Between this and Defunctland's video, I think people have learned more about Disney's ticket system in one month than in the prior 60 years cumulatively.
I love how Defunctland and Yesterworld's response to the changes Disney's been making is "let's look at the history to accurately demonstrate the mess Disney has made".
@@HD4amian Eh, I wouldn't call it a mess. You really get a lot of entertainment in a day for $160 bucks. Also remember $160 bucks is the "highest" ticket price in the year. The prices are variable and the lower cost days are $110. But the pricing gets significantly cheaper the more days you stay in the park. My wife and I were just in WDW for 6 days last week, the only reason we stayed for the 6th day was because the 6th day only cost us ~$25 bucks each. We felt we got a really good value for our dollar. If you step back and look at all the cost it takes to run a park that size, I'm not really sure how they pull it off! I'm guessing a lot of people spend a lot more money than we did probably eating and buying various products. It's a business and they will adjust the prices to make the maximum dollar, they are very good at it. Some will call it greed, some will call it business intelligence. They don't run the park just to be "nice". :D
@@Iluvclancats I'm glad I'm not the only one who felt that way. It sounded more like a hiccup sound than a Mickey laugh and heavily detracted from the enjoyment of the video. I watch these type of vids to chill out and this had the opposite effect...
I was looking at the comments for something like this and I was not disappointed 🥲 I'm literally dying over here of laughter. Then I hear Mickey's laugh and the cycle continues
That did make me laugh, but odd that Iger is almost praised a few minutes later rather than being also treated as a supervillain, despite him overseeing a complete collapse in the value for money at Disney parks.
Looking forward to that promised upcoming two part series on how Michael Eisner saved and destroyed the Disney parks (honestly it should be a feature length documentary!)
This is a very nice additive epilogue to Defunctland's FastPass video. These video essays really show how Disney's kindness has been evaporating in favour of greedy money making.
for fucks' sake, it's awlays been about making money. Disney has just become that much popular so they can charge prices like these. supply and demand, bitch
My Dad grew up in Southern California in the 70's/80's, and he will always tell us stories about how his poor family was still able to go to Disneyland every weekend. Lucky bunny...
The crowding out of "normal" people being able to afford visits to the Disney parks is simply one milestone on the determined highway of the dismantling of the American middle class. In a very short amount of time the US will not be for us any more.
I work with someone who talked about the reduced ticket prices after 4pm. So he and some buddies would normally go to Disneyland on Friday nights go on some rides and get a bite to eat.
Disney used to offer a 'locals' pass at a discount for the off season to help pad park numbers. You had to live in certain areas in SoCal, and you couldn't attend on peak weeks/days. My family was able to afford it for a year when I was young, it was a very special treat. Naturally, they discontinued this several years ago.
@@hannahrobertson31I say a big mistake in my eyes. But if they still had it, just have certain blockout dates for when it gets super busy and crowded especially in the summer season. Again this is just my idea.
Essentially… When the parks first opened it cost a hay penny to enter and it came with free filet mignon, but now you have to take out two mortgages just to pay for parking.
@Bored_and_Online Who gets free stuff from Disney? Certainly not me. And I most definitely don't pay for everything. I was able to renew my Silver annual pass thankfully before new annual passes took effect, but not sure which one I will have to get next year. I keep my passes so I can report on the parks, otherwise I wouldn't renew every year. I wasn't "boasting," so much as illustrating how Disney knows some people will pay no matter what, and that's not at all an ethical way to run a business.
Well it's actually hapenny, not hay penny. But pricing at the parks was a lot cheaper once. I forgot who did the video (it was probably Defunctland), but they mentioned that at one point in time, leadership saw the park as a value operator. Eisner had the idea to make it a destination stop. Honestly, it does make sense when you realize that the parks are only in two places, CA and FL. There aren't a dozen of them all across the states like Six Flags. That means people who want to go to Disney parks are planning to go, not just making a weekend fling. That aspect works just like the resorts on the Vegas Strip. There is only one Luxor, Excalibur, Caesar's Palace, etc. So how much do you pay to go stay there?
@@trueedge2097 sure its a destination...but the trouble is they dont appeal to people who make it such. They appeal to people who learn the system because they go repeatedly. Me and my roomates wanted to go, but a trip for 4 guys would have cost roughly 450 per person for a weekend... not including food, souvenirs, ect. Most of us went as kids, and we wanted to take the one who hadnt out for a fun vacation over break. The website was hard enough to use... you cant just look for availabilities, instead you have to tell them when you intend to go, and only then can you see vacanies in that window of time. Then theres not much flexibility when it comes to rooms. 300 dollars a night for two beds is pretty steep, so rather than sleep in the same beds we found the cabins with 1 normal bed, a bunkbed and a couch for 500. Then tickey prices were just ridiculous... And those were "off peak" prices. When we checked to see what times correlated with out break, some of the 300 dollar rooms were more expensive than the 500 dollar cabin. I think the steepest jump we saw was a 400 dollar room go for 1200. And tickets raised in value as well. Any dinner-entertainment events were ~40 dollars per person, but needed to be booked a month or more in advance otherwise other guests had them all taken... So even if we did pay through the nose, we wouldnt have gotten to eat anywhere but the hot dog carts because all the resturants were reservation only and were booked through... if we were lucky and they were open we could eat a 3pm dinner... So yeah, its a destination, but its cost prohibitive. Four guys paying equal couldnt afford it, now imagine parents with kids or large families. I get we were in college and dont have the most money... but i cant imagine the financial hit parents take. And if you dont know how the system works and you end up without any of the "experiences" did you really get your moneys worth?
@@Robb1977 Destination trips are usually cost prohibitive. That's why not everyone gets to go to Europe every summer. That is how it works. You have to save up and do some research. A couple of points. You have to tell them when you want to go on the website. There is a reason for that. They have both park tickets AND hotel reservations. They go hand in hand. It also plays into the new reservation system at the parks. But this is the same as it is for any hotel in the country. You don't just buy room fare. It is booked according to date. Same concept. You don't have to worry about that at Six Flags so much. That is a regional park. There are more of them spread out. Not nearly a problem. But when there is only one or two in the country, you have to have a more date-based system. Another one. Restaurants often come up here. The thing is you don't actually need reservations for most of the restaurants, just he high-end dining. At MK alone, Pinnochio's Village Haus, Sir Mickey's, Cosmic Ray's, and Pecos Bill's do not require reservations. And these are not just "hot dog carts." You don't need to get into Be Our Guest to eat in the park. It's great if you can, but that is a luxury not a necessity. And don't forget you CAN bring your own food. They do allow that. I also do not stay on property. I can get a two-room suite on 192 for 55 a night. They do exist. You can save a ton of money that way. Ultimately, there's nothing here that really spells a problem. Those of us who go, know what we're doing. If you're not the kind who likes to plan trips, then no. It's not for you. But you won't get very far just being completely spontaneous. You have to put some planning into literally every aspect of life. Even a simple state park trip has to have some plan. For Disney, it's just another level of it.
Disney has pretty much priced itself out of the average person's wallet. A family of 4 could easily drop $10,000 for a 3-4 days stay on the resort. Think about that $2500 A DAY to stand in lines and go on maybe 6 or 7 rides during the busy season. Folks, that's $$350 or $400 per ride for the family. Is 'its a Small world" worth $100?
How did you get to those numbers? I am a father of FIVE (a family of seven) and I have spent nowhere near that amount. In fact, I have never spent over 1500 dollars on my tickets. The real secret is knowing you don't have to stay on property. There are literally hundreds of hotels in the area that cater to Disney guests. With so many of them available, it creates a real price war for your business. I know a hotel that has a number of two-room suites that you can get for 35 a night. They do exist, and they can help bring that cost way down. If you have to buy plane tickets, I really do sympathize. I live close enough that I don't have to, but I do understand the cost there. But you're going to have that cost literally anywhere you go where you need to fly - the Grand Canyon, Europe, New York City, etc. So I wonder where you got those numbers. It has never been my experience.
@@Eshray Universal and SeaWorld aren't that much cheaper, and they have been doing for years what Disney is just now doing. A Universal Express Pass is a flat 15 PER RIDE. Unless you buy the Unlimited Pass, which is nearly the price of a full ticket. If you do the math, Disney actually comes out cheaper per day on its most expensive day vs Universal, even given Genie and Lightning Lane. SeaWorld and even Six Flags have a similar system. It is a flat per ride charge unless you order some unlimited version (which is always a bit more expensive). Disney is competitive, but you are right. They are a destination park, not a regional operator. You wouldn't expect their prices to match Six Flags or Cedar Fair.
