The Cost of Magic
In a comment posted in yesterday’s Happy Birthday, Disneyland! entry, Bottom Feeder bemoaned the hateful admission prices at Disneyland. And understandably so: the Happiest Homecoming on Earth is out of reach for many, many families due to the investment required to walk through the portals of Main Street, U.S.A.
It was always Walt’s intention that DL would be a place where a family can enjoy a day of fun (and learning - gasp!) together, and still go home at the end of the day with money in Father’s pocket. Walt wasn’t out to fleece anyone. Of course, there have been others managing the parks since Walt left us, and that’s when you see the admission prices increasing at greater rates.
There is one thing to consider — which I have to keep reminding myself as well when I pine to go to the park and can’t afford it, which is often — and that’s the price of entertainment-per-hour:
Today, Disneyland is open from 8:00am to 12 Midnight, so you have 16 hours to enjoy the park. The price for a non-discounted, one-day adult admission is $56.00. That simplifies to $3.50 per hour.
Now consider other forms of entertainment:
- Movie theater — general admission tends to average around $9.50 for a movie that tends to average under two hours in length (unless you count previews and commercials) - Hourly Cost: appx. $4.25. And here’s a question: how many movies have you gone to that have brought about long-lasting fond memories of quality fun time spent with your family?
- Tickets for a decent seat (not great; not nosebleed) at a major leage ball game range from about $27 - $45. Taking the averaged price of $36 and supposing a game lasts 3.5 hours, the hourly cost there is $10.28 per hour.
- Tickets to a concert can easily cost $80 - $150 - $400 for a two to three hour show. Let’s use $175 for a 2.5 hour show, and we get the resulting cost of $70 per hour. Talk about expensive!
Sure, I can take my kids to the duck pond and for the price of some slices of bread, we can have a good time for a solid hour. And it’s also true that a good many of the $3.50 hours in DL are spent waiting in lines, particularly during summer. It comes down to what you’re willing to spend for your entertainment experience.
Another way to view the cost of your entertainment dollars at DL is to count how many rides/attractions you enjoyed, and divide the ticket price by that number, and see what you spent per ride. This, however, doesn’t take into account any ambient enjoyment such as the scenery, music, atmosphere of fun, etc. And when doing this kind of computation, you’d need to include any street performers you enjoy and fireworks in the sky and anything that you receive as a benefit of your ticket price.
Geez, it almost sounds like I’m working for Disney’s P.R., defending their prices. I’m not!
And while I agree that the entrance fee is pretty steep and makes it very difficult for families to visit the park, I can also see that it all depends on how we want to spend our entertainment dollars. It also helps to make souvenir purchases before going to the park. Buying Disney related T-shirts and tschatchkis from discount stores and outlets bring the magic to the kids for a MUCH lower price. I always do this, and present the items to the kids when we arrive at the park, and tell them that Mickey and the gang are so glad they’re coming to the park today, that they wanted to welcome them with special gifts. That seriously cuts down on in-park souvenirs. Of course, my kids are 5 and 3…
What entertainment experiences are important enough for you to splurge on?
July 18th, 2005 at 1:08 pm
We save for a year in between to go to Disney. We leave this Saturday. We have a time share there that we go to for 700 a week. (1200 square foot, two bedroom condo) Disney is our guilty pleasure. Yes it’s horribly expensive but oh so enjoyable. We rent it out every other year to friends and family for 700 every other year.
We splurge because for us (with hubby traveling constantly) we need a place to totally get away and focus on each other.
Another splurge is once in a while the Ice Capades. Talk about expensive. One show at the Capades is the same price as a day at Disney.
I generally give the kiddos 20 dollars a piece to spend on whatever they want. They also save whatever they want to bring from their small allowance.
Thomas the Train is in town in September. I will not be getting tickets because #1 they are sold out and #2 they are 60.00 a person. Again more than Disney. We can play with Thomas in the basement on the track!
This year will be an Ice Capadeless year because we are going to Disney!
July 18th, 2005 at 8:12 pm
We have no Disney here. At all. We have to add on the cost of airfares to the admission prices. *sigh* Time to move maybe?
July 18th, 2005 at 8:25 pm
Daffy, are you aware of the rumors of a new Disney park…in Australia? Keep your ears open!
July 18th, 2005 at 8:57 pm
Nowadays, we don’t splurge because we have nothing to plurge with. But before, when I was teaching full-time, we used to splurge on live Broadway tour shows; my kids memorized a complete show every summer. They still love live shows, for which I am grateful, for “Not going to the theatre is like making one’s toilet without a mirror.” I wish we could go but it’s out of the question now. Sigh. Hard times, and harder times ahead.
July 18th, 2005 at 9:53 pm
That’s a good way to look at it - - divide the bulk price by segments of entertainment to arrive at a “per-enjoyment” price… I tried that with a few items in my kitchen… there are about 12 slices of bologna in an Oscar Meyer package… the package costs about $1.00. There are about 24 slices of bread in the new loaf in my cubpoard - and the loaf was about $2.00. That means one slice of bread is about .08 as is one slice of bologna. So, if I were to make a yummy sandwich of 2 slices of bread and 2 slabs of bologna (did I say yummy?) and not put any mustard or mayo on it, that would cost me about 32 cents! That same sandwich at the deli would cost about 5.00. So then I have to ask myself, is what I get from that deli - the atmosphere, the cumfy seats, the nice laminated table - all of that - is that worth the extra $4.68 I will pay?
