Disneyland Tickets Remain Tax-Free

[bkroz]

Disneyland tickets have never been taxed by the city of Anaheim.

 

This year, that deal expired.

 

Walt Disney Parks and Resorts held the discussion hostage, promising that they intended to invest $1 billion in a Disneyland Resort expansion BUT would have to re-evaluate their plans if Anaheim's City Council decided to begin taxing admission tickets. (Disney is not being noble here. Any dollar NOT charged by the city can instead be charged by Disney itself.)

 

After rigorous and tumultuous discussions at the City Council meeting (including, among other things, city councilors being told by locals that they were "going to hell" for re-approving year-round fireworks permits for the resort), a 3-2 vote extended the tax-free status of ticket purchases IF AND ONLY IF Disney indeed promised to invest $1 billion in resort expansion to begin before the end of 2017 and to conclude before 2024.

 

Should Disney not complete the expansion by then, the ticket tax ban will be forfeited.

 

Alternatively, should Disney wish to extend the ban by 15 years, it will take an additional $500 million in expansion and improvements.

 

The expansion would likely be largely infrastructural (including a new parking garage and at least one new hotel) plus large in-park expansion projects based on Star Wars and Marvel.

 

Altogether, all of it makes you understand why Walt set out to create Disney World under the Reedy Creek Improvement District. 

 

And yes, it is widely believed that Disney was bluffing and would've done most of this anyway. Indeed, much of it is expected to be announced at this year's D23, which will take place next month in Anaheim.

 

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/disney-670657-anaheim-city.html

 

For our legally minded friends, here's the Agreement: http://www.anaheim.net/docs_agend/questys_pub/MG50462/AS50501/AS50506/AS50507/AI51120/DO51129/DO_51129.pdf

[marth555]

Disneylands expansion potential is more exciting then Disney Worlds imo

[Vortex]

Disneylands expansion potential is more exciting then Disney Worlds imo

Don't know about that you might want to keep a eye out for what is going on at the Studio park.

[CoastersRZ]

Having visited both Disneyland and Walt Disney World, the two resorts are really quite different.

 

I visited Disneyland this past April on my honeymoon.  We could literally hear the fireworks from Disneyland from our hotel, which was within walking distance of the park.  And it was not a Disney owned hotel.   Also, the highway is easy access to Disneyland and its parking structures.  We did not use the parking structures when we were there, as our hotel was a quick five minute walk to the park gates.  And as the others have mentioned, there are residences within close proximity to the Disneyland resort.  It will be interesting to see how they expand the Disneyland resort.  

 

I enjoyed Disneyland, but everything seemed a bit smaller when compared to the Magic Kingdom.  Yes, they did a fantastic job of screening the outside world when you are in the park.  California Adventure still felt a little awkward in my opinion. I loved the rides there, but the Paradise Pier area felt a little too much like a typical amusement park (which is the opposite of what Walt set out to create when he was designing Disneyland.  The Carsland area is amazingly themed, and well worth the visit, though.  We ended up having ridden everything by about 4pm on our visit to California Adventure.  Although, Soarin` was down for refurbishment, a ride that we both dearly missed having ridden its counterpart at EPCOT back in 2013.

 

WDW is just so much more spread out.  It doesn`t feel as if everything is on top of each other like it does at Disneyland.  I am interested to see what changes Disney has in store for Hollywood Studios in the coming years.

 

If things fall into place right, I may get to visit Disneyland again in 2016 and Walt Disney World as well.  (We missed out on Matterhorn as that was down for rehab, and my last visit to the Magic Kingdom was before the Seven Dwarves Mine Train was open).