2024 Annual Pass Price Increases at Disney World
Walt Disney World has raised prices for Annual Passes by as much as $100, the biggest increases since the AP program relaunched a few years ago. This post offers details and our commentary about all of these changes, the amount of cost jumps for each tier, motivations, and more.
This is the first notable price increase of the year on admission at Walt Disney World. They normally happen in early February or mid-October, so it’s not particularly surprising that one happened. In fact, that’s why we’ve been advising readers to purchase tickets and Annual Passes in advance to lock-in current prices in Price Increases Likely Soon for Late 2024 & 2025 at Walt Disney World & Disneyland.
It’s also unsurprising because Disneyland raised its ticket and Annual Pass prices a couple of weeks ago, and presumably, the only thing stopping Walt Disney World from following suit was Milton. Probably would’ve been a bad look for Disney to raise prices right as a hurricane was making landfall in Florida.
In any case, this is the first price increase since October 11 of last year, and will almost assuredly be the last since there are basically two months left. But it’s not always the case that prices “only” go up once per year. During the height of inflation and the Chapek era, Walt Disney World actually did two major price increases in 2022.
The first increase price increase last year occurred in mid-February and the second happened on December 8. That was actually a bit of a weird one, as Walt Disney World made structural changes and removed reservations for single-day tickets and gave three weeks’ notice before implementing the changes. But it was also effectively a price increase for most dates.
That was the last huge across-the-board price increase at Walt Disney World. Although it may not seem that way, everything since has been much more pedestrian. Certain prices have gone up more, but not to the degree that everything did in 2022. Nevertheless, we’ve been advising readers to purchase tickets in advance to lock-in current prices in our 2024-2025 Discount Walt Disney World Ticket Buying Guide.
Here’s a look at before and after prices on Walt Disney World Annual Passes…
Against that backdrop, here are the new prices for each tier of Walt Disney World Annual Pass:
- Incredi-Pass: $1,549 – previously $1,449
- Sorcerer Pass: $1,079 – previously $999
- Pirate Pass: $829 – previously $799
- Pixie Pass: $469 – previously $439
Just “for fun” here’s how new Walt Disney World AP prices compare to when they were re-introduced with the new tiers back in 2021:
- Incredi-Pass: $1,299
- Sorcerer Pass: $899
- Pirate Pass: $699
- Pixie Pass: $399
For further amusement, here are prices for the old Annual Passes, pre-closure:
- Disney Platinum Plus Annual Pass: $1295 / $999
- Disney Platinum Annual Pass: $1195 / $899
- Disney Gold Annual Pass: $719
- Disney Silver Annual Pass: $539
- Disney Weekday Select Annual Pass: $369
- EPCOT After 4 Annual Pass: $319
The two prices for the first two tiers are for the general public versus Florida residents. Additionally, PhotoPass downloads and water parks became $99 add-ons with the change, so the before/after prices on the top tiers are really more extreme than they appear, especially for Floridians.
Depending upon the tier, it’s really not so much “fun and amusement” as “horrify and shock the conscience,” but hey, it is still spook season!
What’s most interesting to me is that the Pixie Dust Pass increased by “only” $30. Unlike the other tiers, this option for Floridians didn’t have sales paused, so there are a ton of them in circulation. That’s resulted in some ‘interesting’ and unprecedented crowd dynamics, such as the weekends when that AP is blocked out being among the slowest days of the week at Walt Disney World last year (a trend that is finally being undone).
Trying to ‘nudge’ Pixie Dust Passholders to higher tiers via higher pricing might’ve made sense. On the other hand, the gap between the Pixie and Pirate tiers is so significant that perhaps Walt Disney World (correctly) realizes that no such nudging is possible. That for a good portion of Pixie Annual Passholders, breaking the $500 barrier would cause them to cancel.
Walt Disney World may not want to lose ‘borderline’ APs, especially since that tier helps fill the parks during the off-season. So not overdoing the increases on the lower tier APs–even if they offer disproportionately better value for money than the higher tiers–makes sense, too.