@@novaerose Well the ultimate problem Disney has had over the last two decades has been popularity. This is a theme park company that has seen record numbers of attendance in the years leading up the the pandemic. Before 2020, Magic Kingdom had hit capacity every Christmas for four years straight. EPCOT had even hit capacity on one of those years. And those numbers lead to incredibly long lines for everything in the parks. And they weren't dying down over the summers either. This created a real problem for Disney leadership. They had addressed this several times already by raising the price. You see. Disney didnt have an attendance problem. Not in the way you think. The problem was too many people were coming. The decision was made to raise prices systematically intentionally to keep people from coming all at once. And it has not really stopped anything. The pandemic gave them the chance to rethink things. Now that we are seeing the light in the tunnel on that, there is a great chance the numbers problem will come again. Thus, the reservation system. Thus, continuing the price manipulation. You are right. Making something more affordable means more people take part. But that is exactly the problem Disney is having. Too many people. They are having to do things to get people to scale back. It must be an odd position to be in.
@@Eshray I 100% agree. My family have been going to Orlando since 2004 when I was 11. My parents bought a place there in around 2006/2007. As the years went on we became less enamoured with Disney and opted for Universal parks as the price was better value for money. We still went to Downtown Disney for many years though. The last trip we had was in 2018 when I brought my uncle and cousin to the Disney parks. It was the visit to Disney Springs that was really the nail in the coffin for me. I felt out of place in the upscale surroundings. It felt like I was no longer Disney’s clientele. They want people to purely drop shedloads of money on merchandise. Experiences come totally secondary. They don’t actually care that I have fun, they care that I spend loads of money.
I tried budgeting out a trip for me and my college roomates over spring break, at cheapest we could get a room for the four of us at 500 a night. Tickets were minimum 100, so split four ways a two day trip was 450 dollars. Thats 4 guys who have part time jobs all paying an even share, and doesnt include food or travel, and would mean condensing a week off into 2 days... especially because we found driving the 12+ hours to disney world would have saved us a few hundred each... One of my roomates never went as a kid so we thought it would be a fun experience but the cost was literally prohibitive to all of us, and so we didnt go. Later this video and defucntlands came out and seeing repeat customers not only exist but are obsessed with optimizing their good time by throwing money at disney... im not happy at the fact we didnt go, but im glad we didnt give disney our money. We even considered not buying park tickets and just trying to enjoy the resort amenities like it was a real hotel destination... it should also be noted the pleasure island/downtown disney thing was closed at this point (i dont remember if it was temporary or permanent back then) and we would have had literally nothing to do short of drinking at the hotel bar and eating hot wings...
Yesterworld back then: let’s look at this ride’s interesting history! Yesterworld now: *the Walt Disney company is a soulless and money grubbing corporation*
From Defunctland to Yesterworld, I'm so glad that I am an annual passholder for both worlds. Love you guys' videos! Yesterworld a little bit more for being my first discovery into the history of Disney and movies! 😀
Defunctland has my heart because he covered one of my alltime favorite parks here in Japan Nara dreamland! Yesterworld has my love too. I am pretty far from a disney fan but was a kid once and watch these too
I bought a LOT of "never expire" tickets in the 90s, just like the family in the promo video. My family and I used them several times, but still have lots (about 30 admissions, total), too. I contacted them last year to make arrangements to use them for our reservations. I was told that they would only honor the "paper/face" value on a per day basis towards the purchase of a current, regular day ticket. In other words, the 10-day ticket I bought for ~$300 that has 6 "never expire" days remaining will give me $30 credit towards the current $150 admission price. They won't even let me apply it towards a multi-day ticket. We cancelled our plans and have no plans to go in the future.
Wow! That's some shady S***! Complete BS! The need to honor their word that they promised you when you bought them. I would post what you did here on Disney's social media accounts... like ALL of them!
I feel like expecting whatever person gets paid to deal with the calls from random people to honour over 30 tickets that are like 30 year olds is a little insane. I would expect them to honour a couple for more, but if you go in with 'Yeah we have 30 tickets' they're absolutely not going to give you that.
@@krablord well they are a business corporation. it’s expected that they streamline with what they promise & market you to buy as a consumer, especially if there is NO fine print indicating it is not actually “forever”, “non-expiring” tickets. It is scummy to say “yes, these tickets don’t expire and can be used in your lifetime”, but then say “nope nevermind” down the round. That is bad business practice. But totally if that is your cup of tea and if that were you in this person’s situation and you wouldn’t feel scammed and dishonored then props to you. These people work in guest services. It is their job to deal with guest calls. Every job has challenges, so to expect them to “deal with the calls from random people” honoring these tickets is actually extremely expected.
Yeah. Now you pay $200 per ticket plus pay extra to skip the lines. Like who can afford this to the average person? It’s like they’re selling tickets only to the rich, but not even rich people can afford this.
Dont go.. it’s worse now.. like no kidding. ive been going every year for the past 2 decades and so much has changed in a bad way.. the quality of everything from the attractions to the food to the guest service is disgusting
Great content, research and production! As a 30+ year retiree from the company, I am flabbergasted by the uncontrolled greed. Keep up the great work! 🌈
I think Disney may have finally overdone it. The shift in public opinion towards the companya is becoming very noticeable. This is a very important first step to hopefully see some remorse and thus improvements in Diesney's behaviour towards their customers.
Sadly it will take something extraordinary to make them change their direction, far more than a few thousand people complaining about it on niche UA-cam channels. You're in an echo chamber. There's not a very noticeable shift in public opinion among the general population. The company wouldn't care even if there was unless it caused a major hit to their bottom line. The parks are already recovering well even though most people travel by plane to get there and the pandemic is still in full-swing. People are desperate to go and they're willing to pay whatever Disney is charging.
Fast forward a few months to today. With the political climate in Florida and California being what they are. And Disney being political about what is going on in those very different politically opposed states...makes one Disney CEO look even dumber. Talk about egg on your face. Disney has lost it's way. The sheer greed is astounding. So many of the people who actually knew what they were doing have left and replaced by people who don't have any experience in their positions...and it really shows to the public. Even if they could turn things around with a CEO with a backbone and hire and place proper people in their positions, it still doesn't justify the prices they are charging...not by a country mile. Which is a shame. Greed has obviously set into the Disney corporation. It's only part of the story, but ultimately their downfall.
My final visit was in October 2020. For 2 of us it was around $1,100. That's for 2 nights lodging, 2 admissions to AK and meals. To put it into perspective, we went in 2000 for a week visit with 4 day hopper passes, 2 adults and 1 child. Entire trip with flights from Philadelphia, lodging, meals and admission was around $3,500. (Both hotels were mid range priced)
I'm always fascinated how Disneytubers all find new Micheal Eisner clips to use when talking about him, I've never seen repeats from two different videos
Between this video and Defunctland's one about the evolution of the fast pass system all I've learned is that my childhood dream of going to Disneyland and having fun will probably remain a dream :'(
@@ItsOver9000Productions Its becoming more like six flags with everything just having a movie logo attached to it. It's slowly losing that aspect that made it different. I wouldn't mind be price gouged if they went back to imagineering again
If you can, see if you can find someone who can get you discount tickets. Or look at places like Costco or grocery stores that may have tickets at a cheaper price compared to paying at the gate
Between this video, the Defunctland one, & the Review Tyme one, it's become abundantly clear that there's no way I'm gonna be able to ever afford a Disney trip ever again. And from comments here, it doesn't look like I'm alone in that. That might be profitable in the short term, but how sustainable is it in the long term, if you price out the majority of your potential market?
I can remember sometime in the mid 70''s my mom used to do a lot (I mean A LOT) of business with Kodak, and her sales rep comped us day passes when Disney first started experimenting with them. They were hand stamped and they attached them to our shirts with safety pins. Any time we walked up to an attraction the attendant would just wave us in vs. having to cough up the ABCDE tickets. I still remember more than a few times other kids asking their parents why they couldn't just get into the rides like we did. It was special and awkward at the same time. I still have a few of them somewhere. At first I thought it was in the early 80's but I dug one out and it was stamped 1977. Yow.
