The Tom Anstey Column
Is the magic still worth it?
With Disney announcing charges of more than $200 for a single-day ticket to the Magic Kingdom, questions are mounting over whether the price of enchantment is starting to eclipse the experience itself. Tom Anstey explores these growing costs.
I
remember, around a decade ago, writing about the moment Disney’s Magic Kingdom broke through the $100 barrier for a single-day ticket for the first time. In February 2015, admission to Walt Disney World’s flagship park rose from $99 to $105. A milestone for the attractions industry, the rise while good for Disney also hinted (or maybe even screamed) that the cost of the magic was beginning to stretch far beyond the reach of the average family. There was outrage at the time, but that fury was seemingly short-lived. Guests kept coming, and they kept paying.
Magic 200 If you’d told me ten years ago that a single- day Disney ticket would double in price within a decade, I’d have laughed it off as impossible. Yet here we are.
The company has announced yet another round of ticket price increases across its US theme parks, with peak-day admission for Magic Kingdom set to surpass $200 for the first time during the 2026 holiday season.
The rise marks the fourth consecutive year of increases across both Florida’s Walt Disney World
and California’s Disneyland Resort. Under the company’s dynamic pricing model, ticket costs vary by date, with the most popular periods such as Thanksgiving, Halloween and Christmas now reaching $209 for a single-day, single-park pass. For families, the sting isn’t much lessened – tickets for children aged three to nine are just $5 cheaper, while only those under three can still enter free of charge. To find a comparable jump, you’d have to look back to 2002, when ticket prices first climbed from around $50 to $100 over the span of 13 years. At this pace, we could see a $400 Disney ticket as early as 2035. That might sound ridiculous, but that’s exactly what I thought a decade ago about a $200 ticket.
About to break? Just like in 2015, Disney’s fanbase has reacted strongly, and it’s not exactly difficult to see why. Regular visitors, many of whom travel from across the world to experience Disney’s parks multiple times a year, have voiced frustration across social media, saying the rising costs are pushing the experience beyond the reach of average families. I can understand the frustration. As a seasoned theme park veteran, someone who is immersed in this industry and everything it creates, I simply cannot justify paying that much to visit a theme park.
48 OCTOBER 2025
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