Quote:
Originally Posted by Kelevision
399 a YEAR includes free parking at any park and 20% off all merch and some food items at all the parks and Disney Springs. How can anyone say that’s expensive?
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When we got our first Disney annual pass six years ago, it was about $260. It was an amazing deal as that was less than going to each of the parks for a single day. Of course, it's only us Florida residents who get that deal and it has gone up by over 50% in that time and will probably go up more before long. So for us who live here and don't stay at a hotel on the grounds, Disney is pretty affordable, especially if you only go for a few hours and don't buy any of their overpriced food or any of their silly merchandise.
For an out-of-state family of four who has to fly in and then pay full fare for parking and entrance, plus meals all day plus hotels (particularly the on-grounds hotels) plus merchandise and probably photo passes and perhaps whatever they're calling the "skip the line" passes these days, it can be extraordinairily expensive to try to do all four of the parks on a family vacation. We're talking the cost of a decent used car. Much of middle class America can't do it any more.
And it's not just Disney. We had our great neice and her fiance stay with us three nights to do two days at Universal. They bought two-park passes for both days to give them flexibility and that cost them nearly $750. They had no hotel bills, ate almost nothing at the parks, bought very little merchandise and it still was expensive for a young couple.
None of these parks are exactly cheap. Well, one is that is still close to my heart. Cedar Point of Sandusky, Ohio is the roller coaster capital of the world and near to my birth state of Michigan. They are offering two days entrance for just $85 each to Michigan residents to get them to make the relatively short drive over. Now THAT is a deal!