Saving Time v. Saving Money at Disney World
A valuable lesson we’ve learned when it comes to Walt Disney World is that not everyone is as frugal as us. This has become apparent from traveling with others, and the comments to our article questioning which Walt Disney World upcharge offerings are ‘worth it?’
The response to that article really underscored the point that many Walt Disney World visitors are willing to pay extra to save time. The popularity of events and services like Disney After Hours and the Minnie Vans is all due, in large part, to a desire to save money.
In reality, saving time v. saving money at Walt Disney World is not a dichotomy. Most people fall in the middle of the two extremes. If you’re willing to upgrade to pay a bit of a premium to stay on-site, would consider using Minnie Vans, or have done a dessert party to avoid camping out for a fireworks or parade view…
If you stay off-site at the cheapest hotel, avoid upcharges like the plague, venture off-site for most of your dinners or prepare your own meals, you probably skew towards the ‘saving money’ end of the spectrum.
Conversely, if you always stay on the monorail loop or at an Epcot resort to be closer to the parks, do VIP Tours to beat the crowds, or have done the morning/evening hard ticket after hours events for shorter wait times, you probably skew towards the ‘saving time’ end of the spectrum.
If you ever purchased a Magic Kingdom cabana to save time by not having to go back to your hotel for a midday nap…you’re off the charts in that direction.
I’d like to think the ‘voice’ of this blog is somewhere in the middle of both extremes. Realistically, we probably skew slightly more towards saving money. We do Deluxe Resorts (albeit usually via DVC) for their proximity to the parks, but rarely bother with upcharges. We prepare and eat light breakfasts in our hotel room, but always eat lunch and dinner at Walt Disney World restaurants. You get the idea.
Walt Disney World is offering more and more targeted at demographics with disposable income who are concerned with saving time. Our perspective is that many of these upcharges are aimed at those who have a “fear of missing out” and don’t even do a ton to save time (or enhance the experience, as the case may be). We’ve pushed back against some of these offerings, evaluating them from an objective perspective with normalized Walt Disney World vacation costs as a baseline.
For a consumer-oriented blog like this, some degree of cost-consciousness with a value comparison that takes comparable Walt Disney World experiences into account makes the most sense (at least, that’s what we think). If your perspective of value differs from ours, it’s not too difficult to take that into account when evaluating the offering for yourself.
By contrast, if your approach were that everything Walt Disney World offers is a good value because you have limited vacation time and it’ll save time (so TREAT YO SELF!), that would render all conversations about value meaningless. Everything would be a good value, and therefore, nothing would. There would be no basis for making ‘worth it’ evaluations–unless something is so bad at any cost that it’s a complete waste of your time.
The natural progression of this line of thinking leads to conclusions like the Magic Kingdom cabanas being good because they offered convenience. With all due respect, a conclusion that those cabanas were “good” would require some serious mental gymnastics.
Of course, that’s an extreme position. It was pretty obvious that those cabanas did not pass the smell test, and even those who skew much more towards valuing time over money recognized those cabanas as a total joke.
It’s not so easy with other add-ons. Everything from VIP Tours to the After Hours parties presents similar questions of saving time versus saving money. For some people, saving money is a paramount concern. For others, saving time is a stronger motivator.
There are a number of reasons for both perspectives, from budgets to the prevalence of vacation time to when (if at all) someone anticipates returning to Walt Disney World.
Neither extreme perspective, or the continuum in between, is invalid. Varied perspectives are a big part of why you see so many differing reactions to the upcharges and just as many cop-out “it depends” conclusions on blogs like this one. Unfortunately, it’s difficult to provide a hard and fast ‘rule’ about what is or is not a good value when it comes to the Disney Parks.
When evaluating the value of their time at Walt Disney World, I know others who use a baseline of the per hour cost of going to see a movie. Others compare Walt Disney World to the cost of professional sporting events or Broadway shows. The latter comparisons seem popular–probably because they make it easier for people to justify costly expenditures at Walt Disney World to themselves.
Personally, I don’t believe either provide a meaningful baseline metric. A week-long vacation is not the same as a few hours at an event, and contains quirks beyond just the per-hour cost of a park ticket. I also wouldn’t find comparing the per hour cost of a Walt Disney World vacation to reading a book I’ve checked out from the library, or going hiking in a nearby park (both free).
