Wall Street journal article….
The Happiest Place on Earth has long felt like one of the most expensive spots on the planet for many Americans—but the allure of a magical family vacation kept visitors streaming in. Then, as postpandemic demand soared, Disney put price hikes into overdrive, putting vacations at its theme parks out of reach for many American families. Attendance growth has slowed over the past few years, and even some families that were once regulars are canceling their pilgrimages.
One-day adult passes to
Disneyland broke the $200 mark for the first time in October. It now costs $206 on the most popular days at the theme park, more than $100 more than the price of admission on the lowest-cost day.
Five years ago, the skip-the-line feature FastPass was free. Now visitors choose from three different tiers of
Lightning Lane passes for the privilege—the most expensive reaching $449 a person a day. Doing without Lightning Lane can mean spending an hour or more waiting in line for the most popular rides, eating up visitors’ vacation time.
Some inside Disney worry that the company has become addicted to price hikes and has reached the limits of what middle-class Americans can afford, according to people who have worked on park pricing. Internal discussions over whether Disney parks may be losing their grip on the hearts and wallets of families with young kids have become more frequent, some of those people said.
https://www.wsj.com/business/disney-parks-price-hikes-consumers-0bf4dbd6