Affordability, Disneyworld and Main Street USA

Imagineer Yourself

Photo by PAN XIAOZHEN on Unsplash

Disneyland opened in Anaheim California in 1955, and in 1968, I had the opportunity to spend an amazing day at the park as a 12-year-old. My hockey team was in Los Angeles as New York State champions for the Pee Wee national tournament, but what I remember most (besides beating Edina Minnesota) was the magical atmosphere the Disney Imagineers had created for the Pirates of the Caribbean ride and dining.

Three years later, Disneyworld opened in Florida, near Kissimmee, and that changed the Orlando region in more amazing ways. My first visit was in the 1970s with family, but my last trip was to the Magic Kingdom and EPCOT occurred in 1990. At the time, my sister and I were parents of four young children, and naturally, being with them for the experience was what mattered most.

However, the purpose of this recollection is to compare the similarities and differences between then and now – and address the affordability of a trip to Disneyworld, one that was summarized in the New York Times Guest Opinion dated August 28, 2025. The article makes many excellent points, but others need of context. And it begins with the NYT subject’s first visit to Disneyworld in 1993, close to my last experience.

Demand

Perhaps the most important comparison between then and now is the number of visitors to the Magic Kingdom. In 1990, the daily capacity was about 10,000, but today it is about 48,000. Not only was Disney able to increase supply nearly five times, but it is now filling its capacity nearly every day with almost 18 million visitors. That was not true in the early 1990s when the crowds were thin on many days.

Also significant, the area occupied by the Magic Kingdom has stayed constant at 107 acres, yet Disney has managed to increase the number of customers it serves by a factor of five. That is the genius of private enterprise and the benevolence of the supply side, but as the Times article states,

For most of the park’s history, Disney was priced to welcome people across the income spectrum, embracing the motto “Everyone is a V.I.P.” In doing so, it created a shared American culture by providing the same experience to every guest.

In retrospect, it is not possible for 48,000 guests per day to have the same experience as they did in 1990. Of course, demand is one half of the pricing equation, and in 1990, the price of general admission to the Magic Kingdom was $31 when demand was relatively low.

Since then, the Consumer Price Index has increased 2.6 times, but park admission for an off-peak day is $109 - an increase of 3.5 times. Unfortunately, the NYT Opinion piece is focused on the total cost for five people visiting Orlando for a week: “her seven days in Orlando cost about $8,000 for two adults and three kids.”

That included the most economical travel, off-site accommodation, and dining the subjects could arrange, but from the information provided, it is difficult to know what Disney pricing has to do with the affordability of the trip. According to the travel specialist he quoted,

A middle-class family . . . that crosses several state lines and spends multiple days at Disney World, is relatively rare: The last time I helped someone like this plan a trip? I don’t know. It’s been at least 10 years.

In essence, this is really about forced equality. The author concludes that the subject spent “around 15 percent of what she and her daughter earn each year after taxes.” The implication is that capitalism is to blame for a shrinking middle-class and the economic scale its decline:

Many companies found that if they didn’t focus on their richest customers, they couldn’t provide competitive salaries to staff members, increase returns to shareholders and attract capital to invest in new products.

Family Values

Certainly, Disneyworld has always been a marvelous family experience – and dreaming big is primary element of the American way. That is inspirational, but dreams without action are of little value. The same is true with aspirations for children, but what reasonable parent spends 15% of disposable income on vacation?

Nearly everyone I know holds family to be their highest value, but too many of them claim love of family without knowing the primary purpose of family. Furthermore, it is impossible to love something if you don’t make the effort to know and understand its core elements. Taking children to Disneyworld or other high-end experiences is very nice, but that does not replace teaching them the virtues of independence, integrity and leading by example.

On a larger scale, the concentrated wealth needed to build massive family theme parks, cross-country mass transit, and affordable real estate rentals does not happen without a society’s defense of rights, liberty and justice. Those are the core elements of capitalism, and family vacation opportunities only exist when free minds are allowed to flourish. Yet, the NYT Opinion piece treats your aspirations as the problem:

The market, and increasingly the culture, is dominated by the affluent. And technology is enabling companies to see these previously invisible class divides and act on them.

This moral inversion – blaming free markets and technology for “class divides” is a subtle and insidious attack on rights and moral justice in favor of certain protected groups. Unfortunately, the creation and maintenance of “class divides” is a core element of the New York Times:

Many of our biggest private institutions are now focused on selling the privileged a markedly better experience, leaving everyone else to either give up — or fight to keep up.

Bear in mind, America’s “biggest private institutions” are puny compared to the coercive power of large government institutions. Moreover, selling products and services to people with money is a noble and risky endeavor. Yet, it is the State’s extraction of wealth from the private sector between 1990 and 2025 that is punishing middle-class families with supply shortages that drive prices higher.

Age of Envy

Federal debt as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product has more than doubled since 1990, but the extraction of wealth through taxation and spending has hurt Americans the most. On top of that, the value of the dollar relative to gold has fallen by about 90% during the same period. And both have the same cause - massive intrusion by the State in the economic transactions of private citizens.

That includes tribute paid to regulatory agencies and political campaigns that would have created magical experiences that you will not see any time soon. Of course, the State and its media partners, like any fine Arab dictatorship, needs to create a villain to divert attention from their protection racket:

Michael Eisner, Disney’s chief executive at the time, created a bevy of products for the affluent — including fancier hotels, a cruise line and white-tablecloth restaurants.

To summarize, the earnings and savings of individuals create capital for entrepreneurs to invest in goods and services for other earners and savers to purchase and consume. Yet, competent people are to blame for the shortage of short lines at premier attractions for “a 60-year-old school bus driver . . . traveling with a group that includes her daughter, her grandchildren and her mother.”

Predictably, there is no mention of the children born in Sudan, or Cuba, or Russia, or Venezuela, or Syria - all romanticized by the NYT - who also can’t afford “Disney’s Lightning Lane Premier Pass, which ushers its holders to the front of the line at each ride once.” Thank goodness there are people who can afford that. And thank your lucky stars if you were born in a place like America.

As much as I love family and our memories of Disneyworld, there is far more to America than princess castles, movie themed rides and nostalgia. There is the real, charming, gritty, and adventurous America where you are the energy source of your own ride. A dozen years after our visit to Disney’s Main Street USA, I took my teenage children on a week-long trip down the real Main Street USA.

Field of Dreams

Not only does the Magic Kingdom attract people from all over the world, so does Iowa during the last week of July. But you bring your own ride – a bicycle. Also known as RAGBRAI, it is the largest event of its kind in the world and there are long lines for the most coveted attractions: pork chops, pancakes, breakfast burritos, craft beer, smoothies, homemade pie, water slides, rope swings, Bloody Marys, live music and the hospitality of small-town Iowa.

Disney Imagineer yourself spending a week in a tent, with your teenage kids, breaking camp at dawn, pedaling into the sunrise over rolling hills of tall corn, pig farms, grain elevators, water towers, and doing it with only two rules: 1 - don’t complain, 2 - don’t forget rule #1. And if you wish upon a star, you will get to hear the Spazmatics blasting 1980s new age kitsch for the evening’s headline act in the historic town square. Is this heaven?