(Note: these analogies usually come up when comparing the cost of the experiences to justify purchasing a vacation package in the first place. For this post, we’re assuming arguendo that the base cost of a Walt Disney World vacation is ‘worth it’ and are now just trying a method for determining the value of your time on that vacation. To wit, whether time-saving add-ons are worth purchasing given that base cost of the vacation.)
Our approach for determining the value of time on vacation is starting with the average cost of the core components of a Walt Disney World vacation–tickets (or prorated Annual Passes, in our case), airfare, and accommodations–and dividing this by our anticipated number of park hours at Walt Disney World. We don’t include dining (that would be included in calculating the per hour cost of a vacation, but not the per hour value of your time).
For example, if we’re taking a 4-night/4-day trip, our prorated Annual Pass cost might be $100, we might spend $250 RT on airfare, and our hotel cost might be $500 for a total core component cost of $850. On a trip of this duration, we’ll spend about 14 hours in the park per day, or 56 total. This puts the value of in-park time at ~$15 per hour.
Putting this into the context of saving time v. saving money at Walt Disney World, something must cost $15 or less if it will save us an hour of time. Since our time is worth so little, very few of the upcharges pass muster for us.
For most people reading this, we are guessing the per hour value of your time is higher than $15. Perhaps you don’t have Annual Passes so you’re paying more for tickets, or you’re paying more than $125/night for a hotel.
Moreover, just because you land on a particular number for the value of your per hour time when performing this objective calculation does not mean you have to agree with that number. Value is a subjective consideration, and you might feel your time is worth more or less than what that calculation bears out.
As we mentioned above, if your vacation time is more scarce than your money or this is a once-in-a-lifetime trip, you might be inclined to place a higher value on your time. There’s nothing wrong with that–just as there’s nothing wrong with placing a lower value on your time if money is what’s more scarce for you.
We should also underscore the point that this calculation applies to upcharges that are strictly timesavers. Many things cannot be categorized this way. Something like a dessert party, for example, is a hybrid. Even though many people are booking it so they don’t have to camp out for a fireworks view, it also includes desserts (hence the name), so you have to account for the value of those desserts when calculating the value of the time-saving component of the dessert party.
At this point, you might be reading this, shaking your head, and thinking, “HUH?” This is an admittedly abstract concept and perhaps this post does not do the best job of succinctly explaining how to calculate the value of your time at Walt Disney World. It might also sound like such an approach will lead to a ridiculous amount of math.
In reality, we aren’t busting out our calculators and doing the math when evaluating every possible upcharge or add-on at Walt Disney World (or to wherever we’re traveling). Once you’ve done this a few times, it’s pretty easy to develop a rule of thumb or gut-level feeling about what’s worth it and what is not. There’s a good chance you already do this subconsciously on a daily basis, so it really isn’t extra work. It’s just something people tend to avoid when it comes to Disney, as it isn’t a fun way of thinking about vacation. However, we think it’s important to scrutinize the value of those add-ons. If you don’t, it’s possible to justify pretty much any upcharge. That’s how you end up dropping $650 on a glorified FEMA tent in Tomorrowland, asking yourself, where did I go wrong?!
Planning a Walt Disney World trip? Learn about hotels on our Walt Disney World Hotels Reviews page. For where to eat, read our Walt Disney World Restaurant Reviews. To save money on tickets or determine which type to buy, read our Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets post. Our What to Pack for Disney Trips post takes a unique look at clever items to take. For what to do and when to do it, our Walt Disney World Ride Guides will help. For comprehensive advice, the best place to start is our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide for everything you need to know!
Your Thoughts
How do you calculate the value of your time at Walt Disney World…or don’t you? Do you agree or disagree with our framework for determining whether a time-saving upcharge offering is worth the money? Any particular ones that you think are or are not worth it at Walt Disney World? Hearing your feedback about your experiences is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts or questions below in the comments!
Tom,
Your careful analysis and frugal tendencies resonate with me, so I’ve become a faithful reader. Since this article touches on both, I felt compelled to comment.
