Disneyland Price Hikes Show Disney’s Faith in Planned Expansions for Reigniting Demand
In what’s now a tradition as regular as a parade on Main Street USA, Disneyland has raised its prices in time for the holiday season.
But the move also suggests Disney is doubling down on the belief that its ambitious, $60 billion parks investment will, eventually, justify the price of admission and jolt waning demand.
While Florida’s Walt Disney World upped its base ticket price earlier this year, the original Anaheim location opted to keep its lowest-tier single-day, single-park ticket at $104 for the sixth year in a row. The catch is that those Tier 0 tickets are only available for a fraction of the year, as SFGate reported last week there are only 34 days for that price set in 2025.
For the rest of the year, parkgoers will have to contend with Tiers 2 through 6, depending on the predetermined level of demand for a given period. Each of those increased in price by roughly 6%, with the highest tickets crossing the $200 mark for the first time in Disneyland history.
Disney Parks blog Mickey Visit reported that before Disneyland launched its tiered ticket system, the price of admission was $96 flat in 2014 (equal to $129.40 today). Compared with the Tier 6 price, that means Disneyland tickets have increased by 114% in 10 years, or roughly 60% when adjusted for inflation.
Multi-day single-park tickets also increased by roughly 6.5% each, ranging between $330 for two days and $511 for five days, while the Magic Key annual passes jumped by either $100 or $125 each.
Another Disney blog, Magic Trip Tools, found that since the Magic Key passes were introduced in 2021, both the SoCal resident-exclusive Imagine pass and budget-friendly Enchant pass have increased in price by 50%. The higher-tiered Believe and Inspire passes also climbed in price by 45% and 25%, respectively.
Another way to look at it: The Imagine pass in 2025 is now around the same price as the Enchant pass in 2021, which is now in the range of the Believe pass’ 2021 price and so on.
Finally, the controversial Lighting Lane, formerly the free FirstPass system, was bumped from $30 to $32. Mercifully, the Park Hopper add-on for visiting both Disneyland proper and California Adventure in the same day remains at $65.
“There is nothing like a visit to Disneyland Resort,” said spokesperson Jessica Good to outlets reporting on the price hikes. “We always provide a wide variety of ticket, dining and hotel options, and promotional offers throughout the year, to welcome as many families as possible.”
The “promotional offers” likely include limited-time $50 kids tickets for January through March 2025, a deal announced a week before the permanent price hikes went into effect.
These price bumps, regular as they are, come at a somewhat precarious time for Disney’s parks. The company noted in its Q3 earnings report that a “moderation of consumer demand … that exceeded our previous expectations” resulted in its Experiences sector — still a vital part of the company’s bottom line — brought in just $8.4 billion in revenue, making for just 2% growth over Q3 2023. Operating profit, meanwhile, slipped 3%, to $2.2 billion.
Granted, Disneyland and Disney World are still among the most visited parks in the world, although both have yet to hit pre-pandemic attendance numbers consistently, as the theme park industry has slowed down as a whole over the past year.
But as VIP+ opined in August, Disney’s strategy for keeping up park demand despite the rising prices is to go bigger and bolder with its attractions. Construction for Disneyland’s Marvel-focused Avengers Campus is set to begin next year, just one of the many park additions unveiled at this year’s D23 conference, which included attractions and dedicated areas for such IP as “Cars,” “Encanto,” “Indiana Jones” and “Avatar.”
If Disney Experiences has learned from past costly mistakes, these additions might very well justify the higher prices and convince people to pay more. In the meantime, though, a trip to Disneyland or Disney World is now even closer to the average budget for traveling abroad. While the new prices may not solve any short-term attendance issues, Disney seems confident in playing the long game with its treasured parks' continued success.
But the move also suggests Disney is doubling down on the belief that its ambitious, $60 billion parks investment will, eventually, justify the price of admission and jolt waning demand.
While Florida’s Walt Disney World upped its base ticket price earlier this year, the original Anaheim location opted to keep its lowest-tier single-day, single-park ticket at $104 for the sixth year in a row. The catch is that those Tier 0 tickets are only available for a fraction of the year, as SFGate reported last week there are only 34 days for that price set in 2025.
For the rest of the year, parkgoers will have to contend with Tiers 2 through 6, depending on the predetermined level of demand for a given period. Each of those increased in price by roughly 6%, with the highest tickets crossing the $200 mark for the first time in Disneyland history.
Disney Parks blog Mickey Visit reported that before Disneyland launched its tiered ticket system, the price of admission was $96 flat in 2014 (equal to $129.40 today). Compared with the Tier 6 price, that means Disneyland tickets have increased by 114% in 10 years, or roughly 60% when adjusted for inflation.
Multi-day single-park tickets also increased by roughly 6.5% each, ranging between $330 for two days and $511 for five days, while the Magic Key annual passes jumped by either $100 or $125 each.
Another Disney blog, Magic Trip Tools, found that since the Magic Key passes were introduced in 2021, both the SoCal resident-exclusive Imagine pass and budget-friendly Enchant pass have increased in price by 50%. The higher-tiered Believe and Inspire passes also climbed in price by 45% and 25%, respectively.
Another way to look at it: The Imagine pass in 2025 is now around the same price as the Enchant pass in 2021, which is now in the range of the Believe pass’ 2021 price and so on.
Finally, the controversial Lighting Lane, formerly the free FirstPass system, was bumped from $30 to $32. Mercifully, the Park Hopper add-on for visiting both Disneyland proper and California Adventure in the same day remains at $65.
“There is nothing like a visit to Disneyland Resort,” said spokesperson Jessica Good to outlets reporting on the price hikes. “We always provide a wide variety of ticket, dining and hotel options, and promotional offers throughout the year, to welcome as many families as possible.”
The “promotional offers” likely include limited-time $50 kids tickets for January through March 2025, a deal announced a week before the permanent price hikes went into effect.
These price bumps, regular as they are, come at a somewhat precarious time for Disney’s parks. The company noted in its Q3 earnings report that a “moderation of consumer demand … that exceeded our previous expectations” resulted in its Experiences sector — still a vital part of the company’s bottom line — brought in just $8.4 billion in revenue, making for just 2% growth over Q3 2023. Operating profit, meanwhile, slipped 3%, to $2.2 billion.
Granted, Disneyland and Disney World are still among the most visited parks in the world, although both have yet to hit pre-pandemic attendance numbers consistently, as the theme park industry has slowed down as a whole over the past year.
But as VIP+ opined in August, Disney’s strategy for keeping up park demand despite the rising prices is to go bigger and bolder with its attractions. Construction for Disneyland’s Marvel-focused Avengers Campus is set to begin next year, just one of the many park additions unveiled at this year’s D23 conference, which included attractions and dedicated areas for such IP as “Cars,” “Encanto,” “Indiana Jones” and “Avatar.”
If Disney Experiences has learned from past costly mistakes, these additions might very well justify the higher prices and convince people to pay more. In the meantime, though, a trip to Disneyland or Disney World is now even closer to the average budget for traveling abroad. While the new prices may not solve any short-term attendance issues, Disney seems confident in playing the long game with its treasured parks' continued success.