Going to Walt Disney World can be a dream vacation for many families, but now the cost of that dream is going to be a little higher.
My husband and I honeymooned at Disney and now we are preparing to take our daughter for her first trip in October. The costs are high but, for us, it is worth it because we love the parks as well as staying in the Disney resorts. I also love that we can make payments on our vacation and with the Disney dining plan, our whole trip will be paid before we even get to Florida.
Every year, the prices increase on park tickets, which happened last weekend. It wasn’t unexpected, especially to people who frequent Disney planning forums and blogs.
The last increase happened on June 3, 2012. What was a bit surprising is that a one day ticket for the Magic Kingdom is now $95, with the other three parks costing $90. The old price was $89 for any of the four Disney World parks. This is the first time ever that Disney has done tiered pricing for their Florida parks. This is just for single day passes, however. If you buy two or more passes, the price will be the same for each park. The more park days you buy at a time, the lower the price is for each day.
There is a handy chart on allears.net that shows all the admission prices increases since the day Walt Disney World opened in 1971. The original price was $3.50 to enter the parks. The cost sounds a lot lower than today, but you had to pay for each ride at that time. The ride prices varied from 10 cents to 90 cents, depending on the classification of the attraction.
This doesn’t change my plans because we are locked into the old prices. Our package is already booked. Even so, my Disney plans would stay the same because I believe that Disney is still a good value. I know seeing the look on my daughter’s face when she catches sight of Cinderella Castle for the first time will be priceless.
You can read more about the price increase at the Disney Park Blog. You can see a breakdown of all the new prices at allears.net.
If you were planning a Disney World vacation, would the new prices make you reconsider your plans?
We are still planning a Disney vacation this year, also possibly for October, though we haven’t booked anything. To me, the price increases simply point towards buying a package, which we were planning to do anyway. Also, my parents still live in Florida (where I grew up), and this will be a 3-generation trip. We plan to let them book everything and take advantage of Florida resident pricing.
We always get packages too – for us it works out best because we like staying on site and we always go for about a week. I’d just wish I could convince my husband to go for a longer trip. Our trip in October is only 6 days.