October 2025 Price Increases

[Sirwalterraleigh]

I'm sure it's factoring into their pricing for domestic projects.

Did they say something on the record about tariffs? I would be moderately surprised!

See that’s the thing…even when they don’t make an excuse…the dust shows up and MAKES THEM UP!

 

[Chi84]

See that’s the thing…even when they don’t make an excuse…the dust shoes up and MAKES THEM UP!

Did you miss the part of the quote that said tariffs were surely factoring into Disney’s pricing for domestic products?

People make up all kinds of stuff here. This one seems like less of a reach than some of the others.

 

[Dan Deesnee]

I'm still waiting for the explanation around how tariffs are forcing across-the-board price increases on things not touched by tariffs (unless asphalt laid down years ago is impacted by recent tariffs). Because once they increase prices on the things affected by tariffs (the cheap Chinese-made merchandise) to cover the increase (I'm sure t-shirts aren't the only piece of merch with a recent price increase), the rest just look like... a money grab.

The explanation is that it's an excuse / scapegoat.

I think this is a brilliant move for disney. While they're attendance is down and epic universe is a huge hit why not alienate your potential guests even further by raising prices?

 

[HauntedPirate]

The S&P is up 214% in the past 10 years. Disney's up ... 16%.

That includes $28 billion in stock buybacks, basically lighting that money on fire.

It's a legitimate question to ask whether giving $4K annual bonuses to all 233,000 cast members worldwide for a decade, at a total cost of $9.5B - 33% of the buyback costs - would've done more for the company, the employees, and the communities in which the company operates. It's hard to believe that wouldn't match a 16% ROI.

But... the shareholders, Len! You have to think about the shareholders! They are the true fuel for the Disney engine, not those money pits called "cast members".

 

[HauntedPirate]

Probably because the pricing of the parking lot doesn’t go just to the parking lot. It goes through all facets of the company. Not to say that the price increases are good at all but it’s not just a transactional 1-1 you’re paying into.

I've been a productive member of the American workforce for more than 10 years longer you've been alive and have worked for several Fortune 100 companies over the past 3+ decades. I know how businesses operate. But thanks for the condescension, though.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

You think companies don't spread increased costs?

Every single one I have ever worked with, worked for, or run myself has.

A nice recent example, the cost of circuit boards went through the roof, so we sat down and figured out the impact on our costs and then spread that out over all products weighted by the typical qty sold for each product and how much we thought the price increases would impact sales on each. That kept the individual increases small because we could recover those costs across all product lines instead of just jacking up the price of our electronics by 30% or more.


Oh, this 100% plays into it and if attendance is down/flat year over year (which it likely is flat at best) and the lower it drops the more important it becomes. That still isn't the entirety of the conversation and does not address the sticker shock on costs that is currently going on in many areas.

My push back is from people seemingly acting like these legit increased costs are irrelevant and don't impact decisions within the company.

Thanks for day two intro Econ

Again…they didn’t even bother with this BS…so why are you?

 

[HauntedPirate]

The explanation is that it's an excuse / scapegoat.

I think this is a brilliant move for disney. While they're attendance is down and epic universe is a huge hit why not alienate your potential guests even further by raising prices?

It certainly was... a decision, wasn't it? Not sure it was the best or wisest one they could have made, though.

 

[DisneyHead123]

On the one hand I don’t think Disney is anywhere near the worst offender when it comes to egregious post Covid price increases, on the other my intuition is that a slowdown is coming to the entertainment and travel sector, including Disney. 100% anecdotal thoughts incoming.

I recently looked at tickets for Ice, which seemed like a no brainer as it’s the Polar Express this year, a movie my son is obsessed with. I was gobsmacked at pricing. If I hunted for a discount ticket to the Ice display itself and also did the ice slide and paid for parking, it was about $200 for 3 people, for less than an hour of entertainment. That didn’t include Santa photos ($75), throwing snowballs ($14), Mrs. Claus storytelling ($14), scavenger hunt ($14), or gingerbread house decorating ($45). Those prices are per person, btw, so triple them for three people. So after paying $200 to see the ice and slide I would have to walk my son past a long stream of activities and say “No you can’t do that”. What?! We are probably the prime target audience for this show, but no way, that has officially reached cuckoo bananas levels.

