Disney Tips Your Guide To A Great Disney Vacation
Guests have listened to Walt Disney World Resort’s warnings to stay out of the parks, and now, we can see that Disney is making a dramatic turn to try and get more guests back in the park, and spending money.
Credit: Disney
Now that we have turned the corner of spring break and the long Easter weekend, it seems Disney is going through a downtime. When kids are on school breaks or there are long weekend holidays that also allow most adults to be off of work, we typically see an influx in the parks. In Disneyland Paris and Disneyland Resort, we actually saw the parks hit capacity over Easter!
Walt Disney World was certainly busy, with over 7 million guests flying into Orlando International Airport, but not everyone went to the most magical place on earth.
At Disney, we have started to see prices rise at unprecedented rates.
When ex-CEO Bob Chapek was in charge, these price hikes began taking a dramatic upward turn, so much so that when current and prior to Disney CEO Bob Iger returned to office, he acknowledged that Disney was becoming too costly and that The Walt Disney Company was going to relax on the constant increases on ticket costs, and other items around the Disney Parks to make Disney a little more “affordable” once again.
Credit: Disney
Now, just a year later, Bob Iger has announced that in 2025, ticket prices for Magic Kingdom, Disney’s Animal Kingdom, Disney’s Hollywood Studios, and EPCOT will be increasing, erasing the promises he so recently made.
We have also seen the cost of Disney Genie+ increase as well. Disney Genie+ debuted in 2021 as a way to offer guests the ability to skip the line via the new Lightning Lane system, which replaced the complimentary FastPass system that was previously in place. Basically, things work similarly; if you purchase Disney Genie+, you are able to make a Lightning Lane selection to skip the regular queue for an attraction at the park you will be visiting.
Once you ride that attraction at your designated time, you can select another ride and book a Lightning Lane for whatever ride you would like, so long as it still has time slots to choose from. Guests can continue to do this all day until there are no Lightning Lane’s available, which does happen with the popular attractions quite quickly. Disney advises guests that with Disney Genie+ they will likely be able to use the Lightning Lane for 2–3 rides each day.
Credit: Inside the Magic
When the system was introduced, the cost was $15 per person for all parks, no matter the date.
One year after that, in October 2022, Disney started increasing that cost with a variable pricing scale, which would have the price of Disney Genie+ change per date and per park. During spring break, we saw the cost of tickets hit their all-time high at $184 per person to visit Magic Kingdom, and Disney Genie+ hit a whopping $35 per person.
Knowing that it was meant to be a busy season, and that these price hikes often correlate with demand, many guests took that as a warning from Disney to stay home if they want to save money and not deal with massive crowds. In return, Disney’s plan actually backfired, as we saw the theme park looking like a ghost town during a time that was historically a moneymaker for the House of Mouse.
Credit: Inside the Magic
Disney site WDW Magic set up a useful chart to show the prices of Disney Genie+ today, versus what they can be at their highest and lowest. As we can see below, all the costs for the system are at their lowest possible point.
- Multi-Park Genie+ $23
2024 Max $39, Min $23 - Magic Kingdom Genie+ $23
2024 Max $39, Min $23 - Disney’s Animal Kingdom Genie+ $15
2024 Max $29, Min $15 - Disney’s Hollywood Studios Genie+ $21
2024 Max $35, Min $21 - EPCOT Genie+ $17
2024 Max $32, Min $17
We can also see that individual Lightning Lane prices for popular attractions that charge per ride and are not included in Disney Genie+ are at their lowest costs.
- AVATAR Flight of Passage $13
- Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind $14
- Seven Dwarfs Mine Train $10
- Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance $20
- TRON Lightcycle Run $20
Credit: Disney
If we also look at wait times, we can see even these low Disney Genie+ have not remedied Disney’s lower attendance as popular rides like Haunted Mansion, Soarin, Space Mountain, Meeting Mickey Mouse, Big Thunder Mountain, Expedition Everest, Pirates of the Caribbean, and so many others are under 35 minutes at the time of this article’s publishing.
Even the most popular rides, such as Slinky Dog Dash and Flight of Passage, have a 60-minute wait, which is abnormal for those attractions.
It appears that guests are no longer clamoring to go to Disney World. This is likely due to the fact that many parents have been priced out of the possibility of taking their families to the parks. It is very easy to spend between $5,000 and $10,000 conservatively for a week of Disney World tickets, food, hotels, and merchandise.
It appears that even Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has realized that families need more affordable activities to take part in when they visit.
Today, we shared that, “Just a few weeks before Memorial Day weekend, one of the busiest tourist periods for theme parks across the country, Governor DeSantis has announced that all Florida state parks will offer free admission”.
Disney and DeSantis have been in a battle for years now.
The clash between the conservative governor and the renowned media corporation intensified notably when former CEO Bob Chapek openly criticized the contentious “Don’t Say Gay” law (formally referred to as the Parental Rights in Education Act), a significant component of DeSantis’s political agenda.
