It's official - Disney introduces tiered ticket prices for one day tickets

[Mrlogboy]

They can control attendance but that would affect their bottomline. Controlling attendance (IMO) would show the guests that can still afford a trip that their in park experience does matter..

I agree completely and I actually think if they did the capping of people in the park the right way they could lower the crowded parks and still make a buck.
but all of that would take a effort and it is just easier to keep increasing prices.

 

[Shanti]

Interesting, I thought that the price increase would have the opposite impact: guests that only wanted to casually go to a park for one day might not have too much issue with a 5 to 20 dollar increase, while those planning for multidays will find the 50+ dollar increase more daunting

How is $50 daunting to someone planning a week at Disney World? You're already spending thousands at that point, so the $50 (even multiplied by 3 or 4 people) is almost insignificant.

Compare that to the single day ticket increase for a person or family who happens to be in Orlando for other reasons, and is considering just spending a day riding a few rides and seeing the Christmas decorations & fireworks at MK. That's when they might really think, "no, the price just isn't worth it for one day".

 

[closetmickey]

Yes, I believe I saw the 7-day pass increase was quite high.

Did anyone notice the increase on 5 day PH? I don't have the old price to compare.....

 

[rteetz]

According to a chart Len Testa put together these increases on multi-day tickets are the biggest since 1990. He stopped here because before 1990 tickets were changing all of the time and had many different categories.

 

[lockedoutlogic]

Yes, I believe I saw the 7-day pass increase was quite high.

This is where I disagree...if $35 dollars a ticket plus $4 for the parkhopper is breaking the budget...I respectfully submit you have already been priced out. Does anyone pay attention to the ridiculous daily expenses while you're there? They've gone up by a 100% in 10 years.

Now longterm...those increases are gonna be big...because they jack them every year and it's gonna get worse.

I just don't see a significant increase in multis today over last Friday...not nothing...but not a deal breaker for most.

The one days are a gut kick to those that don't devote a weeks worth of money to Disney...because they're "so awesome"...some can't afford it or are realistic about going - and they are getting screwed.

 

[lockedoutlogic]

I agree completely and I actually think if they did the capping of people in the park the right way they could lower the crowded parks and still make a buck.
but all of that would take a effort and it is just easier to keep increasing prices.

They will do no such thing.

They will not limit ticket sales or attendance. And that's why the whole argument is bs.

 

[Eoghann]

This is where I disagree...if $35 dollars a ticket plus $4 for the parkhopper is breaking the budget...I respectfully submit you have already been priced out. Does anyone pay attention to the ridiculous daily expenses while you're there? They've gone up by a 100% in 10 years.

Now longterm...those increases are gonna be big...because they jack them every year and it's gonna get worse.

I just don't see a significant increase in multis today over last Friday...not nothing...but not a deal breaker for most.

The one days are a gut kick to those that don't devote a weeks worth of money to Disney...because they're "so awesome"...some can't afford it or are realistic about going - and they are getting screwed.

None of these prices are a deal breaker. Disney knows that. I guarantee they ran a dozen simulations before picking these figures.

People will keep going because they don't look at a Disney trip like they do almost any other vacation. They're completely irrational and blinkered about it.

Me, I went in 2014, I'll probably be going back in 2018, and that's despite having DVC available to me. In between I'll do some local stuff and next year I hope to fly to Scotland and visit family. That trip has the potential to be considerably more rewarding than another trip to Disney World.

 

[lockedoutlogic]

Ok...I just went over the ticket prices at the site...

What they seem to have done is smooth out the per day discounts on longer term tickets. The net effect is bigger than I had thought.

Your still paying slightly more for 1,2,3 day tickets (per day)...but the drop from 4+ days is much more gradual.

It used to be that after 4, the ticket cost 10 dollars more each day. Now they're hiding fees in there that
Increases it to more like $20 a day more.

A clever trick that adds up.

I was giving them a slight pass...now back to regular programming.

