Price Increase on Snacks & Drinks at Disney World
Walt Disney World has once again raised food prices across the hotels and parks, with some significant increases at outdoor vending carts and on counter service menus for beverages and popular snacks. In this post, we’ll share the new prices, and add our commentary as to whether we view these price trends as sustainable in the long term.
Here’s a partial rundown of the price increases:
- Regular soda: $3.99 – up from $3.29
- Large soda: $4.49 – up from $3.49
- Coffee: $3.29 – up from $2.79
- Orange Juice: $4.99 – up from $4.29
- Bottled soda: $4.50 – up from $4
- Bottled water: $3.50 – up from $3
- Powerade: $4.50 – up from $3.50
- Mickey Pretzel: $7 – up from $6
- Mickey Ice Cream: $5.75 – up from $5
Some people are bound to defend these price hikes with retorts like, “if $1 more for a pretzel is make or break, you shouldn’t be vacationing at Walt Disney World in the first place.” To be sure, it’s highly unlikely that any of these price increases will be the straw that breaks the camel’s back in terms of vacation affordability. Presumably, Walt Disney World is counting on that.
Where these price increases, and the barrage of across the board hikes, do the most damage is in terms of perception. No one is going to cancel their vacation upon reading this news, and it’s certainly not going to make headlines on the nightly news or in the mainstream media (as has been the case with ticket pricing and parking charges).
For regular guests, this news is just the latest in a long line of stories about Walt Disney World nickel and diming guests. It’s unlikely to be what turns them off of a WDW vacation, but the cumulative impact of this type of news could do exactly that.
Even among first-timers and infrequent guests, this image seems more pronounced. There’s always been the running joke that every ride exits through the gift shop, but lately there’s been an odd proliferation of guests wearing homemade (or Etsy-made) shirts emblazoned with phrases like “Disney ATM,” “Most Expensive Day EVER!” and lines about working to support Disney addictions.
The notion that there’s no such thing as bad publicity doesn’t apply here, but Disney has no one else to blame for the burgeoning market for this apparel. (Now the question is whether Disney will make its own shirts like these–does profitability or dignity will win out?)
This is all fun and games now. While we’re not huge fans of shirts like that, we realize they are worn in jest. However, the underlying sentiment rings true, and that is something the general public will remember in earnest once the economy goes south.
When you couple the acute awareness of Walt Disney World’s priciness with regulars who are growing increasingly frustrated with the blatant cash grabs, there’s the potential for real issues. We sound like a broken record harping on the impact of consumer confidence on travel and tourism, but it is a big deal.
People are willing to laugh off the expensive nature of a Walt Disney World vacation right now as they are confident about their economic prospects, but what happens when confidence in the economy is not so high? The U.S. economy has been growing for a while now, and it’s hard to imagine that we aren’t at or near the late cycle phase. That doesn’t necessarily mean another recession is right around the corner, but a slowdown likely is.
When that inevitably occurs, some people will have second thoughts about booking a Walt Disney World vacation. Not everyone, but it doesn’t take everyone for there to be a big impact on hotel occupancy and attendance. Even 10-15% of people hesitating due to perceptions of pricing is a huge deal.
Of course, Walt Disney World benefits in the short term from people who purchase snacks on impulse and those who need their Coca-Cola fix. In the immediate future, it seems unlikely that the loss of sales from people balking at the increased prices outweighs the added revenue from the price differential.
There’s also the added byproduct of the value perception of the Disney Dining Plan improving. This could lead to more purchases of the Dining Plan from people who do the math, or simply peruse online menus and are taken aback by high out of pocket snack and drink costs.
As for us, none of this will affect us in the least. The last time I purchased a large soda at Walt Disney World, it was $3.29 (so, two years ago). I remember that because I flinched at that price, and realized it was an unnecessary expense. Even before then, we had mostly switched to using these Mount Hagen Organic Instant Regular Coffee sticks. The last time I purchased large sodas with regularity, it was the good ole days (~4 years ago, I believe) when they cost $2.79.
