If you thought Disney World was expensive before, get ready. 💰

Price increases on tickets, food items, and more are not unusual at Disney World. Earlier in 2022, we saw HUNDREDS of price increases impact snacks and food items across Disney World restaurants. We’ve also seen sneaky ticket price increases put in place for 2022 and 2023. But October of 2022 brought with it even MORE increases on everything from photo sessions to Mickey’s Premium Ice Cream Bars. So how can you avoid having your budget severely impacted by price increases at the Most Magical Place on Earth? We’ve got some tips.

1 — Travel During “Slow” Season

The first thing you can do to help minimize your trip budget overall and potentially minimize any impacts of future price increases is travel during Disney World’s “slower” seasons. You’ll want to avoid peak times of the year like spring break, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Eve in order to get the best deals.

To see the CHEAPEST days to go to Disney World in 2022, click here. And click here for our 2023 edition.

It can be beneficial to travel during the slower season for many reasons. From a pure planning perspective, if you travel during the slower season you’ll likely get the best prices on park tickets (which vary in price according to expected demand), and hotels (which similarly vary in price throughout the year).

Now that the price of the “standard” Disney Genie+ service also varies depending on when you visit, going during a slower period can also help you save money there. (Remember that Genie+ is Disney World’s replacement for FastPass+ and it enables you to skip the standby lines at dozens of rides throughout the resort).

Individual Attraction Selection (or Pay-Per-Ride) also varies in price depending on the date (as well as the ride and park). (Pay-Per-Ride allows you to buy access to the Lightning Lane for a single ride — it’s reserved for popular rides that are NOT available through the “standard” Genie+ system.) In this case, traveling during slower periods gives you the best chance of buying that Individual Lightning Lane for Avatar: Flight of Passage at its cheaper rate.

If a price increase is later announced that’ll impact your trip, traveling during the “slower” season could give you the best chance of minimizing the impact. Sometimes greater increases are put in place for peak days as compared to slower days. For example, some ticket prices increased $10 in the lower tiers, but increased by $15 in the highest tier (for the peak busy season) in Disneyland. Going during the slow period can improve your chances of taking a smaller “hit” to your budget if later price increases appear.

Click here to get a look at the increase in price for 2 iconic experiences in Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge

2 — Get Groceries Delivered

Hundreds of Disney World food items are now more expensive due to price increases that took place in 2022. If you were planning on getting ALL of your food — from bottles of water to basic breakfast bars — from Disney World’s restaurants and gift shops, your budget could be severely impacted by these increases.

BUT you can avoid this with a simple step!

Instead of buying bottles of water in the parks (which recently increased in price), buy bottles of water from a local grocery store. Though you’ll have to deal with ordinary inflation-related impacts on prices there, you’ll still likely be able to get a whole case of water bottles at a MUCH cheaper price than what you’d find in Disney World.

Then, if Disney decides to increase the price of its bottled water again before your trip, you won’t have to worry. You won’t have to rely on their items but instead will have your own supply of goodies in the room. You could also really become resourceful and buy a reusable water bottle that you can refill time and time again with the FREE water offered in the parks.

But it goes beyond water bottles. You can pick up all kinds of things at the local grocery store to save cash on your Disney trip and avoid being impacted by further Disney food price increases. If you aren’t a big breakfast eater, you can pick up some snack bars to take with you on the go. If you are looking to save on snacks in general, you can order bags of chips or goldfish from the grocery store instead of spending significantly more for similar items in the parks.

You could use a rideshare or private car service to get to the grocery store to get the items you need, or you can make your life even easier by using grocery store delivery services (like Instacart) to deliver everything you need right to your Disney hotel.

Seriously, we cannot begin to explain how this could significantly change your budget and your plans. If you’ve never gotten groceries delivered to your Disney hotel, we can help.

• Click here for our step-by-step guide to ordering Kroger grocery delivery to Disney World
• Check out our step-by-step guide for ordering Instacart grocery delivery to your Disney World hotel
• And check out EVERYTHING you need to know about having food delivered to your Disney World hotel

And if you’ve been wondering just how much you’ll pay for necessities in the Disney World gift shops, click here to see all the details.

3 — Create a Budget With Price Increases in Mind

When you create your budget, you likely leave some wiggle room for some “emergency” or “last minute” costs. But, you’ll want to reevaluate those budgets with a special look at how price increases could impact your numbers. Park tickets (if you haven’t already booked them), hotel stays (if you haven’t already booked that), character dining, regular dining, snacks, Genie+, merchandise, and more could all INCREASE in price just days before or even during your trip.

From one day to the next, that character breakfast you budgeted $42 per adult for could increase to $45 per adult, without any warning. Suddenly, you’re out $3 more per person than you budgeted. And while that might seem small at first, when considered across a broad spectrum of increases at multiple locations, it can really add up.

So what can you do? When making your budget (or editing your budget), look at each area that could see a potential price increase before your trip or during your trip (particularly food, Genie+, and merchandise). Make sure that you’ve left enough wiggle room in your budget to account for increases that could happen. Give yourself enough extra money in those budget areas to make things work even if prices do go up unexpectedly.

Best case scenario: prices don’t increase and you’ll have extra money left in your budget to spend on other things or take back home. Worst case scenario: prices do increase, but you’ll be prepared as you’ve left enough room in the budget to make it work. (Worst case scenario without advanced planning for increases: you end up crying when looking at your final Disney World bill or have to sacrifice something and not get the trip of your dreams).