 

[Mrlogboy]

They will do no such thing.

They will not limit ticket sales or attendance. And that's why the whole argument is bs.

Yes I know Disney will not limit but neither will they stop raising rates/ adjusting rates to get more from us.
This whole post is bs, unless we are just talking about what I would do if I was Disney.

 

[ChipnDale79]

So here is my take on all of this, sure its not a huge increase over the course of an entire vacation, however the gradual increase every year on everything is starting to add up. I still agree that a Disney vacation is in fact a reasonable vacation compared to other options. However, as Disney increases prices and cuts spending on other things, so does my family. We live 8 hours away, so historically when we go on vacation from Saturday to Saturday, we’ll purchase the 8 day hopper and we’ll leave right after work on Friday, get a cheap hotel room in Orlando Friday night and spend the entire day in the parks on Saturday. We’ll buy breakfast, lunch, and dinner in the parks that day and probably spend more money. At the end of our trip, instead of packing up and leaving early Saturday morning, we’ll use the 8th day to head to MK for Crystal Palace breakfast and hit a few rides before leaving.


As they continue to increase prices, I can’t justify buying the 8 day park hopper for a Saturday to Saturday trip anymore, it makes more sense for us to bump those back to a 6 day park hopper. Now we’ll get up at a decent time on Saturday morning and head down, check into the hotel, and head over to Disney Springs for dinner. We’ll also get up on departure day and just pack up and head out. It’s a 1 ½ day park loss for us, and less money we’ll spend in the parks, so in the end it’ll actually save us a little money.


These trips are tight for us, but we can afford them, I am starting to have a hard time with the business practice of how things are being handled and am really starting to get a sour taste in my mouth with things. After going 10 times in a 5 year span, we took 3 years off as our kids were born, we took them in 2014 and 2015, with the plans to take 2016 off and head back down for 2017 and 2018. The talk this weekend at our house was to maybe skip 2017 all together as well, with the cost increases, cuts while record profits are being made, and all of the construction going on, we may sit out until 2018 or 2019.


I understand cost increases and the need for them, we did the math, and from our Honeymoon in 2008 to this summer, the exact same vacation sees a 31% increase in price. I honestly haven’t seen a 31% increase in experience or inflation. We're a family of 4 that has a a moderate income, I'm starting to feel that we're no longer Disney's target audience.

 

[tabistar]

Multi-day tickets definitely increased. On Friday, I bought 11 (4 adults, 7 kids) 5-day MYW tickets from UT for $3400 (advertised as 5 days for the price of 4; $136 savings from Disney's direct prices). Pricing those same tickets on Disney's site today (adding in tax) is over $3800.

 

[Redcon1]

What this means for our family is if we do visit WDW, it's less days for us. Instead of a five-day, we'll probably just purchase a three or four day ticket which translates to less hotel, shopping and food revenue for Disney.

Being on a budget restricts the amount we spend and it basically comes down to how we allocate it. We won't spend more just because the ticket prices increased, so Disney won't be seeing any extra money from us.

 

[Hiitsme]

You realize that the multi-day tickets actually went up more than the 1 days ones right?

Nothing to do with feelings, just facts.

Doesn't Disney raise prices every year?

 

[ChipnDale79]

Doesn't Disney raise prices every year?

The increase is higher than normal for the "peak" times now.

 

[Hiitsme]

And Disney has for ever had seasonal resort pricing. Then a few years back they broke it down by days, ie. weekends were priced higher than weekdays. So, if you look at it that way we have been paying a sort of tiered price, just that this time it's broken down in a different formula.

 

[closetmickey]

How closely can we expect the resort "season" pricing to follow the ticket "seasons"?

I was surprised to see "peak" begin so early in May and June. We have been the first/second week in June before as the crowds (at least a few years ago) had not peaked yet.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

How closely can we expect the resort "season" pricing to follow the ticket "seasons"?

I was surprised to see "peak" begin so early in May and June. We have been the first/second week in June before as the crowds (at least a few years ago) had not peaked yet.

