For the longest time people have viewed the Disney theme parks as the ultimate family vacation spot. It’s even been a tradition in the world of sport for a winning championship team to say “We’re going to Disneyland” when asked what they’ll do next.
But in recent years people have felt like they’d have to sacrifice an arm and a leg jut to afford standard park tickets for the family, let alone afford to stay at their fancy $5,000 spaceship themed hotel for two nights. 
Back when Walt Disney World first opened in 1971 it only cost $3.50 to enter the park, which would be roughly $25.85 in today’s money. But now it costs around $110, and that’s only if you’re visiting one park.
Reddit user u/PieChartPirate made a diagram of the ticket price increase of Walt Disney World since it’s opening to the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic and compared it to the increases of gasoline, wages and rent.
And not just Walt Disney World tickets have gone up, but the prices for Disneyland have also gone up exponentially. Just last Autumn one day passes briefly rose to $244.
Disney CEO Bob Iger, who recently returned following his outing in 2020, recently spoke at the Morgan Stanley media conference, and during his speech outright admitted that prices were too high.
“I always believed that Disney was a brand that needs to be accessible. And I think that in our zeal to grow profits, we may have been a little bit too aggressive about some of our pricing. And I think there is a way to continue to grow our business but be smarter about how we price so that we maintain that brand value of accessibility.“
It should be noted that many of the price hikes in tickets in recent years were under Bob Iger’s watch. While he has admitted his faults and claims to want to correct his mistake for some it is too little too late. Putting your “brand” over your customer will definitely rub some people the wrong way.
With Universal Studios’ Epic Universe set to open in two years some are seeing it as a better bang for their buck. Even if ticket prices go down at some point you can’t guarantee that the crowds will come back.
Source: Deadline
Pirates & Princesses (PNP) is an independent, opinionated fan-powered news blog that covers Disney and Universal Theme Parks, Themed Entertainment and related Pop Culture from a consumer's point of view. Opinions expressed by our contributors do not necessarily reflect the views of PNP, its editors, affiliates, sponsors or advertisers. PNP is an unofficial news source and has no connection to The Walt Disney Company, NBCUniversal or any other company that we may cover.