For all our other grousing about prices, the Pixie Pass still offers exceptional bang for buck to Florida residents. Sure, it’s blocked out weekends, peak holidays, and holidays, but it’s still valid the vast majority of weekdays–including all of the best times to visit. Retiring to Florida and picking up this pass is pretty much the dream! (Sarah’s mom had it, and it was basically her “walking around World Showcase” pass.)
Speaking of which, what I really wonder is whether it might be time to bring back some of the other options. Advance Dining Reservations have fallen off a cliff this year–perhaps bringing back the EPCOT After 4 AP would give a boost to the World Showcase restaurants? Festival booths also aren’t nearly as busy as they once were, event merchandise is frequently discounted, and whatever boost the park got from the new attractions is over.
Bringing this back seems like all upside to me. More options at the lower end of the spectrum on passes that are most attractive would be a good thing. Especially given what we’ve seen in terms of colossal crowds immediately before or after lengthy blockouts of the lowest tier (around this year’s Spring Break, pre-Christmas, and post-New Year’s).
It’s also somewhat surprising that the biggest increase is, yet again, for the Annual Passes that were already the most expensive. I’m familiar with the concept of “percentages” and understand that bigger numbers get even bigger as a result of equivalent increases. And maybe that’s all this is. Personally, I don’t think so.
My theory since the relaunch in 2021 has been that Walt Disney World doesn’t really want out of state Annual Passholders. I know this is going to be painful for many to read, as we receive comments all the time about how Walt Disney World should appreciate non-Floridian APs even more.
In fairness, the logic is somewhat sound. These readers reason that they are “better” for Walt Disney World because they book hotel rooms, do all of their meals on-site, buy souvenirs, and so forth. Basically, they do all of the right things to keep those coveted (in Disney’s eyes) guest spending metrics high. In theory, these aren’t just Walt Disney World’s whales–they’re the sustainable whales. Even better than one and done first-timers!
From what I understand, Disney’s perspective is that these whales would spend even more if they instead purchased multi-day tickets when they visited. Alternatively, this type of big spending guest would pay more per trip if they decreased their frequency of visits. In theory (a different theory than the last one), there’s no downside to this for Disney–even higher per capita numbers from the guest profile I’ve described and someone else takes their place!
Have you ever heard the saying, pigs get fat and hogs get slaughtered? That’s how I’d describe Walt Disney World’s POV, which is also to say I do not agree with it. Yes, in theory this works. Assuming the whales don’t get just fed up, travel elsewhere, and realize maybe they’d prefer doing that all the time. This would be the equivalent of Philip Morris jacking up the prices of cigarettes to the point that people stopped smoking. Addicts are great for business…until they stop being addicts.
The other gaping hole in this logic is that it assumes Walt Disney World is operating without any surplus capacity. Perhaps true in 2021-2022, but very much not the case anymore. There’s plenty of extra bandwidth to accommodate APs in addition to that fictional family from Denver. Except for like 4 weeks of the entire year. But the bottom line is that it’s better to have two families of whales than one family of super-whales.
Another possibility is that Walt Disney World thinks they still have plenty of pricing power over these guests. That they’ve increased prices with impunity on the top tiers of Annual Passes, and yet, the number of these APs in circulation continues to hold steady.
I’m skeptical that demand is strong for the top tiers of Annual Passes. Back when AP sales resumed, Disney put up a warning message that some tiers of APs were likely to sell out on that day. Annual Pass sales have never paused for any tiers–that was back on April 20, and it’s now mid-October…one year later (meaning this was 18 months ago).
It’s more than just that, though. Even though “good to go” days have been a bit of a joke (Walt Disney World has been way too conservative with them), park reservations are mostly a formality. Sure, there are some peak dates when they’ve been tough to book–and there will probably be more such dates in November and December–but the calendar has mostly been wide open. Every single date for the rest of the year is currently green.
Speaking of which, I’m on the record previously saying that I didn’t expect Walt Disney World to entirely eliminate reservations for Annual Passholders or Cast Members anytime son. Our rationale has been that Josh D’Amaro was at Disneyland when the Flex Pass debuted there, and was reportedly an advocate for the reservation system for Cast Members.
