Looking to travel to Disney World on the fly and enjoy rides whenever you please? Not so fast.
In an effort to curb crowds, Walt Disney World this week introduced a new structure for ticket pricing — which will begin on Oct. 16 with a new “interactive online calendar.”
Now, one-day tickets to the parks are divided into three tiers (value, regular and peak), while multi-day passes for two days or more are available at a flat rate.
The current price for a one-day ticket ranges $102 to $129; as of Oct. 16, it will span $109 to $129. After Oct. 16, the price for a typical park visit could increase, decrease or remain the same depending on the length of the visit and its dates.
Under the new regime, not only will you have to know the number of days you plan on spending in the parks — including the Magic Kingdom and Epcot — you’ll need to know the first date you want to visit them in order to even see pricing.
The Oct. 16 launch will also debut a feature to show what dates are best for budget-friendly tickets.
It’s an update that adds an additional layer of thought to a system that already favors advance planners. For instance, FastPasses — which help reduce wait times for popular Disney attractions — can be booked up to 60 days in advance, forcing you to know which park you’ll be patronizing and when.
Disney diehards were critical of the announcement.
“For a company with an amazing reputation in hospitality, they’ve really gone out of their way to make a visit to one of their parks infinitely more complicated than it needs to be,” wrote a commenter on Theme Park Insider.
That’s not the only change set to go into effect. Multi-day tickets, which can currently be used any time within a two-week period, will soon have a set usage window. A four-day ticket, for example, will have to be used within seven days.
Plus, visitors will face variable pricing depending on the first day a multi-day ticket is used, though, again, pricing hasn’t yet been released. It will date-based pricing, however, with prices based on the dates guests choose to visit. The dates and prices will be set in advance and will not fluctuate in real time like Uber rates or airfare prices do.
Those who can’t settle on a specific first day to start using the pass can buy an anytime ticket, but they’ll have to shell out more.
Another change involves uniform pricing for single-day tickets to all of Disney’s parks. CNN Money notes it’ll now cost the same to all the parks as to visit Magic Kingdom (currently $129/day), while admission to Epcot and Hollywood Studios has historically been $5 cheaper.
For its part, Disney said in a statement: “Introducing date-based tickets and pricing will allow us to better distribute attendance throughout the year so that we can continue to improve and deliver a great experience.”
