This week is ‘Disney Week’ here at TPG, but the surprise announcement from Disney related to big changes in ticket pricing was decidedly not in the scheduled coverage line-up. The updates to Disney World ticket pricing were announced Monday in an official Disney Parks video and blog post.
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Disney World moves to fully variable ticket pricing
Beginning October 16, Disney World will change how you buy tickets to its Central Florida theme parks. Once these changes take place, gone are the variably priced one-day tickets based on which Disney World park you plan to visit (Magic Kingdom currently costs the most). While a one-day ticket price will not vary based on the park, it will continue to vary based on date.
A bigger deal for families is that Disney World is introducing variably priced multi-day tickets based on the dates of your trip. Expect to see peak season dates cost more and off-season dates cost a bit less. Until now, only one-day tickets had seasonal pricing — multi-day tickets were a consistent price throughout the year.
Another major change coming on October 16 is that Disney tickets will be sold for specific dates. You will have to pay extra if you want to purchase tickets without a specific date in mind. Currently, Disney World tickets have expiration dates, but you don’t have to know exactly which date you will use the tickets at the time of purchase.
While today’s announcement did not come with exact pricing details, a closer look at the Disney Parks video provides a few clues. In the video, single-day adult tickets start at $107, but I have seen some other sites report one-day tickets will vary from $109 – $129 per day so it is possible the prices in the video aren’t ready for prime time. Note that all prices mentioned are pre-tax.
Some Disney tickets will cost more, some will cost a little less
Disney shows some additional pricing in the video, but I don’t 100% trust that those will be the go-live prices on Oct. 16, so I’ll refrain from dwelling too much on them here today. However, I will do the quick math for you with the numbers from the video screenshot below, just to save you the time and curiosity of doing it yourself.
- One-day tickets: $107+
- Two-day tickets: $200+ (currently $209)
- Three-day tickets: $270+ (currently $305)
- Four-day tickets: $316+ (currently $380)
- Five-day tickets: $345+ (currently $395)
- Six-day tickets: $348+ (currently $405)
- Seven-day tickets: $371+ (currently $415)
- Ten-day tickets: $470+ (currently $445)
Again, Disney did not explicitly say these are the new prices (beyond putting them in their video), but keep in mind that the real takeaway here is that the prices will be variable. The video shows four-day ticket prices for November 2018 with the daily price varying from $81 to $97 per day for a four-day ticket used during that month. That is a relatively wide range when you multiply the price variation out for a whole family. As always, expect peak family travel dates to price at the higher end of the scale.
The video also breaks the bad news that you will have a shorter period of time to use your multi-day tickets. Currently, you have up to 14 days from the first day to use your multi-day tickets, but in the video’s example you just have from November 12 – 18 to use a four-day ticket.
If you want 14 days to use your multi-day ticket, the video indicates you will have to pay $100 extra. The added benefit of that $100 is that you will also be able to use your tickets on flexible dates instead of fixed dates — in other words, just like the current system.
Bottom line
While Disney has yet to spell out all of the exact details of the new ticket pricing system, there is enough information in the newly released video to know that these changes mean tickets are getting pricier in some situations, especially for families who like to travel during peak times. In other situations, Disney World ticket prices appear to go down a little bit for those who can travel on the least busy dates.
To end with a piece of good news, in the video, you can see the Disney Visa advertising a $250 bonus available for new cardholders (up from $200 now). Let’s cross our fingers that is a sign of good things to come.
We have reached out to Disney for comment on the new prices and will keep you posted as more information is available.
Featured image by @marn123424 via Twenty20