Credit: DeSantis
However, after a recent settlement, DeSantis has changed his thoughts on the company and is looking to cooperate with Disney instead of fighting them after removing Reedy Creek from Disney, taking the land back for the state, and naming it the Central Florida Tourist Oversight District. The governor has allocated billions of dollars towards enhancing the Interstate 4 Highway, which serves as the route to Magic Kingdom. Furthermore, he utilized the influence of the Florida pension system to support CEO Bob Iger during the recent proxy battle for the Disney board.
That being said, the new free state park offer that he has made may affect sales for Disney over Memorial Day weekend, another time of the year when Disney is often at its peak in terms of capacity and pricing.
Do you think that the cost of a Disney vacation has become too expensive?
This post Disney Park Deserted as Thousands Respond to Stay-at-Home Advisory appeared first on Inside the Magic.
We can’t even afford to look it up online anymore. It’s way overrated and way overpriced. Food drinks. Whenever you see and ad all you see is $$$$$ and closing down the water park one of them is disappointing also. Even the the suggestion of pulling Mickey Mouse as the key person is a joke. Why change what started it all. Have to ruin a good thing. Sorry none of my family that includes grown children my grown siblings all their grown kids will not be able to see Disneyl unless we will money or win a free trip
We have been then there over 50 times in 35 years of marriage…Given the daily volume that goes the park’s, I have a hard time seeing where these price increases are justified..5 to 10 grand the economy is a little much for the common family…Too much greed going in the Walt Disney organization…Walt would not be pleased..Shame on you…
I went to Disney Park 30 years ago and to Disney Workd about 12 years ago. Been there, done it…don’t need to do it again even with added attractions. While touring Disney World 12 years ago…we also went to Universal Studios. I had more fun at Universal Studios than I did at Disney World. If I went back to Orlando..I would only visit Universal Studios and skip Disney World. Besides Disney has become too woke and I don’t need to be politically corrected to death. I go there for fun and be entertained., not to be lectured on how I should think in their way.. Sorry Disney you lost a fan here. I have even cut back on the Disney movies that I pay and go see because your woken essentially is creeping into all of your movies.
Everyone says Disney is out pricing, yet they don’t check other parks. We buy Pixie Pass, $385 renewal, gets you in most days Monday thru Fri, and we get the water park, $85 gets you in everyday, plus golfing and mini golfing everyday. So we have something to do everyday 365 days a year. 4 parks, 2 waterparks, 4 or 5 golf courses and football golf, and 2 min golf courses. So $470 for all that.
This year we did Seaworld we get 1 park and 1 water park. $285. That makes Seaworld more expensive.
Last year we did Uuniversal last year, 2 parks and 1 waterpark. $740 is the price. More expensive than Disney.
Okay both the other parks are year round, but they also close a lot earlier year round than Disney, and they also open a lot later. Most of the year they open at 10 when Disney has parks that open at 7:30. Seaworld many nights close at 8, when Disney has parks open until 10. So hour wise you get more bang for your buck at Disney.
The people talk about food, Disney again beats out the other two parks, as a senior I can order a kids meal, with a drink and a healthy fruit. I can order this with no problem, for $7. Last week we went to SeaWorld, they refused to allow me to buy a kids meal so I ordered a full meal and a kids meal for grandson, and 1 desert to share, no drinks since we had our water. The bill was $40, and I got 3 chicken nuggets, he got 4, same size. We will never buy food again there, it didn’t even taste good. Not that I like Disney food but it was at least edible. I find Universal the same, very expensive. Also seaworld charges you 5% surcharge on all food and souvenirs, then gives you a 10% discount as an AP. Disney gives you 20%.
When you talk about the fast pass, all called something different but same thing. Disney charges $23 a day. Seaworld charges $39 a day, and US last I knew was $107 a day, maybe more. So again Disney is the cheapest.
So everyone can say Disney is expensive, but the other parks are way more expensive. Where Disney gets you are resort, they are way over priced, $600 plus a night, compared to US $400 a night, Seaworld $250 a night. I own DVC for 20 years, so I feel it was well worth it for us, paid it off 18 years ago and have had 18 years of free resort stays and have 30 more years. So to me it was great, but yes $600 plus is way too much, but people pay it. There are way cheaper hotels on 192 and many hotels around that are way cheaper near Disney. Don pay it. Also outlet malls for souvenirs. People chose to pay the price. But don’t have to.
I don’t know how an average family can afford Disney World. The prices are insane enough to get into the parks, then you need to purchase Genie+ for fast passes. If that’s not enough, you’re charged an extra 15-20$ more for the newest and popular rides. It’s absolutely ridiculous! Not at all magical anymore! Additionally, you need to be on your phone all day long to book rides. Maybe you’ll get 3 fast passes a day because the rides book up. Then you are waiting on very long lines. Someone really messed it up, especially for the kids who will never be able to experience Disney. Very sad!