What's your maximum on ticket prices? An unscientific poll...

[Mickey5150]

We go every year in October so we do annual passes. Go late October the year we buy and early October the next year and we always go for at least a week so not as concerned with price. Honestly if they raised the AP price more we would probably just take another trip to justify the cost, lol.

 

[SteveAZee]

It would depend on the experience once I'm in the park. If raising the price decreases the crowd size without diminishing the ride/attraction experience, then there may be a good number in this list.

 

[HansGruber]

I said that the ticket prices have reached the breaking point for me! I have MY LAST TRIP planned for May 2019 with the current rates of the prices and price increases THIS IS MY LAST TRIP! Does Disney care a little? No! But I am sure they would sit up and take noticed if more did the same!

Mentally, we're in the same boat.
However, strategically...we're going about it a little bit different.
Rather than getting absolutely hosed by the 5 day ticket price, we're going to purchase the 10 day ticket (for 12% more money) and stay the extra 5 days offsite in something cheap while leveraging the extra 5 day park tickets. Effectively, doubling our vacation time for much less money.
It sounds counter-intuitive because you ARE spending a little bit more, but it's a significantly better value.

 

[eliza61nyc]

I voted "other" as generally I set a budget for the entire trip and then see what I can get for that budget. I still have absolutely fabulous wdw vacations so the value is totally there for me. I purchased my dvc way back in 2001 when the points were well under 80 bucks lol and so I'll never stay offsite (which is the reason why I purchased it). I got a 4 day hopper with extra day from undercover tourist for 439.00 including tax and delivery which is actually 5 days hopping for less than 90 bucks a day.
I get 10-20% off most meals also with my dvc and ap so that helps with my overall cost too.

I should have gotten an AP this year especially since I get a dvc discount but wasn't sure when my next trip was going to be. next year is the big question. I'm retiring and was planning on having a retirement party at the world but I may skip due to Star wars land opening , I don't want to deal with that mob scene.

So for the next 4-5 years unless the jack the prices significantly I'm in

 

[wendysue]

We hit our max last year. This year I booked a room only, got tics for the halloween party and booked 3 FP's for that day starting at the 3:30-4:30 time frame. We plan to rent a car and go to Busch Gardens (I got season tics for a fraction of the price as WDW). This trip, we are also doing a 1 day ticket to HS with a gift card we need to use up. But the rest of the week we will be going to D Springs, Boardwalk, hang out at the pool, etc. We might continue to go room only and do other stuff, but won't purchase park tickets in the future. If we need rides, we will go to Busch Gardens and if we need a souvenir fix, we can just go to the resort gift shop.

 

[LUVofDIS]

I am not sure, I think it would be when I paid for the ticket and my experience while in the park is so bad that I feel the cost no longer justifies the value.

That could actually be at the current price if things were so bad. I would need to go back to my notes but I think that on our last day at the MK last December there were four or five attractions that went down. Three while we were standing in line. Yes, I started to get a complex. My point is, if this were to happen on a multiple of visits than the current price would be too much for me.

I would have voted if there were some options for the AP. I can relate to that better.

 

[Dr. Ludwig von Drake]

If I was paying regular ticket booth prices, I would have a hard time shelling out $100 a day. Either I would need to get a lot richer, or I would need to reduce my cost through multi-day tickets. 10 days at $45 a day would be OK, provided I could use those tickets whenever I felt like it.

I'm spoiled by being a Florida Resident AP. We're only 4 hours away by car and visit regularly. On top of that, my current silver passes were bought with a 10% discount by my Disney College Program son. I'm guessing I spend about $20 a day to visit the parks.

 

[JIMINYCR]

We never go less than 10 days and the majority of our trips have been for 2 weeks. We arrange all the details of our trip and then budget for it with extras included. If I thought the price was too demanding I'd cut out the planned extras and do less buying souvenirs. Our Disney trip is going to be made despite any increase of ticket prices. I cant see the cost going up so much that I'd have to say no to a trip, I'd just find ways to make it work. My DW and I get enough enjoyment every time we go that its worth it to us despite the higher costs. The increase in the crowds are harder to take than the costs.

 

[Animaniac93-98]

This poll might be more helpful if it also listed the prices for 4 and/or five day passes, assuming they all scaled up accordingly.

A 4-Day base is now $95 a day + tax, and a 5-Day is $79 a day + tax.

We're getting to the point where even the per-day breakdown of multi-day tickets is pretty expensive. I mean, is $95/day to visit Epcot really much better than paying $102 (1-day Value) or $114 (1 day regular)?

And comitting to more days to justify the value of the ticket also means more days spent on Disney level food and parking rates, which is why Disney prices them like that.

