By 
Source: www.themeparktourist.com, June 2019

Price hikes and upcharge events have become an unfortunate reality of the modern landscape of Walt Disney World, and though Disney raised prices on single and multi-day tickets a few months ago, it looks like annual passes as well as parking are about to get a LOT more expensive thanks to a brand new round of price hikes that are now in effect at the resort.

1. Annual pass prices are WAY up across the board

Image: Disney

Walt Disney World annual passholders have seen a bit of a reprieve in recent months, as the last substantial price hikes for annual passholders came last spring, and prices only went up by single-digit percentage points across the board. However, it looks like Disney may be making up for lost time with this latest increase, which sees prices up from between 9% and 20%, with two the two “no blockout” passes now over the $1000 mark for non-Florida residents. Here’s the full price breakdown for regular guests and Florida residents.

  • The Disney Platinum Plus Pass is now $1219, up from $994. For Florida Residents, the price is $999, up from $849.
  • The Disney Platinum Pass is now $1119, up from $849. For Florida Residents, the price for this pass is now $899, up from $749
  • The Gold Pass is now $699, up from $609 (this type of pass is only available to Florida Residents, so there is no additional location-based discount)
  • The Silver Pass is now $519, up from $479 (this type of pass is only available to Florida Residents, so there is no additional location-based discount)
  • Florida Resident Weekday Select Seasonal pass is now $349, up from $319
Though these price hikes are pretty staggering, they’re hardly surprising, especially as Disney CEO Bob Iger recently  acknowledged during a conference call that their ever-increasing ticket prices aren’t just an effort to increase profits, saying “It’s not just about raising prices. It’s about being really smart with it”, going on to say that the idea is to spread guest levels out throughout the year with dynamic pricing so guests will be less likely to crowd the theme parks during the busiest times of the year. And with Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge mere weeks away from opening, it looks like Disney is trying to dissuade people as much as possible from renewing the upper-most tiers of annual pass.
Unfortunately, even though these prices are already super high, it looks like annual passes aren’t the only thing that just got more expensive at Walt Disney World…

2. Parking Fees at Walt Disney World have also gone up

Image: Disney

In addition to rising ticket and annual pass costs, Walt Disney World has also increased parking fees at its resorts. Guests who park their vehicle at a Walt Disney World hotel can now expect to pay the following prices:
  • Disney Value Resorts: $15 per night
  • Disney Moderate Resorts: $20 per night
  • Disney Deluxe and Deluxe Villa Resorts: $25 per night
These new prices are now in effect for reservations made from today onwards. Reservations made before today will be charged the older, lower price.

3. Prices go up for reusable bags as well

Image: Disney 

As part of its green initiative, Disney introduced reusable shopping bags at the resort last year. And while these bags were previously fairly cheap at $1.00, $1.50, and $2,00 for small, medium, and large shopping bags (respectively), Disney has raised the prices for these reusable bags to $2.00, $2.50, and $3.00. Fortunately, if you don’t want to pay these higher prices, you can still get a free plastic bag when shopping at Walt Disney World.

Though all of these ticket price increases may seem shocking, as we’ve seen year after year, guest levels continue to keep on rising, and it seems like we still haven’t found an upper ceiling for Disney annual passes. Though we might see some pass downgrades due to this recent hike, it seems doubtful that crowds will get any lighter because of these higher prices.