If you’ve ever been to Disney with your kids, you really resonated with the Jim Gaffigan standup routine he did at the theme park, “Growing up, I always wondered why my dad looked so pissed off on vacations to Disney, now I know.” 

Well lucky you, your next trip to the Magical Kingdom is going to pull even more cash out of your wallet. Yes, Disneyland just hiked ticket prices yet again, and it's not exactly a small bump. We're talking anywhere between 6% to 20%, depending on whether you’re trying to grab a single-day pass or one of their annual Magic Key passes (which sounds much more fun than it is). So if you were hoping to get lost in the happiest place on Earth, it’s going to cost you a bit more now.

(Source: Daily Mail)

Let’s break it down. Disneyland’s peak-season tickets (those coveted days around Christmas when everything's covered in fake snow and your Instagram is on fire) have jumped from $194 to $206. Sure, it’s just 12 bucks, but when you’re also shelling out for Lightning Lanes, $30 churros, and those $35 Minnie ears, it starts to add up fast. And speaking of Lightning Lanes, those line-skippers are up over 6%, too. Because nothing says “magical experience” like paying extra to not wait 45 minutes for Space Mountain.

But let’s be real, this price hike is way more than just about Disneyland. Disney has been stuck in a bit of a slump lately, and not even a perfectly placed Mickey Mouse waffle can fix that. Their stock? It’s been trading lower for six months straight, and the streaming business they’ve sunk billions into is looking more like a sunk cost than a big win. Despite all the hype about Disney+ turning into a cash cow, the platform has been burning through money on autopilot. With increased competition from every other streaming service and rising production costs, Disney’s bet on streaming hasn’t exactly panned out the way they’d hoped.

(Source: Inside the Magic)

Now, the parks division, which typically rides in like a knight in shining armor to save the day, underperformed this past spring. Revenue from the parks grew by 2% year over year, but profits dropped by 3%. Sure, there were some outside factors (like Shanghai Disneyland shutting down for two days due to a typhoon) but the bigger issue is that attendance levels are “normalizing” (a.k.a. fewer people are showing up now that the post-pandemic travel frenzy is cooling off).

So, what does Disney do when its cash cow starts running dry? They milk it harder, of course. Instead of offering something new or improving the experience, they’ve decided to jack up prices and hope no one complains too loudly. It’s like going to your favorite restaurant and finding out they’ve doubled the price of your go-to dish but kept the portion size the same. Sure, it’s still your favorite, but suddenly it doesn’t taste as good when you realize you’re paying twice as much for the same thing.

But despite all these hikes, some Wall Street analysts still think Disney stock is a solid buy. JPMorgan Chase’s Philip Cusick recently set a target price of $125 per share, which is a nice 35% gain from where it’s sitting now. Optimistic much? Maybe, but hey, Disney does have a lot of levers to pull. They’ve got a lineup of upcoming films that could give their box office returns a shot in the arm, and their plans for the streaming business might just turn around, especially as they start cracking down on password sharing like Netflix did.

For now, though, if you’re planning to visit Disneyland, prepare to pay up. And if you’re thinking of buying Disney stock, well… maybe Philip’s right. After six straight months of sinking lower, I guess at some point the stock is gonna have to go up?

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Stock.News has positions in Disney and Netflix.