Bri, I am sorry, I was not either. My personal opinion is they are both getting out of hand and the price increases at Universal and Disney are going up way faster than any goods or services out on the market today. Groceries, plane tickets, hotel prices, clothing, etc are not rising at the rate either park is raising their park tickets.
I was more talking along a money vs. value and Sea World park passes are so cheap that you can't use them as a comparison. Because in all reality Sea World parks have the best Value for your money, but some people have no desire to go parks with animals. So my next best example was Universal. Showing that on Value and Moderate days it is actually a pretty good value for your money type deal compared to other parks in the area.
I don't think there is a debate here between the two parks. They both raise ticket prices every year and have since their opening. They both cost a ton of money and are not for people who are living paycheck to paycheck. They both no matter what new rides they have or how badly their parks are maintained continue to raise their prices one right after the other. They both are causing this problem and are both at fault for where ticket prices are today. And honestly they both know if they keep their prices close to each other there is no competition when it comes to ticket prices which is where they are both very happy to be sitting. They compete in other ways, but ticket price is not one of them. If this wasn't true, they wouldn't both raise their prices a month right after their competitor raised their prices. They both do it.
Also, another bottom line. As long as attendance and profits continue to go up, both parks will not stop this. They will keep going until it hurts their bottom line because the supply is higher than the demand. Simple and basic economics. Which is why their prices raise at a higher % than other markets. People will drive if airline tickets get too high, people will stay at a cheaper hotel if prices go up, but there is no other place like Orlando. So if you want to go, you will pay the prices asked.
Edited to Add... Disney did this to spread out the crowds. They want to get the peak season at MK to be more bearable. That is really the only reason they are doing this. They are not doing this to compete with Universal in ticket prices. They are more competing with themselves in that they want people to pick a cheaper period of time to go to their parks.