Survey Says 68 Percent Of People Think Disney World “Has Lost Its Magic”

If it feels like everything has lost its magic over the past few years, that might actually be true! According to a new survey, “The Most Magical Place On Earth,” aka Disney World, isn’t like it used to be. The park’s most loyal fans say a visit now leaves them disappointed, and the reasons might not be all that shocking. Increasingly, if you want to have a great time at Disney World, chances are you’re going to need to be very rich.

Planning a trip to Disney World used to be in on the bucket list of every parent. However, it’s been steadily more difficult to plan a visit on a budget. Inflation rates and rising costs for basic needs have pushed our pocketbooks to the brink. This leaves little room for play — and that’s caused some magic loss for Disney fans, according to a survey by time2play.

The website wanted to find out how Disney fans have been feeling with the continued price increases in everything from ticket prices to food at the park and to see if fans are still feeling the magic.

“To learn how Disney World fans have been affected by the rampant price increases, we asked nearly 2,000 self-described Disney World enthusiasts how they’re feeling about the rising cost of a vacation to Disney World,” time2play explains. “We also asked if new profit-driving services, such as Genie+, are changing how they feel about the most magical place on earth.”

And the results, according to time2play, show that the magic has, unfortunately, been lost for a lot of families. “What used to be a rite of passage trip for middle-class American children has evolved into a luxury getaway for the privileged among us,” they write, “and Disney World fans have taken notice.”

Of those polled in the survey, 68.3% “say rampant price increases make it feel like Disney World has lots its magic.” In addition, 92.6% of Disney World enthusiasts said they believe the cost of a Disney vacation is now out of reach for the average family, and people are putting off their visits.

“Among our respondents, 48.3% report postponing a trip to Disney World in recent years due to price increases,” the site explains. “Those who are still planning to go said they expect their next trip to cost 35.7% more on average than their previous visit.”

“When the rope first dropped at the Magic Kingdom's 1971 grand opening, the price of a single-day admission ticket was a mere $3.50 — the equivalent of about 2.19 hours of pay for someone earning the day’s federal minimum wage of $1.60 per hour,” time2play writes. Today, a park visit varies from $109 to $159 depending on the date you visit.

“To put that into perspective, a minimum wage worker visiting a single Disney World park on the cheapest of days would have to work 15.03 hours to afford admission, an increase of 586% since the park first opened.”

Inflation plays a part in all of this, of course, but even when you throw out the historical context, it’s very clear that this survey isn’t about waning nostalgia for a bygone era. The price of Disney World is simply too high for most families to feel like they got their money’s worth. And, it doesn’t seem like that will change anytime soon.