 

[draybook]

We average about 25-30 days per year in the parks when we get APs.

For example, we bought APs in March when we arrived and stayed for 15 days. We went back Memorial Day weekend and spent 9 days in the parks. We'll be back in October and we'll be there for 11 days. So this year we'll actually go above our average and be in the parks for 35 days. Even though we're not locals, we're lucky that I get so much PTO from my employer (32 days). Our platinum passes were a little over $3900, so we basically average almost $28 per person per day. Even though we don't usually get to the parks until at least 3pm, that's not too shabby at all. Plus with the AP discount on food and souvenirs(overpriced, sure), it's well within our comfort zone for pricing.

 

[Jeff456]

I wouldn't pay any of those prices per day.
It's a bit different coming from the UK though as I wouldn't go for anything less than 10 days due to the distance and expense of a trip.
UK ultimate 14 day tickets are currently £379 which with the terrible exchange rate is around $480 so that works out at about $34 a day.
I think that's still fair considering as a family we'd be spending roughly $13000-14000 alone at Disney in two weeks.

 

[George]

Many good points. Of course, ticket price is just one of many factors when planning a vacation, but it does tie in to the personal idea of "value" which varies from person to person. In order to maximize our value we tend to get APs and make two trips a year the years we go, which at this point is every other year. If the price got to the point where we had to make more trips per year or make each trip longer...then we'd have issues. Not so much even due to the price. The years we go to Disney my and my wife's far flung families are jealous of the time Disney takes away from visiting. I've even used DVC points for family reunions in order to partially alleviate this effect. Also hard for me because part of the family lives in Florida (I grew up in central Florida).

There is also the issue of travel costs/time if we go even more in the calendar year we're visiting Disney a lot. We don't have infinite money or time. In our case, time actually tends to be a bit more of an issue. If we suddenly have to take 2 European style 3 week vacations for us to feel like we're getting value, then we'd probably quit going even if we could afford it. I wish we had more PTO in the States, but we don't.

Someone mentioned earlier in this thread visiting WDW and not going to the parks. I used to do that all time in high school when my 3 season salute wasn't valid and loved it. My family did that 3 or 4 Christmases ago and we had a very nice vacation. It also makes visiting easier. My sister bit the bullet last January and visited me and a couple of friends (including @Monty) during the WDW marathon. She actually spent the day with us in DAK and ate at Tiffins, but she would have rather not spent the money or had me come to her house (Seminole, Florida...suburb of St. Petersburg). Anyway, the complete freedom of leaving property or having family come on property to visit was really nice for us. Plus, part of my points are at Beach Club and there are far worse things than maximizing Stormalong Bay time.

Good question and good discussion. I don't fault the OP for limiting choices to one day tickets, since a good poll here on magic will lead to a good discussion which it did.

 

[Animaniac93-98]

We don't have infinite money or time. In our case, time actually tends to be a bit more of an issue. If we suddenly have to take 2 European style 3 week vacations for us to feel like we're getting value, then we'd probably quit going even if we could afford it. I wish we had more PTO in the States, but we don't.

Most people don't. There's no way I can realistically take 10-14 days off of work at once to visit Orlando, and even if I had the time I would probably want to do other things besides Disney.

Because I've been so many times, I don't need to spend all day every day to see what I want to in the parks. At the same time though, it's hard to justify spending $300-$400 on a multi-day ticket just to visit Epcot or DHS for a few hours in the evening as much as I enjoy doing so.

Most of the time I buy a Halloween party ticket and then a 1-day value to some other park. It's what usually works best for me at this point.

 

[JMcMahonEsq]

Like some others have already said, to me, the cost of tickets to WDW, either individual tickets or multi-day purchases is somewhat irrelevant. It is the total cost of the trip that I focus on when we are budgeting/planning our vacation. For us a week trip to WDW is usually budgeted between 8K-10K, depending on if we are flying or if we are driving. So lets say now an average ticket is $100, based upon a 5 day pass. that's $500 per person, or $2000 for the 4 of us. Even if tickets costs went up 25%, so $125 per ticket, that is only a $500 increase in the overall trip budget. So while ticket prices have risen 25%,, it is only a little more than a 5% increase in the overall trip budge (based on 8K. So until ticket prices are rising to a point where it is have a huge effect on the overall price of the vacation, I don't think my decision on going to WDW or not will ever be effected by them.

 

[pittsburghdude]

Another poster mentioned the amount of things to do outside of the parks. This actually reminds me of a trip I am planning in my mind (one of many; I have anywhere between 4-8 trip ideas going at any given time).

