It’s not a stretch to say that Disney World and Disneyland are the Buckingham Palace and Taj Mahal, respectively, of the theme park world.
But, unlike their royal architectural cousins, the Disney parks are not content with solely providing visitors with a memorable experience. For Disney, it’s all about the almighty dollar.
I believe Disney World and Disneyland are two of the biggest rip-offs in entertainment history. And, now they’re taking their royal scam to a new, and even more, obscene level.
Starting today, the two parks will begin offering tiered pricing during peak seasons. Talk about pouring salt on the wound!
Were one to select Disney’s new platinum level, for example, it would cost $125 per person to just get into the damn park. Multiply that number for a family of four and The Magic Kingdom will cost the Smith, Jones or Palmer families a cool $500 per day.
But, where Disney has truly excelled is in their a la carte pricing.
Snacking at one of their in-house, fast food joints will easily cost that same family of four a C-note or more. And, if the horrific weather that envelopes Orlando in particular should suddenly produce a torrential downpour, Disney is all set to sell you Mickey, Minnie and Donald rain slickers for a cool $45 a pop.
Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton have completely missed the mark in limiting their attacks solely on Big Pharma and Wall Street. They need to attack the Mouse.
The saddest thing about the royal scam is this: countless middle-class families save their earnings for an entire year just to take the kids to one of the theme parks.
And, what does The Magic Kingdom do to show its love and compassion? They continually jack-up their obscenely outrageous costs in order to satisfy Wall Street investors.
I’m hoping that, before the primary season ends, Bernie, Hill and any other politician who claims to despise the one-percenters while advocating on behalf of the disappearing middle class, would call out Disney for their ridiculous pricing.
I wonder if Walt ever imagined that his company would become part of the problem and not the solution?
I’ve boycotted Disney since being badly gouged some 15 years ago (but I have been to both parks multiple times). Perhaps things have changed since then, but I highly doubt it. Once you’re ensnared in The Magic Kingdom, you pay a king’s ransom for anything and everything that’s a la carte.
Hi Hospitality executive. I thought I did address the scam part of the Disney experience. They know they have a captive audience once you’re inside their theme park. Rather than charge reasonable rates for everything from meals to rain slickers, they gouge visitors with exorbitant pricing on anything and everything for sale. Make sense?
Not at all. If that is a scam then so is every event that takes place at a stadium where a hot dog and beer comes with a mortgage application. Or how about a popcorn and soda at the movies costing as much as a Chicken Entree at a nice restaurant? That’s not a scam…thats just business. And FYI, i dont know if you have been to disney lately but their prices on items like popcorn are very reasonable- much lower than a stadium or movie.
Dear Hospitality Executive: Likening Disney to United Airlines is like equating Donald Trump with Abraham Lincoln. Disney knows no limits when it comes to completely ripping off and scamming visitors to their theme parks.
You failed to address the main point- Disney is just like all others in the hospitality industry. And can you expand on how they scam people?
rep- have to strongly disagree with you here. this move is simply along the lines of all others in the hospitality world. whether its your beloved jets now having different tiers for games- who wants to pay the same face value to see the jets/pats as the jets/browns- or hotels charging more for weekends than a tuesday night, or restaurants charging more for new years eve vs march 17th, this is the same thing.
disney is a business, plain and simple. it is also a luxury- plain and simple. no one forces anyone to go and unlike taxes no one forces you to pay. this is actually a smart move from a brand stand point. the jones family of 4 can now choose to go on monday and save 100 bucks or so over a sunday and little steve and mary can now get a light-up mickey mouse as a souvenir. and, for the uberrich family who chooses to bring quentin and alexandra on a sunday, the lines will be shorter thus allowing the uber’s a little more time to dine at the eateries spend more time paying for private vip tours.
if you have an issue with disney then you should have an issue with united charging 200 for a flight to vegas on a random wednesday but 800 on super bowl weekend. oh wait, you already do have issues with united 😉
So if you pack your own PB&J sandwiches to avoid the food courts, do they make you eat them before they let you in? (Laughter responses to idiotic question).
My wife and I have long objected to Disney on several levels including their rampant greed. But we didn’t try to keep my 4-year-old away from “Frozen,” Disney princesses and other girls that go nuts for this. Guess what we’ve got on our hands?
Every year we go to San Diego for Thanksgiving. Until I read this, I thought this might be the right year to bite the bullet, make a little girl happy and take a day trip to Anaheim. But it looks like once again we’ll have to say No and be the most awful people in the world.
P.S. Disney CEO Robert Iger is from my home town. Do you think he’d give us free day passes out of nostalgia?