Date-Based Pricing Coming for Disney World Tickets
Walt Disney World has finally announced a roll-out for the date-based ticket pricing hinted at earlier this year. Beginning October 16, 2018 on DisneyWorld.com, guests will purchase multi-day tickets priced by the first date of visit. In this post, we’ll detail the new ticket-buying process, and speculate about what this means for prices and the future of visiting Walt Disney World.
In terms of logistics, when guests purchase tickets online, they will start by using an interactive online calendar that displays different prices based on the start date guests choose to visit, as well as some conditions and ‘add-ons’ for their ticket, such as the “Flexible Dates Option.” This interactive calendar will also allow guests to see the lowest-priced days each month.
In viewing screenshots of the new system, it looks a lot like some airfare booking engines, albeit with pre-published prices that are date-based rather than dynamic. Irrespective of that, the motivations behind the schemes are similar: demand. Walt Disney World indicated that it’s making the change to date-based tickets and pricing to better distribute attendance throughout the year.
Walt Disney World has posted a quick video from which you can glean quite a bit more about how all of this will work. We’d encourage you to take a couple minutes to watch this:
Okay, so a few things. First, we wouldn’t spend too much time freeze-framing the video trying to gain insight into new ticket prices (even though we may or may not have done exactly that). As the video clearly disclaims in the bottom corner, “prices shown do not reflect actual prices.”
We would anticipate that some dates will decrease in price while the majority increase, similarly to what occurred when Walt Disney World shifted to seasonal pricing on 1-day tickets a few years ago. A Disney spokesperson indicated that this is the continued evolution of that, with date-based pricing rolling out for multi-day tickets and being further segmented for single day tickets.
Disney’s rep also stated that new single day prices would range from $109 to $129 for single day, single park tickets, as compared to current prices ranging from $102 to $129. Additionally, the price distinction between Magic Kingdom and the other parks will be eliminated.
Second, there are a lot of steps to complete the ticket-buying process. As sites like Amazon have aimed to streamline and ease their online checkout process, it’s odd that Disney would be making things more difficult. It’s fair to point out that booking components of a vacation is not akin to buying an inflatable dinosaur pool float. However, numerous studies of online shopping behavior have concluded that each added click (or layer of resistance) leads to abandonment by customers, and a lower conversion rate.
Prior to this being announced, one rumored reason for the delay in it being rolled out was the cumbersome booking process that was “still being perfected.” Even though many of you reading this are doing so as Walt Disney World veterans who have years of experience planning trips and seldom are confused, that’s not the norm for first-timers. Confusion and frustration are pretty common.
As a blog that is popular among people planning once in a lifetime Walt Disney World vacations, we see this confusion countless times per day. People are overwhelmed and perplexed–and those are the people who are doing their homework and trying to plan in the first place. These changes will only compound guest confusion, and further solidify Walt Disney World’s spot as one of the most difficult vacations to plan.
As much as Walt Disney World might want to make this sound simple with phrases like “seamlessly planning,” “simplify the booking experience,” and “easier ways to plan” in their press release about the changes, it’s pretty easy to see through that. This further complicates what was already a complicated vacation planning experience.
Moreover, it’s not as if Walt Disney World is world-renowned for its robust and fail-free IT infrastructure. We can’t help but wonder what kind of service outages and problems will occur come October 16, 2018–and how long they’ll last. To that end, we’d advise booking FastPass+ and Advance Dining Reservations before then, as it could be a frustrating day (or days) for the My Disney Experience app and DisneyWorld.com.
We also wouldn’t be surprised if this process and pricing continues to be tweaked between this October and November 2019. If Disney notices its online conversion rates are dropping, or a surplus of confused guests are showing up to the turnstiles with the incorrect tickets, or feedback surveys reveal dissatisfaction, further refinement is likely. This is being introduced in October 2018, but the goal is probably to have it running smoothly for the Late 2019 debut of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge.
In addition to releasing this info on the Disney Parks Blog, a FAQ about these changes has also been sent out. One item of info that we think is interesting concerns modification–Walt Disney World will allow modification prior to the ticket start date: “If the ticket is changed to a higher priced date, guest will be responsible for paying the difference in price. There will be no refunds to changes to lower priced dates.”
