Okay, so we’ve had conversations ad nauseum about how Disney is nickel and diming everyone to death.
But on Screamscape, there was an interesting “commentary” about Las Vegas that got me thinking about how it might apply to Disney in the not-so-distant future.
Now, admittedly, I’ve been to (well, through) Las Vegas exactly once in my life when I was around 10, so I can’t speak to any experiences there. But the article talks about the decline of attendance at Las Vegas and failures of new shows because the costs have gone up so much that people just don’t see it as a place to go any longer.
There might be other dynamics at play. But if it can happen to a place like Las Vegas, it seems like it could happen to Disney. Time will only tell…but I do wonder if the writing is on the wall.
For me, Las Vegas is a non-issue. I can’t take my kids there on vacation. Well, maybe I can, but then I can’t do what they are famous for, not that gambling is a big draw for me anyway. Sure, there are shows, but they’re in the evenings. What can I do with the kids in the afternoon? It’s not a family destination.
Disney remains the easy family destination. Sure, it’s expensive, but we keep going back, partly because DH can’t think of any place else to go that has so much to keep you occupied for the entire time. You can do 7-10 days and have something to do (either in or out of the parks) every day. There’s no “what should we see today?” and trying to figure out if another cheesy wax museum is worth the cost of entry or the best way to get from your hotel to the museum or (yet another) historical church.
I wasn’t suggesting Las Vegas is, or ever was, an alternative family location. It was the “adult” version of Disney in many ways and grew into a place that is a sight to behold even if just along the main strip. (Or, so I’ve been told by those who enjoy going there.)
But considering that Las Vegas used to draw in huge annual crowds enough to lead to such huge growth in “spectacles”, but now is struggling to fill rooms because it is no longer affordable, I just wondered if the same might eventually happen to Disney. Discussions on this point have been theoretical in nature…but if Las Vegas can be used as a lesson learned, I’m wondering if any lessons will actually be learned.
I know Disney isn’t there yet. But costs at Disney have been rising at an accelerated rate in recent years.
I like that analogy. The one difference is that hotel deals can sometimes be pretty dang good. I get offers all the time to stay at Wynn or Encore for as little as $139 during the week and $199 on a weekend. As nice as Disney Deluxe hotels are, these hotels are nicer.
My wife is a huge Celine Dion fan. We saw her in Vegas about 11 years ago. I thought about taking my wife there for a weekend to catch her as I believe this is her last season. The cheapest tickets I could find were $400+ each for a Wednesday night performance. Going on a Friday or Saturday night was going to be $700-800 each. I tried to remember what our tickets cost 10 years ago, and knowing my wife, I can’t imagine they were more than $150 each.
Needless to say, we aren’t going. Neither of us is a big gambler, so that doesn’t have any allure for us. Airfare and hotels were reasonable, but man those tickets were outrageous!
It’s funny because my wife is not a big Disney/Universal fan. She doesn’t see why I want to go every year. She thinks it is expensive. Then, I price trips like that to Vegas or I looked at a trip to Hawaii next year, and Disney doesn’t seem that expensive. I just have refrained from saying “I told ya so!”
I guess I don’t really understand all the complaining about Disney prices. Sure prices have been on the rise, but Disney has also been investing in their parks a ton—Pandora, TSL, SWGE…
My uncle used to live in LV and I enjoyed visiting back in late 90’s. We drove through there this past summer and it has changed so much. Where it used to have a lot of free space in front of those giant mega-hotels, now every last last iota of land has been over developed.
I would have imagined that supply outpaced demand and costs were lower. Who knew?!
For Vegas, i would think they take a hit from online gambling becoming bigger and bigger. Disney has competition, but it’s from other vacation spots that I’m sure are also pushing prices up as fast as they can get away with.
Yes. That’s kind of my point of the comparison, though. Las Vegas grew dramatically, as well. Tons of investments, including shows involving sinking ships, giant pyramids, coasters 1000 ft up, etc.
And now, despite all that, it is starting to struggle.
I love Vegas and have been a few times (my husband and I actually got married there ) My 2 cents is that there is a huge swing in cost as to how “you do” Vegas. You can have fun walking around and be a part of the excitement in the casinos for FREE. Then you can choose to play penny slots for an hour and get free drinks from the cocktail waitresses and only spend about $20. Your expenses are your hotel and flight. After that you choose if you want to spend very little or a lot. I guess my point is, you can’t do Disney without a huge expense. You can’t walk around the parks and just enjoy the sights for free. You can stay in a cheaper room and not do extra activities, but you still have to pay for park tickets NO. MATTER. WHAT.
