New Record High 2025 Ticket Prices at Disney World!
Walt Disney World has increased ticket prices for 1-day, multi-day, base and Park Hopper options for November and December 2025, hitting new peak season record highs! This post has pricing for 2024 vs. next year, details on the increases, and commentary offering our thoughts.
None of this is all that surprising. Price increases have been commonplace in recent years, predictably happening around the same timeframe in February most years. There are a couple ways this price increase is different than previous ones, though. The first is that this was inevitable, since Walt Disney World already increased January through October tickets (months ago) and those showed year-over-year price increases. So really, this is a belated continuation of that, and mostly the same story.
Let’s start with the good news. Well, good-ish news. Prices did not increase on 2024 tickets, at least from what we can see (and we took a bunch of screenshots yesterday in anticipation of this). Nor did they increase on tickets for January through October of next year–prices only went up on tickets that weren’t not previously available. Normally, a price increase takes effect immediately, impacting all future dates–not just the annual product release for the following year.
Prior to this, the last price increase on regular park tickets at Walt Disney World occurred on December 8, 2022. It’s been almost 2 years since they last went up, which is fairly unprecedented. However, that pause on price increases arguably occurred for two reasons. The first is that ticket prices increased twice in 2022, with the first happening in February.
The second is that Lightning Lane Multi-Pass pricing has gone up (effectively) throughout the last two years with the debut of per-park pricing and just higher prices in general. Although separate from admission and (arguably) optional, this paid FastPass service is purchased by a high percentage of guests and thus acts as a de facto increase to admission prices, albeit one that you can opt out of.
In fact, we’re anticipating record Lightning Lane prices this holiday season. A few weeks ago, we got a “sneak peek” at what these rates could look like, as Lightning Lane Single Pass Prices Increased at Walt Disney World for October 2024. Given the current year-over-year trajectory, it’s all but inevitable that prices will peak at $49 per person for Magic Kingdom–possibly higher.
Point being, it’s not as if admission has held flat for all or even a majority of guests over the last couple of years. Lightning Lanes are optional, sure, but a high percentage of guests do purchase them–and it’s necessary to replicate the pre-2020 experience, back when FastPass was free.
The additional good-ish news, at least for on-site guests, is that Walt Disney World has also ramped up discounts significantly since last raising ticket prices in December 2022. That was still during the period of pent-up demand, and deals were fairly scarce except for Annual Passholders and Florida residents. Even then, there were some dates when resorts were full price, with zero special offers.
Walt Disney World has effectively brought back the 2019 deal playbook, offering discounts on par or better than that year after slim pickins’ between 2021 and early 2023. There are already a ton of discounts available for now through the first half of next year. (See All Current Walt Disney World Discounts for 2024-2025.)
This has been good and bad, as perks have been cut as compared to 2019 (free FastPass becoming paid Lightning Lanes, Disney’s Magical Express ending, etc.) and rack rates have increased even as discounts have returned. As we like to point out, Walt Disney World long ago adopted the “Kohl’s Model” to pricing, where the sticker prices are almost meaningless due to discounts. Kohl’s learned ages ago that if the base price is higher, it makes the discounted rate look like even more of a bargain!
Walt Disney World leadership studied at the Kohl’s School of Business, and learned that same lesson during the Great Recession. Since then, we’ve seen prices keep going up, even as discounts get better. That’s more or less what we’re seeing now, with the end result being a value proposition that’s still (much) worse than 2019, but better than 2022, all things considered.
But you’re probably here for the 2025 ticket price, not a recent history of Walt Disney World pricing and discounting. (I just personally find that fascinating, and illuminating context for the changes.) As a general matter, Walt Disney World’s date-based ticket pricing system makes price increases very difficult to assess.
This variable pricing obfuscates changes (which is probably by design), and it’s thus difficult for us to fully track price increases. The good news here is that, as noted above, Walt Disney World did not raise 2024 prices (as normally would’ve been the case), so it’s a pretty easy before/after by comparing this year to 2025 on the official WDW ticket pricing calendar.