From what I've seen at least in 2015 it was more crowded than most crowd calendars had predicted and that includes it was more crowded at certain times of the year than it had been in the past

I def. saw plenty of "OMG I thought this was the slow season (like in parts of jan (aside from holidays), feb and sep-mostly due to MNSSHP seemingly more busy than in the past) but boy was I wrong". I would say Disney likely used 2014 and 2015 (though they may have used more years;I know for sure it's more busy than it was when I last went in 2011) and projected the pattern of attendance into their versions of peak, regular and value to anticipate the next few years (who knows they may change it by the time the expansions actually open up).

Also they can't necessarily match up the ticket seasons with resort seasons because there are still plenty of people who stay off-site as well as you have 14 days after 1st use regarding your tickets (aside from APs) which means you may not be attending WDW on consecutive days. Someone could attend WDW on a value day for the parks but be at the resorts on a regular-priced season day for the resorts (though I believe the resort pricing is broken up a bit more) and vice versa along with other combinations.

 

[rteetz]

Interesting take but I don't know if we have hit this yet because the tiered tickets are only for one day tickets.

http://time.com/money/4241717/disney-ticket-prices-value-peak/

 

[Lirael]

How is $50 daunting to someone planning a week at Disney World? You're already spending thousands at that point, so the $50 (even multiplied by 3 or 4 people) is almost insignificant.

Compare that to the single day ticket increase for a person or family who happens to be in Orlando for other reasons, and is considering just spending a day riding a few rides and seeing the Christmas decorations & fireworks at MK. That's when they might really think, "no, the price just isn't worth it for one day".

I guess its a matter of opinion. For me, since I'm already spending quite a lot at that point, another $50 is painful, whereas in a one day thing I'm spending less overall so dont feel as pained to pay just $20 more.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Compare that to the single day ticket increase for a person or family who happens to be in Orlando for other reasons, and is considering just spending a day riding a few rides and seeing the Christmas decorations & fireworks at MK. That's when they might really think, "no, the price just isn't worth it for one day".

While I certainly understand the financial pain of 1-day tickets (because they do just go up up up) in general you pay quite a premium in the first place when you only get 1 day. I'm not saying the 1-day ticket increase/tiering isn't a raw deal though.

For example: My local amusement park is Worlds of Fun (normal amusement park)/Oceans of Fun (water park) which is a combined 299 acres and is owned and operated by Cedar Fair. In 2013 they merged the parks together in regards to ticket admissions. The overall ticket price went up due to that (not really that big of a deal though). Due to weather the park is open seasonally and this year it's April 16th through October 30th for Worlds of Fun and May 27th through September 5th for Oceans of Fun whereas WDW is 365 days).

A 1-day ticket currently at the gate is $56.99 or if you buy online its only $39.99 (quite a savings actually). A 2-day pre-bought online ticket is $56.99. Parking is $17 at the gate and $15 if bought online. They offer 3 types of Season Passes-Silver ($108), Gold ($120), Platinum ($204-which btw the only difference between that and the gold is that you get into the other parks owned by Cedar Fair). Buying them online saves you $5 on each season pass but the figures listed above are if you bought online. All figures in the above paragraph excludes taxes and fees.

Consider that I bought my 1-day pass online it would take 3 visits before I've actually spent more than the basic season pass. If you bought at the gate it would take 2 visits before I've spent more than the basic pass and if you pre-planned that you were going 2 days then your best deal is to buy the 2-day ticket online which is the same price as a 1-day ticket at the gate. That's not including parking charges.

Here's the difference between the passes:


I don't mean to be long-winded here (and don't take me putting in the figures from my local amusement park the wrong way they were just there to provide an example) but my point is basically tons and tons of places (including just about all other amusement/theme/water parks that I can honestly think of) are priced in that a 1-day ticket is quite a premium because you are only going there for 1-day. The more you stay the more you play..in general.