And here's your first ticket price increase . . .

[FastPasser.]

Makes me appreciate the Disney retirement benefits even more.

 

[Shoshana]

My daughter and I have booked 10 nights from Dec 20 to Dec 30, 2019. Two nine-day hoppers from Disney = $1436 and from UCT = $1114. That's a difference of $322!! Does this seem right?

 

[QueenElinor]

I agree that it probably wont significantly drop crowd sizes but from a cost/revenue based analysis (that i am sure Disney has done) i bet it will lower costs by having somewhat fewer people but increase revenue per person. I think it is the exact in-elasticity of their customers that they are counting on when raising prices like this. They will lost some attendance although not so much that it causes rooms to be vacant or revenue streams to dry up.

I think this is true. I also think that to some extent their more spendy customers will stop coming unless they can do something about the crowds.

We have avoided WDW for six years because a trip to WDW for my family is on par with one to Hawaii, or even abroad, because we live in the middle of nowhere & its a long trip. I'm sure that's true of the west coast, too- it's less pricey to fly to go to Maui for a week than go to WDW. And the experience is better.

If WDW wants to attract people from around the world and the far western part of the US who come for a week or longer, they have to up their game because the costs just don't justify the experience. We'll give it one more try because we'll be back east anyway for DD's college graduation, but this may be our last trip depending on how the paid upgrades work out. There are lots of other places for us to go.

 

[QueenElinor]

My daughter and I have booked 10 nights from Dec 20 to Dec 30, 2019. Two nine-day hoppers from Disney = $1436 and from UCT = $1114. That's a difference of $322!! Does this seem right?

That seems like too big a difference. Check and make sure they're identical tickets. UT's page can be tricky because you have to scroll down to find the park hoppers and I scared myself silly this morning when I thought the UT tickets were far cheaper now than the ones I bought last month. Turns out I was comparing my park hoppers to non-hoppers today. Whew!

Edit: I checked both sites, and I think you're right. I got the same prices. Wow!

 

[Tink_83]

I'm not saying you need to be happy. You have every right to complain.

But, it costs Disney more money to build. Why not raise prices under the existing infrastructure until you're no longer at capacity?

They are completely within their right to do that. I personally think they have invested in other areas hoping they would pay off but are, to some extent, neglecting Disney world (and finally spending there, but still not planning for capacity properly)... but they as a business have every right to decide what they want to do and I as a consumer have the right to choose, if I’m so inclined, to spend my money elsewhere.

I most likely will not go as often because I expect a theme park operating as long as they have to a) roll out updates to their apps better (the glitches with MDE are inexcusable for a company their size) and b) I hold that reported wait times upwards of 6 hours for FOP is a fail. A big fail. C) RD at SSD has apparently been a mad house... and so forth. Execution has been severely lacking with these releases and for the cost I do expect them to figure that out...

I also don’t think this price jump will reduce the crowds to a reasonable level - especially with SWGE.

 

[cmwade77]

That seems like too big a difference. Check and make sure they're identical tickets. UT's page can be tricky because you have to scroll down to find the park hoppers and I scared myself silly this morning when I thought the UT tickets were far cheaper now than the ones I bought last month. Turns out I was comparing my park hoppers to non-hoppers today. Whew!

Edit: I checked both sites, and I think you're right. I got the same prices. Wow!

Yes, UT is currently selling the last of their tickets that they have under the old prices. This happens for a limited time every time that prices go up, so if you need tickets buy now as once they are out, the prices will go up.

 

[Shoshana]

That seems like too big a difference. Check and make sure they're identical tickets. UT's page can be tricky because you have to scroll down to find the park hoppers and I scared myself silly this morning when I thought the UT tickets were far cheaper now than the ones I bought last month. Turns out I was comparing my park hoppers to non-hoppers today. Whew!
Edit: I checked both sites, and I think you're right. I got the same prices. Wow!

Thanks, QueenElinor. I double checked, too. UT said the savings was $143. $322 is a significant difference and worthwhile to purchase now!

 

[Shughart]

My daughter and I have booked 10 nights from Dec 20 to Dec 30, 2019. Two nine-day hoppers from Disney = $1436 and from UCT = $1114. That's a difference of $322!! Does this seem right?

Yes this sounds correct. The difference between Disney 6 day one park tickets and our UT 4 day plus 2 free I purchased from UT last month was $266 difference. Before I was only about $80 difference.

I had been following a blog that said the past five years the prices have gone up on a Sunday in February, so I went ahead and purchased our tickets. I'm so glad I did!

 

[DavidNYC]

Asked this before but never got an answer - am I correct that if I'm planning on upgrading whatever I buy from UT to an Annual Pass, that it really doesn't matter whether I buy now or after they raise their prices since when my ticket is bridged it's only going to be bridged to the full ticket price from when that ticket was printed. So, for example, if I buy a UT ticket now which says it's a $70 savings it's no different than buying the same ticket after the price increase if it's the same $70 savings since the price increase will flow through to the bridged price?

