Even Disney is worried about the high cost of a Disney vacation

Price hikes have moved the Happiest Place on Earth out of reach for many Americans, alienating parkgoers and worrying executives

- Robbie Whelan

Yvonne Kindell spent years contemplating a trip to Walt Disney World. This November, she finally got a chance to take her family of four.

The trip left Kindell, a bank compliance officer from Bear, Del., with sticker shock-especially after recent price increases. Two days of park tickets ran to $1,123. Passes that let them skip the line on popular rides: $208. A meal with costumed characters, including Donald and Daisy Duck: $219. Two Mickey Mouse bubble wands: $60.68.

"It was really stressful for me thinking all the time about how much we were spending." Kindell said-even though she and her husband, a driver at a warehouse, weren't paying for it all themselves. Her parents covered the cost of lodging and airplane tickets for her children, aged 10 and 4. Her total came to $3,000.

She's not planning to go back.

The Happiest Place on Earth has long felt like one of the most expensive spots on the planet for many Americans-but the allure of a magical family vacation kept visitors streaming in. Then, as postpandemic demand soared, Disney put price hikes into overdrive, putting vacations at its theme parks out of reach for many American families. Attendance growth has slowed over the past few years, and even some families that were once regulars are canceling their pilgrimages.

One-day adult passes to Disneyland broke the $200 mark for the first time in October. It now costs $206 on the most popular days at the theme park, more than $100 more than the price of admission on the lowest-cost day.

Five years ago, the skip-the-line feature FastPass was free. Now visitors choose from three different tiers of Lightning Lane passes for the privilege-the most expensive reaching $449 a person a day.

Doing without Lightning Lane can mean spending an hour or more waiting in line for the most popular rides, eating up visitors' vacation time.