On another note...anyone remember the hand stamps? The ones I remember specifically were UV activated, and I used to get a kick out of seeing them glow in Spaceship Earth (which I rode a LOT)
Bro I remember those so vividly from when I would go to Disneyland and DCA and as a kid I would even ask the employee to stamp my hand when I'm exiting the park for the night
I’m loving how much these videos by Yesterworld and Defunctland are validating what I’d already been suspecting. Like holy cow ticket and pass prices have skyrocketed. This also explains why my family’s theme park relationship has changed over the years. Thanks for this! Keep up the fantastic work! If you ever want to follow up on this video with the pandemic-related Magic Key information for Disneyland I’d be glad to watch it. As someone kinda familiar with the pass system I’d like to see what the change to reservation-only passes and tickets might mean for the average local visitor, out of state visitor, and various other visitors of different financial backgrounds. I’ve noticed that the keys have similar block out dates and prices to the prepandemic passes but I’ve been curious about how this has impacted how frequently someone can actually visit the parks in reality, if this changes the dynamic between someone who buys tickets vs someone with a pass, how this has effected crowd levels or access, and how much the value per visit has changed (ex: how the reservation system effects the ‘if you go enough times it’s like you’re going to Disneyland for a low cost of admission’ viewpoint on annual passes)
My brain doesn't hurt but my heart does. I grew up in the 1960s in Orange County, going to Disneyland once a month. Even as an adult in the 1990s I could still go a couple times a year. But now, to make one last visit as a little old lady, I'll be spending 3 months' rent on a five day vacation. It feels like Walt's Betrayal. :(
"New video about ticketing? Didn't they cover that in the last video?" - the result of being subscribed to both Yesterworld and Defunctland and having a very bad memory
My family of three had a saying for *years* that kept us on track of savings "$300 gets you to Disneyland for 3 days" and so it went until 1997 or so, we went every year and I'm sure it got bit a more expensive, we did cut corners (rather icky hotels, no meals out, stuff like that), but compared to now? I can't even afford to get myself and my husband, with minimal food, *and* a southern california resident for $300.
There was also a period when Magic Key members would just get a red ribbon to wear on your wrist instead of a ticket book. You showed the ribbon to each ticket taker to get on the attraction.
I’ve been watching so many Defunctland, Yesterworld, and Disney Dan videos that whenever Michael Eisner appears in any of them, I inwardly scream out of sheer and unadulterated terror! 😱
I live in Europe and my "home" Disney park is Disneyland Paris. We usually go off-season when there is a good offer as we're not (yet) bound to any school holidays. We went to WDW a few years ago and were completely blown away by the ridiculous prices. We did have our eyes open for deals but the costs for staying on property plus the admission was mindblowing. Yes, Disneyland Paris is a bit more expensive than regular theme parks in France but it is no comparison to the price level of WDW. I think if Disney raised the prices for DLP as much as they did for the American parks, the park would probably close within a fairly short time, because not enough people would be willing to pay for it. Side note: Very curious to see how the whole Genie+ (or Premier Access) will play out. Let's see who the Fastpass Monster will eat next! I can't imagine the system being very successful in Paris, to be honest.
@@mstrmren We went a few weeks ago to Disneyland Paris and paid about 1500 € ($1614) for 3 days/2 nights, 3 adults, park hopper, staying at the cheapest of the medium price range hotels, and half board, all booked directly with Disney. About 1150 € ($1237) without the meal plan. For WDW, a similar booking in October (prices in Paris for October were comparable to what we paid now) gives about $2400 without half board. Park tickets themselves are also more expensive. An undated single park ticket (1 day/1 park) will cost you 105 € ($113) in Paris, dated ones are between 62€-89€. Cheapest in WDW is currently $109 (dated during the week, in September, access only to animal Kingdom) to $129 (magic Kingdom). Going during the summer will cost you up to $179. I do see that certain costs within the parks have gone up, e.g. dining got more expensive in Paris recently. But even the bare bones costs for a trip to WDW are higher already. Not sure how this aligns with the salary levels and general cost of living and if this might go some way to explain the difference in prices, but for someone who lives neither in France nor in the US the difference was staggering.
I'm 29. My family went once when I was 8 in 2000 and we haven't been back since. I truly can't imagine going. Forking over that much money, plus the food prices is just insane.
“Magic Key books” *glances over at the brand new “Magic Key Passes”* Hol’ up. You’re telling me “Magic Key” wasn’t a name drawn out of marketing’s sorcerer hat and is in fact, a reference to an older exclusive ticket from the past???
Whenever I see a new Yesterworld video I always get so excited and for a little while everything stressful and wrong going on in my life completely disappears. Thank you so much for putting out these amazing videos, you put so much hard work and time into these and they mean so much to me and other people ❤️
Thank you so much for the kind words, I hope the things that bring you stress in your life get better, but I'm glad my content can help lighten that load even if just a little bit :)
9:40 Hey, it's Gary Owens, the original voice of Space Ghost! Also, when I was in the UCLA Band, we had a sax player who said "Definitely an E ticket!" when we flew up to the Bay Area for a basketball game. Mind you, this was on PSA even though Western Air Lines -- "The only way to fly" -- had been a sponsor for the band and advertised in the L.A. Coliseum during football games.
Amazing use of the movie Big to show the elimination of the "junior" ticket tier. Literally a scene where Tom Hanks is getting thrown a purse while acting like a kid. Chefs Kiss.
The thumbnail for this video, prominently showing a jovial Mickey Mouse with dollar-signs in his eyes, gave me a gut-busting fit of laughter that I couldn't stop for at least 30 seconds. Then, later on, seeing it again, gave me another fit of prolonged laughter. And writing this, reminding me again of the thumbnail, gave me additional laughter. Yesterworld Entertainment's artistic design of the thumbnail, for this video, should win an award . . . *_it is that good!_*
I remember my Dad getting so mad that a one-day ticket to the Magic Kingdom in 1983 was $17 (less that $50 in today's money) that he was going to make us turn around and go home, until Mom was able to talk him down.
I remember going to Disneyland for the 1st time in 2004 and the price for me to get in was $39 and it included a free entrance to DCA for another day due to being a SoCal promo at the time.
I remember when I was a kid, my friend & I would save up our allowance until we had about $25-$30 each (along with any leftover ride tickets gleaned from friends/family who had visited prior) which was enough for us to have one heck of a good day at the park. Cost us about $5 to get in, which left enough money for lunch, a bag of cherry sours from the kiosk in New Orleans Square, and a small souvenir. Now the pricing combined with the ridiculous crowd level makes it not worth going at all. (Heck, just the *crowds* make it not worth going. The last time I went was in 2014; a friend who worked there signed me in as her guest, and even getting in free it wasn't much fun as there were so many people. We had a FastPass for Big Thunder Mountain, and about 10 minutes before our alloted time slot we were over in Toon Town. We really didn't want to fight the crowd in hopes of getting there in time and just skipped it instead.)
I'm Canadian and had to paid over $250 for a SINGLE DAY park-hopper ticket this past November. We were only in LA for the day so we made the splurge but it made me realize that it might be my last time in a Disney Park for a LONG time - there's no way I'll be doing that again
I actually has annual passports at Disneyland from 1984-1986. And even on military pay (around $600 a month) it was affordable. Today it is insane, and I will never return. Walt would be ashamed at what they have done.
One big ticketing change left unmentioned was WDW making their tickets time sensitive. I first visited Florida in 1992 and bought a 4 day Super Pass {Park Hopper) but only used it three times. Multy-day tickets give a discount so each time I returned I would buy a pass with more days on it than I would need knowing that the price would go up before my next visit. This strategy for getting cheaper tickets has now been cut off by adding an expiration date to tickets. Though I can still get in at least one more time for the 1992 price.
This video got me very fascinated on how ticket prices were changed a lot, and I’m surprised that they got very expensive nowadays. Excellent work on the new video Mark, I have a great time with it!
Thank you! I've been hoping someone would cover this. Every talks about E tickets and A tickets and such but I don't think I've seen a solid indepth discussion of the evolution. Thanks.
Great video!!!….your accumulation of data, information and video clips is astonishing. This is better than watching any documentary on tv or movie…thank you!!
So, my question is then, knowing the ticket price increases, how much of those increases are offset by the newest rides and tech added into the parks? Like, we know the price gouging is real and insane, but how much of that may be justified by the improvements to the parks?
