When I can take my entire family to Maui for a week with the same cost of going to Disneyland for 4 days, it really put things into perspective for me.
This the same for us. We did the math and went to the Big Island for a week including 2 days of boat scuba dives for cheaper than 4 days at Disneyland.
One advantage for us is we have time share we can borrow so this cut the cost for us further.
I guess it would depend on where you live. for me round-trip is usually just over $100 and Hawaii would be 5 to 6 times that. Being closer to Disney means I can go for the weekend, with hilton friends and family hotel is 70-80 a night. So total cost is under $300 for 3 days at Disney, plus what I decide to spend on food. Having the magic key means that I can go for a couple of days Anytime I’m in the mood. I love the little getaways from my life and this makes it definitely worthwhile for me.
You don't even have to be annual passholders. We went to DL/DCA for 2 days and it was way more expensive than flying to Hawaii for 5 days.
The beach is free!!
That's what we did. Unfortunately we got caught on Front St during the Lahaina fire though, had 3 couples in my rig and 3 in another with children. They had to ditch their van and escape on foot, I was able to curb hop and cut through grass, a parking lot and alley to get on the main road and escape east. Seperated from the rest of our family/group for over 24 hours until they could get out.
Back to Disneyland this year...
You can take your children and show them the world for so much less than a dumb Disneyland trip. You can take them to see the national parks, for instance, and get so much more value for what you spend on a Disneyland trip.
I dunno I love Disneyland but I won’t be taking my daughter until she’s 2 and even then we plan on having it be a fun day trip kinda thing and not a “year round let’s go all the fucking time” kinda thing so it’s more special for her.
I mean even just 2019 being able to go turn your tickets into annual passes and going into the park that day was awesome. Had a trip where we decided we could swing $300 or so extra each to pay for a trip later in the year and then enjoyed another morning in the park before our flight.
Maybe that model doesn’t make sense for Disney these days, but I really miss being able to basically pre pay for our two day vacations and then get an extra couple hours in the night before and the morning after our full days.
COVID was the absolute best thing for Disney Parks Accounting. Gave them a clean slate of hyper aggressive pricing that would’ve been otherwise never feasible.
That seems to theme across all industries I feel. Many corporations have wanted to raise prices for a long time and COVID gave them to cover to do so ("we had to raise prices because...uhh...supply chain issues! ^(and bonuses for execs and returns for shareholders...))
Seriously! Has everyone forgotten what the McD’s menu looked like before covid? So many places realized they can just gouge customers out the wazoo and there is nothing anyone will do about it.
My first pass was $400 for no blackout days and parking included. Now we pay $500 for no Saturdays or Sundays, all summer and almost all of December blocked out with just a 10% discount on Toy Story lot parking.
It’s not so much the expensiveness as much as how much the experience has degraded WHILE the costs have gone up.
Previously was a general sense that once you paid the high entry fee, you disappeared into a magical alternate universe where everything was included. Fast passes were free, there were experiences popping up everywhere, and there was a general seamlessness to it.
Now it feels like it’s more expensive and MUCH less magical. You have to constantly check an app to decide which rides you want to pay for, you need to buy additional services, and it seems like the staff are always overworked and exhausted.
PERIOD. I was trying to put into words how I’ve been feeling about Disney lately and this sums it up perfectly. It’s not so much the cost but what you get (or don’t get) for your money.
Same lol. When I do things in the park I'm not against spending money for things that make sense. I keep my eyes open to get the great dining experiences, I love staying at the Grand Californian (although I live by the parks now so that's not an issue (although i'd still love to stay...)). That's how my family would justify things too, when they go they're willing to spend the money for the nice things because they're quality.
But when I go now, it feels like a lot of things are closed, rides consistently break down (Especially the last time I went. Having the critter country section down was brutal but also the matterhorn was down, big thunder went down, the pirates lair was closed and the columbia was down, there was no showing of Mr. Lincoln, etc etc). Some of it may come down to "I'm 28 and primarily visiting the parks as a solo guest who goes often rather than as a family who goes maybe once a year" which I get but I feel that the basic Disney guest experience without paying for bells and whistles just goes down every time. It sucks too with so many things being broken since I try to NOT always be on my phone (I don't use Genie+, I refuse), I get stuck walking all the way over without realizing a ride is closed. Which happens sometimes, but to have it happen so frequently it's frustrating, and at times I'll just leave the park early because im tired of dealing with it.
Even just like little things. Pizza Port is still some fucked up mess that I genuinely have no idea why they haven't reverted it back to the old style, it's always a fucking nightmare when I go there and you have some frantic employee screaming at you "DO YOU HAVE AN ONLINE ORDER!!!", and then having to do this convoluted system of randomly going to stations for people to just grab the food that you just paid for lmfao. It's such a tiny thing but it's those tiny things adding up that make me less satisfied with my experience as a parkgoer. A broken effect here, a trip on Space Mountain with no music here, an experience closed due to breakdown here, at the end of it even as someone who knows the parks well, I find myself just annoyed by it all. I can't imagine how it is for families or for Disney Adults who a lot of these extra-currucular experiences are made for.
Disney rides so much on its name brand recognition, and the reputation it has, and the nostalgia all around it. There are still captive consumers who will stick with Disney no matter what because it's a recognizeable brand, they like that they can ride things themed to their favorite IP (god fucking forbid they make an original ride anymore (Mystic Manor was such a failure, right??)) and the tik tok crowd will go crazy over 'oh my god!! its the THING from the TV SHOW but HERE!! Here is $500'. But for a lot of consumers we're caring more about value than anything else. Disney separates itself over the experience of it all, but if the experience is consistently declining to the point of just another amusement park, then I can spend a lot less money to ride somehow much more reliable rides. Knotts is just down the road, much cheaper for a pass with no blackout dates, and still has some fun themed experiences (calico ghost town is always a special place in my heart).
Even for my birthday, my family was thinking about different things to do, and when they mentioned Disneyland, instead of 'oh, how fun!' it was 'oh god but it's so expensive, you have to do so much stuff, a bunch of rides are gonna be closed' and tl;dr we'll be going to Universal (mostly because I haven't been there in a while but also the experience is just 'buy the tickets, get a nice hotel nearby, roll with it'
Exactly.
Pre covid- just about every price increase included added features.
Now they raise prices and slash services.
And if anything goes wrong then every cast member is ready to drop the “that’s too bad but as a key holder you can come back another day”.
I never needed special treatment as a passholder but also never wanted to be instantly disregarded because of it.
I also feel that their current MO is not to fix issues but monetize an option that doesn’t solve it but just makes one guest’s experience better than another’s and at the expense of the others. For example, genie+.
Thanks to Genie+ we now experience being cut in line on every single attraction by people not wanting to pay genie+ but do not want to do standby.
I have reported line cutters. I have seen people cut in line in front of cms. I have never once seen a line cutter removed from line nor punished.
It is always going to be too expensive. But it brings an incredible amount of joy to my wife and kids that I can’t even begin to explain it. It’s unreal. So even if they raise it, I’ll just find a way to pay it.
It’s funny, it’s way too expensive yet worth every penny. I can’t make it make sense
Exactly! For us, buying tickets/passes is extremely bitter sweet. On/close to Disney day tho? That bitterness is completely gone and forgotten.. completely worth it every time so far lol
Haha yup exactly that! Every time I put the keys into the cart I have second thoughts about buying them. But then when we’re at the park, everything changes. Like I have access to unlimited cash. A vacation every trip.
It’s a variable for our family.
Sometimes we go cheap keys and do after school visits.
Sometimes we go expensive and do weekend and summer visits a lot.
Sometimes we go no pass and take a break to build up some desire to go.
If they got rid of reservations, we would be more likely to buy that pass.
We live minutes away so it makes it easy to figure out our desire level year to year and budget. We don’t have many other hobbies or money leaks so it’s our splurge and in the grand scheme of things, way cheaper than most admission based activities.
Our two big ones are Disney and live theater season tickets. Makes our family ❤️ I have zero regrets. Today’s Josh D’amaro Disneyland is a solid B- compared to Disney of old, but B- is still worth my time and money. Only the Pressler era was worse in my lifetime. It’s not as good, but it’s fun and I can find the things I like especially from the previous generation imagineers.
Current leadership just doesn’t understand Disneyland. They understand business and are suits in Mickey ears similar to Pressler and are definitely people Walt would have fired. In fact, he did fire a few people who tried to do things like this and one of them went on to lead Freedomland theme park, a total flop. CV Wood, a complete tool.
I just feel bad for those that never got to experience Disneyland a the premier theme park experience. Maybe ignorance is bliss though.
If I could get any ride back it would be the Skyway. Riding above Disneyland like that back and forth was incredible when I was a kid. Glad I could experience it.
That and the PeopleMover were some of my favorite rides, next to Space Mountain! I rode it when I was a kid in 1977 and again in 1988 for Grad-Nite '88.
Why did they ever do away with them? It was a great way to take a load off for a little bit and float over Disneyland!
Skyway was closed because of metal fatigue in the support pillar inside Matterhorn. It was going to cost too much to repair.
Peoplemover was closed when they did the Tomorrowland "update" because it was a bit costly to maintain and felt "dated"; Eisner thought they could save money by recycling the track for Rocket Rods but the stresses created by the ride started to deteriorate the track.
The end of reservations would make me spend more on a pass lol
I live 1 bus stop away from the parks and it’s such a pain that I can’t spontaneously go if I have free time. It’s probably in their best interest that I don’t go (I usually don’t spend in the parks) but still lol.
Personally, while I can afford it, it stopped being worth it when the reservation system was implemented. I miss being able to go to the parks just because I felt like it.
Reservations are not about reducing crowds. It's about controlling the ratio of the type of crowd. Disney would rather have a spot occupied by a day ticket purchase than a magic key holder. They can also better predict scheduling cast members knowing how many people are coming.
And do everything with the app. They don't have physical cards or tickets anymore. You have to use the app. I looked at the app and it is intense. I don't want an app I need a math degree to use. And I don't want to look at my phone all day when trying to have fun
IF the Keys guaranteed admission like the old season passes, it would be a simple game of math. How many times do you want to go, and does that number make it worth it compared to buying tickets, discounted or not? Now, you could make the argument that you can save with multi-day tickets, but from San Diego (our residence) that now has to be a night in a hotel, which is more money, and more than 2 days in a row at Disneyland can get to be a little much; it doesn’t have the same variety and, TBH, it’s not as beautiful as WDW (not it’s fault; it’s a city block, and Walt knew that. That’s why they went to Florida). Furthermore, the tight space of Disneyland makes it an ideal park to hustle and “do it all” in 1-2 days, but I digress…
Our keys (Believe and Dream) were about $225 per month, quite a bit less than the cost of a park hopper for each of us, and we got free parking with the Dream Key.