Given the Flex Pass at Disneyland, overall increases in attendance in early 2020, and population explosion in Central Florida, I suspect park reservations were an inevitability for Walt Disney World APs and CMs. Even if the closure and everything else never happened, it’s highly likely that Cast Members and at least some tiers of Annual Passes would be required to make park reservations in 2023. It probably wouldn’t look like the current system–or be as restrictive–but it wouldn’t be like 2019, either.
Retaining reservations for APs and CMs gives Disney control over the attendance mix on busier days, and allows the company to prioritize tourists who spend more per visit on average. Although Disney wants Annual Passholders and Cast Members to visit–and spend money–when there’s excess capacity, the circumstances are different when the parks are busier.
Got all of that? The above is mostly past tense–and I haven’t said anything like that in about a year–because things have changed. Going forward, it should soon be time for Walt Disney World to pull another of its famous (infamous?) “levers” and roll back park reservations for Annual Passholders.
I’m not quite sure what this could look like–if you asked me a year ago, I would’ve pointed at the “good to go” days. But for whatever reason, those have been incredibly underwhelming, to the point that I don’t think anyone–including Disney–actually cares. If that is a lever they pulled, it went over like a lead balloon.
Retiring reservations for Annual Passholders is an option of last resort, as it’s one of those ‘bells that cannot be unrung’ (absent another closure that offers a ‘reset opportunity’ to Disney). But at the same time, when are park reservations truly going to be needed between now and 2028? The parks are already experiencing a slowdown, Epic Universe is right around the corner (Universal’s new theme park that, notably, will not require reservations), and Walt Disney World has nothing new up its sleeves until 2027 (and that’s at Animal Kingdom, the lowest-demand park of the four).
What I’m suggesting is that, even in the medium term, requiring reservations for Annual Passes is now doing more harm than good. They’ve mostly become a formality, and yet, I’d be willing to bet that there are former APs (or even prospective ones) who are holding out due to the reservation rule. Either on principle or because they don’t realize reservations are now a non-factor at Walt Disney World.
Pulling that lever would generate positive goodwill and could give AP sales a nice little boost, with little to no actual downside. It’s not going to offset these increases for everyone, but it would certainly help. During the busiest weeks of the year, blockouts do the heavy lifting, anyway.
Fair warning: since this ‘evolving landscape’ is something I’m seeing now, it’s probably unlikely Walt Disney World will act on it this year or in 2025. More likely, it’s a change they’ll reluctantly make in 2026. They’ve been comically late to the punch and reactionary in pulling so many “levers” over the last couple years–expect this to be no different.
Honestly, given all of this, it’s kind of a bold bet for Walt Disney World to raise prices on Annual Passes. It’s not 2022 anymore. Attendance has been down this year, and the company is forecasting it to continue decreasing into 2025. That’s a pretty safe assumption to continue even beyond that into 2026 for all of the above reasons. It’s as if the “answer” to the downturn from Disney’s perspective is to charge more to a smaller pool of guests.
The bold assumption there is that higher prices won’t make the pool even smaller, creating a vicious cycle of price increases resulting in lower demand resulting in more price increases. That wouldn’t be my play, but then again, I’m not the big brain being paid the big bucks to come up with these brilliant strategies. “It’s a bold move Cotton, let’s see if it pays off!”
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YOUR THOUGHTS
Thoughts on the price increases to Annual Passes at Walt Disney World? Do you think Disney is going too far with increases in a way that’ll leave lasting reputational damage, or will the company be able to quickly pivot along with economic circumstances? Agree or disagree with our assessment? Any other considerations we failed to take into account or details we missed? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
I live in South Georgia so out of state but closer to the parks than those in South Florida. I enjoy going for 3-4 days each “season” and twice at Christmas time but 3 day tickets are ridiculous cost and I can’t ever see doing a whole week again as children are grown. The math with the increases gets tougher to justify. I’ve integrated 2 Disney Paris and one upcoming Tokyo Disney into other trips and it’s so much more affordable. I’ve got until May to decide so wait and see. In the meantime it would do Disney good to realize not all out of state AP holders are far away.
