Disneyland raises ticket prices, but here's a way to beat that

The $200 barrier has been breached. I wonder if people really think they're getting $200+ of value in a single visit to Disneyland, which doesn't even include all the ancillary costs like Lightning Lane, PhotoPass, food, and souvenirs.

Russel, not to mention those $200 days are the most crowded, which means youre already not getting on as many rides as you would on another day.

As much as I love Disneyland, with this increase the unweighted average is now $160 per day (up $9). For Disneyland park, these prices are probably still defensible given all that the park offers (though it's borderline), but it's far more than reasonable to pay for a day at a park like DCA, which offers roughly half as many attractions. That said, spending the money to visit a Disney theme park vs. other vacation options is certainly becoming less and less attractive with each new round of price raises. Despite being local, I haven't visited Disneyland since late 2022 due to the cost (I am tentatively planning to visit this year, though), and I ended up canceling my Florida trip last year because two weeks in Japan was cheaper than two weeks in Orlando (excluding airfare). I suppose as long as the parks are still filling to capacity Disney isn't truly overcharging, but I'd love to be able to visit the parks a couple times a year rather than once every couple years.

I'm with you AJ, and completely agree that Disneyland offers a significantly greater value than the neighboring DCA. I completely understand that the Disneyland resort as a whole offers a very unique experience, but given that the typical guest gets around 6-8 hours of entertainment value out of an admission, the increased prices puts it above many comparable entertainment options.

I'm sure prices are a bit higher in the LA market than here in DC, but I can tell you that I can purchase luxury/VIP seating for many of our local professional sports teams for <$200/game. While the experience doesn't last 6-8 hours like a typical day at a theme park, luxury/VIP seats usually include unlimited food and beverages (including alcohol) in addition to exclusive entrances, top notch service, and optimal sightlines.

If you're not into sports, @$200 will get you lower orchestra tickets for most professional theater and symphony performances and in certain instances may even be enough for box seats that often include drinks and VIP treatment. For popular music, #$200 would probably score you floor seats to most top artists which may or may not include VIP privileges (highly variable on artist popularity and venue). Again, music and theater might not last 6-8 hours, but the cost of a Disneyland admission is most likely going to get you either the best seats in the house or some additional perks. Meanwhile, you've got to spend even more money to feel "special" at Disneyland (LL, VIP Tours, special events, etc...).

For other miscellaneous entertainment options, you could pay for a meal (and maybe even drinks) at a Michelin-starred restaurant for @$200, and even using Disney's own restaurants as comparison, you could dine at pretty much any Disney restaurant (save for V&A's) for $200/person. Movies, escape rooms, IP-based events, and other entertainment options are all far less expensive to the point where you could either go multiple times for the cost of a Disneyland admission or you could purchase VIP tickets for those places for what it now costs to visits DL for a day.

Using other theme parks as an example, you can obviously but an annual pass for Six Flags/Cedar Fair that offers unlimited visits to one of their parks for an entire year. You could visit most European theme parks for multiple days for the price of a single day at Disneyland.

Ultimately, I think AJ has hit on something here, and that is that Disneyland is being priced as a luxury experience or somewhere to visit for a special occasion, not an everyday or casual destination to visit on a whim. If that's what Disney wants their parks to eventually become, then fine, but that's not how many theme park fans view visits to their parks.

As a point of reference for SoCal, Russell, while you can get a cheap seat to an Anaheim Ducks game for around $30, a rink-side seat is often $300+ and that doesn't even include all the extras of the packages you mentioned. Concert venues are typically in the same price range around here for bigger acts, and around half for lesser known performers. Premium format films in OC are getting close to $40 a ticket, and the window rate for Knott's Berry Farm is now $99.99. Using those numbers as a point of reference, while Disneyland still isn't cheap, it's definitely in an expensive area and thus not completely out of line with other competing offerings for what is offered.

I also think you significantly underestimate the amount of time non-keyholder guests spend at the park. While some may come for only 6-8 hours, a vast majority are spending many more hours inside the parks on any given day, with most arriving in the late morning and remaining until after the evening fireworks that typically occur in the 8:30-10:00 P.M. range. There are crazy people (like me) that take full advantage of the 14-16 hour operating days the resort often uses, which significantly enhances the value of the ticket, but even if you're only there for 10 hours you're still spending less than $20 an hour, which seems a pretty fair price for a premium theme park offering like Disney.

What I suspect Disneyland is really wanting is for those who intend to visit more than once a year to sign up for a Magic Key, which will lock them in for at least a year (and perhaps longer), plus generate additional revenue from in park spending on visit after visit. For those unwilling or unable to do that, they can either take advantage of one of the park's many local discount deals (which now cover over half the calendar year) or suck it up and pay the premium. Operational changes made over the past several years have definitely discouraged those who just casually drop in for a few hours, and I really think the resort is trying to emphasize a focus toward those who are visiting for a full day outing rather than those who want to stop by for an afternoon or evening.

@AJ - But if Disney really wanted more guests to buy Magic Key, they would make more of them available. The fact of the matter is that the number of people interested in the program far outpaces the supply Disney is willing to put on the market. That indicates to me that Disney is generally happy with the numbers they're seeing from the revamped program, and would rather see guests visiting with more predictable (and now ever more profitable) single day admissions.