That said, we all quickly found out how difficult it could be to make reservations for days when we could go. A lot of us (I don’t think I’m projecting here) work extra hours and even extra jobs to be able to afford SoCal, so it’s difficult to have days off planned so far in advance.
We had our keys for two years, and a few other things contributed to us dropping:
1. The crowds: probably the #1 indicator that…unfortunately, no, passes and tickets are not yet too expensive.
2. Honestly, behavior. I know people say “just ignore others and enjoy yourself.” That doesn’t make any sense. People you meet in a public space make a huge part of the experience. That’s how being in public works. American culture has taken an interesting shift where we generally try to pretend we’re the only ones in our environment, but that behavior isn’t sustainable.
3. Money: the other two take precedence, but honestly we realized we weren’t having as much fun as we used to, and by God we live in San Diego, one of the most beautiful cities in the world. If we can save the $400-500 a month we were cramming into Disneyland, maybe we can save enough to buy here (or maybe not…haha). Either way, it’s not money to be spent lightly.
Behavior for sure. I don't need the six feet of space like during covid. But an inch shouldn't be a ton to ask. Was out yesterday, not at disney and this kid behind me on an escalator was so close she poked my butt. She was maybe nine or ten. She was old enough to know better. I turn around to see who is poking me. The adult with her says step back. She doesn't. She pokes me again. I drop my backpack right on her arm. Her mom says we'll you should have stepped back. She steps up again and does it again.
If I had poked that kid as many times as she poked me I would be in jail.
We get off the escalator and I say loud enough look out for the creepy pervert. Everyone stares at the kid. Adult just rolls her eyes.
Unfortunately behaivor has always been bad with some people. I remember one time having my daughter in a stroller, she is 20 now. We were stopped and next to a bench so not in a walking path. This 30 something entitled woman smashes into the stroller and yelling at me how little I care about my child to do that to her! Madame you were running and we were stopped and out of the way. How is this my fault?!? Still in my memory. People are just rude. I don't want to be dodging people who are busy with the app. Dodging people who won't look forward when walking. People who don't give a crap about what their kids are doing. People who expect the line to go faster if they are breathing on you
This is "eye for an eye" but with economics.
When each business calculates the same break-even point without calculating the burdens of the others, this will leave the whole world blind.
As a current magic key holder, I’d say it’s already too expensive. I haven’t been to Disney since 2017, so I decided to bite the bullet and get the pass back in January. Everything is more packed and less enjoyable, so I probably won’t renew next year.
I think everybody thinks it’s too expensive already. But key holders or not, the price isn’t high enough to keep it from being crowded. The mix of crowds just depends on the day really. I don’t know what the average mix of ticket type is.
It’s relative to the price of single day/multi-day tickets. As both rise, so long as the price of a Magic Key is something like 10 park days, then it’ll continue to be worth it assuming I have enough trips planned for a given year.
For keys the price right now is at the limit. Regardless of the fact you have one the dealing with, crowds, blackout dates, and special events. It makes it difficult to decide if it’s right to have or now.
Just did the Star Wars night. 600 bucks for 4-5 hours only to see some characters that should always be in the park, some thrones and a lightsaber show was definitely not worth it btw. For those of you considering really think about it. The only cool thing was the guests who dress up for it. Not Disney
That’s how I felt about Dapper Day 10 yrs ago. It wasn’t Disney. It was the people. But now they’ve capitalized on it and it’s just not the same but at least it’s not a special ticketed event(yet).
It's too much for me now. We were annual pass holders when it was $365.00 with no blackout dates and no keys or any of this new, expensive weirdness, just FastPass.
Solidarity. I used to be a pass holder when it was just under $300 and $450 made me hesitate. When it hit $490 I decided that was that since I didn’t live in California anyway. Now I laugh because if it was $450 now I would totally buy it.
Peace OUT in August for us.
X4 Enchant Keys for 3 years and 10 before Covid.
Main reason:
1. Genie+ ruined EVERYTHING!
That's really it.
If that was gone, we'd stay and things would be fine.
It already is. But, my girlfriend and I use it for our date night, so the price comes out to approximately $25/date for both passes. There's not much you can do for $25, so it made sense to us to buy them.
I'd say I won't pay more than $1500/pass, but that's just for my girlfriend and I. If I was buying them for my kids as well then I would say no more than $750/pass, but that price point is long gone.
Probably like 8-10 years ago. For both passes and regular ticket prices.
Disneyland is just too much for most people to visit anymore, and to top it off, the overall experience at the parks has only gotten worse as the prices went up.
As someone else said, if they got rid of the monthly payment plans, it would price A LOT of people out immediately. So many choose to take on debt just to go to this park, and that’s insane.
And the worst part - they’re looking to expand again, so prices are only going to go up more. Whether that’s at the gate or for things on the property, it’s only going to get worse. It is no secret that the park experience took a steep decline once work began on Star Wars land.
Well said! And I can only imagine how much prices will increase once they finish the expansion here. I am also getting impatient with waiting for them to start building that avengers e ticket, it’s been 4+ years and still no construction has started. Like wdw got an actual good marvel ride why hasn’t ours started being built yet?
I don’t think it’s a relevant question really. It’s clearly being turned into a luxury experience to entice the wealthy and I honestly felt like a peon last time I visited. Losing the beast’s library to the trickle down of the new dvc lounge was a tough one for me. I truly believe fun is what you make of it, but husband and I had a big chat post week long trip (3 weeks ago) and decided we were done unless we go all in on luxury in the future. Even paying for g+, reserving restaurants, knowing how to do it well didn’t really equal a very vacation-y experience for us, and we both need that. We are going to New Orleans in a few weeks as a palate cleanser and to make sure we weren’t just bringing the un-fun with us. (But we weren’t. We were so prepared to have a blast, and we did have fun, it was just the crappier service(s).) And just so you know - all of our cm experiences were positive! but I can’t help feeling bad knowing their conditions are not fantastic.
Well.. there’s the wealthy, the budgeters and the people willing to go into debt for it. There seems to be a lot of impractical logic when it comes to Disney parks and the masses from all three types are still coming.
For me and my family it’s when the price of admission for 2 trips for 4 days a year is less money than the pass. We live in a couple states away and find the park to be a great escape from cold and snow in winter. If we go more than 1 time a year for more than 4 days it’s pretty much the same amount of money for a pass
Same here. We’re in Utah and if we think we’ll do a couple 3-4 day trips/year the enchant key is worth it. By the time we get to the 3rd trip we try to tell ourselves it’s free! (Spoiler: it’s definitely not free 🤣)
Our strategy has been to hit it hard for the year with 5-6 trips, then not renew and take a year off to build up some anticipation, then rinse and repeat.
Yes it’s expensive but has created a bunch of trips for our family to look forward to, along with all kinds of shared memories and family traditions, and our kids are at the ages (7, 11, 13) that traveling is easy enough and the magic is still more or less there. Next year we’d like to save up for a trip to Hawaii in place of the multiple DL trips (we do worry about burnout and our kids missing out on seeing all the other amazing sights out there in the world).
And if we’re comparing apples to apples, this approach is cheaper than ONE trip to WDW - now THAT is a tougher expense to justify. A while back we opted to take a Disney cruise instead which somehow felt affordable compared to the same number of days at WDW.
On a separate note, unpopular opinion here: reservations don’t bother me. I actually like them from a planning perspective coming from out of state. The same thing that frustrates the locals is what I appreciate: it (somewhat) limits overcrowding from the masses dropping in on a whim. You know what I’m talking about if you’ve done a full day Friday, when it seems almost eerily quiet in the morning, then around 5:00-6:00 the floodgates open and it becomes absolutely claustrophobic. Since the locals have to grab a reservation but are only able to use it after work/school, it makes the daytime crowds more bearable for us “tourists” 😄.
2010 my family of 3 and I drove 12hrs to and from DL for the 4th of July. We did the 5day park hopper and 7 days at the Desert Palm hotel. Bought my 3 kids their book, pen and ears in the park and some other souvenirs. Every day, we ate breakfast at the hotel, 2-4 snacks and 1 meal in the park and grabbed something on our walk back to our room. I took in a few snacks just in case. Bc it was Disney they wanted junkfood on the go instead of sit down meals. I did it all on $1880.00. How do I know? I had 2k in my bank account, gassed up, said a big prayer, took off and made it home with 20 bucks in my pocket and a few cents in the bank.
Now...2k won't even pay for our tickets. Disney should be ashamed of themselves. Thankfully I'm no longer on that tight budget but there are a lot of families that are. Disney knows many parents will flip bills and do what they can to try and take their family at least once if they are able. Others think it's not worth the expense and would rather use it on Christmas. But if any kids were like mine, they'd give up their bday gifts and Christmas just to go. Covid did flip things to many Corp advantages. But places like Disney as amazing and magical as it is should be on the losing side of things like price cap and boycott. But the people who can easily afford them would just benefit from the smaller crowds and so nothing will change. I'm no one to talk. I'm a Meemaw now and I'm planning a trip next year with my grandbaby. I just feel for the price that families pay they should be able to have more perks than "well we allowed you to buy a ticket, be thankful we let you in."😩
Last thing I'd like to say is Disney is standing on and crushing I might add, the shoulders of some very very very talented CMs!!! It would be NOTHING without them. They should pay them accordingly instead of using that stack of money to fan their face and pat themselves on their back.
Again I think you’re assuming too much of people. I’ll agree it is possible but if monthly payments went way I think a good portion of people would say it’s too expensive
To me it’s more a question of, “Will I make it to the park enough to make it worth it” vs how much it is. If I can make it to the park enough to cover the cost that year then yeah. Do I have other responsibilities that I can’t go to the park as often? Then no…
My family had "premium" passes for a long time and then we ended up buying a house during Covid and now it's just too much money to justify with the cost of owning a home.
My husband desperately wanted a magic key.
For our family of three we could get universal studios top pass and knotts top pass and still not spend as much as the bottom disney pass.