It’s nearly impossible to identify for others whether the cost of something is “worth it”. Financial analysis to make informed cost benefit decisions are beneficial; however, what I believe you touch on is the microeconomic concept of utility. The cost of perceived or anticipated satisfaction is purely subjective. It’s apparent you strive to provide sufficient information so one can determine whether that experience (or product) would provide them satisfaction worthy of their dollar.
Keep up the good work.
One of my favorite posts you’ve ever done–smart, succinct enough, and showing multiple sides of a complicated issue while still making a clear claim. (Enough to make me comment for the first time ever!)
Funny that you say that. This post has been sitting in my ‘Draft’ folder since late March. Originally, it had a long anecdote about Hawaii and focused a lot more on experiences we had with my parents. That’s also why there are so many references to the since-removed Magic Kingdom cabanas (originally, there was an entire section).
I’m still not totally satisfied with the end result, but I think it balances complexity with succinctness. It’s nice to see a lot of readers are enjoying it! 🙂
The one thing I splurge on a lot to save time is character meals. I would much rather spend more money for food (that I have to eat anyway) and have the characters come to me, than spend time in lines waiting to meet them. We have done every character meal at WDW except 1900 Park Fare dinner. Some we have done many times (our favorites are Garden Grill, Ohana, and Tusker House).
100% this. Thankfully my daughter isn’t really into “characters” anymore unless they happen to be associated with Star Wars, so we aren’t doing any character meals this time around. However, being able to combine a meal with a nice character interaction and not stand in line was worth every penny to us. Our favorite was Tusker House. Also, this was a perk of being a Disney Visa card holder in Epcot and that was nice too.
i am pleased to hear the Epcot Visa event was worth it, i plan on trying it out with my family this December.
When we were at EPCOT, we found out that there are a LOT of Disney Visa card holders out there, and waited about 20 minutes for that meet and greet! Oh well!
We are somewhere in the middle on this. We are definitely fans of a few upcharge items, however I’m not sure our reasons qualify as saving time. The reason we are fans of certain upcharges are definitely not because we are scared that we won’t have enough time to fit everything in. We are annual pass holders who take a couple trips a year. We have done every attraction in each park many times (except for a few which have only been done a few… yes Stitch, I’m looking at you!) There are 2 main factors that lean towards certain upcharge items.
First, we simply don’t like camping out well in advance for shows. It’s not because we are afraid we are missing out on something during this time, its just that we don’t like sitting around in the same place for long periods of time. This makes dinner packages for Fantasmic / ROL automatics for us every time. The fact that they get the best views of the shows (more so for Fantasmic) also makes them more important to us. I totally see why this angers people though, as admittedly we do feel its pretty shady on Disney’s part to require you to pay for a center view of Fantasmic. We usually do one table service meal per day of our trip anyway, so its not a huge difference for us. If this was not the case and we were force to upgrade from counter to table service just for this, I’m sure we would not be too happy about that.
Now that Happily Ever After has replaced Wishes, we have also become fans of the “garden view” fireworks dessert party at Magic Kingdom. This one is not as clear cut at the dinner packages, as its a valid point that you can most definitely get a decent view of the show if you stake out a spot as early as the starting time of the dessert parties. For us though, two things make us in favor of doing the parties. First, we do not show up to the parties, anywhere near the suggested arrival time of 1 hour and 15 minutes prior to showtime. We usually arrive around 20 minutes prior to showtime, spend 15 minutes enjoying desserts and heading out to the viewing area around 15 minutes to showtime. The second reason is just because we prefer a little breathing room while enjoying the show. The hub tends to be packed front to back, shoulder to shoulder, with people pushing even more to cram in last minute before the show starts. Even arriving only 15 minutes before showtime, we have never had a problem getting a good view with lots of personal space in the dessert party viewing area.
