Disney World Pricing changes are coming
There has been a pretty big announcement made on the Disney Parks Blog in regards to Disney World pricing changes. The changes include restructuring their current website to trying streamline the process of booking a Walt Disney World vacation. This is done by the newly created vacation planning destination that allows guest to buy tickets priced by the date of their visit. This creates a whole new experience for visitors.
Date-based tickets and pricing
Date-based pricing is done through an interactive online calendar that allows guests to pick the days that they are planning to go. Each day will have a different price that is displayed on this online calendar. This means that if you decide to go during a peak time, you may be paying more than if you were to go on and off-peak time. The full implications of this are unknown at this point and could be very beneficial when booking your vacation. Disney has announced that this system will go live on October 16th of this year.
In the past, the rates for admission to the parks would vary based on time of year rather than by day. The new day system may provide more savings in the long run. One thing to also note is that the other parks will now be the same price as Magic Kingdom. Before now, Magic Kingdom was the most expensive. The prices will range from $109 to $129 for a 1 day park pass. For multi day passes, the price of the tickets decrease based on the number of days for further discount for longer trips.
What else is changing
Overall, the flow of the website will be changing to try to make it a little bit more user-friendly. This includes the interactive calendar, Disney planning trips tips as well as suggestions “based on each guests personal preferences”. It will be interesting to see how well this new system works. The My Disney Experience app will still be used to help you navigate your trip plans. The app can also be used to make and alter your plans on the go.
Thoughts
I’m not sure how I feel about this change to the ticket purchasing system. This could be a way to do away with the seasonal discounts that Disney puts out every few months. However, this would need to provide room rates based on dates listed as well. My other concern with having a new system roll out is that the My Disney Experience has had a few issues in the past couple weeks. Hopefully this is due to the new system being developed and issues will subside soon.
I’m not sure if this system will actually save any time as I found the old system to be user-friendly. I do hope that the new system works well improvise a better user experience, however, I’m not sure. I am interested to find out how the suggestions on personal preferences will work. After the new system goes live, a website walk through will be provided. Disney world pricing looks to be fluctuating which could save you a bit of change depending when your trip is planned. This along with crowds, I think will be the two biggest factors now for planning a trip.