@@Anon4859 That increase in profit is probably operating profit which does not include capital expenditures, i.e. "improvements to the parks" ... I haven't gone through their books though so I could be wrong, but the information should be out there if anyone wants to try to analyze it
I remember being 5 in 04 and my family having the top Disneyland pass it was honestly amazing. Seeing how cheap the prices are compared to today is mind blowing. My gf and I have our passes today and it’s a completely different world.
I have a family member who has been in special projects at Disneyland since the '70s. You can ask him stuff if you like. I'm sure you hear this a lot but there it is. He doesn't do UA-cam but he said no problem.
Might not be a coincidence this video came out after the new Star Wars hotel in Magic Kingdom and it’s very high price. I mean who would want to spend $6000 dollars just to spend in a Disney hotel for two nights straight!?
I don’t know how I got here, but I’m so so so grateful that I did. :) I never knew I’d be so interested in this sort of stuff, but you (and Defunctland, too!) have really opened my eyes. I’ve always been complacent in it all, but I’m slowly learning to “push back the marketing curtain” as it were. You’re doing such an amazing job here. Thank you, thank you, thank you for these videos!
To be honest, extremely interesting, but I would have loved to see a line for the average us inflation rate on the graphs just for comparisons sake. I know that's part of why they're always increasing cost but it would have been nice to see by how much
not just inflation, but comparison to pay (cast member average and even against the national average) Also something that tracks the number of employees in the parks. Note, I am not saying that this data will justify the increases (since I don't know the numbers) but in my opinion it will give a better, fairer picture of the price rises
In 2019 I went to WDW for 3 weeks, my first time back to WDW since 1972. For a stay of that length it just made sense to buy the annual pass at just $1,120 due to all the discounts on hotel, etc. The thing that blew me away is I've been a Disneylander for the last 45 years and despite WDW have twice as many parks ( and 2 waterslide parks, more hotels, more things to do ) the DL annual pass at that same time was $280 more. HOW?! WHY?! It's not worth it! My last DL AP was 2014 and man, I am glad. Only a UA-camr/Influencer who goes every day could afford that, write it off as a "business expense" or something.
Before 2000 I used to suggest to friends that they could spend as much or as little as they wanted for a Disney World trip, except for the modest park tickets of course. Since then prices have skyrocketed to the point where I would not offer such advice. The prices now feel like an abuse, a ransom required to enter the parks.
Glad I got to go to Disneyworld as a kid end of Aug. 1997. A 5 day kids pass wasn't too expensive, the hotel suite just outside of the park had end of summer discounts as Florida schools just started. The lines weren't bad cause nobody was paying to cut lines with fast pass yet. (We went at open to hit the most popular rides first.) We even walked right into the famous Disney restaurant buffet and got a table quickly. I hear nowadays you need to book months in advanced. The basic Disney ticket today does almost nothing. When everyone buys a fast pass the regular line becomes an all day wait.
I Never had to worry about tickets or passports back in the good ole days. My dad who was a LA fireman, was invited by Disneyland who would throw a fire and policeman's ball every year. Only those who worked for the city/county and their families were able to enjoy Disneyland for that ball without dealing with tickets. My dad would play for the discounted entry park tickets and than the rides were free. It was great! Not really crowded and we could go back to the same ride over and over again.
disney still takes photos of guests today, when you scan your ticket there is a camera above you taking a photo! it’s for the same purposes, making sure the same person uses their ticket. the photos are used when the finger scan doesn’t come back as a match. guest relations checks the photo to make sure it’s you, takes a photo of you, then resets your biometric. interesting to see when the pictures started and how!
In the 2010s I was buying tickets for Disney Land in Anaheim in an office off Katela exit for $35 single day use. They had a large binder full of passes and they would scan each one until they said ok this one is still good. I would give them the cash and go straight to Disney Land. I found the office on Craigslist, it was a bit shady but the tickets worked every time.
Ah good old Leslie Doolittle. I think what we had in the early 1990s was the Seasonal Pass, although it seem to me, we did go in the summer some during that time period too and did the park hopping. So I guess we were paying proper for those visits.
would you ever consider doing a video on the price of paying a daily ticket to the price of the rides if there were to be a ticket book? and what rides would be in what category?
Love your videos. I love the subreddits dedicated to the parks, I get to see all the magic and live vicariously thru other visitors. I’m going to go alone and I’m nervous but excited 😍 ticket prices seem high especially for families but discounts and deals are out there if you can find them.
Every time I hear about the original Disney letter coded ride ticket system, I can't help but think of the satirical Rocky and Bullwinkle Fractured Fairy Tale segment "Sleeping Beautyland." I'm still amazed that cartoon got released on a Disney branded Bullwinkle compilation VHS.
Ive never been to any Disney parks and as a kid it made me very sad since almost anytime I told another child theyd act shocked or tell me about how their whole family goes every summer. As an adult I dont even think it would be worth it to go, any small theme park ive been to was hell on earth to me anyway
Between this and Defunctland's video, I think people have learned more about Disney's ticket system in one month than in the prior 60 years cumulatively.
I was just about to say the same thing!
I agree
I definitely agree.
Also 'Review Tyme'.
I agree,
I love how Defunctland and Yesterworld's response to the changes Disney's been making is "let's look at the history to accurately demonstrate the mess Disney has made".
The graph at 20:16 is pretty depressing to watch, what a mess.
@@HD4amian Eh, I wouldn't call it a mess. You really get a lot of entertainment in a day for $160 bucks. Also remember $160 bucks is the "highest" ticket price in the year. The prices are variable and the lower cost days are $110. But the pricing gets significantly cheaper the more days you stay in the park. My wife and I were just in WDW for 6 days last week, the only reason we stayed for the 6th day was because the 6th day only cost us ~$25 bucks each. We felt we got a really good value for our dollar. If you step back and look at all the cost it takes to run a park that size, I'm not really sure how they pull it off! I'm guessing a lot of people spend a lot more money than we did probably eating and buying various products. It's a business and they will adjust the prices to make the maximum dollar, they are very good at it. Some will call it greed, some will call it business intelligence. They don't run the park just to be "nice". :D
@@1D10CRACY I wonder how much you were paid just to type all that 💩out lol
@@1D10CRACY it's a shame that people aren't as reasonable as you.
@@MichaelJDavanzo LOL I'm still waiting for the check.... :D
The Mickey laugh during each price increase killed me with laughter and then tears
Mickey sounds just a little too pleased with those price jumps.
it was so fucking annoying 😭😭 unbearable amount of times
@@Iluvclancats I'm glad I'm not the only one who felt that way. It sounded more like a hiccup sound than a Mickey laugh and heavily detracted from the enjoyment of the video. I watch these type of vids to chill out and this had the opposite effect...
@@Youser999 yes! exactly! whoever edited that soundbite in must not have listened to the final version because my god it was distracting !!!!
I was looking at the comments for something like this and I was not disappointed 🥲 I'm literally dying over here of laughter. Then I hear Mickey's laugh and the cycle continues
"The real price-gouging of the Disney parks began with a certain someone"
Aw shit, here we go again
*Hello, I'm Michael Eisner.*
I had a good laugh at that line. We knew he was gonna say something that rhymes with Michael Eisner. Oops I said the real name.
That did make me laugh, but odd that Iger is almost praised a few minutes later rather than being also treated as a supervillain, despite him overseeing a complete collapse in the value for money at Disney parks.
Looking forward to that promised upcoming two part series on how Michael Eisner saved and destroyed the Disney parks (honestly it should be a feature length documentary!)
Don't worry, it has only been abertized for 3 years by now. It's sure to come soon.
This is a very nice additive epilogue to Defunctland's FastPass video. These video essays really show how Disney's kindness has been evaporating in favour of greedy money making.
for fucks' sake, it's awlays been about making money. Disney has just become that much popular so they can charge prices like these. supply and demand, bitch
My Dad grew up in Southern California in the 70's/80's, and he will always tell us stories about how his poor family was still able to go to Disneyland every weekend.
Lucky bunny...
The crowding out of "normal" people being able to afford visits to the Disney parks is simply one milestone on the determined highway of the dismantling of the American middle class. In a very short amount of time the US will not be for us any more.
I work with someone who talked about the reduced ticket prices after 4pm. So he and some buddies would normally go to Disneyland on Friday nights go on some rides and get a bite to eat.
@@GLJosh Yep, and then we would hang around for the band that was there that weekend.