I guess neither of these arguments in favor of these specific items are based on this posts value per hour hour calculations. Like I said above, its less about saving time for us, rather personal preference (which I guess means this comment would be more fitting in the “Are Upcharges Worth It” post, rather than this one. I will say however, that for us personally, it would still probably make sense for us based on the math in this article. We do not like getting up early to rope drop when on vacation. Most effective touring plans on various Disney planning sites require you do get a lot done during the first 1 – 2 hours of a parks opening, which we are rarely there for (maybe once or twice in a week long trip). Our days of 14 hours in the park are for the most part behind us. We are probably closer to 8-10 hours a day (1-2 of which the park is closed for). We much prefer the parks in the evening / night so we usually head over mid-afternoon and stay til and 1-2 hours past closing. By doing this, it definitely raises our dollar / hour value.
The last of the upcharge events we were huge fans of was Club Villain at Hollywood Studios last year. I feel this is one case where it is apt to compare to a concert or Broadway show type event, as its essentially paying $100 bucks a person for a 2-1/2 hour event. We had an absolute blast at this dinner theater / dancing event and would gladly pay the money to do it again. We are actually quite disappointing that it has not been announced to be returning this year thus far.
Same views as my family to the “T”.
Excellent, thought-provoking article. Everyone’s comments thus far have also proven equally valuable, as it really drives the point home that every person’s final cost vs. time analysis for their vacation will vary based on what factors are used for that particular trip, including if you have been multiple times rather than “once in a lifetime”.
For me, the travel hacking approach has worked well with Southwest getting RT flights out of New Orleans for ~$180 per person. Then the added ‘welcome to disney’ feeling i get with DME is worth the extra cost of flying vs. driving 10 hours and putting wear and tear on my vehicle .
I will never forget staying at Saratoga Springs when i went to WDW for 1st time in 10 yrs, then did a stay at All-Star Movies just 4 months later: “Value resorts –> never again.” I even had a jinx moment with my DVC sales rep as we said it at the same time! i have since settled down and would go Value again if i take multiple trips in a year. i also appreciate travelers that find off site condos and hotels and can spend about half of what it costs to stay on site. But the inexplicable feeling i get when i am welcomed home at my DVC deluxe villa, with the elegant decor and unique theming and world class amenities. It is something i will never put a price on, and will gladly pay for AND talk up to my friends and family, on behalf of Disney, until the day i die.
On the flip side…upcharges i will never speak highly of are VIP tours and dessert parties. With just a little extra planning, prioritizing attractions and FP+, and JUST A LITTLE time spent scoping out good viewing spots (maybe an hour prior to showtime), both these amenities can be rendered arbitrary. I have been several times to New Orleans Jazz Festisval, watching patrons sit for 12 hours in one spot waiting for prime viewing of their ONE favorite artist, so to me, patience is a virtue that is both highly underused, and very stress relieving!
Thanks again for the article, i look forward to reading more comments and tips from everyone that i can bring to family and friends.
We’ve taken three trips to WDW, each time staying in a slightly nicer tier of hotel and the big difference we noticed was the buses back to the resort got easier with each tier. So one of our cost/value calculations was around not having to wait in line with 3+ buses worth of people at the end of the night. I know you stay in the parks until far later than most but once I’m done at the end of the day I just want to get on a bus and get back to my bed.
Flight prices from the Midwest have probably gone up since you moved out west, at least that has been my experience.
We often take this $$/time mindset. As an example, we typically stay at value resorts and once we visited with some friends who were staying at Poly. We left the MK at the same time and timed it back to our rooms – it took us almost exactly 30 minutes longer to be in our room at Pop than their room on the monorail. At rack rates, we probably paid $300 less per night. $300/(3 people *30 min* 2 trips) = $100/hour so we were happy to take the bus. ( I realize there is a lot more to staying at a deluxe than park proximity, but the other amenities meant less to us.)
The dessert parties strike me as crazy – you still show up 60-90 minutes before the fireworks (when you could stake out a spot on your own) and you eat some food. I think if our family spend $25 at Main Street Bakery or some similar location we would have enough food to all be stuffed.
But other things like paying marked up breakfast prices for a pre-park opening ADR at Be our Guest make sense to us.
Great article. Some of the savings on annual passes is actually an increased total cost. The years without annual passes we might go twice per year. With the annual pass we went 4 times but my wife reached her Disney limit, so it was a bit too much. The per day cost was lower, but reduced the chance we’ll go in the future. (call that Wife Opportunity Cost)
The after hour parties and extra magic hour seem to have a lot more value on a per ride basis. At halloween last year we rode the mine train more in 2 hours than we can do in 4 normal trips. (still dizzy)
We were having the conversation today about how our WDW trips are evolving.
