Financial Analyst Says Disney Prices Are “Out of Control”. You Don’t Say!

If you have visited a Walt Disney theme park recently, you likely have noticed that costs are up while the quality is down. What once was a relatively easy experience now requires much more planning, and if you want to get the most out of your trip, you need to pay a lot more. Disney prices seem to be out of control.

Attendance has been declining recently, at least at Walt Disney World. During the Q3 earnings call, investors were told to expect park attendance to stay down for a “few quarters.”

Parks fans already noticed that Disney prices are out of control, but now it seems others are also noticing, including financial analysts.

In a recent interview with Yahoo Finance, Morningstar analyst Matthew Dolgin discussed how the pricing may be to blame.

“My one area of concern is whether it’s a longer-term issue, as prices have gotten a little bit out of control, versus a shorter-term economically-tied type of issue,” Morningstar analyst Matthew Dolgin said in an interview. “I don’t know how much of this is a natural cyclical thing versus whether they have pushed the envelope a little bit too much on pricing, but that’s the biggest thing that concerns me, rather than their investment in the business.”

Disney has committed to spending $60 billion over the next decade, but that is for all its parks and Disney Cruise Lines. DCL alone is building several new ships. This sounds like a lot of money, but when you break it down to $6 billion a year across all the parks and Disney Cruise Lines, it isn’t as impressive.

While new attractions keep people coming, the promise of fighting for a virtual queue space or paying $20 or more extra per person to guarantee an individual lighting lane for one attraction is turning people off.

Recently, there have been countless articles about the rising costs of a Disney vacation.

People are going into debt, sometimes a lot of debt, just to go one one trip. The Disney Difference is less for more, with prices outpacing the inflation rate by a staggering amount.

Even the special event tickets are getting ridiculous. Tickets have gone from $60-$70 per person to $200 a person on some nights. With tax, it could cost a family almost $900 just to get into Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party or Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party. Now, Jollywood Nights is in there, too.

If Disney starts adding attractions, they will raise ticket prices to “pay” for the attractions. Once again, they will claim the “Disney brand” necessitates the upcharges while simultaneously suing Orange County, overtaxing them on the same thing.

They claim “demand” is why the Lighting Lane prices have gone up and up over the years; however, when demand is provably down, they still raise the prices to raise revenue per guest to offset the fact that attendance is down!

Disney is losing its luster with fans and potential guests. Revealing that the fine print of the Disney+ and My Disney Experience apps waive guests’ rights to lawsuits if something happens. Prices are rising constantly, and plans are to fill in the Rivers of America at the Magic Kingdom. All of this is causing people to rethink Disney.

The economy isn’t in a great place either, and many are waiting to see how the dockworkers strike and the election go. People aren’t as willing to part with their money right now. Disney may be better off lowering prices and convincing consumers that they are on their side.

Wall Street is finally catching on that Disney prices are getting out of control. Disney stock is still going up, but it has been down $30 per share since earlier this year. If they don’t correct the course soon, it could get worse.

What do you think? Comment and let us know!