October 2025 Price Increases

["El Gran Magnifico"]

I think we have a lot of people on all sides of discussion who forget to put the "In my opinion" or "To me" or "I think" in their messages around here. I often wonder if it's just a conversational oversight or intentional.*

It's a shame there's no way to have a dinner-table conversation online.

Reading all of this back-and-forth on here sometimes feels like I'm looking over court records the way we all sometimes seize on certain things and I have to imagine that would hardly ever happen during in-person conversation, even when disagreeing.

*obviously body language and voice tone can communicate a lot not covered by literal words and I suspect we assume others understand how we mean it when we type it while we ourselves often don't understand how other people mean it when they type it and end up butt-hurt as a result.

“In my opinion” it’s conversational oversight. But then again there are times that “To me, I think” it could be intentional.

How’d I do?

 

[Disstevefan1]

“In my opinion” it’s conversational oversight. But then again there are times that “To me, I think” it could be intentional.

How’d I do?

To me, I think, you did great, but that's just my opinion.

 

[MrPromey]

“In my opinion” it’s conversational oversight. But then again there are times that “To me, I think” it could be intentional.

How’d I do?

You sir, are clearly a scholar and gentleman.

And also, you nailed it!

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

I think you are undervaluing the stunning keepsake magnets.

This little beaut came just today

 

[Basil of Baker Street]

Bolded is the issue. The amount they charge for APS now is not worth the cost. There is no way you can tell me is worth 10x more than a Dollywood season pass.

I can. Because I don't like Dollywood.

 

[Jrb1979]

I can. Because I don't like Dollywood.

I'm guessing like most, you aren't into coasters or thrills.

 

[Basil of Baker Street]

I'm guessing like most, you aren't into coasters or thrills.

They are ok. But not my focal point.

 

[Jrb1979]

They are ok. But not my focal point.

Dollywood does amazing events all season too. Plus their Christmas event is one of the best ones.

 

[Basil of Baker Street]

Dollywood does amazing events all season too. Plus their Christmas event is one of the best ones.

Yep. But I like Disney much more. It's why I hang out on Disney forums.

 

[KDM31091]

That's fair. Personally I find it hard to spend that much money on one place each year. There is so much out there, that for $5400 for the 3 of us can visit with that money.

That's the thing. Disney is becoming so expensive that it obliterates the ability to do much else for many people, because of the cost. All of your vacation/fun money is tied up in Disney. There are other things to see and do. I think it's good to balance it.

As far as the 40% dining promo, it was a great perk, but definitely shouldn't be counted on. The restaurants offered are chronically under-filled and available. Doesn't make them bad, but obviously the only reason the discount is offered is to drive traffic. When/if people start going to those places more, the need for a discount is removed. I love Cape May Cafe, but it's usually fairly dead at dinner time. The promo changed that. I'm sure the idea is to get people liking it, and then remove the discount/not bring it back. I'm all for perks and I'm glad there was something. We will see if it comes back next summer or not (I think summer is the only time period where it has a chance of happening as that is the new "off season").

 

[BrianLo]

I bought an Ikon Pass today. Pricing on the top end pass has gone from 1049 to 1519 since 2019. Just an interesting data point that Disney isn’t totally out front on its own.

 

["El Gran Magnifico"]

Dollywood does amazing events all season too. Plus their Christmas event is one of the best ones.

I like the Pigeon Forge area a little more than I do the Idrive and other tourist corridors in Orlando. Disney is just closer for me.

 

[Jrb1979]

I bought an Ikon Pass today. Pricing on the top end pass has gone from 1049 to 1519 since 2019. Just an interesting data point that Disney isn’t totally out front on its own.

Agreed they aren't the only ones. Anecdotally, we've looking at vacation plans for next year and a lot of the places we like it go haven't gone up that much. Places like Myrtle Beach, Pigeon Forge, regional parks.

The ones that have gone up seem to be your Disney's, Ski resorts cruises and others that were already on the high end price wise.

It feels like a lot of those places have figured that since the middle class doesn't have the spending power they once did, to make up for it they are charging those that have the money more to make up for it.

 

["El Gran Magnifico"]

I bought an Ikon Pass today. Pricing on the top end pass has gone from 1049 to 1519 since 2019. Just an interesting data point that Disney isn’t totally out front on its own.

At first I was like WHAT? Then I realized IKON = skiing and not ICON that = a Big Ferris Wheel and swing set.

So:

 

[Jrb1979]

I like the Pigeon Forge area a little more than I do the Idrive and other tourist corridors in Orlando. Disney is just closer for me.

That's fair. For my family we have 10 parks within an 8 hour drive from us, over half of which are Six Flags parks. For $300 for the 3 of us, we get access to 7 parks within a days drive.