We sometimes get odd looks as we mix up our own coffee, but as caffeine addicts, we “need” our fix. (It’s not even close to the weirdest thing we do in the name of blogging.) There’s no way we’re spending ~$60 on a week’s worth of caffeine at Walt Disney World. In that sense, Disney has saved us money, because if prices were still in the realm of reasonable, we wouldn’t be doing this. (On a related note: we highly recommend grocery delivery–read our tips for having groceries delivered to your Walt Disney World resort at a reasonable cost.)
To be sure, this price increase, as with all past price increases, is a calculated decision with clear advantages for Walt Disney World. However, those advantages lie entirely in the short term. As with a lot of moves Disney has made in the last couple of years, there are also potential negative repercussions in the long-term. We’ve been sounding this same alarm bell for over two years now, so at this point you might be inclined to disregard our commentary, but it will happen at some point. It may not happen in the near-term with Walt Disney World’s golden goose set to debut in a little over a year, but we maintain that this is not a viable long-term strategy for a vacation destination that still largely caters to the middle class.
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 these and other recent price increases at Walt Disney World? No big deal for you, or a reason for concern as you plan where to take future vacations? Do you agree or disagree with our commentary? Think there will be long-term consequences for Disney resulting from its pricing trends the last few years? 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!
As long as Disney’s parks remain full, Disney will continue to increase prices. Not until people stop showing-up will price increases slow, and at that point, it may be too late for Disney to recover. That is how Disney operates — what matters is short-term profitability. The interesting questions involves longer-term viability. Currently, middle-age folks with kids are emotionally attached to Disney. This emotional attachments motivates us to return with our kids and grandkids year after year regardless of price.
Will that same emotional attachment be instilled in our kids and grandkids? I really do not think so, but perhaps I am wrong. Disney really is quickly pricing itself out of reach of a good portion of the population. This means that millions of kids will grow-up having zero emotional attachment to the parks.
My family will be able to afford a Disney vacation regardless of price increases, but we are a tiny minority. I live near Disneyland. This year, for the first time in 20 years, I did not renew our season passes. I simply could no longer stomach the price increase; it was an emotional reaction. At Disneyland, prices have increased far beyond inflation, but service has not kept pace. This combination of increasing prices without commensurate service became too much for me.
My parents worked at Disneyland and met there. I worked at Disneyland in college, as did my cousins and siblings. I know actors in the shows. In short, I am really, really attached to Disney. If I am becoming jaded and losing my emotional attachment, it is hard for me to believe that others are not reacting similarly.
I had done pricing for QS in August to decide if the QS dining plan was worth the cost for us next year. Noted least expensive and most expensive items at every QS. Noticed already Restaurantosarus dropped double bacon cheeseburger at the most expensive. Katsura Grill dropped the combo that included drink and Ice cream off the menu as well, so the same items will now cost $2 more. These are just two examples I found. So while prices may have risen in general the higher priced items that cost Disney more have been done away with, making the plan not as much of a saving to us.
For visitors from the UK these prices hit real hard with the exchange rate £ to $ being low. We have been long time Disney fans staying for long periods at a time. We stopped using Disney hotels due to pricing and now will be taking more snacks in the parks with us and have a meal when we leave. Due to our age and mobility lots of the rides are now beyond our capabilities, fair enough, they are needed for the next generations but with no senior/mobility challenged reduction in tickets and now not able to dine in parks probably time to call it a day. We can no longer recommend the parks to first time families from UK anymore as fear the costs for them. Disney are excluding so many families and I don’t think Walt envisaged such class/wealth distinctions happening.
At least I am not going crazy.. we were there last week and bought Mickey bars after a particularly stressful Thunder Mountain ride for my 6 yr old son and they were $5 each. Then we bought them at the end our our trip and paid $5.75… thought we were imagining the price difference. (Also though water was different but not sure). These increases are crazy… we love Disney but after this last trip not sure if the cost equals the benefits… especially with the increased wait times we experienced the last few days. It costs a small fortune for a family of five.
Gina, definitely. I don’t care what individual board members or executives believe in their own time, but the company needs to be more realistic and stay out of the right vs wrong leftist crap. Concentrate on entertainment and stay out of politics!
