WDW Luxury Resort Pricing and December Crowds

Walt Disney World
1

I’ve been taking the family to WDW in the first weeks of December for
years and years. I’ve noticed a weird correlation between the costs
of resorts like The Wilderness Lodge (our favorite Christmas time Resort)
and the crowd levels at the parks.

I don’t understand it.

Back in 2008 we took our first WDW trip - stayed at the Wilderness Lodge for 6 nights
and paid $185 a night for an upgraded BunkBed room. The Crowd levels for the entire
stay only inched above 1 for one day.

Last year we booked the Wilderness Lodge - stayed for 6 nights - paid over $385 a night
for a non upgraded room - and the crowd levels were at 4 and above the entire stay.

What is up with that? Disneyworld costs are becoming prohibitively expensive to stay
on site now - yet the crowd levels are going up and up. Now I know I could move
to a moderate (I had a conference at Coronado Springs - stayed in business class - and it
was ‘okay’) or even a value level (I’ve stayed at Pop Century…it was…not as nice as
a Holiday Inn Express). So am I being unrealistic or do I have a valid observation that
Crowd levels and resort Costs are going way up?

2

That makes perfect sense. The more crowded the parks are the more expensive it will be. It’s supply and demand. If the parks aren’t crowded they will have to lower prices. But if the parks get more crowded they will have to raise prices to meet the demand.

3

Doesn’t it seem illogical to keep raising prices? It would seem like Disney
would hit a Plateau between Room costs and Crowd levels.

4

If people are willing to pay they will keep increasing. And if the crowds keep increasing that means people are willing to pay more. The only way prices will go down is if the parks aren’t crowded.

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5

As many (most?) of the park guests are staying off-site, the prices for the WDW resorts are not that big of a driver of Crowd Levels. WDW sets the prices of the resorts so that they are operating just slightly below room capacity year-round.

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