough pill to swallow!

I will say that while I get the idea of why you would use LL at AK, it’s not a super great use of it. Could you forego use of it that day to allow you to use it on an MK or HS day which would get you more bang for that buck? Or, if the timing of your arrival will make your waits at AK unbearable, perhaps since you can’t RD that day you make that the one case in which you do use it?

Also I would not have buyers remorse over MVMCP because that goes up year after year and will reach unaffordable by your personal definition at some point. It already has for me and so I’m glad I experienced it before it hit hat point.

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It’s a CL 8 day at AK.

In retrospect I should have booked Xmas party for Friday night…$10 pp more expensive, but it woukd have allowed an AK rope drop on Wednesday, and a party MK park day.

In years past I thought there were Xmas parties on the Sunday before Thanksgiving so I made that our MK day, but this year it wasn’t the case. I didn’t catch that in time to rework.

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How much does that extrapolate out to over your whole party, and does that work out to be the same as your new LL cost anyway?

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I just completed a survey on my digital experience at AK on Monday (before the increase). There was a lot of follow up on my low LL ratings. I was with two first timers with one park tickets. It is a terrible value these days if you are not hopping.

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I suppose one could argue the definition of “value” and how it may vary from person to person.

On the whole I think you get very little for your money’s worth at AK (my very favorite park!). But, on a very short trip I purchased AK just because I didn’t have time in my short visit to spend waiting in line. In that case, the “value” changed for me from “no way” to “must have”. OP may have a similar value assessment, where purchasing the LL at AK the day after a very late night at MVMCP may have great value in the form of more sleep to enjoy the day

But on the whole I agree and also think it’s a poor “value” at AK

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Of course I happened to be there on a day when FoP was posted 15 minutes at the end of the day.

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I mean you can’t beat that with a LL!

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For me, if I can rope drop, the best value is buying FOP single pass. Then I can rope drop (and not a “first in line” rope drop) Navi, ride EE and then KS without wildly long rides, and then head back to FOP with single pass.

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Yes! We also went back and did the deluxe hours that night. I think that also impacted how I felt about the value for a one ark day.

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This is all good advice - bummer that I am relatively locked into my plans precisely because of the 60 day ADR window and the Xmas party non refundable purchase - hence my real buyers remorse.

There’s not a ton of pivoting i can do. There’s a cost to my choices - and at the end of the day they just aren’t going to be 100% optimized to the two park strategy, resulting in less value.

Its a shame I also wasn’t tracking to the almost double the expected cost of llmps in last 14 months.

Zero chance we will rope drop AK after getting back to room at 1 am.

Zero chance my family will wait in 70-90 min lines.

If I had to do it all over again, I would:

Sat: Keep EP late arrival on day 1

Sun: change to AK rope drop / MK park hop (when I originally made my itinerary I thought Sun was a party day as was in past years and didn’t realize soon enough the oppty it would have opened up from an LLMp maximization perspective). But, by then I had also already coordinated with local family and got a large party ressie for raglan road.

Mon: keep HS rope drop / EP EETPH

Tues: resort day or water park day + meet local family for dinner. No Xmas party!

Wed: add MK rope drop / keep AK EETPH

Thur: keep HS late arrival and Thanksgiving F!

Fri: EP WS and processional. (1st day of festival). Note: this was the other Xmas party alternative night, but if I did Xmas party on Friday then my WS holiday festival day at EP would put me on a Saturday (crazy!) after a 1 am night.

And, if I did party on Wednesday , I’d miss EETPH at AK that night.

Sat: WAT

There were just so many variables, but that’s the challenge with a non refundable purchase (I hate them). It locks you in.

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And thank you!! I am going to let all this pre planning ‘what if’s’ go and just enjoy myself.

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Long shot, but have you asked (call or text - not sure which would be better, or try both) to see if they would let you move the date and pay the difference?

I completely understand the desire to optimize - that’s part of what makes us Liners! I have had to talk myself down from things like “why didn’t I realize Universal was closing early and put it at the front of the trip.”

It will still be a great trip. :slightly_smiling_face:

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Tomorrow is LL purchase day for my upcoming siblings’ trip. I have been going back and forth in my mind about whether or not to purchase, and what. But I hadn’t even looked at the numbers until today. I know I will buy most of what we want because I know we will have a better time (and I will subsidize where I feel it’s necessary). But ouch. Though generally inured to Disney sticker shock, I admit I did catch my breath a little. It’s always extra hard on trips like this where I’m trying to strike a balance across different budgets.

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Yeah - my math has our total for a family of 3 coming out to the price of another ticket, and that is with conservative choices for when to buy it. Ouch. No wonder TS is down. LL os basicaly the same as a mid to nice TS meal.

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Our last visit to Disney was in 2022. Since then the prices for a family have exceeded our retirement budget. We no longer plan on WDW just for that reason. Hawaii, Germany and Ireland were cheaper per person. I have hundreds of WDW photos’ that go back to 1974, they are just memories now.

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I’m sorry. That is one of my fears. We are about 5 years out from retirement. I am contemplating buying DVC to ensure that we would be able to at least afford lodging. I thought I had it all figured out, but inflation( Disney and otherwise) has me doubting my plans

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Even with DVC don’t the dues go up over time? But then again you can always sell too if that gets too much or rent out your points.

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I am in kind of in a different but similar boat. I used LLPP in Disneyland this summer and OMG it was amazing not being on my phone all day; I mean life changing to me cuz I stress out since it’s my job and I’m constantly on my phone looking for drops and moving things around so they work better and we end up walking a literal half marathon according to my phone cuz of all the criss crossing to fit everything in. And with LLMP/LLSP you have to still rope drop to maximize your bang for your buck and with LLPP you can avoid the rope drop crowds. It’s so nice to hop on a skyliner an hour after the park is open for example, literally no frikkin line. So peaceful. So now I’m like I don’t want to go if I can’t afford LLPP and therefore I can’t afford to go very often to WDW if I’m dropping $6K on LLPP for all four parks for the four of us.

And like someone else said about going to Europe, Spain is very very high on my bucket list, etc. so I’m thinking it’s time to take a break after this one and spread those vacation dollars elsewhere.

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I think that one advantage of DVC is that you don’t need to do everything, every day. Last week I brought some 1st timers and I bought LLs and we spent hours running from one attraction to another. But with DVC I often won’t buy LLs. I will rope drop and do deluxe hours but spend peak times watching shows, watching park entertainment, or returning to the resort.

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