Seasonal Pricing at Walt Disney World: Pay More to Wait in Line Longer!

OVERVIEW: WALT DISNEY WORLD PRICES

This site recommends that you arrive in Disney World the second Saturday after Thanksgiving.

For those who cannot go to Walt Disney World then, the material that follows illuminates the different resort room prices you will face from going to Walt Disney World at different times of the year.  For ticket prices, see this.

You can find 2010 price seasons here, 2011 price seasons here, and forecasts for 2012 prices here.

PAY MORE TO WAIT IN LINE LONGER

The major prices at Walt Disney World that vary by season are hotel room costs. (Disney also does seasonal increases in dining prices, but if you use the Dining Plan, this won’t affect you much. It does NOT change theme park ticket prices by season.)

“Season” does not mean anything as simple as fall or winter.  Disney changes prices much more frequently than that. 

It changes prices when it predicts a change in demand, or a change in willingness to pay. 

The business intent of these changes is to extract maximum value from high demand/willingness to pay periods, and to attract families into lower demand periods by lowering the costs of attending during those times.

One of the upshots of this is that Walt Disney World charges more for the periods when most people want to be there–which is also when it is the most crowded. 

As a result, in general, the more crowded the parks, the longer the lines, the more your hotel will cost.

There are a couple of exceptions to this. 

• Late February and early March are expensive, but not crowded. (This is from the increased willingness to pay of northeasterners getting away from the snow.) 
• Mid-July to mid-August is cheap at the deluxe resorts, but still crowded.  August is priced this way to pull deluxe guests out of June and earlier July.

See the graphic for the relationship between prices and crowds.  Click it to open it; when it is open, click it again to enlarge it.

See the links below for exact price seasons in 2010, and estimated price seasons for 2011 and 2012.  In addition, for even more detail on 2010 price seasons, see the material that starts on this page at MouseSavers.com.

MORE ON WHEN TO GO TO WALT DISNEY WORLD

• For when to go to Walt Disney World, see this
• For the next best dates, see this
• For the best and worst times to visit, see this
  • For 2010 weeks to visit, ranked in order, see this
  • For the 2010 Week Picker, see this
  • For 2011 weeks to visit, ranked in order, see this
  • For the 2011 Week Picker, see this
• For forecasting crowds at Walt Disney World, see this
• For seasonal pricing at Walt Disney World, see this
  • For 2010 price seasons, see this
  • For 2011 price seasons, see this
  • For projected 2012 price seasons, see this
• For weather at Walt Disney World, see this

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