Walt Disney World’s ticket price increase has occurred like clockwork, with prices going up for 1-day, multi-day, base and Park Hopper options for January through October 31, 2026. This post has pricing for 2025 vs. next year, details on the increases along with commentary offering our thoughts.
Let’s start with the good news. Prices did not increase on 2025 tickets, only on 2026 tickets. This follows the precedent established last year, which was to not raise rates on existing inventory, but only the new product release. Prior to that, prices went up in February and/or October (and sometimes December!) on the current and coming calendar year’s tickets.
For reference, last year there were two waves of ticket releases. The first occurred in the winter and covered dates for January through October 31–just like what’s happening now. The second occurred in the fall and covered November and December. This is incredibly important information that’s necessary for an apples to apples comparison because prices hit new all-time record highs in the last two months of 2025. Not surprising given that encompasses the weeks of Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Eve–and those are the most expensive weeks of the year, on average, at Walt Disney World.
Prior to that, the last price increase on regular park tickets at Walt Disney World occurred on December 8, 2022. Meaning that Walt Disney World went over a year (445 days) without a price increase on admission, which is fairly unprecedented. (It’s actually 755 days if you do the math on the effective date of the higher prices–since they were announced last February and didn’t apply until this winter.)
That pause on price increases occurred for two reasons. The first is that ticket prices increased twice in 2022, with the first happening in February. It wasn’t just two increases in 2022, either. Admission costs rose more in 2021-2022 than during any two-year stretch on record. Consumers were less cost-conscious during the “revenge travel” era and Walt Disney World took full advantage. As we’ve seen in the last two years, they’re still trying to find ways to maintain that, adjusting for slowdowns in consumer spending.
The second is that Lightning Lane Multi-Pass pricing has gone up (effectively) throughout the last two years with the debut of per-park pricing and just higher prices in general. Although separate from admission and optional, this paid FastPass service is purchased by a high percentage of guests and thus acts as a de facto increase to admission prices, albeit one that you can opt out of.
Point being, it’s not as if admission has held flat for all or even a majority of guests over the last couple of years. Lightning Lanes are optional, sure, but a high percentage of guests do purchase them–and it’s necessary to replicate the pre-2020 experience, back when FastPass was free.
The additional good-ish news, at least for on-site guests, is that Walt Disney World has also ramped up discounts significantly in the last two years. Walt Disney World has effectively brought back the 2019 deal playbook and then some, offering discounts on par or better than that year after slim pickins’ between 2021 and early 2023. (See All Current Walt Disney World Discounts for 2025.)
With the latest wave of discounts for this summer on tickets & resorts, we’re seeing the cheapest prices for Walt Disney World vacations in over 6 years. (See How to Get the Cheapest Walt Disney World Trip Since 2019.) Of course, that’s not apples to apples as perks have been cut as compared to 2019, but it’s still encouraging to see this downtrend.
As we like to point out, Walt Disney World long ago adopted the “Kohl’s Model” to pricing, where the sticker prices are almost meaningless due to discounts. Kohl’s learned ages ago that if the base price is higher, it makes the discounted rate look like even more of a bargain!
Walt Disney World leadership studied at the Kohl’s School of Business, and learned that same lesson during the Great Recession. Since then, we’ve seen prices keep going up, even as discounts get better. The end result is a value proposition that’s now much better than 2021-2023, all things considered. And for summer, it’s as good as 2019.
But you’re probably here for the 2026 ticket price increases, not a recent history of Walt Disney World pricing and discounting. (I just personally find that fascinating, and illuminating context for the changes.) As a general matter, Walt Disney World’s date-based ticket pricing system makes price increases very difficult to assess.
This variable pricing obfuscates changes by design, and it’s thus difficult for us to fully track price increases. The good news is that, as noted above, Walt Disney World did not raise 2025 prices with the release of the annual product for 2026, so it’s a pretty easy before/after by comparing this year to 2025 on the official WDW ticket pricing calendar.
