Are tickets to Walt Disney World really that expensive?
In the past few weeks, Walt Disney World made a splash after they raised their ticket prizes and a single day admission to the Magic Kingdom crossed the $100 threshold for the first time. Universal soon followed suite and also raised their prices. Initially, $105 sounds like a lot of money, and if you read the comments on any news story about the price hike you’ll see nothing but complaints. But is it really that expensive, especially compared to other forms of entertainment? To find out, we decided to compare the cost of a ticket to Walt Disney World versus other theme parks and as well as other forms of entertainment by looking at the dollar per hour cost.
Dollar Per Hour Cost of Entertainment Comparison
The table below shows the dollar per hour cost of a day at the Magic Kingdom versus other theme parks, zoos, attractions, sports, and more. Price reflect general admission if bought at the gate the day of the visit and we tried to pick a good average total time of the entertainment. The Magic Kingdom falls closer to the top of the table than the bottom with a modest value of $7.50 per hour.
The amusement park with the best dollar per value is Holiday World and that doesn’t even take into account the free soft drinks! Going to see La Nouba at Downtown Disney is a much more expensive thing to do than visiting one of the amusement parks on a dollar per hour rate. In general it seems paying for a one-off attraction, like the Smokey Mountain Alpine Coaster, can be a very expensive way to entertain yourself.
The table below shows the cost per hour of a day at the Magic Kingdom versus other forms of entertainment and includes the cost of parking. Factoring in the $17 parking fee, the Magic Kingdom goes from $7.50 to $8.71 per hour.
The final table shows the total cost for a family of four (did not take into account cheaper children’s ticket prices).
I may have missed it but it appears Legoland California was actually the first theme park to break the $100 threshold (ticket does include a waterpark too). So Disney, Legoland, and Universal are currently the only parks in the $100 club – which park will be the next to join them?
How much is a day at Magic Kingdom worth?
Despite a more expensive ticket, Magic Kingdom is a much better value than Animal Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, or Epcot right now – it’s hours are usually longer and there are more rides. Sometimes the Magic Kingdom is open for 16 hours or more. If you stay at a Disney Resort you can participate in Extra Magic Hours which could possibly extend your day in the park from 9am to 2am! Disney’s overall ticket strategy is to get to you to buy tickets for more than one day as the cost per day goes down the longer you stay.
This is not an “apples to apples” comparison, obviously, as there are many variables at play. For example, at an amusement park a lot of your time is spent waiting in line and walking, whereas a movie the entertainment is the full two hours. Although at a theme park like Disneyland the lines and atmosphere are part of the experience. You could also argue that all the timeouts and downtime at a football shouldn’t count towards the total time. Other factors to consider include Ohio State football has variable ticket pricing – the big games cost more and the games they are expected to win by sixty points cost less.
There are many ways to save money to get lower ticket prices than the values shown above: buy online, buy in advance of your visit, many parks give a discount if you pick a date for your visit in advance, and follow the park’s social media accounts to learn about special offers and giveaways. Visiting a theme park on a day when the park is open longer may not be a good thing – the longer hours most likely means they are expecting to be busier. If you visit on a day with shorter times you may actually get to go on more rides because of smaller crowds.
In the end, it’s whatever the experience is worth to you. Some die hard Cleveland Browns fans may think it is worth it to pay $100+ dollars to watch their team lose but wouldn’t set foot in a theme park. What do you think? Is $105 too much to spend a day in the Magic Kingdom?
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