Disney World Ticket Prices Increase for Remainder of 2019

Walt Disney World ticket prices for the remainder of 2019 have increased on 1-day and multi-day tickets, with jumps ranging from under 10% on some multi-day options to nearly 25% on peak holiday pricing. In this post, we’ll look at the changes and offer commentary on the likelihood of more Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge price surges.

While this is occurring a bit later than last year’s first increase, it is worth noting that there were effectively two price increases last year. First was the annual February bump, followed by the switch to the date-based pricing structure in October, which was a price increase by another name (the vast majority of prices increased then and only a sliver decreased in price).

Nevertheless, this is not even remotely surprising. We knew at least one price increase was coming before the debut of Star Wars land, and Disney recently announced that the first phase of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge would open early at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. At that point, it became a matter of ‘when not if’ with the next price increase.

Covering this Walt Disney World ticket price increase is a bit more challenging than past ones because the date-based system is harder to track than the previously-published rate charts of past years. As we’ve previously noted, this is probably by design, as it allows Disney to quietly raise prices on the calendar without an announcement.

We don’t know the full extent of the price increases, but we do have a few examples. The biggest gains are for single day tickets during the peak week between Christmas and New Year’s Eve, which are now $159, up from $129 previously. Several other holiday dates around Easter, Memorial Day, and prior to Christmas now cost $139 per day.

At the other end of the spectrum, single day ticket prices remain $109 for many off-season dates, and this includes most weekdays in September 2019, which is immediately after the debut of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. By this point, Walt Disney World undoubtedly has internal projections (based upon hotel occupancy and other data) about attendance for this period. It’s interesting that they’re still expecting it to be off-season.

Multi-day price increases are more challenging to ascertain, but we’ve heard of price increases of as little as ~$1 per day for some August and September travel dates to as much as over $10 per day for peak season dates. We’d expect these increases to track closely with the jumps to single day tickets, but we didn’t have the foresight to save before/after prices, so we’re unsure. (We’ll rectify this for the future!)

Curiously, Annual Pass prices have not increased…yet. (Aside from the water parks one, which makes sense given we’re approaching that season.) We’d put the likelihood of APs remaining at this price for the opening of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge at around zero, so it would behoove you to buy a voucher now if you want to lock-in current pricing on Annual Passes. If this price increase is any indication, Walt Disney World won’t be giving guests advance notice ahead of that.

On another interesting note, standard parking prices have not changed, but preferred parking has dropped to $45 per day in regular season, while remaining at $50 per day during peak seasons. Previously, every day preferred parking was $50. This change is probably for the simple reason that preferred lots were sitting close to empty on off-season days, as there’s less of a “need” to buy it when the parking lots aren’t busy.

If you’ve read our 2019 Discount Walt Disney World Ticket Buying Guide, none of the price increases should come as any surprise. In that, we predicted two price increases this year–in February and October. While we missed the mark on the first increase by a month, we stand by that two price increase prediction.

At this point, we’re going to stick with October as the second price increase prediction–maybe the tail end of September. That’s far enough after the opening of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge that it wouldn’t be picked up and lumped in with mainstream news coverage gushing over that land, but still early enough to capitalize on the busy holiday season.

Worth noting is that Undercover Tourist has a limited supply of their “old” inventory of discounted Walt Disney World tickets. If you’re traveling between now and December 31, 2019, we’d again strongly encourage you to buy now because (spoiler alert) Walt Disney World tickets will only continue to increase in price between the debut of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge and Walt Disney World’s 50th Anniversary.

The real question is how many more times will prices increase this year? As mentioned above, it’s unlikely that anything will change between now and the late-August debut of Star Wars land, but another bump immediately after the opening is conceivable.

This is especially true if early attendance numbers for that new land beat expectations, or if projections for the holiday season are high. It seems unlikely Disney would try to squeeze another increase in after that (meaning a total of 3 this year), but we’re in uncharted waters with Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge.

Overall, we’re not really sure what else to say about the latest price increase at Walt Disney World that we haven’t already said…several times. It’s been four years since we published Are Walt Disney World Tickets Too Expensive? (The prices “back then” now seem like a bargain by comparison!) More recently, we posted Is Disney Eroding Fan Goodwill?

At this point, as long as the economy is strong, consumer confidence is high, and Walt Disney World is debuting high-profile (and marketable) additions, attendance will remain strong. We do question how well this strategy will play out in the long term, but suffice to say, don’t expect attendance to be any lower as prices continue to go up.

Planning a Walt Disney World trip? Learn about hotels on our Walt Disney World Hotels Reviews page. For where to eat, read our Walt Disney World Restaurant Reviews. To save money on tickets or determine which type to buy, read our Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets post. Our What to Pack for Disney Trips post takes a unique look at clever items to take. For what to do and when to do it, our Walt Disney World Ride Guides will help. For comprehensive advice, the best place to start is our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide for everything you need to know!

Your Thoughts

What do you think of the latest round of ticket price increases at Walt Disney World? Are you disappointed? Apprehensive/puzzled/curious by September 2019 still being considered off-season by Walt Disney World? 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!

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