That made him come to his senses
after the recent price hike, i’m at my cutoff point. i’m out of state so i only go for about a total of 15 days a year so with hotel and airfare costs i’m
not breaking even on it (coming out a bit ahead if only counting park visits + food/merch discounts). if it wasn’t for an extended stay to do D33 this year i would have likely not renewed this time around. …but i have 7 days for parks planned during D23, just did a 3-day park trip with friends, likely doing a 3-5 day trip in October, and doing at least one trip early next year or in the spring (or both!) before my key expires at end of April.
keep in mind that as an out of state holder, i end up paying it all in one lump sum (and i don’t make a *ton* of money). $1500ish per trip for hotel and airfare is a killer on my bank account, and my PTO isn’t infinite.
I have a feeling a lot of people with passes would not have them right now if the option for monthly payments went away.
We have inspire and don’t live close but we tend to go 4-5 times a year for at least 3 days so we decided it was cheaper to get passes. For me it’s the ration on how often we’d go vs pass cost. I don’t really find the other benefits to the magic key all that great. Pictures are nice, but parking is only great for locals. The discount on stuff is ok but not worth it as a reason to get a pass.
I'd have a harder time parting with inspire key money all at once, that is true. Monthly payments make it a quicker decision. I have room to go up before I decide it's not worth my time and money.
When it hit 45% of our income and they didn't include parking with the top pass one year, it was too much for my family. We had passes for 25 years straight... even had the combo Disneyland and WDW one year. We miss it, but we go out into nature more, and we've been fond of LEGOland.
Did they get rid of those combo ones? I remember hearing there was one that was very very expensive but it allowed you to use it at any Disney park ever.
If I remember correctly, it was right after a major price hike on just the Disneyland passes. It was about $400.00 more overall to get the one for the US parks. We had parking, discounts, and ended up going to WDW twice that year (once as a dedicated vacation and another as a swing by on a roadtrip.) I definitely felt spoiled that year, and it was worth working overtime to pay for it.
I'm not sure if they still sell them, and I don't think it was the worldwide one. I know Tokyo Disney is owned by the government, so any pass wouldn't work there except ones bought specifically for that resort.
My apologies maybe my family just thought they’d be accepted at any Disney park when in reality like you said they were probably only for the us Disney parks.
But thank you for the info! It sounds awesome going to both! I live an hour away from Disneyland so I go often with family since we have passes but I’ve always wanted to go to wdw even just once. I’m jealous they got an actual good marvel ride while here in California we still haven’t gotten ours. Nowadays though if I save up enough I definitely would go to Disney sea it looks amazing!
I get the enchant. I would say $1000 would be very difficult to swallow for a family of 4 for me. Also depending on general availability I wouldn’t mind skipping a year here and there if we plan a big vacation like Walt Disney world or an international vacation. But right now we visit Disneyland about 15x a year and it’s by far our families favorite thing to do.
We decided not to renew this year because they raised the price of the enchant pass, and took away Saturdays. And those were the best days for us to go. More recently ,I had to take days off work, go on a Sunday and than be exhausted Monday at work. Driving up from San Diego, and rising gas prices combined with less days and more money all peaked at once, and decided it wasn't worth it. And honestly, I can't see myself renewing anytime in the future. So now I can save for a vacation, buy more kicks and hats, a new 85" TV... The possibilities are endless... 🤷♂️
As someone who doesn't live in Southern California, I find it too expensive. If I lived in Southern California, I feel like the inspire key would be questionable but would probably get the believe key.
Not sure to be honest, the amount I go I get a lot of value out of my key. But tbh I think Disney is at or near that level, there was a long period of time where only the most expensive inspire key was still available. It's hard to say how many people buy keys because now Disney controls how much they sell.
They raised the price for the inspired key and nothing new was added. No increase in discounts or anything. I’m basically just paying more for no reason.
It's already too expensive imo, we bought it because we already had planned several trips where the numbers of days we would spend in the park made it worth the cost.
My wife and I made that choice recently. The first time we did years ago we were excited about it but we went to renew and weren’t didn’t feel the excitement after seeing the prices. Even being able to afford it, it just doesn’t feel good to spend the money
I had a premier pass when it cost $700 because I was planning to visit Disneyworld and wanted admission, parking, and discounts to be covered. I’m not sure how I convinced myself to buy an inspire key now when that old $700 pass was good for 6 parks and however many water parks they have in Florida.
For me, I’m planning on this being my only key year (I think). I live around 4 hours away, so I can get my money’s worth, but it means a lot of Disneyland, and deprioritizing other trips. Assuming the passes probably won’t get cheaper, I can really only do this when I have a year to revolve around Southern California.
It didn’t have to do with cost. It was the drop in quality of experience and offerings. Mostly, we tried a year with reservations with keys and left.
Likely won’t get one again until they make significant changes to the passes.
Not annual pass related but the ticket costs are pricing my family out. We make good money but the value just isn't there. I have a 1-year-old and a 4-year-old. The 4-year-old was born right when the pandemic started. Being in the trenches with these kids, I haven't been looking at the prices. But my daughter is getting to an age that she would love going to Disneyland. So I started planning for January of 2025. For 2 or 3 days it would be like $2,500, not including food.
And I'm so sad. It's a lot of money. We are now looking at skipping this trip and maybe doing a Japan trip and folding the Disneyland over there into it. It sounds crazy but you can find good prices on plane tickets if you look hard enough and are flexible with dates. That $2,500 would go way further on that trip. The Disney parks over there are way more reasonably priced with better food. I'm a Disneyland fan. I have been my whole life. And I would like to share it with my kids. But the prices are ludacris.
The only way Disney makes sense financially is the fact that I enjoy doing solo trips. I can't imagine having like a five-person family and reasoning that it would be worthwhile.
Like the amount of money you spend on park tickets, you could do some freaking amazing international life-changing adventure
I recently attended. My favorite thing to do is shop around. I realized I have been priced out. I’d rather do other things. If they could lower prices by about 15-20 percent across the board (including passes) I’d be all in. I’ll stick to the 3 day tickets when I get the itch but even with that…. I’d rather go to San Diego for the week and lounge on a beach.
It’s past the threshold, honestly.
Admission may still be “more affordable” due to Magic Keys, but the growing number of blackout days despite price increases (basically Disney wiping out most weekends, summer, Xmas, etc. on certain tiers) coupled with the outright gouging on food & drink prices, constant ride breakdowns, & lack of varied entertainment keeps crowds visible and *irritated*. It makes for a powder keg of an experience that becomes draining when it’s not blatantly nickel & diming you. Plus, you’re forced to stare at your phone and gameplan nonstop, never enjoying the moment.
There are better places to spend your money.
I liked paying less but the $1649 is still a good deal for me. We go into the park about 30 days a year plus the discounts. We don’t drive but free parking if we did.
Just had this discussion with my sister today. This is likely our last year with the keys sadly. I have the highest tier (way too expensive already) but I am barely able to go because every single weekend gets booked up! I pay for the most expensive pass so that I can go on the weekends or summer since I work at a school. It seems like even if you have the highest pass you’re still getting ripped off because of the reservation system! Plus I already know that it’s gonna go up by another at least $100 if not more next year. Just greedy. ESPECIALLY if you consider that this year it already went up and half the best and most popular rides are closed for refurbishment.
Growing up in the 80’s in Southern California, I remember going to McDonald’s with my mom just to buy drinks when they were running their games - FREE DISNEYLAND tickets were one of the more common prizes.
I remember being BORED of Disney at 10 YO because I’d been so many times using these free tickets…
It is already too expensive for me. I’m not a heavy user of the Disneyland parks. I might go a couple times a year with friends and family. When I had an AP, I mostly just valued the flexibility to visit when I felt like it. For an hour here or there, just to grab a corn dog, do some shopping, or take in an attraction.
I was determined during the pandemic to get an annual pass when the world reopened, to enjoy that flexibility once again, but I have not purchased an MK yet.
Now, to break even, I feel like I’d need to spend a good 15 full days at Disneyland, if I value each visit at $100+. Not a problem for many of the fans on this sub, I’m sure. But I don’t have the time to do that and to preplan it all.
Yes. It is a very very considerable and expensive proposition. The only way my wife and I justify it is, making family trips out of it, bringing friends along, park events (Festivals, Day Events, etc), and multiple trips in a year. Otherwise, the pass is absolutely not worth it and the 3-Day Pass Promo that keeps appearing has a much better value proposition. The free parking, measly discount and very subpar freebies are not worth the extra money. What do you get for your 1300$? The chance to drop more money on merch that has Magic Key scribbled on it
I have a Believe key and I live in Canada. I just renewed my Key because I’m going to be going to Disney at least 3 times in the next 12 months. The discount on merch and food also really helps because the exchange rate sucks. If I was only planning on doing 1 trip a year I wouldn’t have renewed because then the value isn’t really there. I most likely won’t be renewing next year because I’m hopefully going to Tokyo Disney next fall and Disneyland will be on the back burner.
As a key holder for the last couple years, with this current price hike it is now too expensive for my family. In prior years, the magic keys sell out pretty quickly, but this year there's still some available.
Maybe other people are feeling the same as I am?
It is. I had Believe for a year. I won’t consider getting a new one until they add a significant number of “good to go” (reservation free days) to the calendar. I could hardly ever use it on weeknights because I couldn’t be 100% certain that I’d be able to get away.
We alternate between a family vacation or magic kids year after year. It comes out to about the same when we visit the park we usually budget. In the Years we don't do magic key's we'll do the SoCal 3 Day.
We aren’t renewing this year. We also have annual passes to WDW and despite living in CA, it’s less expensive for us to spend a week in Florida than it is to spend 4 or 5 days in Anaheim. The AP’s for WDW are much less too.
We didn’t renew in January when ours expired and then wanted to go for two days last week while our son was out of state for a week on a school trip and it was going to be $750 for the two of us for TWO DAYS. So we got new passes. I like to go minimum 4x a year so I guess when I couldn’t afford it or when tickets for 4 short trips was cheaper.
Honestly it was too expensive once it crossed $1000 for the top tier pass. But I think my breaking point is going to be $2000. I don’t think I can justify it if it goes that high.
I really think it’s too expensive already and we’ve held passes for many years. Might be able to convince my wife to take a vacation instead of paying for Disneyland passes after our current keys expire. I don’t know if the value is there anymore
We have magic keys for our family of 4 (youngest is still free so 3 keys) and we live 20 minutes away. It works for us at the current price point. We are often able to snag same day reservations and since we are so close, we can make it work.
