Prices Increased on Hundreds of Food Items at Disney World
Walt Disney World has kicked off 2022 in style, increasing prices on tons of food items around the parks, resorts, and Disney Springs. These include pretzels, popcorn, burgers, hot dogs, bottled beverages, Dole Whips, Mickey Mouse ice cream, beer, cocktails, and more. This post shares a sampling of the price jumps, plus our commentary about why this is happening and whether these price trends are sustainable in the long term.
Unlike past price bumps that impact outdoor vending carts or counter service spots or table service restaurants or bars, these are fairly widespread–everywhere from the kiosks at Typhoon Lagoon to the drink menu at California Grill has been impacted. In fact, hundreds in the headline is no exaggeration–if anything, it’s underselling the scope and scale of this increase.
There’s a strong possibility that over 1,000 menu items have had their prices increased as of January 2022. Unfortunately, there’s no comprehensive way of tracking the before and after of every single menu, so we’re not quite sure. However, virtually every menu I’ve checked has been impacted–this is the most sweeping food price increase in the last couple of years.
Some items at outdoor vending carts only increased by $.25 to $.50. Others increased by more, with Dole Whips up by $1 and many alcoholic beverages doing the same. Many appetizers and entrees at table service restaurants are up by $2 to $3, with burgers and other meats at counter service restaurants up by $.50 to $1.
If you’re visiting Walt Disney World soon, plan to increase your dining budget by about $1 per item. While some things didn’t increase at all and others are only up by $.25, that’s still about the average when you factor in the many entrees that jumped by $2 or $3.
This shouldn’t come as a huge surprise. Anyone who has stepped foot in a grocery store in the last several months knows that the cost of food is increasing. The cost of meat, poultry, fish, and eggs in particular has all skyrocketed. The USDA tracks a breakdown by food type in its Food Price Outlook page (towards the bottom there’s a spreadsheet with percentage changes over the last 3 years).
Per Bloomberg consensus data forecasting, consumer prices likely surged by 7.1% in December. That’s up even further from November’s 6.8% year-over-year rate, which had been the fastest pace in 39 years–since June 1982.
It should go without saying, but businesses attempt to pass higher costs on to consumers. This is clearly what’s happening at grocery stores, and explains the entirety of higher “food at home” prices on the CPI. However, you might notice that “food away from home” has not increased in lockstep with its grocery store counterpart. Whereas the latter is up by 6.4%, the former is up by 5.8%. This is despite higher labor costs and the industry still in the midst of a recovery from 2020.
One potential explanation for this is trepidation among restaurants about their ability to pass on higher prices to consumers without seeing a corresponding drop in demand. Of course, many do–especially lower margin locations that simply are not economically viable otherwise.
However, not every restaurant or other business has the ability to simply pass on higher input costs to consumers, across-the-board. In fact, you might recall that during Disney’s fourth quarter earnings call, CFO Christine McCarthy was asked about the impact of inflation on Walt Disney World.
She started by saying this was a question that’s on the minds of every CFO and senior management team running companies in the United States, noting that Disney is watching inflationary pressures and trying to manage them.
In addition to raising prices, McCarthy discussed managing costs: “We can adjust suppliers. We can substitute products. We can cut portion sizes, which is probably good for some people’s waistlines. We can look at pricing where necessary. We aren’t going to go just straight across and increase prices.”
“We’re going to try to get the algorithm right to cut where we can and not necessarily do things the same way. We’re producing technology to produce some of the operating cost. That gives us to absorb some inflation. We’re trying to use our heads here to come up with a way to kind of mitigate some of the challenges that we have.”
Even prior to McCarthy’s infamous “waistline” comments, we had noticed that portion sizes have become noticeably smaller post-reopening, with quality cuts along with them. There are a number of restaurants where this has been noticeable, and it has gotten so bad at Flame Tree BBQ that we rarely dine there anymore. (That’s just one specific example of many.)
The point is that Walt Disney World is not just increasing prices. They are reducing portions, decreasing quality, and raising prices. Obviously all three of those things aren’t happening on every single item (kind of difficult to reduce the size or quality of a 20 ounce bottle of Coke!), but they’re making these “adjustments” wherever possible.
While it’s clear now that Walt Disney World is going to try to pass on some of those costs to consumers, it’s erroneous to assume that this was an inevitability, or that Disney prices are predicated upon its costs. After years of increases, menu prices are wholly divorced from input costs.
As we’ve said before, Walt Disney World charges what the market will bear, increasing prices not at the rate of inflation or because its costs are rising at a commensurate level, but because they can. Walt Disney World is an extremely savvy and sophisticated business that maximizes profits to the greatest degree economically feasible. It’s not as if they have been “holding back” and could’ve unilaterally increased prices even more prior to this.
