Hugh Johnston, Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, said that The Walt Disney Company is investing in dynamic ticket pricing, and this approach could be making its way to the domestic parks in the coming years.
Scanning in!
In 2022, Disney World introduced “surge pricing,” where ticket prices can vary by park and day. More popular dates had higher prices, and more in-demand parks saw an increase. Because of this, Magic Kingdom is the most expensive park on Christmas Day, for example. Dynamic pricing could be coming soon, so let’s see how this would change.
With surge pricing, once the ticket price is announced, it’s fixed and doesn’t change if you check back another day. Whether you buy a ticket one day or in two months, the price will remain the same. Dynamic pricing could mean ticket prices change every time you look at them, so you’d have to be more aware of when you book.
Disney World Theme Park Tickets
Disneyland Paris recently introduced a dynamic pricing system in which prices change based on when you book, similar to how airline tickets work. You could see a lower price one day, a higher price the next, and they could just back down the day after — this could seriously throw a wrench in your ticket budget.
Disneyland Paris
While this system hasn’t arrived at Disney World or Disneyland yet, Disney has been dropping hints that it might be coming sooner rather than later. Hugh Johnston answered questions during a Wells Fargo Technology, Media, and Telecom Summit and said that, after testing the system at Disneyland Paris for about a year, this approach could come to our domestic parks as Disney works to optimize it.
Magic Kingdom
Disneyland Paris currently has its pricing system broken into six tiers:
- Tier 1: $57 to $63
- Tier 2: $64 to $72
- Tier 3: $73 to $82
- Tier 4: $83 to $95
- Tier 5: $96 to $101
- Tier 6: $102 to $152
If you look at the calendar, Tier 6, the most expensive, had three times as many dates as Tier 1, the lowest-priced tier. Disney World, looking to implement this system, could eliminate the need for ticket price increase announcements, which usually draw bad press.
Annual Pass
This could also open the opportunity for dynamic pricing for Lightning Lanes, Disney’s paid skip-the-line service. Currently, prices are based on the park’s popularity and the date, similar to how ticket prices work now. Once the price is listed, it doesn’t change, but if dynamic pricing comes to tickets, it might also come to Lightning Lanes, where you’d have to strategically plan when you purchase them.
Lightning Lane
We don’t have a timeline or official confirmation on whether dynamic pricing is coming to Disney World and Disneyland, but we wouldn’t be surprised to hear more announced in the future. Make sure you keep following Disney Food Blog to stay up to date with more information.
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We have seven kids and disney was always really special to me growing up in the 80s and 90s so we try to save up and take our kids every two to three years. We spend most of our time at the resort because the parks cost so much for a large family. I hate reading things like this because it feels like it will become impossible to even take them for one or two days every two or three years in the future. Even with the saving and budgeting!! Which makes me so sad because it was so special to me as a kid.
Glad to know that Disney still wants to constantly increase the cost of the parks just now they might not need to announce it every year. To paraphrase “the prices increases will continue to people stop paying”, with the shift from ‘park attendance’ to ‘per guest spend’ Disney has little incentive to adjust their sales (pun intended) until more people stop going to the parks.
We just closed on our home in SC after spending five years in Disney’s Back Yard in Winter Garden, FL. The parks are one habit that will be surprisingly easy to give up. We’ll let our APs expire with no regrets and broaden our entertainment horizons elsewhere. The Disney Parks division is at a cash-grab high-point (for now) with surprisingly little for Disney Adults to get excited about. I read this latest news about ways they plan to charge even more for even less, and we know that cost will escalate time and again forever. The value proposition just isn’t there for us any longer.
It was a fun experiment that recently came to an end. I’ll continue to read some DFB articles to learn what pain Disney leadership inflicts next.
Cheers!
