I’m curious, how are things different now? I want to say that my question is, in no way, meant to be snarky….sometimes it’s hard to read tone in posts. I don’t know what it’s like to be 25 in 2021 but I know what it is like to worry about finances. I don’t think that I’m out of touch but I am in a different situation than when I was younger. I guess that people who started out without much money and eventually established some level of financial security don’t like being treated as if we are out of touch.
Like salf777 my family grew into being able to afford Disney but that came with sacrifice. I know what it’s like to worry about bills. However, we made some really tough choices. The truth is that we didn’t enjoy worrying about bills and we did everything that we could to get out of that situation. Now, like salf777, we can go to Disney and not worry about the cost but it took years of sacrifice to get to this point.
One thing that I wonder about is whether or not people in situations like ours will choose to afford Disney. I’m usually fairly frugal, that comes from childhood poverty, and I don’t like to pay more than I think something is worth. If Disney was charging me 40 percent more and I was getting 40 percent more then I’d be happy to pay it. Right now they are charging more and giving less and I am not sure if my family will choose to go or not. Like I said before we are frugal but Disney was the exception because it truly felt magical.
Here is one example, a few years ago you could get a fast pass for fireworks viewing. Today, to get the same benefit, for my family of three it’s about $300 for a dessert party to view the fireworks in the same area that use to be free. I’ve been to those dessert parties….IMO they aren’t that special. They have bunches of small desserts and cheap beer/wine. There is always some jerk that tries to push their way in front of us. To me it’s not worth it and I won’t pay it but, if I’m being honest, I’m super annoyed that they’ve made this change. They could have asked me to pay for new things and I wouldn’t have minded but charging for things that used to be free is a different story. I know that someone will point out that the dessert parties were never free and that’s true but now the fireworks viewing is only available if you pay for the party. That wasn’t the case a few years ago.