Disneyland Ticket Price Increase: “Star Wars Surge”
Disney California Adventure and Disneyland 2019 ticket prices increased overnight on 1-day, multi-day, and Annual Passes. The jumps range from under 10% on single day tickets to nearly 25% on APs with no blockouts during Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge’s grand opening. In this post, we’ll look at the big changes and offer some commentary.
First of all, none of this is even remotely surprising. We knew at least one price increase was coming before the debut of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. If you’ve read our 2019 Discount Disneyland Ticket Buying Guide, you’re familiar with this. Previously, we expected the first price increase last fall, around the time Walt Disney World moved to date-based pricing on multi-day tickets (which was originally expected for Disneyland, too).
While we didn’t expect the “Star Wars Surge” in early January, it’s hardly unexpected; we just figured it’d be in February, like normal. Whether the timing is simply coincidental or deliberately moved forward to put more space between this price increase and another in Fall 2019 is a good question, and one we can’t really answer. That’s probably contingent upon just how large of a driver Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge is for attendance.
Here are the old versus new prices on Disneyland tickets:
- 1-Day, 1-Park (Value) up to $104 from $97
- 1-Day Park Hopper (Value) up to $154 from $147
- 1-Day, 1-Park (Regular) up to $129 from $117
- 1-Day Park Hopper (Regular) up to $179 from $167
- 1-Day, 1-Park (Peak) up to $149 from $135
- 1-Day Park Hopper (Peak) up to $199 from $185
- 2-Day Ticket up to $225 from $210
- 2-Day Park Hopper up to $280 from $260
- 3-Day Ticket up to $300 from $280
- 3-Day Park Hopper up to $355 from $330
- 4-Day Ticket up to $325 from $305
- 4-Day Park Hopper up to $380 from $355
- 5-Day Ticket up to $340 from $320
- 5-Day Park Hopper up to $395 from $370
The biggest increases come to the higher tiers of Disneyland Annual Passes. Deluxe goes from $729 to $799, Signature from $999 to $1149, Signature Plus from $1149 to $1399, and the coast-to-coast Premier jumps from $1579 to $1949. The only APs that will have access to Disneyland for the summer once Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge opens are the Signature and above.
Parking is also up by $5 per day, likely in part because they can and in part to encourage car-pooling by Annual Passholders. Even with the new parking structure likely to be finished in time for Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, there are still concerns about the local infrastructure buckling under traffic demands.
As has been expected for a while, MaxPass has increased from $10 per day to $15 per day. Even at the new price, we’d still recommend it for busy days, and if it includes easy access to the Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge attractions, it’ll be worth it every single day of the year for that alone.
The interesting thing about the Star Wars Surge is that it occurs in the midst of an unprecedented Disneyland ticket sale, with travel dates January through May 2019 offering general public deals that are typically only available to Southern California residents.
In other words, you can mostly side-step this price increase on single and multi-day tickets between now and May 23, 2019 simply by purchasing tickets via this deal. Granted, those specials have some blockout dates and don’t apply to anyone renewing their APs, but the point is that this is largely a ticket price increase being announced now that won’t totally take effect until June.
That’s why we’re calling this the “Star Wars Surge.” It’s not like this is some secret or insightful analysis by us; these prices are obviously being driven by the new Star Wars land. Galaxy’s Edge is expected to open in June 2019 (lightly pencil in June 23-24, 2019 on your calendar), and tickets before it opens are on sale to lure guests to Disneyland, whereas ticket prices are increasing afterwards to capitalize on what will likely be significantly heavier demand.
It should also be of little surprise that the biggest Star Wars Surge is on Disneyland Annual Passes–particularly those that will have access to Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge from day one. While price increases on the lower tier APs are relatively modest, if you want to see Star Wars land before August, you’ll be buying single or multi-day tickets, or paying over $1,000 for your Annual Pass.
We saw this coming a couple of years ago, and we predicted some changes in our “The End of Disneyland as a ‘Local’s Park’.” While not all of the predictions in that article have come to pass (yet), there’s little disputing that Disney is going in the direction of positioning Disneyland as more of a tourist destination a la Walt Disney World.
