Disney Just Hiked Ticket Prices — But Here’s When It Cost Just $1

Around 47 million people visit Orlando’s Disney theme parks each year, making it the country’s second-most-visited tourist destination. If you plan to join the crowds at the “Most Magical Place on Earth,” or its sister park, the “Happiest Place on Earth,” prepare to pay even more for admission. Price hikes have recently gone into effect for both Walt Disney World in Florida and Disneyland in Southern California. Here’s how much you can expect to pay in 2025 and 2026.

Disneyland and Disney World Get More Expensive

Disney’s theme parks use a tiered pricing system. The lowest tier, Tier 0, is for days with the lowest demand, while the highest tier, Tier 6, covers peak periods such as holidays. Effective October 8, 2025, prices have gone up for most types of tickets, as first reported by the Disney news site Mickey Visit. 

The good news is that, for the lowest tiers, pricing remains unchanged. The cheapest single-day, single-park admission for Disneyland is $104 per adult ticket and $98 per child ticket (ages 3 to 9; children under 3 don’t need a ticket). The same type of ticket at Walt Disney World starts at $119 for adults at Disney’s Animal Kingdom ($114 for kids). 

Wondering when you can score the cheapest tickets? Disney’s website for both theme parks has a handy calendar feature that points you to the dates with the lowest prices. For Disneyland, there were a total of 38 days available at Tier 0, the lowest price, in 2025, the company shared with Mickey Visit. 

If you’re planning to visit during peak periods, though, expect to shell out more. At Walt Disney World, Tier 6 tickets (the highest price level) for dates through October 2026 will continue to max out at $199 for adults. But for select peak dates in November and December 2026, one-day admission will now cost $209 — the first time a single-day admission ticket to Walt Disney World will cost more than $200. 

Tier 6 adult admission to Disneyland is jumping $18, from $206 to $224 per adult ticket. According to a study by Mickey Visit, that means the cost for the most expensive single-day ticket at Disneyland has increased by over 125% over the past decade. Prices are also increasing for the middle tiers (Tiers 2 through 5) by around $5 at both parks. 

Disney Theme Park Prices Over the Years

If you’re like us, the sticker shock may have you yearning for the old days: When Disneyland first opened in 1955, admission tickets cost just $1 for adults (equivalent to about $12 today) and 50 cents for children. When Walt Disney World followed in 1971, the price of adult admission was $3.50 (about $27 today). 

That said, when the theme parks first opened, guests had to pay extra for individual rides (starting at 23 cents for adults and 10 cents for kids when Disneyland first opened). And there were far fewer of them than there are today, so the comparison isn’t exactly apples to apples. 

But there’s no denying that a Disney vacation has been getting more and more expensive. Back in 2000, a single-day ticket to Walt Disney World cost $46 for adults (about $87 today) and $37 for kids, according to the popular unofficial Disney guide AllEars.net. By 2015, a ticket to Magic Kingdom passed the $100 mark. 

Other Price Changes

Disney is hiking prices on other types of tickets as well, including annual passes and multiday tickets. At Disney World, for example, annual prices will be going up by between $20 and $80. 

At Disneyland, a five-day Park Hopper pass (the most expensive daily ticket) will now cost an eyewatering $655 — a $39 increase. Most of Disneyland’s Magic Key annual passes will increase, too, but the two lowest tiers will remain unchanged.

And for those looking to skip the parks’ lengthy queues for rides, Disney is also raising the cost of its popular Lightning Lane passes by up to $6. For instance, a Lightning Lane Multi Pass at Disney’s Magic Kingdom during peak periods will now cost $45, up from $39. Prepare to pay a bit more for parking, too. The cost of a standard parking pass at Disney World is increasing $5, from $30 to $35. 

There’s some good news, though: Disney also announced that special pricing on a three-day California Resident Park Hopper pass will be available for purchase starting December 3. It will allow California residents to visit both Disneyland Park and Disney California Adventure Park for under $85 per day from January 1 through May 21, 2026.

And Disney plans to open a slew of new rides and attractions at both parks in 2026, including the Rock ’n’ Roller Coaster, starring the Muppets, in summer 2026 at Disney’s Hollywood Studios in Orlando.

Where To Experience the Real Thing

If price hikes have you reconsidering your Disney vacation — or if theme parks aren’t really your thing — you could travel instead to some of the real places that inspired many of the rides and attractions at Disneyland and Disney World. 

For instance, the Matterhorn in Zermatt, Switzerland, inspired one of Disneyland’s oldest and most beloved rides — the Matterhorn Bobsleds. According to legend, Walt Disney fell in love with the real Matterhorn, one of the most recognizable peaks in the Alps, on a trip to Switzerland in 1958, prompting him to design the Disney ride, which is exactly 100 times shorter than its real-life counterpart. 

Sleeping Beauty’s Castle at Disneyland also pays homage to a European landmark: the real-life Neuschwanstein Castle in the hills of Bavaria, Germany, which was recently named a UNESCO World Heritage Site.