Walt Disney World
My family has enjoyed each of our Walt Disney World trips for familiar and new reasons with each experience. We get it’s not for everyone, but we’ve experienced the magic. Disney knowingly relies on that and wisely builds upon it. My family hasn’t returned to Walt Disney World for about two years. Quite simply, we wanted a break. We figured we’d eventually visit again, but we’ve decided to put it off a bit longer. It was a remarkably easy decision.
Our Situation
On a quiet, late evening recently, my wife and I looked ahead to 2026 and our travel priorities. Among other options (one which I’ll describe later), we decided to look at a Walt Disney World return over our little ones’ school winter break in mid/late January. Given our other plans in the year and our many previous trips to Disney World, we considered the timeframe – the trip length and time of year – as optimal for our situation.
I hopped on the Walt Disney World site to get a general idea of ticket rates during that time of year. Our most recent experience during that time of year was several years ago. We also know other ways exist for discounting a Disney trip, including working with an excellent travel agent like Joe. I wasn’t presupposing how I would book other than planning to use discounted Disney gift cards acquired and stacked with various credit card rewards currencies and plays. At any rate, I conducted my search for our given dates and family size. Get ready.
Good Gosh Almighty
The Walt Disney World site greeted me with this:
Egads! That’s an average of $174.19 per person per day at the park. To be more than clear, that’s park singular. I looked up the rate for the no-frills option – just one park per day, no hopper option, etc.
I know Disney experiences are expensive. I’ve booked them for years with different points currencies and gift cards. We felt they were rewarding redemptions meeting our highest-priority travel goals. But something about this estimate over a few clicks didn’t sit right with me. I’m acquainted with Disney’s diabolically-genius dynamic pricing and wasn’t surprised rates were higher in January compared to, say, August. And I know Disney could potentially offer relatively-minor discounts, but I consider those savings negligible. Regardless, when I saw the per-person daily rate is much closer to $200 than $100, I pushed back from my desk.
Of course, this is all relative. Disney has calculated their rates as reasonable, and it definitely can be when compared to other entertainment options. While what many individuals rationalize spending on sporting events and certain concerts doesn’t make sense to me, it can make that Walt Disney World daily ticket amount seem remarkably moderate. And, I’ve paid more than that per person for our family to attend special concerts here and there. A whole day of Disney World for just under $200 can sound surprisingly sensible when up against similar or higher numbers for a few hours. Disney is betting the value proposition still works enough to fill the parks, and it’s apparently working – on affluent visitors, others going into debt for their entire vacation, and every situation in between.
Meanwhile, we experienced another timely development offering additional perspective.
Re-upping with Busch Gardens
Coincidentally and independently, my family and I recently chose to go for another round of Busch Gardens Williamsburg memberships. We’ve held such passes for years, usually opting to cancel at the end of the term in order to take a few months off. At the right time, I strike again when I feel a solid-enough membership deal appears.
As is my usual routine, I went for the top-end pass which Busch Gardens Williamsburg offers, the 11-park Platinum membership. Including all taxes and fees, my pass came to $368.49 and also includes $100 in gift cards throughout the year (in addition to free preferred parking, discounts, tickets, and a plethora of other perks I may discuss another time). I purchased Busch Gardens Basic memberships for other family members; this pass offers many of the same lower-end-but-useful perks the Platinum does. With all taxes and fees, these passes were $170.99 each.
That’s right, my family members each obtain a whole year of visits to Busch Gardens Williamsburg for less than a single day at a Disney World park for the dates we had selected above.
I know this is a bit of an apples and oranges comparison. For better and worse, Disney World is not Busch Gardens, and vice versa. Disney takes certain experiences to a level Busch Gardens cannot reach. On the flip side, Busch Gardens offers much Disney World cannot. I’m definitely not alone in thinking the Busch Gardens Williamsburg setting is clearly superior to Disney World’s. Indeed, this theme park has been named the most beautiful one in the nation for the past 35 years. It also comes with higher thrills and lower maintenance for my family.
Again, I want to underscore that my Walt Disney World decision had nothing to do with my Busch Gardens one. But I can’t ignore how stark the valuation difference is.
Our Disney Future
While our Disney World future remains somewhat uncertain, we have plans for a family trip to Disneyland in Summer 2026. I haven’t been as an adult, and my immediate family has never been. Many I trust overwhelmingly prefer Disneyland to Walt Disney World. We’re looking forward to a longer Disneyland and Southern California vacation for about the same (at most) sticker price as three days in Walt Disney World – and that’s before taking into account award redemptions.
Walt Disney World – Conclusion
So, basically, our 2026 Disney plans have gone from “yes, and” to “either, or.” This isn’t out of necessity. Rather, the value proposition simply isn’t there for us – in this instance, Walt Disney World wants too much in return for us having a compressed, repetitive experience. We’re prioritizing our Disneyland visit for next year. Eventually, we’ll return to Walt Disney World, but we currently have no idea when that will be. I’m fine not knowing.
Meanwhile, we’ll continue collecting experiences and memories in other ways, at home and while traveling. For the foreseeable future, Disney will play a role occasionally, but not with a “World” attached.
So then, Disney theme park fans, how do enjoy the parks (or not) these days?
Somewhere in the back of this brain, I vaguely remember reading that it has been Disney’s intent to price most out of the market for a Disney “experience”. Back before the “vid” issues, the parks and the wait times were ridiculous. I believe that they said they intended to control the crowds through pricing. Both the park pass itself AND those forsaken lightening lane passes certainly help to keep the crowds away!
