Are Disney's theme parks too expensive, or too cheap?

A ticket to the park(s) is definitely not too expensive...A premium price for a premium experience is what you should get....if you’re willing to pay for it. That used to be why people took Disney vacations. And that is what you used to get with Disney. Unfortunately, Disney long ago developed a very bad habit of releasing a bevy of discounts and ticket pricing loopholes the second attendance begins to wain even slightly. So what happens? In the short term the parks overflow with guests (who are not paying near full price anymore) and pushes rides and people to capacity. This makes the overall experience (which should feel premium because of the price) feel like a bait and switch. Parks NEVER used to be this crowded. Pricing proved prohibitive for some, which kept crowds down, but Disney thought that they could keep experience at premium level AND could handle more bodies through the gates, which just isn’t the case, and this has compounded over the years to where we are today, where it feels too expensive because you aren’t getting the experience you used to for the money.

I recently attended a basketball game for the Portland Trailblazers. I went with a friend and we got nose bleed tickets. After parking, my $35 ticket, and some MINOR refreshments (burger, fries, and a soda), I had spent nearly $100. The game lasted 2 hours and we lost. On another occasion, I took my family of four to see Disney on Ice. When all was said and done (tickets, refreshments, and a few simple souvenirs), we had spent nearly $300 for a 2 hour show. Disney parks are expensive, but when I save up for them, they’re an incredible bargain for my family. We arrive early, utilize planning and fast passes, take an afternoon break, and close out the parks. It’s not something we can do every year (I’m an Oregon teacher), but we do make it happen regularly and we are not at all wealthy.

Wondering if TPI will pose the same.question about Universal .. After the next Blogflume about the latest Harry Potter superstore.

(Chuckle)

As long as people keep shelling out the dough the prices will keep going up. There are millions of people out there with a Disney addiction and are not willing to live without it, the product is way less elastic than any normal person can comprehend. When you think about the fact that the average Disney hotel rooms are hotel room is $250+ a night and people come back time after time after time is absolutely mind blowing.

It wasn't that long ago we were all thinking there's no way a 1 day ticket to Disneyland will go to $100, there's just no way they could do that without a major PR backlash. The place is more successful then ever. As long as Disney can keep hooking these people in when they're young, keep making movies they want to see and they want their kids to see, people will still want to go and prices will keep going up.

Meanwhile the ticket prices at the lower quality parks are still extremely cheap which just goes to show you how powerful the Disney and Harry Potter brands are. Six Flags basically gives away their season passes in hopes that they can sucker enough people into the Dining Pass/Flash Pass upsells in order to be profitable. The price for my Six Flags season pass 25+ years ago is about the same price as it is for one today! If you're one of those people like me when I was younger that uses your season pass frequently and doesn't ever buy anything, they may as well be paying you to go there. There were some years I went to SFGAm 50+ times and paid like $60 total lol.

The cost per hour logic in the article is flawed. Where you will be entertained for a full 2 hours of a play, movie, or ball game, you will not be entertained for a full 15 hours of a Disney park visit. Thinking generously, if you were able to experience 2 attractions per hour for 15 hours with each attraction lasting an average of 5 minutes, you are getting 2 1/2 hours worth of entertainment in a 15 hour day, roughly what you would get in the aforementioned play, movie, or ball game.

Having said that, if Disney parks were overpriced, they would not be as crowded as they are now.

Some would argue that the environment and ambiance that Disney parks have also go towards that ticket value. Sure the attractions are great but it's the overall feeling and energy of the lands that sells it for me.

For me, this depends on the park. The castle parks, IMO, are a good value given all that they have to offer. The other parks, however, are a bit lacking by comparison, and given that most aren't full day parks, paying over $100 is a little steep. The real value of Disney comes from multi-day tickets, where there's a higher upfront cost but a much lower cost per day, which also increases the worthiness of the extra gates.

For me to go to Disney, and have a great day, even have a couple of nice meals, the price is absolutely fine. The problem is, I don't go to Disney by myself, as is the case with most people. Each and every visit comes with family; Minimum admission isn't $100. It's $400.00+. Sure, multi-day passes can save on the day-to-day rates, but in the end it's still very expensive to take your family there. Meals, souvenirs, snacks, arcades, etc; and you are quickly adding up to a small fortune.

I was down in Orlando on business a little over a year ago, and met up with a buddy who also happened to be down there. We ended up heading over to Universal for a couple of days. In terms of price, for me alone, it was a fantastic value - and that's including more than a few over-priced beers in Diagon Alley. I had a GREAT time at, what I consider to be, a reasonable overall price. However, if I had been there with my family, the price would have been WAY higher - and with all the extra frustrations that go along with trying to keep everybody happy.