You can do that yourself, or check out our screenshots below. Starting with November and December 2024 prices:
The big news with the first wave of price increases for January through October 2025 was that the price range for single day tickets changed for the first time since October 2018. From then until September 2024, single day prices started at $109, which has been the base price since the introduction of the date-based system back in October 2018.
For Fall 2025, the base price increased by $10 from $109 to $119. That’s old news, though, as November and December are not the off-season. There weren’t any $109 dates during these holiday season dates before, and there certainly aren’t in late 2025.
Here’s a look at the November and December 2025 pricing:
As expected, the most expensive dates of the year are in late 2025, with new record high prices for every single park. Here are the new single-day ticket price ranges for 2025:
- Animal Kingdom: $119 to $174
- EPCOT: $129 to $194
- Disney’s Hollywood Studios: $139 to $194
- Magic Kingdom: $139 to $199
On the high end, all parks except EPCOT are up by $10 to hit their new records. EPCOT increased by $15. Most dates are $10 higher year-over-year for single day tickets in November and December. Unsurprisingly, multi-day tickets have also increased by what appears to be similar amounts. I’m not going to dig through all of the ticket options to provide a breakdown, since we already did that with 2025 Ticket Price Increases at Walt Disney World. Again, that covered January through October.
It’s worth reiterating that this is not a second price increase for 2025–no dates have increased twice. This is just a release of tickets that weren’t previously available, and reflect the same/similar increases. It’ll probably garner more attention, but it’s actually less noteworthy than today’s other price increases. This one was inevitable back when tickets through October 2025 were released. There was no way Walt Disney World was going to raise prices for the slowest months of the year (August and September), but not the two busiest!
Since price increases always rile up fans, it’s worth noting here that Universal Orlando increased its ticket prices last November and has an identical $119 starting rate for off-season dates. In fact, if you browse through the respective calendars for both Walt Disney World and Universal Orlando, there’s a lot of price parity between the two.
I’m nevertheless surprised that Walt Disney World was willing to “give up” this $109 ticket talking point, as they’ve trumpeted not increasing the base price of tickets (even if it was largely illusory for those visiting outside the extreme off-season) for several years.
This probably reflects the realization of it not actually drawing more guests to the park, and figuring they might as well capture more revenue from the guests who are visiting those dates. As we’ve pointed out previously, Disney has minimal inability to redistribute attendance to these slower months (thankfully).
Park Ticket Price Increase Commentary
I don’t really know what else to say that hasn’t already been said. As I’ve said countless times at this point, I’ve lost the capacity for surprise when it comes to Walt Disney World price increases.
It seems like every other week, there’s a new piece on how Walt Disney World is pricing out average Americans or its own fans are finally reaching their breaking point. It’s increasingly common sentiment among both diehard Disney fans and the general public at large. And there’s a lot of validity to the perceptions that Walt Disney World is increasingly out of reach (and out of touch).
We’ve been more critical of the company, with Is Disney Ruining Its Reputation? and Disney’s Reputation Falls Further covering the company’s self-inflicted brand damage and loss of goodwill due. That has happened, at least in part, because Walt Disney World is charging more and offering less as compared to 2019.
Given the high number of “Most Expensive Day Ever” and “#BROKE” shirts (among hundreds of other similar Etsy designs) visible in the parks right now, we do think Walt Disney World has a serious pricing reputation and perception problem. This price increase certainly will not help with that perception.
The big difference between now and the last time we reported on price increases is that Walt Disney World is in the midst of a fairly unprecedented slowdown that started in February and has continued every single month this year since–each one has been less busy than the one before it. With only a week left on the clock, October will almost certainly break that trend, but still, it’s concerning.
As pointed out in the post about 2024-2025 Annual Pass Price Increases at Walt Disney World, these higher prices aren’t just coming alongside lower attendance. They’re also occurring one day after Universal released ticket packages and resort reservations for Epic Universe, which opens Memorial Day Weekend in 2025.