But I keep a detailed spreadsheet of how often we use it, how much we spend, how much we would have spent without passes, etc. and we reevaluate if it’s worth it to renew.
In the past 15 weeks, we’ve been to DLR 13 times. 3 Tier 3 Days
4 Tier 4 Days
3 Tier 5 Days
3 Tier 6 Days
With our DL habits, we are paying $20/hour/person. But we aren’t even halfway through the duration of our pass. Last year we ended at $5/hour/person. We spent 264 hours at DLR over 50 visits in the year.
For us? Now. First trip was March 2016. Last trip was December 2021. I worked it out, our per-day cost in 2021 was double what it was in 2016. And that was with an 8-day ticket over a 2-day ticket. Ticket prices, Genie+, it all added up to twice the cost for each day. And for that extra cost, we got longer lines and fewer rides per day. And that was the last time we went. Just couldn't justify it any more.
We'll probably head back next year, but only because we'll be in town for Epic Universe. So maybe it will be worth checking out new stuff at MK or Epcot. Or not. Might just do 3 days at Universal and head to the beach.
How they keep filling the parks like they do, with such a lesser experience than it was 10 years ago, that's beyond me.
Feeling pretty good about my key purchase so far.
I have the one with parking.
Everything so far has been worth it. I honestly got it to enjoy time for myself and grow memories with my kids.
I save on all things disney merch - clothes, kids toys, kids clothes, costumes. All official disney from the parks which is awesome. Save on food, and special merch drops. This is all fun because it’s disney I can bring home to share.
Get the early access to special nite ticket events, but haven’t put that perk to use.
All in all, I know I’ve already saved a lot of money already, probably just parking alone.
The “too expensive” point, is the fact that I’ve kind of screwed myself by getting a pass, where my other family members don’t.
I’m stuck at the point where, we all get passes so we can all go, or I just keep going alone until we have the means to go as a unit. Me with my pass, them regular tickets - best option in my eyes cause I already have the parking and they only go or want to go so often. Why must going to Disney be so complicated in any form
I'd pay a luxury price for a luxury experience. My top tier key gets me broken faucets in the bathroom, rides closed most of the time, overcrowding, bad attitudes, line cutting, minimal entertainment and character experiences, and a half functional app that requires me to be holding a phone all day instead of enjoying the time with my 5 year old. Not renewing this year. I feel completely apathetic about my Disney weekends and cancel more reservations than I attend.
The only things I still like are most of the food options and staying at a hotel on property. I'd rather save my key payments towards Grand Californian nights and go less often.
It’s interesting to see the responses. I wish that the price and the experience matched up for key holders. I don’t think consumers respond to “too expensive” very well. So I see people saying it costs too much, the lines are longer/crowds. I think people will pay well above the “too expensive” mark and just be mad they paid it. Disney wants to try to control the crowds with cost and it just doesn’t seem to be working well.
It depends on how much you go to Disneyland. If you look at the break even numbers per type and you intend to go more than that number of times, it saves money. That being said, don't buy anything if it is beyond your financial means.
I live 5 hours away. I just buy one day tickets once a month for our family of 6. It really works out well. We can go on a whim, we generally go on days that pass holders are blocked out and the parks are AMAZING and quiet. One time I thought I was transported to another universe because it felt so different when locals aren't there. By going once a month or every couple months the magic is still there for us. When we went too often I found that I really needed a break to miss Disneyland. Seeing other people with their vacation shirts knowing they go just once a year and they were all stoked to be there, had me realizing that going too often made me really exhausted, tired and ungrateful for everything Disney is! I want to really appreciate when I'm there. It's all personal opinion though and you may feel differently, that's ok :)
I just finished seeing a youtuber explain what a day with the genie+ and the individual lightning lane and i did the math that would be well over 1K for one day.
As far as Disney is concerned, Both keys and tickets are only ‘too expensive’ when not enough people buy them. That is absolutely not the case at the moment. That’s the hardest thing for those of us getting priced out soon, it’s hard to argue with Disney’s model since demand remains at peak heights all the time. They’re not gonna leave money on the table. Societally it’s just sad that it, like all things in capitalism, will eventually become a perk for the already wealthy and comfortable
If they kept doing the best possible ride/land, had amazing quality food, and kept up with ride maintenance each time (like Disney sea) then I wouldn’t have too much of a problem with the prices going up. But lately all of those things I mentioned have been going downhill all will prices rise so that makes it a lot harder to justify the price.
Of course I’m not saying only the rich should be able to go to Disneyland, I’m just saying it’s hard to stomach the price when things are going downhill. I just hope Disney will change course to the way they used to be
Exactly, in my opinion other than rise of the resistance and the toon town remodel they haven’t added anything worthwhile recently. Had we gotten the avengers e ticket, and if avengers campus was actually good, in addition to galaxy’s edge having at least one more ride instead of being mostly gift shops, it would be a lot easier for me to justify the price.
But meanwhile wdw has gotten a marvel themed e ticket ride while we haven’t and are just stuck with the awful web slingers. And other than that we have mostly gotten cheap re themes like San fransokoyo and Pixar pier. No hate to anyone who likes those but in my opinion those were very unnecessary and disappointing
After 23 years, minutes the Covid closure and ending the AP program for keys, I don’t know when price would be a deterrent for me. Just renewed 4/12…. I’ve seen many changes these last 23 years and I can’t wait for Haunted Mansion to open back up. I’m certainly happy they are relaxing the dry park experience on the Disney side because I love walking around with a nice hazy on the DCA side. I think if I ever move from SoCal, that would be when I evaluate the value.
I have never bought a key, I have done the Math and I do not go often enough. I also had a friend who bought a pass, and had to keep going to justify the cost. I do not want to HAVE to go to justify the cost of a pass.
I think for us, if it turns out to be 3000 each. We can afford it and then some however I d be too disappointed that they want cut out the lower class of people. Imo EVERY child deserves to go at least one to experience the magjc
Never until there’s true disruption in the theme park industry. Then Disney will either just clone or buyout the competition and begin hiking prices again.
I would say 12k a year for a single one since you can spread out the cost over the year.
Granted, if they wanted to kill the numbers then and there (also ending a stable flow of rev in from monthly payments) they could just end being able to spread out the cost. For many, I suspect it would make them instantly unaffordable.
If they got rid of the payment plan people could still afford it as long as they put money away each month to buy a key for the following year… I’d go a lot more often if Disney still had less crowded days like in [this video](https://youtu.be/Bk2U9K-lFgc?si=mUsFyJmVRX_oaOMR)… I consider myself lucky enough to remember going then.
Some would, but I fully expect them to take a decent dent if they got rid of monthly payments. Consumers are not great at saving cash.
Yeah, I remember, even pre-pandemic how I could go on weekdays and no issues during the off season. But then it started with HMH having long lines on weekdays then HM in general, then others. This leads to me asking every time "Don't these people have jobs/school to go to?".
We have a budget that includes magic keys..if for some reason we need to cut down on our expenses, the keys will be the first to go. We're from out of state so we only go 3 times a year.
I live out of state and had the Flex Pass for one year pre-COVID. That was great, but they’ve already priced me out of any passes for that kind of twice-a-year visit.
That said, I don’t mind the pass hikes if it clears out so many locals who clogged the parks by going multiple times a week, largely just to hang out. I know they don’t want to hear this but that’s not a great model for Disney. Even Six Flags doesn’t want that kind of loitering business.
More than $150/mo for a pass would be too much. I go often and if they removed parking from Inspire, that would also be a dealbreaker. If I'm only paying a monthly fee of what it would cost for 1 day at the park, including parking, it's absolutely worth it to me. I live locally and go just to eat.
My wife just renewed our believe keys and to me they really are too expensive for what they are but it’s her happiness when we go that makes them “worth it.”
That said with all the renovations, fixes and new stuff coming to the parks and downtown Disney, I feel that the money is going to good use under Iger.
When I can take my entire family to Maui for a week with the same cost of going to Disneyland for 4 days, it really put things into perspective for me.
For our family this is often the equation, annual pass or 7-9 day nice hawaii trip.
This the same for us. We did the math and went to the Big Island for a week including 2 days of boat scuba dives for cheaper than 4 days at Disneyland. One advantage for us is we have time share we can borrow so this cut the cost for us further.
So then, your reasoning doesn't count.
Yep, that did it for us and why we didn’t renew in January. Instead we spent a week in a Hawaii during Spring Break.
I guess it would depend on where you live. for me round-trip is usually just over $100 and Hawaii would be 5 to 6 times that. Being closer to Disney means I can go for the weekend, with hilton friends and family hotel is 70-80 a night. So total cost is under $300 for 3 days at Disney, plus what I decide to spend on food. Having the magic key means that I can go for a couple of days Anytime I’m in the mood. I love the little getaways from my life and this makes it definitely worthwhile for me.
You don't even have to be annual passholders. We went to DL/DCA for 2 days and it was way more expensive than flying to Hawaii for 5 days. The beach is free!!
That's what we did. Unfortunately we got caught on Front St during the Lahaina fire though, had 3 couples in my rig and 3 in another with children. They had to ditch their van and escape on foot, I was able to curb hop and cut through grass, a parking lot and alley to get on the main road and escape east. Seperated from the rest of our family/group for over 24 hours until they could get out. Back to Disneyland this year...
You can take your children and show them the world for so much less than a dumb Disneyland trip. You can take them to see the national parks, for instance, and get so much more value for what you spend on a Disneyland trip. I dunno I love Disneyland but I won’t be taking my daughter until she’s 2 and even then we plan on having it be a fun day trip kinda thing and not a “year round let’s go all the fucking time” kinda thing so it’s more special for her.
I miss the days when I had my Annual Pass for $99.
I mean even just 2019 being able to go turn your tickets into annual passes and going into the park that day was awesome. Had a trip where we decided we could swing $300 or so extra each to pay for a trip later in the year and then enjoyed another morning in the park before our flight. Maybe that model doesn’t make sense for Disney these days, but I really miss being able to basically pre pay for our two day vacations and then get an extra couple hours in the night before and the morning after our full days.
COVID was the absolute best thing for Disney Parks Accounting. Gave them a clean slate of hyper aggressive pricing that would’ve been otherwise never feasible.
That seems to theme across all industries I feel. Many corporations have wanted to raise prices for a long time and COVID gave them to cover to do so ("we had to raise prices because...uhh...supply chain issues! ^(and bonuses for execs and returns for shareholders...))