I look a those Gold and Silver prices, and remember all the benefits we got from those at the time (Gold had parking, photos and no blackout, FastPass was still free, etc), and how wonderful those were for the “not-local” Florida Resident population, and it makes me very sad. It’s been “pay more to get less” for a while now, and that isn’t going to change. We’ve taken all that money that usually would have gone to Disney and used it to find much more interesting and unique trips, including a few deals to Europe. Honestly can say I don’t miss it that much.
Out of state AP’s have only made sense for people visiting for some combination of 14 days and up, whether it be two weeks at one time or some other combo thereof.
I decided to do the math on our next possible three vacations using pass hopper and pass hopper plus. First up is Dec 21 to the 26th, next is April 13th to 20th and August 17th to Sept 1st.
Not to belabor the point but if we were only doing Dec (5 nights) or April (8 nights) an AP makes no sense. And these are both during times when tickets are the most expensive.
So going Aug, during the cheapest weeks of the year, a 4 day PH+ ticket ($634,59)* and a 10 day PH+ ticket ($784.10)* = $1,418.69*. If you don’t want the plus, (plus adds water parks) you can subtract $20 from each or a total of $40 from the total, making it $1,378.69.
Obviously I’m not happy the AP is jumping up $100 but assuming I’ll get at least a 10% renewal discount $1,549 becomes $1,395. Considering the extras that come with it, most notably an extra 5% off rooms over general public offerings, it remains a sensible choice. It becomes much more logical if you visit for more than 14 days within a year.
Let there be no doubt Disney is really pushing it. Since 2019 almost every decision they have made has been wrong.
I am a Mets full season ticket holder and despite 2024 being a magical year my 2025 season tickets were reduced 17%.
* includes tax
I will likely renew my OOS AP because I usually go at least two times and often three times per year. One of those times is during Presidents Week because of the Princess races, which is expensive – a 6 day hopper for that time in 2025 is over $835 pre-tax. (Yeah, I wish they didn’t do the Princess that weekend every year – airfare is also expensive given that all public schools in MA are on vacation that week!) Assuming Disney continues the 15% AP renewal discount (bringing the price down to around $1317), that means I’d only need roughly $480 worth of tickets to come out ahead. Even during the cheapest time of year, that’s around 3-4 days depending on whether you buy a hopper or not. So if you “have” to go during expensive weeks, APs can make sense for fewer than 14 days.
You make another great point. We homeschooled so we’ve always gone during the less expensive periods. It’s all relative.
Tom, I keep re-reading your article from a couple years ago, “Is Disney World Eroding Fan Goodwill.” Yes, they have. You were correct to call it out then. Attendance is way down, and no one I talk to seems excited to go to Disney anymore. The newbs get sticker shock and write it off as unobtainable, and the veterans are discouraged and/or equally priced out. Aside from Inside Out 2, I don’t see a ton of IP sticking the landing to drum up business and merchandizing. I find it fascinating how China adapted their parks for the 4:2:1 model; four grandparents, two parents, one child. I almost feel like kids and families are becoming an afterthought to Disney adults who consume alcohol that boosts margins. IDK. I don’t want Disney to continue this death spiral, but there doesn’t seem to be any consumer-positive news for a long time coming to guests. I guess I’m grousing to the storm clouds, but their plummeting stock price should be a warning, no?
So this is where I become the problem that’s perpetuating this cycle for other guests. We live less than a four hour drive from Disney, which is still far enough away that we can’t just pop in on slower weekday evenings like the locals. We get more use out of our drive coming on holiday weekends where we get to use that Monday without using PTO, and we go for a week+ every year for Christmas. Block outs don’t work for us. Because of all this, we have the Incredi-pass.
We also have the highest two-park pass at Universal. Every year, the price hikes come and we have a discussion whether we want to renew both passes. We also know prices will soar once Epic gets added in a few years. So we know our “cheaper” UOAPs are going away soon.
