Disney quietly raises theme park prices almost every year.
The price of tickets for multiday Walt Disney World parks admission, which used to start at $434.83 for four days, now starts at $447.70, the max price remains the same.
If you are locked into one park per day, that is. The minimum price for the ability to switch theme parks in the same day went from $525.35 to $540.89. The lowest price for seven days of tickets was $601.63. You can now pay as much as $785.48 for the tickets on the most popular days, because Disney charges more when it's busy.
If you are staying for three days or more, prices have gone up on all the most flexible tickets. Disneyland in California has not yet announced admission price increases.
Why does the rate increase sting when Disney hikes rates all the time?
Disney is giving customers less and less for their money because prices are not rising as fast as inflation.
The company was able to get away with price hikes because of one word: value. Customers used to get a lot of extra incentives when they paid for a Disney vacation.
No more.
Disney began to reduce the size of its core product, but it did not bring prices down.
Disney added $30 and $60 to the cost of getting to and from the resort after it removed its free bus service from the main airport.
Disney has added parking charges on resort hotel land. That adds $25 per day.
The company began charging customers to make reservations for shorter waits for lines, a perk that used to be free. The confusingGenie+ system can be alienating to many guests, and it glues visitors to their phones for the entire day.
Disney CEO Bob Chapek bragged to CNBC last week that about a third to 50% of visitors are now spending at least another $15 per day. The new profit center is estimated to add as much as $300 million to Disney.
Disney fired some 32,000 employees during the Pandemic. The American parks have been open for nearly a year or more, yet many of the workers haven't been rehired. Instead, the parks have been eliminating positions and using self-service systems in shops.
Disney eliminated nearly all street entertainment, which provided a big part of the parks atmosphere.
Customers have had to walk across vast parking lots on foot because there are no parking trams at Disney parks in Florida. Disneyland's trams were absent for almost a year, forcing a 1-mile walk each way from the parking structure.
Disney has not brought back its famous parades. They have been replaced by character walk-bys that are over in seconds.
As with Disney Enchantment fireworks, the primary signature nighttime shows haven't returned yet.
(Animal Kingdom's Festival of the Lion King is one of the shows that has been reduced to a simpler version even as ticket prices increase and crowds remain high. | Credit: Disney Parks)
One of the most popular Disney parks, Epcot, has been a giant construction zone for years.
Reservations are hard to find and some kitchens are closed because park restaurants haven't hired enough staff.
Christine McCarthy, CFO of the Walt Disney Company, said on an earnings call last fall that she was considering reducing portion sizes, but not prices, to cut costs.
A cup of coffee now costs $3.49 and a single churro is $6.39 in January.
The Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser, which opens in two weeks, will cost $6,000 for a family of four to stay for two nights.
Disney taketh with one hand and taketh away even more with the other, as they decline standards.
Disney parks reported a historic $2.45 billion in profit in the last quarter. In just one quarter, CEO Bob Chapek made $32 million.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics places the city dead last in median hourly wages.
Disneyland employees in California are more likely to experience homelessness in the previous two years than any other state, and many are food-insecure, according to research by the Economic Roundtable.
The value of a Disney vacation has been stripped out in the name of insane gains for the few, even devoted fans have started to turn on the company.
Last week, Just Don, who has a little over 16,000 subscribers, posted a video about being so disaffected by his beloved company that he pulled the plug on his upcoming vacation. His video about the decision, "I Cancelled My Disney trip", went viral and racked up more than 150,000 views in a week.
The scales of his Disney admiration seem to fall from his eyes as Don ends his video with this gut punch of a line.
Everything has been cut back. As much as I love Disney, I don't think I love what Disney actually is.
There is a rub.
People are returning to the parks as Disney is in a golden moment. The honeymoon period is when customers try out the new version of Disney and rediscover travel.
What if the Disney company is also eliminating the warm-and-fuzzy feelings that have powered the brand for decades? If nostalgia is no longer being generated to fuel return vacations down the road, what future could Disney be facing?
The case of the $1,000 mouse ears says a lot. The cap was released to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Disney World.
After spending $1,000 on a golden hat, customers returned to the Shop Disney page to complain about the product's low quality.
If Disney chases away its devoted fans with high prices and low quality, the parkgoers who remain may not feel the same obligation to pretend this is the Happiest Place on Earth. We are already seeing an increase in the number of firearms at the parks as well as incidents such as a recent drunken, naked brawl that doesn't sound like something Mary Poppins would approve of.
There is a change at Disney. The storied magic is draining as these fiscal policies roll in.
Disney execs may be having a profit party at the moment, but consumer patterns take a while to reveal themselves. The story is not over yet.
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