Shadowing Practice: The Real Reason Disney Is So Expensive - Learn English Speaking with Video
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This Mickey ice cream bar would have cost $2.75 at Disney World in 2009.
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With inflation, that bar would cost $4.22 today.
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But the price has more than doubled to $6.50.
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And it's not just the price of ice cream.
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Basic Mickey ears are up 67%.
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And the Mickey pretzel is up 118%.
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It's also gotten more expensive to get inside the parks.
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From 2015 to 2025, Disney World's top-tier annual pass nearly doubled from $829 to $1,629.
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That's a 44% increase after inflation.
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Every year I think to myself, well, what's my breaking point?
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When will I say, oh, this is too much for an annual pass?
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Disney attributes these price hikes to inflation, rising labor costs, and the billions it invests to offer more experiences.
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But changes in how Disney sets park prices and its volatile entertainment division could also be to blame.
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Now I feel like every time I blink, something new is getting more expensive in the parks.
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So what's making a visit to Disney theme parks so expensive?
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And is there a limit to what fans will pay to experience the happiest place on Earth?
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Before Disney, America's earliest amusement parks weren't exactly designed with children in mind.
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Many were loud, dirty, and geared towards adults, featuring thrill rides and spectacles like human cannonballs.
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The state of the amusement park industry was pretty sad because these parks had been around for a long, long time.
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A lot of them were in disrepair.
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Tony Island, fire strikes again, destroying half a famous Luna Park.
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Walt Disney saw this untapped market as an opportunity.
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On July 17, 1955, his vision became a reality, a sunny theme park in Anaheim, California.
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Walt Disney's creation of Disneyland was like a refreshing change for the attractions industry
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because it was a new kind of amusement park that was much cleaner, much safer and newer.
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Disneyland wasn't just built for families, it was priced for them too.
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On opening day, the admission cost was 50 cents for children and a dollar for adults.
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Adjusted for inflation, that's about $6 and $12.
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Rides were separate, costing somewhere between $10 and $0.35, or about $1.20 to $4.20 today.
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And when ABC aired a live Dateline Disneyland special for Disneyland's grand opening,
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People and eyes around the world are focused on these 160 acres here in Anaheim, California.
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It became a national event.
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90 million American households tuned in.
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By the time they did the televised version from the park on opening day, everybody in the country wanted to go to Disneyland.
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And that was a tremendous marketing strategy.
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A strategy that worked.
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In its first 10 weeks of operation, 1 million people visited Disneyland.
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By 1960, some 5 million people were visiting California's Disneyland Park every year.
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Within its first five years of operation, Disneyland helped drive Walt Disney Productions' gross income from $27 million to roughly $70 million.
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Walt Disney was poised to grow the empire.
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He knew there were a lot of people around the United
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States who were never going to make it to the West
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Coast to be able to see this beautiful theme park that he had created.
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And so he got it in his head
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that he would like to do something similar on the east coast of the United States.
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Walt Disney World opened on October 1st, 1971, near Orlando, Florida.
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Tickets cost $3.50, or about $28 in 2026.
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The opening was also marked by another star-studded TV special on NBC.
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One of the things that Walt Disney said was, Disneyland will never be finished.
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It will continue to evolve and grow and develop.
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And that is still the case.
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But expansion came at a price.
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Take Epcot, for example.
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Ladies and gentlemen, Epcot Center, the opening celebration.
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When the new park opened at Disney World in 1982,
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it reportedly cost the Disney company between $800 million and $1.2 billion to build.
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That same year, the company's ticketing system changed to a flat rate for entry and rides.
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This chart tracks the price of a one-day, one-park ticket at Walt Disney World from Epcot's opening in 1982.
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When it opened, a one-day ticket to Disney World cost $15, equivalent to $50 in today's money.
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Throughout the rest of the 1980s and 90s, that price climbed steadily as Disney World expanded with new lands, lands like MGM Studios and Animal Kingdom.
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After 2000, no new Disney World parks opened, but there were new attractions, and park prices rose even faster.
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But two years in the 2010s would change how the parks were priced for good.
