Disney says that its guest surveys show that visitors continue to see a Disney vacation as a good va

As Theme Park Insider hotel car rental airline cheap flights rooms tickets travel readers reported on the Discussion Board over the weekend, Disney has raised its theme park prices . You're looking at a $3 increase on a one-day, one-park ticket at Walt Disney World (from $82 to $85) and a $4 increase on the same at Disneyland (from $76 to $80). Prices increase across the board from there.
Disney says that its guest surveys show that visitors continue to see a Disney vacation as a good value. And at this point, I don't think that a modest increase in ticket prices is going to keep anyone from making a trip - though it might prompt a few more people to look for discounts. (Check hotel car rental airline cheap flights rooms tickets travel out our ticket hotel car rental airline cheap flights rooms tickets travel advice page for links to major parks' current ticket deals.)
1 85 140 -- -- 2 84 111.50 96.5 124 3 77.33 95.67 89 107.33 4 60.75 74.50 79.5 93.25 5 50.20 61.20 73.2 84.20 6 43.17 52.33 64.83 74 7 38.14 46 61 68.86 8 34.38 41.25 58.75 65.63 9 31.44 37.56 55.89 62 10 29.10 34.60 51.60 57.10
Disney offers the "park hopper" option, allowing you to visit multiple theme parks on one admission day, for a flat $55 on any ticket you buy. So if you buy a one-day ticket, that inflates your cost from $85 to a staggering $140. But if you buy a 10-day ticket, adding the park hopper option adds just $5.50 a day to your ticket.
Adding the park hopper to a one-, two- or three-day ticket inflates the per-day cost of that ticket above the basic one-day, one-park rate. So if you're looking for the best possible deal on tickets, I'd suggest not adding the park hopper option unless you're staying at least five days at the Walt Disney World Resort. Most first-time visitors will opt for a four-day ticket, spending one day at each park. You don't need the park hopper option for that. Getting the most of a park hopper requires some "insider" knowledge of transportation hotel car rental airline cheap flights rooms tickets travel between parks, as well as how crowded each park is at different times of day and days of the week, too. So it's not the best option for rookies. (Hang out around here and you'll pick up some of that knowledge, though!)
It's tempting to look at those low per-day prices on extended stay tickets and to think about buying the full 10 days, then saving your unused days for a future trip. But remember that your days will expire 14 days after you use the first day on the ticket, unless you pay extra for the "no expire" option.
hotel car rental airline cheap flights rooms tickets travel Take a look at that column, and you see how you give back much of the savings on extended tickets with the no expire option. It makes no sense at all to add no expire to two- or three-day tickets, as it would be cheaper to just buy a one-day ticket for each day of your stay.
If you are thinking about the no-expire option, first think about the average number of days you visit Disney theme parks during your trips to Orlando. If you spend four days or fewer at Disney each time, then go ahead and buy the full 10-day ticket with no expire option. That will bring your per-day cost down to $51.60, as opposed to the $60.75 you'd spend per day on a four-day trip without the no-expire option. (You get a better price on park hoppers with no expire on trips of five days or fewer.) To me, it makes absolutely no sense to buy less than 10 days if you are adding the no-expire option. hotel car rental airline cheap flights rooms tickets travel If you're tying up your money like that, you might as well get the lowest possible per-day rate on your tickets.
I wouldn't recommend buying long Disney World tickets simply as an inflation hedge. There are better places to save your money for that. But if you can get a significant hotel car rental airline cheap flights rooms tickets travel per-day savings with a no expire ticket, go ahead.
I always suggest to people that are going and considering buying the park hopper to take the money for it, but don't purchase it till they need it. Many times I have seen friends get it, then never use it. This can save some big bucks if you don't use it, and adding it on can be done at anytime while the tickets are valid.
I am also not a fan of the never expiring tickets because we almost always stay on-site with some kind of a promotion. Most of those promotions require purchasing a certain minimum number of days pass. Thus the non-expiring days just sit there till we decide not to stay on-site.
Great advice, Robert. I was looking at booking a trip just last week and didn't finalize it. Although checking now - either they already were factoring higher prices in the vacation planning tool - or they've yet to update that as the price is exactly the same as last Wednesday. So if you're on the fence - book now!
Another reason to consider the park hopper addition is if you're buying a dining plan that has sit down dining. The last time I did that I made plans to more or less eat in a different country in Epcot each night - which meant returning to Epcot daily even if that was the only reason and the park hopper was essential for that.