 

["El Gran Magnifico"]

Disney is becoming so expensive that it obliterates the ability to do much else for many people

It also elevates the expectation level of what you are going to receive from an experience and product standpoint. Disney cannot live up to either. So it makes for a bad aftertaste for most. Parks is making a lot of money right now. Generationally at some point it's going to catch up to them. It isn't going to be pretty when it does.

 

[MrPromey]

Agreed they aren't the only ones. Anecdotally, we've looking at vacation plans for next year and a lot of the places we like it go haven't gone up that much. Places like Myrtle Beach, Pigeon Forge, regional parks.

The ones that have gone up seem to be your Disney's, Ski resorts cruises and others that were already on the high end price wise.

It feels like a lot of those places have figured that since the middle class doesn't have the spending power they once did, to make up for it they are charging those that have the money more to make up for it.

Kind of the same logic as why most motels and lower priced hotels offer free WIFI while all the big hotels charge for it, sometimes with significantly high prices - they know the people who are already spending the prices they are to stay there will pay it if they need the access.

Or to put it another way, they do it because they can.

They recognize that they've already priced out the segment of customers who are likely to be upset about this kind of stuff due to the impact it has on their lifestyle and are hopeful that the ones who have enough that they don't normally need to look at prices won't care/notice.

It'll be interesting to see how long this kind of thinking is sustainable for a place like WDW that relies on customer/guest volume to justify most of their square footage.

I feel like Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser should have offered some warnings about leaning too heavily into that strategy, though.

 

[MrPromey]

It also elevates the expectation level of what you are going to receive from an experience and product standpoint. Disney cannot live up to either. So it makes for a bad aftertaste for most. Parks is making a lot of money right now. Generationally at some point it's going to catch up to them. It isn't going to be pretty when it does.

I think that was part of the failure of Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser. For the price people were asked to pay, they were expecting Rise of the Resistance level experience for two days straight but there's no way Disney was going to be able to make the money work on building out something that elaborate with such low guest volume.

They apparently couldn't find a way to make it work to enough guest satisfaction to maintain consistent bookings, even when leaning mostly on cast interaction and the theme park next door that was built with the money of the masses.

It's like the iPhone story. Putting aside the iPhone/Android debate, the fact of the matter is, the ultra wealthy cannot really get a better alternative to an iPhone. The average middle class person has access to the exact same phone that most of the richest people in the world are likely to choose. Why? Because you can't invest in that much tech, support, service, and ecosystem for a few thousand people the way you can hundreds of millions.

A couple companies tried. What they produced was insanely expensive with buggy software running on crap hardware that had next to no third party app-style support. Why would a wealthy person want to spend nearly $10k on a phone that was objectively worse than the then under $1k iPhone?

I think it kind of works the same with theme parks.

Seems that's why we have things like VIP tours for the wealthy of the same parks made for the plebs instead of exclusive theme parks for only the rich and famous but I feel like current Disney management wants to have their cake and eat it too, today.

It's very possible that long-term survival may require leaner rather than greater profit margins. If the company as a whole can stop relying on this division to bail the rest out, that doesn't need to be as bad as it sounds.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

I think that was part of the failure of Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser. For the price people were asked to pay, they were expecting Rise of the Resistance level experience for two days straight but there's no way Disney was going to be able to make the money work on building out something that elaborate with such low guest volume.

They apparently couldn't find a way to make it work to enough guest satisfaction to maintain consistent bookings, even when leaning mostly on cast interaction and the theme park next door that was built with the money of the masses.

It's like the iPhone story. Putting aside the iPhone/Android debate, the fact of the matter is, the ultra wealthy cannot really get a better alternative than an iPhone. The average middle class person has access to the exact same phone that most of the richest people in the world are likely to choose. Why? Because you can't invest in that much tech, support, service, and ecosystem for a few thousand people the way you can hundreds of millions.

A couple companies tried. What they produced was insanely expensive and buggy software running on crap hardware that had next to no third party app-style support. Why would a wealthy person want to spend nearly $10k on a phone that was objectively worse than the then under $1k iPhone?

I think it kind of works the same with theme parks.

Seems that's why we have things like VIP tours for the wealthy of the same parks made for the plebs instead of exclusive theme parks for only the rich and famous but I feel like current Disney management wants to have their cake and eat it too, today.

It's very possible that long-term survival may require leaner rather than greater profit margins.

All their Star Wars sucks…to be honest. It couldn’t be worse if that was the goal. That high priced, concrete bunker just delivered another bad idea.
They really built a monument to failure. They should have waited until they figured out what Star Wars appeal was before they touched anything

 

[TrainsOfDisney]

They should have waited until they figured out what Star Wars appeal was before they touched anything

The Baxter and Eisner era knew seemed to know what the appeal was.

The Star Wars events were much more fun and filled with life than galaxies edge is. There are parts of galaxies edge (rise especially) that are impressive - but so much of it missed the mark 100%