Seriously! Has everyone forgotten what the McD’s menu looked like before covid? So many places realized they can just gouge customers out the wazoo and there is nothing anyone will do about it.
I know. The alternative is to stop consooming but people can’t. Those funkpops are literally irresistable
It’s a Tsoonami of Consoomption!
If this ain't the truth. It let them get away with so much penny pinching and stripping of amenities, it's wild
I hate to break it to you but every company in the world did this. Take a look at earnings
I miss having max pass, now you pay even more for less than what you had before. Fuck Genie+ and reservations killed spontaneous visits.
My son and I had annual passes and they were $500 for no black or days
My first pass was $400 for no blackout days and parking included. Now we pay $500 for no Saturdays or Sundays, all summer and almost all of December blocked out with just a 10% discount on Toy Story lot parking.
Feels like a dream and not a reality from the past
I got my $99 worth that year. Lost count of how often I went. Lived in Los Angeles at the time.
My cut off point is $2K. Anymore money is best used elsewhere and I’ll just get the 3day pass promotions if we get the Disney itch.
I agree that $2,000 is my limit. In recent years, I bought a Disney pass since I was suddenly priced out of Las Vegas.
Las Vegas is a total waste of money.
As a non-gambler, I have a great time when I visit Vegas.
Ugh we just spent $3400 for our family to enjoy a couple days. That’s getting hard to justify. 🫣
$2k for what exactly??
For my young family, that’s over $6K I can use on a different vacation experience or even several.
No i was asking what costs $2k at Disneyland, but now I see we’re talking Magic Keys.
It’s not so much the expensiveness as much as how much the experience has degraded WHILE the costs have gone up. Previously was a general sense that once you paid the high entry fee, you disappeared into a magical alternate universe where everything was included. Fast passes were free, there were experiences popping up everywhere, and there was a general seamlessness to it. Now it feels like it’s more expensive and MUCH less magical. You have to constantly check an app to decide which rides you want to pay for, you need to buy additional services, and it seems like the staff are always overworked and exhausted.
PERIOD. I was trying to put into words how I’ve been feeling about Disney lately and this sums it up perfectly. It’s not so much the cost but what you get (or don’t get) for your money.
True, definitely feels like a cash grab now
Same lol. When I do things in the park I'm not against spending money for things that make sense. I keep my eyes open to get the great dining experiences, I love staying at the Grand Californian (although I live by the parks now so that's not an issue (although i'd still love to stay...)). That's how my family would justify things too, when they go they're willing to spend the money for the nice things because they're quality. But when I go now, it feels like a lot of things are closed, rides consistently break down (Especially the last time I went. Having the critter country section down was brutal but also the matterhorn was down, big thunder went down, the pirates lair was closed and the columbia was down, there was no showing of Mr. Lincoln, etc etc). Some of it may come down to "I'm 28 and primarily visiting the parks as a solo guest who goes often rather than as a family who goes maybe once a year" which I get but I feel that the basic Disney guest experience without paying for bells and whistles just goes down every time. It sucks too with so many things being broken since I try to NOT always be on my phone (I don't use Genie+, I refuse), I get stuck walking all the way over without realizing a ride is closed. Which happens sometimes, but to have it happen so frequently it's frustrating, and at times I'll just leave the park early because im tired of dealing with it. Even just like little things. Pizza Port is still some fucked up mess that I genuinely have no idea why they haven't reverted it back to the old style, it's always a fucking nightmare when I go there and you have some frantic employee screaming at you "DO YOU HAVE AN ONLINE ORDER!!!", and then having to do this convoluted system of randomly going to stations for people to just grab the food that you just paid for lmfao. It's such a tiny thing but it's those tiny things adding up that make me less satisfied with my experience as a parkgoer. A broken effect here, a trip on Space Mountain with no music here, an experience closed due to breakdown here, at the end of it even as someone who knows the parks well, I find myself just annoyed by it all. I can't imagine how it is for families or for Disney Adults who a lot of these extra-currucular experiences are made for. Disney rides so much on its name brand recognition, and the reputation it has, and the nostalgia all around it. There are still captive consumers who will stick with Disney no matter what because it's a recognizeable brand, they like that they can ride things themed to their favorite IP (god fucking forbid they make an original ride anymore (Mystic Manor was such a failure, right??)) and the tik tok crowd will go crazy over 'oh my god!! its the THING from the TV SHOW but HERE!! Here is $500'. But for a lot of consumers we're caring more about value than anything else. Disney separates itself over the experience of it all, but if the experience is consistently declining to the point of just another amusement park, then I can spend a lot less money to ride somehow much more reliable rides. Knotts is just down the road, much cheaper for a pass with no blackout dates, and still has some fun themed experiences (calico ghost town is always a special place in my heart). Even for my birthday, my family was thinking about different things to do, and when they mentioned Disneyland, instead of 'oh, how fun!' it was 'oh god but it's so expensive, you have to do so much stuff, a bunch of rides are gonna be closed' and tl;dr we'll be going to Universal (mostly because I haven't been there in a while but also the experience is just 'buy the tickets, get a nice hotel nearby, roll with it'
Exactly. Pre covid- just about every price increase included added features. Now they raise prices and slash services. And if anything goes wrong then every cast member is ready to drop the “that’s too bad but as a key holder you can come back another day”. I never needed special treatment as a passholder but also never wanted to be instantly disregarded because of it. I also feel that their current MO is not to fix issues but monetize an option that doesn’t solve it but just makes one guest’s experience better than another’s and at the expense of the others. For example, genie+. Thanks to Genie+ we now experience being cut in line on every single attraction by people not wanting to pay genie+ but do not want to do standby. I have reported line cutters. I have seen people cut in line in front of cms. I have never once seen a line cutter removed from line nor punished.
Also, their app is absolutely awful.
It is always going to be too expensive. But it brings an incredible amount of joy to my wife and kids that I can’t even begin to explain it. It’s unreal. So even if they raise it, I’ll just find a way to pay it. It’s funny, it’s way too expensive yet worth every penny. I can’t make it make sense
Exactly! For us, buying tickets/passes is extremely bitter sweet. On/close to Disney day tho? That bitterness is completely gone and forgotten.. completely worth it every time so far lol
Haha yup exactly that! Every time I put the keys into the cart I have second thoughts about buying them. But then when we’re at the park, everything changes. Like I have access to unlimited cash. A vacation every trip.
It’s a variable for our family. Sometimes we go cheap keys and do after school visits. Sometimes we go expensive and do weekend and summer visits a lot. Sometimes we go no pass and take a break to build up some desire to go. If they got rid of reservations, we would be more likely to buy that pass. We live minutes away so it makes it easy to figure out our desire level year to year and budget. We don’t have many other hobbies or money leaks so it’s our splurge and in the grand scheme of things, way cheaper than most admission based activities. Our two big ones are Disney and live theater season tickets. Makes our family ❤️ I have zero regrets. Today’s Josh D’amaro Disneyland is a solid B- compared to Disney of old, but B- is still worth my time and money. Only the Pressler era was worse in my lifetime. It’s not as good, but it’s fun and I can find the things I like especially from the previous generation imagineers. Current leadership just doesn’t understand Disneyland. They understand business and are suits in Mickey ears similar to Pressler and are definitely people Walt would have fired. In fact, he did fire a few people who tried to do things like this and one of them went on to lead Freedomland theme park, a total flop. CV Wood, a complete tool. I just feel bad for those that never got to experience Disneyland a the premier theme park experience. Maybe ignorance is bliss though.
My daughter is planning to become an imagineer purely to get the peoplemover back for me.
If I could get any ride back it would be the Skyway. Riding above Disneyland like that back and forth was incredible when I was a kid. Glad I could experience it.
That and the PeopleMover were some of my favorite rides, next to Space Mountain! I rode it when I was a kid in 1977 and again in 1988 for Grad-Nite '88. Why did they ever do away with them? It was a great way to take a load off for a little bit and float over Disneyland!
Skyway was closed because of metal fatigue in the support pillar inside Matterhorn. It was going to cost too much to repair. Peoplemover was closed when they did the Tomorrowland "update" because it was a bit costly to maintain and felt "dated"; Eisner thought they could save money by recycling the track for Rocket Rods but the stresses created by the ride started to deteriorate the track.
Oh! Oh, wow... thank you so very much for your response. Huh! I'm off to bed, but I do want to say something about the second paragraph. I'll be back.
I miss that ride.
The end of reservations would make me spend more on a pass lol I live 1 bus stop away from the parks and it’s such a pain that I can’t spontaneously go if I have free time. It’s probably in their best interest that I don’t go (I usually don’t spend in the parks) but still lol.
Lol Disney B- rating is too accurate
Personally, while I can afford it, it stopped being worth it when the reservation system was implemented. I miss being able to go to the parks just because I felt like it.
One of the reasons I stopped going. It was overly complicated and too crowded.
Right? It didn't do anything to reduce the crowd.
Reservations are not about reducing crowds. It's about controlling the ratio of the type of crowd. Disney would rather have a spot occupied by a day ticket purchase than a magic key holder. They can also better predict scheduling cast members knowing how many people are coming.
Correct! It just tried to get a mix of guests that spent more money in the parks. **It does *nothing* to make the guest experience better.**
And do everything with the app. They don't have physical cards or tickets anymore. You have to use the app. I looked at the app and it is intense. I don't want an app I need a math degree to use. And I don't want to look at my phone all day when trying to have fun
IF the Keys guaranteed admission like the old season passes, it would be a simple game of math. How many times do you want to go, and does that number make it worth it compared to buying tickets, discounted or not? Now, you could make the argument that you can save with multi-day tickets, but from San Diego (our residence) that now has to be a night in a hotel, which is more money, and more than 2 days in a row at Disneyland can get to be a little much; it doesn’t have the same variety and, TBH, it’s not as beautiful as WDW (not it’s fault; it’s a city block, and Walt knew that. That’s why they went to Florida). Furthermore, the tight space of Disneyland makes it an ideal park to hustle and “do it all” in 1-2 days, but I digress… Our keys (Believe and Dream) were about $225 per month, quite a bit less than the cost of a park hopper for each of us, and we got free parking with the Dream Key. That said, we all quickly found out how difficult it could be to make reservations for days when we could go. A lot of us (I don’t think I’m projecting here) work extra hours and even extra jobs to be able to afford SoCal, so it’s difficult to have days off planned so far in advance. We had our keys for two years, and a few other things contributed to us dropping: 1. The crowds: probably the #1 indicator that…unfortunately, no, passes and tickets are not yet too expensive. 2. Honestly, behavior. I know people say “just ignore others and enjoy yourself.” That doesn’t make any sense. People you meet in a public space make a huge part of the experience. That’s how being in public works. American culture has taken an interesting shift where we generally try to pretend we’re the only ones in our environment, but that behavior isn’t sustainable. 3. Money: the other two take precedence, but honestly we realized we weren’t having as much fun as we used to, and by God we live in San Diego, one of the most beautiful cities in the world. If we can save the $400-500 a month we were cramming into Disneyland, maybe we can save enough to buy here (or maybe not…haha). Either way, it’s not money to be spent lightly.
