Disneyland - where do they think we're getting it?

[ceagle]

It's truly amazing how prices at Disneyland have risen over the years. It makes me wonder where do they think an individual or a family can get that kind of money? And for what? I was in the store yesterday and saw a Child's ticket (ages 3 thru 9) .. a one-day ticket, priced at $143 !
I like Disneyland of course, but someone from Japan was asking me to tell them about it, and how it might be more special than what they've got over there... and I couldn't think of anything ;P There's go to be something! *puzzles and ponders*

In any case, I've been wanting to look for an article like this for a long time (or plot the trend myself, luckily someone has already worked it out quite nicely).. a web page that shows the graph of Disneyland prices over the years (at least back to 1983)...

Interestingly, even though prices went up, the acceleration of how FAST they went up DOUBLED in the 2000s:

The Mighty Statistics

Another thing to consider (which isn't on the page) is the price of Parking... this is a more straightforward (albeit even more terrifying) trend: Parking prices were a mere 50 cents convenience fee practically from when the park opened in the 1950s, all the way up through the mid-1980s, when it began to rise rapidly... to its current level of about $15 !! Yep, parking prices rose even more exponentially than admission prices! Put it all together and a family might have to save up for several WEEKS just to afford to go to Disneyland.

The author of the web page makes a good point that attendance is still high, and doesn't currently show signs of letting up... so, if we're ever going to get these prices in check, as a human population we're going to have to collectively back off our attendance there.. heh!.. or we're probably looking at more punishing prices from Disneyland long into our lifetimes... :P I've gone to about once or twice a year... but where is everybody else coming from? LOL!

Comments

[rapidtrabbit.livejournal.com]

I'll be at Disneyland in a little over a week from now.

[c-eagle.livejournal.com]

Have a great time!... I hope you are getting a discount.....

[martes.livejournal.com]

Luckily I have no interest in going there. Went a few times back in the 90's, but I was never big on amusement parks.

Maybe a lot of the people going are employees of other Disney enterprises who get free passes?

[tcreynolds]

Foreign tourists with a stronger dollar?
Wealthy 1 percenters?
Employee and SoCal resident season passholders?

Who can say?

I sit in the lobby at the Grand Californian and it's like visiting a foreign planet. People with oodles of money

[xolo.livejournal.com]

Look at the attendance figures, and consider what going to Disneyland would be like if they charged $25 a head. They need some method of controlling the number of attendees. A cutoff point (park's full - try again tomorrow) would work, but would alienate people who've travelled some distance to get there, only to find it closed for the day. Raising the cost is an effective method, and makes a lot more money for Disney as well. Also it filters out unsupervised teenagers and the poor.

Yes

[titanic.livejournal.com]

That,

[crosscheck-fox.livejournal.com]

I kept my 2 day child pass from our trip in 89... flip it over and the price? $33.25 !

Basically they have a product/service that's in demand and people haven't been shy about purchasing/attending so they'll keep pushing the price up as long as people pay. That just tells me they're not done raising prices!

[richardf8]

Around here we have Valleyfair. It's an amusement park. People will go on an odd weekend to have fun with the kids.

But this, this is Disneyland. People from around here will scrimp and save for years to pull the airfare and admission fees together to go there. It's a Destination. It's an experience that they really want to give to their children. And so they scrimp and save, and plan and they market "getting to meet" Mickey Mouse to their kids, and talk about how it's happening with their friends before they go, and talk about what a terrible value it was when they get back, but oh what fun!

No one's going to do that for Valleyfair.

[porsupah.livejournal.com]

So I wasn't just imagining that the ticket price was more like $40 in 1997! 'Course, there were always loads of drinks cans with special offers, or the local residents' discount. I daren't wonder what an annual pass runs now!

Unfortunately, it's about that long since I last went there - indeed, I've barely been to any theme parks since then. Not out of any intent, it simply hasn't quite happened, either not having friends locally interested in such, being broke, or both. =:/

[cabcat.livejournal.com]

What they're doing here is trying to sell more "monthly", "half yearly", "yearly" tickets.
The other problem is that the attractions haven't improved with the prices.