Magic Kingdom tickets up to $99 for one-day, $94 for other three Walt Disney World parks

There is a lot of hyperbole around this story every year in the press, but I'd love to know how many people actually buy a one-day ticket at the gate. I imagine it isn't very often.

We paid the one day sticker price for the park hopper at Disneyland last summer. Was part of a longer trip through California so we only had a day. And that is pretty much the situation I think they want to hit with the higher one day prices. And I also don't think there are many people who do that. Their multi-day tickets create great incentives to visit multiple days in addition to the fact that you really can't visit the parks in a day (more true of WDW but also true of Disneyland parks).

Once it goes over $100, people will stop going, and the park will either go out of business or be forced to lower their gate price.

Just kidding.

They're right at the precipice. The next increase will take it over $100. That's when it will really be fun to see the reaction.

7 years ago I did a post where I took the pricing from right around the turn of the millennium, figured the increases to date and then extrapolated those increases another 8 years.

It showed WDW hitting $99 in 2015. (and Travis...err, Dexter...posting practically the same thing he did a few minutes ago - although not in jest)

What's interesting is that if you look at the list I created, it looks like the only parks to maintain rate growth in the second 7-8 years of the 2000's were WDW and CP. A few came close and some practically stalled.

Continuing rate growth like this means that in another 8-9 years (2022/2023) the posted single-day admission to WDW will be around $150.

Yep. I -err Dexter once said that once prices go over $50, it would be the end of the world. I almost revealed in my last post that I was making fun of my former-self, but I backspaced before posting it.

Years later, and I am still not excited and giddy about a price increase, but I am not as upset about it either.

It's interesting that MK has a higher price point. Between this and the Halloween/Christmas events, it still does not appear to deter the crowds. The other three parks have a smooth attendance curve (and closing times), but MK has enormous spikes.

Is this the first time the four WDW parks haven't had the same price point?

No, that started with the last round of raising prices.

I have not been following along - have the multiday pass prices gone up as well or have they held steady since the 2000's?

They go up, too.

I don't necessarily have an issue with raising prices. Clearly the market can and will bare it as attendance continues to rise at the parks, from a business standpoint it makes perfect sense. As a WDW pass holder, I'll keep renewing and enjoying the parks. I wonder if many consumers are going to feel cheated, though; considering there really isn't a lot to show justifying the increase in the way of new attractions or significant improvements. At least not in comparison to what Universal has been doing lately. Speaking of which, I wonder how long until the other parks in Orlando raise their prices in response?

The Busch passes have gone up similarly over the past few years...the "Fun Card" is apparently still sitting at $92, but the annual passes (parking and discounts) have gone up pretty subtantially. GOt a 2-yr. BGT-only pass on Sunday, $230...(250 w/tax). That's at least a $50 jump from just a year ago. Then again, Falcon's Fury looks REALLY sweet, so... ;~)

Jeff said:

There is a lot of hyperbole around this story every year in the press, but I'd love to know how many people actually buy a one-day ticket at the gate. I imagine it isn't very often.

I always wondered this too. Maybe apples to oranges, at my park, in addition to wristbands, we also sell ride tickets. You can purchase a single ticket for $.95 or "books" of tickets that are of course a much better value. Similar to the Disney pricing model, our single $.95 ticket price is de-valued so much that it makes no sense not to at least purchase the lowest level ticket book. Similar to how Disney is trying to drive length of stay by deeply discounting the per day cost of their tickets 4 days and beyond.

Having said that, you would be shocked how many guests still purchase single tickets just to take a lap on one of our rides. It ends up being close to $8 for a single ride with individual tickets and it blows my mind how many guests do this.

But what's the cost of the cheapest ticket book? If it's more than $8 then the single-ticket approach makes perfect sense for someone wanting just one ride.

Total cost vs value.

Just a hunch, and call me crazy, but I bet Magic Kingdom is more expensive because it is more popular. lol

We were at Disney a couple weeks ago and I was surprised to see, during a week that was relatively slow, that MK kept very late hours all week, some nights it was til 1A. The other parks closed up anywhere between 5 and 9, depending. And MK was very, very busy everyday we were there, the app showed wait times for the e-tickets around 45 to an hour right up to closing. The castle shows numbered 3 some nights, including Wishes (which runs once a night) and people parked along the street and stayed for all three. It was so crowded.

Yeah, as a rule, we avoid the place on nights with late closing times or Extra Tragic Hours.

It was probably around '08 that we bought a pair of single day tickets to AK for $80. We were in town for a conference and really wanted to do IoA as well, and AK was the only Disney park we hadn't done already, so...

To be totally frank, I'd be happy to pay $200/day if I knew it would mean we'd get on everything we wanted to and not have to rush or go open/close.

ApolloAndy said:

To be totally frank, I'd be happy to pay $200/day if I knew it would mean we'd get on everything we wanted to and not have to rush or go open/close.

Disney's IT implementation staff "likes" this. ;~)