Why do poor people spend so much money going to Disney World?

Your kids don't need a vacation. Their entire life has been a vacation. You wait on them. You cook for them. They play all day. You drive them around. You do their laundry. Exactly what do they need a vacation for?

I've lived within 10 miles of Disneyland for the past 6 years and I avoid the place like the plaque. Hundreds of hours to wait in hours of lines, no thanks.

I do agree with the kids thing. For kids there is something about Disneyland and World that is special and I can understand taking kids during an off time of year. But with how much they charge people really do spend money they shouldn't there.

Dumbest person ever wrote:

poor people be crazy wrote:

For the money my brother's family just spent on their Disney vacation, my wife and I could have spent a week in Europe or had a really extravagant NYC vacation. Yet they act like European vacations are pretentious while Disney is the every-man destination.

How can you judge someone’s vacation? For instance, NYC or Europe for a week are incredibly boring to me and I consider that an absolute waste of money.

So, what do you think of that? You be poor for taking poor person vacations. NYC and Europe are for poor college students.

so NYC and Europe are boring to you. what, as an adult vacation, would you choose?

really....

i enjoy both NYC and Europe. as well as long backpacking trips, a ski trip or two, love some time on a quiet lake.

but disney is FAR from fun for any adult. ray moore excluded of course.

My parents never took my sister and I to Disney World, but we have been to Ireland, Spain, France, Bermuda and a bunch of different spots in the USA. My wife and I have already agreed we will never take our daughter to Disney World. Seems like such a collosal waste of money.

I have never been to Disney, but this could go for any theme park. It's a bunch of NFL jersey wearing zoo animals with 3 foot red Mohawks and cannonballs shot through their ears. Do not understand the appeal

what do you choose wrote:

Dumbest person ever wrote:

How can you judge someone’s vacation? For instance, NYC or Europe for a week are incredibly boring to me and I consider that an absolute waste of money.

So, what do you think of that? You be poor for taking poor person vacations. NYC and Europe are for poor college students.

so NYC and Europe are boring to you. what, as an adult vacation, would you choose?

really....

i enjoy both NYC and Europe. as well as long backpacking trips, a ski trip or two, love some time on a quiet lake.

but disney is FAR from fun for any adult. ray moore excluded of course.

Can't believe it took this long for a Roy Moore reference to come up. Guess it's old news now.

Because Disney has been so effective at targeting consumerist propaganda at children and creating a fantasy-based escape for adults that families of limited means and imagination will eat up what Disney has to offer.

We went there once as a kid, it was the only expensive vacation we ever went on. Everything else was a trip to visit extended family or exploring a historical site near extended family. We could say that we went to Disney World, but I got more from the trips to historical sites. I was a nerd.

I've been going to Disney since 1977. Last trip was in 2015. I'm a bit of a fan.

Upsides of Disney:

1. The immersive theming. You may not like theming but it's hard to argue that Disney's achievement isn't impressive. Many other places have attempted to do what Disney has done. While Universal Orlando gets close sometimes (with the Harry Potter stuff), Disney is still leagues ahead overall.

2. The resorts are diverse, often very nice and uniformly well run. I've stayed at five different ones so far.

3. You can find good food on property. Most of it's honestly not great but some of the restaurants are genuinely good.

4. Disney does things right. The parades are impressive, the add on activities are well organized, the staff is very well trained.

5. Some of the attractions are really great. I go for the classics. Haunted Mansion being my favorite.

Downsides of Disney:

1. It's absurdly expensive. I don't understand how the majority of people are able to afford it. Perhaps they can't. Everything there is priced at a level that's really annoying but not quite absurd enough to completely reject if it's something you want.

2. The good food is also ruinously expensive. The good restaurants are packed and I'd say triple the price they'd be outside of the parks.

3. Any time the kids are out of school, it's packed. People everywhere, sweltering heat, no shade. crying babies. It can be absolutely awful.

4. It's very Disney. The oppressive saccharine sweetness of everything is definitely an acquired taste. If you fight it, you're going to hate it. If you can just accept and turn off your cheese sensors, you might enjoy it.

5. No good roller coasters. Disney really needs a real roller coaster.

I have been once with the children. We will not go back. But people go without any expectations because they just think they are supposed. Especially those that can not really afford it. They go because they think they are entitled - because other people get to go. Another maybe why do poor people go to Vegas. Same reason. Both very expensive - but somehow people think they are can - so they do. And pay for it for the next 12 months.

We be really po midwestern folk so we went to Cedar Point or Kings Island!!

Why is no one calling bullshit on all these people posting about European trips like they are they same price as trip to Disneyland/Disney World?

Dude we don't care about your "brother and his family"

The same reason why many middle-poor class Americans spend way too much on their big screen TVS and their cars. They totally overspend relative to their income on these certain, predictable things.

How expensive is it? Like 500 $ for a four person family?

It's better than people who visit a foreign country and spend the whole time in an all inclusive resort, only venturing outside for guided tours. And don't get me started on cruises.

Sure you did champ wrote:

How is that possible? Do you and your wife work at all or just constantly go on vacation?

Let me elaborate on my prior statement "I've spent over 100 days at Disneyland. Our family even had a season pass for 3 years, although we live in NorCal."

Prior to my kids being born (15 years ago), I spent a total of about 10 days at Disneyland. I spent the other 90+ days over a 15 year period. We spent 60 days there over a 6 year period (10 days/year avg), and the remaining 30 days were over the remaining 9 years (3 days/year avg). So, we never spent more than 10 days a year there. The years that we went for 10 days usually involved 2-3 separate trips that overlapped with 2-3 weekends, so I think we only used about 5 vacation days.

Also, when you get a season pass, it goes from the day and the month you bought it, to the same day and the month of the following year. For example, we usually got the season pass in mid-August the first year, and it was good until mid Aug the next year. This allowed us to go for a week during late Aug. the 1st year, and then another week in early Aug. the next year. Thus, this gave us about 14 days of use on one pass alone. Then we would go again when they were less busy, such as Nov. or Feb. for a 3 day weekend. (Usually one of these trips would be cancelled due to job obligations, kid's sickness, skiing, kid's b-day parties, etc.) Anyhow, we got 20 days of use about of each season pass. When the pass would expire, we'd never renew right away. Instead, we'd wait a year, and then go for a week when we first got the pass, at least a weekend months later, and then another week before the pass expired.

I should explain that when we got the season passes, it was only about $250/person. However, they slowly started jacking their prices (I think it's $650/person now), so we stopped getting them, and opted for just a 3-day pass once a year instead.

So, in summary, I went for about 10 days before having kids, a total of 60 days when we had the 3 season passes, and for just a 3-day weekend over the other 10 or so years. We probably only took about 5 vacation days per year when we went the most, so this only used up about half our vacation days.

Anyhow, I think Disney jacked their prices, because they were not making much money off of us. We'd fill the baby jogger with sandwiches, gatorade, and Welch grace juice bottles that looked suspiciously like red wine :)

cano wrote:

We've already been to Disneyland and Disney World. Our next trip will be Euro Disney.

Took my kids to Chuck E. Cheese when I had vacation. They sell beers and we got to watch a coupla ghetto queens shout obscenities and beat on each other. My boys loved it.

Idea of the day: they should have some kind of wrestling theme park.

Because if you go to Disney and post pics on FB you’re not poor.

It’s an investment

My husband and I took each kid once to Disney World. The first time was tacked onto a conference my husband attended and the second was after a gymnastics meet in Orlando. I think we spent four days total, which was plenty. They seemed to have a good time (I found it painful) but they never asked to go again.