Just got back from a week down in Orlando with my wife, 5yr old son and 8yr old daughter. The temps were a little cool but still warmer than here in Iowa and we had an absolute blast. Being on a budget, we stayed at the budget-minded All-Star Sports resort and did the food plan and got out of town without putting too big of a dent in the savings. Although the permenant smiles on my childrens' faces would've made any price tag easy to swallow. I will definitely start saving pennies again to make it back down there, hopefully in the not too distant future. So here are a few things I learned while visiting the Magic Kingdom:
Entree is French for $40
Eating at the restaurants in the parks is like shopping for a LandRover. You know it's going to be pricey going in, but it still makes you cringe when you receive the final bill. Even the buffets made me channel Fred Sanford and shout, "Here I come Elizabeth, this is the BIG ONE!! Although the selection was quite good, I don't even think that little Kobiashi guy could get his money's worth at these buffets.
My ideas on profit margin have been grossly underestimated.
My daughter spent $12 on a pair of MinnieMouse ears. It was a felt beanie with two plastic ears and a red/white ribbon. I highly doubt if the thing cost more than $.90 to make which leaves a profit margin that would make a defense contractor drool.
The U.S. Congress would be jealous of Disney's fund-siphoning abilities.
It finally occurred to me why some of the prices were so far out of line. (I never said I was the swiftest current around) While waiting for our bus to go back to the resort, I tried to guess the staggering number of Disney-owned buses operating at any given moment. Coupled with the number of employees it takes to keep these parks and attractions not only running but looking immaculate day in and day out, it finally made a little more sense why a 1/2 litre of water was $2 and plastic mouse ears were $12.
I've not run into another company where the corporate message has so successfully filtered down to every employee.
I'm not sure how many employees Disney has in Orlando (I'm guessing well into the thousands) but in our week spent there we encountered probably several hundred of them. From groundskeepers, to security, to vendors, to hotel managers to people whose only job it seemed to be was to walk around and interact with people, we never once encountered a Disney employee who didn't make us feel like they weren't personally glad that we were their guest. I don't know how many stores you can walk into at any mall and you are made to feel that you are interupting the clerk's life by shopping there. The exact opposite is true at Disney and it was not lost on any employee that we ran across. That is simply astounding to me.
All in all it was a very enjoyable trip and I highly recommend taking the kids or going without them. As this photo shows, you never get too old to have fun.
Entree is French for $40
Eating at the restaurants in the parks is like shopping for a LandRover. You know it's going to be pricey going in, but it still makes you cringe when you receive the final bill. Even the buffets made me channel Fred Sanford and shout, "Here I come Elizabeth, this is the BIG ONE!! Although the selection was quite good, I don't even think that little Kobiashi guy could get his money's worth at these buffets.
My ideas on profit margin have been grossly underestimated.
My daughter spent $12 on a pair of MinnieMouse ears. It was a felt beanie with two plastic ears and a red/white ribbon. I highly doubt if the thing cost more than $.90 to make which leaves a profit margin that would make a defense contractor drool.
The U.S. Congress would be jealous of Disney's fund-siphoning abilities.
It finally occurred to me why some of the prices were so far out of line. (I never said I was the swiftest current around) While waiting for our bus to go back to the resort, I tried to guess the staggering number of Disney-owned buses operating at any given moment. Coupled with the number of employees it takes to keep these parks and attractions not only running but looking immaculate day in and day out, it finally made a little more sense why a 1/2 litre of water was $2 and plastic mouse ears were $12.
I've not run into another company where the corporate message has so successfully filtered down to every employee.
I'm not sure how many employees Disney has in Orlando (I'm guessing well into the thousands) but in our week spent there we encountered probably several hundred of them. From groundskeepers, to security, to vendors, to hotel managers to people whose only job it seemed to be was to walk around and interact with people, we never once encountered a Disney employee who didn't make us feel like they weren't personally glad that we were their guest. I don't know how many stores you can walk into at any mall and you are made to feel that you are interupting the clerk's life by shopping there. The exact opposite is true at Disney and it was not lost on any employee that we ran across. That is simply astounding to me.
All in all it was a very enjoyable trip and I highly recommend taking the kids or going without them. As this photo shows, you never get too old to have fun.