Here are the existing single-day ticket price ranges for January through October 2025:
- Animal Kingdom: $119 to $169
- EPCOT: $129 to $179
- Disney’s Hollywood Studios: $139 to $184
- Magic Kingdom: $139 to $189
Here are the new single-day ticket price ranges for January through October 2026:
- Animal Kingdom: $119 to $179
- EPCOT: $129 to $194
- Disney’s Hollywood Studios: $139 to $199
- Magic Kingdom: $139 to $199
You might see other websites with numbers that differ from these and contend that prices are flat or, in a couple of cases, have actually decreased. This analysis is misguided. They are presumably arriving at these conclusions by comparing January through December 2025 to 2026, which might seem fair at first blush.
The problem is that, as noted above, November and December contain the most expensive weeks of the year. So if you include those weeks for this year but exclude them for 2026 (because current tickets only go to October 31, 2026), you’re going to erroneously conclude that prices are flat or perhaps down slightly. But they aren’t! We just don’t have all dates yet!
Unless next year totally defies past precedent, Walt Disney World set new record high ticket prices starting Monday, December 21, 2026. From that date through December 31, 2026, all four parks will hit their highest-ever prices. Just like this year versus last year. For reference, there were some pretty big jumps in 2025 for those same dates–we’re talking $10 to $15 increases across the board.
The big question is whether Walt Disney World will have any trepidations about breaking the $200 barrier at Magic Kingdom? If so, that could mean prices not going up during the last two weeks of 2026.
We highly doubt that’ll be the case. Disneyland broke the $200 barrier without much reluctance, and has weekends in October 2025 priced at that level. It’s hard to imagine that Walt Disney World won’t do the same over one full year later in December 2026. The other very obvious reason that they’ll do this is demand.
Despite the highest prices of the year, Christmas to New Year’s Eve remains the busiest week (and by a wide margin) of the year. If Disney really wanted to rip the band-aid off, they could probably blow past the $200 barrier and push prices all the way to $225 or $240 without much issue. Walt Disney World has exceedingly few opportunities for revenue growth right now; it’s hard to imagine them passing up higher prices for Christmas and New Year’s Eve due to the perception of higher prices.
In the here and now, the most expensive prices of January through October 2026 occur exactly when you’d expect them: Presidents’ Day, Spring Break, Easter, and Fall Break. In comparing year-over-year prices (adjusted for the timing of different holidays), all of these prices are up–setting new record highs for their respective weeks.
Offering the caveat that I’m not doing comprehensive data analysis beyond that, and am instead spot-checking dates throughout the calendar, it appears that most dates and parks are up around $10 year-over-year. Generalizing further, the average price increase is in the 4-5% range. This is not a hard and fast rule, and doesn’t impact all parks equally.
To my surprise, Animal Kingdom percentage increases actually outpace Magic Kingdom. This is presumably because a ~$10 bump from the lower baseline of DAK is a higher percentage gain than a ~$10 increase from the higher baseline of Magic Kingdom. Still, it’s kind of odd to see the least desirable park (something that won’t change–it’ll only worsen!) rise by more than the most desirable park. Not what I would’ve expected.
Although that’s odd to see and suggests Walt Disney World took a blunt instrument approach to raising prices across the board, summer pricing suggests the opposite. June prices are up slightly, but I actually couldn’t find a single instance of higher ticket costs in July 2026 vs. July 2025. To the contrary, there are a handful of dates showing decreases.
It’s a similar story in August and September, albeit not as pronounced. This isn’t nearly as surprising, as those months have historically seen the lowest price growth. Those two months are firmly the off-season, offering the lowest prices of the year and the lowest attendance. I’m not inclined to do more than cursory analysis to off-season sticker pricing, since it’s meaningless in the end due to discounts. (See above comments about the Kohl’s Model.)
At the other end of the spectrum, the months with the biggest increases appear to be January and February 2026. This also is not the least bit surprising. Demand has shifted strongly in favor of winter visits due to a number of factors, but prices haven’t completely caught up. I have yet to start my resort rack rate analysis, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see major gains for those two months. Despite high occupancy, those are the cheapest months of the year (or rather, were in 2025).
The July 2026 price decreases are interesting for the same reason, but in reverse of winter. The last two summers have been slow, resulting in Walt Disney World scrambling to offer deals and a flurry of media headlines about surprisingly low crowds. Despite everyone (including Disney, oddly) acting like this is a new development, it really isn’t!
For further insight into this, see “Summer Isn’t Peak Season at Walt Disney World” from back in June 2017 or, better yet, Summer (Still) Is NOT High Crowds Season at Walt Disney World from last June. Although published seven years apart, the story largely remains the same–the underlying rationales just differ slightly.