I also noticed this year that the pumpkin patch seemed way emptier, as that’s another enterprise that was getting surprisingly pricey. Again, totally just my impressions, but I think people are finally just tapped out with price increases. Honestly I think park tickets are still one of the better values out there as they provide an entire day of entertainment, but on the whole I think something has got to give for consumers. Inflation has been relentless and inflation for “experiences” has been next level.

 

[AidenRodriguez731]

The explanation is that it's an excuse / scapegoat.

I think this is a brilliant move for disney. While they're attendance is down and epic universe is a huge hit why not alienate your potential guests even further by raising prices?

A huge hit as in the lowest rated theme park in Orlando? They somehow got below Seaworld which considering its past and current reception, is pretty incredible

 

[Dranth]

Thanks for day two intro Econ

Again…they didn’t even bother with this BS…so why are you?

Because I made the mistake of thinking people could have a rational discussion about the various internal forces pushing price increases beyond just Iger=Bad and Disney=Greedy. Not that those can't be true, but that there is generally more to it than just that simplistic view.

I'll try not to make that mistake again.

 

[Andrew C]

A huge hit as in the lowest rated theme park in Orlando? They somehow got below Seaworld which considering its past and current reception, is pretty incredible

Lowest rated? By what measure?

 

["El Gran Magnifico"]

Aren’t people already voting with their wallets?

My wallet voted for “free”. Lost that election.

 

[Chi84]

Not that those can't be true, but that there is generally more to it than just that simplistic view.

I don’t know. I think some people love (or loved) Disney so much that they’ve been mortally wounded by what they see as gross mismanagement. It’s hard to get past that.

On the other hand, it doesn’t bode well for rational discussion.

 

[Ayla]

Did you miss the part of the quote that said tariffs were surely factoring into Disney’s pricing for domestic products?

People make up all kinds of stuff here. This one seems like less of a reach than some of the others.

That was a quote from Disney? Or speculation?

 

[BrianLo]

Could you imagine if the theme park business was a stand alone business and was allowed to keep and reinvest its profits in to its self instead of financing the other money losing businesses within the company?

You needn’t imagine. Euro Disney SCA and OLC provide two sides of that coin. It can go well or horribly.

The S&P is up 214% in the past 10 years. Disney's up ... 16%.

That includes $28 billion in stock buybacks, basically lighting that money on fire.

It's a legitimate question to ask whether giving $4K annual bonuses to all 233,000 cast members worldwide for a decade, at a total cost of $9.5B - 33% of the buyback costs - would've done more for the company, the employees, and the communities in which the company operates. It's hard to believe that wouldn't match a 16% ROI.

Corporate America, Executive stock compensation and shareholders are the problem. But this is a very left leaning worker wealth distribution policy framework shift that neither of your main political parties support.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

The explanation is that it's an excuse / scapegoat.

I think this is a brilliant move for disney. While they're attendance is down and epic universe is a huge hit why not alienate your potential guests even further by raising prices?

I’m not sure epic is even that huge of a smash? You can get tickets almost any day since June and the attendance cap is low (they can fit a lot of people…they just aren’t able to give them anything to do but walk around)…and Comcast has been rather quiet on the performance…or less boisterous than you’d expect.

The only people talking like this are the Orlando tourism people…which are the most biased, in the can group you can imagine…

 

[Chi84]

That was a quote from Disney? Or speculation?

No it wasn't from Disney. It was from the poster who was being quoted.

 

[Ayla]

No it wasn't from Disney. It was from the poster who was being quoted.

As I suspected.

 

[brettf22]

It’s always fun to look back on previous years’ price increase threads. Here’s one from 19 years ago. We could just change the $ amounts, and most of the comments would sound eerily familiar.

Thread 'Ticket prices to increase AGAIN??'

Dec 18, 2006

I just saw from discount orlando tickets that prices are set to increase yet again on 1/1/07. I couldnt find out how much they would go up but it just seems like they are increasing the price frequently. It is getting very hard to take a family of 6 there and I hope this trend does not continue!

• Trishnh
• Replies: 105
• Forum: WDW Parks News, Rumors and Current Events

 

[Disstevefan1]