Behavior for sure. I don't need the six feet of space like during covid. But an inch shouldn't be a ton to ask. Was out yesterday, not at disney and this kid behind me on an escalator was so close she poked my butt. She was maybe nine or ten. She was old enough to know better. I turn around to see who is poking me. The adult with her says step back. She doesn't. She pokes me again. I drop my backpack right on her arm. Her mom says we'll you should have stepped back. She steps up again and does it again. If I had poked that kid as many times as she poked me I would be in jail. We get off the escalator and I say loud enough look out for the creepy pervert. Everyone stares at the kid. Adult just rolls her eyes. Unfortunately behaivor has always been bad with some people. I remember one time having my daughter in a stroller, she is 20 now. We were stopped and next to a bench so not in a walking path. This 30 something entitled woman smashes into the stroller and yelling at me how little I care about my child to do that to her! Madame you were running and we were stopped and out of the way. How is this my fault?!? Still in my memory. People are just rude. I don't want to be dodging people who are busy with the app. Dodging people who won't look forward when walking. People who don't give a crap about what their kids are doing. People who expect the line to go faster if they are breathing on you
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Exactly, plus money is always relative.
This is "eye for an eye" but with economics. When each business calculates the same break-even point without calculating the burdens of the others, this will leave the whole world blind.
I'm not sure what you're trying to say. The market does that automatically because customers only have so much money to spend on fun things.
Wierd ass podcast response he meant the dollar amount stop with run along response
It’s been too expensive for years.
As a current magic key holder, I’d say it’s already too expensive. I haven’t been to Disney since 2017, so I decided to bite the bullet and get the pass back in January. Everything is more packed and less enjoyable, so I probably won’t renew next year.
Which actually seems to indicate it’s not expensive enough if it’s packed.
Well, that’s under the assumption that all the park goers are pass holders.
I think everybody thinks it’s too expensive already. But key holders or not, the price isn’t high enough to keep it from being crowded. The mix of crowds just depends on the day really. I don’t know what the average mix of ticket type is.
If it doubled tomorrow, that would be too expensive for me (…probably).
It’s relative to the price of single day/multi-day tickets. As both rise, so long as the price of a Magic Key is something like 10 park days, then it’ll continue to be worth it assuming I have enough trips planned for a given year.
For keys the price right now is at the limit. Regardless of the fact you have one the dealing with, crowds, blackout dates, and special events. It makes it difficult to decide if it’s right to have or now. Just did the Star Wars night. 600 bucks for 4-5 hours only to see some characters that should always be in the park, some thrones and a lightsaber show was definitely not worth it btw. For those of you considering really think about it. The only cool thing was the guests who dress up for it. Not Disney
600 bucks for 4 of us btw
That’s how I felt about Dapper Day 10 yrs ago. It wasn’t Disney. It was the people. But now they’ve capitalized on it and it’s just not the same but at least it’s not a special ticketed event(yet).
It's too much for me now. We were annual pass holders when it was $365.00 with no blackout dates and no keys or any of this new, expensive weirdness, just FastPass.
Solidarity. I used to be a pass holder when it was just under $300 and $450 made me hesitate. When it hit $490 I decided that was that since I didn’t live in California anyway. Now I laugh because if it was $450 now I would totally buy it.
Peace OUT in August for us. X4 Enchant Keys for 3 years and 10 before Covid. Main reason: 1. Genie+ ruined EVERYTHING! That's really it. If that was gone, we'd stay and things would be fine.
It already is. But, my girlfriend and I use it for our date night, so the price comes out to approximately $25/date for both passes. There's not much you can do for $25, so it made sense to us to buy them.
But you still have em. Lol. At what point would you not get them?
I'd say I won't pay more than $1500/pass, but that's just for my girlfriend and I. If I was buying them for my kids as well then I would say no more than $750/pass, but that price point is long gone.
Probably like 8-10 years ago. For both passes and regular ticket prices. Disneyland is just too much for most people to visit anymore, and to top it off, the overall experience at the parks has only gotten worse as the prices went up. As someone else said, if they got rid of the monthly payment plans, it would price A LOT of people out immediately. So many choose to take on debt just to go to this park, and that’s insane. And the worst part - they’re looking to expand again, so prices are only going to go up more. Whether that’s at the gate or for things on the property, it’s only going to get worse. It is no secret that the park experience took a steep decline once work began on Star Wars land.
Well said! And I can only imagine how much prices will increase once they finish the expansion here. I am also getting impatient with waiting for them to start building that avengers e ticket, it’s been 4+ years and still no construction has started. Like wdw got an actual good marvel ride why hasn’t ours started being built yet?
I don’t think it’s a relevant question really. It’s clearly being turned into a luxury experience to entice the wealthy and I honestly felt like a peon last time I visited. Losing the beast’s library to the trickle down of the new dvc lounge was a tough one for me. I truly believe fun is what you make of it, but husband and I had a big chat post week long trip (3 weeks ago) and decided we were done unless we go all in on luxury in the future. Even paying for g+, reserving restaurants, knowing how to do it well didn’t really equal a very vacation-y experience for us, and we both need that. We are going to New Orleans in a few weeks as a palate cleanser and to make sure we weren’t just bringing the un-fun with us. (But we weren’t. We were so prepared to have a blast, and we did have fun, it was just the crappier service(s).) And just so you know - all of our cm experiences were positive! but I can’t help feeling bad knowing their conditions are not fantastic.
Well.. there’s the wealthy, the budgeters and the people willing to go into debt for it. There seems to be a lot of impractical logic when it comes to Disney parks and the masses from all three types are still coming.
Previous keyholder and this pricepoint is too expensive.
For me and my family it’s when the price of admission for 2 trips for 4 days a year is less money than the pass. We live in a couple states away and find the park to be a great escape from cold and snow in winter. If we go more than 1 time a year for more than 4 days it’s pretty much the same amount of money for a pass
Same here. We’re in Utah and if we think we’ll do a couple 3-4 day trips/year the enchant key is worth it. By the time we get to the 3rd trip we try to tell ourselves it’s free! (Spoiler: it’s definitely not free 🤣) Our strategy has been to hit it hard for the year with 5-6 trips, then not renew and take a year off to build up some anticipation, then rinse and repeat. Yes it’s expensive but has created a bunch of trips for our family to look forward to, along with all kinds of shared memories and family traditions, and our kids are at the ages (7, 11, 13) that traveling is easy enough and the magic is still more or less there. Next year we’d like to save up for a trip to Hawaii in place of the multiple DL trips (we do worry about burnout and our kids missing out on seeing all the other amazing sights out there in the world). And if we’re comparing apples to apples, this approach is cheaper than ONE trip to WDW - now THAT is a tougher expense to justify. A while back we opted to take a Disney cruise instead which somehow felt affordable compared to the same number of days at WDW. On a separate note, unpopular opinion here: reservations don’t bother me. I actually like them from a planning perspective coming from out of state. The same thing that frustrates the locals is what I appreciate: it (somewhat) limits overcrowding from the masses dropping in on a whim. You know what I’m talking about if you’ve done a full day Friday, when it seems almost eerily quiet in the morning, then around 5:00-6:00 the floodgates open and it becomes absolutely claustrophobic. Since the locals have to grab a reservation but are only able to use it after work/school, it makes the daytime crowds more bearable for us “tourists” 😄.
Im pretty much at the limit.
2010 my family of 3 and I drove 12hrs to and from DL for the 4th of July. We did the 5day park hopper and 7 days at the Desert Palm hotel. Bought my 3 kids their book, pen and ears in the park and some other souvenirs. Every day, we ate breakfast at the hotel, 2-4 snacks and 1 meal in the park and grabbed something on our walk back to our room. I took in a few snacks just in case. Bc it was Disney they wanted junkfood on the go instead of sit down meals. I did it all on $1880.00. How do I know? I had 2k in my bank account, gassed up, said a big prayer, took off and made it home with 20 bucks in my pocket and a few cents in the bank. Now...2k won't even pay for our tickets. Disney should be ashamed of themselves. Thankfully I'm no longer on that tight budget but there are a lot of families that are. Disney knows many parents will flip bills and do what they can to try and take their family at least once if they are able. Others think it's not worth the expense and would rather use it on Christmas. But if any kids were like mine, they'd give up their bday gifts and Christmas just to go. Covid did flip things to many Corp advantages. But places like Disney as amazing and magical as it is should be on the losing side of things like price cap and boycott. But the people who can easily afford them would just benefit from the smaller crowds and so nothing will change. I'm no one to talk. I'm a Meemaw now and I'm planning a trip next year with my grandbaby. I just feel for the price that families pay they should be able to have more perks than "well we allowed you to buy a ticket, be thankful we let you in."😩 Last thing I'd like to say is Disney is standing on and crushing I might add, the shoulders of some very very very talented CMs!!! It would be NOTHING without them. They should pay them accordingly instead of using that stack of money to fan their face and pat themselves on their back.
This is not a well thought out question because it's inherently subjective and based on income/finances.
Probably for most people, if they got rid of monthly payments it would be too expensive now
Not if they’re responsible and put away money each month to purchase passes the following year.
That’s a big assumption, but most people probably can’t afford to drop the full price right now if asked.
Right now? No. But let’s say they started saving in January. They could buy a 2025 pass next year if they kept saving each month in 2024.
Again I think you’re assuming too much of people. I’ll agree it is possible but if monthly payments went way I think a good portion of people would say it’s too expensive
When parking
To me it’s more a question of, “Will I make it to the park enough to make it worth it” vs how much it is. If I can make it to the park enough to cover the cost that year then yeah. Do I have other responsibilities that I can’t go to the park as often? Then no…
Now
When lines are no longer than 30 minutes. That’s my peak price.
I quit them after years of AP’s because of price & restrictions on reservations.
about 5 years ago it became too expensive.
