Walt Disney World prices rise to $82 for single-day, single park ticket

wahoo skipper said:
Listen, I'm getting too old to make up lies just so people on an internet message board will think I'm cool. I was on the WDWCP in '92 when there was a fraction of the students participating today.

I was on the program in '95 and had a similar experience. Didn't come into contact so much with high level execs in the basic work but while shadowing managers and I was able to connect with upper level management. Through basic networking skills I was able to shadow and interact with them and heard very frank things about the marketing strategies and demographics.

For simular reasons I was also turned off by some of the information learned during this process. But that was the idea, to scratch the surface and learn a bit from these people.

This wasn't something that was part of the regular program but could be arranged with a little work.

I can't speak for teen boys, but I know teen boys eat that Pixar stuff up. I had a couple of girls on my volleyball team around the time of Nemo who did the handshake/head butt constantly. They were 17.

Cropsey, glad you chimed in. I'm wondering if the College Program has become so large now that it isn't the experience it was when we were there?

Yes, I got to shadow managers and they were very good about showing us around and meeting influential people. I walked right into Team Disney one day and when someone stopped me I showed them my I.D. and explained that I was just curious to find out more about the company. I got a tour and met a number of folks on that day.

The Jungle Cruise got frequent visits by executives. I think they liked showing it off and it was easy to access from backstage areas. I didn't always have time to talk in that setting but I did have about two minutes with Eisner and he was very pleasant. Asked me where I went to school, how I was enjoying the CP, etc. Just small talk, but meaningful to me back then.

At one point in his career, Dick Nunis was a manager of the Disneyland Jungle Cruise so it wasn't unusual to have him visit the WDW Jungle when he was in the park.

My 4 year-old is nuts for those friggin' silly bands. He also will love Cars Land when it opens, and if Southwest keeps offering $79 flights from Pittsburgh to LAX, he may get the chance to see it.

Not sure about the teens, or even the general demographic makeup of the crowds at DCA. Just assuming with the looper, S&S tower, rapids ride, Tower of Terror & soarin' that there is more teen-style stuff to do there... then again, with KBF and SFMM in the same market, maybe I'm way off.

Redman, I am glad that I haven't visited the mouse since I outgrew him when I was 12. I have no desire to go to Disney unless I am rich enough to go down there. Plus walking for hrs on end tends to get the neuropathy in my legs and feet to go into having fits of burning and itching pain. I am glad that you can go but I look for more value for my money and Disney isn't it.

Gonch, no disrepect but there will come a time when Disney becomes over-priced and not within the reach of the common amusement park goer.

That may very well be true, but it won't matter so long as there are enough uncommon amusement park goers who still attend. :)

wahoo skipper said:
Yes, I got to shadow managers and they were very good about showing us around and meeting influential people. I walked right into Team Disney one day and when someone stopped me I showed them my I.D. and explained that I was just curious to find out more about the company. I got a tour and met a number of folks on that day.

Wow you were more aggressive than I was! Nice work. When I was introduced to influential people by managers, I just struck up converstation and was able to get some of them to make some time. In a couple of cases I was able to shadow those folks and see things on a different level. You and I had an interest in the biz so it was a great platform to soak it up and learn more. Most CP folks were there for the elective credits, the party, the mating opportunitues and the resume builder rather than the biz itself.

Everyone I stayed in touch with from Disney has either moved on or was given the golden handshake after 9-11. So really not sure what's happening there now.

Majorcut said:
I am glad that you can go but I look for more value for my money and Disney isn't it.

Interesting choice. I nearly replied last time by presenting the idea that while Disney may cost more, it represents a better value.

Now I wish I had.

Gonch, no disrepect but there will come a time when Disney becomes over-priced and not within the reach of the common amusement park goer.

No disrespect taken or meant back at you, but you're absolutely wrong. (or entirely correct depending on how I take that)

You're either suggesting that:

1. someday people will stop going to WDW and we'll see major drops in their attendance because of the cost

or

2. that they don't attract the common amusement park goer.

If it's the former, you're entirely incorrect.

If it's the latter, you're already correct. Disney doesn't bring in the common amusement park goer. That's exactly why people continue to pay the rising cost of going there. They outpriced the average amusement park goer a long time ago.

They outpriced the average coaster enthusiast way before that even. :)

Although the creap towards average theme park goer is happening, just take a look at what most people wear to WDW. Its resort casual for the most part (ie polos for the guys) with T-shirts being the most casual people go (ie no wife beaters, bikini tops, shirtless fools.)

You know that mullet and wife beater game that is so fun at Cedar Point? Well you cant play it at WDW, people are more (just slightly) classy there.

Disney is smart enough not to raise the price beyond the means of their target visitors. They're not amateurs.

Tekwardo said:
Disney is smart enough not to raise the price beyond the means of their target visitors. They're not amateurs.

Exactly.

And at the heart of it, isn't that what a lot of the price complaints are really about? Being priced out of something you enjoy?