I need to design a T-Shirt that emulates the opening logo for that 1980s Ed O'Neill/Katy Segal sit-com, with a "Theme Park Enthusiast" logo melting away, with the words "With Children" stamped across it.

Its both. A single day ticket is overpriced, but season passes and other deals are underpriced. Gradually phase out most of the discounts annual passes and just have the parks cost $80-90 per day, and only keep the signature passes, and charge more for them. Let more people come for a few days, instead of trying to get the same people to come a lot. The current model makes it almost impossible for many people to afford a single day at Disney. That should change.

The enjoyment factor comes into play for me and my family. As Florida residents we have annual passes. We can come and go and we choose. Stay for a few hours only, park hop, arrive early and leave early or arrive late and stay late, etc. We can actually not worry about getting a full day’s entertainment for a full day’s cost. For us, we love Disney and love to “smell the roses” while at Disney.

I agree with Robert that the laws of supply and demand imply that Disneyland is underpriced. But I also want to point out that the "Disney" experience has become an extreme luxury good, whose price now excludes a significant portion of U.S. citizens, reflecting the increasing wealth inequality in this country.

Both.

It is a premium product in that space, so a premium is to be expected.

However, I do think Disney should be adding some more value for that price. Specifically lets start doing the right thing by guests and ensuring they have enough to drink through the day. Dehydration isn't good for the guest, and if the guest isn't enjoying the park, then its not good for the park either. I wish more would follow Holiday World's model.

That said, I think there's some apple with orange comparison here. Something like a concert is a time limited event, it will not be repeated outside that limited window. The theme park show, if executed correctly, will be repeated day after day, hour after hour.

I believe it is too complicated an answer. For me, it is value over time. The Disney Parks used to be so much fun that I was happy to pay whatever on a yearly to year and a half basis. Now, with the them being so packed and being forced to pre-plan, they are not as fun, so the cost is not worth it. We now only go just as our rewards points are set to expire. We would gladly go more often if you did not have to micromanage the trip and could experience more attractions per day. As it stands, the cost for us is not worth it, but only due to the hassle. We would gladly pay the price if this were not the case. As to Universal, the price is easily worth it due to the Unlimited Express Pass. This is a shame as I enjoy the classic Disney attractions more and really love Animal Kingdom. The food far exceeds Universal at Disney as well.

The overall debate is a fair one — I’m in the “too expensive” camp, but there are arguments on both sides — but the concept of the OCR article doesn’t do much for me. Because if I have to spend 15 hours of my vacation day in a theme park (or museum or national park or casino or convention, for that matter), I guess I just don’t want value in my vacation.

For each person, it comes down to priority. I'm friends with doctors, lawyers and dentists who think that Disneyland is too expensive. I know they can afford it, but the fact is, going to Disneyland is just not their priority. Bob Iger is trying to appeal to the Star Wars 'normal fans', but it's not the normies who fanatically buy your product, this is true with Disneyland too. The Disney annual passholders are, for the most part, the ones who will fanatically buy your product. Yes, the normal fans may come once in a while and spend a lot per that infrequent visit, but IMO the APs spend a lot more over the long term.

It all depends on what you want out of a visit. If you want to be able to afford to bring a lot of people with you, it's too expensive. If you want a trip where there are minimal crowds and a pleasant experience, they're not expensive enough.

I think it is kinda both. It is certainly a fair value for the price paid, however as many have said, the crowding and pre-planning ruin the experience.

Just think about this, a 7-day park hopper costs $537 - 702. At the high end, that is an average of over $100. For a family of four, that is almost $3,000 in just admission. That is for the privilege of dealing with all the crowds.

For that same $3,000 I can go to universal stay on site at the Royal Pacific Resort, get hopper passes and get free unlimited line cutting privileges. Though the passes would only be 5 days.

Personally, I would only visit the Disney parks with one of the "after hours" parties due the limited crowds.

I'm in the "a bit of both" camp as can agree too expensive in some cases but not with the main park. I guess it depends on the experience as a bad vacation makes the cost look worse but other times it can seem a bargain. I used to pay a big price for 4-5 day park hoppers at WDW but I felt it was worth it for all I did.

I may also depend on how serious you really are. Me, I could hit a park right at opening, there until closing and going around other parks too. Other people may not be that way and chill out more by hotel pool or such. It can really be how much you do at the parks that makes the cost worth it or not.