One change for us will be to purchase park to park express transportation. Another arrived in the mail yesterday…Running Buddy pouches to lighten our load and carry our essentials.
I’ve been going to WDW since it opened and find that, as a middle class traveler with a family, time and money was always a motivating force. We have stayed in deluxe and value hotels. Either way, the kids didn’t care, as long as they were at Disney.
For me, time is money. I no longer spend an entire day at a theme park, making it a no-brainer to take advantage of Minnie vans and express transportation. I think both are worth the cost. I also book when it’s less crowded, allowing us to accomplish more.
I’ve read all the well thought out comments here and realize there is no one good way to do Disney anymore. Everything has become highly individualized. You make plans depending on the type of vacation you want and can afford.
I agree with you Tom. My choices are usually made due to frugality and not cheapness. And this is why we were able to squeeze in two trips this year. There’s always a method to my madness.
I think a missing point here is that the value of time being related to the cost of the holiday is in turn related to the size of the group. Some vacation costs are per person (flight travel, park entry, food) while others are predominantly per party (car hire / parking, accommodation) and this is further affected by who is paying for it (group with each paying their share vs. one breadwinner paying). Large groups splitting costs will inevitably have a very low value on their time as they get the best of the per-person and the per-party rules as appropriate; large groups with one person paying (a common scenario at Disney, I suspect) benefit from the per-party costs but lose out on the per-person costs, and small groups or solo travellers are in the middle, benefiting from the per-person costs but not the per-party ones. Of these groups, it therefore stands to reason that the group with the highest value on their time is the “large group one breadwinner” breed, probably the most common visitor type to WDW, which explains the high quantity of upcharge items.
Even considering that group’s greater value on their time, however, it surprises me (as someone who rarely visits with more than one person and who always shares the cost) just how expensive some of these upcharges are. MNNSHP, for example, seems somewhat expensive even on a per-person basis, but multiply that to a per-party cost where only one person is funding the trip, and suddenly some of these facilities start to cost as much as flights or extra room nights.
If I were feeling mean, I’d suggest that the highly regressive nature of per-day costs for multi day tickets as days are added should impact the formula (after all, some (most?) people are not bound by vacation time but by funds for vacations, and it is intentionally made cheap to buy extra time above the perceived minimum needed to experience most of the parks), but I think there are enough variables involved here 🙂
Tom,
I am new to your blog but a fellow Disney veteran who travels in from the midwest, a DVCer and annual pass holder for many years. In economics, the topic of Opportunity Cost somewhat summarizes what you are getting at. What value do we place on what we forgo when we chose a certain opportunity. In light of this, I think one area I may take a bit of issue with is the assumption in your calculation of value at 14hrs in the parks per day. These 14hrs (besides being very high for the average visitor, who would need to adjust this for their scenario) are not the same depending upon when you visit. A day at the parks is different during spring break weeks vs in early November. To me, there is more utility per hour of visit, if November is chosen as the visit time, due to weather, crowds, Food & Wine, etc. Basically, my enjoyment of my time (Economics calls this Utility) is higher when I can do more, move more freely, get into restaurants more readily, etc.
So my first consideration is always WHEN to go. Then where to stay, as well as transportation options. There is a huge tradeoff if you stay outside the parks in terms of time to travel to the parks, traffic frustration, etc. versus the money saved. Obviously, if you stay closer in, you get to the parks more quickly, but pay for it. Contrarily, you can save money by doing a hotel, condo or house rental outside the WDW campus, but you do pay for it in your time and possibly more frustration (speaking from Rt 192 gridlock experience).
Anyway, I wanted to add my thoughts to your very well thought through blog article.
All the best!
John
Excellent points! Absolutely agree with you on the concept of utility, in particular. Your comment creeps towards the extraneous variable of meltdowns, too. If you cut every corner to decrease monetary cost, you inch closer to a possible meltdown, which thereby reduces time in the park and increases per hour cost.