Universal is going to offer serious competition from those three theme parks and the ever-expanding resort roster. Our view has been (and remains) that the bigger threat Universal poses to Walt Disney World comes via resort occupancy, but higher prices on admission (and headlines about Disney being a rip-off) certainly don’t help.
It’s also coming as Walt Disney World has no new attractions on the horizon until 2027 at the earliest. Sure, there’s Disney Starlight Night Parade next summer, which we are really looking forward to seeing. But that doesn’t have the same marketing power as a new ride, except with the diehard fans like us who would (mostly) visit anyway.
Disney (hopefully) has more up its sleeve, but no matter what it is, there’s no competing with Epic Universe. A drone show at Animal Kingdom and new event at EPCOT would be a start, but only a start. Maybe a Taylor Swift overlay of Disney’s Hollywood Studios (all of it), but that seems unlikely.
So at this point, it’s not a matter of marketable additions with drawing power to give a shot in the arm to attendance in 2025-2026. It’s more a question of whether aggressive discounting and pulling other “levers” will be enough to incentivize guests to return, or if irreparable brand damage will have been done during the last decade or so of increases. We don’t have an answer to that–no one does–but it’s definitely something about which we’re curious.
Our hope has been that Walt Disney World improves the guest experience, the quality of the parks, and the value proposition for visiting. It’s one thing to pay higher prices–we’re not fans of that for obvious reasons. But it’s another entirely to raise prices while there are still a number of little (and not-so-little) ways the guest experience still isn’t on par with 2019.
To its credit, Walt Disney World has made steps in the right direction. But again, that shiny new theme park over at Universal Orlando looms large. Much more will be necessary for 2025, especially with no major attractions being built. Walt Disney World had better have a plan for countering Epic Universe beyond “free water park day.” They’re crazy if they think higher prices and a free half-day at Blizzard Beach will be enough to move the needle. Fans might love Disney far more than the company loves us, but we’re not complete idiots.
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 Walt Disney World multi-day base ticket and Park Hopper price increases for 2025? Will you still be visiting the parks next year, or are you priced out? Do you agree or disagree with our assessment? 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’m autistic. Disney is my special interest and even I’m going to go to Universal over WDW if we return to Orlando. I’ve been coming to Orlando on holiday as an adult since 2002. It used to be affordable to do both companies in a trip. With 3 kids in tow it’s now either/or. Saving £10,000 for a fortnight away is ridiculous. If we’re spending that kind of money we want a little bit of luxury, a perk like the fast pass, new rides/attractions, and our disabilities accommodated. We’ll stick to DLP for our Disney fix and spend our hard earned savings at Universal.
They’re raising prices on everything again!! After all the services they’ve cut, and how old and tired many of their attractions have become, aside from the newer attractions and a few old favorites, and the poor quality of most of their food offerings which have just gone downhill.
