The expenses involved with everything from a stay at one of the Disney-owned hotels near the parks to a bowl of pasta at a restaurant in the park has increased in tandem with entry fees. People often point to the cost of theme-park tickets as evidence of “Disney-flation.” But the costs of other aspects of a trip to Walt Disney World have risen just as much as the cost of entry. “The only way that Disney ultimately can limit access to it parks in the past was to increase costs.” A more expensive experience past the gates The challenge then becomes that the parks have a fixed capacity, he added. “The country has gotten wealthier, and so the number of people who can afford a trip to Disney World and see it as something that they would like to do has gone up,” he said. The higher cost today is a reflection of supply and demand, Munsil said. The per-day cost of tickets is lower for multiday tickets. Today, single-day admission to the theme parks at Walt Disney World ranges from $109 to $159 for visitors ages 10 and older the cost varies depending on the popularity of the park a person wishes to visit on a given date.įor an additional cost, visitors can add on the “Park Hopper” feature that allows them to enter multiple theme parks in one day. The 1980s also saw the advent of annual passess. By 1982, Walt Disney World had phased out ride tickets in favor of passports. Toward the end of the 1970s, Disney began experimenting with two-day “passports” that granted entry to the park on multiple days as well as unlimited rides. “From personal experience, ‘A’ tickets were always left over at the end of the day - but you used all your ‘D’ tickets and ‘E’ tickets,” said Don Munsil, owner of travel website MouseSavers. The individual ride tickets were categorized by letter, “A” through “E,” with “E” tickets required for the most popular attractions. “The original concept of Disneyland in California was that Walt Disney said he wanted everyone to be able to come in, no matter what income level you were at, and so everything was priced accordingly,” Cochran said. Back then, visitors had to purchase books of tickets to get on the different attractions, so visitors were likely paying closer to $5.75 a person in those early days. And as with Disneyland in California, that $3.50 only got a person through the gates - from there, everything cost extra. “They weren’t sure they were going to get people to travel to Florida at all, so general admission was quite low,” Cochran said. The low cost in the early days of Walt Disney World was no mistake. In 2021 dollars, that would equate to roughly $24 and $6.75, adjusting for the rate of inflation. When the Magic Kingdom first greeted guests in 1971, the cost to enter the theme park was $3.50 for adults, and $1 for children. “Now you could pay as much as $160 a day to get into a park, and inflation has not increased at that rate.” Ticket prices have risen more than 3,000% over Walt Disney World’s history “It has now become a luxury-priced destination,” said Jason Cochran, editor-in-chief of. When the park opened in 1971, it was the embodiment of a dream that Walt Disney had envisioned but never got to see come to fruition - he died in 1966 shortly after his company broke ground on the Central Florida resort. Walt Disney World celebrated its 50th anniversary on Friday. I would feel guilty about spending that much.”Īlso see: How Walt Disney World is celebrating its 50th birthday: fireworks, kites and tentacle cocktails “Just getting over there and spending on gas would have been an issue for me. “I wouldn’t be able to afford it,” Taylor said. But if she were a college student today, she’s not sure she would have the luxury of enjoying the occasional visits to the Magic Kingdom that she treasured years ago. In the intervening years, she has visited the self-proclaimed “Most Magical Place on Earth” on other occasions - with family at times and for special events with her students when she was a high-school teacher and debate coach. in a little café and just hang out,” Taylor, who is now 69, said. But sometimes she’d go to the park and spend much of her day just people watching. She coveted her “E” tickets, which allowed her to ride the park’s most popular attractions, including her favorites, which included Space Mountain.
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