I like all four parks. There's something special at each of them. However, I sometimes don't want to deal with as much hustle and bustle and instead want a nice place to go to after a long stretch of work. I'm self-employed and often will be working 50-60 hours per week.

Therefore, in this version of my Disney trip, I stay four nights at Yacht Club. That's already around $1500, give or take. However, it gives me the best pool of them all and essentially gives me a pseudo-beach, smaller but chlorinated and without dead fish. It also gives me a lot of options as to what to do around there.

I figure to spend a lot of time at the pool and spa area, but couldn't do that all day, of course. On one day, I'd rent a boat. It may not be at that area, since the sailboats are near Grand Floridian, but considering I usually drive an hour to go sailing here in Pittsburgh, it's not a big deal. Plus, I could rent something bigger than the 12.5' dinghy I take on the lake here just to have some fun, maybe a Flying Scot or similar boat.

There's also golfing. I could spend a day at the golf course, too.

At night, there's the Boardwalk area. There's Jelly Rolls, the dance hall, the ESPN club. Note that I haven't even ventured into a park yet here. Let's also not forget my favorite restaurants are all around there--Yachtsman Steakhouse, Flying Fish, Cape May Cafe, Beaches and Cream, and the Italian place that used to be Spoodles.

Notice how we have two of the three complete days already filled. The boat rental and golfing would be about the same as a park ticket, but would be more on par with what I'd pay locally--yet wouldn't be Lake Arthur or any of the golf courses in Pittsburgh.

Now...my favorite park is MGM. It's also within walking or boating distance of Yacht Club. I'd buy one pass for that park so I could go there for a day on this trip. I wouldn't mind paying more here since it would be the only park I'd be going to. I'd pay $125-130 for it without complaining since I wouldn't have gone to any other park.

I'd really have to milk that day at MGM. Yes, it's small even with Toy Story Land open, but there's plenty of in-street entertainment, restaurants I always enjoy (50s Prime Time and Sci-Fi, plus the Hollywood Brown Derby), Fantasmic, and my all time favorite attraction anywhere at WDW, Tower of Terror.

"But what about the other three parks?" If this trip is purely for relaxation, I don't have to deal with the crowds or longer walking distances that are present at the other parks. Plus, if I'm going to go just to chill, I'd rather spend money on a boat or golfing, and those prices, while perhaps higher than other boat rentals or golf courses, would be more worth it to me in that particular moment than a park. Don't get me wrong, I love the parks, but they're not always super-relaxing now that I'm in my thirties (and don't have children).

The trip may not seem as Disney-like without them, but the money invested into a good hotel, golfing, sailing, dining, and the park that I like the best would make it arguably the most relaxing vacation a thirty-something could take, not to mention it's a safe, clean environment.

(Disclaimer: I am fully aware the park is now called Hollywood Studios, but MGM is so much quicker to type and it's what I grew up calling the park!)

 

[Nnelsonmandela]

I think about the Hourly cost...
If I spend a full day in the park, from Open to Close, that is 10 hours on average. If I spend $200 on a tickets, that means I'm spending $20/hr to spend time in the park. When this cost is no longer worth it, that is the breaking point

 

[Phonedave]

The value is not there, even with multi-day passes.

We have stopped going as much. When we do go to WDW, and we use our DVC we do not buy enough tickets to cover every day. We do some Disney Springs days, some water park days, and some resort days. Honestly, WDW pushing me to the point where I may stay on property in DVC, but go to Universal or some other local attraction part of the time.

We used to go all of the time, we would take quick 4 day trips at times, just because we had a break in our schedules that allowed a trip. We either had APs or thought nothing of buying a 3 day park hopper. Now, our trips are down to one every other year, and we stay in better rooms instead of trying to stretch out our DVC points. We are also looking at going to Hilton Head next year, instead of our bi-annual WDW vacation.

Given the current packed attendance at the parks, WDW is most assuredly not missing my admission ticket money. But we used to eat and shop quite a bit while we were there, and they are not getting that pull through revenue from us now.

-dave

 

[Dave B]

I cant believe there are many people who do just one day, so the poll is hard to answer, I would have to agree with the poster earlier that stated you would really have to compare the multi day pricing, just my 2 cents

 

[KBLovedDisney]

For me, it depends on the park, the day, and how much money I have in my pocket.

 

[mysmile4u]

We hit it a long time ago. I live near the parks, we go because family comes to visit us and THEY want to see Disney and they have the money for it. We are very traditional, We are sort of caught in old fashioned Disney and keep thinking, "Oh, what would Walt say!" when they take out old things, and then they charge MORE for them. The one thing we really like about Disney is they keep family visiting - we never have to visit them! So I guess in a way Disney SAVES us money!