This is unsurprising, and is likely a result of Walt Disney World anticipating problems with guests purchasing the cheapest possible tickets, trying to use them on busy days, and then playing stupid. With this new modification policy, rather than the harsh potential extremes of allowing guests to use this as a money-saving ‘hack’ or forcing them to repurchase tickets entirely, Cast Members at the turnstiles can turn them away and advise them to go ‘upgrade’ their tickets to the correct dates.
Finally, and most importantly to anyone reading this blog as a planning resource: “Will I need to pay more for my ticket if I already purchased it prior to Oct. 16? No. Please be sure to check the specific terms and conditions on your ticket to confirm the expiration policy.”
It should go without saying, but we would strongly encourage you to purchase your multi-day tickets prior to October 16, 2018 if you plan on traveling sometime before December 31, 2019. As we cover in our Tips for Buying Discount Walt Disney World Tickets post, authorized third parties have tickets for sale with a first-use between now and December 31, 2019, and buying those now to lock-in current prices and the flexible price scheme are highly recommended.
While Walt Disney World has emphasized that this change is about offering better value and redistributing crowds throughout the year, we’d caution people about being too enthusiastic about the upsides here. We’ve been down this road before with single day tickets going to seasonal pricing, and at that time the majority of tickets increased in price. We would expect the same here, with fewer than 25% of dates staying the same or decreasing in price.
Walt Disney World wants to be able to pitch this as a price change rather than a price increase, but for most guests, it’ll be a price increase. Moreover, while Disney might present it as a way to redistribute crowds, it’s real aim is undoubtedly to increase per guest spending and decrease operating costs. The increased spending is obvious, coming via the higher prices. The decreased operating costs will occur via Walt Disney World having greater insight into attendance in advance, and adjusting staffing and capacity accordingly.
Expect crowd trends to change slightly, but there’s only so much they can change. Peak seasons are not the most crowded because they’re objectively the best times to visit, but because they’re most convenient. Hotel prices and airfare already reflect this, and act as a means of “discouraging” visits at certain times. Radical price differences on hotels and airfare has already proven mostly ineffective at redistributing crowds, and there’s no reason to believe a less-significant difference in ticket prices will be more persuasive.
Even if you somehow get lucky and your dates don’t increase in price on October 16, you can be 99.999999% sure all prices will increase between now and the opening of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. Oh, and you might think we’ve been emphasizing Star Wars land a lot, even in seemingly unrelated posts–almost nothing happening between now and next fall is unrelated to Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge.
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 new date-based ticket pricing coming to Walt Disney World? Disappointed that planning will become even more complicated and rigid, or pleased with the potential for scoring value-priced multi-day tickets? 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 have several unused10 day passes for Disney World with the intent to go to the world in 2020.
With the revisions to ticket pricing, Are the passes still good for whenever we plan to go? No additional fees would be charged? Whether the pass is 10 days or 5 days, they continue to be good for 14 days after first use?
Is it a good time to Comaider purchasing multi day tickets for future trips?
How do you think this will affect ticket bridging for annual pass holders?
And it is not going to reduce crowds significantly. I am a teacher and cannot go in the middle of September. I am bound to school holidays, the most expensive time for: flights, car rentals, DVC rooms, and now Disney admission tickets.
I guess there are not going to be any more ticket deals from Disney directly with this new system. Boy they better hope there is no future recession like the early 2000 period where they were desperate for those of us that go often to come in droves.
Hi,
Are Florida residents tickets affected by this new system?
Isn’t this also going to guarantee that the parks will be overloaded at all times now? Cheaper costing off season tickets would be more attractive to consumers thus filling off season, if there is such a thing anymore. Kind of hurts passholder doesn’t it?
Thoughts?
Expect the current prices to be close to the baseline for what the lowest-price tickets will cost going forward, so “cheapest” is a relative term. It’s not as if people are going to be able to score half-price tickets making some dates a real bargain–far from it.
What if I book a reservation now that saves me a 2 week window and i decide to drop a few days once we hone in on our exact dates, would that cause my package price to change? I wouldnt add days, only drop.
Your thoughts?