I read some comments on the Disney Blog concerning this, and most of them were negative. Logically, I wonder how people expect theme parks to not increase ticket sales, when everything else has increased in price. Theme parks are a business and what do businesses want? To make a profit. Why people get so defensive about this, I will never know. My advice to people who moan and groan over increases is this...don't buy a ticket. You don't have to. It isn't a necessity.
Now that I have had my rant for the week. I do think that people who have never been to Disney hotel car rental airline cheap flights rooms tickets travel World/Disneyland do need to do as much research as they can before coming. One of our trips, we sat and talked with a family from Canada who were under the impression that buying a one day base ticket allowed you to visit each of the four parks. They were shocked at how much it cost their family of five and were trying to squeeze in all of Orlando into five days. These people were also under the impression that every ride was just in the Magic Kingdom and were asking where Expedition Everest, Soarin and the Hulk coaster were on the MK map. We hated telling them that they were at the wrong park for these.
People are sadly under the impression that if you are going to a theme park for a day or two that there is no need to plan. These are the people who are complaining in line about the crowds, heat, and the prices of the place. I treat a theme park centered vacation like I would if I were to travel to another country. I make sure to map out the "must sees" and "must do's". I plan and make dining reservations. I map out time frames and alternate ways to get to where we need to be. I also make sure I have the correct prices and see if we can afford tickets, special events, hotel car rental airline cheap flights rooms tickets travel souvenirs, etc.
I have a 10-day park hopper with the no expire option, which I use to drop in for a day or two whenever I'm in town. (Full disclosure: my mother is a WDW CM, so I sometimes get into the parks for free when visiting her and she signs me in.) I think the 10-day no expire is a great option for a frequent visitor hotel car rental airline cheap flights rooms tickets travel to the area who wants a quick Disney "fix" on each trip, as opposed to someone who takes a week-long (or more) annual visit to the resort. Those folks should skip the no expire and buy as they go, IMHO.
I always suggest the Park Hopper. You never know if you're hotel car rental airline cheap flights rooms tickets travel at Animal Kingdom (who has earlier closing hours) and finish up with hours left and want to spend a few more hours at a different park. Or to eat dinner at a country in Epcot.
hotel car rental airline cheap flights rooms tickets travel I have the say the most relaxing trip I had was one where I stayed onsite and the room key = Key to the kingdom. Where the park hopper was included in my entire trip and for the duration of my stay. If we woke up and wanting to go to Blizzard Beach, we could do that if later that day we wanted to eat dinner at the Diner at Hollywood Studios & see Fantasmic, we could do that. It offered a lot of freedom to experience the entire Disney World.
I bought a 10 day no expiration with the water park fun and more option from a third party vendor when I heard prices were going up. IMHO it is a great savings as we usually spend about 5 days in the park so we will get two trips out of it (probably over an 15-18 month span so APs won't do) and we now have 10 waterpark($49 /day) or disney quest($43 /day) visits that never expire. The break even on the extra $55 for the WFM add on is just over 1 visit...Of course you need to be careful not to lose the tix. But the savings can be significant.
So is it just me, or did their annual price increase come earlier this year? Isn't it usually in August? Will this be the new ticket increase time or did Disney need some fast cash and decided to rope the summer crowd into this increase early?
We always take park hopper, and on our trip in May, we made copious use of it. Some days, we visited three parks in one day: one park in the morning, water park in the afternoon when it got too hot, and a third park at night. Another time, we switched to the Magic Kingdom after a day at EPCOT, to catch the Electrical Parade hotel car rental airline cheap flights rooms tickets travel at 9. By keeping an eye on the Times Guide, you can switch to whichever park has the event that you want to experience.
Also, I wouldn't recommend a four day trip for "rookies." It's impossible to see and do everything you want in four days, unless you completely run yourself ragged. Give yourself enough time to explore at a leisurely pace; that's why they call it a vacation.
I think the parkhopper thing is a waste for the most part unless you just have to have it. All the parks have so much in them that running from park to park just is a waste of time to me. Unless you only like Disney for a select few rides that happen to spread out over several parks I don't see the point.... I want to enjoy the day and not run myself ragged trying to go to Animal Kingdom for one ride, and then Epcot for another.
Also Robert, when checking out prices before I noticed that the Water Parks seemed like a rip off if you used your Magic Your Way passes..... the single day water park pass is way less than a day at a regular park and then if your doing Magic Your Way passes for the all the parks I think there is an additio