And how about the price of happiness? Do we divide happy moments into the sad moments of life and then see if we get pie?
Okay, it’s late.
And I want pie.
July 18th, 2005 at 10:52 pm
You know, I never thought of breaking it down like that. You make a good point. Being here in Wyoming, we don’t make it to Disney often, and have made the decision that we don’t want to take our kids quite yet - we’d like them to be a little older so they can remember the whole experience. When Bubblehead and I lived in Georgia, we made several trips to the Magic Kingdom - love it there!
July 19th, 2005 at 6:15 am
I haven’t been to Disney since I was 10. I’m actually wanting to go more to Universal Studios and visit Nickelodeon studios more than Disney. I’m glad you mentioned the souvenirs. That definitely adds to the cost. What about food? Do they allow you to bring in your own food? I know at the 6 flags here in Georgia they have picnic tables available. My mom would always make fried chicken or sandwiches and we’d have a picnic during a six flags trip. Since we don’t live near Orlando we would have to drive, so the cost of gas for the trip, plus wear and tear on our vehicle would also have to be added, as well as a hotel to stay in for the time. At least we do live close to enough to drive instead of fly. I just can’t get very excited over going to a theme park to deal with the crowds, the lines and the prices. The last time I went to Six Flags we attended a concert and spent the entire day. Due to the lines we went on 3 rides. One line was over 2 hours long. I heard that Florida residents get discounts to Disney. Is that true?
I do splurge on movies. We’ll see a lot of movies first run. A few others we wait and and go to the dollar theater. We do see a lot of movies.
July 19th, 2005 at 6:27 am
Well, you know my obsession with Disney… And we bought into DVC so that now our trips only cost airfare (or gas, now that we live in NoCal) and tickets. It’s worth it for us.
July 19th, 2005 at 7:27 am
We Southern California residents get a discount to get into DL, but I think that promo is on hold during the summer.
July 19th, 2005 at 8:11 am
FL residents get discounts on passes, but not tickets. I cannot wait to live close enough again to have an annual pass.
July 19th, 2005 at 3:11 pm
Well, we Florida residents might as well get discounts on tickets. The cheapest discount item is a 3-day pass for the price of a 2-day. So, while there is no discount on a single day ticket, if you are looking at purchasing even a two day pass, there are advantages.
Of course, for the price of four of those 3-for-2 passes you can get an annual pass. Can you guess what my wife and I purchased? You betcha! Living four hours away from the parks certainly helps.
July 19th, 2005 at 5:16 pm
Great way to look at it. Its an expensive day but something about Walt’s magic that supersedes anything else — at least so far in my kids’ lives. We saw Sesame Street Live with just Maggie (pre-Patrick) and it cost $150 just for the 3 of us to get in for about a 90 minute show. She enjoyed but does not remember it now. But ask her what ride she went on at DL and she can recite them off and then tell you about meeting Cinderella. Our last trip to DL came just after I lost my job but we had already bought the tickets. As far as crowds, we never go in the summer or on the weekend. Too hot and too crowded. DL during the off season times or middle of the week is sooo much better.
July 19th, 2005 at 11:21 pm
I’m the wrong person to ask. We buy food at Aldi’s and Tops (local stores - not huge chains). We don’t have a SuperWalFart store.
I see movies 2nd run (barely out of first run, though) for $3 a pop (ok, tack on that 75ยข toll I have to pay to get there) and a super huge popcorn is $3. It feeds all four of us.
Oh, and toss in the free Netflix trial, the $5 a season swimming lessons, $10 for two years rec pass and free bug hunts in the back yard. LOL!
July 20th, 2005 at 3:52 pm
Our endurance at DisneyLand/World is about 7 hours a day. Less, and your ratio of time-in-line to time-at-fun is too high; more, and the little dwarfs change from Sleepy-Sneezy-Dopey-Doc-Happy-and-Bashful to Grumpy-Grumpy-Grumpy. That means my ticket costs $8/hour, and it includes time spent eating, in the bathroom, walking around, and of course waiting. Once every couple of years is worth it. Frequently? No thanks.
Glacier National Park, when camping, is a real bargain in comparison. Please see my blog.
-Greg
July 24th, 2005 at 1:09 pm
Been to Disneyland about 15 - 20 times over the last 40 years (first went in 1964). I remember how every time a new major attraction would come out, we would plan another trip to the park. In the 60’s it was about $3-4 a ticket book (10-12 mix of rides) and just about $10 for the same number right before the change to all day passes in the early 80’s. I bet the math comparing it to other types of entertainment (then and now) is probably about the same — but the 40 years of memories of planning, antiicipating, going, and reminiscing about the trips is priceless …
July 25th, 2005 at 6:56 am
Disney is really expensive but I’m always glad when we go.