Opportunity cost is something that comes up on the blog from time to time on the topic of discounts. Free Dining, in particular, and the notion that ‘there’s no such thing as a free lunch.’
This particular post was a bit more…dense…during earlier drafts, but wasn’t exactly fun reading. What I’ve presented is incredibly reductionist, but I think it’s an interesting concept, and good jumping off point for people who haven’t thought about time v. money at WDW in this way before.
It’s interesting because it’s really about what’s YOUR individual priority. For our family of 4, (two kids ages 10 and 8), we usually hit DL once every two years. So, for example, the Max Pass upgrade ($10) per ticket per day is worth it to us, especially if we stay off site and only have one early entry day. The ability to make fast passes on our phone (instead of running around like crazy people) AND the $10 per day photos– totally worth it financially and time wise for us.
We also tend to do one show package per trip (usually world of color) because I can’t handle the thought of wasting time waiting for a spot to see a show… We do have our limits though and pick and choose which time-saving items are more important for us. So I like to think middle ground, leaning more towards time-saving being a priority.
My experience with the Express bus park hopping was pretty good. I found that it was easy to find out when the buses were scheduled to go from park to park and that traveling from inside the park to inside the park cut out quite a lot of otherwise unnecessary in some cases. I don;t know if this has changed, but I never once experienced one of these buses with more than 12 people on it and most of the time it was closer to 4 people. The point is that these buses were much more comfortable than your common park-to-resort bus because they were much less crowded. By using this service I actually succeeded in going to all 4 parks, doing an attraction, and eating something each time within four hours. I likely wouldn’t recommend the service for a short stay with less park hopping, but if you’re staying longer and want to be able to hop whenever you feel like it, this service seems ‘worth it’ based on my experience during Spring Break.
I agree 100%. As soon as i saw Express Transportation get introduced, i could tell that Disney was bringing an “option” to the park experience that can serve as a valuable asset to those more experienced vacationers that want to highly customize their day, e.g. 1-2 attractions in each park, and lunch and dinner at different sites. It’s an interesting way to save time while adding variety to the day.
I just figured that I would throw my 2¢ in as well, because for me, despite being very low income and saving up for 3+ years for our upcoming once in a lifetime trip, some of the add-ons are going to be extremely important because I am traveling with a special needs child. Without the dessert party, it is unlikely my daughter can view Happily Ever After. If we don’t do Early Morning Magic, chances are my daughter won’t get to try Peter Pan or 7 Dwarves Mine train, even with the DAS. I am still undecided on Express Transportation, but it is on my radar if necessary. That being said, I appreciate the fact that you go out of your way to try and provide both positives and negatives from different perspectives. I wouldn’t have any ADRs, Fast Passes, or itinerary if not for your blog. I can’t account for how my child will respond to Disney, or what we will actually end up getting to experience, but now I have enough knowledge to understand which upcharges can help make our trip more manageable, and which ones don’t make sense practically or financially.
I hope you and your family have a truly magical trip! 🙂
We are always looking at cost savings vs time. We tend to have a fixed amount of money per year to vacation with, so we try to decide how to spend it. Assuming we are thinking about Annual Passes, we could go once per year and spend 10 days at Wilderness Lodge, or go four times and maybe spend 30 days staying at various cheaper locations.
We also tend to use travel hacking to spread our money even further. If we can get free hotel rooms offsite (via hotel points earned from credit cards), that means we can take the money we would have spent on lodging and take another trip later in the year (using that money for more airfare). If we can get free airplane flights as well, we can just pile all that money into the food costs we would incur.
While we certainly enjoying staying on Disney property for the themeing and time savings, we decided that it is better for us to go more often and stay in the parks longer (no real reason to go back to a Hampton Inn). I suppose we fall on the much cheaper end of the scale when it comes to lodging, but we don’t mind spending that money on dining (California Grill, Yachtsman, Jiko, etc).
Many upcharges aren’t a direct time savings. Seems like Disney changed the equation. Take Fantasmic Dining Reservations. The best views are taken too. So you either pay or not pay and there’s a chance you won’t be able to see it either. Then again, if you don’t want to pay, you need to see the second or third showing.