Presumably, Disney waited so long to increase food prices because there was internal uncertainty as to how consumers would react. Not in terms of vocal complaints or outrage on social media, but behaviorally. If the extra $.50 here or $2 there causes more people to balk at impulse snack purchases, buying more booze, or even eating another table service meal, it could be counterproductive.
These items are all profitable even pre-price increase, so it’s not as if Disney “needs” to institute them in order to remain economically viable. It’s more a matter of wanting to maintain its margins without seeing reduced demand. Now that consumers are accustomed to the impacts of inflation on food, perhaps Disney felt that would give them cover to raise prices–that people would more easily accept the prices as out of Disney’s control or commonplace in the market. It’s likely that many guests will shrug off this news, numb to headlines about inflation or skyrocketing food costs.
In the near-term, it’ll be interesting to see what impact this has on guest spending. One relevant consideration here is that Walt Disney World’s dining capacity is still not back to 100%. This disproportionately impacts table service restaurants, where Advance Dining Reservations have been in short supply for much of the last year. (I’m actually somewhat surprised Disney didn’t capitalize on the previous supply-demand imbalance, and raise prices on table service menus months ago.)
Even absent price increases, that trend may not have continued as before. The busy holiday season is over and even if the next couple of months don’t end up being a typical winter off-season, they almost certainly won’t be as busy as the last two months. As things continue to normalize—the labor market, household savings, and supply chains—there could be less of an issue with all of this, anyway. For their part, many economists are forecasting food prices to stabilize in 2022.
Anyone reading Walt Disney World planning resources is likely aware of having groceries delivered to Walt Disney World resorts at a reasonable cost and can avoid at least part of this price increase by bringing their own snacks to the parks. You’ll still get hit by the price increases at table service restaurants, but the amount you save should more than offset that increase.
On the spectrum of things that are significant or important to a Walt Disney World vacation, pretty much anything sold at outdoor vending carts is on the super low end. These aren’t iconic meals, snacks, desserts, or specialty beverages that only Disney does. That’s even true of churros and Mickey-shaped novelty snacks, all of which have comparable counterparts at Costco. Pack your own snacks and allocate your dining budget towards food that’s actually unique and delicious.
Eventually, this could catch-up to and be self-defeating for Walt Disney World. To be sure, they’ll reap some short term revenue gains by charging a bit more for various foods. Guests may balk at prices for some unnecessary purchases, but not everything or everyone. The people who are already at Walt Disney World are largely a captive audience.
However, these decisions also have long term ramifications that can far outweigh the immediate gain of the current quarter. The biggest consequence of this and every recent price hike will eventually be in terms of perception. We’ve mentioned this before in the past, but there’s a cumulative impact of these increases. Even if this is not borne out right away, they do take a toll on guests and change how people view Walt Disney World’s value proposition.
It’s unlikely that many people will cancel their Walt Disney World vacation upon reading this news. If the end of free FastPass, Disney’s Magical Express, etc. wasn’t the straw that broke the camel’s back, this probably won’t be, either. Rather, this is yet another gradual annoyance about Walt Disney World nickel and diming guests, the cumulative impact of which eventually changes behavior.
Right now, visitors wear “Most Expensive Day Ever” (among countless other designs) Etsy shirts half in jest, while still visiting Walt Disney World. They’re willing to laugh off the expensive nature of a Walt Disney World vacation as they are comfortable with their personal economic circumstances and the overall cost of the trip, even if grumbling about it. That won’t always be the case–but we’ll spare you further commentary about Disney’s perception and reputation problem. For years, we’ve been saying this is a long-term liability; given that it has yet to catch up to Disney, maybe it never will.
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? Think this is a natural consequence of inflation, or another example of Disney getting more greedy? Will these price increases impact your plans for future vacations? Do you agree or disagree with our commentary? Think there will be long-term consequences for Walt Disney World 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!
At our recent visit in December 2021 we really noticed a decrease in the quality of the food at Boma and Sebastian’s bistro in particular and won’t return to them again. The cost of the good quality food was very high
So the inflation thing: It’s worth noting that people have studied this, and it appears corporations are raising prices more than their costs are actually going up, and this would certainly qualify given the degree of increases (especially with table service).
Even worse, since some of the current inflation is temporary due to gas prices and supply chain problems, corporations have an excuse to raise prices while their costs will later *decrease* again. Will they then lower prices to compensate? In Disney’s case, definitely not. So we’ll end up with permanent price increases, and ultimately a permanent increase in Disney’s margins. It’s pretty disgusting.
As for the types of cuts. Cutting portion sizes? Fine. I don’t care that much. I rarely finish entrées anyway and would rather get an appetizer/dessert on vacation.
