Disney increases park prices every year. Here’s how it avoids pricing out families

Disney raised prices on many of its theme park offerings today, coinciding with the start of the company's new fiscal year. But consumers aren't pushing back the way they did a few years ago.

Disney's price hikes are an annual October ritual for the company, and it's always a tricky balancing act between increasing revenue and consumers' willingness to pay.

Many ticket types, passes and add-ons at Disneyland are not increasing at all this time. But premium products are getting more expensive, like the highest-level, skip-the-line service at Walt Disney World, which could now run just shy of the $500 mark during peak demand.

It's a reflection of the company's strategy: Spread the price boosts across different audiences, while leaving bottom-tier prices - like the slowest season, one-day, one-park tickets - unchanged.

Its theme parks strategy, Disney said, has evolved over time. Higher-priced premium products and add-ons, alongside targeted discounts and a refresh of older attractions, allowed the company this summer to generate the strongest parks and cruises revenue in two years.

The company kept entry-level prices stable this year, when many consumers are reigning in discretionary spending .

"Our goal is to put guests at the center of our decision making, and that starts by listening to them," Thomas Mazloum, chairman of Disney Experiences, told CNN ahead of the price hikes. "That matters more now when families are watching every dollar, and we see it in the choices they make every day — in how they plan, in how far ahead."

Some prices at Disneyland are inching up, like adding the option to hop between two parks in the same day ($5 to $15 more), most middle-tier Disneyland tickets (about $5 or 3% more), and its Lightning Lane Multi Pass skip-the-line service ($1 or 3% more).

However, a broad slate of products at Disneyland are not increasing in price: the cheapest tickets for the slowest days of the year, the peak tickets for the busiest days of the year, multi-day tickets, parking and annual passes.

The base ticket price has held steady at $104 since 2019. But for the first time in a decade, the most expensive one-day, one-park ticket for Disneyland (usually during end-of-year holidays) is also not budging from its current $224. The fact that none of the annual passes are changing in price is also a first. The relative lack of price movement this year in Anaheim, California, speaks to the main clientele: locals.

Disney told CNN that visitation to Disneyland tends to be more regional with shorter stays; Disney World guests typically plan further ahead, travel longer distances, and take longer vacations.