"Everyone is a VIP" used to be Disney's motto, with prices at its Disney World park in Florida set to cater to middle America for much of its 50-year-plus history. "The family that pulled up in a new Cadillac stood in the same lines, ate the same food, and rode the same rides as the family that arrived in a used Chevy," Daniel Currell writes for the New York Times, noting those days are now long gone—and that it's the affluent who are now the company's target market, pricing many other tourists out of a visit. Currell writes that prices started to creep up during the '90s, but it was after the pandemic when costs at Disney really started to spiral into another socioeconomic stratosphere, with those who could afford it even paying extra to skip the line on rides—a Lightning Lane Premier Pass can now cost up to $400 daily, on top of park tickets themselves, which can run more than $180 per person per day in peak times.
Much of the pricing shifts came about as a result of Disney's own app, introduced in 2012, which gave patrons the ability to book reservations for restaurants and events and check ride wait times. The app also offered valuable data to Disney on where in its parks customers were spending money, and how much—which in turn led to a new focus on those open-walleted customers with cash to burn. "Disney positions itself as the all-American vacation," says Disney aficionado Len Testa. "The irony is that most Americans can't afford it." Scarlett Cressel, who recently visited Disney World for the week and paid $8,000 for the honors (two adults, three kids), shrugs and says, "All magic has its price." Disney, for its part, says in a statement that it strives to make its parks accessible "to as many families as possible." More here.
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