Hold Onto Your Ears: Disney World Shifting to Free-Ticket Model?

On Aug. 25, 2023, the website MouseTrap News reported a “breaking” story that Disney World tickets “may soon be free.” The claim appeared on the outlet’s website and on its TikTok channel:

According to the story, the move was part of an effort by Disney to restructure the park as a non-profit:

Disney World is currently in the final stages of applying to become a non-profit in the state of Florida. If they are granted non-profit status, they will remove all costs from their park entry. Instead, the park ticket costs will be subsidized by Florida taxpayers. Essentially, Disney would receive massive tax breaks being a non-profit and be heavily funded by the state of Florida. […]

If Disney World becomes a non-profit, its theme parks will be free to enter. It’s the perfect combination of tax breaks and funding that allows Disney to subsidize the cost of park tickets. This would be a huge win for Disney. They know that this will drastically increase the number of visitors to their parks. It’s free, why wouldn’t people go? 

Also, Disney will continue to make a ton of money on each visitor from food and souvenirs. This move by Disney would primarily be funded by Florida, which is another win. As we know, Disney continues to battle Ron DeSantis and Florida.

This claim is satirical. MouseTrap News explicitly describes itself as “the world’s best satire site,” and that nothing it writes is true:

We write fake stories about Disney Parks stuff. From Disney Park announcements to Disney Hotel and resort news to made-up Disney partnerships, you can be assured that anything you read here is not true, real, or accurate, but it is fun.  

Because the assertion is false, but because it originated from a website that has a satire disclaimer, we rank the claim “Labeled Satire.” 

For background, here is why we sometimes write about satire/humor.