D23 kicked off its tenth anniversary celebration with a not-so-nice surprise for its members this morning, raising its annual membership rates for the first time since its inception in 2009.
Effective today, the price of a Gold Membership is $99.99 per year, while Gold Family memberships are $129.99 per year, up from $74.99 and $99.99 per year, respectively. Furthermore, all new memberships will now be automatically recurring every year until the member chooses to terminate their membership. Returning members who enable automatic renewal can currently receive a discounted rate of $79.99 per year for Gold Members and $109.99 per year for Gold Family members. The free option, including access to the D23 website and select complimentary member events, is still available.
D23 is boasting more events for members than ever before in 2019, including more tours of The Walt Disney Studios lot, and bringing Lunch With a Disney Legend to new cities, well as the 2019 D23 Expo in Anaheim from August 23rd-25th. Plus, all members will receive a set of ten pins celebrating milestones from throughout Disney history.
Keep reading WDW News Today as we update you on all things D23.
Oh, big friggin’ surprise. It’s the first of the year EVERYBODY raises prices on EVERYTHING!
Very disappointing as value has always been marginal unless you live near the parks and this is a major price increase. The email sent out to members was poor as there was no explanation given for the increase. A justification along with a a description of enhancements to the membership (hopefully), would have been nice. Expecting more from Disney on a communication like this.
I just logged on to my D23 account to enable auto renewal (to take advantage of the discounted auto renewal rate). My account shows an auto renewal rate of $129.99, not the $109.99 in your story.
It’s still completely worth it with all the special perks, but I will definitely put mine on auto-renew.
I am not a D23 member, but have been considering joining. I just spoke with D23 guest services and they told me that the price increase coincides with the 2019 member gift; that by joining now at $99.99, I’ll receive the 2019 gift, whereas if I had joined last week at $74.99, I would have only received the 2018 gift. Does anyone know if this is true? If so, it provides some consolation for having missed the lower fee. Still trying to decide if it’s worth it though…
And they no longer ship magazines to Canada…
I have to make arrangements to have them ship to family member in USA and then rerouted to my home… Not sure why they are being so exclusive, I thought the D23 membership was for every Disney fan around the world…