But here’s the kicker…we’ve been to Universal a million times with our passes, and the older parks are getting somewhat stale for us outside of special events. We are very excited about Epic, but our pass doesn’t get us in. Giving up our UOAPs would be sad for us, but we would ultimately be ok with just buying single passes to Epic a couple times a year and would probably save money going that route. And maybe get a FL resident ticket if there’s a good deal every now and then to visit the other parks. We cannot say the same for Disney, where we can’t imagine going without the parks and our AP is still better for us than buying separate tickets every time we go. So at the end of the day, if we can no longer afford both passes, we’ll be dropping our UOAPs. I can’t imagine that many people feel the same, but it seems Iger and Co. are banking on it.
I’d actually imagine you are NOT that uncommon among Floridians.
Anecdotally, but everyone (or at least all of the “theme park people”) in our Central Florida friend bought UOAPs post-reopening. Many didn’t have them before.
Everyone has gradually dropped them for the same or similar reasons as you. Another big reason–it’s very common for one half of couples to not be able to do major rides at UOR due to motion sickness. Families with kids have lost interest because the parks aren’t very compelling for small children. The parks also aren’t as pleasant for “being there” purposes. A final big reason is that the parks close early–it’s very difficult to pop-in after work.
Universal gained a lot of goodwill among locals in 2020-2021 thanks to a lot of guest friendly gestures. It doesn’t seem like they’ve maintained that (both anecdotally and judging by wait times).
I have gone to Disney most years since I was a child. As my husband and I are the labeled “childless millenials” with great careers, we have the room in our budget to spend. I have been contemplating buying OOS APs for the last 2 years, but seeing these prices make me pause. We find ourselves looking at other destinations, but in all reality I could spend the same amount of money somewhere else just distributed differently. Here lately the savings for resorts ease some of the pain…but, if I plan a weekend trip and go to some place like Nashville I am paying $400 to $700/night for a hotel. I can pay less than $200 at a value resort and buy 1 or 2 day tickets…I’m spending about the same (not accounting for other expenses) but the experience will be totally different. Then my thoughts become less about ticket prices at Disney and more about what the hospitality and entertainment industry as a whole is doing to us.
You hit the nail on the head with the price discrepancy between other major cities and the Orlando area (it’s not just Walt Disney World FWIW).
Since you’re childless millennials…have you considered hitting the international parks? The next few years will be a great time to go, especially with nothing new at WDW.
This is interesting as we’ve done the same math. Nashville (where we live) is like most cities; if you’re willing to drive 15-20 minutes out of the city, hotel prices are much less, like half or less. Also, park tickets are per person, while the hotel room is one price for several people. Even compared to cities where we pay the premium to stay in the middle of the action (New Orleans for example), purchasing Disney park tickets for our whole family overwhelms the total cost of the vacation by comparison. As a result, our Disney trips have gotten progressively shorter and/or we find other activities outside the parks for entertainment. By comparison, the year we had Universal passes, we made 4 trips, stayed in their hotels, ate in their restaurants, and visited the parks sporadically as our moods dictated. The out of state prices for Disney passes have made them a non-starter. We would save money on 4 trips, but we won’t commit to 4 trips so the % of our vacation budget that goes to Disney has actually declined significantly over the last decade, even with us visiting once or twice a year.
Well, that did it for us! We will not be renewing our APs.
We relocated from the west coast to the east coast at the beginning of the year, and during our spring trip I was seriously considering rolling our tickets into APs. So glad that I didn’t after seeing these price increases, since we certainly wouldn’t be renewing and it would just hurt more to only have the AP for one year. My husband and I exactly fit your observations – with APs, we would make more frequent, shorter trips, where now we are focused on a once a year or once every other year “splurge” trip. Although I have felt less draw overall to the parks since reopening, and it is possible that there will come a time that my love of Disney will no longer be enough to make these trips “worth it” compared to all the other travel we enjoy.
