Disney tickets go up again.

Didn't they just raise it like not even 6 months ago? Anyway, they are going from $71 to $75. A park hopper also increases by 5 bucks.

Click here.

It's well and good that they're trying to get people on property for longer stretches, but it's really a shame that they're making it so expensive for families who want to spend a day or two at the park.
I'll be in Orlando in two weeks to see a show at Hard Rock. We'll stay one night at the Hard Rock hotel so we can skip lines for two days at Universal, but I haven't been to a Disney park in Orlando for 6 years and I'd love to pop over to MGM (or whatever it's called) and try out the new Toy Story ride and swing by AK for a ride on Everest. To do that would cost me $125 (one day admission + park hopper).

You could spend all day at Tokyo Disneyland and then hop over to DisneySea after 6 pm and spend less than $84 in admission tickets.

DisneyWorld keeps feeling more and more rigged. 2 out of my last 3 trips to Orlando have been Universal only. The value proposition there is so much greater to me, and this coming from an enormous Disney dweeb.

Wow, it's getting expensive fast.

I remember going to Disneyland just a few years ago during high school and paying $55 for a socal parkhopper. Disney World is a bit more expensive, and I guess they are more of a destination than the other parks. No one lives in Florida except old people so they can probably get away with these small increases. ;)

OUCH!

The lines are so long at these parks though that maybe this is one way of fixing the problem.

People will still go though. It's DISNEY.

Last year at this time they were going for $67.

$8 increase in a year? Legendary.

Nothing new in the overall pricing scheme. Clearly they don't even want you there for less than 3 days (and would prefer you stay longer - and make it hard to pass up):

Price per day (total):
1 Day Ticket - $75.00 ($75)
2 Day Ticket - $74.50 ($149)
3 Day Ticket - $70.67 ($212)
4 Day Ticket - $54.75 ($219)
5 Day Ticket - $44.40 ($222)
6 Day Ticket - $37.50 ($225)
7 Day Ticket - $32.57 ($228)
8 Day Ticket - $28.88 ($231)
9 Day Ticket - $26.00 ($234)
10 Day Ticket - $23.70 ($237)

At this point why not just go all the way and make it $230 to visit the park and your ticket is good for up to 10 consecutive days? They're only a step or two short of that already.

They can continue that pricing structure Gonch. I havent even touched Orlando since I have been here.

BGA and Cypress Gardens are just fine for this Sarasota Florida guy.

On a related note, Cedar Fair parks also jacked up their admission prices yesterday. I know the one day and junior prices are up. Not so sure if anything else went up.

I've been thinking about this for a while now. I have always like how for the most part, it seems like Hershey's top brass still continue Milton Hershey's vision generations later. But I've been questioning whether Disney's people do the same thing regarding Walt Disney's vision? Yeah, yeah, times have changed since his original idea's were put on the table but wasn't the point of Disneyland/Disney World to create a family-friendly AND affordable place for families everywhere to come and enjoy the parks? I'm not saying I know here, just asking if other people have thought about this. I was talking with my mother about it, how affordable it used to be in the late 70's and early to mid-80's but somewhere along the line, everything seemed to change with how costly it's become. I'm moreso speaking of the Florida attractions. Call me crazy, but with how much they charge you for every little thing like $3 for bottled water on a hot Florida day, shouldn't $45 or so be the price of a one day, one park admission? I mean, since people tend to go in groups/families, I would think getting $100-200 a day per 2-4 people would be great, considering what people spend inside the park.

A large percentage of visitors who visit Orlando are foreigners. For those folks whose currencies are doing well against the dollar, these attractions are still quite affordable. A $75 one day ticket to MK only runs about 48 euros, for example.

^My thought EXACTLY...almost scary. The tickets are only really going up in dollar terms....but considering the make-up of Disney's demographics, I'd almost suggest the price may not even keeping up if you normally deal in Euros, or whatever the Brazilians use.

When you go to Orlando in the summer, the "English" you hear spoken most frequently isn't even "American"...LOL! ;)

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Mantis32 said:
I was talking with my mother about it, how affordable it used to be in the late 70's and early to mid-80's but somewhere along the line, everything seemed to change with how costly it's become...shouldn't $45 or so be the price of a one day, one park admission?

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Here's the rub.

Orlando is so far out of the way for just about everyone that it becomes a matter of getting there. No one outside of Florida (maybe some south Georgia folk) is day tripping to WDW. Between travelling and lodging and just getting there, the cost isn't exactly 'affordable' to begin with.

This is where they have you by the balls and where this pricing approach of 'dangling the carrot' works so damn well. Notice the ticket price difference between a 3-day visit and a 10-day is just $25.

