Even Disney Is Worried About the High Cost of a Disney Vacation

[wabbott]

Side bar, if anyone has been watching earnings it has not been great. Typically the bellwether for travel is airlines and it aint looking great for the rest of the year (at least for american airlines). That said i would not be surprised to see Disney hammering promos for the fall as my guess is there has probably been a decent pull back/ cancellations on vacations with all the uncertainty. My initial thought was that this was going to primarily hurt the foreign marketplace, but it seems to quickly be turning to the US

https://www.investopedia.com/a-very-rapid-drop-in-domestic-demand-is-hitting-airlines-11721279

A 'Very Rapid' Drop In Domestic Demand Is Hitting Airlines
By Sarina Trangle
Published April 24, 2025 - 02:28 PM EDT

• Southwest, American and Alaska were the latest airlines to express caution about the rest of the year, pulling their outlooks for 2025 and beyond amid flagging demand for domestic flights.
• Domestic sales have stalled as consumers grow uneasy about tariffs, according to executives such as Southwest CEO Bob Jordan, who called the drop-off one of the worst he's seen.
• International and premium tickets, more often purchased by the affluent, have performed better, executives said.

 

[LAS2AMS]

Side bar, if anyone has been watching earnings it has not been great. Typically the bellwether for travel is airlines and it aint looking great for the rest of the year (at least for american airlines). That said i would not be surprised to see Disney hammering promos for the fall as my guess is there has probably been a decent pull back/ cancellations on vacations with all the uncertainty. My initial thought was that this was going to primarily hurt the foreign marketplace, but it seems to quickly be turning to the US

It’s a tale of two economies. Demand for premium experiences is as strong as ever. It’s the low end of the market that’s hurting status quo. Of course, with tariffs/ etc, this could rapidly change.

Disney doesn’t market to the low end, so as things are now, it’s not going to have much of an impact. What will have an impact is the decline in international travel to the USA. So far it’s had minimal impact, but many outlets are projecting that will change as the year goes on. We will see.

 

[Miffy]

The D+ discount for June/July on a savanna-view room at AKL is astonishlngly steep: $336. I mean, that's less than half the rack rate ($738/night is the cheapest rack rate during the D+ promotional period). So, Disney is hurting somewhere, even at the high end.

 

[Minnie1222]

Many places will feel the pain this summer and next year, including Disney.

 

[Aluminum Falcon]

It’s a tale of two economies. Demand for premium experiences is as strong as ever. It’s the low end of the market that’s hurting status quo. Of course, with tariffs/ etc, this could rapidly change.

Disney doesn’t market to the low end, so as things are now, it’s not going to have much of an impact. What will have an impact is the decline in international travel to the USA. So far it’s had minimal impact, but many outlets are projecting that will change as the year goes on. We will see.

I don’t think that Disney markets to the low end, but they aren’t marketing to what I would call affluent either. I think they broadly market to the middle class, and the middle class is almost always in lock step with the “low end”. The affluent are more capable of dealing with pricing without feeling it.

That said I do think the middle class marketplace is going to retract, and typically the first place they pull is from “luxuries” ie expensive vacations

 

[Cfabar1]

There's a reason why Annual Pass discounts this year are being targeted to restaurants that offer character dining and are inside moderate resorts.... Tells you where the pressure/weakness is.

And I think for many families $336 per night is still a relatively expensive amount to spend for a vacation for a hotel room each night.