We've hear it time and time again about every possible aspect - ticket pricing, food pricing, parking pricing, perk pricing...you'll find countless threads around here spanning the past 10 years where people argue that the parks are pricing their customers out in some way or another.

Yet the big fall never seems to happen. How long can can people predict Bad Things™ until they're just flat out wrong?

We always hear how someone thinks it's 'eventually going to catch up to them' but it never does.

I suspect it's people getting angry (or hurt or upset) that they feel they're getting priced out of something they like doing...and if they feel that way then everyone else must feel that way too.

But that's just not the case.

*cough* Cedar Fair over the past few years *cough*

Its a very simple equation:
Cost<Value

Provide premium services (like WDW does) and you can continue to charge higher and higher prices. Disney parks are impeccably clean, have great employees and transport you to Fantasyland people are willing to pay through the teeth for that experience, but if you drop the quality of your experience then people are going to start griping about price.

You know that mullet and wife beater game that is so fun at Cedar Point? Well you cant play it at WDW, people are more (just slightly) classy there.

I don't know. It's not exactly the same, but a typical summer day provides plenty of "entertainment" in this genre.

Brian Noble said:

I don't know. It's not exactly the same, but a typical summer day provides plenty of "entertainment" in this genre.

You're right on that, but so is Touchdown. The ratio is way skewed toward the resort-casual side. Disney's got its share, but it's nothing like going to CP or Kings Island in the middle of the summer.

I doubt attendance at Disney parks will go down but so what if it does? Isn't the point of a business to maximize profit? We specifically bought tickets without an expiration date because we knew that we would be going back and Disney tickets would continue to rise. So Disney is just about guaranteed 6 more days of in-park spending from my family. And next time we go my kids will be at the age where they want everything!

If/when Disney is no longer providing THE premium experience in the amusement industry, THEN they can worry about pricing themselves out of the game. When you're far-and-away the best in your business, you can pretty much set your own price. Then again, Universal feels like they provide an "equal or better" experience, apparently (see below).

On last night's news - Universal, on the heels of Potter, feels justified in matching the price increase: As of August 7, 2010, a one-day one-park ticket for Universal Orlando will raise in price from $79 to $82.

"Typical" vacationers <> "typical enthusiasts" ;)

I'll be the first to admit that my visit was a fringe case. My solo visits 0on subsequent years were also fringe cases, but since they were paid for in 2006 dollars (or whenever it was) they don't count either. So far I haven't done a Disney vacation; I go there when I'm in the area for something else.

The point of the whole discussion is that through their pricing plans, Disney is controlling the decision making of their customers. They prompted me to buy a six-day non-expiring park-hopper ticket for a single day visit, for example. Never mind that means I didn't even consider their packages last fall when I spent my week at Universal...my Disney ticket was already paid for.

Well, one of the factors of their pricing scheme is that the few people who do go for a single day are basically forced to (a) pick a single park (since there is no park hopper option on a single day ticket) and as a result is (b) basically encouraged to go to the most crowded park in the resort (Magic Kingdom) because it's the one with the most stuff in it. Okay, that or EPCOT. EPCOT is worth a full day as well.

But neither Animal Kingdom nor the Studios is really a full day park unless you are *really* 'into' the animals. For a multi-day visitor with a park-hopper, that's fine. Those two together are a really full day, and a full day each at Magic Kingdom and EPCOT is a 3-day vacation. Add in waterparks, time in the hotel pool, and the opportunity to slow down a bit (and have dinner at EPCOT every night?) and stretching the visit to five or seven days becomes pretty easy.

Recognizing that all Disney parks are not created equal would be an accommodation of an edge case, and might not be a "win". But if it's the same money, it's hardly a "lose" either, and it might even pull a few bodies out of the Most Crowded Place in the World.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

Well, if people are forced to choose, and since you're not suggesting that an additional option is to simply not go, I guess Disney wins regardless.

Excellent point. Remember, the Mouse always wins, just like in Vegas (they just spell it a little differently). :)

The "just not go" option is the one I have applied previously to Sea World, and may find myself applying to Universal, depending on what their multi-day options are. Universal Hollywood is priced so that an 18-month pass makes more sense than a single day admission (mine has paid for itself already); I wouldn't be surprised if Universal Orlando does something comparable, like they did for years with their $100 7-day pass.

Sea World doesn't really offer anything that makes their ticket price reasonable except possibly one of those "everything but Disney" package deals. Now a pass good at Sea World and BGW might be interesting, but traditionally their passes are good only at the one park.

Disney's ticketing scheme gave me an option that fit both their model and my habits, and I think I still have a visit or two left that cost me about $50/day. It's expensive, but it's Disney, and it's still no worse than Busch Gardens or certain Six Flags. Plus my price was locked in years ago. On that deal, we both won.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

^Not true, you can buy a two year platinum pass that is good at all Sea Worlds, Busch Gardens, their waterparks and Seseme Place.