Or, in other words, the difference in ticket price between a long weekend and a week-long trip with bookend weekends included is just $25.

That's the whole idea. Most people are visiting WDW for a more than a day based on logistics alone. Once you reach that long weekend point, the price pretty much remains the same.

It gets real hard for Mom & Dad to not look at each other and say, "Why just go for the weekend? We could do X days for practically the same price."

Which goes back to my last post and the only partially facetious closing paragraph.

Why not just make the cost of a ticket $220 or $230 and make it good for ten consecutive days? That's pretty much what they've done - they just break it out on paper so it doesn't look that way.

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Mantis32 said:
Call me crazy, but with how much they charge you for every little thing like $3 for bottled water on a hot Florida day, shouldn't $45 or so be the price of a one day, one park admission?

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This has already been broken down very well for you in this thread. Once you get into a 5-day stay which is very typical of a Disney visit, admission is right in that range.

As for a single day admission, your own personal price-point of where "good value" lies doesn't determine where it is for everyone else. If you sell hamburgers for $5 one day, and then you sell hamburgers for $10 the next day, and you make more money the second day, why would you go back to selling them for $5?

But what about the costs of lodging for the whole week vs just a weekend? The admission price is a small increase, but the other costs of extending a trip increase rapidly.

That's exactly the point. You reward people for staying longer with lower and lower per-day ticket prices. You make it up through the room, and food, and merch. It makes perfect sense to me, and WDW knows their bread and butter is their multiple day guests. It makes no sense to reward the folks who want to come for a day and then bail.

That may be the point of Disney's business strategy, but my point was that although the reduced admission cost is enticing to stay longer, the rapid increase in over-all trip costs due to hotel/food (and possibly rental car) quickly negate the incentive to stay longer or at least may for some people, especially if they stay at one of the "nice" resorts for $300+ per night.

Of course, some will argue if you can afford to pay $300 per night for a room, you can afford to stay 10 days, but I don't think that is necessarily true.

If you're unwilling to pay the higher upfront ticket cost for a short stay or the higher hotel/car/food/not-at-work cost for a long stay than you've be out-priced of Disney. That doesn't have much to do with the business model, that just has to do with the cost of doing business with WDW.

With all the stuff there is to do on property at Disney there's just no reason to pander to the folks who are going to come to Magic Kingdom for a day and then run off to Sea World or Universal or wherever to spend the rest of their money. You encourage people to stick around, and if they don't bite then that's their loss, they were willing to pay $75 for a day at MK. More power to them.

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matt. said:
...they were willing to pay $75 for a day at MK. More power to them.

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Think of the high ticket prices for less than a 4 day stay as a non-loyalty tax. :)

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LostKause said:The lines are so long at these parks though that maybe this is one way of fixing the problem.

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Not quite....as a new FL local, I've spent a lot of time at all the parks on weekends. Disney really seems to handle the crowds better than almost anyone. (They kill Busch and even Universal) MK a Saturday or 2 ago was PACKED and I rode everything, even the kiddie rides for the little one (I did make smart use of fastpass for 2 or 3 rides)

Above some one mentioned food being expensive. Disney is the cheapest corporate park IMO. Bottled drinks are $2 most places. It's 1.50 at my Walmart! I bought a big fresh bannana for $1. Last night at Magic Kingdom I bought half a rotisserie chicken, a big thing of mash potatos and green beans for $8.99. That's 2 cold chicken fingers and some nasty fries in most parks! *** Edited 8/4/2008 12:11:29 AM UTC by Peabody***

I'd agree about the food. During my last visit to Disneyland I was a complete hog, and it wasn't just the price that played a factor. The quality overall was heads above most parks, the sheer variety offered is great, and best of all they make spending my own money easy - I don't have to wait 30 minutes for those cold chicken fingers and nasty fries.

I like walking down the midway and being able to grunt and point at what I want, and then being able to eat it immediately. :)

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Acoustic Viscosity said:That may be the point of Disney's business strategy, but my point was that although the reduced admission cost is enticing to stay longer, the rapid increase in over-all trip costs due to hotel/food (and possibly rental car) quickly negate the incentive to stay longer or at least may for some people, especially if they stay at one of the "nice" resorts for $300+ per night.

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Well, Disney is only too happy to provide you the hotel and the food (which is where they make up for the virtually free admissions beyond day 3). And while they don't have a rental car agency....yet?...they do have the Magical Express Service to pick you up from, and drop you off at, OIA...so you don't need a rental car.

BTW, without that rental car you no longer need....you really can't spend too much non-Disney money while you're in Orlando. Your vacation dollars now have become Disney-dollars. It's a "Mouse-Trap". :)