Walt Disney World is one of the most popular tourist destinations on the planet but there's one thing that has to be said about it, it's not cheap. Hotels are expensive. Food is expensive and tickets are expensive and have only gotten more expensive in recent years. However, a new ticket option might help alleviate some of the price issues, if you're willing to limit your hours in the park only slightly.
Recently Disney CEO Bob Iger himself has said that he doesn't think the Disney parks have a pricing problem but regardless, today Walt Disney World began selling a brand new, cheaper, ticket option that might be something that works for a lot of people.
The new Walt Disney World ticket is called Mid-Day Magic and it works for any of the four theme parks and is available in two, three, or four day options and can be purchased for as little as $74 per day. The Park Hopper option, which allows guests to visit multiple Walt Disney World parks in a single day, can also be added to any of the Mid-Day Magic tickets. The catch is, tickets are only valid starting at noon. Most Walt Disney World parks open at 8 or 9 a.m. That means you're going to be missing a few early hours but in return, the ticket is a little bit less expensive
As an example, if you wanted to buy a 2-day Walt Disney World ticket starting tomorrow August 16th, that ticket it would cost you $116 for tomorrow, however, the equivalent Mid-Day Magic ticket would only cost you $88. Broken down on a per hour basis, a full day ticket is still a better deal most days, but only by a little bit, and depending on the sort of Walt Disney World vacationer you are, you might not be planning on using those early hours anyway, so why pay for them?
Clearly this isn't an option that's going to work for everybody, but it does give guests some flexibility and some choice and that's certainly worth something.
If you’ve ever been to Walt Disney World with small kids or even with a large group of childless millennial adults, you know that organizing everybody to get anywhere can be quite a chore. Even if you want to be at rope drop first thing in the morning, you may not make it in time depending on the number of people you are trying to go with. So maybe skipping all that mess and just showing up later in the day is the better way to go. You can have a leisurely breakfast at your Walt Disney World hotel with Mickey and Donald, and take your time and get to the park when you're ready.
Hell, between the parking lot shuttle and the line for the monorail, sometimes just getting to the front gate of Magic Kingdom can take so long that you may not get to the gates by noon even if you try.
If you're somebody that just doesn't like getting up in the morning, this ticket works for you. If you're the sort of person that can't make it to the fireworks at night if you start first thing in the morning because you’ll end up exhausted, then this gives you a ticket that won't cost you as much and you won't feel like you're wasting the morning by not going early since you didn’t pay for it.
While Walt Disney World tickets are certainly getting expensive, Disney has been making some efforts to try and make things a little bit more affordable. Within reason of course. Disneyland Resort recently unveiled a more affordable annual passport which doesn't have quite as many blackout dates as some of the options, but does require you to make reservations ahead of time. Again, it's an option that isn't going to work for everybody, but might be a better choice for some.
With the opening of Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge at Walt Disney World right around the corner, this certainly could be an attractive choice for many guests. It will still give you the ability to visit a Walt Disney World Park for most of the day and while it may not necessarily be a better “value” than a standard ticket sometimes the absolute dollar amount is really what matters
It's been a little less than a year since Walt Disney World made a major change to its pricing structure. While Walt Disney World tickets previously had been available for use almost anytime after you purchased them, the new pricing structure instituted last year resulted in tickets having different prices depending on which days they were going to be used. This meant that on extremely busy days tickets were more expensive, and when crowds were expected to be lower tickets for cheaper. This was designed to help the park deal with crowd control which, considering the popularity of both Disneyland Resort and Walt Disney World, has been a major challenge for the parks.
Of course, it has to be said that part of the reason for this new ticket is likely the fact that the Walt Disney Company recently revealed that attendance in its domestic parks has been down slightly for this last quarter. Some were quick to call Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge a failure at Disneyland Resort due to the fact that attendance has been down slightly, but the fact is that attendance has also been down at Walt Disney World where the new land has yet to actually open.
Disney is usually pretty good when it comes to market research of its guests, so my guess is that the park knows a ticket like this will have some value to some consumers, otherwise it's unlikely it would even exist.
An option like this might appeal a great deal to locals who don't have annual passes as it would give them the ability to pop into a single park for a single day and check things out without it costing nearly as much. In the past when Walt Disney World has had any kind of attendance problem locals are always the first people the company goes to.
While I'm a rope drop-to-close sort of person, I'll admit actually doing that can be tough sometimes, so i could certainly see using this option under certain circumstances. If you're in the market for Walt Disney World tickets to go check out Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge, it opens at Disney's Hollywood Studios on August 29.
