WDW Ticket Prices

flynnibus

flynnibus

Premium Member
We've gone from one every couple years .. To one every year almost religiously... To where we even see them occasionally in under a 12m period

The classic raises were in late summer... Then they started some may/June ones... And even a spring one.

The early season raises are relatively new... But wouldn't surprise anyone if the prices change tommorow
 
ParentsOf4

ParentsOf4

Well-Known Member
Figment2005 said:
Just curious, but how does it average out when dealing with multiple days? I know the single day passes are ungodly expensive, but smart folks don't tend to buy a single days admission.
Click to expand...
WDW always has offered 1-day tickets but multiday tickets have come and gone, sometimes more than once. To understand how ticket prices have changed, a baseline value of "1" was established in 1971 (WDW's first year) and deltas to existing ticket prices were compared and averaged. This was plotted against changes to Median Household Income, which also used a baseline value of "1" in 1971.

This resulted in the following graph:

WDW tickets2.jpg



Unlike something I posted elsewhere, this graph does not compare 2004 Park Hopper tickets with 2005 base Magic Your Way (MYW) tickets. Base MYW tickets do not include the 'Park Hopper' or 'Water Parks & More' benefits found on earlier multiday tickets.

This graph does not include 'No Expiration' tickets. Price increases there have been huge, but I suspect most Guests don't buy these types of tickets. Including these tickets would have made the increases since 2005 seem worse than I suspect they have been for most Guests.
 
Figment2005

Figment2005

Well-Known Member
ParentsOf4 said:
WDW always has offered 1-day tickets but multiday tickets have come and gone, sometimes more than once. To understand how ticket prices have changed, a baseline value of "1" was established in 1971 (WDW's first year) and deltas to existing ticket prices were compared and averaged. This was plotted against changes to Median Household Income, which also used a baseline value of "1" in 1971.

This resulted in the following graph:

View attachment 80210


Unlike something I posted elsewhere, this graph does not compare 2004 Park Hopper tickets with 2005 base Magic Your Way (MYW) tickets. Base MYW tickets do not include the 'Park Hopper' or 'Water Parks & More' benefits found on earlier multiday tickets.

This graph does not include 'No Expiration' tickets. Price increases there have been huge, but I suspect most Guests don't buy these types of tickets. Including these tickets would have made the increases since 2005 seem worse than I suspect they have been for most Guests.
Click to expand...
Wow, it spiked hard in the early 80's, and just never stopped climbing. Thanks.
 
DManRightHere

DManRightHere

Well-Known Member
I feel like they should not have MK over the $99 mark to look a little more competitive, but if the parks are so darn crowded they should be going up all around. They should just increase park hoppers..which is what I wouldn't want.
 
Figments Friend

Figments Friend

Well-Known Member
I used to buy 10-day non-expiring tickets in the early to mid 2000s.
Back then, they were a GREAT deal if you knew you were coming back to visit WDW in the future.
Would break down to about $25 to $35 a day back then, and that included Park Hopping privileges.
You could stretch these out over two or three visits over several years. It really worked well for me.
I basically bought them as future investments, as i knew i would be back ( at a time when i visited yearly ) and would avoid future price increases.

The last one i bought was i believe in 2007, and it cost around $450.
I remember right after a bought it all the craziness seemed to begin regarding yearly increases, particularly certain *MYW* features.
I used the final days on it during my last visit in January of 2013, and will admit it was sad to use it up.

Over the last few years the price increases for the 10-day tickets have skyrocketed...particularly outrageous is the pricing increases for adding the *No Exp* option.
Today it is not that much of a deal.
Far too expensive.
 
ParentsOf4

ParentsOf4

Well-Known Member
Figment2005 said:
Wow, it spiked hard in the early 80's, and just never stopped climbing. Thanks.
Click to expand...
Prices took off from 1984 to 1987, Eisner's first 4 years. Within the industry, there was a strong feeling that WDW tickets were grossly underpriced.

I remember WDW fans hating Eisner for the increases but things got better. The increases slowed down to under 4% annually after that and Eisner invested heavily in WDW.
 
polynesiangirl

polynesiangirl

Well-Known Member
Figments Friend said:
I used to buy 10-day non-expiring tickets in the early to mid 2000s.
Back then, they were a GREAT deal if you knew you were coming back to visit WDW in the future.
Would break down to about $25 to $35 a day back then, and that included Park Hopping privileges.
You could stretch these out over two or three visits over several years. It really worked well for me.
I basically bought them as future investments, as i knew i would be back ( at a time when i visited yearly ) and would avoid future price increases.
Click to expand...

This was us too, for years. My husband and I started doing this in college and we kept doing it for probably close to a decade or so. Then the last time I went to buy a new no-expiration pass a few years ago, I actually went as far as ringing it up in the Disney store...when I saw the price come up on the register I almost passed out. I just couldn't go through with it. Even the CMs at the store were like, "yeah, adding no expiration is insanely expensive now." We ended up buying a 4 or 5 day pass instead, and that's what we'll likely be doing from here on out. Sigh.
 
GymLeaderPhil

GymLeaderPhil

Well-Known Member
Disney getting rid of the non-expiration option has been a constant rumor.

My other criticism is that on paper a Water Park Hopper makes sense, but I imagine that it is tough to justify with the short operating hours AND the complexity of using Disney Transportation to hop from one to another.

I'm not putting much stock into the site's rumor.
 
flynnibus

flynnibus

Premium Member
We park hop every trip... I've never understood the drama people think it brings. It's not like you are changing parks every 30mins... you goto one park, then switch to another later in the day. That being said, traveling alone, I've done 4 parks in one day :) Including a trip to EPCOT purely to see the AA.. which meant going the max distance in, and back out of the park :)
 
Animaniac93-98

Animaniac93-98

Well-Known Member
A One-Day Hopper at Disneyland is $150 (no tax)

A One-Day Hopper at WDW is $142.71 (after tax)

A One-Day Park2Park at Universal Florida is $144.84 (after tax)

Universal's prices for one-day admission are really no more or less "insane" than Disney's. They all push multi-day tickets from a value perspective.