I think that's correct based on what I'm reading (and I'm likely to buy now just in case) but want to see. Never bridged across a price increase before.

 

[cmwade77]

Asked this before but never got an answer - am I correct that if I'm planning on upgrading whatever I buy from UT to an Annual Pass, that it really doesn't matter whether I buy now or after they raise their prices since when my ticket is bridged it's only going to be bridged to the full ticket price from when that ticket was printed. So, for example, if I buy a UT ticket now which says it's a $70 savings it's no different than buying the same ticket after the price increase if it's the same $70 savings since the price increase will flow through to the bridged price?

I think that's correct based on what I'm reading (and I'm likely to buy now just in case) but want to see. Never bridged across a price increase before.

That would be correct, but you would want to check what the old price difference and the new difference would be, they may not be equal and one could provide more savings than the other.

 

[epcotty]

No - I just checked the website and the cost of my trip in November went up compared to a couple days ago when I last checked. Not sure if increases are higher post Dec. 2019 but there are definitely increases across the board now. As much as 23% apparently. Anyone here get a 23% salary increase this year . . . ? Kind of glad we got a number of good years there with my kids from 5-10. Cause I think we're getting to the point with the price increases and more and more being upcharged that we'll be cutting back a lot. Unfortunate really, and I know Disney is a business - but there's a fine line between reasonable price increases and greed.

Excessive greed is what Disney's all about these days. I assume this is all to push people into getting the flexible tickets, which is something that all the tickets used to be anyway

 

[mckennarose]

We bought 4 day, dated, base tickets for May 2 weeks ago from UT and the price was $765.48 for 2 tickets. At the time it listed the price as being approximately $60-ish off the Disney price. I can't remember exactly, but I think it was either $63 or $69.

Today I checked UT for the same tickets (I think we had an additional few dollars off two weeks ago since I used the mousesavers link on the newsletter) and they list the same 2 tickets as being a $93 savings over Disney prices.
When I checked the Disney site directly, the same (2) 4 day, dated, base tickets the price is $886.80. ($832.66 + $54.14 tax). The difference from what I paid with UT and the cost if I bought from Disney today is $121.32!

These price increases are really getting nuts. I wrote on the "paid FP+" rumor thread that I put my second trip of the year on hold as of now until the paid FP info. comes out, but with this second disappointing money issue I may reconsider the second trip all together.

 

[Rosanne]

I bought a 5 day hopper for my daughter from UT on September 30 before the date based pricing kicked in. I paid 452.33 If I bought that same ticket direct from Disney today it would be 622.57 for a difference of 170.24 for just one ticket less than 6 months from when I purchased it. Wow! Glad I bought it when I did. She's going in April over spring break.

 

[cmwade77]

Excessive greed is what Disney's all about these days. I assume this is all to push people into getting the flexible tickets, which is something that all the tickets used to be anyway

Actually by all accounts, Disney wants no one to buy the flexible tickets. They want the dated tickets sold more so it spreads out the crowd more and they make more money every day of the year.

 

[epcotty]

The regular 4 day FL resident pass has gone up $110 from before the increase later last year. Good thing we got those before these more recent increases. They're trying to make there be no real values anymore. At least the Discover Disney tickets are still available at a better rate. But yikes, this increase seems to be bad almost all across the board

 

[JenniferYoung44]

Can you renew early? I know you have to be within 60 to apply it, but can you like prepurchase a renewal certificate before prices go up.

 

[DebbieB]

Could you try your local Disney Store to buy your AP? Just a thought. For me there isn't a Disney store close by but I'd drive a few hours vs being on the phone for a long time. Makes sense that Disney IT was being glitchy. They were probably trying to load everything.

I did feel like we were out of the woods for a bit with price hikes because we were out of February. I didn't see much go up with the rumor either. I'm not sure this was a good decision because it sounded like from past discussions they were having a hard time filling things up for the summer even with the deals they are offering. What do others think?

Disney Store no longer sells tickets. They never sold AP’s.

 

[cmwade77]

Disney Store no longer sells tickets. They never sold AP’s.

Really? They used to sell the APs around here, also Vons (aka Safeway, Kroeger) and Albertsons still sells them around here, not every ticket or pass level, but some.

 

[DebbieB]

Really? They used to sell the APs around here, also Vons (aka Safeway, Kroeger) and Albertsons still sells them around here, not every ticket or pass level, but some.

I was going by stores in the PA/NJ area. Are you in Florida?

 

[cmwade77]

I was going by stores in the PA/NJ area. Are you in Florida?

Nope, California, obviously they sell Disneyland, but also Disney World.