As Annual Passholders, this impacts us disproportionately. Our Annual Passes increased in cost by $370 each, which is the biggest jump I think we’ve ever seen. That definitely stings, but I can’t really say it’s unfair. We’ve long said that if prices are going to increase, the burden should be disproportionately borne by APs, rather than those planning once-in-a-lifetime or infrequent visits.
We detail the burdens created by Annual Passholders in that ‘No Longer a Local’s Park’ article above, and I’m not going to relitigate any of that here. I know it’s a controversial perspective, especially among a readership that likely contains a lot of Annual Passholders.
As for those planning vacations, this is not nearly as bad as expected. If you’re doing a 3 to 5-day trip, you’re paying a total of about $20 more per ticket. That certainly adds up if you’re a family of 4, but it’s honestly not nearly as bad as we anticipated. Perhaps this is because these visitors are the demographic Disneyland wants to court, and the amounts tourists will spend inside the park on food and merchandise is also forecast to be pretty staggering.
(Quick aside: if you’re planning a summer trip for Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge and haven’t yet booked your hotel, do it now. Book something with free cancellation if you’re not totally sure what you want yet. Once third party hotels know the grand opening of Star Wars land, you can expect many/most of them to spike their prices pretty dramatically–to a degree that makes the Star Wars Surge on tickets look paltry by comparison.)
Overall, it’s going to be an interesting year at Disneyland, and ticket prices are just one of the many things that you can expect to change. We’ll be following everything, and trying to provide you with advice to navigate it all.
If you’re preparing for a Disneyland trip, check out our other planning posts, including how to save money on Disneyland tickets, our Disney packing tips, tips for booking a hotel (off-site or on-site), where to dine, and a number of other things, check out our comprehensive Disneyland Vacation Planning Guide!
Your Thoughts
What do you think of the “Star Wars Surge” on ticket prices at Disneyland? Surprised by anything? Angered or understanding about the price bumps? Do you agree or disagree with our assessment? Any questions? 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!
It’s all a rip off
Guess they don’t want Annual Pass Holders anymore……….oh well………not a fan of their attitude about that. 🙁
Do you think the Premier Pass will increase again when the WDW prices go up, or do you think that was already built into this increase?
I sure hope WDW’s increase was built into this, but nothing would surprise me at this point.
Hopefully the extra 23% will be enough for both coasts.
Will you be able to get access to Galaxy’s Edge with a park hopper pass? Keen to do Disneyland and Galaxy’s Edge, but not fussed about the adventure park.
Tom, what are your thoughts on buying etickets for DL from one of the official ticket retailers like Undercover Tourist or Get Away Today (that you’ve promoted in the past)? Do you think that buying them now for a summer trip would provide any problems? We’re going in July, and I’d prefer to get our tickets now at the old prices, but I’m worried DL might try to do some sort of black-out because of Star Wars. I would appreciate your thoughts.
I don’t disagree with you. Cedar Point was $72.00 for adults to get into last year (granted that was the gate price, easier to find tickets for much cheaper before the trip, but I believe that’s the same as prices above, what you’d pay at the gate, not if bought in advance, but I could be wrong). If you go on a value day for Disneyland, it is $104. Yes, it is more expensive, but I wouldn’t say it’s out of the ballpark in terms of prices. The peak day price would be a little hard for me to swallow. But if this is a vacation for me and where my family wanted to go I’d find a way to pay it. I don’t goto Cedar Point because the value of it isn’t worth the price of admission to me (partly because I don’t like thrill rides and at that price there isn’t enough for me to do). Disney has it’s faults for sure, but I still view it as a lot better than the amusement parks near me (some would disagree) so I get paying a premium for it. I’ve never met anyone that likes a price increase and if Disney goes too far they will have to reassess. The crowds this year at least at WDW have been reportedly lower than usually. Time will tell if it’s because of costs or people waiting for Star Wars. My guess is it’s a mix of both, but as long as people keep going and they turn a profit there is no reason for them to lower the cost. Unfortunately, that does put some families out of reach of the trip and might make some not see the value anymore, but that’s life. I’ve stopped going to movies, as many sporting events, etc because I’ve deemed it no longer worth the value. I’ve taken that money and applied it towards other experiences that I also enjoy. Those who still find a value in it, will find a way to continue to go…even if it means not as much.
