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Disneyland Raises Prices Again In 2015: Theme Park Goers Surprised By New Prices On Sunday

By Regina Avalos
Published on: 22:52 PST, Oct 4, 2015

As Disney raises prices at Disneyland for the second time this year, visitors to the theme park will need to decide if the price hike is too much for them to handle. Visitors to the theme park on Sunday were surprised by the changes in admission. The Los Angeles Times reported on the price changes that went live at the Happiest Place on Earth over the weekend. These are major price hikes, and they hit ticket prices at almost all levels.

In fact, Disney axed some of the ticket levels completely, and they raised others by large amounts. Is Disney trying to get ready for Star Wars Land? Construction on that addition to the theme park will begin in 2016, and it will change the theme park drastically.

However, theme park goers are concerned about the price hike they are facing to visit Disneyland today. Disney axed the Premium ticket package completely. With the Premium pass, people could attend the two current Disney theme parks in Anaheim, Disneyland and California Adventure, for $779 a year.

The pass included admission to the theme parks and discounts inside the theme parks. Customers can continue to use their current passes until they expire, but they will not be able to renew their pass once it does run out.

The Premium pass has been replaced with the Signature Plus pass, which costs $1049. That pass will include the benefits from the Premium pass, and it will add on free parking. The pass will also include digital access to photos of you and your party taken inside the theme park during your visit. You can use that access to create keepsake photos after your visit.

The top tier ticket prices were not the only ones impacted by the price hike at Disneyland. The Los Angeles Times revealed the other changes, as well.

“The Deluxe pass, which allows admission for both Anaheim parks 315 days of the year, rose 9% to $599. The Southern California pass, which allows admission 215 days a year and can only be renewed, not purchased new, rose 12% to $459. The Southern California Select pass, which allows admission 170 days a year, rose 10% to $329.”

A snap shot of the price changes taken by a visitor confirms all of the above changes.

According to Time, this is the second price change at Disneyland in 2015. The theme park raised their single-day passes to $99 in February. That price did not change in this price change at the theme park. Time reported that the price hike earlier this year did not have an impact on attendance. Their report stated that “attendance at Disneyland grew by 3.5% to 16.7 million people between 2013 and 2014.”

Visitors to Disneyland will need to deal with some major closures and construction in the months ahead. For the Star Wars Land addition, Disneyland will need 14 acres of land. Right now, they have a three-acre parcel of land available, and they will need to find 11 more acres for the planned project.

That means visitors will need to say good-bye to some popular attractions at the theme park in the near future. Slash Film shared their thoughts on the planned construction and addition of Star Wars Land last week. The new addition will cause changes in the Rivers of America attraction, the closure of Big Thunder Ranch, and a drastic change to the northwest section of the theme park. Disney confirmed the changes to Rivers of America on Twitter.

The Disneyland Railroad will also change its route to accommodate the new addition. Slash Film shared the following about those planned changes.

“The new railroad route will make a sharper right turn past Splash Mountain and head out towards what is now Tom Sawyer Island and the Big Thunder Ranch area. The tracks will pass along the backside of Big Thunder Mountain Railroad before making another dogleg turn to the north and joining the current alignment near the existing Toontown station.”

Disney is hoping to have construction on the new addition completed by April 2017. The attractions set for closure or changes will close down on January 11, 2016.

With Disney raising prices at Disneyland, one does have to wonder if they are trying to cover the cost of the new Star Wars Land. Star Wars is huge right now with the release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens in December.

Disney is definitely looking ahead and banking on the popularity of the new films with this planned addition. Loyal Star Wars fans are ready for the film, but will they flock to the new Star Wars Land with these new prices in place. Disneyland is not going anywhere though. The theme park celebrated its 60th anniversary this year.

What do you think? Will the price hike at Disneyland stop you from visiting the happiest place on Earth in the near future?

[Photo: Handout via Getty Images]

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