I am a Disney lover, you should know that about me by now. But I am not a lover of the higher prices it is now costing us to take a trip to my favorite place. Unfortunately my husband is more angry about the pricing increases that have been going on at Disney World than I am. Enough so that he is mentioning skipping our annual trip and considering going every two years instead. We are still in discussions about this. Mind you, we got married in Disney, we are DVC members and have taken our children since they have been born. When it gets to this point, it must be serious. The bottom line is, it’s becoming too expensive.
Effective Sunday, February 28 at 6 a.m., Disney will have special pricing for value season, regular season, and peak season. As I watched the announcement on the news, the reason that was mentioned was to help control the crowds during the usual peak seasons, to better spread out visitation throughout the year. Last Christmas the Magic Kingdom reached its capacity by 10:00 a.m. and had to close the park to additional guests.
It is important to note that this pricing is for one day passes only. It does not affect annual passes and multi-day tickets. However, multi-day pass prices will rise starting today. Four-day tickets are increasing from $305 to $325. Ten-day tickets are increasing from $365 to $400. When does the price increase stop? Are we at the point now where we will push back and not attend? I’m kind of there. I hate to say it. But we are finding alternatives to purchasing our tickets. Instead of purchasing an annual pass for all four of us; we are considering a multi-day pass and now we won’t go to the parks every single day on our vacation. We are going to plan in some resort/pool days and do other activities such as mini golf, a water park. or perhaps Disney Springs (a movie or the balloon ride).
I always try to find the silver lining and find the best, most affordable way to make our Disney trips possible and I will still do the same to try to get the most bang for my buck. We will shop at Target or Wal-Mart when we arrive to get our groceries to use in our room so we can eat breakfast and pack lunches to bring to the park. We also save a lot of money on water, drinks and alcohol by purchasing it off property and having it in our room to bring to the pool and parks.
Here is a breakdown of the new rates:
Magic Kingdom one day ticket (no park hopper)
Value Season – the current rate of $105
Regular Season – $110
Peak Season – $125
Epcot, Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios
Value Season – the current rate of $97
Regular Season – $102
Peak Season – $114
The dates for each of these seasons can be found on Disney’s website. Here is a breakdown below:
Has this new pricing structure affected your decision on planning your next vacation to Disney? Will you change dates to a different time of year to avoid the higher price?
Yes it is!! Every year there’s a price increase and we are done with it. The fastpass changes are also ridiculous im our opinion with so many people in the park. We are also DVC members and the ever increasing dues are also annoying. We used to love staying at the Saratoga and over the last two years, our experience with the rooms has been disappointing. We were there for 7 days because I participated in the Glass slipper challenge. The room smelled like mold and the shower had significant mold growth on the tiles and on the shower curtain!!! So gross! We could not be moved because they were filled to capacity due to the events. My problem with that is the fact that every year I psy more and more in maintenance dues, yet I have to deal with a smelly, gross room at a resort considered to be “deluxe”. Not cool!! We love Disney but we are so disappointed!! 🙁