In 2017 TPI dropped a "Blogflume" under the headline "Are Disney theme park tickets still a great entertainment value?" The loaded question (accompanied by a survey) gave a platform for every Universal Orlando fan/flamer to dump on WDW.

Yet this same site (correct me if I am wrong) has never posed the same survey question about Universal Orlando.

Things that make ya go "Hmmmmmmm..."

Well, looking on attractiontickets.com at the moment (I'm in the UK version of it), they're offering

WDW "Ultimate Ticket" : 14 days for 7 (£399), or 21 days at £455 -

USO's 14 day 3 park explorer pass is £279

(Or I can get both for 14 days for £674)

The site is doing adults at kids prices, so there's no difference there.

(These are the real prices to pay, no extra charges, tax included)

So if we wanted to do a what gives better value then I think USO beats disney on the cost-per-hours analysis of the article. Disney would need to be open a lot longer than USO to be comparable, and I'm not sure there's that many hours in the day.

I prefer cost-per-day myself. £28.50 per day (Dis) and £19.92 (USO) are bargains for a full days entertainment. But that presumes you can do 14 full days groundpounding and dealing with crowds. If you need a rest day of course, the value calculation changes. Thorpe park wants £55 at the gate, although getting that about half price (or 2-4-1) is pretty easy, which puts it in disney's price bracket for a single day.

However, I would conceed, for now at least, Disney is a premium product that does rightly command a premium over its competitors. I don't think I can agree almost an extra 50% premium is justified over USO (but almost any other park, I would agree).

I think the question then is, if Disney can command that sort of price, and still get a decent number of people through the turnstyles is USO underpriced?

Depends on your perspective. My family went to Hawaii in September. We were also planning a trip this March to Disneyland. I couldn't bring myself to do Disney because when I priced it out the trip without considering spending money was exactly the same. And that was 5 full days compared to 3. Pretty simple math. Overpriced.

Prices keep rising, but, honestly, the value is still there. We have a wonderful trip every time.

For me it is very simple: Do I get value-for-money from the financial outlay?

The separate ticketed events at Magic Kingdom for MNSSHP and MVMCP, the answer is a resounding "yes", if it is a single day admission when the park is crowded/very crowded then it is a resounding "no". It is not just the admission, add in the $25 parking, food and drink and it becomes a very expensive day to spend the majority of the day standing in queues and not experiencing the attractions, which is the reason you go in the first place.

Comparing sporting events is not comparing like-for-like.

One day passes are expensive. But for WDW, why would anyone want a single day pass? You can't see WDW in one day. You can barely see one park in one day. Disney apparently wants to see people stay longer. And they want people to see all the parks.

What I consider too expensive is the merchandise. They buy the pin-trading stuff, which is all made in China, and sell them for a huge profit. The problem is that people are willing to pay that price. So... the blame goes back on those people that are willing to pay the price. Food is expensive, but they do serve good food, and there's plenty of food with any meal.

As for the idea that people want one day passes... Think about the cost for people to travel there. The cost of extra days doesn't add up to that much more. The cost for a room, even in a Disney Value Resort, isn't that much more. But I do admit that a family of five is more expensive than many families can afford. Just think about the cost of flying there...

I think there are a lot of things at play here...

First, I'll tackle the elephant in the room, which is why Disney get criticized more for their pricing than Universal. I think much of that has to do with Disney's reputation and history within the industry. A trip to Disneyland or WDW is considered a right of passage for working class Americans, and as the costs to take a Disney vacation have been outpacing blue-collar wage increases and inflation, they are taking a brunt of the criticism. Universal doesn't have the same history within the industry, and while they attract some of the same guests as Disney, they never established themselves as a value destination, except when trying to compete directly with the Mouse in Orlando. UO consistently tries to price themselves just below a comparable WDW vacation, so by positioning itself as a less expensive alternative, they typically have avoided those complaints, even though they're just as guilty at seeing trip costs go through the roof in recent years.

I think the biggest driver here is the overall costs and perceived value from a WDW vacation. On the surface, you can certainly argue the $100+ admission cost is worth it compared to alternative forms of entertainment. However, there are far more variables at play than just the park entry price. I think one of the biggest intangible costs of a WDW vacation is the amount of planning and knowledge needed to extract maximum value out of that $100 admission ticket. Every time the price goes up, it seems to get more complicated to visit the parks. For all of the information campaigns, blogs, and message boards out there, it's mind boggling to see how many people show up at WDW with NO IDEA what they're supposed to do when they get there. They hear about Rise of the Resistance and how it is quite possible the greatest theme park attraction in the world, but they show up at DHS an hour after the park opens wondering why they can't ride. Everyone else who knows what to do to get on RotR probably spends hours stressing over whether they will be successful and figuring out how early they have to drag their kids out of bed. The stress and effort required to make that $100+ ticket worth the price has been increasing faster than ticket prices have been rising, and shows no signs of subsiding any time soon.