I totally agree with all of this. Everyone has their financial and mental limits, regardless of the subject matter. It will be very interesting to see how pricing across the board is impacted by GE…especially if the economy keeps doing what it’s doing or worse.
While Disney parks are pricy, I wouldn’t say that the price relative to the content is out of step with the industry. In fact, I would say you get a better value in that respect. If a person looks at theme parks across the country, of varying sizes and quality, s/he might be surprised at the ticket cost in relation to what the park offers. We have a theme park in our city. It’s $40, and while that includes admission to the water park as well, the quality could not be more disparate. The parks are 1) much smaller without the ambiance, characters, and similar enhancers, 2) not nearly as clean, 3) the employees couldn’t care less half the time, 4) not to mention the up charge for everything from parking to dining packages and skip the line wristbands. We have friends who have never been to a Disney park. They really enjoy our local one. My husband and I, on the other hand, are floored by the stark differences. If we ignore whether or not we have the means, there is no question we’d rather spend $400 for one day at any one Disney park than $160 for one day at our local park. The differences in value are that glaring. Not that Disney doesn’t have its faults. Not that it isn’t expensive. But I do think, in relation to the industry, they still offer far more bang for the buck.
I agree
Boycot disney. $100 is too much to pay for a ticket, much less $400. If they want to become billioniers, buy a lottery ticket. Dont skin the people who work for thier living.
Monopolization is the theme. Disney World does have ticket prices that are as much as SIX times the opening cost, adjusted for inflation. They have done tens of billions in stock buybacks and dividends, while raking in enormous profits (recent year as of Sept. was $13 billion with over a billion in tax breaks). The problem is that consolidation and monopoly pricing is getting worse everywhere. Note: Disney is a government-granted IP monopoly and Mickey Mouse is the most pivotal case in IP law.
From the Harvard Business Review: “Using data for all publicly traded U.S. firms from 1950 to 2014, Jan De Loecker of Princeton and Jan Eeckhout of University College London found that markups rose from about 18% in 1980 to 67% in 2014. That’s good for shareholders, of course, but it’s not so good for consumers or the overall economy.” The New York Times has reported data from the Open Markets Institute that shows a huge consolidation since the government stopped collecting the data in 1981. It’s appalling: “Since 1980, median productivity growth among both advanced and emerging economies is 1.75 percentage points lower than it was in the three preceding decades.”
Disney has waited a long time to even add capacity to its parks: “Measured against GDP, corporate after-tax profits are almost double what they were 25 years ago – and higher than at any time since World War II – yet business investment as a share of GDP is up only 13% over the same period.” Even entrepreneurship is suffering: “In the U.S., the rate of birth of new firms (as a percentage of all firms) fell from above 13% in the late 1980s to around 8% in 2015, according to the most recent official data. The number of jobs created by businesses less than a year old dropped from a peak of 4.7 million in the late 1990s to 3 million in 2015.” Everything is about the myopic shareholders and not the products and consumers.
I absolutely love that you researched this answer to share, thank you! And, while Disney compared to the market may be somewhere within target range, the economic changes within our society is increasingly disproportionate – in favor of the top 20% of earners. As a married theme park enthusiast local with no kids, I have a hard enough time justifying any theme park experience these days based on how a visit impacts our bottom line; no idea how families afford this, especially those I see who earn somewhere in the 40-60% “true middle class” range (not to mention anyone below that middle). That said, while I ended my AP a year ago and will not renew until at least a year from now, my recent Six Flags experience to avoid lines made Disney look cheap (even with the MaxPass increase), Disney food much more appetizing, and overall Disney experience so far superior, until something is done to change how capitalism operates systemically, it will be Cedar Fair and Disney for me all the way. Thanks again for reply! And thanks DTB for the article!
Hello! Do you have any inkling whether the same massive Star Wars-led increase is anticipated for WDW tickets? We’re planning to purchase annual passes in April before our June trip, and I’m wondering if we should buy them much earlier than that to avoid a potentially huge price hike.