Yeah this is starting to get messy. With current Hopper +, how are families supposed to use all their days within the limit? They are basically forcing you to squeeze your vacation in a short time even if you are there for longer. Oh well, even though I am a DVC member, it will mean shorter vacations at Disney and more of my money spent elsewhere in Orlando. Universal anyone?
Do you think they will be like airline tickets and fluctuate prices with demand, or certain dates will cost a certain amount no matter when you buy them. Just wondering if last minute price drops will become a thing if attendance is otherwise low, or if tickets will sky rocket as more people buy them.
“Do you think they will be like airline tickets and fluctuate prices with demand”
Disney has been pretty emphatic that this will *not* be the case.
Personally, I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s a “feature” that’s introduced at some point in the future. Not in the first year, though.
Tom…how is the ‘Date-Based’ pricing different from the prices varying by ‘Season’ that Disneyland (and I thought Disneyland) has been doing most of this year?
This is a lot like that, except instead of 3 seasons, there will be more like 10+ (and the seasons will be eliminated).
Why would an annual pass voucher be more beneficial? Aren’t tickets worth the same amount as the current ticket price of when you bridge?
Do you think AP price will be even higher than bridging at the gate?
What are your thoughts on how (or if) this will affect the ability to upgrade a pre-October 16 multi-day ticket to an annual pass? Planning to upgrade our 5-day park hoppers (from Undercover Tourist) to APs during our trip in December. Thanks!
Unclear at present, but this is such a significant change that I’m betting it will affect ticket bridging in some way.
If you haven’t already purchased the 5-day tickets, I’d consider buying an AP voucher instead–good chance there will also be an AP price increase in October.
Thanks for the information! We’re planning a series of trips in 2019-20 and planned to purchase Annual Passes in December for May activation (to beat the usual February price increase). Has there been any indication of how this new policy will impact Annual Passes – what they cost and how they can be used?
If I am visiting from the UK my first day at the park was to
Be 4 July 2019, should I buy tickets from Disney official website before October ? Or through virgin Atlantic will my price be fixed ?
If you book something, via Disney or a third party like Virgin Atlantic, prior to October 16, your price will be fixed.
If you book on or after October 16, you’ll be paying the new prices.
Will this affect the price of tickets included in a vacation package or only if you are buying tickets alone (without a package)?
“Will this affect the price of tickets included in a vacation package”
Yes.
How would that affect pricing on third party sites like undercover tourists?
If Disney changes its system and raises prices, so too will all third parties. They might still be cheaper than Disney, but they will have to utilize the same system.
The bigger issue is whether third parties will be able to go live with the new system right away–I could see it taking longer for them to get it up and running if it’s complex.
But the current stock of tickets that they have should still be valid….right? So, in other words….buy from them first?
I like the change. I feel like it will help disperse the crowds for popular dates. It’s also a good thing for travel agents. People will get frustrated with the online process and seek personal advice.
I disagree. I think if it has any effect, it will be minimal. The “Seasonal Pricing” that Disney has been using for a year has had no effect on crowds. Most people aren’t that flexible on when they are going. They go when they can go…summer and school breaks.
Now whether this will be a boon to TA’s….I totally agree on this.
I don’t know if this is something anyone can answer: we use Military Salute tix (which I know haven’t been announced for 2019 yet), which have to be activated at Guest Services before we enter our first park. If we activate our tix on arrival day (say at DS like we usually do), will our “days” start then? Or will they start the first day we actually enter a park?
In other words, if we activate a 5-day park hopper on the 1st, but don’t go to a park till the 3rd, do we have until the 9th to use it? Or the 11th?
Your Salute tickets shouldn’t expire. It’s always been my understanding that any days left are valid until the last day of the year the tickets are valid, normally around the 20th of December. In any case, even if they do expire, it wouldn’t start counting until you actually use the tickets. When you activate the tickets, all they do is switch the voucher for an actual ticket, just like anyone else’s park ticket. You’d have to take it through a turnstile for it to count towards a day used.
I have watched and paused the video a few times, and from what I can tell is that unless you go at the absolute cheapest times of the year, you will be paying more, obviously more if you select the higher priced day of the week as your start date.