Another impact to those criticism are the accessory costs of a visit to WDW. Not only are guests having to put hours into planning their trip and spending the days leading up to their vacation stressing as to whether they'll be able to do all the things their family want to do, but then they need to worry about all of the other things they have to pay for. On-site hotel rates have risen almost as fast as admission, and as Disney has smoothed out the crowds with sports tournaments, marathons, special events, after hours parties, etc... the occupancy rates are also at an all time high. Couple that with a dearth of discounts and complexity/restrictions to those deals actually offered, and guests start to wonder if staying at the Holiday Inn might be a better choice. That is until you actually book that stay at the Holiday Inn and go to make your FP+ reservations 30 days after on-site guests get their pick of the litter only to find out that none of the top rides are available via FP, and you'll have to drag you kids out of bed at 5 AM every morning of your vacation to make sure you can experience Flight of Passage, 7 Dwarfs Mine Train, Frozen Ever After, and Slinky Dog Dash without having to wait in line for 2+ hours each (assuming that you even know that you have to make FP+ reservations ahead of time in the first place). Everything involved with planning and executing a WDW vacation reduces the value, which would continue to go down even if the admission prices weren't going up every single year. Add skyrocketing food prices, upcharge events that are becoming near essential to get at least a few hours at a park without suffocating crowds, and souvenirs that may be getting nicer, but with prices that are outpacing the increase in quality, and they all add up to an experience that is leaving more and more guests cold and disappointed.

Everyone is going to see value a little bit differently, because everyone visits theme parks for varying reasons. However, while I think the price of an admission to a Disney theme park is still a good value (even at over $100), when you consider all of the other costs associated with a Disney vacation, and that value is quickly declining.

I know a ton of relatives, friends and co workers who are pass holders and also Disney timeshare holders and to them it don't matter how much Disney prices raises, they will still continue to go. I mean if that's all they like and want to do, then more power to them. My view of Disneyland today is much different then it was back when I was growing up. For me it all comes down to time. How much time is going to be wasted getting up early for boarding passes, running around chasing characters, standing in long lines, fighting crowds, planning every little details for my stay. Surely those with season pass this is no big deal. But I now refuse to do this anytime somebody mentions going for two or three days. To me that is a waste of time and considered expensive. However, if I go every 4 years, and make this a 4 to 5 day vacation, then yes I find the value good and the experience is different because I have more time to sit back and not rush and run around feeling I have to catch everything in such a shorter time.

I agree with others you have to also look at overall what you can get if you spend that money elsewhere. Again, you can't argue or reason with hard cord disney fans. But I remember years ago, my cousin when to Disneyland for 4 days and bragged about how they got a good deal. When she laid out how much they paid for a car rental, gas, food, merchandise, disney hotel, and 4 day park hopper, I went back to look at my east coast trip I took around the same time. I overall paid less for a round trip flight to Pittsburgh, 8 day car rental, gas, food and attended 5 parks! Six Flags Adventure, Hersey park, Holiday World, King Island and Cedar Point on top of visiting the NFL hall of fame. I agree getting six flags and cedar point platinum passes saved on parking and getting into the park, but if you time it right and look for local deals for Hersey and Holiday world, you can really get a bang for you buck with the trip I had!

To put WDW into context, my visit in November cost a shade under £400 for a 14-day Disney park pass. This was a £45 increase on 2018, 2020 has been increased by a similar figure. I also have to include parking as an additional cost to the park tickets travelling into WDW from US27.

This may be good value if you attend the parks for 8+ times during your 2 weeks but the current state of the parks we only did them once each, Magic Kingdom was re-visited separately for Christmas Party event.

Epcot is a disgrace! This should not be full-price. Look at the lack of remotely enjoyable attractions in Future World other than Test Track, Spaceship Earth and Soarin'. As for World Showcase, which I always loved, this has been turned into nothing more than convenient backdrops for Disney to ply their characters and merchandise found everywhere else. What the hell has Arribas Bros got to do with Mexico and Germany? Why are there standard Disney Christmas ornaments made in China taking up half of the Germany pavilion? And as for Frozen merchandise in Norway or Guinness in UK? The list is endless. At least Big Bad Voodoo Daddy lived up to expectations.