Disney used to offer a 'locals' pass at a discount for the off season to help pad park numbers. You had to live in certain areas in SoCal, and you couldn't attend on peak weeks/days. My family was able to afford it for a year when I was young, it was a very special treat.
Naturally, they discontinued this several years ago.
@@hannahrobertson31I say a big mistake in my eyes. But if they still had it, just have certain blockout dates for when it gets super busy and crowded especially in the summer season. Again this is just my idea.
Essentially… When the parks first opened it cost a hay penny to enter and it came with free filet mignon, but now you have to take out two mortgages just to pay for parking.
(Great video btw, looking forward to more Eisner!)
@Bored_and_Online Who gets free stuff from Disney? Certainly not me. And I most definitely don't pay for everything. I was able to renew my Silver annual pass thankfully before new annual passes took effect, but not sure which one I will have to get next year. I keep my passes so I can report on the parks, otherwise I wouldn't renew every year. I wasn't "boasting," so much as illustrating how Disney knows some people will pay no matter what, and that's not at all an ethical way to run a business.
Well it's actually hapenny, not hay penny.
But pricing at the parks was a lot cheaper once. I forgot who did the video (it was probably Defunctland), but they mentioned that at one point in time, leadership saw the park as a value operator.
Eisner had the idea to make it a destination stop. Honestly, it does make sense when you realize that the parks are only in two places, CA and FL. There aren't a dozen of them all across the states like Six Flags. That means people who want to go to Disney parks are planning to go, not just making a weekend fling.
That aspect works just like the resorts on the Vegas Strip. There is only one Luxor, Excalibur, Caesar's Palace, etc. So how much do you pay to go stay there?
@@trueedge2097 sure its a destination...but the trouble is they dont appeal to people who make it such. They appeal to people who learn the system because they go repeatedly. Me and my roomates wanted to go, but a trip for 4 guys would have cost roughly 450 per person for a weekend... not including food, souvenirs, ect. Most of us went as kids, and we wanted to take the one who hadnt out for a fun vacation over break.
The website was hard enough to use... you cant just look for availabilities, instead you have to tell them when you intend to go, and only then can you see vacanies in that window of time. Then theres not much flexibility when it comes to rooms. 300 dollars a night for two beds is pretty steep, so rather than sleep in the same beds we found the cabins with 1 normal bed, a bunkbed and a couch for 500. Then tickey prices were just ridiculous...
And those were "off peak" prices. When we checked to see what times correlated with out break, some of the 300 dollar rooms were more expensive than the 500 dollar cabin. I think the steepest jump we saw was a 400 dollar room go for 1200. And tickets raised in value as well.
Any dinner-entertainment events were ~40 dollars per person, but needed to be booked a month or more in advance otherwise other guests had them all taken...
So even if we did pay through the nose, we wouldnt have gotten to eat anywhere but the hot dog carts because all the resturants were reservation only and were booked through... if we were lucky and they were open we could eat a 3pm dinner...
So yeah, its a destination, but its cost prohibitive. Four guys paying equal couldnt afford it, now imagine parents with kids or large families. I get we were in college and dont have the most money... but i cant imagine the financial hit parents take. And if you dont know how the system works and you end up without any of the "experiences" did you really get your moneys worth?
@@Robb1977 Destination trips are usually cost prohibitive. That's why not everyone gets to go to Europe every summer. That is how it works. You have to save up and do some research.
A couple of points.
You have to tell them when you want to go on the website. There is a reason for that. They have both park tickets AND hotel reservations. They go hand in hand. It also plays into the new reservation system at the parks.
But this is the same as it is for any hotel in the country. You don't just buy room fare. It is booked according to date. Same concept. You don't have to worry about that at Six Flags so much. That is a regional park. There are more of them spread out. Not nearly a problem. But when there is only one or two in the country, you have to have a more date-based system.
Another one. Restaurants often come up here. The thing is you don't actually need reservations for most of the restaurants, just he high-end dining. At MK alone, Pinnochio's Village Haus, Sir Mickey's, Cosmic Ray's, and Pecos Bill's do not require reservations. And these are not just "hot dog carts." You don't need to get into Be Our Guest to eat in the park. It's great if you can, but that is a luxury not a necessity. And don't forget you CAN bring your own food. They do allow that.
I also do not stay on property. I can get a two-room suite on 192 for 55 a night. They do exist. You can save a ton of money that way.
Ultimately, there's nothing here that really spells a problem. Those of us who go, know what we're doing. If you're not the kind who likes to plan trips, then no. It's not for you. But you won't get very far just being completely spontaneous. You have to put some planning into literally every aspect of life. Even a simple state park trip has to have some plan. For Disney, it's just another level of it.
Disney has pretty much priced itself out of the average person's wallet. A family of 4 could easily drop $10,000 for a 3-4 days stay on the resort. Think about that $2500 A DAY to stand in lines and go on maybe 6 or 7 rides during the busy season. Folks, that's $$350 or $400 per ride for the family. Is 'its a Small world" worth $100?
How did you get to those numbers?
I am a father of FIVE (a family of seven) and I have spent nowhere near that amount. In fact, I have never spent over 1500 dollars on my tickets.
The real secret is knowing you don't have to stay on property. There are literally hundreds of hotels in the area that cater to Disney guests. With so many of them available, it creates a real price war for your business. I know a hotel that has a number of two-room suites that you can get for 35 a night. They do exist, and they can help bring that cost way down.
If you have to buy plane tickets, I really do sympathize. I live close enough that I don't have to, but I do understand the cost there. But you're going to have that cost literally anywhere you go where you need to fly - the Grand Canyon, Europe, New York City, etc.
So I wonder where you got those numbers. It has never been my experience.
@@Eshray Universal and SeaWorld aren't that much cheaper, and they have been doing for years what Disney is just now doing. A Universal Express Pass is a flat 15 PER RIDE. Unless you buy the Unlimited Pass, which is nearly the price of a full ticket. If you do the math, Disney actually comes out cheaper per day on its most expensive day vs Universal, even given Genie and Lightning Lane.
SeaWorld and even Six Flags have a similar system. It is a flat per ride charge unless you order some unlimited version (which is always a bit more expensive).
Disney is competitive, but you are right. They are a destination park, not a regional operator. You wouldn't expect their prices to match Six Flags or Cedar Fair.
@@novaerose Well the ultimate problem Disney has had over the last two decades has been popularity. This is a theme park company that has seen record numbers of attendance in the years leading up the the pandemic.
Before 2020, Magic Kingdom had hit capacity every Christmas for four years straight. EPCOT had even hit capacity on one of those years.
And those numbers lead to incredibly long lines for everything in the parks. And they weren't dying down over the summers either.
This created a real problem for Disney leadership. They had addressed this several times already by raising the price.
You see. Disney didnt have an attendance problem. Not in the way you think. The problem was too many people were coming. The decision was made to raise prices systematically intentionally to keep people from coming all at once. And it has not really stopped anything.
The pandemic gave them the chance to rethink things. Now that we are seeing the light in the tunnel on that, there is a great chance the numbers problem will come again. Thus, the reservation system. Thus, continuing the price manipulation.
You are right. Making something more affordable means more people take part. But that is exactly the problem Disney is having. Too many people. They are having to do things to get people to scale back.
It must be an odd position to be in.
@@Eshray I 100% agree. My family have been going to Orlando since 2004 when I was 11. My parents bought a place there in around 2006/2007. As the years went on we became less enamoured with Disney and opted for Universal parks as the price was better value for money. We still went to Downtown Disney for many years though. The last trip we had was in 2018 when I brought my uncle and cousin to the Disney parks. It was the visit to Disney Springs that was really the nail in the coffin for me. I felt out of place in the upscale surroundings. It felt like I was no longer Disney’s clientele. They want people to purely drop shedloads of money on merchandise. Experiences come totally secondary. They don’t actually care that I have fun, they care that I spend loads of money.
I tried budgeting out a trip for me and my college roomates over spring break, at cheapest we could get a room for the four of us at 500 a night. Tickets were minimum 100, so split four ways a two day trip was 450 dollars. Thats 4 guys who have part time jobs all paying an even share, and doesnt include food or travel, and would mean condensing a week off into 2 days... especially because we found driving the 12+ hours to disney world would have saved us a few hundred each...
One of my roomates never went as a kid so we thought it would be a fun experience but the cost was literally prohibitive to all of us, and so we didnt go. Later this video and defucntlands came out and seeing repeat customers not only exist but are obsessed with optimizing their good time by throwing money at disney... im not happy at the fact we didnt go, but im glad we didnt give disney our money.