I had concerns, like some others here, about the elimination of the stay more, save more, but in the video you can see right before they click how many days, that there is the reduced amount per number of days. They selected 4 days which had a base of $79 which is the same now. As Tom mentioned earlier, one possible way around selecting the highest priced day as your start day is to select a day or two prior which could be cheaper since even though you have to pay for the current 14 day expiration, you are getting a grace period (video showed 7 days on a 4 day ticket so not sure what the grace period would be for other day tickets).
If you are staying on property (or even off property) there really shouldnt be much of a difference other than cost, since you know what days you are booking your stay. One problem may be for instances like my in-laws where they are staying 2 weeks and only going to the park a couple days the first week with us and then a couple days the following week with my brother-in law. The 7 day grace period wouldnt be long enough for their 4 day tickets.
Lastly, to their point about trying to shift attendance away from the busy times, there is a reason why they are the busy times; that is when people can get away for that amount of time of the year and implementing this isnt going to lessen the crowds.
FWIW, here is the table about use periods from the email FAQ. I probably should’ve included this in the post itself:
Ticket Duration
Valid Use Period
1-Day Ticket
Only the start date selected
2-Day Ticket
Any 2 days within 4 days beginning on the start date
3-Day Ticket
Any 3 days within 5 days beginning on the start date
4-Day Ticket
Any 4 days within 7 days beginning on the start date
5-Day Ticket
Any 5 days within 8 days beginning on the start date
6-Day Ticket
Any 6 days within 9 days beginning on the start date
7-Day Ticket
Any 7 days within 10 days beginning on the start date
8-Day Ticket
Any 8 days within 12 days beginning on the start date
9-Day Ticket
Any 9 days within 13 days beginning on the start date
10-Day Ticket
Any 10 days within 14 days beginning on the start date
This helps quite a bit and clears up some of my confusion. Thanks. However, this “use period” could give many people problems, especially if they get the Park Hopper Plus option. For my family, we get the two day PH+ which gives us water park, theme park, water, theme. That fits the four day limit. But if you get a longer PH+ ticket, thinking to use the same water / theme park rotation plan, you don’t have enough days. A five day PH+ could give you 10 different days of theme & water parks, but the limit is eight days.
Pay more, get less. Hate to say it but I am losing faith.
Do you think it’s risky to buy 10-day park hoppers now with the intent of upgrading them to APs in 2019 when I activate the tickets? I assume Disney will always take MORE money from you and happily upgrade you.
In this case, I think you’re better off buying Annual Pass vouchers now and redeeming them later. I wouldn’t be the least bit surprise if this new system ‘breaks’ ticket bridging, and I think AP costs are going to increase significantly between now and next year. Hedge your bets.
Hi don’t know if it’s related to the IT for the new pricing but the My Disney exoerience App has been messed up for weeks due to a series of failed “magical enhancements.” And cast members seem completely unaware of how to handle this with the guests. What a mess!
Will be onsite in days and have everything from missing dinners to doubled up tickets in the app. Wait times are almost 2 hours to get to a live person. . And no end to the pain in sight. Am going with a small block of rooms and am sad to say Disney has already lost its allure for the first timers in our group. Such an uncharacteristicly terrible time all around.
As they continue to drive us to the app for all things so they can push mega crowds through the park- and add complexities like Play and dynamic pricing- well they better rethink their stance on IT.
We are going in just a few days and I had to call twice Sunday (reservation changes that I couldn’t do on my app grrrr). Both times, I was told 30 minute wait. Both times, it was 30 seconds! On a Sunday afternoon! If you can, try calling…. I hope you have a blast!
I just made my FP+ reservations this week and had horrible problems. When I called I was met with 2hr wait times. The same happened when I made my ADRs. It gave me a magical headache!!
Do you have any idea if it will impact tickets in the UK? We can buy a 7 or 14 day Ultimate ticket and its currently the same price all year round either through Disney Direct or websites like Florida Tix or Attraction World. If I was to buy a ticket for less than 7 days on a third party site in US Dollars for example Undercover Tourist will this be the same?
We are going end of Feb / Mar and haven’t bought tickets yet.
If you buy tickets on Undercover Tourist, they will be good through the end of the year on the current structure.
*Clarification, if you buy tickets through Undercover Tourist they will be good until Dec. 31, 2019, so stock up now!