The Gunn thing is beyond idiotic. The hypocrisy is sickening with the Hollywood crowd.
We just came back from Disney in Sept. we took our 2 1/2 yr. old granddaughter who loved it beyond words she was so excited. We started planning and paying on our Disney vacation 2 yrs ago so that we could go. I am just so disappointed in Disney I have always been a Disney fan since I first went in 1979 and now they just keep increasing prices to the point where we may not go again. I wanted my granddaughter to enjoy and love Disney as much as I do but these price increases are ridiculous. The food at Disney is mediocre at best, the quality is certainly not worth the price. As far as ticket prices are concerned when you are waiting 2 hours in line to get on a ride where is the value because a large part of your day is spent waiting in lines and not riding.
I agree Disney should be able to do what they want, but let’s not be confused here. This is outright greed. It is about showing the Street that they can have substantial growth every quarter, every year. Their leadership is being short sided with their decision making, more worried about today’s dollars than next year or next generation.
I for one cannot wait for the Disney bubble to pop so that they will bring back executives who understand why people have a passion for Disney. Ever since George Kalogridis took over in 2013 Disney has become an elitist vacation destination. Then they added Bob Chapek years later, fresh off of running Disney Consumer products into the ground, and now we have $7 pretzels!
Wow, I’m definitely the odd one out here in that I don’t see the price changes to be that outrageous. Yes, I work hard for my money but I feel that I get good value for my dollars at a Disney theme park. It makes me happy and so it’s worth it.
Geri, you are definitely on the wrong side of this discussion. Let me put some perspective here. Just look at the price of 1 20oz soft drink at WDW, then multiply that by 6. If you saw a six-pack of cokes for $27 at your local store, you would scream right there in the isle, and start knocking things off the shelves !!! And WDW buys in bulk, so they probably pay around $2 per six-pack. Look, I get it, Disney has a lot of bills, and I certainly want them to pay their employees $20 an hour, or more. I just think they could show tremendous good will , by at least keeping a few things relatively inexpensive. Keep your bottled water and sodas around $2 each, and maybe $2 to $4 for a small and large popcorn. Is that asking too much. You can keep charging $10 for a $3 hamburger, but at least show us a little mercy here. Last time I checked, popcorn was very cheap !!!
You’re way off base Gary. Sure, the prices are a lot higher than what we pay at home. No matter where you go, you can’t compare purchasing a single cola or beer to a grocery store six pack price. That’s asinine. The bad thing here is that disney doesn’t pay anything for the syrup, Coca-Cola gives it to them for advertising. That’s why they don’t sell better things like Pepsi and RC. But overall, people are bitching way too much about this.
yep, a drop of compassion would go a long way with me.
I resent Disney hiking up the prices, but as a long time resident of Orlando, I doubt Universal will be any cheaper. I’ve noticed that when Disney raises theme park parking rates, Universal & Sea World quickly follow suit and raise theirs to just as much.
PS: I sent a link to George Kalogridis’ e-mail of this article & told him to read the comments. Got this reply back today:
Thank you for your letter to George Kalogridis about pricing of food and beverage offerings at the Walt Disney World Resort. Your correspondence was forwarded to me so that I may personally respond to you.
We are sorry for any disappointment with our recent increase in the price of our offerings. From time to time, we evaluate our offerings and make adjustments based on a variety of factors. Please know all of our Guests’ feedback is important to us and your comments will receive careful consideration during our ongoing pricing reviews.
Gina, thank you again for writing to us.
Kindest regards,
John Raley
Brand loyalty is a two-way street and Disney just blocked off the road
I just returned from a few days there. It looks like they are headed toward movie theatre prices on sofas. If course we don’t pay $150/day to go to a movie.
We noticed the increases and dealt with it by sharing meals and drinking water primarily. Food & Wine? We bought one for the three of us, we each had our own forks we carried with us.
The parking is a true insult, particularly added to the “resort fee.” Also they are pricing Minnie vans out of their usefulness.
What’s next? Purchase a bus/boat/monorail pass?
Just wait til you see the price increases when Star Wars land opens.
