At this point, it has become standard practice to see regular price increases at Disneyland Resort and Walt Disney World. Once a year, ticket prices will go up, and at other times of the year we’ll see increases in the cost of food, hotel rooms, or any additional services the parks provide. But even by that standard, the price increase that occurred at Disney Parks earlier this week has been staggering, with prices for just about everything going up on both coasts.
Tickets to Disneyland, plus prices for food and drink, Genie+ and even a lightsaber building experience at the Galaxy Edge, on both coasts, rose on Tuesday, bringing the price of the trip to Disneyland Or Disney World is much more expensive this week than it was last week. A lot of people were already feeling that Disney simply didn’t want them to go to the parks, and the truth is there is some truth to that.
Make no mistake, Disney parks are getting “expensive” on purpose
The first and most obvious reason to raise prices is to earn more money. Part of this may be to offset the extra costs you take on elsewhere, and some of it may be just trying to get more profit from something you think you can sell for more than you otherwise would. Both are reason why prices go up regularly at local Disney parks.
But there’s another reason we’ve seen such steep and persistent price increases, especially with regard to tickets: Disney would like some people to stop going. The price increase is specifically intended to deter some from showing up, or at least get them to delay their flight. They want the parks to be less crowded.
While filling the parks with people definitely means selling a lot of tickets, Disney really wants you to spend a lot of money while you’re in the parks, and if the park is too crowded, that can actually be difficult. If the line to get a Mickey’s ice cream bar is too long, many people will skip it. If the gift shop is too crowded, don’t go there.
When you listen to the Walt Disney Company earnings call, you’ll hear them talk a lot about “per capita spending.” It’s a key metric that Disney uses to measure its success in the parks, and when it goes up, it can help offset or exceed any revenue lost from fewer people going to the parks.
If you have enough money to afford a vacation at Walt Disney World right now, you probably have enough to enjoy yourself, (read: spend a lot of money) while you’re there, and the more Disney can attract these people, the more successful the park can be. become. When you earn the same money with fewer guests in the theme park, the associated costs go down, and that means higher profits.
A lot of changes in the parks, especially in the post-pandemic period and especially at Disneyland, seem to be aimed at favoring the family on a big vacation over the annual pass holder who visits the parks frequently. There is a belief, and there is at least some evidence to support this, that regular guests spend less in the parks than those on vacation, resulting in what was called in Disney’s earnings statement, an “unfavorable attendance mix.”
But there is one problem with this strategy that seems to cause some problems. So far, it hasn’t really worked.
The price hike hasn’t had a big impact so far
While it’s hard to know for sure how many people are in Disney parks on a daily basis, Disney doesn’t release this kind of information, so there hasn’t been a clear and obvious drop in park attendance. Sure, people don’t like high prices, but it hasn’t stopped them from spending money to go, whether we’re talking about once-a-year families or annual pass holders.
The truth is, right now, you can’t buy an annual ticket at Walt Disney World or Disneyland Resort. While those who previously bought it can refurbish it, there have been no new sales available for months. And if more were put up for sale, it looks like they’re sure to sell out, so Disney is keeping the number artificially low.
While reservations for the parks at Disneyland or Disney World don’t sell out every day of the year, they still fill up the parks on a regular basis whatever numbers allow. This would probably be a very busy park unless Disney really restricts attendance, but that seems unlikely.
The demand for Disneyland and Disney World is so high, and the supply is so low in the end, that people are willing to pay a lot of money to go. For everyone who may decide not to go to Disneyland because of the cost, there is one person who has just been waiting for a reservation space or available hotel room and will happily pay the asking price.
At the end of the day, he’s still working for Disney. If the park does not see an increase in per capita spending through food, merchandise, and additional activities, they will get it through the ticket price. And then we’ll go over all of that again next year.
Will this price hike change things at Disney World or Disneyland?
But this price hike may be different. While I’m not yet convinced that things will change drastically, I certainly feel that this was a case of Disney “taking the gloves off” as it relates to price hikes. Previously, it could be said that price increases were done in as quiet and modest a manner as possible. You can’t really say that here.
The fact that prices for almost anything that cost money went up on the same day was something that was clearly designed to be noticed. This was a statement to make clear to anyone who might be concerned that the price of your next trip to Disney, or your first trip to Disney, will be higher than you thought. For the average vacationing family, this may mean more time to make the trip, but it will still happen. But for this frequent visitor, it could mean fewer visits.
Of course, these expenses are also a problem. Even if you’re willing to save that money for a “once in a lifetime” family vacation, if you come back with no money left, it might be what you remember, making a future trip less likely. It may also be what you say to your friends, which means that others who might have been willing to spend money when they thought the trip was affordable may decide that a trip to Disney isn’t just for them.
It will take time for anyone, including Disney, to really see the impact of these price increases. Many people’s trips have already been planned for the next several months and even years. Perhaps nothing will really change, or perhaps what the Disney parks are for will fundamentally change. That seems to be the point.
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