Every year, things get more and more expensive — that is just something people expect to happen. Whether it is the cost of gas, or the cost of food, rent, utilities, everything seems to go up in price. The same can be said for Walt Disney World vacations — every year, Guests expected to pay more for their magical experience, but the quality of the trip always seemed to outweigh the heavy cost.
Recently, the CFO of the Walt Disney Company, Christine McCarthy, revealed that the company was always looking for ways to cut costs — and some of those ways involved changing vendors, and decreasing the portion sizes. When defending the decision to possibly cut portion sizes, McCarthy made the controversial comment that the change would be good for some Guests’ waistlines. While Disney never confirmed that food portions in the Parks were becoming smaller, we reported that Guests were noticing notable portion changes.
Now, it looks like portion sizes aren’t the only things changing, so are the prices. There are many menu items throughout the Walt Disney World Resort that have seen a price increase — some increases are as high as $1 for the same portion of food. Here are some of the price changes that were noticed at the Parks.
Aloha Isle
Dole Whips are incredibly popular amongst Guests and are an absolutely iconic Disney snack. Disney is deciding to capitalize on the Dole Whip’s popularity, and prices for several items went up.
- Pineapple Float went from $5.99 to $6.99
- Pineapple DOLE Whip Cup increased from $5.99 to $6.99
- Pineapple Float with Tiki Sipper increased from $10.99 to $11.99
Popcorn Carts
Another popular snack at Walt Disney World is the hot and delicious popcorn. Both the popcorn and popcorn buckets saw an increase, with popcorn going from $4.99 to $5.50 and popcorn buckets increasing from $11.29 to $13. Popcorn bucket refills also went from $1.89 to $2.25.
Theme Park Restaurants
A number of restaurants found at both Magic Kingdom and EPCOT saw price increases. Here are just a couple of the increases that we noticed.
- North Carolina Chopped Smoked Pork Butt Platter went from costing $12.49 to now costing $12.99.
- Sliced Texas Beef Brisket Sandwich increased from $12.99 to $13.49
Tony’s Town Square
- Fried Mozzarella increased from $12 to $14
- Spaghetti increased from $22 to $24
- Italian Trio increased from $33 to $35
- Grilled Pork Chop increased from $28 to $30
Ronto Roasters
- Coruscant Cooler now costs $16 instead of $15
- Surly Sarlacc went from $13 to $14
Hotel Restaurants
Theme park restaurants are not the only places to see a price jump. Here is a small sampling of hotel restaurants that increased the prices of a number of their dishes.
Ale & Compass Restaurant — Disney’s Yacht Club Resort
- New England Seafood Pot Pie saw a $3 increase and now costs $28 instead of $25
- ‘Brick’ Lemon-Herb Half Chicken went up $2 and is now $24
- Plant-based Protein Bowl was another $3 increase and now costs $20
- Cabernet-braised Short Ribs originally cost $27 and is now $30
Enchanted Rose Lounge – Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa
A number of drinks that the
- Island Rose used to cost $15 and now costs $17
- Floral Bitter Beauty went up $1 and now costs $17
- Grand Cosmopolitan Martini saw a $2 increase and is now priced at $19
- All other Martinis increased by $1
- Boulevardier went from $19 to $20
- Mojito, Negroni, and Kir all went up $1 and now costs $16
These are just a small number of the price increases that went into effect resort-wide. In addition to seeing higher price tags, some Disney Guests feel that the quality is not where it used to be. Due to the supply-chain crisis, Disney is struggling to get the food that Disney Guests have become accustomed to, but hopefully, that problem will soon be solved.
Have you noticed price increases while dining at Walt Disney World?