Click here to see why Disney World will cost you THOUSANDS more in 2023

4 — Know When Price Increases Typically Hit

One of the best ways to be prepared for potential price increases is by knowing when price increases historically have happened so you know what to expect.

When it comes to park tickets, our friends at AllEars have tracked when price increases have typically occurred. The months where Disney has generally announced the most price increases for tickets are June, followed by February and October.

And that tracks with some of what we’ve seen recently. In 2022, we saw some sneaky price increases for Disney World tickets put in place in February. We also saw some more hidden price increases for 2023 Disney World tickets revealed in June of 2022.

Following that same pattern. In February of 2021, we saw some changes made to the ticket price calendar for 2022. February is also when we’ve seen prices raised for Annual Passholders in years past.

So basically, if you want to buy tickets ahead of time and avoid these increases, consider purchasing your tickets before or between these months.

For food, we saw HUNDREDS of food-related price increases announced in January and again in October of 2022. This is something Disney has done before. They increased tons of food prices back in October of 2019. We also saw some Disney Dining plan increases announced from 2019 into 2020 (we shared a post about them back in January of 2020). The Dining Plan is still unavailable but set to return soon.

So expect food price increases in January, October, and when transitioning into the new year, though note that food price increases can and DO happen year-round.

Room rates change in price throughout the year. You should expect to see those go up as you get closer to busier time periods (holidays, summer, spring break, etc.). Discounts tend to be offered during slower periods to encourage guests to come, and rates can normalize once more out-of-towners feel tempted to visit the parks.

VIP Tours and Dessert Parties have seen increases in price sometimes in February. But we’ve also seen increases announced for special experiences in Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge (like droid and lightsaber building) in April and October, and increases announced in October for things like photo sessions.

Overall, January, February, June, and October can be some big months where increases are announced for various things at the Disney parks. If you’ll be traveling during those times, leave some extra room in your budget in case an unexpected increase gets announced right before your trip. Or see what you can buy early so as to “lock in” cheaper rates.

Click here to see what character meals were hit with price increases in October of 2022

5 — Buy Your Tickets Early

This is something we mentioned above, but it bears repeating. If you already know what dates you’ll be in Disney World, buy those tickets EARLY. If you buy them early, you’ll “lock in” whatever price you bought them for. If Disney decides to increase ticket prices later, you won’t have to worry and you’ll have saved yourself some money and heartache.

6 — Do Some Research

We know. “Do some research” might not exactly be the directive you wanted to hear ahead of your “relaxing” vacation. But if you want to avoid or at least prepare for price increases, your research will all pay off.

If you’ve already made your budget, be sure to keep checking it as your trip gets closer. Check the restaurants on your list to see if any big price increases have happened that could alter your budget or trip plans.

You may also want to poke around to see if there are better options. If that snack you were thinking of getting suddenly got more expensive, is there another similar snack somewhere else that might be slightly cheaper? Sometimes there are dupes in Disney World that can help you save a bit of cash!

The key here is to be prepared for as much as you can and leave yourself enough wiggle room to handle everything else.

Click here to see what iconic snacks got a price increase in Disney World!

7 — Stretch Your Dollars

If price increases threaten your food fun and suddenly your budget gets a little tighter, then turn to snacks or strategies that can really help you stretch that dollar. 

First, you can try to opt for meals that are big enough to share. Check out our list of the TOP sharable meals in Disney World.

If you want to knock out two meals at once, why not opt for a brunch that can cover your breakfast and lunch needs? Or you could go for a breakfast buffet that’ll fill you up (at a cheaper price usually than lunch/dinner) and last you until dinner?

You can also opt to get larger snacks that are often cheaper than full meals but are large enough to be meals! Take a look at our list of the 3 snacks that are big enough to enjoy as your meal.

You could also consider ordering off the kids menu to save a few bucks! Click here to see our picks of the BEST kids menus in Disney World.

If you use these tools, you’ll still be able to enjoy some delicious Disney meals while saving money too.

Click here to see some SNEAKY ways to save money in Disney World

8 — Beware of Surge Pricing

And finally, this sort of ties into everything mentioned above, but be aware of SURGE pricing. The key here is to understand that little things — especially Genie+ and Individual Attraction Selection (or Pay-Per-Ride) costs can now vary day by day. So it’s not a fixed cost you can count on being steady. Be sure to allow enough room in your budget for those peak dates with the most expensive pricing.

But remember that surge pricing doesn’t just affect Disney World. You might face surge pricing for things like rideshare services. So be prepared for that as well.

Click here to read more about Disney’s price surges

What Now?

You may not know exactly when another price increase will be announced and impact your trip, but the best thing you can do is create a budget, update it continuously, and prepare as best you can for potential increases in the future.

Our BEST tip for sticking with your budget at Disney World will forever be to plan ahead – especially for dining! When you buy our DFB Guide to Dining at Walt Disney World, you’ll get immediate access to our downloadable worksheets for planning your trip, as well as sample one-day dining itineraries!

And as a DFB reader, you’re entitled to a discount!

Use code WDW2022 for 25% off your purchase.

Stay tuned for more Disney tips and tricks.

What are your best budgeting strategies for Disney World? Tell us in the comments.