This just makes me feel better about the disney dining plan. We always save money on it (character dining is the best), and those snack credits now look like an even better deal.
Agreed! We had considered our next trip without a dining plan (a first for us) . Now we will stick with our tried and true method. I would rather know EXACTLY how much food will cost far enough in advance that food price increases won’t take the glitter off of our vacation with Mr. Mouse.
So, and I’m just guessing here :-), that the long term strategic vision of the Disney Corporation is to have only 500 people visiting each of the four Disneyworld parks on a daily basis but each paying $25K per day. That should about equal the yearly revenue at the parks.
We’ve been 5 out of the last 6 years, as a family of 6, all but 2 years staying in Deluxes with the other 2 years staying at moderates, but I am perceiving a gouging of “the guest’ while at the same time a decline in quality. This is not a good combination, so while we are still going to go, we have decided to now go about once every 3 to 4 years, instead of yearly.
I just returned on Monday with my husband and son, I found an invoice from my trip in 2015 with my family of 4…..I went one less day this time, took one less person and spent $200 more for the exact same accommodations, etc. as last time, talk about inflation!! I did notice service was slower, bathrooms were less clean, cast members seemed less happy and it wasn’t really busy. It will definitely be a long while before I return.
$7 pretzels, Mickey Mouse Shotglasses being sold at Epcot, alcohol being served for breakfast in the Magic Kingdom…Walt is rolling over in his grave!! Not just a money grab but lack of consciousness to Disney vision.
Great points Joan. WDW is also trying real hard to make 50% of America want to boycott the company because of their far-left, liberal views. ABC,Disney,and ESPN are showing their liberal bias on a daily basis now. I hope Walt is not looking down on this.
Gary–agreed! The Disney Company has gotten so it tries to enforce its leftist values on its employees, denying them their jobs if they dare to disagree. Look at Rosanne Barr & James Gunn. I’m not saying their views were right, but I’m defending their right to express themselves in a supposedly free country where freedom of speech is guaranteed by the law. But Disney has put themselves above the law, acting as leftist mercenaries, calling everything they don’t agree with hateful. James Gunn even apologized for his years-old tweets, but Iger would still not re-hire him, even at the request of the Guardians of the Galaxy cast. I guess forgiveness is not one of Disney’s values. I e-mailed the Walt Disney Company about this, and never even received even an acknowledgement that they had received my letter. I had saved the text, so I re-mailed it, this time directly to Iger. No response yet. He probably thinks as a conservative, I am sub-human & not worth replying to. I have a friend I had from the 80’s. She used to be such a supportive friend, and respectful of people having different opinions. But lately, she’s gotten so far left that she didn’t even care when I told her of my recent health diagnosis. She just said it wasn’t deadly, so I should be grateful. I wrote back and told her “You’ve just lost a friend.”
Gary, we’re in agreement on this. Disney as a company really needs to be more neutral and realistic. Walt’s father was a socialist, but he was anything but one. I have a much bigger problem with this ridiculous slant than the admittedly annoying price increases.
Gina, James Gunn was brought down by an alt-right radio personality, and had the support of a good many left-wing people and media organizations. At any rate, freedom of speech in America means citizens can speak without fear of imprisonment/arrest/prosecution. It does NOT protect their jobs, especially when they are employed by private companies. Freedom of speech does not equal consequence-free speech.
Stephanie: Thanks for informing me of this in a tactful way instead of using name calling or lashing out. I sincerely appreciate that. I read up recently on censorship laws in the US, and saw they do not apply to businesses. But I think they should, and I have e-mailed the White House about this. If the President is not the one who can get a bill submitted to make it illegal for companies to enforce their values on their employees &/or customers (I read last night that Pay Pal stopped doing business with some person/organization for its views. I don’t know what these views were or if I agree with them, but I’m still angry for their sake.), then I will e-mail my senator. I don’t think we should just have to take this just because it’s not illegal yet. This is the year I am no longer sitting back and just letting things happen without having a say. As you may have seen elsewhere on these comments, I e-mailed the CEO of WDW with a link to these comments, and warned him WDW is losing customers.