We even considered not buying park tickets and just trying to enjoy the resort amenities like it was a real hotel destination... it should also be noted the pleasure island/downtown disney thing was closed at this point (i dont remember if it was temporary or permanent back then) and we would have had literally nothing to do short of drinking at the hotel bar and eating hot wings...
Yesterworld back then: let’s look at this ride’s interesting history!
Yesterworld now: *the Walt Disney company is a soulless and money grubbing corporation*
I want a Yesterworld episode on the old Yesterworld too 😂
@@jessethelopez Whichever channel stops producing first, between YW and DL, should do a mock video about the other shutting down.
@@YCCCm7 No need Bright Sun Films will have an episode of them in Bankrupt/Abandoned probably
@@Starwars4J Good plug.
I feel like the majority of people who subscribe to this channel feel the same about Disney
From Defunctland to Yesterworld, I'm so glad that I am an annual passholder for both worlds. Love you guys' videos! Yesterworld a little bit more for being my first discovery into the history of Disney and movies! 😀
DefunctLand was my first
I wish they sold ticketbook merch
being subscribed to both is the one true park hopper ticket.
Defunctland has my heart because he covered one of my alltime favorite parks here in Japan Nara dreamland! Yesterworld has my love too. I am pretty far from a disney fan but was a kid once and watch these too
I bought a LOT of "never expire" tickets in the 90s, just like the family in the promo video. My family and I used them several times, but still have lots (about 30 admissions, total), too. I contacted them last year to make arrangements to use them for our reservations. I was told that they would only honor the "paper/face" value on a per day basis towards the purchase of a current, regular day ticket. In other words, the 10-day ticket I bought for ~$300 that has 6 "never expire" days remaining will give me $30 credit towards the current $150 admission price. They won't even let me apply it towards a multi-day ticket. We cancelled our plans and have no plans to go in the future.
Wow! That's some shady S***! Complete BS! The need to honor their word that they promised you when you bought them. I would post what you did here on Disney's social media accounts... like ALL of them!
wtf
thats straight up messed up
I feel like expecting whatever person gets paid to deal with the calls from random people to honour over 30 tickets that are like 30 year olds is a little insane. I would expect them to honour a couple for more, but if you go in with 'Yeah we have 30 tickets' they're absolutely not going to give you that.
@@krablord well they are a business corporation. it’s expected that they streamline with what they promise & market you to buy as a consumer, especially if there is NO fine print indicating it is not actually “forever”, “non-expiring” tickets. It is scummy to say “yes, these tickets don’t expire and can be used in your lifetime”, but then say “nope nevermind” down the round. That is bad business practice. But totally if that is your cup of tea and if that were you in this person’s situation and you wouldn’t feel scammed and dishonored then props to you. These people work in guest services. It is their job to deal with guest calls. Every job has challenges, so to expect them to “deal with the calls from random people” honoring these tickets is actually extremely expected.
This could basically be retitled "Remember when the Disney theme parks were actually affordable?"
Yeah. Now you pay $200 per ticket plus pay extra to skip the lines. Like who can afford this to the average person? It’s like they’re selling tickets only to the rich, but not even rich people can afford this.
It's nearly $350 per ticket now with fast pass
I was thinking about going to Disney again for the first time in ten years but saw the prices for tickets and just felt all of my soul leave my body
Dont go.. it’s worse now.. like no kidding. ive been going every year for the past 2 decades and so much has changed in a bad way.. the quality of everything from the attractions to the food to the guest service is disgusting
@@BubbleCatFTW Has it really? Last time I went was in 2014 and it seemed fine to me.
Great content, research and production! As a 30+ year retiree from the company, I am flabbergasted by the uncontrolled greed. Keep up the great work! 🌈
I think Disney may have finally overdone it. The shift in public opinion towards the companya is becoming very noticeable. This is a very important first step to hopefully see some remorse and thus improvements in Diesney's behaviour towards their customers.
Let's hope so, but knowing how big Disney is on all fronts I don't see that happening unless there's a massive boycott of everything they own.
Sadly it will take something extraordinary to make them change their direction, far more than a few thousand people complaining about it on niche UA-cam channels. You're in an echo chamber. There's not a very noticeable shift in public opinion among the general population. The company wouldn't care even if there was unless it caused a major hit to their bottom line. The parks are already recovering well even though most people travel by plane to get there and the pandemic is still in full-swing. People are desperate to go and they're willing to pay whatever Disney is charging.
Fast forward a few months to today. With the political climate in Florida and California being what they are. And Disney being political about what is going on in those very different politically opposed states...makes one Disney CEO look even dumber. Talk about egg on your face. Disney has lost it's way. The sheer greed is astounding. So many of the people who actually knew what they were doing have left and replaced by people who don't have any experience in their positions...and it really shows to the public. Even if they could turn things around with a CEO with a backbone and hire and place proper people in their positions, it still doesn't justify the prices they are charging...not by a country mile. Which is a shame. Greed has obviously set into the Disney corporation. It's only part of the story, but ultimately their downfall.
Yeah, I'm finally cancelling Disney+ after August (so I can watch the new Lego Star Wars special) because I am done with the company at this point.
It sucks that Disney now owns half of all pop culture.
My final visit was in October 2020. For 2 of us it was around $1,100.
That's for 2 nights lodging, 2 admissions to AK and meals.
To put it into perspective, we went in 2000 for a week visit with 4 day hopper passes, 2 adults and 1 child. Entire trip with flights from Philadelphia, lodging, meals and admission was around $3,500.
(Both hotels were mid range priced)
Spend a little more and instead all three of you could have had an Apple Watch. ;D
I'm always fascinated how Disneytubers all find new Micheal Eisner clips to use when talking about him, I've never seen repeats from two different videos
Between this video and Defunctland's one about the evolution of the fast pass system all I've learned is that my childhood dream of going to Disneyland and having fun will probably remain a dream :'(
i went there 4 years ago as an 18 year old and was bored after day 2. Its like any other theme park tbh
Same
@@ItsOver9000Productions Its becoming more like six flags with everything just having a movie logo attached to it. It's slowly losing that aspect that made it different. I wouldn't mind be price gouged if they went back to imagineering again
just save up like 200 for the cost and then go so you dont have to worry about it
If you can, see if you can find someone who can get you discount tickets. Or look at places like Costco or grocery stores that may have tickets at a cheaper price compared to paying at the gate
Between this video, the Defunctland one, & the Review Tyme one, it's become abundantly clear that there's no way I'm gonna be able to ever afford a Disney trip ever again. And from comments here, it doesn't look like I'm alone in that. That might be profitable in the short term, but how sustainable is it in the long term, if you price out the majority of your potential market?
I can remember sometime in the mid 70''s my mom used to do a lot (I mean A LOT) of business with Kodak, and her sales rep comped us day passes when Disney first started experimenting with them. They were hand stamped and they attached them to our shirts with safety pins. Any time we walked up to an attraction the attendant would just wave us in vs. having to cough up the ABCDE tickets. I still remember more than a few times other kids asking their parents why they couldn't just get into the rides like we did. It was special and awkward at the same time. I still have a few of them somewhere.
At first I thought it was in the early 80's but I dug one out and it was stamped 1977. Yow.
On another note...anyone remember the hand stamps? The ones I remember specifically were UV activated, and I used to get a kick out of seeing them glow in Spaceship Earth (which I rode a LOT)
THE HAND STAMPS YOU'D GET FOR PARK HOPPING YES OMG RIP
Bro I remember those so vividly from when I would go to Disneyland and DCA and as a kid I would even ask the employee to stamp my hand when I'm exiting the park for the night
I remember my mom complaining about the prices in 1990 😅 If she only knew what was coming 🤦
Appreciate the effort put into the video, it says a lot about your commitment and passion for Disney and its creepy yet cool mark on the world
I’m loving how much these videos by Yesterworld and Defunctland are validating what I’d already been suspecting. Like holy cow ticket and pass prices have skyrocketed. This also explains why my family’s theme park relationship has changed over the years. Thanks for this! Keep up the fantastic work!
If you ever want to follow up on this video with the pandemic-related Magic Key information for Disneyland I’d be glad to watch it. As someone kinda familiar with the pass system I’d like to see what the change to reservation-only passes and tickets might mean for the average local visitor, out of state visitor, and various other visitors of different financial backgrounds.