We just came back from Disneyland Paris, which we much prefer over either of the Disney parks in the US. Even with the dollar deval against the euro, we found DLP to be the same price or cheaper for a superior experience. Things just “work” in DLP. Many rides routinely have waits less than 15 min at some point in the day, and for the ones with longer waits, you can either wait (which you don’t mind doing if it’s only 1 or 2 rides during the day with other shorter wait times in between) or you can pay up for a fast pass. And even then, say you want a fast pass for a premier ride at 2 pm. Chances are you can open the app and there will be one there for 2:45 or sooner. It’s not like WDW where you have to wake up at exactly 6:59 or risk losing any chance of getting the most desirable fast pass.
I used to love WDW and even worked there briefly because I loved it so much. Not anymore. They might have had 75 million visitors in 2024, but I no longer find the experience magical or something I care to waste my time or money on.
We took our kid to Disneyland (in LA) once, when she was 8. We were there for about 8 hours so. It was fun and she was into it (as a kid of that age would be) – but once in a lifetime was enough for all of us. From there we went to Hawaii, and that was so much better we all forgot about Disney. In later years we visited Grand Canyon, Swiss Alps, Yosemite, and even later Paris, London, Barcelona etc. Not only do I not feel for the people who are struggling to get “value” out of repeatedly going to Disney (for multiple days on end), I don’t even understand it it on an intellectual level: is there brain chemistry at work or something?
Obviously, traveling the world is light-years better experience than a Theme park for Adults. As for kids, not so much.. tell your 2-8 year old you are taking them to see the Eiffel Tower in Paris or going to eat the world’s best pastries or croissants. (Neither experience will they remember by the age of 10(so, just stay home parked in front of the Screen).
There is a huge demographic for Disney Imagineering/Eutopia/Happyness; they are marketing. 75 MILLION visitors to Orlando in 2024. YES, 75 MILLION. From all over the world.
NET: So, while you may not be able to light a hundred-dollar bill on fire and watch it burn. You are not ready to go to Disney for a youth like “Magical Experience”. There are 75 Million Visitors who will gladly watch $100 bill burn and take your spot… I recommend purchasing Disney stock!. Great Investment for with future price hikes in the works!
Everyone just needs to do their research online(travel forums), definitely stay away from ANY and ALL travel agents/planners. It’s not that expensive if you do your homework.
Ok, but you do know that practically every place in the world has something for kids: a park, a playground, a ride, a swimming pool with a slide, a fun candy/toy shop, etc, etc. Then everyone can sit down for some sublime pastry or catch a look of a famous monument or a work of art. You don’t have to confine yourself to a 100% kid experience to have a kid enjoy a trip. I am speaking from experience of raising a kid in a big city and traveling the world with her from age 5 onwards. Yes – we always had to make it kid-friendly, and no – it never had to be as soul crushing for us parents as a full on corporate plastic overpriced fakery. I get going to a theme park in a reasonable way: like making it a spur of the moment day trip on a nice summer day if there’s one near where you live. But to make it the most expensive, biggest vacation excursion of your year (repeatedly) is just incomprehensible to me. You can’t blame that on your kids, not anymore than letting them be glued to their screens all day or gorging on candy any chance they get because “it’s what they want”.
Touché Ivan!!
I agree with you totally. Much rather give kids a more well-rounded experience with travel in life.
However, the “Miles to Memories” website essentially points out and tips on how to get a deal and save monies. My point to the readers of this forum is that… If you are smart and do some careful planning, you can have Paris, London, and Disney! While Disney may not be all that magical for some, it is not as bad in price(with planning) as the author of this article makes it out to be. Instead of trashing Disney Prices, the author should have done homework and posted workarounds for “Disney Prices.”
Instead of going to a place like Disney and pretending you are in Asia or Europe, just go to one of those places at that price. Crazy.
Yeah, Welcome to 2025… This is why 1/2 of US population is in credit card debt. Sorry, these are going rates for Orlando… Just came back last week from Orlando. There are plenty of ways to get resale park hopper tickets for half price; Can stay within Disney gates, “Bonnet Creek” for less than $200 a night for 2-bedroom villas with full kitchen. You just need to do some research. If you think Disney World is expensive … We wanted to go to Universal’s NEW “EPIC” Park. For 1 Day pass for 2 with “Express Pass” is $901!!! Again, $901 for 1 day… Only “in debt” fools hire a Disney travel advisor.
Disney went woke and they should go broke
Is “Roberto” of European descent?
For the same money, you can probably get a complete trip to Japan and probably have a nicer park experience on top of it all because of the different culture.
Au contraire – on a recent business trip to Tokyo last November, we thought we’d try Disneyland Tokyo… and while definitely less costly, the experience was nothing short of what you experience in Orlando – unfathomable crowds so thick if you ride more than three rides, you’re doing great. Oh – and they got the Disneyland trick in two – half the rides worth riding are in one park, and half are in the other, so unless you commit two days, you’re getting half the experience. No, I think I’m done with Disney and their corporate tricks…
Last time I was on a family trip to Disney the park goers were completely trashy. I know money can’t buy class, but I don’t think these people had either. The only thing I could think of was how much debt people are accumulating to pay for an Orlando vacation. If Disney tickets required a 650 or above credit score, the number of people in the park would likely drop in half.
Disney and Universal prices are just insane. It’s really tough for non-rich people to find value for the cost.