Over the past several years, inflation has affected everything in American consumerism, from grocery store prices to restaurant closures to wages.
Now, a new study is showing that inflation has even affected prices at the Happiest Place on Earth.
New data from Finance Buzz shows that prices for concessions at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, have increased an average of 61% over the past 10 years — more than the average increase in a single park ticket, which has gone up 56% over the past decade.
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Some notable fan favorites have risen in price by a brow-raising amount, like the Dole Whip dessert, which has gone up 58%, and the iconic Mickey Mouse-shaped ice cream bar, which has increased 63% in the past 10 years.
The highest single item increase on the list is the bread service at Animal Kingdom restaurant Sanaa, which has more than doubled in price from $9.99 to $22 since 2014.
“Prices for every single item have risen by at least $1.50, with most going up by at least $2 since 2014,” Finance Buzz wrote in its study. “But while food costs have skyrocketed, the base price for the most affordable Disney World tickets has remained remarkably stable, going up just $19 from 2014 to 2024.”
The financial research source collected its data by taking current food and beverage prices from the Walt Disney World website and comparing them to the old Disney website using the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine.
Earlier this month, Disney and the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District (CFTOD) reached a unanimous agreement in a preliminary vote to approve a $17 billion expansion program for the Florida establishment, which could potentially include the development of a fifth Walt Disney World park.
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“We’re already hard at work at basically determining where we’re going to place our new investments and what they will be,” Disney CEO Bob Iger said in February during a Q1 2024 earnings call. “You can pretty much conclude that they’ll be all over, meaning every single one of our locations will be the beneficiary of increased investment.”
The Walt Disney Co. was up over 8% year over year as of Friday afternoon.
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