I’ve noticed that the keys have similar block out dates and prices to the prepandemic passes but I’ve been curious about how this has impacted how frequently someone can actually visit the parks in reality, if this changes the dynamic between someone who buys tickets vs someone with a pass, how this has effected crowd levels or access, and how much the value per visit has changed (ex: how the reservation system effects the ‘if you go enough times it’s like you’re going to Disneyland for a low cost of admission’ viewpoint on annual passes)
My brain doesn't hurt but my heart does. I grew up in the 1960s in Orange County, going to Disneyland once a month. Even as an adult in the 1990s I could still go a couple times a year. But now, to make one last visit as a little old lady, I'll be spending 3 months' rent on a five day vacation. It feels like Walt's Betrayal. :(
"New video about ticketing? Didn't they cover that in the last video?" - the result of being subscribed to both Yesterworld and Defunctland and having a very bad memory
My family of three had a saying for *years* that kept us on track of savings "$300 gets you to Disneyland for 3 days" and so it went until 1997 or so, we went every year and I'm sure it got bit a more expensive, we did cut corners (rather icky hotels, no meals out, stuff like that), but compared to now? I can't even afford to get myself and my husband, with minimal food, *and* a southern california resident for $300.
I haven't been to Disneyland since 2016 and this is definitely a factor. Wages haven't gone up at all compared to these increases.
There was also a period when Magic Key members would just get a red ribbon to wear on your wrist instead of a ticket book. You showed the ribbon to each ticket taker to get on the attraction.
I’ve been watching so many Defunctland, Yesterworld, and Disney Dan videos that whenever Michael Eisner appears in any of them, I inwardly scream out of sheer and unadulterated terror! 😱
Same😂
I live in Europe and my "home" Disney park is Disneyland Paris. We usually go off-season when there is a good offer as we're not (yet) bound to any school holidays. We went to WDW a few years ago and were completely blown away by the ridiculous prices. We did have our eyes open for deals but the costs for staying on property plus the admission was mindblowing. Yes, Disneyland Paris is a bit more expensive than regular theme parks in France but it is no comparison to the price level of WDW. I think if Disney raised the prices for DLP as much as they did for the American parks, the park would probably close within a fairly short time, because not enough people would be willing to pay for it.
Side note: Very curious to see how the whole Genie+ (or Premier Access) will play out. Let's see who the Fastpass Monster will eat next! I can't imagine the system being very successful in Paris, to be honest.
Disneyland Paris currently has similar prices to WDW, at least if felt this way last time I was there.
@@mstrmren We went a few weeks ago to Disneyland Paris and paid about 1500 € ($1614) for 3 days/2 nights, 3 adults, park hopper, staying at the cheapest of the medium price range hotels, and half board, all booked directly with Disney. About 1150 € ($1237) without the meal plan. For WDW, a similar booking in October (prices in Paris for October were comparable to what we paid now) gives about $2400 without half board.
Park tickets themselves are also more expensive. An undated single park ticket (1 day/1 park) will cost you 105 € ($113) in Paris, dated ones are between 62€-89€. Cheapest in WDW is currently $109 (dated during the week, in September, access only to animal Kingdom) to $129 (magic Kingdom). Going during the summer will cost you up to $179.
I do see that certain costs within the parks have gone up, e.g. dining got more expensive in Paris recently. But even the bare bones costs for a trip to WDW are higher already.
Not sure how this aligns with the salary levels and general cost of living and if this might go some way to explain the difference in prices, but for someone who lives neither in France nor in the US the difference was staggering.
I'm 29. My family went once when I was 8 in 2000 and we haven't been back since. I truly can't imagine going. Forking over that much money, plus the food prices is just insane.
The Mickey sounds as the graph jumps... 😂
Thank you for another video! I've missed them!
I'm glad you enjoyed the video! I promise the next one(s) won't take as long to get out haha
Walt thanking the people who built the parks should be played round the clock in the executive offices
“Magic Key books”
*glances over at the brand new “Magic Key Passes”*
Hol’ up. You’re telling me “Magic Key” wasn’t a name drawn out of marketing’s sorcerer hat and is in fact, a reference to an older exclusive ticket from the past???
Whenever I see a new Yesterworld video I always get so excited and for a little while everything stressful and wrong going on in my life completely disappears. Thank you so much for putting out these amazing videos, you put so much hard work and time into these and they mean so much to me and other people ❤️
Thank you so much for the kind words, I hope the things that bring you stress in your life get better, but I'm glad my content can help lighten that load even if just a little bit :)
9:40 Hey, it's Gary Owens, the original voice of Space Ghost! Also, when I was in the UCLA Band, we had a sax player who said "Definitely an E ticket!" when we flew up to the Bay Area for a basketball game. Mind you, this was on PSA even though Western Air Lines -- "The only way to fly" -- had been a sponsor for the band and advertised in the L.A. Coliseum during football games.
I’m dead when you brought up about the unlimited pass and the genie pops up lmao got me dying lol
Amazing use of the movie Big to show the elimination of the "junior" ticket tier. Literally a scene where Tom Hanks is getting thrown a purse while acting like a kid. Chefs Kiss.
The thumbnail for this video, prominently showing a jovial Mickey Mouse with dollar-signs in his eyes, gave me a gut-busting fit of laughter that I couldn't stop for at least 30 seconds. Then, later on, seeing it again, gave me another fit of prolonged laughter. And writing this, reminding me again of the thumbnail, gave me additional laughter.
Yesterworld Entertainment's artistic design of the thumbnail, for this video, should win an award . . . *_it is that good!_*
I remember my Dad getting so mad that a one-day ticket to the Magic Kingdom in 1983 was $17 (less that $50 in today's money) that he was going to make us turn around and go home, until Mom was able to talk him down.
I remember going to Disneyland for the 1st time in 2004 and the price for me to get in was $39 and it included a free entrance to DCA for another day due to being a SoCal promo at the time.
12 years ago I went to both parks for $95.
This is a fantastic companion piece to Defunctland's mental breakdown.
I remember when I was a kid, my friend & I would save up our allowance until we had about $25-$30 each (along with any leftover ride tickets gleaned from friends/family who had visited prior) which was enough for us to have one heck of a good day at the park. Cost us about $5 to get in, which left enough money for lunch, a bag of cherry sours from the kiosk in New Orleans Square, and a small souvenir. Now the pricing combined with the ridiculous crowd level makes it not worth going at all. (Heck, just the *crowds* make it not worth going. The last time I went was in 2014; a friend who worked there signed me in as her guest, and even getting in free it wasn't much fun as there were so many people. We had a FastPass for Big Thunder Mountain, and about 10 minutes before our alloted time slot we were over in Toon Town. We really didn't want to fight the crowd in hopes of getting there in time and just skipped it instead.)
It's literally almost tomorrow.
So it's a perfect time to listen to some Yesterworld!
I really enjoyed this video! You can tell a lot of work went into taking a data driven angle on the whole topic.
I'm glad you appreciate all the work that went into this one!
between this and defunctland I know more about disney ticket pricing than I ever expected to know
I'm Canadian and had to paid over $250 for a SINGLE DAY park-hopper ticket this past November. We were only in LA for the day so we made the splurge but it made me realize that it might be my last time in a Disney Park for a LONG time - there's no way I'll be doing that again
It’s great that we have one more Video from Yesterworld before the end of the year
I actually has annual passports at Disneyland from 1984-1986. And even on military pay (around $600 a month) it was affordable.
Today it is insane, and I will never return. Walt would be ashamed at what they have done.
One big ticketing change left unmentioned was WDW making their tickets time sensitive. I first visited Florida in 1992 and bought a 4 day Super Pass {Park Hopper) but only used it three times. Multy-day tickets give a discount so each time I returned I would buy a pass with more days on it than I would need knowing that the price would go up before my next visit. This strategy for getting cheaper tickets has now been cut off by adding an expiration date to tickets. Though I can still get in at least one more time for the 1992 price.
Defunctland…..Yesterworld…..now all I need is Theme Park History and I have the Disney-really-messed-up-with-Genie+” bingo!
This video got me very fascinated on how ticket prices were changed a lot, and I’m surprised that they got very expensive nowadays. Excellent work on the new video Mark, I have a great time with it!
Thank you! I've been hoping someone would cover this. Every talks about E tickets and A tickets and such but I don't think I've seen a solid indepth discussion of the evolution. Thanks.
