The cost of living is obviously spiraling up. Food, gas, insurance. The essentials. But it's the price of things above and beyond the daily — things we might call "fun" or "experiential" — that has become untenable, making it difficult for average people to afford. Here's the depressing headline from a piece in the NY Times:
"Families Are Going Into Debt for Disney Vacations"
I get it — we want the best for our kids. And we have FOMO. And YOLO. But IMHO this is just crazy:
…when their son, Lincoln, was born in 2020, Ms. Leach wanted his first visit to the park to be special and spared no expense in planning it. She booked a two-week trip to visit Florida in December 2022, which included stays at Disney World and Universal Studios.
The kid was only two years old? What kind of memories does a two-year-old make? This is not computing for me.
The costs quickly accumulated. Ms. Leach and her family traveled from New Haven, Conn., and paid extra for admission to "Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party," an after-hours event that cost about $200 per person. She also shelled out $100 for the theme park's photo service so she could download photos of the family that photographers took during the visit.
The vacation cost around $6,000, which included accommodations, tickets and a car rental, and which Ms. Leach charged to her Disney-branded credit card.
Ms. Leach is one of many parents who have taken on debt for a Disney family vacation. In June, LendingTree… published the results of a survey of over 2,000 people that found that 45 percent of parents with children under 18 who have gone to Disney went into debt for the trip.
I'm a huge believer that it's far better to use our resources for life experiences over buying crap. But 45% are going into debt just to pay for a visit to Disney? Our post-capitalist moment has caused people to have to make crazy, untenable choices.
It's everywhere — hotels, airfare, restaurants, Broadway. Great seats at a hot concert used to be at most a few hundred dollars. I saw Lou Reed at The Bottom Line a bazillion years ago, and the whole night was memorably special. But those tickets cost me, a student, just $22 for standing-room. StubHub lists a floor seat for the Taylor Swift concert in Vancouver at $5,000! One seat! Obviously, I understand this money isn't going to TS, but that's irrelevant to the person buying the ticket. It's still $5k! Who can afford this stuff?
I guess I'm really just asking: is any of this worth it? Is the memory of a journey through Mr. Toad's Wild Ride and a hug from Belle quantifiably that many times better than an unbranded memory like canoeing on a lake somewhere?
Are we all just being sold a bill of goods by advertisers and social media? Can we "make memories" at a cabin in the woods or is Disney worth the extra cost?
Previously:
• Opening day Disneyland compared to today
• Disneyland's bizarre House of the Future, of the past
• Disneyland's un-gangs
• My father rates Disneyland's most hyped cookie: The Harbor Galley Chocolate Chip
• I went to Tokyo Disneyland Cosplay Day and it was spectacular
• Woman dies from allergic reaction at Disneyland, but Disney says husband can't sue because he used Disney+ three years earlier
