13. The Tickets Are Insanely Expensive
If you think going to an amusement park and paying $60 a person is steep, wait until you pay the price of admission for Disney. You’ll be looking at well above $100 per person, depending on the type of tickets you get and the time of the year.
Yes, tickets to Disney theme parks are expensive. However, the above item is only half correct. Park tickets do not fluctuate with time of year, but adding certain options CAN increase the cost significantly, depending on how you plan your stay. Like anything Disney vacation-oriented, it's complicated.
A one day ticket to the Magic Kingdom is $99. But the cost per day decreases as you add days to your ticket. Stay for 5 days and the tickets are $60.80/day and each day you add after that only brings the total cost up $10 each. For example, a ticket that gets you into the Magic Kingdom for one day costs $99, one that gets you in for 5 days costs $304 and one that gets you for that extra sixth (perhaps when you arrive in the afternoon) day costs $314.
The "type of ticket" they talk about refers to certain options Disney offers, the most popular being the "Park Hopper" option. A Park Hopper ticket allows you entry to all four Walt Disney World theme parks on the same day and costs $60 more, whether you by it to apply to a one day ticket or a ten day ticket it's a flat $60, once again making it a better value the longer you stay.
You can also add options that allow you entry to the two water parks and/or the DisneyQuest mega-arcade. This is really only a really good value if you plan to vist these places more than once on your trip, as entry to each is less than $60/day.
So, yes, Disney tickets are pricey, especially if you go for one day (as we are doing this fall), but come on, it's the very prototype of the theme park. It's another world, lots of other worlds, actually. Play your cards right and stay long enough to see and appreciate everything, and the tickets per day aren't so bad at all.
As usual, Jeff, you nailed it. $100 a day seems a bit steep to "ride rides", but the Disney experience is so much more than that. Besides the Attractions, you get multiple parades, street shows like the Trolley show, Character show in front of the Castle and Singers by the Carousel, you get to meet the characters, and FastPass which allows you quicker to popular rides is included (unlike another large Studio themed park.) Let's also not forget the NIGHTLY fireworks display and Castle Projection show which is amazing. You definitely make out better if you stay more than 3 or 4 days and if you plan on seeing a decent amount of things in all four parks (you can't see everything), this is a must. My wife was just saying that the average guest gets to go through 8.5 attractions per day which equates to more than $10 per attractions per person. But again you get so many extras above that. Also, if you do research and attend during a low attendance season, you can hit many more. On our first half day we managed at least 10 and this included eating at a sit-down restaurant.
ReplyDeleteAnd we are so far from average - we hit way more than 8.5 attractions. When we go to Disney, there is not much lollygagging. We know we can't do everything, and we don't try. But we get the most out of our time there because that's what we like to do.
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