Disney Ticket Pricing Fantasy Becomes Reality

I knew that once Disney started allowing Annual Passholders to make monthly payments that the inevitable price increases were to become steeper.  And for the past few years they have risen by $20 to $60 each year.   This year is sets a new standard in sticking it to your base attenders.   The passes have just jumped from $499 t0 $649 an increase of 30%.    Now if I want to renew my pass and pay monthly it will cost $108 a month for my wife and I.     Lets review this,  economy is in the tank, unemployment at record highs, gas prices going past $5 a gallon.   More and more comments online are heading in the “not renewing anymore” and “what other non-disney parks can we go to” .   I don’t think that it was chance that when I navigated to the price increase page on Disney that the header image was Star Wars the Emperor and Darth Vader.  It would seem that Disney has fallen to the dark side.

Don’t bother to try and get a Disneyland hotel room either, what used to be AP rates of $149 a night are now more in the range of $289.   I even looked at travelling to Hawaii and staying at Aulani, well forget that not paying $600+ a night for a hotel room.

UPDATE: Rumor has it that Disney’s plan was to eliminate 20% of the current AP holders,  this may backfire on them as 100% of the AP holders I have talked to are NOT renewing.   I think it is time for Disney to stop being driven by the accountants and get back to Walt’s Dreams.