We renewed our AP’s last month. Sadly it may be the last time. We let my husbands lapse as he cannot go for work issues and the last time he used his AP was last November. The greed is getting out of hand. I said to my husband, I go to the grocery store and purchase my groceries and then have to pay again on the way out. So if you are going to Disney World you pay quite a bit for a ticket. If you want to have a better opportunity to ride at least 5 or 6 rides you need the lightning lane pass. For the two of us for 5 days it has cost us just over 300 dollars on top of the annual pass. For as many times as we go we spend more ont the lightning lane than the AP. Now if you want to guarantee you get to ride ALL the rides you pay for the premier pass. That could run a family of 4 over 2500 just for a day in MK. Now add hotel and food. Sadly so many will start to vacation at other destinations. I am sad that Disney is not the way it used to be as far as the magic and happiness with the CM’s. No more Magical Express, luggage pick up and drop off or park packages delivered to the resort. So sad.
I decided years ago that WDW did not want out of state Annual Passholders. I have purchased Annual Passes since 2011 until WDW stopped selling them. When they came back with the big increase in price, I did not renew. With Annual Passes, we visited WDW 2-3 times a year, 4/5 days each trip since we had no ticket cost to consider. Now that we no longer have Annual Passes, we visit roughly every 18 months for 4/5 days. So instead of visiting 6-9 times (24-36 days) every 3 years, we now only visit 2 times (8 days) every 3 years. Thank you WDW for encouraging us to spend our travel dollars elsewhere.
That’s exactly what my wife and I had been doing since 2008. Now, Alzheimer’s has changed our plans and our last rip will be in December. Our kids will probably purchase our DVC property, but I think my wife and I are done. Disney just keeps pushing the envelope and unfortunately, long time, great supporters, out.
WDW’s antipathy for out-of-state APs is so baffling to me. Maybe they should survey us about our actual habits (or pull the data from our MDE histories! They have the information!), rather than send us the same park experience surveys after our trips. We typically alternate years (one year with AP, one year without) and have been doing so since 2019, when our passes were about $700 less than the new price! On off years, we don’t go to WDW; during AP years, we will make 5-6 trips, typically for 5-8 nights each. We buy Lightning Lanes, we eat at least one nice table-service meal every day, we stay on property at moderate and deluxe resorts. We “splurge” because the tickets are already taken care of. We bring friends with us who’ve never been and who want someone familiar with the parks to show them how it’s done. We frequent less utilized portions of the parks, like Carousel of Progress (a must do for my son) and Vacation Fun. We should be WDW’s ideal customers! And yet…
We were already taking next year off because we’re excited about Epic Universe and those APs are so much more affordable (plus we have Disneyland and DCL trips planned, so we haven’t given up on Disney entirely), but I’m sad to say that when our passes expire in December we most likely will never be APs (or take multiple trips a year) again.
We renewed our AP’s a few weeks ago in anticipation of a price hike. (Thank you for that, Tom!) just returned from WDW and my husband and I wondered if I should have done so. Lines are crazy, CM’s don’t have the same sense of cheer they used to (not that I blame them). We have been on the rides so many times that we don’t care to purchase LL. We often wish Disney offered a ride free pass. We are happy just being in the parks and seeing fireworks, Voices of Liberty, the Dapper Dans etc. We stay in Deluxe resorts and spend big bucks but don’t feel appreciated as OOS AP holders. This may be our last year as AP holders. Bittersweet. Our memories of Disney from the past are so different than the Disney of today.
Chiming in as another out of state AP holder for years who has finally had enough and let mine expire this week, before the announced price hike, with no plans to return to WDW for the next few years, at minimum. I’m not even sure any more if I am more sad or angry at this point. Both, equally and at the same time, I guess.
Ok, we’re out. After years of multiple yearly visits using our DVC points and annual passes, this is the proverbial straw. I remember excitedly looking for cheap airfare from Michigan to Florida. Loving the Magical Express and the luggage service. Being annoyed with, but working with *free* Fast Passes. But now Disney definitely doesn’t want us, and I feel we can use our money going elsewhere. We won’t be renewing our Annual Passes when they lapse in February. Your favorite festival will be our last for the foreseeable future.
