Everyone knows that Disney is a big business focused mainly on parents’ money and then children’s happiness. This much is becoming more and more apparent as time wears on and pricing gets more ridiculous while the park undergoes major construction.
Last fall, Disneyland increased the prices of their annual passports as well as eliminated the Premium Pass and the Southern California Pass, the latter of which I currently hold.
Last weekend, they decided to increase the prices of multi-day tickets along with the introduction of a new tiered pricing system based on the value of each day for 1-day passes and the implementation of expiration dates at the end of the year for 1-day ticket purchases.
Current 1-day tickets for both Disneyland and California Adventure parks are $99. With the new pricing, value days can be bought at $95, regular days at $105, and peak days at $119. Peak days include about 30% of the calendar year, what with the winter holiday season, spring break, and summer vacation. Value days include about 20% of the year during off season times. Regular days are the other 50% of the year.
This is an attempt at making low traffic days even out with high traffic days, convincing visitors that they are getting more bang for their buck but also trying to create more revenue for the decreased capacity due to construction of the new 14-acre Star Wars land which has forced some permanent and some temporary closes of beloved attractions. Apparently, all of this has affected 25% of Disney’s 85 acres of land and about 15% of the park’s attractions.
As a local and an annual pass holder, this nuisance has proved frustrating, but won’t keep me away for spontaneous night trips and study breaks. I’m bothered by how much "Frozen" is represented in both parks and how much attention is being given to it over classics and other underrated films. I’m sad some attractions like the Fantasmic show and the Disneyland Railroad will be closed for at least another year. And I’m bummed that I never fully experienced Tom Sawyer's Island as an adult or rode the Sailing Ship Colombia pirate ship before they began their extended closures.
I’m not a fan of large crowds being herded like cattle or parents who use their strollers as weapons, but it seems as though there will be a lot more from where that came from with all of these changes.
I’m more bothered for families that might try to come visit the parks in the next year or three hoping to experience so much and realizing that even though there is still a lot available, they also will be missing out on some really quality attractions as well.
It's clear what a turn off these changes are making even for people working for The Mouse. Some employees joke about visitors going home to earn more money in order to come back and spend in the parks. Others admit to never coming to the parks on their days off unless family is visiting because it’s the last place they want to be when they’re not working especially with all of the closed attractions, even though it’s free for employees.
