Disneyland, billed as the Happiest Place on Earth (it says so as you enter,) raised admission fees this past week, making some tourists and local residents in Southern California mad that the prices are just too high. The new fees are around $87 at the gate, $125 for a park hopper pass, and an additional $15 to park your car. One person will spend over $100 just to go there for a day. Is this too much money to charge?
We’re going to make some of you mad with our answer but the answer is, “No”. In fact, Mickey Mouse should quit pussy footing around and just charge $100 for admission, plus $25 for parking. Why?
Here’s the answer: The global Walt Disney Company that owns Disneyland is one of the biggest media entities in the world. It’s actually the biggest, in fact. Its goal is to make money–and it does. If you’ve been to Disneyland, it is usually PACKED, regardless of the price being charged. Disneyland may see a slight drop in attendance as prices rise, but meanwhile, their profits continue to rise. So if you’re a business and you discover you can charge more and make bigger profits, what are you going to do? Raise prices, of course! Till the day comes that Disneyland becomes enjoyably less crowded and their profits drop, they should keep raising their fees and maybe one day they’ll reach a peak of “just too much money”. But they’re far from getting there yet.