And a belated happy birthday to little Megatron! She’s so precious! Enjoy every single minute with her!❤️
I agree with your thoughts on out-of-state APs. We have had them a couple times before and found ourselves taking 1-2 extra trips (with hotel, food, etc.) just because we had the pass. They definitely profited off of us. Our last AP’s were $855+tax each, so we’ve seen an 80% increase in not all that many years. Crazy. Heck, it even worked for DLP – an AP was a better deal when we visited for 3 days at Christmas a couple years ago, and then we ended up going to France on spring break and spending 1.5 days in the park just because we had APs! (France has also ~ doubled their AP price, so that no longer works either.)
Sorcerer AP here, but we’re OOS and now only do WDW every other year for many trips to utilize the AP, but after 2026, even that may fall by the wayside. We’re interested in staying DVC but going to Epic, and the lines for all the rides are kind of horrible. We have to go peak weeks for the kids’ school vacations, hate rope dropping, and refuse to buy the after-hours tickets or Genie+/LL, and we’re certainly not buying the new ultra-expensive LL option that is offered to folks staying Deluxe.
Honestly, after this year, I think just doing resort-only stays and maybe a VIP tour to get a bang for the buck, hit all the things we want, and then Uber over to Epic or Discovery Cove or Sea World, etc., is becoming much more appealing, or else just doing MNSSHP/MMVMCP as a one-off on our trips and filling our time with R&R at the resorts and going other places.
We’re also contemplating renting our DVC points for cash to vacation somewhere else completely.
Thanks, Disney, for pricing out your loyal APs and making the whole experience simultaneously more expansive but yet cheapened in the long run. Death by a thousand cuts is real. Removing AP reservations, yes, is a goodwill gesture, but that’s not enough to move the needle. Keep cramming all your guests in a shorter and shorter timeframe to ensure everyone feels they HAVE to buy LL/LL++ — or else skip Disney altogether and discover the Olympics in LA in 2028, national parks, and every other amusement park in the country that doesn’t require a second mortgage and advanced degree to afford and plan.
Yup! We can afford it, but now we won’t renew our Annual Passes. When Florida residents get deals, and screwing long time, out of state AP’s, we’re done. There are tons of other vacations we can take that are more fun than trying to work through crowded parks for a ride or two. We’ve supported Disney through thick and thin over the last 40 years and with record park profits, they just don’t get it or don’t care. I know it’s a business, but perhaps a better business plan is to focus on guest satisfaction.
Omg, Disney is now so greedy, they are literally pricing ordinary folks out. Its now so expensive and being long time Disney Holiday makers we wont be visiting anymore.
The park reservations for us are a joke. I literally book a reservation a few hours before we plan on going if we want to go before 2 pm or on a weekend to MK. The only time the park reservations make any sense are around the holidays, and we don’t want to go on those days anyway. We have been there, done that. We spend thousands less per year at WDW now than we did pre-COVID (and we live 20 miles away), and this trend for us is likely to continue going forward. The Disney experience just isn’t what it used to be, and most of our friends and families from out-of-town have either lost interest or are only interested in visiting only once every 5-10 years. With Epic Universe opening next year, Universal will be their top priority now.
All I can say at this point is that Disney’s management apparently has a death wish.
Totally agree, I thought Chapek was killing Disney, but now its a new team.
Wow. And this increase in the face of major competition opening in May 2025. Seems like a risky move to me, but they are also impacted by inflation. And construction and development costs.
I’d be reluctant to give them a because due to inflation.
To be sure, Walt Disney World’s costs are indisputably higher–they’ve discussed as much on earnings calls. I’m not suggesting otherwise.
What I am suggesting is that WDW prices are largely dictated by supply and demand, and divorced from inflation. They aren’t like a grocery store operating on tight margins–they increase prices when they can, because they can.
That’s what makes this year really interesting (to me). With the big price increases in 2022, it made sense–pent-up demand is still going strong. But right now, attendance is down, nothing new is on the horizon, and Epic Universe is preparing to open. Raising rates in the face of all that is bold. Let’s see if it pays off for them.
If Disney park prices are dictated by supply and demand and demand is down, then that either obviates that contention or they’re just, as some have said, greedy. It would appear that Disney’s focus in the past few years has gone from providing an entertaining park experience to pumping up their stock price. Frankly, I’m having a hard time understanding why.