Quality and price, when they’re already making everything more expensive over and over again? Yeah, no.
We have a trip planned. If we didn’t have a DVC rental, we’d be cancelling for this and other reasons. As it stands, we’ll have to go to avoid forfeiting that money, but I’m expecting it’ll be a very long time until we go again. We usually take short trips every other year, and large ones every 3-4 years. I think we’ll likely wait 6-7 years before our next Disney trip, if we go at all.
Inflation is running rampant all over the country due to the economic policy of the current administration. Yes, Disney could absorb some of this, but it anyone thinks that isn’t due to the current state of the economy is kidding themselves.
I have a feeling this is going to do very little for most people or Disney. I have heard complaint after complaint, on social media, blogs and even in the parks. Will it make any difference? No. People will go anyway. I doubt it will actually make any change. People will still go. And that is what Disney is expecting. As my wife and I however, we’ve been discussing ways to find better bang for buck. You can get so much more at other locations. I wish others would figure that out as well.
“We can cut portion sizes, which is probably good for some people’s waistlines…”
Hahaha! How incredibly pretentious and absurd for her to say that out loud–and an overly-generous description of current Disney portion sizes to boot. I’ll pay Disney these increased prices for certain items, but not for their unsolicited opinions on their customers’ physiques.
These new prices and ticket practices will touch them. We are are heading out for our 2022 annual DW trip in a few weeks (we live in California and have been doing this for many years), and we are sticking with just the 4 of us as we did last year while in other years we have had larger groups (up to 15 – that was a task!). We have decided this will be our last annual and while we love DW and will continue to go, it will now be a every 3rd year trip (we are DVC so that timing makes sense for us). Universal Florida will be now be our destination the other 2 years. 3 years ago we took the Grandkids there and stayed on site and found the hotel excellent – and came with front of the line ticket passes which made the experience as good as the older DW fastpass process.
As we have discussed in the past when the economy slows I see Disney having a harder time
when the economy turns south. When we have a downturn or reccesion it will be hard for people to justify the costs when times are tough. Also I think Covid has pushed people to Florida as they are one of the few states that are fully open that has massive tourist destinations like Disney. I see this dropping as covid goes away and will Hurt Disney in my opinion if travel opens up to everyone without a bunch of red tape.
In the past I would go down as the parks were not crowded when the economy was bad. The difference in the past was it used to be affordable in all aspects back then.
Now I don’t know if I would go when the economy slows and crowds thin out because the prices are so out of hand at this point.
Disney used to be cheaper than other vacations but now with prices it costs now the door opens to other options when the costs are at these levels.
I think Disney will be fine in the near term but could have issues down the road in my opinion.
“For years, we’ve been saying this is a long-term liability; given that it has yet to catch up to Disney, maybe it never will.”
I’ve been thinking this for some time. We all keep waiting for a day of reckoning and it never seems to come.
I’d give you my 2 cents but it’s gone up to 18 cents and it’s not worth it anymore.
I’ve been to Disneyworld last December and I was planning to be back on September. I actually bought an Universal annual pass and I would have bought a Disney AP too, but it wasn’t on sale. Luckily, because I’ve decided to skip the September trip. I enjoyed my last trip less than in the pass. Genie+ was frustrating when I bought it (only for Magic Kingdom and the Studios, like you recommended) because of the bugs and useless complications and annoying when I didn’t have it (because of longer lines). And I am a DVC member, so no way I’m going to buy individual lightning lanes for attractions I have done or will do countless of times.
I still enjoy the parks, but I’ve decided to go less often and rent the extra points.
From one point of view, their plan is working: I’m going to spend more when I go and my place will be taken by someone else when I don’t.
But at the same time, renting my points means one fewer person booking an hotel room direct from Disney. They’ve created more competition for themselves.
While any price increases tend to make consumers balk initially, I think anyone who was previously paying the snack prices will continue to do so. They certainly weren’t “cheap” to begin with, and the increases won’t really move the needle much for the total vacation cost. Snacks are the easiest thing to bring into the park – our family of 5 bought essentially no drinks or snacks in the parks for a week long trip. The big ticket items that actually make a difference in budget (hotel room specifically) will be interesting to see. It’s hard to pay Polynesian prices with housekeeping every other day. If that trend stays, I would reconsider our hotel choice. Extra dollar for a special Dole Whip treat is more of a eye roll, but won’t stop me from getting one!
They pretty much priced me out of future WDW vacations, even before this increase. It just doesn’t seem worth the planning hassle at the price they are charging. My son has really wanted to see the Star Wars stuff, so I booked him a birthday trip to Disneyland. It’s still pricey, but seems like a lot less hassle. We may become regular Disneyland visitors (we’ve been once before, but that was a decade ago). I’m also very interested in a Universal Florida vacation. Thank you for all the great posts.