Great video!!!….your accumulation of data, information and video clips is astonishing. This is better than watching any documentary on tv or movie…thank you!!
"The War for Disney's America" was Defunctland
Wow with some of these price increases you’d almost have to win the lottery (starring Bette Midler)
So, my question is then, knowing the ticket price increases, how much of those increases are offset by the newest rides and tech added into the parks? Like, we know the price gouging is real and insane, but how much of that may be justified by the improvements to the parks?
@@Anon4859 That increase in profit is probably operating profit which does not include capital expenditures, i.e. "improvements to the parks" ... I haven't gone through their books though so I could be wrong, but the information should be out there if anyone wants to try to analyze it
The price doubled in the last 10 years.. did the parks double in size, attractions , shows, service?
WOW! To be honest I think Uncle Walt would be pissed. He made Disneyland for everyone, not just the super rich.
And Galactic Starcruiser, Holy **** !
"And I'll give you one guess as to who"
Me: "hello, I'm Michael Eisner"
Video: "Hello, I'm Michael Eisner"
Me: "I KNEW IT"
I remember being 5 in 04 and my family having the top Disneyland pass it was honestly amazing. Seeing how cheap the prices are compared to today is mind blowing. My gf and I have our passes today and it’s a completely different world.
You and Defunctland did an amazing job with these videos
Thank you!
I love Yesterworld's relationship with Michael Eisner.
I have a family member who has been in special projects at Disneyland since the '70s. You can ask him stuff if you like. I'm sure you hear this a lot but there it is. He doesn't do UA-cam but he said no problem.
In 1985 or 1986, my family got a Three Season Salute ticket for unlimited admissions in January, May & September. It was a great deal!
Thanks for verifying that my thought of "boy they've really been jacking up the prices in recent years" was accurate!
Yesterworld and defuntland release a new video
WDWco:"that wasn't very cash money"
My friends and family don't understand why I am into theme park history and planning. I thank Yesterworld and Defunctland.
I loved seeing Michael Eisner and all the Disney Characters in this Video. MERRY CHRISTMAS!
Might not be a coincidence this video came out after the new Star Wars hotel in Magic Kingdom and it’s very high price. I mean who would want to spend $6000 dollars just to spend in a Disney hotel for two nights straight!?
Exactly.
Especially when it's all based off the Disney trilogy crap, who the hell wants to live surrounded around by that travesty for two days straight?!
We stay off property. $6000 is two weeklong vacations for my family.
As it would turn out, nobody 😂
I don’t know how I got here, but I’m so so so grateful that I did. :)
I never knew I’d be so interested in this sort of stuff, but you (and Defunctland, too!) have really opened my eyes. I’ve always been complacent in it all, but I’m slowly learning to “push back the marketing curtain” as it were. You’re doing such an amazing job here. Thank you, thank you, thank you for these videos!
To be honest, extremely interesting, but I would have loved to see a line for the average us inflation rate on the graphs just for comparisons sake. I know that's part of why they're always increasing cost but it would have been nice to see by how much
I agree! That's what I was hoping for!
It really would have been nice. Just as a bit of context, inflation from 1982 to 2021 was about 288%, based on the Bureau of Labor Statistics' data.
not just inflation, but comparison to pay (cast member average and even against the national average)
Also something that tracks the number of employees in the parks.
Note, I am not saying that this data will justify the increases (since I don't know the numbers) but in my opinion it will give a better, fairer picture of the price rises
There was a trivial amount of inflation between 2005 to 2020, which was when the highest price hikes were.
@@mattyt1961 Honestly, if you put these prices on a graph alongside CM pay, I suspect it would only be more damning than it already appears alone.
Thanks for not letting UA-cam demonetize comments , subscriber for life
One thing that never changed: The Ludicrous prices.
Ludicrous…when I move, you move…
Welcome back! Thanks for covering this change (both in $ and how they're displayed over time)!
In 2019 I went to WDW for 3 weeks, my first time back to WDW since 1972. For a stay of that length it just made sense to buy the annual pass at just $1,120 due to all the discounts on hotel, etc. The thing that blew me away is I've been a Disneylander for the last 45 years and despite WDW have twice as many parks ( and 2 waterslide parks, more hotels, more things to do ) the DL annual pass at that same time was $280 more. HOW?! WHY?! It's not worth it! My last DL AP was 2014 and man, I am glad. Only a UA-camr/Influencer who goes every day could afford that, write it off as a "business expense" or something.
Before 2000 I used to suggest to friends that they could spend as much or as little as they wanted for a Disney World trip, except for the modest park tickets of course. Since then prices have skyrocketed to the point where I would not offer such advice. The prices now feel like an abuse, a ransom required to enter the parks.
wow...how the prices and admission techniques have changed over time, I remember doing "park hopping" during my vacation WAY back in '03
Glad I got to go to Disneyworld as a kid end of Aug. 1997. A 5 day kids pass wasn't too expensive, the hotel suite just outside of the park had end of summer discounts as Florida schools just started. The lines weren't bad cause nobody was paying to cut lines with fast pass yet. (We went at open to hit the most popular rides first.) We even walked right into the famous Disney restaurant buffet and got a table quickly. I hear nowadays you need to book months in advanced. The basic Disney ticket today does almost nothing. When everyone buys a fast pass the regular line becomes an all day wait.
I've got a couple handfulls of old Disneyland ride tickets left over from the 70's/early 80's in a box.
I Never had to worry about tickets or passports back in the good ole days. My dad who was a LA fireman, was invited by Disneyland who would throw a fire and policeman's ball every year. Only those who worked for the city/county and their families were able to enjoy Disneyland for that ball without dealing with tickets. My dad would play for the discounted entry park tickets and than the rides were free. It was great! Not really crowded and we could go back to the same ride over and over again.
9:00 My first experience w tickets was the single day passport. I remembered these as a kid. It was still very reasonably priced at the time.
Thank you for breaking that all down (and keeping it entertaining throughout)! Stunning the level of greed
I feel super old that I remember tickets! 😂thank you for sharing your video with us - it’s definitely an E attraction my friend
Always good to see a new Yesterworld video, fun and informative
A 22 minute video about the Disney park ticket system and price changes? Why yes UA-cam, I would like to watch that.
There’s also a feature length video on Fastpass from Defunctland
disney still takes photos of guests today, when you scan your ticket there is a camera above you taking a photo! it’s for the same purposes, making sure the same person uses their ticket. the photos are used when the finger scan doesn’t come back as a match. guest relations checks the photo to make sure it’s you, takes a photo of you, then resets your biometric. interesting to see when the pictures started and how!
In the 2010s I was buying tickets for Disney Land in Anaheim in an office off Katela exit for $35 single day use. They had a large binder full of passes and they would scan each one until they said ok this one is still good. I would give them the cash and go straight to Disney Land. I found the office on Craigslist, it was a bit shady but the tickets worked every time.
One of the best videos I’ve seen on this topic! Thank you. Wow.
I always learn so much with yesterworld information. Thank you for this very interesting subject that I really had not thought about.
Yay! So glad you’re making more videos! I literally watched all of them in my spare time
Considering my family spent $5000 the last time we bought wdw annual passhold and that was with an amazing limited dvc discount this checks out
Ah good old Leslie Doolittle. I think what we had in the early 1990s was the Seasonal Pass, although it seem to me, we did go in the summer some during that time period too and did the park hopping. So I guess we were paying proper for those visits.
would you ever consider doing a video on the price of paying a daily ticket to the price of the rides if there were to be a ticket book? and what rides would be in what category?
I still have some tickets left over in a ticket book from the '70s 😊
This works as a beautiful companion video to Defunctland’s Fast Pass video!
Love your videos. I love the subreddits dedicated to the parks, I get to see all the magic and live vicariously thru other visitors. I’m going to go alone and I’m nervous but excited 😍 ticket prices seem high especially for families but discounts and deals are out there if you can find them.
Every time I hear about the original Disney letter coded ride ticket system, I can't help but think of the satirical Rocky and Bullwinkle Fractured Fairy Tale segment "Sleeping Beautyland." I'm still amazed that cartoon got released on a Disney branded Bullwinkle compilation VHS.
Everyone's day is better when yesterworld uploads a new video.
Ive never been to any Disney parks and as a kid it made me very sad since almost anytime I told another child theyd act shocked or tell me about how their whole family goes every summer. As an adult I dont even think it would be worth it to go, any small theme park ive been to was hell on earth to me anyway