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In 2016, under the leadership of CEO Bob Iger, Disney introduced seasonal ticket pricing.
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This model created tiered ticket prices based on seasonal demand, with days categorized as value, regular, or peak.
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As a result, one-day ticket prices climbed above $100.
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And in its first quarter earnings the following year, Disney said higher average ticket prices helped push parks and resorts revenues up 6%.
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Two years later, Disney World switched to a date-based pricing model, where ticket prices vary by date.
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So everybody wants to come during summer vacation and Christmas when their kids are out of school.
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And the trouble is that if you've spent billions of dollars really to build these attraction facilities, they're open 365 days a year.
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It's just not efficient to have them filled to the brim for four, five, six weeks out of the year and then not so much the rest of the time.
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It's Robert Niles, the founder and editor of the trade publication Theme Park Insider.
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Business Insider talked to him in 2018 at the height of Disney's pricing changes.
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They really want to use all of their pricing and promotions to try and equalize the crowds throughout the year.
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This approach is an example of dynamic pricing, where prices change based on demand, timing, competition or customer behavior.
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most people are already familiar with from airline fares or rideshare apps, which charge more during rush hour or when the weather's bad.
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Disney is not the only theme park company to use this approach.
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In 2016, Universal Studios Hollywood,
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Disney's biggest competitor, introduced demand-based tiered pricing, raising single-day tickets to $115.
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Disneyland's lowest-priced ticket for its slower season is $104, the same price it's been since 2019.
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In 2024, Disneyland Paris went a step further, adopting an airline-style model where prices can fluctuate until the ticket is purchased.
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And it's not just tickets.
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Prices inside the parks have climbed, too.
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We visited Disneyland ourselves to see just how much prices for food and merchandise have increased.
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We started by making a list of items sold in the past that are still sold today, and how much they used to cost.
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Then we went to the park to check out the new prices for everything on our list.
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The price of every item we checked has increased faster than inflation over the past 17 years.
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Now even die-hard fans are having to make hard choices about investing in the happiest place on earth.
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How long have you been a fan of Disney and how long have you been going to Disney parks?
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The womb, potentially.
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I was a Disney child, to a Disney teenager, to a Disney adult.
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I've never really lost that love of magic.
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Now that I have adult money, I can start buying and collecting things I really like.
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And I love Disney art.
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I purchased this piece, which is Notre Dame.
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Hunchback of Notre Dame is my favorite Disney film of all time, and it's not appreciated nearly enough.
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This is something from my mom.
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It's a set of limited edition stamps.
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I have a huge Disney pin collection.
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So I have a pretty wide-ranking collection of ears.
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So these are my favorite pair.
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They're modeled after Thanos' gauntlet.
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I have these in Scarlet Witch ones.
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This denim hat with the ears built in.
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These probably are my actual favorite.
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Like, it's all, like, very, like, candy-inspired, Ariel-inspired.
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Look like the old-school character hats from the 90s.
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Like, character headbands.
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But this is just a small amount of my collection.
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Even super fans like Sarah are struggling to contend with the high prices at the parks.
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To me, Disney World has always been one of the few companies and one of the few places that truly, truly cared about its fan base.
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My relationship with Disney has changed partly because Disney has gotten very expensive over the years.
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In a 2025 Wall Street Journal survey, 74% of people said experiences like cruises,
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amusement parks, and trips to Disney resorts had become financially out of reach.
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It's expensive to operate Disney, and so I do understand some of the price increases,
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but I do think they are starting to price out your average middle class family into that once-in-a-lifetime trip.
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Disney is offering a summer promotion starting in May 2026, a $50 one-day Park Hopper Pass for kids ages 3 to 9.
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Over the past decade, Disney has also layered new premium experiences on top of its core offerings.
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Take FastPass, for example.
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Check this out!
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Roll up to the FastPass Reons, throw your ticket in, and boom!
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Until 2021, this service allowed park visitors to skip long lines for free.
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Today its successor, the Lightning Lane Premier Pass, is a tiered and pricey add-on,
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costing up to $449 depending on the park and time of year.
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There are other services Disney once offered for free that no longer exist,
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like Magical Express, a complimentary shuttle that transported travelers between Orlando International Airport and resort hotels.
