Why Disneyland Jacked Up Their Ticket Prices

Today on January 6, 2019, Disneyland raised its ticket prices, again. Like they did last year, and the year before that, and the year before that, and twice in 2005 and 2006.

In 2019, a minimum wage employee makes $12 an hour and has to work 8.6 hours to have a day in Disneyland and go on all the rides. Now a ticket costs $104 for 1-day.

In 1956, a minimum wage employee made $1 an hour and had to work 8.5 hours for a day in Disneyland and go on MOST of the rides. Then a ticket was $1 to get in and ticket books to go on 24 attractions was about $7.50. With these ticket book, you could visit/ride 24 paid attractions and multiple free attractions.

We now have to work an hour more to experience the magic. If people in 1956 wanted to go on more attractions they would have to pay more. Disneyland used to have the ticket book system. If you ran out of tickets in your pre-priced book, then you had to buy individual tickets or pay with cash at the attraction entrance. Attractions were an extra 25¢-35¢ each. If you wanted to go on an extra four attractions that cost a quarter, then you just had to work an extra hour to make that money.

The price of tickets will continue to go up as long as the minimum wage still goes up. Every place in California is raising its prices for everything. Retailers have to pay their employees more and also have to pay more for the items they sell as their sources have to pay more to have things made down the line. It’s an economic ripple effect. It now costs more to go to Disneyland for a day than it did back in the 1950s.

Example 1: Disneyland has to repaint the outside of a building. A can of paint used to cost $7.50. The paint manufacturer has to pay their employees more to produce the paint. They raise the price of a can of paint to $8.25. Disney now has to pay more for their paint.

Example 2: The Little Red Wagon once paid $8.50 for a package of large hot dogs. The meat company used to pay $4.00 for a pound of meat from the ranch. But the ranch raised the price of meat to $5.00 a pound because it has to pay more to raise and slaughter the animals. Now the hot dog company has to pay more for its meat and also more for its employees and now charges Disney $9.50 for a pack of hot dogs.

Example 3: Disneyland once paid its minimum wage employees $11 an hour. Now they have to pay them $12 an hour. Employees who made $16 an hour are now fighting to get paid $17 an hour to keep that wage gap the same between them and the lesser paid employees. The Disneyland Resort has 23,000 employees. If we assume that they make minimum wage, or will get an increase to offset the difference, then Disney has to pay out an extra $184,000 for an 8-hour shift. Now keep in mind that all the employees don't work every day, and Disney has shifts that cover 24 hours of the day. For 16 hours of labor Disney pays out $368,000. By charging $7 more for one ticket, Disney can take in $280,000 a day more, if they have a 40,000 capacity day.

Let’s say Disney was making a 45% profit at the end of the day after making money from its guests and then paying out all its expenses. With all the price rises between its employees and its supplies it now only makes a 38% profit. Disney wants to continue making that 45% profit so it raises its ticket prices to the consumers that are funding the whole thing. This is how economics works. It isn’t just at Disneyland, it is everywhere. Restaurants are raising the menu item prices, stores are raising product prices, everything is going up.

Every year guests threaten to quit going to Disneyland, but they end up going anyway. Disney can raise the prices because we will still pay to go. Also, Disney has to pay for Galaxy’s Edge.
Here, you can see how the prices have increased but so have the crowds.

It is difficult to determine exactly how much it was back then because the park admission prices fluctuated and so did the ticket book prices. *They also offered anywhere from 8 to 15 attractions per booklet. That accounts for years with a lower cost the following year. There were less ticketed attractions in the book.

In some years there have been big attractions that have opened and could have been the cause for those years price increase.
1977-Space Mountain
1979-Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
1987-Star Tours
1989-Splash Mountain
1993-Toontown
1994-Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin
1995-Indiana Jones Adventure: Temple of the Forbidden Eye
2003-The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
2005-Space Mountain Re-Opened
2007-Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage
2011-Star Tours—The Adventures Continue
2019-Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge

Moral of the story is, if you don’t like the price increases, then don’t go.
Forecast for 2020, the prices will go up again.

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*Ticket book prices were taken from https://www.jansworld.net/dl-tickets-1955-2000.html