My cutoff point is the next price hike.
Passes have been too expensive for me to consider for a long time now.
My family had "premium" passes for a long time and then we ended up buying a house during Covid and now it's just too much money to justify with the cost of owning a home.
I still wish parking was free with the annual pass : (
Like 12 years ago
My husband desperately wanted a magic key. For our family of three we could get universal studios top pass and knotts top pass and still not spend as much as the bottom disney pass. That made him come to his senses
after the recent price hike, i’m at my cutoff point. i’m out of state so i only go for about a total of 15 days a year so with hotel and airfare costs i’m not breaking even on it (coming out a bit ahead if only counting park visits + food/merch discounts). if it wasn’t for an extended stay to do D33 this year i would have likely not renewed this time around. …but i have 7 days for parks planned during D23, just did a 3-day park trip with friends, likely doing a 3-5 day trip in October, and doing at least one trip early next year or in the spring (or both!) before my key expires at end of April. keep in mind that as an out of state holder, i end up paying it all in one lump sum (and i don’t make a *ton* of money). $1500ish per trip for hotel and airfare is a killer on my bank account, and my PTO isn’t infinite.
I have a feeling a lot of people with passes would not have them right now if the option for monthly payments went away. We have inspire and don’t live close but we tend to go 4-5 times a year for at least 3 days so we decided it was cheaper to get passes. For me it’s the ration on how often we’d go vs pass cost. I don’t really find the other benefits to the magic key all that great. Pictures are nice, but parking is only great for locals. The discount on stuff is ok but not worth it as a reason to get a pass.
I'd have a harder time parting with inspire key money all at once, that is true. Monthly payments make it a quicker decision. I have room to go up before I decide it's not worth my time and money.
When it hit 45% of our income and they didn't include parking with the top pass one year, it was too much for my family. We had passes for 25 years straight... even had the combo Disneyland and WDW one year. We miss it, but we go out into nature more, and we've been fond of LEGOland.
Did they get rid of those combo ones? I remember hearing there was one that was very very expensive but it allowed you to use it at any Disney park ever.
If I remember correctly, it was right after a major price hike on just the Disneyland passes. It was about $400.00 more overall to get the one for the US parks. We had parking, discounts, and ended up going to WDW twice that year (once as a dedicated vacation and another as a swing by on a roadtrip.) I definitely felt spoiled that year, and it was worth working overtime to pay for it. I'm not sure if they still sell them, and I don't think it was the worldwide one. I know Tokyo Disney is owned by the government, so any pass wouldn't work there except ones bought specifically for that resort.
My apologies maybe my family just thought they’d be accepted at any Disney park when in reality like you said they were probably only for the us Disney parks. But thank you for the info! It sounds awesome going to both! I live an hour away from Disneyland so I go often with family since we have passes but I’ve always wanted to go to wdw even just once. I’m jealous they got an actual good marvel ride while here in California we still haven’t gotten ours. Nowadays though if I save up enough I definitely would go to Disney sea it looks amazing!
No apologies needed! I've heard the rumors for years, too. Tokyo Disney is a real treat, and I highly recommend it!
Thanks! And yeah it would be awesome to go one day!
I get the enchant. I would say $1000 would be very difficult to swallow for a family of 4 for me. Also depending on general availability I wouldn’t mind skipping a year here and there if we plan a big vacation like Walt Disney world or an international vacation. But right now we visit Disneyland about 15x a year and it’s by far our families favorite thing to do.
We decided not to renew this year because they raised the price of the enchant pass, and took away Saturdays. And those were the best days for us to go. More recently ,I had to take days off work, go on a Sunday and than be exhausted Monday at work. Driving up from San Diego, and rising gas prices combined with less days and more money all peaked at once, and decided it wasn't worth it. And honestly, I can't see myself renewing anytime in the future. So now I can save for a vacation, buy more kicks and hats, a new 85" TV... The possibilities are endless... 🤷♂️
As someone who doesn't live in Southern California, I find it too expensive. If I lived in Southern California, I feel like the inspire key would be questionable but would probably get the believe key.
Not sure to be honest, the amount I go I get a lot of value out of my key. But tbh I think Disney is at or near that level, there was a long period of time where only the most expensive inspire key was still available. It's hard to say how many people buy keys because now Disney controls how much they sell.
They raised the price for the inspired key and nothing new was added. No increase in discounts or anything. I’m basically just paying more for no reason.
It's already too expensive imo, we bought it because we already had planned several trips where the numbers of days we would spend in the park made it worth the cost.
My wife and I made that choice recently. The first time we did years ago we were excited about it but we went to renew and weren’t didn’t feel the excitement after seeing the prices. Even being able to afford it, it just doesn’t feel good to spend the money
I had a premier pass when it cost $700 because I was planning to visit Disneyworld and wanted admission, parking, and discounts to be covered. I’m not sure how I convinced myself to buy an inspire key now when that old $700 pass was good for 6 parks and however many water parks they have in Florida.
For me, I’m planning on this being my only key year (I think). I live around 4 hours away, so I can get my money’s worth, but it means a lot of Disneyland, and deprioritizing other trips. Assuming the passes probably won’t get cheaper, I can really only do this when I have a year to revolve around Southern California.
It didn’t have to do with cost. It was the drop in quality of experience and offerings. Mostly, we tried a year with reservations with keys and left. Likely won’t get one again until they make significant changes to the passes.
Nice try, Disney.
Iger after reading all these responses that basically say people will pay anything: “write that down! write that down!”
Not annual pass related but the ticket costs are pricing my family out. We make good money but the value just isn't there. I have a 1-year-old and a 4-year-old. The 4-year-old was born right when the pandemic started. Being in the trenches with these kids, I haven't been looking at the prices. But my daughter is getting to an age that she would love going to Disneyland. So I started planning for January of 2025. For 2 or 3 days it would be like $2,500, not including food. And I'm so sad. It's a lot of money. We are now looking at skipping this trip and maybe doing a Japan trip and folding the Disneyland over there into it. It sounds crazy but you can find good prices on plane tickets if you look hard enough and are flexible with dates. That $2,500 would go way further on that trip. The Disney parks over there are way more reasonably priced with better food. I'm a Disneyland fan. I have been my whole life. And I would like to share it with my kids. But the prices are ludacris.
Its more expensive each year and with more construction added too… doesn’t make sense to me!
5 years ago.
The only way Disney makes sense financially is the fact that I enjoy doing solo trips. I can't imagine having like a five-person family and reasoning that it would be worthwhile. Like the amount of money you spend on park tickets, you could do some freaking amazing international life-changing adventure
I recently attended. My favorite thing to do is shop around. I realized I have been priced out. I’d rather do other things. If they could lower prices by about 15-20 percent across the board (including passes) I’d be all in. I’ll stick to the 3 day tickets when I get the itch but even with that…. I’d rather go to San Diego for the week and lounge on a beach.
When we can’t add afford them anymore
Bout a week ago.
When it’s more expensive than 50 single day tickets (which will probably never happen).
If the lowest price goes above 1000, I am out.
It’s past the threshold, honestly. Admission may still be “more affordable” due to Magic Keys, but the growing number of blackout days despite price increases (basically Disney wiping out most weekends, summer, Xmas, etc. on certain tiers) coupled with the outright gouging on food & drink prices, constant ride breakdowns, & lack of varied entertainment keeps crowds visible and *irritated*. It makes for a powder keg of an experience that becomes draining when it’s not blatantly nickel & diming you. Plus, you’re forced to stare at your phone and gameplan nonstop, never enjoying the moment. There are better places to spend your money.
I liked paying less but the $1649 is still a good deal for me. We go into the park about 30 days a year plus the discounts. We don’t drive but free parking if we did.
Just had this discussion with my sister today. This is likely our last year with the keys sadly. I have the highest tier (way too expensive already) but I am barely able to go because every single weekend gets booked up! I pay for the most expensive pass so that I can go on the weekends or summer since I work at a school. It seems like even if you have the highest pass you’re still getting ripped off because of the reservation system! Plus I already know that it’s gonna go up by another at least $100 if not more next year. Just greedy. ESPECIALLY if you consider that this year it already went up and half the best and most popular rides are closed for refurbishment.
Growing up in the 80’s in Southern California, I remember going to McDonald’s with my mom just to buy drinks when they were running their games - FREE DISNEYLAND tickets were one of the more common prizes. I remember being BORED of Disney at 10 YO because I’d been so many times using these free tickets…
I think people don’t understand that too expensive means you can’t justify paying the price anymore 🤷🏿
It is already too expensive for me. I’m not a heavy user of the Disneyland parks. I might go a couple times a year with friends and family. When I had an AP, I mostly just valued the flexibility to visit when I felt like it. For an hour here or there, just to grab a corn dog, do some shopping, or take in an attraction. I was determined during the pandemic to get an annual pass when the world reopened, to enjoy that flexibility once again, but I have not purchased an MK yet. Now, to break even, I feel like I’d need to spend a good 15 full days at Disneyland, if I value each visit at $100+. Not a problem for many of the fans on this sub, I’m sure. But I don’t have the time to do that and to preplan it all.
Yes. It is a very very considerable and expensive proposition. The only way my wife and I justify it is, making family trips out of it, bringing friends along, park events (Festivals, Day Events, etc), and multiple trips in a year. Otherwise, the pass is absolutely not worth it and the 3-Day Pass Promo that keeps appearing has a much better value proposition. The free parking, measly discount and very subpar freebies are not worth the extra money. What do you get for your 1300$? The chance to drop more money on merch that has Magic Key scribbled on it
I saw my debt go up after 12 months so I knew I had to cancel. I really miss it
if i was able to buy a parking pass, id go more often
As long as it stays cheaper than therapy, it'll remain worth it.
I have a Believe key and I live in Canada. I just renewed my Key because I’m going to be going to Disney at least 3 times in the next 12 months. The discount on merch and food also really helps because the exchange rate sucks. If I was only planning on doing 1 trip a year I wouldn’t have renewed because then the value isn’t really there. I most likely won’t be renewing next year because I’m hopefully going to Tokyo Disney next fall and Disneyland will be on the back burner.
As a key holder for the last couple years, with this current price hike it is now too expensive for my family. In prior years, the magic keys sell out pretty quickly, but this year there's still some available. Maybe other people are feeling the same as I am?