One of the many reasons I enjoy your blog is that we generally fall around the same place on the money vs time continuum. I also work hard in my vacation planning to find the sweet spot of bang for the buck. Sometimes I’ll pay a little more if the result is a lot nicer than the cheapest option.
For our upcoming Nov trip we’re on a tighter-than-usual budget but didn’t want to feel like we were settling either. We get in late our first night so I had no trouble booking at All-Star (with a discount) for that night. But the rest of the trip I found a good deal on the (under construction) Swan. For a 4-day trip with 2 days at Food & Wine staying on the Boardwalk is a huge timesaver and will feel more like vacation. Sure, we could have spent the whole trip at All-Star and saved a lot more but spending the afternoon at the pool, in between bouts of eating our way around the world, will make our vacation a lot more relaxed and enjoyable.
Absolutely agreed. It’s important to remember that frugal is not the same as being cheap. There are a lot of scenarios where we are willing to spend a lot on a particular experience–but that’s because we think the cost is roughly commensurate with the quality.
Even at double the cost, I’d argue that the Swan & Dolphin are still a better value than the All-Stars.
Absolutely agree with the notion that some Disney upcharges are not worth the losing, unfortunately as much as I enjoy Disney (I really really do, the parks are just one arm of a massive business and it’s ultimate goal is maximum profit).
I think the time v money argument is someone skewed depending on how often you visit the parks and length of stay. As a Brit, and a somewhat mid range income one at that (I can afford to travel for 2 weeks to WDW once per year, if I stay off site, I couldn’t do it if I stayed onsite at a moderate or above). But my stays are short, 15 days in Florida per year and some of those days will absolutely be spent at Universal/Seaworld.
I will eat onsite at Disney everyday I am there approx 10 days and I give no consideration to price in this regard, I’m on holiday.
I have booked this trip for the first time, a dessert party and hard ticket Halloween party. Dessert party is purely a time saving exercise based on Past experience and with happily ever after being a new show I want the best view possible without camping out, I have zero interest in the desserts although I am sure I will eat lots.
One upcharge I really want to do because I think it sounds great is the Kilimanjaro trek at AK but the price tag is just too much when I think is it ‘worth it’. I could afford it but I can’t justify to it myself. If I was a once in a lifetime visitor I would absolutely do it but I as visit WDW annually I console myself that I may justify it to myself ‘next time’.
“I think the time v money argument is someone skewed depending on how often you visit the parks and length of stay.”
Absolutely. We make multiple trips to Walt Disney World per year, so there’s far less of a sense of urgency.
(Even beyond that, most of the stuff we enjoy is not all that popular, so things like the VIP tours to bypass lines are a non-starter for us. There’s never a line at Country Bear Jamboree or Carousel of Progress to begin with!)
Sam, You won’t be sorry about the Halloween party. It is awesome! We are going at Christmas this year, but will absolutely go to the Halloween party again soon. If you arrive early, as Tom suggests and stay to the last, it’s even better than a one day ticket IMHO.
This is a great discussion. Thanks. I don’t travel very often to orlando but when I have checked flights it’s rare for me to see $250 rt. Hotel for $125 a night. I guess I’m looking in the wrong places.
$250 is our average cost from Los Angeles–we tended to pay less when coming from the Midwest. However, we also scheduled our travel around cheaper dates, which is a luxury many don’t have.
$125/night is about what we pay when prorating our DVC purchase price plus annual dues. Alternatively, when we don’t stay via DVC, we generally do Value or Moderate resorts at a discount. Values are usually cheaper than that; Moderates a bit more.
The exact numbers are immaterial–it was more an example of the numbers for us to arrive at a $/hour value of our time. The amount can and will differ for others. 🙂
Totally agree. I live near Dallas and have 2 airports at my disposal. I’ve spent the last week searching for cheap airfare anytime in the next 9 months, and the cheapest flights are around $325 (I can go cheaper on Spirit, but that’s a line I won’t cross). For more crowded times, like anytime next spring, it’s currently over $400. Tom must have the Midas touch with airfare.
“many Walt Disney World visitors are willing to pay extra to save money.”
I believe you mean “to save time”.
Ha, yeah. Thanks.