They say the only two things guaranteed in life are death and taxes, but if you’re a theme park fan, there’s a third thing to add to the list: price increases. Everything always gets more expensive at theme parks, and while everything gets more expensive over time, theme park tickets tend to grow faster than the rate of inflation. Such is the case once again, as a popular Walt Disney World event saw a price jump this year, but it’s probably still worth the price.
Tickets for Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party, the annual Magic Kingdom After Hours event, were released this week, and they run from $169 to $219, depending on the night you attend. That’s up from a range last year between $159 and $199. While it’s only a $10 to $20 jump, that’s a 10% increase on the high end, which is pretty significant for a single year.
While it’s never great to have to stomach a price increase and pay more for the same thing, I can’t be too annoyed with this price increase, and it’s probably not going to price anybody out of the event that was considering it already. I went to Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party a couple of years ago; it was the first After Hours event I had ever done at a Disney Park, and it completely turned me around on the events.
I used to think all After Hours events were too expensive. The tickets cost more than a normal day ticket, but the event only gave you a few hours in the park. Yes, there were “exclusive” things to see or do, but those things rarely sold me on the event.
There’s nothing quite like the Christmas season inside a Disney Park, the decorations, the music, and just the vibes are enough to get to the heart of any Scrooge and transform them into a Christmas fan. The Very Merry Christmas Party does all that to an entirely new degree.
The biggest thing that Very Merry does that even most of the other After Hours events do not is give you food. There is free hot chocolate and cookies available at multiple locations, with different cookies on offer at the different spots. So if nothing, else you can probably eat your way to covering the added cost.
If the Very Merry is a bit too expensive, tickets are a bit cheaper for Jollywood Nights, the after-hours holiday event at Disney's Hollywood Studios. Jollywood Nights had a rough opening for its first event last year, but it seems it worked out enough to be given a second try. Considering how much Jollywood Nights is my jam, I'm glad it survived and hopefully year two will live up to its potential.
We’ve seen prices for these events creep up year after, and that will continue to happen. Hopefully these prices will remain in the future, at least for a while. At some point, the prices will get too high, but for the people who really love Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party, I don’t think we’re there yet.