Just another in a parade of insults and injuries to Disney loyalists. I’m a Florida resident, annual passholder, and have been a WDW regular since the summer of 1972. When I got married, I turned my wife into a WDW fan and then raised a family of WDW lovers. Though we are FL residents, we never do day trips, choosing instead to stay at the monorail-seviced resorts (usually the Poly) on average every 2 months. 5-6 trips per year. So far in 2018, 5 separate multi-night stays. But the ever-increasing Disney greed is blowing the lid off the magic. Constant dining price increases, annual passes going through the roof, and earlier this year the nastiest knife-in-our-backs of all– parking fees at the resorts. Upwards of $30/night to park at a resort that is already charging us around $600/night on average. Really, Disney??? EVIL!! For the first time in nearly 50 years as a lifelong Disney fan, I’m growing weary of it. Very weary. The increases are so blatant, so in-your-face, it no longer feels like magic; it feels like being mugged. And believe me, it’s not boredom with the park. My family and I love escaping to the Disney Bubble. I would have been a frequent visitor until the day I died, but because of the blatant ever-increasing money grabs, to be 100% honest, I’m considering letting our annual passes expire… something I NEVER thought I’d ever do. We probably won’t go cold turkey just yet, but maybe it’s time to cut back to one Disney trip per year and just buying day passes instead.
Maybe consider an off site hotel? Many have free parking and shuttles to the parks.
No thanks, that totally defeats the purpose. Did it one time many years ago, and quite frankly it sucked. If you’re going to the expense of a Disney trip, it’s all about being fully immersed in the Disney Bubble. The bubble is broken if you have to travel off-site. Plus, you can’t make quick round-trips back to the room during hot days to freshen up or grab a cold drink. We only stay at the Polynesian, Contemporary, or Grand Floridian (depending on pricing at time of booking) because the Bubble includes the monorail. No bus, no hotel shuttle, and certainly no driving. Valet gets the car and we don’t see it again until checkout day. We booked 1 time at the Wilderness Lodge out of curiosity, because you can take the ferry. Sometimes we take the ferry at night back to Poly or GF, because it’s a relaxing end to a long day in noisy crowds– and it’s often faster than the monorail, which tends to get a bit backed up if you leave right after the fireworks. We’ve never stayed at any of the Moderates, because there is no monorail or ferry service. Just our preference.
Jay, if you can afford to stay at the monorail resorts, these price increases are not of any significance to you.
Read my original post. It’s not one singular price increase. It’s the whole picture. Annual passes going up double-digit percent, newly-added parking fees that add $100-150 per trip just to PARK where you already spend $600/night to sleep. Price increases on the rooms. Food price increases. These aren’t inflationary increases, because inflation has been under 3 percent for years. No, this is greed. Disney clearly decided long ago to be BOLD in their increases, because they know people will pay.
Jay, i’d agree that overall the increases look greedy. But if you can afford those resorts the increases aren’t nearly the same as for most people.
Jeb, is a business free to make money? You bet! But Disney Corp has more money than God, and pretty much prints its own at this point. So while it seems a pipe dream to hope prices of anything Disney would ever decrease to reflect profits, many find it disgusting and absurd that Disney has been on a nonstop cash grab these last few years, charging for “perks” that used to be complimentary (parking, etc), gradually raising prices on out-of-pocket daily park expenses (food, drinks), and implementing a too-complicated sliding park ticket fee system, just to name a few. And the “thin out the crowds” argument is sad and classist. It’s not nice to view people/families as undeserving of a glorious Disney vacation experience just because they have to save and pinch pennies.
The concept of “price gouging” is silly… a business is trying to make money? –this is my shocked face–but as Tom said, there may come a point where people are grossed out by how expensive things are and give up, which is bad for Disney and probably not good for fans. On the flip side, who doesn’t want to see the crowds thin out a little?
My family and I have been to Disney 15 times it now I have to startthinking about going again. Disney is gouging the public once again. It makes is harder to think about visiting again. I used to drive from NJ to Disney and park at my hotel. Now you have to pay a daily rate to park at your hotel? I think the only way to go is to brink your own food and snacks. What I say is SHAME on you Disney!