It’s not a secret that Disney World vacations have gotten rather pricey over the years.
Cinderella Castle
Every year, the total vacation cost seems to go up as services like Lightning Lane, hotel accommodations, and theme park tickets get more expensive. Will it ever get CHEAPER? Well, this year, Disney World has quite a few discounts available. But unfortunately, that might not be a good sign for the company.
If you scroll through the special offers page of the Disney World website these days, you’ll be met with hoards of discounts. There seems to be a deal for every kind of group — from kids to Annual Passholders to Florida Residents to military members. And while that could make your vacation more affordable, it’s a sign of a deeper problem for Disney.
Wilderness Lodge
When discounts are available all year long or for periods of time that are usually high-traffic, that typically means that bookings are lower overall and demand isn’t as high as it should be. Think, if Disney World is filling hotel rooms left, right, and center, then why on earth would they release a discount to incentivize more people to come? Why offer a discounted rate when they already have enough people paying the regular cost? It wouldn’t make sense.
Contemporary Hotel Room
So, which discounts seem to be proving that Disney’s in need of more visitors? Well, it starts with the $100 gift card incentive for new Annual Pass purchases. Often, Disney World is less inclined to encourage people to purchase Annual Passes because they’re likely to make more money from you if you keep purchasing tickets outright every time you visit. So having a huge discount for Annual Pass purchases like this is pretty surprising.
Annual Passholder
Another great example is all the ticket deals available at the moment. There are specially-priced tickets available for military members, 50% off kids’ tickets for the summer, ticket packages for youth groups, and there’s a three-park ticket deal for the general public. That’s a LOT of different ticket offers.
Disney World Theme Park Ticket Cards
The other major discount to consider is the deals available for the Disney World hotels. There are general rates, discounts for Florida and Georgia residents, savings for Annual Passholders, and most notably, several deals available during the holiday season. We find that last one particularly interesting because the holidays are often the busiest time of the year. Is Disney hurting for holiday reservations?
Hollywood Studios Christmas tree
This increase in available discounts could have a few root causes. First, there’s the obvious — Disney World might be getting too expensive for most families. If the regular prices are too high, then the demand simply won’t be there, causing Disney to have to lower prices through discounts.
EPCOT
The other big reason that Disney World bookings might be down is because of the opening of Epic Universe. Universal Orlando’s new theme park has been highly anticipated for the past few years, and it’s home to several popular IPs that could be of interest to the Disney World crowd. People might be holding off on their Disney trips to go to Universal instead.
Celestial Park in Epic Universe
The good news is that these discounts are helpful for those who want to save some serious dough on their vacation. So if you’ve been waiting to take a Disney World trip, it might be a good idea to go now while the rates are low!
Stay tuned to DFB for more Disney news and updates!
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WDW has been grossly mismanaged for decades continuously debasing its once premier family experience while simultaneously dramatically increasing the cost of everything. Families will only pay more for less and less for so long. Maybe they have finally gotten fed up.
We agree with the two reasons you listed. But you skipped one very obvious reason! People are more than upset about all the construction, the tearing apart of beloved lands and attractions which will take years, upgrading fave hotels and rooms when there’s no reason to, getting rid of foods people love and expect to be there every trip, soaking every place with alcohol, the ignoring of guest concerns and wants (bring back Fastpass and Magical Express!)….all while keeping park admissions high as if the full parks and attractions are as they were plus charging as much if not more for the parties (which are fun but not worth the price). Imo Disney’s ultra wealthy leadership (Boards, Bob and Josh) has lost touch with their public and their longtime, loyal base, which makes them seem lost…and greedy… in all these horrible decisions they’re making.
Disney’s latest quarter earnings report says otherwise
Hi DFB, one thing I have never understood is why incentives aren’t offered to out of state guests? I’m in NC and yes, Disney has priced me out. I honestly can’t afford a trip as much as I loved going in the past. So, I still wonder, why Disney good deals and discounts are limited to Florida?
Yet, the parks are crowded as ever?
It really was a perfect storm for Disney, the media divisions had numerous underperforming projects, and the parks were seeing great levels of ‘per guest spending’ post pandemic. Disney doubled down on the experience side to increase shareholder value. Now the media side is still underperforming, and the pent-up consumer travel surplus has all but gone away. I was in the Magic Kingdom a couple of Saturdays ago (yes it was about 110F outside) and wait times were on the lower side. I have spoken with numerous people (friends and co-workers) how would like to do a Disney trip, but the perceived cost is too high. I feel sorry for the next CEO as they will inherit the mess the two Bobs created.
They’ve been raising prices and reducing what we get for years to test the public’s desire for their product, and may be finding the upper limit. Bob holds the park revenue data and it’s telling him that too much perishable inventory is going unsold at the ends of too many days.
In the airline and theme patk business (and many orhers), seats, hotel rooms and park admissions have a shelf life of exactly one day. Any that remain unsold at the end of the flight, night, or day represent revenue lost forever. Better to sell $500 things for $350 than for zero. Sure, they save a bit by staffing with less labor, but that pales in comparison to banking that net additional revenue in the first place.
Only us voting with our wallets can push prices down. They’ll go back up, though, when enough bargain hunters start converging on the parks again, and the cycle will repeat.
Bob and company will continue to wring the maximum from customers’ wallets he can, while spending as little as he thinks he can to do so. Such is this business.
I’m a widow in VA. I’m 73 and would love to see WDW one more time. But your prices are way too high for me and you don’t give seniors discounts. I have no other family except me and it’s a shame that your prices are so high.
The only incentive which will get me back to WDW is lower ticket prices. I also live in NC and no bargains for us. Lower hotel rates or lower food prices won’t lure me back…these are things I can control, but ticket prices NEED to come down! We will continue to visit other places in our beautiful USA until this happens. If I never go back to Disney World because of inflated ticket prices, I am okay with that. We just returned from a twelve day trip to Alaska. Amazing. We spent, per day, about the same as we would on a Disney World trip. This is lost revenue for Disney as we have usually spent these dollars there.