5 Price Increases to Plan for in Disney World in 2024

First of all, the apparent upcharge for 2024 is the Disney Dining Plan. The Dining Plan has been unavailable in Disney World since 2020, when the parks closed due to the pandemic, but it’s coming back starting January 9th, 2024. If you add it to your vacation, that’ll be some significant extra cost you’ll have to front.

In case you’re unfamiliar — the Disney Dining Plan is a way to pre-pay for your vacation meals. You purchase the Dining Plan as part of a resort and ticket package, and then you’re given a certain number of dining credits to use during your trip.

One thing we like to warn guests about when purchasing the Dining Plan is that you’ll need to be smart with what you order. Disney has revealed that the Standard Dining Plan will cost $94.28 per adult, per day and $29.69 per child (ages 3 to 9), per day. The Quick Service Dining Plan will cost $57.01 per adult per day and $23.83 per child (ages 3 to 9) per day. To get your money’s worth, you’ll want to ensure you’re ordering some of the more expensive items on restaurant menus and some of the priciest snacks available. Otherwise, you won’t break even on the cost.

So with the Dining Plan, you will spend more money upfront on your vacation and may also end up WASTING money if you don’t order efficiently.

Genie+ Prices

Next up, we’ve got to talk about Disney Genie+. The skip-the-line system was introduced in 2021 and used to cost $15 per person per day. But every season those prices fluctuate and tend to rise, Disney World changed the rules so that the system now has date-based pricing. On top of that, the pricing also now fluctuates by park.

Nowadays, Magic Kingdom is typically the most expensive park to buy Genie+ for, followed by Hollywood Studios, Animal Kingdom, and EPCOT. This means that those who were only buying Genie+ for Magic Kingdom might be paying more on average than they were previously.

On top of that, there’s also a separate price for Genie+ if you want to have it at multiple parks. This price usually matches up with the most expensive park price that day. (i.e. Magic Kindom costs $27 that day, so the multi-park Genie+ option costs $27 that day)

So even if you’re going to EPCOT and Animal Kingdom (which are the two cheaper parks for Genie+), you’ll still likely have to pay the “Magic Kingdom price” for Genie+ even though you might not get as much use out of it as you would by going to Magic Kingdom.

It’s all fairly complicated — much more than a year ago! And since Disney doesn’t share prices in advance, you’ll probably need to budget for the maximum amount.

Merchandise

One thing you can almost always count on to get more expensive? Merchandise! We’ve seen plenty of price increases in the past few years, from Minnie ears to Spirit Jerseys to MagicBands.

Price increases on merchandise are often done quickly without any warning. We saw that happen with price hikes at Droid Depot and Savi’s Workshop previously — both experiences got more expensive overnight, and guests who were visiting may not have had time to prepare.

And of course, we have to talk about the wild ride that is MagicBand and MagicBand+. Disney World Resort guests can get these bands discounted if they order them through their My Disney Experience account before vacation, but once you arrive, they could cost anywhere from $19.99 to $64.99, depending on your style and design. That’s a HUGE range of prices.

So if you’re visiting soon, be prepared with a flexible souvenir budget! You never know when another surprise increase might arrive.

Food

And speaking of things that have constant price increases — let’s talk about food! We’re constantly spotting overnight price changes on restaurant menus that usually amount to just a few dollars at a time. But once you add all those price increases together, it could amount to a LOT more than you spent on food last year.

This can be incredibly challenging for those with large families or who want to try more expensive dining options. In October 2023, hundreds of price increases hit Disney World, and many snacks were also affected. So you may want to check menus before you go to get a realistic idea of what to expect!

General Price Increases

Finally, we need to mention the general price increases like hotel costs and park tickets. Every once in a while, Disney will announce that tickets are getting more expensive or raise the prices on annual passes. And often, there’s not much warning before this happens.

Hotel price hikes are typically a little more sneaky. Disney can slowly increase the cost of rooms over time, and since you’d have to look at individual availability for hotel rooms over some time to see the change, it often goes unnoticed. But now that Disney World is working on updating many hotel rooms on property, you may want to check and make sure that your favorite resort isn’t WAY more expensive than you were expecting before you booked.

Ultimately, Disney World will keep getting more expensive over time, so we must learn the hacks and tips for making our vacations more affordable. Inflation and the economy are also contributing factors to the rising costs of Disney vacations, so consider that.

We’ll keep you updated with more tips and advice on how to save money on your next big trip, so stay tuned to AllEars!

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Will you be visiting Disney World in 2024? Let us know in the comments below!