PS. Could you please travel to Disneyland soon :). I “need” your updated touring advice
Count me in as one who will adjust my behavior accordingly. “Only” a dollar or two per item might sound reasonable to Disney, but I saw an article elsewhere with the actual price shifts, and a lot of the table service prices are shifting into the next group of price points (like an $18 burger now $20; something that was $39 now $42, etc). This will have a psychological impact on some people, myself included. A lot of times I’ll reward myself for picking a lower priced entree by getting an upgraded drink or saving room for dessert, even though that means I’m driving up the price of my meal overall. Now I’ll just get the burger and stick with a water. On top of that, we experienced the absolute slowest service at the TS restaurants we’ve ever received during our trip this past Christmas, from the reasonably priced ones to signature. I thought Disney was all about that high turnover, but it seems that flew out the window with the labor shortage. Not that it was the servers’ fault, but there were multiple meals this time when we passed on dessert because, you guessed it, we were coming up on the end of our Genie+ time slot that we had reserved thinking there’s no way a meal at XX will take this long. They might have been laughing about higher guest spending in the last shareholder call, but these decisions will definitely accumulate and bite them in the behind in the long run.
My first family trip to WDW with my wife and kids was in 2016 and we had such an amazing time. We stayed at the Boardwalk Inn and we had the free dining plan + park hopper. I remember thinking it was going to be a really expensive vacation when we booked it, but I can only laugh about that now when comparing it with the costs today. We also had no intention of making it an annual vacation. We even thought it would be a one and done experience. However, that mindset all changed by the end of the first night and I was already planning our next trip to Disney on the DME bus ride back to the airport.
Fast forward to our visit this past December (our 5th visit to Disney minus 2020), and the trip was disappointing and we all left with no desire to return. The outrageous price increases and many of the recent changes (Genie+ and LL, no DME, park reservations and 2pm park hopper, limited and no free dining, missing out on virtual queues, etc) have all negatively impacted the Disney experience. The only blessing with this last trip was that we also spent a few days at Universal and we had an amazing time. And we will definitely visit there again. But as for Disney, we don’t have the desire to go back unless things change and this time in favor of the guest experience.
Yeesh. My eyes bulged at Disneyland seeing a $15+ ice cream sundae at Gharadelli’s (admittedly, only a dollar or so more than the shop in San Francisco). That’s over double a comparable sundae at Graeter’s.
We’re done too. Not renewing our AP’s, not taking our granddaughters or children, not even remotely interested at this point. Sad though. So many good memories with our children, our honeymoon, our empty nest years. But we can only be treated like trash for so long. So we’re purchasing a sailboat and will literally sail off into the future sans WDW.
Well, all with even little critical thinking skills know that companies generally do not absorb cost increases, whether it’s raw materials, labor rates, or increasing taxes. These costs always eventually get passed on to the consumer. They might delay implementation. I agree Tom that Disney an for the most part do whatever they want to, and park crowds will hardly flinch other than some online whining. And yes, recent price gouging has become egregious to me as a former CM, multi-year AP, multi-decade park visitor, and as a stockholder.
When I worked at MK in ’92, they told us that as a park sponsor, Coca-Cola GAVE them the syrup for fountain drinks for free and Disney just had to buy the cups, lids, etc. Same for Kodak film (is that even sold anywhere in the parks any more?). So the price of fountain drinks has long been ridiculous. Especially as it’s the inferior brand…
These minor increases won’t affect my trip choices much if at all. We’re talking around $100 total on a trip for me. What’s ironic is that on a trip here to Fiesta Texas, we noticed that their food and beer prices were actually higher than WDW prices, for much lower quality!
We had been going to Disney world every year since 1992 except last 2 1/2 years been 87 times now it getting to expensive for a average Joe to go I be going to SeaWorld and Busch gardens from now on sorry Disney.
Strike 3 for us. I was going to try to take my nephews this spring but it is just ridiculous now. The price change between tickets and food from the last time I took them (Feb 2020) is astronomical. And then you add in Genie+ and the “fancy rides” as another blogger has coined the paid big attractions and I’m done. Our family has decided to take a Disney break. Not renewing our AP’s and saving up for a trip to Europe with a stop at Disneyland Paris. Just better bang for the buck. Disney’s prices have just outstripped the magic. Especially since I have had triple the amount of bad experiences with CM’s since reopening in the entire 20 years previous. Makes me sad but it just isn’t worth it anymore.
Shame on Disney for increasing their prices so much !!!! They are going to price themselves right out of business !!! And they deserve it !!!!! Greedy for that all mighty dollar !!!! And their standard’s at their resorts are sub par !!!!!!!