Point being, it seems that Walt Disney World is finally coming to terms with the not-so-new normal of lower summer demand. We’re seeing that this year with incredibly aggressive discounts (see the above point about prices lower than 2019), and that’s also reflected in 2026 prices. I’m not sure what took so long, and it’s also interesting that June didn’t see similar decreases–June is not materially busier than July.
Park Ticket Price Increase Commentary
My controversial opinion is that price increases are bad. I know, I know…so brave to speak up about this!
But I don’t mean that price increases are bad for you or I as consumers, in which case paying more for the same (or less) is obviously undesirable. I question the wisdom of price increases as a business decision for Walt Disney World.
This isn’t the pent-up demand era anymore, and there’s a reason why Walt Disney World left ticket prices unchanged from December 8, 2022 through January 1, 2026. There’s also a reason why discounts have gotten much, much more aggressive in the last year-plus, and why we’re seeing a surge of special offers–and better ones–for Summer 2025 and beyond.
The thought process for 2026 prices is probably more of the same with the Kohl’s Model to pricing. Raise the sticker prices, capture the revenue that can be captured by doing that, and then offer discounts to backfill rooms and park attendance. It’s not necessarily a bad strategy; it’s one that works until it doesn’t.
My fear is that Walt Disney World is reaching that “until it doesn’t” phase. The above approach is viable so long as there’s a strong stream of planners pricing out Walt Disney World vacations that is available to capture at both the higher and the discounted pricing. What happens when the stream slows to a trickle?
If you’re reading this, you’re probably a savvy Walt Disney World planner. Even though you’re the demographic most likely to become incensed by the aforementioned increases, you are, ironically enough, the demo least likely to be impacted due to discounts. But what about everyone else?
Not everyone is stalking disneyworld.com, waiting for the next special offer to drop to bring prices down to their level. Many people price out a vacation once, and view the price they see at face value–it either is acceptable or too high. That’s it; they’re done. Either out or in right then.
My concern is that there’s already growing economic uncertainty and travel trepediations, at the same time that consumer confidence dips and fears of a recession rise. Then there’s international travel, which has already plummeted from Canada and is likely to drop for other markets in the coming months both as a natural byproduct of lagging pent-up demand and the current climate. Of course, that’s in the here and now–things could be better or worse by 2026!
One thing that we know is not changing is that Universal Orlando is opening Epic Universe down the street. While Walt Disney World’s public line has been that a “rising tide lifts all ships,” this third gate at Universal Orlando is incredibly formidable competition and will likely negatively impact resort occupancy and attendance at some Walt Disney World theme parks. If potential guests price out vacations to both Walt Disney World and Universal Orlando for 2026, they might be more inclined to opt for the latter.
Ultimately, I hope these are misguided fears on my part. That the economy will be booming in 2026. That Epic Universe will draw more new visitors to Orlando than it does pull people from Walt Disney World and is a net positive as a result. I’m admittedly sensitive to public perception of Walt Disney World, and have long been cringing at what those ‘Most Expensive Day Ever’ and ‘Bibbidi Bobbidi Broke’ shirts mean during a slowdown or tougher economic environment. This is a problem that’s been bubbling beneath the surface for a while.
This is something we’ve been pointing out for a while, with Is Walt Disney World Too Expensive for Middle Class Americans? and Is Disney Ruining Its Reputation? covering the company’s self-inflicted brand damage, loss of goodwill, and pricing perception problems. That has happened, at least in part, because Walt Disney World is charging more and offering less as compared to 2019. These price increases certainly will not help with that perspective among average Americans.
Planning a Walt Disney World trip? Learn about hotels on our Walt Disney World Hotels Reviews page. For where to eat, read our Walt Disney World Restaurant Reviews. To save money on tickets or determine which type to buy, read our Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets post. Our What to Pack for Disney Trips post takes a unique look at clever items to take. For what to do and when to do it, our Walt Disney World Ride Guides will help. For comprehensive advice, the best place to start is our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide for everything you need to know!
Your Thoughts
What do you think of these Walt Disney World ticket price increases for 2026? Will you still be visiting the parks next year, or are you priced out? Do you agree or disagree with our assessment? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!