Why It’s Not A Huge Surprise Both Disney World And Universal Orlando Have Raised Prices Recently

Theme parks are always fairly expensive places to go, but in the last couple of months, the top two theme park resorts companies, Universal Destinations & Experiences and Disney Parks, have raised their prices significantly. Of course, this isn’t too surprising since theme parks are seeing a bump in attendance this time of year, so those price increases are already having a material impact on revenue.

Disney Parks raised prices back in October, exactly one year after one of the most aggressive price increases at Disney Parks we’d ever seen. Disney World park tickets were not impacted but everything else, from Disneyland tickets to parking at Disney World, saw increases. What has seen far fewer headlines was the recent Universal price jump. Admission tickets to all three Universal Orlando Resort locations, Universal Studios Florida, Universal’s Islands of Adventure and the Volcano Bay water park saw price increases. 

In addition to the busy holiday season likely instigating the price increases, the other reason it’s not a shock to see the theme parks going back into our pockets is that both organizations are in the process of, or planning to, spend a lot of money on theme parks, and that money has to come from somewhere.

Universal is currently in the process of building three different new experiences: the Epic Universe theme park at Universal Orlando Resort, the recently-named Universal Horror Unleased in Las Vegas, and Universal Kids Resort in Frisco, Texas, which received its official name today. 

Disney World is days away from opening the final stage of a major overhaul to Epcot. Two other major projects are also on the horizon at the resort, as a new land is set to be added to Magic Kingdom, and Dinoland U.S.A. at Disney’s Animal Kingdom is set to be replaced with a Tropical Americas land. A major expansion of Disneyland Resort is also planned and set to be presented to the city of Anaheim for approval early next year.   

Annual price increases are par for the course for Disney. Prior to the pandemic, price jumps tended to happen there in the first month or so of the new year. Of course, when the pandemic happened, price increases did stop briefly, but it seemed like Disney was trying to make up for lost time last year with a price increase that went beyond annual passes and tickets, and hit food and other optional activities as well. It was received so poorly that even the returning CEO Bob Iger admitted price increases were too aggressive, and in at least one case, a price increase was rolled back.

Universal, being the smaller of the two theme park entities, often doesn’t get the same scrutiny when it comes to price increases, but it certainly happens. In fact, Universal is actually more expensive than Disney World as a single-day pass at a Universal park, excluding water parks, starts at $114, while the cheapest one-day pass at WDW is $109.