If there was one thing that stopped during the global pandemic that I was not happy to see return to Disneyland or Walt Disney World, it was the practice of annual price increases. You could practically set your watch by it before the pandemic. And now you can once again, as both U.S. parks dropped a collection of price increases exactly a year after a massive price increase across the board at both parks. But there is one piece of good news, and it’s actually quite big, as park hopping restrictions will be ending at Disney World starting in January.
First, let’s get the bad news out of the way. Disneyland is the park that has been hit the hardest with increases for both standard tickets and Magic Key Annual Passes. While the cheapest ticket available remains at $104, but most everything else saw price hikes. Daily single tickets now top out at $194 for the most expensive. 2 Day tickets saw a $25 price hike, while five-day tickets saw a $65 jump.
If you’re thinking that these daily ticket price increases are making an annual pass look better, you may want to wait a minute. The Magic Key passes also saw jumps in price. The entry-level Imagine Key and the top-end Inspire saw $50 price jumps, but the Enchant and Believe keys in between jumped an absolutely shocking $150. But if you want to buy one new, you’re out of luck anyway as they are not currently available for new purchases, so this is for renewals only.
Walt Disney World wasn’t immune to the price increase bug. Annual Passes at that resort also saw jumps. Prices went up there between $30 and $50 depending on the pass. Parking at the parks also received a $5 price increase.
As mentioned earlier, exactly one year ago today Disney Parks saw absolutely massive price increases that hit nearly every corner of what you pay for. In addition to tickets, we saw increases on food and other park-optional experiences. After Bob Iger returned as CEO he actually admitted that Disney had gotten too aggressive with price increases. We even saw at least one Disneyland price increase actually get rolled back. Since then we have seen a number of perks added at Disney Parks as a way to potentially make the prices easier to swallow.
But if you’re planning a trip to Walt Disney World starting in 2024 there is one piece of incredibly good news. Park Hopping tickets will have no restrictions starting January 9. Previously guests were required to make a reservation for a starting park and could not change parks until early afternoon. Disney World announced the end of reservations next year back in the spring, now it’s confirming that park hopping will end restrictions on the same day, January 9.
It was nearly a foregone conclusion that park hopping would have to go back to normal. Without reservations, it would have been silly to limit park hopping. I’m so glad to see this change, as my main issue with reservations was that it was the thing that was allowing for the limiting of park hopping. Of course, Disneyland has made it clear it is not ending reservations anytime soon, which means park hopping at the resort where park hopping is easiest will not be allowing it in the foreseeable future.