Disneyland Cost

[smiling_bandit]

@MPB_in_Salt_Lake

I guess that makes sense, as I suppose that most workers wouldn’t want to hang out for a couple of hours after their shift in order to get a cheap meal, no matter how good (or inexpensive) the food might be…

Most of them will work through at least one mealtime, so they probably get an hour for munchies. And some of the staff lives on-property, so it’s not too far.

[AClockworkMelon]

@garygnu

The single-day admission price is insane, and shouldn’t be purchased by anyone. It’s a little “unfair” to use that as an inflation measurement. For example, right now you can purchase a 5-Day pass* for $184 for adults (or $154 for kids 9 and under). That brings it down to $36.80 per day. There’s always some kind of special, often kids-are-free-with-adult stuff.

If you really only want to go for one day, search online for people unloading partially-used multi-day passes for cheap.

And, as for food, there are many places to get some really good food, both inside the park and nearby in Downtown Disney.

*: good for both parks, the $72 single-day pass are not

The problem is that there were likely special family prices back in the day, too.

[suranyi]

@YogSosoth

Ex-Disneyland worker here:

I worked there from 2001-2007 and I can say that they don’t seem to take attendance and things into account when they increase prices. We had some slow years and months after 9/11 and right before the 50th anniversary in 2005, but prices steadily increased.

They also mentioned that profits came from concessions like food, and that gate prices don’t make nearly as much.

Nope, still looks like a crooked penis!

Even the workers don’t like paying the food prices. There’s a McDonalds, IHOP, and Denny’s right across the street from Disneyland. If you’re willing to trek out that far for lunch and dinner, do it. You’ll save like $10 per person.

That’s me! Yes, you can bring food into the park. There’s no official rule against it but obviously they may frown on you bringing a whole steak dinner or something, but I’ve brought large bags of snacks, trail mix, large water bottles, etc. into the park with no problems. They only check for weapons and stuff like that. I’ve never seen anyone being denied entrance for food. Of course, that’s not to say a bad manager may not make up some phony excuse to bar food, but if you keep it things like sandwiches nicely wrapped or in tupperware containers, they won’t deny you entrance. And if they do, make a fuss about it and they’ll probably let you through anyway

In my 5 years there, I’ve never seen that rule enforced. People go in with snacks and water and juice all the time. I think the best advice I can give is to pack sensibly. Someone may bring up that rule if you have large coolers full of food, but not if you have a backpack with a bag of snacks or a sandwich.

My sister lives in Orange County about five minutes’ drive from Disneyland. When her daughter was younger they had an annual pass, so they went a lot. For lunch they used to exit the park and go to the McDonald’s across the street. When they were with a big group my brother-in-law would get food from McDonald’s and bring it back into the park for all of us. He was never stopped at the gate.

[YogSothoth]

@MPB_in_Salt_Lake

Just out of idle curiousity, dont they give workers some sort of (hopefully huge) discount on the food?

Sort of.

Officially, there are “A” and “B” discounts. An “A” discount is if you have worked there less than 3 years, that’s 10%. A “B” discount is 3+ years and like 30 or 35%. When workers by food from the restaurants, they are supposed to be given those discounts, officially.

Depending on the managers and who your friends are, you may be able to just grab something in the kitchen. As a kitchen worker, I will tell you that we ate stuff all the time, though that obviously will vary depending on what kitchen you are in (much easier to steal a chicken nugget than a slice of pizza).

At our restaurant, management was pretty lax about it so we gave out the max discount to any workers who wanted to buy food, but kitchen workers sometimes just took food from the line.

Also, various restaurants for workers around Disneyland charged much more reasonable rates. For example, the Inn Between located behind Main Street and Space Mountain had decent food at about $2 or $3 less than you would get if you were the public buying food from one of the restaurants.

@MPB_in_Salt_Lake

Do employees get an allotment of free park passes per year to share with friends and family?

Yes. When I started, it was 12 per year, then it went up to 16. What they used to do was issue you a little paper card thing that you would have to get stamped each time you take somebody into the park with you. One trip can be for up to 3 people, so sometimes employees would get their friends to pool their passes so they can get larger groups in. Right before I left, they went with a completely paperless system. They simply scan your employee ID and the computer tells you how many passes you have left

Twice a year we would get 2 special park-hopper tickets. They were mailed to you and not tied to any employee. They gave the holder the ability to get into Disneyland and California Adventure on the same day. Since they send these out in July and December, I usually gave away the pair I had for December as Christmas gifts.

Employees are supposed to accompany any non-family members into the park. You’re not supposed to just sign them in and then leave. However, nobody really gave me any grief on this, maybe because when they ask me at the door if I was going to go in with my friends, I’d say yes. There are plainclothes Disney security or management types walking around in front of the gates to catch people trying to sell their passes. A friend of mine got fired because he was offering to sign people into the park for $20 a person and was caught