As the summer tourist season begins, the Walt Disney Co. announced an increase in ticket prices at Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando and Disneyland Resort in Anaheim.Keep in mind the Southern California pass comes with 205 blockout dates - every weekend, all summer, all of the Christmas and Easter holidays - in other words, all the times a family might normally want to go.
As of Sunday, one-day passes for the Disney theme parks in Anaheim increased 5.3%, from $76 to $80. A three-day pass to visit Disneyland and nearby Disney California Adventure Park jumped 8.7%, from $206 to $224. Annual passes for Southern California residents, among the most popular ticket option, increased 8.1%, from $184 to $199.
Way back in 1987 we first bought annual passes. I think they cost me something like $109 apiece for unlimited use, including parking, all year. The prices crept up, our family added two more people that eventually needed passes, and sometime in the mid-90's we quit buying them.
Disney then reconfigured their annual passes into several categories and they offered a Deluxe pass that had about 45 blockout dates for $99. Nearly all of those dates were times the park would be so crowded you wouldn't want to be there anyway. We re-upped.
Prices crept up, they added the second park which also increased the price, and finally in early 2008 I let our passes expire. The kids didn't want to go anymore and we didn't go enough to justify the cost. I think the last time we renewed they cost $269 apiece, plus we had to spend $35 to get parking.
Barring a lottery win or a generous benefactor, I don't see us going back.
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1 comment:
Bummer. How's the smog these days?
I last went in August of '97. Clear and hot at first. Tuesday, about 1 AM, I woke with a sore throat from sinus drainage--the smog was back.
It took a bit more than 3 years to get rid of my ingrown post-nasal drip after 4 years of living in the LA basin. Well, the worst of it. It hasn't completely gone away.
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