Bring more money if you visit Disney Scott Powers Orlando Sentinel Staff Writer August 4, 2007 The price of magic goes up this weekend at Walt Disney World, where the basic adult ticket is climbing 6 percent to a record $71. Disney announced Friday that the new ticket prices would take effect Sunday. The changes also affect discount packages that still can push the per-day cost below $23 for adults who want to commit to as much as a 10-day run at Disney's four theme parks. An adult, one-day, one-park pass that now costs $67 will go up to $71. Price increases of 3 percent to 6 percent were tacked on to most of Disney's "Magic Your Way," Florida discount and annual-pass deals. There was no word Friday out of either Universal Orlando or SeaWorld Orlando about whether they, too, expect to raise prices soon. Both said they make those decisions independently. Yet Central Florida's theme-park resorts have a history of raising ticket prices at about the same time to about the same amounts. Disney World's increase came just two days after corporate parent Walt Disney Co. announced a $1.1 billion third-quarter profit and another good season at the company's theme parks, where profit margins topped 20 percent. Disney officials said the timing of the price increase had nothing to do with the corporate earnings; rather, it was tied to the annual planning cycles of travel wholesalers, tour organizers and commercial publications. They need their 2008 resort information soon. There was no indication that anyone expects Disney's price to scare away customers. "We strongly believe that Walt Disney World represents a great entertainment value. Our guests agree," spokesman Rick Sylvain said. "In our guest surveys, nine out of 10 rate their theme-park experience from good to excellent." Because Disney is the recognized leader in the theme-park industry, the company can continue to raise prices as long as people keep coming because Disney will define the level that the market will bear, said theme-park professor Ady Milman of the University of Central Florida's Rosen College of Hospitality Management. Milman said he does not think Disney is pricing itself out of the average family's budget, because the average out-of-state family saves for about five years to pay for a Disney vacation. "Disney has the capacity to distinguish itself as a good brand with a guaranteed experience, so people will pay," he said. "But it's amazing," he added, referring to the new single-day price. For years, the area's Big Three theme parks waited until December or January to announce price increases. But Disney bucked that trend last year, raising its basic ticket from $63 to $67 almost exactly a year ago. Universal quickly followed to $67, though SeaWorld waited until January and went up only to $64.95. Most of the industry has gotten away from thinking in terms of annual price increases, said Dennis Speigel, a private consultant and president of International Theme Park Services in Cincinnati. "Really, what they've been doing is taking them as they feel they can," he said. "I think what Disney is doing is putting fat on the fat hog. It's probably a good time to do it, while trends are up and people are coming. With the season they're having and the good quarter they just reported, it's probably a good time to do it." In the past three years, Disney World has followed a trend begun at other theme parks of moving away from one-day, one-park tickets and toward various ticket packages that cost more but offer more, including steep per-day discounts. Last year, Disney officials said that fewer than half their visitors were still buying one-day, one-park tickets. Among other changes: The basic ticket for children ages 3 to 9 will start at $60, up from $56. "Magic Your Way" tickets add multiple days at decreasing per-day rates; an adult two-day, one-park ticket will cost $139, up from $132, while a 10-day ticket will cost $225, up from $216. Disney's "Park Hopper" feature was not changed: For $45 extra, Disney visitors can turn any one-park ticket into a multipark ticket. Florida residents will continue to receive a 10 percent discount on base-price tickets purchased in advance, with an adult ticket starting at $63.90. A basic one-day water-park ticket (for either Blizzard Beach or Typhoon Lagoon) will cost $39, up from $36.
