Disney World Just Made Some Big Price Changes -- Here's What You Need to Know

If you're a fan of the Walt Disney World resort in Central Florida, there is some good news and some bad news. On one hand, some of the most unpopular policies from the COVID-19 pandemic era are finally coming to an end. But on the other hand, Disney is increasing prices on certain tickets and parking. Here's a rundown of what you need to know and what it could mean for your next Disney vacation.

Disney's annual passes are more expensive

Standard Walt Disney World tickets aren't increasing in price. They still start at $109 for a one-day ticket and can be significantly more during busy times of the year.

However, Disney World's annual pass prices just increased:

I won't go into too much detail about the passes themselves here. But they're listed in order of least restrictive to most restrictive. The Incredi-Pass is available to whoever wants to buy one and has no blackout dates. On the other end of the spectrum, the Pixie Pass is only available to Florida residents to use on weekdays during non-peak times of the year. And Florida residents can buy annual passes with 12-month 0% APR financing.

It's worth noting that these price changes are coming on the heels of Disney's announcement that the company will be investing $60 billion in its parks and experiences over the next decade.

The cost of parking has increased

Standard parking at Disney World has increased to $30, a $5 increase from the previous price. That's something to keep in mind before you whip out your favorite travel credit card to cover incidental vacation costs. This increase brings it in line with other Orlando theme parks, specifically SeaWorld Orlando and Universal Orlando Resort. Annual passholders and guests staying at Disney hotels still get free standard parking.

Park hopping is back

Although it's not technically a pricing change, there is some good news to report. Disney is officially bringing back all-day park hopping, starting on Jan. 9, 2024. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, park hopping has only been allowed after 2 p.m., a notable change from the prior all-day policy, and one that made buying park-hopping tickets much less attractive.

In addition, the need to make park reservations (another COVID-19 policy) is going away for date-based tickets, but not for annual passes. And the prepaid Disney Dining Plan is coming back for the first time since before the pandemic.

Could these changes make your Disney World trip less expensive?

Annual passholders are certainly going to end up paying a little more with the new changes. But for families that are taking a trip to Disney World, these new policy changes could potentially make it more affordable to enjoy all four theme parks -- particularly the changes to the park-hopping and reservations policies.

Let's say that you want to experience all four Walt Disney World theme parks but you don't want to have to plan which park to start at each day and where to "hop" to after 2 p.m. So, you buy a standard 4-day ticket to visit one park per day, and the price (as of Oct. 13) is $546.89.

On the other hand, once you can freely show up to any park where you want to start your day and come and go between the parks as you please, it could be more practical to experience everything you want to in all four parks in fewer days. A 3-day park hopper ticket costs $510.94 on the day of this writing, so it could end up saving a family of four about $140 -- not to mention you could spend one fewer night in a hotel.

Of course, this is just one hypothetical example, but the point is that these new rule changes make it possible to get more value out of Disney World park hopper tickets than has been available for the past few years.