I just spent an extra $1500 on LLMPs & Single LLPs for our recent 11 night vacation at WDW because I have a bad back and Osteoarthritis and Fibromyalgia. I’m still walking fairly well, but if I stand in one spot for too long, or repeatedly/too frequently I end up in severe pain, I just can’t stand in long lines anymore. When we went it was supposed to be the slower season but we still found it crowded and found there were long lines at all of our favorites and the more popular/newer rides, some extremely long. When we went to use our Lightning Lane passes for Tron there was a huge line and a 120 minute standby wait posted, and although it was a fun ride it was very fast and over in what seemed like just a couple of minutes. I can’t imagine this being worth wasting 2 hours of your vacation day to stand in this line for 2 hours even if I didn’t have health issues that make it very painful and impossible for me to stand in long lines. As it was I found the new LLMPs were not giving us very much for our money as we were rarely ever able to get another ride besides the first 3 each day that we had been allowed to book in advance 7 days before our vacation arrival date. We were supposed to be able to book another Lightning Lane ride pass after each ride we used out of our first 3 booked each day with the LLMPs I had purchased, but we found that by the time we used our first Lightning Lane ride pass each day there were either no rides left available to choose for another ride with Lightning Lane pass or the only attractions left to choose from were ones that we either were not interested in (Frozen sing along show) or ones that had nearly no wait times anyway (maybe 5- 10 minutes wait posted in standby) and were pretty much walk ons, like Monsters Laugh Floor. However for the rides we wanted to do, such as Thunder Mountain, Haunted Mansion, Tron, Rockin Rollercoaster, Tower of Terror, Slinky Dog Coaster, Expedition Everest, Avatar Flight of Passage, Kali River Rapids, Frozen, Remys Ratatouille, Guardians of the Galaxy, for examples, (we’re all adults now) the lines were mostly all quite long, even though this was supposed to be the slow season. I can’t imagine how bad the lines and crowds must be in the busy season now. We used to go every year, sometimes in March or early November, and later on we went usually at the end of November / beginning of December, back when they still gave out free fast passes. I never used to find it too crowded or have such a hard time getting on rides. We used to easily get on 10 – 12 rides per day using free fastpass. We had not come for almost 8 years due to my developing some health issues and then covid. Then there were all the price increases and our poor dollar exchange rates making it take some time to budget another trip. This year many services are gone, many cast members in the parks were unfriendly/rude, the quality of the food not only at counter service restaurants but also at table service restaurants was mostly very poor, and the overall vacation experience was extremely expensive, lacking in quality and quite disappointing. This trip was nothing like our great experiences at WDW in the past. We used to always love our yearly vacations at WDW. This year for the first time ever I was happy to be leaving when the vacation was over. It was all very sad!! Even if I were rich and money was no option I would not feel the quality of this vacation was worth the prices they are charging. Now they are raising prices again, what a surprise!! I don’t think we’ll bother going back again. Very sad!!
I wonder how the per guest spend is looking now? We all moan but continue to go so who’s the fool? We’ve just bought a DVC (resell) but with the withdrawal of perks and the charging for line skipping – we spend less in the parks, merch and food. That’s how we justify the cost of FP+/G+/LL whatever it’s called this month. We’re just 1 family and I guess a lot of people get caught up in the moment and pay for it later but we definitely intend spending less time at Disney and more at UOR. Plus here in the UK their discounts are all over the place. I compared our DVC and while still cheaper the discounts have ranged for £0 – £2500 + free dining. And UK get cheaper/simpler ticket options too. I just checked and 2 weeks at SSR in a 1 bed next August is £15k with free dining. 2 weeks ago is £17100. Insane money – but here I am going again…
I suppose park admission price increases and Disney’s reputation and public perception is below Bob Iger’s pay grade too? I guess his deep concern over the cost of a Disney vacation was short lived. Worst CEO in company history.
Nope, this is squarely a Bob and Josh problem.
To be fair, Disney had no choice but to raise the ticket prices, as otherwise they’d have lost annual passholders to regular ticket sales.
Right, just off to post the converse statement in the annual pass price increase blog post 😉
I think the big question is how much less are we willing to add to our Disney vacation as frequent travelers. We are going from 8 days of parks to 2 days of parks plus other parks for December 2025 seeing prices vs. Epic. We will also go from on site to off site, for the first time ever. We will still go, but our expense at Disney will be lower.
It is just a terrible look for Disney to be increasing prices across the board for food, tickets, and APs with all that is going on with Epic Universe. We were all just recently impressed by the price for Helios. And while I have problems with how Universal is tying Epic tickets to 2-day tickets to their other parks, technically the per-day price is not more than an average 3 day Disney ticket. Yes, Universal Studios and Island of Adventure are not worth nearly the price of a Disney park, but they had a lot of pricing power with Epic Universe and made the decision that will improve the guest experience long term regardless. As Tom points out, this is not about margin for Disney–it is about what they think they can charge. But it is short-sighted view of that dynamic that is hurting their brand. Not a good idea to increase prices like this in a year where Disney has nothing new going on, will have lots of construction walls up, and will be competing against something new and well-priced.