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After Disney discontinued the shuttle in 2022, it gave guests the option to choose between services like Mirs Connect, about $32 round trip for adults,
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or its more premium minivan service, which can cost roughly $400 round trip for adults.
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There are also luxury lodging options.
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For example, when Walt Disney World's Bora Bora Bungalows opened in 2015,
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One Night at the Bungalows cost upward of $2,100, or $2,876, adjusted for inflation.
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Now a one night stay at these deluxe bungalows can cost guests a minimum of $3,500 or over $6,800 depending on the season.
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Disney understands the demographic changes that are happening in the United States at this point.
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They understand what's happening with income and economic inequality.
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They know that the money is in the upper level, the top 10%, the top 1%.
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We've created a wide variety of new products to try
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and frankly extract more money out of the people who have money to spare.
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Now the downside with that is if you're one of those remaining middle class people in America, you can get squeezed here.
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I do firmly believe there are still ways to do Disney in an affordable way, but it is becoming harder.
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And that's tough, and I feel that too, and I understand it.
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But at the same time, if Disney's going to grow, it's got to go where the money is.
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And the parks are perhaps more important for Disney's overall business than ever.
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Disney is made up of three main segments.
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And entertainment led the way for decades.
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TV is sort of a big fuel of Disney's other businesses.
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Then came the cord cutters.
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Well, online streaming is rapidly killing cable, Meg.
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Does this portend the death of TV?
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In 2019, when Disney Plus first launched, Netflix already had roughly 140 million subscribers.
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Disney committed an enormous amount of money to catch up with Netflix.
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It committed tens of billions of dollars, at one point spending more than double what Netflix was spending.
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As time went on, the cost of building the streaming service began to weigh on Disney.
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At one point, it was running losses of $11 billion on a streaming service.
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Disney CEO Bob Iger would later admit he thought the company invested too heavily in streaming.
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But at the same time, Disney parks rebounded quickly from pandemic shutdowns.
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Since 2022, Experiences, the division of Disney that controls theme parks and cruises, has become the company's biggest moneymaker,
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making up about 70% of operating income.
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So Iger made a choice.
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invest in what's working.
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In September 2023, Disney said it planned to invest $60 billion in the parks division over the next decade.
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And in 2025 alone, it increased spending from $5 billion to a whopping $8 billion.
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In 2024, at a conference for Disney's official fan club, Disney announced four new cruise ships and 14 new attractions.
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As the company invests more money in new rides, cruise ships, resorts, and themed lands, the parks are what it's relying on to fund its future.
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But will shiny new attractions be enough to keep Disney fans returning?
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Some families are even seeking out help to budget their trips.
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There's a whole industry built around planning a Disney vacation.
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Search online and you'll find countless groups, some even directly affiliated with Disney, who navigate this increasingly complex world of trip packages,
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vacation rentals, line-skipping passes and more.
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From a planning perspective for families, you then have to think about how are we getting there, where are we going to stay, how long do we want to stay, how much can we spend,
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all of those things become factors.
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And Disney is still raising prices.
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In October 2025, it raised the price of the Lightning Lane Premier Pass.
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If prices keep rising, yeah, we're probably going to have to cut back on how often we go.
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But I also think that, yes, Disney fans will find a way.
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And sadly, that is just to go into debt to go on these trips, which is the larger problem.
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A lot of times people will complain when the prices rise, but they do still go.
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And I'm an example of someone who's still going even though the prices will rise.
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This year I didn't even blink an eye.
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I just gave my credit card and I renewed the pass.
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So someday I might get to that point where I'm like, really?
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I don't know.
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But I haven't reached that point.
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I don't think I'll reach that point for a couple of years.
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Yeah.
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Vocabulario y notas de pronunciación para esta lección
Este vídeo tiene 183 frases y 2307 palabras para practicar shadowing. La parte hablada dura 16:53. El hablante mantiene un ritmo constante de unas 137 palabras por minuto, cómodo para el shadowing. Solo el 79 % de las palabras está entre las 3.000 más comunes del inglés, por lo que el vocabulario es exigente.