The advantage Disney has over LV is that it is literally a part of people’s everyday life. People go to Vegas and have fun while they are there but once they return to the real world, Vegas is pretty much sidelined. Me, my wife, and kids experience Disney literally every single day. Whether it be Mickey Mouse Clubhouse in the morning, Disney Junior shows after school, catching the latest Disney/Pixar movie in the theater, or just asking Alexa to play some Disney songs. And it is this constant connection to Disney that will always drive people to make the pilgrimage “home”.
I’ve been wondering that for awhile, where the tipping point is in the cost/benefit analysis. And I’ve even wondered what keeps people going back at times where crowds are insane (holidays etc) I find it interesting people still willingly go when crowds are crazy and wait times are 3+hours. You would think at some point wether it’s crowds or cost people would just stay away…Instead Disney seems to introduce increasingly more costly and frequent hard ticket extra cost events (early morning magic, Disney after hours, Christmas party etc) and crowds seem to still increase. It’s an interesting phenomenon.
You can’t blame Disney for rising costs, as they continue to make major investments to parks and properties. It’s sad that it’s becoming out of reach for many, but I’m sure it’s always been an extreme luxury for some.
I haven’t been since 2009 and 2012, and we are going in November. It’ll be interesting to see how this trip compares to the previous ones as all I read about now is how “there are no more off seasons, just varying degrees of busy” i am looking forward to the post trip evaluation to see if we think it’s “worth” it. Buts hard to envision a time where they price themselves out of the market when folks book 499 days in advance and get up at 6 to book dining 180 days in advance etc etc. This is kinda a ranking post so I’ll end it now !!!
Ryan the problem with Las Vegas is 20-30 years ago you had 2 choices Las Vegas/Nevada, or Atlantic City NJ. Now I really can’t speak on LV but being from NJ AC is really taking a hit because now they have casinos every where. NY, Conn, Penn, Delaware, all have casinos and why should these people now drive 1-3 hours to AC. But what was the finale nail in the coffin was allowing online gambling in NJ. We lost several casinos in the last 5 years. So if we had 5 more Disney type and equal parks open in the US it would draw from DW and DL. In my opinion no other places compare to Disney, yes Universal comes close but falls short of the park for everyone. If it was not for Harry Potter I would have no desire to go to Universal and with the fact that they are not “fluffy friendly” I am not able to ride that much maybe 20-30% were Disney I can ride 85-90%.
Using your example, though, none of the casinos going in around the country are anything CLOSE to Las Vegas. As Las Vegas is to Disney, then the proliferation of casinos elsewhere is to places like Silver Dollar City, Six Flags, Dollywood, Cedar Fair parks, etc. They offer the thrills and SOME theming in the same way a casino in downtown Detroit offers just a “small taste” of gambling in Las Vegas.
In the Philadelphia area alone there are now 5 casinos. The 2 casinos around Conn. are close to the ones in AC. So lets say that Fl and GA open 5 universal quality parks it would not kill Disney but It would impact them. Then you would also be able to experience your favorite Disney rides at home (lets just say) It would them impact them greatly. Oh and also add that you stop up grading the park as much as they do. Its not like they keep creating new casino games every year, yes they change slot machines and create new themes but they are the same machines just different pictures but you can get them at home now too. Or you could look at it this way how much busier Disney would be if all these other theme parks did not exist.
Agree. But at some point, if they keep taking perks away from onsite guests, what’s the point of staying onsite other than convenience, especially when you can get a much cheaper room offsite
) My 2 cents is that there is a huge swing in cost as to how “you do” Vegas. You can have fun walking around and be a part of the excitement in the casinos for FREE. Then you can choose to play penny slots for an hour and get free drinks from the cocktail waitresses and only spend about $20. Your expenses are your hotel and flight. After that you choose if you want to spend very little or a lot. I guess my point is, you can’t do Disney without a huge expense. You can’t walk around the parks and just enjoy the sights for free. You can stay in a cheaper room and not do extra activities, but you still have to pay for park tickets NO. MATTER. WHAT.