Oh, please don’t make Taylor Swift-based suggestions. We don’t know what the power of synergy could bring to pass and I’m already running scared!
it would be a great way to get me not to go back, lol
I have been a passholder for a while now. and the increases are awful! we as passholders get nothing in return! free magnet. 10 off the Christmas and Halloween parties. thats nothing. give us a free pass to one of these. or higher discounts. or both! its ridiculous how us as passholders are treated.
Is Bob Paycheck secretly running Disney again?
I hope that they have something else up their sleeve and that they are not blind to the threat from Universal but they appear to be tone deaf.
That’s the thing, Bob Paycheck was never running anything. Iger is the constant. He’s been there since Eisner and never really left.
The ticket prices just continue to astound. We tend to visit yearly for 10-12 days in the summer. Used to be we would get 5 day park hopper water park tickets and spend most of our time in the parks. As ticket prices go up, and as kids moved from the free under three to kid tickets required, we’ve started doing mostly resort stays. This summer we did the 4 day 4 park ticket and the kids (5 and 8) were happy and it didn’t break the bank. In fact, my 8 yo was just talking the other day about how much he loves the resort stays, because it’s all swimming and relaxing and eating good food. We love the parks but when it adds another vacation’s budget to go into them, we’ve started to question whether it’s worth it (plus my 5 yo is still incensed about Tom Sawyer Island). Most likely we’ll just start going less frequently.
We’ve got a trip to LEGOLAND booked for December, staying on their property with 3 day tickets and I was absolutely floored by the price–we had to move it to December because of Milton, and it was only $180 to move from a random week in October to a few days before Christmas. It’s actually a reasonably-priced vacation. I realize it’s not Disney, but for that kind of price difference we’ll happily go play with Legos for several days instead of staying at WDW and only going to the Christmas party where we’ll be trying to cram in as much as we can in the Magic Kingdom as possible.
I’m really glad to hear you’re going to Legoland! It’s squarely aimed at kids aged 12 and below, so enjoy it while you can (my kids have aged out). I LOVE LOVE LOVE the pirate hotel there. It’s sooooo cool for little kids. It’s unashamedly themed everywhere you look, and even has a scavenger hunt for kids with the answer being the combo to the safe in your room, with free legos and snacks. The dinner at the pirate restaurant is good too–just make sure you have a reservation.
The park itself is great, but it’s no Disney. Set expectations accordingly. I really like it for what it is though.
My children LOVE Legoland and are actually a bit disappointed that we are doing Disney instead of Legoland next year! Pro tip- they offer like 40% off on Black Friday. I think I paid $1200 for 4 of us with 2 day tix and a room at the Legoland hotel for 3 nights (it includes breakfast!). Such a deal!
The problem with the discounts are they don’t come out until most people are already booked. So those people & their TAs add the discounts immediately & they are gone in a flash. there’s available rooms but not at the discount. Also, if you are unaware of this, the average person looks at the rack rates & decides it’s too expensive, not realizing the inevitable sale to come later. I don’t know the answer, but higher prices on everything is not it.
This is a fair point, and one I’ve actually commented on in the past when Walt Disney World has been late to release discounts. You are correct: the average guest doesn’t spend days/weeks/months periodically checking the Walt Disney World website for the best pricing. They look once, and they see whatever it is. If that’s a discount, fantastic! But often, it is not. That customer/potential guest is forever lost.
This is the exact situation that happened to us. I had been counting on a discount of some kind to be offered for the dates that we have booked. Our resort was already sold out of 5 sleeper rooms which apparently made it impossible to add the discount to our current package. We could have tried to rebook our package- but the prices had increased so much that we would have lost money. I wish I had more positive things to say but Disney has already done a decent job of souring the vacation for us months before we go. With the increased cost of lightening lanes and no resort discount, I’m going to have to cut lightening lanes from our budget.