Though Disney has increased its ticket price, the SGA ticket center’s rates probably won’t change until the end of 2015.
Disney raised its ticket price again in February, with their one-day Magic Kingdom pass going from $99 to $105. The company had already increased their ticket prices last year by $4.
The SGA Ticket Office offers student discounts on theme park tickets and attractions, and despite Disney’s price change, Director Richard Phillips said that the prices will most likely stay the same for students. As of right now, UCF students may obtain a one-day-one-park ticket for $76.
Phillips said that UCF and Disney have an annual contract, and though there is a clause in the agreement that either party can change the issues of the contract with a 30 days’ notice, neither the university nor Disney usually go about it this way.
“It’s never been our practice with Disney,” Phillips said. “We’ve never had Disney make a price change in the middle of one of our agreements.”
Phillips said that it is normal for Disney to wait until they begin negotiating the next year’s prices to make any changes.
While this is great news for passionate Disney-goers in the university at the moment, it is still possible that the price could get higher in 2016.
“It just depends on how Disney approaches the agreement when they begin to negotiate it for the coming year,” Phillips said. “We’ve seen years where the price has stayed the same, and we’ve seen years when the price has gone up.”
Disney did not comment on the price increase or the clause in the contract.
Phillips explained that whether the price will change or stay the same, it will come down to what Disney wants to do in regards with working with UCF. However, Phillips did point out that the price has increased more times at the start of a new year than it has stayed the same.
“Even though the price goes up, it’s still a fair discount off of the retail price that you would have to pay at the park itself,” Phillips said.
Despite the price adjustments, the SGA Ticket Center has approximately been selling between 150-175 Disney tickets per week, showing a slight increase from its previous numbers of 100-150 Disney tickets sold per week.
“I can’t predict the future,” Phillips said. “But I can say looking at it from the past, we’ve had price increases prior to this and we haven’t seen a precipitous drop in the number of students that purchase the tickets.”
Some students decided to stay positive for the time being, and enjoy the same prices until the end of the year.
“I can take advantage of the lower ticket price,” said Jake Rosenberg, a junior Ad/PR major. “I can go to Disney before it gets a little more expensive. As a college student, funds are kind of tight.”
Other students were angry at Disney for even raising prices again.
Maria Benitez, a sophomore art major, expressed her disdain on the subject.
“I’m not willing to pay a higher price,” Benitez said. “It’s not fair. Honestly I don’t know why they’re raising it, since it used to be like what? 60 bucks for one person? When I first went to Disney it was that.”
Rosenberg also felt that Disney’s price increase was unpleasant as a whole, despite the university discount.
“Disney is too expensive,” Rosenberg said. “I feel like you can get a lot more value out of going to Universal or another park, where as Disney the price keeps going up but I don’t really find the park getting any better.”
Some students just saw Disney’s move as a beneficial move for its company.
“They get so many people in there, if they raise the prices $10 they can get a lot more money that way,” said Dylan Wolford, a junior Health Service Administration major. “It seems like a small increase but it probably helps them a lot.”
Shawn Howarth, a freshman engineer major, just shrugged at the mention of it.
“Business is business. People are still happy when they go there, so it’s not that big of a deal,” Howarth said.
Phillips also spoke of the benefit of having discounted prices for students, saying that it helps the university provide a student with an opportunity they might not be able to have if they had to pay full retail price at the theme park, an opinion some students share.
“We’re students. We don’t have a degree yet,” Benitez said. “It would be totally fair that students get a discount since they’re not professionals and they’re working their way up there.”
Wolford also believed that discounted prices were important to the student body, and was glad that they were not going up for the time being.
“SGA is doing their job, I guess—keeping prices for us even priced,” Wolford said.
