When Could We See the Next Big Price Increase at Walt Disney World?

There are a few things in life we can depend on, and one of those things is price increases in Disney World. While in a perfect world we wouldn’t see the cost of a Disney vacation go up year after year, it’s a tricky reality when it comes to budgeting for your future vacations.

It seems like there are major price increases every year, so when can we expect the next big price increase to take place in Disney World?

We can look to prior years’ price increases for some clues! We did some research back in February of 2019 which found that, “in the resort’s 48 years of being open, Walt Disney World day tickets have increased yearly 33 times.” So, not EVERY year saw a major price increase for day tickets, but it certainly happens more times than it doesn’t.

Let’s go back to 2018 and track what the last few years have looked like when it comes to big price jumps.

2018

In October of 2018, Disney World raised the price of daily admission to between $109 and $129. Also, the prices for Disney World’s Annual Passes saw significant increases in October of 2018 — for example, the Platinum Annual Pass went from $849 to $894, an increase of $45 per year.

2019

2019 saw additional price increases, both for single day tickets as well as Annual Passes. In March of 2019, ticket prices increased, and in June of 2019, Annual Passes went up in price. At that time, the Platinum Annual Passes rose to $1,191.74 and Platinum Plus Annual Passes rose to $1298.24. The Gold Annual Pass for DVC and Florida Residents only increased to $744.44.

2020

Just before Disney World closed due to the pandemic, we saw tickets and Annual Prices go up in price yet again. In February of 2020, we saw Annual Passes increase anywhere from $15 to $76 more, and we saw a uniform price increase of $5 across all Park Hopper and Park Hopper Plus tickets.

2021 and Beyond

So where does that leave us for 2021? Notably, Disney World had not had any major price increases since the start of the pandemic, but with the return of Annual Pass sales in September 2021, Passholders were faced with a new, sometimes pricier dilemma.

The new Annual Pass program reduced the number of Passes to four: Pixie Dust, Pirate, Sorcerer, and Incredi-Pass. The first three, less expensive options are open only to Florida Residents (the Sorcerer is also open to DVC Members). And the Incredi-Pass is a steep $1299. Worse yet, none of the new Pass plans includes things like water parks, mini golf, or PhotoPass. The need to purchase these add-ons means many current Passholders will end up paying a lot more for the same offerings.

As a general rule, Disney does  not announce ticket price increases ahead of time; usually we wake up and *poof* there they are. With this change to the Annual Pass program, we did get a heads up from Disney. In the future, stick with AllEars as we report on pricing, add-ons, and more when it comes to Disney World tickets.

Do you determine whether you’ll visit Disney World each year based on price increases, or you do book a vacation regardless of the latest price hikes? Let us know in the comments!

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