However, you could get a 3-day park2park at Universal for an extra $42.60 with the current promotion vs. paying an extra $201.29 for the WDW equivalent.
 
Last edited:
ford91exploder

ford91exploder

Resident Curmudgeon
flynnibus said:
We've gone from one every couple years .. To one every year almost religiously... To where we even see them occasionally in under a 12m period

The classic raises were in late summer... Then they started some may/June ones... And even a spring one.

The early season raises are relatively new... But wouldn't surprise anyone if the prices change tommorow
Click to expand...

As to the history of price increases under Iger.

There were 2 Price increases in 2006 (interesting as this was beginning of Iger era)
Aug 2007
Aug 2008
There were 2 Price increases in 2009
10 Months between the 2010 and 2011 Price Increase
12 Months Exactly 2012-2013
8 Months between 2013 and FIRST 2014 price increase
May 2014 Premier Passports went up (my ticket media)
Feb 2015 - Till when? I'm expecting July/August - as FY ends Sept 27.

So Yeah recently ticket price increases have been coming at intervals of LESS than a year, TDO just moves the dates around so people don't notice these things.

BTW in August of 2006 a full day ticket was $63 bucks, Today It's $99 bucks which is a 57% increase in 9 years, I don't find the parks 57% better.
 
ParentsOf4

ParentsOf4

Well-Known Member
raven said:
Many of my "smart" friends visiting Florida can only visit Orlando for one day because they have other areas of the state on their agenda. It's unfair to use this statement.
Click to expand...
One of my favorite personal stories happened a few years ago when I was staying at the Dolphin.

I struck up a conversion with another family at the pool and we happened to get onto the subject of tickets. They explained to me that they were buying one-day tickets every day. I repeatedly tried to explain to them that they were paying far more than if they simply bought a multi-day ticket but, no matter what I said, they were convinced that buying one-day tickets every day was less expensive. :facepalm:
 
jakeman

jakeman

Well-Known Member
ford91exploder said:
As to the history of price increases under Iger.

There were 2 Price increases in 2006 (interesting as this was beginning of Iger era)
Aug 2007
Aug 2008
There were 2 Price increases in 2009
10 Months between the 2010 and 2011 Price Increase
12 Months Exactly 2012-2013
8 Months between 2013 and FIRST 2014 price increase
May 2014 Premier Passports went up (my ticket media)
Feb 2015 - Till when? I'm expecting July/August - as FY ends Sept 27.

So Yeah recently ticket price increases have been coming at intervals of LESS than a year, TDO just moves the dates around so people don't notice these things.

BTW in August of 2006 a full day ticket was $63 bucks, Today It's $99 bucks which is a 57% increase in 9 years, I don't find the parks 57% better.
Click to expand...
Ticket prices were raised twice in 84 and 3 times in 86.

Multiple year increases aren't common, but they aren't a recent development.
 
ParentsOf4

ParentsOf4

Well-Known Member
ford91exploder said:
As to the history of price increases under Iger.

There were 2 Price increases in 2006 (interesting as this was beginning of Iger era)
Aug 2007
Aug 2008
There were 2 Price increases in 2009
10 Months between the 2010 and 2011 Price Increase
12 Months Exactly 2012-2013
8 Months between 2013 and FIRST 2014 price increase
May 2014 Premier Passports went up (my ticket media)
Feb 2015 - Till when? I'm expecting July/August - as FY ends Sept 27.

So Yeah recently ticket price increases have been coming at intervals of LESS than a year, TDO just moves the dates around so people don't notice these things.

BTW in August of 2006 a full day ticket was $63 bucks, Today It's $99 bucks which is a 57% increase in 9 years, I don't find the parks 57% better.
Click to expand...
When comparing prices over time, it's difficult to appreciate what they mean without some point of reference. I prefer to use Median Household Income because this gives a sense of cost relative to income.

Earlier I posted a graph of multiple WDW ticket types against Median Household Income. Looking at the ratio between the two, it's apparent that there are 3 eras of WDW ticket prices.

The first is the Walt Disney Legacy Era when ticket prices were relatively inexpensive. Walt Disney always emphasized to his subordinates that the company needed to provide its Guests with "good value". This pricing philosophy remained in place until Eisner took charge. Those who remember the time might have thought WDW was expensive but, relative to income, WDW was never less expensive.

The second is the Michael Eisner Era when ticket prices quickly increased by roughly 50% relative to Median Household Income and then held relatively steady for 15 years. As I mentioned in an earlier post, there was a strong opinion in the industry in the mid-1980s that Disney theme park tickets were underpriced, and so the competition was relieved when Eisner hiked prices, even if WDW fans were furious.

The third is the Paul Pressler/Jay Rasulo Era when price increases began a steady climb faster than Median Household Income. This era is dominated by a more analytical approach to pricing. "What's the biggest price increase we can get away with without negatively impacting the bottom line." This is the era we are in today. :(

For those of you who are interested, this is what graphing WDW ticket prices relative to Median Household Income looks like:

WDW tickets3.jpg



Please recall from my earlier post that a baseline value of "1" was established in 1971 for both WDW ticket prices and Median Household Income. Then changes to that starting value were tracked over time. Thus, the Y-axis does not have a units; it's simply looking at relative changes to WDW ticket prices and household income.
 
Last edited:

Register on WDWMAGIC. This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.

Back
Top Bottom