When I saw the headline, I foolishly thought that Disney was implementing a way to LOWER PRICES FOR THE PARK AND LIGHTENING LANES. I WAS WRONG. DISNEY AS USUAL IS FINDING NEW WAYS TO RAISE PRICES. Since my family and I have visited Disney World 30 times since 1984, I find it very hard to understand the pricing and the perks that had existed as recently as 2019 have DISAPPEARED AND REPLACED WITH GREED GREED GREED GREED. Disney IS NOT THE SAME COMPANY TODAY THAT IT WAS AS RECENTLY AS 2019. Disney, how could you RUIN MR. WALT DISNEY’S WONDERFUL IDEA IN AS LITTLE AS SIX YEARS. DISGUSTING 🤮. MR. WALT DISNEY IS TURNING IN HIS GRAVE HOW MANAGEMENT HAS TURNED THE HAPPIEST PLACE ON EARTH 🌍 INTO AN ATM MACHINE. (WITHOUT ME AND MY FAMILY)
I love Disney, but they are getting on my nerves!
Hey Disney, how about this… I look at current park ticket, resort hotel, food & drink and souvenir prices for a family of 5 and decide not to come at all anymore? You’ve priced us out (even as DVC Members with a room to stay in without reaching for my wallet). We were planning on willing our DVC Points to our kids, but we love them too much to saddle them with your constantly rising prices. Once enough families like ours have finally had it and stop going, maybe then they’ll get it.
When will Disney learn nickel and diming will not draw more people. I have been to Disney World 16 times and Disneyland twice but am now finished with them. I could not get my wife to go back even if it was free. We have had it. Higher prices and lower services do not interest me.
I am a discouraged Disney adult( I even have the book). I will spend my money elsewhere until things settle down.
I continue to read Disney blogs, hoping they will come to their senses. But we won’t be going back. We are driving to Key West (bucket list) from NC next Spring and my husband asked if I wanted to stop at WDW for a few days on the way. I had no qualms about saying NO. We will probably stop at Busch Gardens instead, even if it is a little out of the way.
Here is the problem. In Paris, people expect to pay ridiculous prices, because it’s Paris. Fashion Mecca of the world. In America, we already think the prices are way over priced. My family used to go every three years. I went for one day this year , cost me almost 400.00. There is a very fine line when it comings to pricing. Once all these people leave … how many millions is it going to cost you to get them back? Ie, deals, marketing, and time?
Add in your very lively new competition right next door. Not good. They will be laughing all the way to the bank.
I can see from all of the prior comments that everyone is really excited about this potential pricing change. If all they want are foreigners in WDW keep going in this direction. When you are in the parks now English is like a third or fourth language being spoken by the patrons.
The only place Americans seem to be and where English is spoken are in the restaurants. Keep it up and there will not be any Americans in WDW.
2019 is when Covid hit and my opinion this is when Disney could raise prices on everything.
My wife and I are DVC members since 2001. We gave up buying annual passes a couple years ago. Approx 1000 a piece and this is with black outs.
We won’t go into the parks any more but still stay at the resorts. The resorts and downtown Disney can just be as fun.
At some point these price arranging systems will become an occurrence problem. There are many types of Disney goers and if less resort users is the aim this will help. Returning and loyal disney lovers who are not riding the DVC train will be priced out and no replacement will be available due the economy and aging populations. Big Disney Fan here but I feel the pain of the increases over the last 6 years. Longer loyal vacationing people needs should be better balanced with short term gains.
Will have to rethink future trips. For the folks who can afford it, or are willing to go into debt to finance said trip enjoy your time. Disney as well as other entertainment entities are pricing more and more people out.
Disney has strayed so unbelievably far from Walt’s vision in so many ways. What a disgrace….
I am curious if we will all see the same prices if we look at the same time once they go to “Dynamic Pricing”.
Somehow I doubt this is what Walt Disney had in mind when he planned for “a place where parents and kids can have fun together.”
To me this seems irrelevant because prices always go up around certain times. They’ve been doing this forever so I don’t see this as a change at all. Try going around thanksgiving or Christmas. 🤣😂🤭 don’t get that this is a change?