Disneyland Hikes Ticket, Parking Prices

The Walt Disney Co's DIS Disneyland and neighboring California Adventure Park have raised their ticket prices by 3% - 8%, with standard daily parking rates spiking by 20%, to tap the Christmas and New Year's Eve based demand, Los Angeles Times reports.

What Happened: Disney hikes the rates despite several popular attractions like the nightly fireworks show, water-and-light displays such as Fantasmic and World of Color, and most daily costumed parades at the parks remaining shut.

The parks last hiked ticket prices by up to 5% in February 2020, shortly before the parks closed for 13 months due to the pandemic. The park adopted a five-tiered pricing scheme in 2016 that charges more for days when demand is highest and less on slow days ranging from $104 - $164.

Why It Matters: The price hike is likely to generate more revenue overall for Walt Disney Co., even with a slight drop in attendance, as per a New York College Professor.

In August, Disney introduced a new Magic Key program that requires visitors to make reservations before going to the theme parks while blocking out access on the busiest days. Shortly after, Disney launched the Disney Genie mobile app that allows parkgoers willing to pay extra to skip the wait for the most popular attractions.

During a recent earnings report, Bob Chapek, Disney's CEO, said reservations for the company's domestic theme parks remain strong.

"We've implemented a reservation system that's going to enable us to spread our demand, increase our yield, and improve our guest experience at the same time," he said.

Price Action: DIS shares closed higher by 1.54% at $172.01 on Monday.

Photo by Tomás Del Coro via Wikimedia