Hollywood Studios - half a day park at the time we attended with a chunk of that made up with queuing for Millennium Falcon, which was a huge disappointment.

Animal Kingdom is getting better for attractions and the addition of Avatar is superb but, where have the animals gone? Awfully sparse with the reason the park exists.

Magic Kingdom remains the King of parks but the crowds do take the shine off it.

So, based on November 2019 I certainly didn't have value-for-money for a £400 14-day pass and won't be returning for some years to come. However, when I do return I do expect to have a much better choice of attractions across all of the parks so I am optimistic my value-for-money will be significantly increased.

As non US-citizen, I'm not voting here, because my vote would not reflect anything with an 'insider customer' view.
I like to offer some professional reflexions however, from my own involvement with leisure market feasibility.

To start with : The Disney product evolved from a major full day leisure experience in the 1950-ies, 1960-ies to a 2 day short vacation stay in the 1970-ies. Only thereafter the idea of multiday (almost a week) vacation destination was born. The trigger was the concept development of EPCOT. We must understand that Disney parks evolved from "the best daytrip there is", amongst other parks, to vacation destination. The only other one who is doing it (USA) is Universal.
So, we're not talking about the park as a park, but about the theme park destination as alternative to a beach destination, city trip, region touring by car, etc.
The comparison of Disney (or Universal) with classic 1 day trip amusement parks, therefore is completely senseless from the viewpoint of leisure feasibility. The comparison of a Florida Disney vacation now, and a Miami or Fort Launderdale vacation in the past, would be much more appropriate. Then, we're talking about a typical short 5 days resort vacation. It's essential to understand the difference.
Apart from city trips and beach vacations, correct comparisons however also could include winter sports resorts and long stay National Park vacations. It's about the amount of TIME SPENT.
It is correct however, to compare classic 1 day amusement park visits, with large scale events like concerts, sports events or major museum trips.

So, lets clearly split it up !

Then, comparing the situation in the USA, with Europe, also is impossible, and for a very specific labour law and customs reason. The USA resembles very much Japan and other Asian countries in that respect...
What is it about ? It's about the average yearly number of available (paid) vacation days. If the USA, Japan and more countries in Asia average around 10 days of paid vacation days rights, in Europe this averages typically around 20 days (with peaks up to 25).
Now, lets compare 2 statistical families, one in USA, one in Europe. Both a parents + 2 kids family, both with the same spendable total year income, both with the same available total vacation budget. At this point of comparison, they seam equal.
Then comes in the different total vacation period. If the budget of the US family has to be spread over 10 days to get spent, the same budget must get spread over 20 days in Europe. Makes up for twice as much budget, PER vacation day in the USA...
That is exactly where the US-based Disney resort concept is built upon ! The high spending per day, is not problematic (given the same vacation budget) as it would be in Europe. Hence, the totally different situation in Euro-Disney.
After building Tokyo Disney (where the spreading of the vacation budget is similar to the USA) the Disney company made a complete mismatch in feasibility projection with Paris.
This had NOTHING to do with the French, but everything with to total lack of a real market feasibility study before the planning of Euro-Disney. (Actualy: AECOM, shame on them for bluntly copy-pasting materials from Japan, in my eyes, fraudulent consultancy.)
Whatever kind of WDW resort (size) cannot exist in Europe, because the majority of people cannot spend the same amount of vacation budget "over the same period of time". Europeans are usually planning scrupulously this budget over the available 20 days.

To go back to the USA : if everybody in the USA got (legally) the same avarage 20 vacation days, as it is in Europe, Disney would collapse in it's specific resort concept.
Try to understand that it is not even about the quality of the entertainment, the experience... it is about the AVERAGE pack of $$$ a US citizen has in his hand, to spend PER DAY.
We all understand that nobody is 'average', income levels differ enormously, but also Disney depends on that average over the total population.

I never follow any of the industry's rule of thumb advices in the USA theme park industry, for application in Europe. Switching markets needs new feasibility studies.

Food for Thought,
Best greetings to all !

I understand the complaints about the steadily rising cost of a theme park vacation (and that applies to Universal, too), and we`ve had to cut back on the length of our trips as a result. But both Disney and Universal are investing billions into their parks. As long as they keep reinvesting, I don`t mind so much that I have to pay more for my vacation.

The price of anything is effected by how many people are willing to pay the price. One of the reasons I haven't been to the parks is because of the prices. If enough people didn't attend then I'm sure the pricing would have been adjusted in some way.