Ahead of new Star Wars land, Disneyland raises pass prices by up to 25%

For years, Disneyland annual passes, parking fees and single-day-tickets have seen above-inflation price-hikes, but this year's will take the cost of the no-blackout-day "Premier Pass" to $1,949, up 23.4% from last year, a firm push away from the idea of Disneyland as a "locals park" for casual visits and into the kind of place that most local families could only visit on very special occasions.

It's not just Premier Passes, either: parking (which was recently segmented into a "premium" and "basic" service with additional fees for good parking spots) is going up 25%, to $25/day. Maxpass, which uses an app to reserve places in line, will go up 50%, from $10/day/person to $15/day/person.

The cheapest one-day tickets will spike to over $100, and Disney will continue to use "surge pricing" to raise the cost of these tickets on some days.

The Southern California pass -- which already excludes most days when a family could hope to visit the parks -- is going up 8.1%, to $400, with blocked days rising from 202 days/year to 211 days/year.

This summer will see the largest expansion in Disney theme park history, when the $1B Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge opens.

Disneyland is locked in a battle with congestion, and has tried (and failed) to manage crowds with higher prices, and the parks continue to weather a palpable capacity crisis. There are lots of causes here: winner-take-all (see also: Burning Man, SDCC, etc); inequality; and the boomerang effect of higher ticket-prices, which induce visitors to spend longer in the park "to get their money's worth."

The increases, which took effect Sunday, come less than a year after the resort adopted price hikes of up to 18%.