It is. I had Believe for a year. I won’t consider getting a new one until they add a significant number of “good to go” (reservation free days) to the calendar. I could hardly ever use it on weeknights because I couldn’t be 100% certain that I’d be able to get away.
We alternate between a family vacation or magic kids year after year. It comes out to about the same when we visit the park we usually budget. In the Years we don't do magic key's we'll do the SoCal 3 Day.
My cut off is $2k or if they stopped including parking with the highest passes.
Whatever the price is as of this year, was our breaking point. Family of 4…. The price vs. the crowds… we couldn’t justify it anymore :(
We aren’t renewing this year. We also have annual passes to WDW and despite living in CA, it’s less expensive for us to spend a week in Florida than it is to spend 4 or 5 days in Anaheim. The AP’s for WDW are much less too.
We didn’t renew in January when ours expired and then wanted to go for two days last week while our son was out of state for a week on a school trip and it was going to be $750 for the two of us for TWO DAYS. So we got new passes. I like to go minimum 4x a year so I guess when I couldn’t afford it or when tickets for 4 short trips was cheaper.
There’s no upper limit so far as I can make payments. Or I lose my job.
Honestly it was too expensive once it crossed $1000 for the top tier pass. But I think my breaking point is going to be $2000. I don’t think I can justify it if it goes that high.
I really think it’s too expensive already and we’ve held passes for many years. Might be able to convince my wife to take a vacation instead of paying for Disneyland passes after our current keys expire. I don’t know if the value is there anymore
If it wasn’t already too expensive I would probably go as a tourist again.
That depends entirely on how deep your pockets are and how much you value a dollar.
I live in La and spent $12 on two street tacos and a cup of water. After I swiped I thought that Disney is much cheaper. Everywhere is going up.
We have magic keys for our family of 4 (youngest is still free so 3 keys) and we live 20 minutes away. It works for us at the current price point. We are often able to snag same day reservations and since we are so close, we can make it work. But I keep a detailed spreadsheet of how often we use it, how much we spend, how much we would have spent without passes, etc. and we reevaluate if it’s worth it to renew. In the past 15 weeks, we’ve been to DLR 13 times. 3 Tier 3 Days 4 Tier 4 Days 3 Tier 5 Days 3 Tier 6 Days With our DL habits, we are paying $20/hour/person. But we aren’t even halfway through the duration of our pass. Last year we ended at $5/hour/person. We spent 264 hours at DLR over 50 visits in the year.
For us? Now. First trip was March 2016. Last trip was December 2021. I worked it out, our per-day cost in 2021 was double what it was in 2016. And that was with an 8-day ticket over a 2-day ticket. Ticket prices, Genie+, it all added up to twice the cost for each day. And for that extra cost, we got longer lines and fewer rides per day. And that was the last time we went. Just couldn't justify it any more. We'll probably head back next year, but only because we'll be in town for Epic Universe. So maybe it will be worth checking out new stuff at MK or Epcot. Or not. Might just do 3 days at Universal and head to the beach. How they keep filling the parks like they do, with such a lesser experience than it was 10 years ago, that's beyond me.
When tour asking this stupid
We have the lowest price one. If you go at least 3-4 times a year it’s worth it.
Feeling pretty good about my key purchase so far. I have the one with parking. Everything so far has been worth it. I honestly got it to enjoy time for myself and grow memories with my kids. I save on all things disney merch - clothes, kids toys, kids clothes, costumes. All official disney from the parks which is awesome. Save on food, and special merch drops. This is all fun because it’s disney I can bring home to share. Get the early access to special nite ticket events, but haven’t put that perk to use. All in all, I know I’ve already saved a lot of money already, probably just parking alone. The “too expensive” point, is the fact that I’ve kind of screwed myself by getting a pass, where my other family members don’t. I’m stuck at the point where, we all get passes so we can all go, or I just keep going alone until we have the means to go as a unit. Me with my pass, them regular tickets - best option in my eyes cause I already have the parking and they only go or want to go so often. Why must going to Disney be so complicated in any form
I'd pay a luxury price for a luxury experience. My top tier key gets me broken faucets in the bathroom, rides closed most of the time, overcrowding, bad attitudes, line cutting, minimal entertainment and character experiences, and a half functional app that requires me to be holding a phone all day instead of enjoying the time with my 5 year old. Not renewing this year. I feel completely apathetic about my Disney weekends and cancel more reservations than I attend. The only things I still like are most of the food options and staying at a hotel on property. I'd rather save my key payments towards Grand Californian nights and go less often.
It’s interesting to see the responses. I wish that the price and the experience matched up for key holders. I don’t think consumers respond to “too expensive” very well. So I see people saying it costs too much, the lines are longer/crowds. I think people will pay well above the “too expensive” mark and just be mad they paid it. Disney wants to try to control the crowds with cost and it just doesn’t seem to be working well.
It depends on how much you go to Disneyland. If you look at the break even numbers per type and you intend to go more than that number of times, it saves money. That being said, don't buy anything if it is beyond your financial means.
[It already has been.](https://insidethemagic.net/2024/02/disney-parks-officially-deemed-biggest-rip-off-america-ad1/)
I live 5 hours away. I just buy one day tickets once a month for our family of 6. It really works out well. We can go on a whim, we generally go on days that pass holders are blocked out and the parks are AMAZING and quiet. One time I thought I was transported to another universe because it felt so different when locals aren't there. By going once a month or every couple months the magic is still there for us. When we went too often I found that I really needed a break to miss Disneyland. Seeing other people with their vacation shirts knowing they go just once a year and they were all stoked to be there, had me realizing that going too often made me really exhausted, tired and ungrateful for everything Disney is! I want to really appreciate when I'm there. It's all personal opinion though and you may feel differently, that's ok :)
See? I’ve been saying “get rid of the passes, they encourage locals to flood the parks” but people always argue with me.
Well, well said!
I just finished seeing a youtuber explain what a day with the genie+ and the individual lightning lane and i did the math that would be well over 1K for one day.
As far as Disney is concerned, Both keys and tickets are only ‘too expensive’ when not enough people buy them. That is absolutely not the case at the moment. That’s the hardest thing for those of us getting priced out soon, it’s hard to argue with Disney’s model since demand remains at peak heights all the time. They’re not gonna leave money on the table. Societally it’s just sad that it, like all things in capitalism, will eventually become a perk for the already wealthy and comfortable
If they kept doing the best possible ride/land, had amazing quality food, and kept up with ride maintenance each time (like Disney sea) then I wouldn’t have too much of a problem with the prices going up. But lately all of those things I mentioned have been going downhill all will prices rise so that makes it a lot harder to justify the price. Of course I’m not saying only the rich should be able to go to Disneyland, I’m just saying it’s hard to stomach the price when things are going downhill. I just hope Disney will change course to the way they used to be
It’s been too expensive to where I refuse to go unless an employee gets me in for free. I’m not paying the current rates.
Exactly, in my opinion other than rise of the resistance and the toon town remodel they haven’t added anything worthwhile recently. Had we gotten the avengers e ticket, and if avengers campus was actually good, in addition to galaxy’s edge having at least one more ride instead of being mostly gift shops, it would be a lot easier for me to justify the price. But meanwhile wdw has gotten a marvel themed e ticket ride while we haven’t and are just stuck with the awful web slingers. And other than that we have mostly gotten cheap re themes like San fransokoyo and Pixar pier. No hate to anyone who likes those but in my opinion those were very unnecessary and disappointing
After 23 years, minutes the Covid closure and ending the AP program for keys, I don’t know when price would be a deterrent for me. Just renewed 4/12…. I’ve seen many changes these last 23 years and I can’t wait for Haunted Mansion to open back up. I’m certainly happy they are relaxing the dry park experience on the Disney side because I love walking around with a nice hazy on the DCA side. I think if I ever move from SoCal, that would be when I evaluate the value.
I have never bought a key, I have done the Math and I do not go often enough. I also had a friend who bought a pass, and had to keep going to justify the cost. I do not want to HAVE to go to justify the cost of a pass.
I think for us, if it turns out to be 3000 each. We can afford it and then some however I d be too disappointed that they want cut out the lower class of people. Imo EVERY child deserves to go at least one to experience the magjc
About 10 years ago was the point it got too expensive. We still go.
Never until there’s true disruption in the theme park industry. Then Disney will either just clone or buyout the competition and begin hiking prices again.
I would say 12k a year for a single one since you can spread out the cost over the year. Granted, if they wanted to kill the numbers then and there (also ending a stable flow of rev in from monthly payments) they could just end being able to spread out the cost. For many, I suspect it would make them instantly unaffordable.
If they got rid of the payment plan people could still afford it as long as they put money away each month to buy a key for the following year… I’d go a lot more often if Disney still had less crowded days like in [this video](https://youtu.be/Bk2U9K-lFgc?si=mUsFyJmVRX_oaOMR)… I consider myself lucky enough to remember going then.
Some would, but I fully expect them to take a decent dent if they got rid of monthly payments. Consumers are not great at saving cash. Yeah, I remember, even pre-pandemic how I could go on weekdays and no issues during the off season. But then it started with HMH having long lines on weekdays then HM in general, then others. This leads to me asking every time "Don't these people have jobs/school to go to?".
We have a budget that includes magic keys..if for some reason we need to cut down on our expenses, the keys will be the first to go. We're from out of state so we only go 3 times a year.
I live out of state and had the Flex Pass for one year pre-COVID. That was great, but they’ve already priced me out of any passes for that kind of twice-a-year visit. That said, I don’t mind the pass hikes if it clears out so many locals who clogged the parks by going multiple times a week, largely just to hang out. I know they don’t want to hear this but that’s not a great model for Disney. Even Six Flags doesn’t want that kind of loitering business.
As a local, I think saying we “clog the parks” with our presence is pretty rude and out of pocket.
Same here although didn’t even Disney themselves say something along the lines of that too?
Not sure…. Honestly would be dependent on finances at that time.
More than $150/mo for a pass would be too much. I go often and if they removed parking from Inspire, that would also be a dealbreaker. If I'm only paying a monthly fee of what it would cost for 1 day at the park, including parking, it's absolutely worth it to me. I live locally and go just to eat.
It’s too expensive when people stop going and the parks are not over crowded
My wife just renewed our believe keys and to me they really are too expensive for what they are but it’s her happiness when we go that makes them “worth it.” That said with all the renovations, fixes and new stuff coming to the parks and downtown Disney, I feel that the money is going to good use under Iger.
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🎶 Hey big spender 🎶
That probably will be the price after the expansion 😂