Oops–posts crossed. Just saw the answer to this below. 🙂
What will this mean for tickets at WDW? Should people planning a trip for fall buy their tickets today in case they go up tomorrow? Star Wars is opening there, too. If that is the reason for the sneaky early price increase at DL, it would make sense the same will be happening for WDW. Any day, in fact.
If you have the means, it would never hurt to buy earlier rather than later. We fully expect a price increase at Walt Disney World before Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge opens, but we don’t know when.
Right now seems a bit soon since the last price increase, but you never know. It’s also entirely possible that Walt Disney World will quietly adjust prices upwards for different time periods without any fanfare. Their system is so complicated that they could do that without it being as much of a major story.
Do you think the Premier Pass will increase again when the WDW prices go up, or do you think that was already built into this increase?
Advocating for price increases and calling them fair is falling right into the false marketing trap for Disney. I really disagree that annual pass holders should bear the brunt of the price increases. One would think that by virtue of their repeated visits, the park stands to make money from AP holders. The logic that since they SPEND LESS (per visit) they should PAY MORE also falls into the false marketing trap. I would venture to guess that AP holders provide the incentive for Non-AP holder family and friend visits. AP holders are also brand loyal, which pays off in the long run.
As for me, I will not be drinking the “Price increases are deserved” Kool aid or “The parks are too crowded” (despite hardly any non-holiday phased closures) Kool aid, especially in this era where Disney seems to be focused on providing less and charging more for it. There is also evidence that Disney is intentionally understaffing the parks during certain time periods while still charging full prices. This negatively impacts the guest experience and can hardly be called “fair”.
I also am not buying into the “We’re going green for the environment!” BS. If you need a bag to carry your purchases, Disney now just CHARGES you a dollar for a bag… How is that saving the environment when a NECESSARY bag is involved? Going green in that case just means more green in Disney’s bank account.
Perhaps it’s best if fans and bloggers stop putting the company profits first and foremost and focus on advocating for desperately needed guest experience improvements. That might be something that more of us can get behind.
Charging for bags?? Say what???
I can agree with a lot of your perspective…for Walt Disney World.
However, this is a post about Disneyland ticket price increases, and the California parks have a unique AP dynamic–and problems of their own due to size and infrastructure of the resort. (I’ve also never observed or heard of issues with Disneyland manipulating capacity, as WDW has done in the past during slow seasons.)
really sad.. How do they expect a family to afford this? To have their children live the dream of goung to Disneyland?
Out of curiosity, what are they supposed to do? Keep prices the same? Lower them? Attendance keeps going up at Disneyland so obviously people will pay these prices. Disneyland like anything else we buy or choose to spend disposable income on is a choice. You don’t have to pay their prices but as long as they provide the best amusement park experience, I’d expect that price to keep going up.
One of my friends is married with 3 kids and they were finally able to go on a trip to both parks late last year. It cost them a lot and they had to make sacrifices to finally make that trip. But they choose to have 3 kids so of course everything you do is going to cost more…They had to save up and I’d expect other families will have to do the same thing. Disneyland is supposed to be a special place and those kinds of trips are worth saving for.
Do you know if we wanted to upgrade our Deluxe passes to the Premier if it would be at the old rates or the new?
Does ticket bridging still work to save on Annual Passes? I wasn’t expecting this increase until February and didn’t by my pss yet!
It did when I went to WDW December 14-20th, this doesn’t mean it still is in effect though.
Demand continues to outpace supply on disney parks. The consumers are continuing to be willing to pay these ever-increasing prices and I’m surprised the prices increases haven’t been more rapid. It will be interesting to see when (or if!) the rate of increases will ever slow down
-Michael
Paying for MaxPass felt odd after having (roughly) the same thing built into the ticket price at WDW. We had it 2 days of our 3 in the parks and probably got 4 extra FP over the day with it. Is that worth $10-15 per person? I’m not sure.
Hi Tom, Did you know you were quoted in a Barron’s article about Disney & Bob Iger?
https://www.barrons.com/articles/how-bob-iger-seeks-to-work-more-magic-at-disney-51546045063
Have a Magical 2019!! I’m headed back to WDW in late Jan.
Wow Congrats Tom!