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Disney’s Enormous Price Rise is “Inevitable”: Executives

disney price rise
Disney/Canva

Amidst complaints and unhappiness with the soaring Disney prices, Disney executives say this price increase is inevitable.

Disney World vacations are an expensive choice, which has begun pricing more and more sections of people over the years. The issue has only worsened recently; now, Disney executives have shared their thoughts on the matter.

Walt Disney World Resort, Orlando, Florida/Disney

Walt Disney World Resort, Orlando, Florida/Disney

While much has changed with the Disney World experience—primarily due to the Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent measures and responses to the same—easily the most noticeable change has been the price increases at all Disney Parks, Resort Hotels, and restaurants across the world.

To impress just how big a deal this is, a statistician took to social media recently, showing the staggering spike in prices Guests have faced when at the Florida Resort. The user shared a chart that compared wages, rent, and gas prices to that of Walt Disney World tickets, and the result was shocking.

The Disney World ticket price increased at a rate of nearly 3,000% more than wages, rent and gas prices since 1971.

And per Josh D’amaro, who serves as Chairperson of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, this price increase is simply “inevitable.”

Josh D'amaro/Disney

Josh D’amaro/Disney

According to a recent Wall Street Journal article,

Mr. D’Amaro said he’s aware of the tension caused by rising prices and other changes, especially for annual passholders, but describes it as the inevitable result of progress, and insists that every change Disney has implemented at the parks is in service of improving visitors’ trips.

Bob Chapek

Disney CEO Bob Chapek/Disney

Disney’s profits are increasing consistently, per their postings. In Q4 of the fiscal 2021 year, Disney reported a 38% profit increase in the Direct-to-Consumer industry. At the time, CEO Bob Chapek commented,

“This has been a very productive year for The Walt Disney Company, as we’ve made great strides in reopening our businesses while taking meaningful and innovative steps in Direct-to-Consumer and at our Parks, particularly with our popular new Disney Genie and Magic Key offerings.” 

Even now, as the company limits the number of visitors post-pandemic, and keeps attendance at its U.S. Theme Parks below pre-pandemic levels, they are still generating record sales and profits. This seems to be a result of a major strategic shift on Disney’s part, where the company is focused less on maximizing the number of visitors in the Parks and is instead paying attention to how much money each visitor spends instead.

The article continues that according to Disney,”Improving the visitor experience, the thinking goes, will prompt Guests to spend more hours—and therefore more money—at the parks because they are having such a good time.”

 

Magic Kingdom, Walt Disney World

Main Street, U.S.A., Magic Kingdom/Disney

Related: Are Fans Okay with Disney Park Price Increases?

In February, Disney World raised ticket prices to where a four-day standard ticket now costs a minimum of $447.70, The cheapest four-day ticket used to be $434.83. That’s not all. A four-day Park Hopper Ticket now costs a minimum of $540.89, up from its old price of $525.35; a four-day Park Hopper Plus ticket also increased from $546.65 to $559.53.

On average, ticket prices are about $20 or 2 to 6 percent higher than they were just the year before.

This constant increase in ticket price, amongst other increases, relating ostensibly to a better Guest experience feels questionable considering the increase in reports of bad behavior from Guests and constant ride breakdowns in the Disney Parks.

Whether Disney will respond to fans’ rising unhappiness remains to be seen, but if the patterns of behavior so far are anything to go by, it doesn’t appear there will be a price reduction anytime soon.

About Priyanka Kumar

Priyanka is a writer, artist, avid reader, and travel enthusiast based in Chicago. In her free time, she is probably walking by the lake, catching up on the latest releases on TV, or spending inordinate amounts of time rewatching Moana, Encanto, and her Disney Channel life-long favorites Zack and Cody wreak havoc on the Tipton.

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