Walt Disney World Ticket Prices Increase--It Now Costs More For 1 Day at Magic Kingdom Than Other Parks

Ticket prices at Walt Disney World experienced an increase on Sunday, June 2, 2013.  No big surprise.  The prices have typically gone up in August, but that would be after the peak summer season, so that last couple of years, prices have gone up in early June.  You can click here to read more about the specific prices.  The increases, including Annual Passes and even parking, are 2-4%,.

What is interesting about the increase in prices is that now a 1 day ticket for the Magic Kingdom is $5 more than a 1 day ticket for any other park.  That’s right, Magic Kingdom that had a 2.3% increase in attendance for 2011 (those figures were just released this week) and had over 17 million people enter its turnstyles as compared to 9 and 10 million for the other parks, will now cost more to enter if traveling to “Disney” for just one day.

The funny thing is that I was just conversing with a another Disney traveler about how Magic Kingdom seems (and is) much more crowded than other parks and that people visiting central Florida or the nearby costs take a day trip—saying they are going to Disney—and spend the day at the Magic Kingdom.   The theme park attendance numbers indicate that Magic Kingdom has more day guests than any other park.  Disney is smart to raise the 1 day admission for Magic Kingdom higher than the other parks.  It may cause thrifty guests to try a different park!

The increase in ticket prices for Walt Disney World comes two weeks after Universal increased its admission charges (which are higher for a 1 day admission than a 1 day admission to even Magic Kingdom).  Expect SeaWorld to follow suit.

Will the increase in ticket prices affect us?  Not this next trip, as our tickets have already been purchased, but it will make our next trip a bit more expensive.

Disney is in the middle of its Monstrous Summer promotion with discounts for rooms and packages which ends June 14.  Imagine you called your travel agent on Friday to inquire about a trip to Walt Disney World for this summer and you were quoted one price—if you purchased that day—but decided to wait and “think about it” over the week-end only to discover the price of your vacation had gone up due to the increase in ticket prices that happened on Sunday!  That would take some explaining or possibly the travel agent had a heads up about the increase in tickets that was coming very soon.

Will the ticket price increase change the way you “do Disney?”