Vocabulario clave de este vídeo
15 palabras del vídeo que vale la pena aprender, con su pronunciación y significado:
| Palabra | Pronunciación | Significado |
|---|---|---|
| invest verbo | /ɪnˈvɛst/ | invertir, insumir |
| inflation sustantivo | /ɪnˈfleɪ.ʃən/ | inflación |
| attraction sustantivo | /əˈtɹækʃn̩/ | atracción |
| resort sustantivo | /ɹɪˈzɔɹt/ | estación turística, complejo vacacional |
| cruise sustantivo | /kɹuz/ | crucero |
| tier sustantivo | /ˈtɪɚ/ | piso, rango |
| amusement sustantivo | /əˈmjuzmənt/ | divertimiento, esparcimiento |
| ear sustantivo | /ˈɪə̯/ | oído, oreja |
| vacation sustantivo | /veɪˈkeɪ.ʃən/ | vacaciones, vacación |
| roughly adverbio | /ˈɹʌf.li/ | toscamente |
| climb verbo | /ˈklaɪ̯m/ | escalar, subir |
| promotion sustantivo | /pɹəˈmoʊʃn̩/ | ascenso, promoción |
| commit verbo | /kəˈmɪt/ | encomendar |
| premium sustantivo | /ˈpɹiː.miː.əm/ | premio, premium |
| skip verbo | /skɪp/ | saltar |
Phrasal verbs que vas a escuchar
| Palabra | Significado |
|---|---|
| check out verbo | investigar, chequear |
Pronunciación a tener en cuenta
El hablante usa 17 contracciones y formas reducidas, como don't, I'm, they're. Dilas en su forma corta, tal como las oyes.
- Los sonidos de “sh” y “zh”: inflation /ɪnˈfleɪ.ʃən/, attraction /əˈtɹækʃn̩/, vacation /veɪˈkeɪ.ʃən/, promotion /pɹəˈmoʊʃn̩/, shuttle /ˈʃʌtəl/
- Palabras largas — cuida el acento: publication /ˌpʌblɪˈkeɪʃ(ə)n/, potentially /pəˈtɛnʃ(ə)li/, celebration /ˌsɛl.ɪˈbɹeɪ.ʃən/, affordable /əˈfɔɹ.də.bəl/, reportedly /ɹɪˈpɔːtɪdli/
Cómo practicar con este vídeo
- Escucha el vídeo entero una vez sin hablar y anota las palabras que no conoces.
- Haz shadowing frase por frase a velocidad normal, repitiendo cada una hasta que tu ritmo coincida con el del hablante.
- Grábate y compara con el original, prestando atención a palabras como invest, inflation, attraction.
Gramática en este vídeo
Las estructuras que más usa el hablante, con las palabras exactas del vídeo:
| Estructura | En el vídeo |
|---|---|
| Present perfect have/has + participio pasado — una acción pasada que sigue importando ahora | you've spent · have climbed · have increased |
| Voz pasiva be + participio pasado — importa lo que ocurre, no quién lo hace | wasn't just built · are focused · was poised |
| Oraciones de relativo who / which + oración — información extra sobre una persona o cosa | piece, which is · service, which can · people who have |
¿Qué es la Técnica de Shadowing?
Shadowing es una técnica de aprendizaje de idiomas respaldada por la ciencia, desarrollada originalmente para la formación de intérpretes profesionales y popularizada por el políglota Dr. Alexander Arguelles. El método es simple pero poderoso: escuchas audio en inglés nativo y lo repites en voz alta de inmediato, como una sombra que sigue al hablante con solo 1-2 segundos de retraso. A diferencia de la escucha pasiva o los ejercicios de gramática, el shadowing obliga a tu cerebro y músculos de la boca a procesar y reproducir simultáneamente patrones de habla reales. Las investigaciones muestran que mejora significativamente la precisión de la pronunciación, la entonación, el ritmo, el habla conectada, la comprensión auditiva y la fluidez al hablar, convirtiéndola en una de las metodologías más efectivas para la preparación del IELTS Speaking y la comunicación en inglés en el mundo real.