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Disney Park Passes: Which Choice is Best for You?

One of the biggest expenses of any Disney vacation is the actual Disney park passes.  Currently, Disney’s price for a single day, single park pass starts at $109 during value season. This pass climbs as high as $129 per day during “peak” season.

The average family purchases a vacation package that includes Disney park passes for four days.  Of course, some families purchase packages that include Disney park passes for 10 days. Others purchase park passes for three days, etc.  But in general, the average family will purchase a four day pass. Of course this may change once Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge opens. I suspect most of us will need at least one whole day just for that–if not more. So four days will soon not be enough for many families, if my instincts are correct. But for now, four works for MOST.

Once you decide how many days you are going to purchase, then you have another decision on your hands. Are you going to purchase one park per day passes or park hopper passes?

In this post we’re going to examine the different kinds of Disney park passes available. We’re going to look at the advantages and disadvantages of each. We’re also going to talk about the advantages of having a Walt Disney World annual pass. We’ll look at the current pricing for an annual pass, and when (and why!) you might want to consider purchasing an annual pass.

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FIRST UP: ONE PARK PER DAY PASSES

Disney’s One Park Per Day passes are the lowest tier and least expensive of the Disney park pass options. These passes allow the owner of the pass to visit one park per day for each day on the pass. For example, if you have a three-day one park per day pass, you can spend one day at the Magic Kingdom, one day at Animal Kingdom, and one day at Hollywood Studios during your vacation.   If you wanted to, you could spend all three days of your pass at ONE park.

The only thing you cannot do with a one park per day pass is visit more than one park in a single day at any point during your vacation.  For example, you could not visit Animal Kingdom in the morning, and then travel to the Magic Kingdom to spend the afternoon on the same day.

One park per day passes have the lowest price point of the various Disney pass offerings.  If you are confident that you’ll be happy staying in one park for the whole day, one park per day passes are ideally suited for you.  They’re a great way to save money, but they do limit your flexibility, so it’s important to consider the trade-off between cost savings and flexibility before making your decision to purchase this pass.

Here are some examples to consider where you might find park “hopping” an advantage:

• Example 1: You visit the Magic Kingdom on Tuesday. After you arrive, you learn that Disney is going to be filming the Christmas parade all day for the Christmas Day special. This means there’s going to be extra crowds. In addition, the Main Street area is going to be blocked off for many hours during the day. This will make it difficult to get around the park and it’s going to be kind of a headache. You find this out AFTER you’ve r park pass to enter the park. If you have a one park per day pass, you’re in the Magic Kingdom for the day; you do not have any other options. You will be spending the day in the Magic Kingdom.  Please know you’re still going to have a great day. There are lots of ways to enjoy the park on a day when it’s crowded. However, if you’d had a park hopper pass, you could have left MK as soon as you discovered this challenge. You would have spent the rest of your day at a different park, returning to the Magic Kingdom on a different day.
• Example 2: You spend the day at the Magic Kingdom with the kids. Later, you want to have dinner in Epcot in the evening with your husband, and put the kids in the kids club at your resort.  If you have a one park per day pass, this is not an option. However, if you have a park hopper, it is.  (Again, there are other options–you could go for a nice dinner at a resort restaurant, or to Disney Springs–just not to another PARK.)
• Example 3:  It’s the last day of your trip, and you’ve planned to visit Animal Kingdom for the day.  Everyone is very excited, but your teenage daughter tells you at lunch about a sweatshirt she saw at Epcot yesterday. She’s decided that she can’t live without it, and she’s looked at every store at AK and can’t find it. And, of course, her life will be OVER without this sweatshirt.  With a one park per day pass, you would have no option to go back to Epcot and get the sweatshirt.  If you have a park hopper, you COULD do that if you wanted to.

It’s important to note that there are satisfactory workarounds in all these scenarios. Workarounds that do not have to involve park hopping. These are just a few examples to show you where the flexibility offered by park hopping is a really nice advantage to have.  However, that advantage is pricey, so if you don’t need it, don’t pay for it.

More Days Mean More Savings

Disney wants to keep you on property and in their parks as long as possible!  If you look at the park pass pricing (in the table below), you will notice that as you add more days to your pass, the incremental price increase gets smaller.

In other words…to visit one park for one day in peak season will cost you $121. But visit one park per day for 10 days in peak season will only cost $50.21 per day!  Disney knows that the more you are in their parks, the more you are likely to spend on souvenirs, food and beverages, etc.. They price their tickets accordingly.  They want to entice you to stay longer and use those days to visit Disney parks. 

They want to make it more practical for guests to spend any extra time available at Disney parks than at Universal or Sea World.  Why would you spend another $200 or $300 to spend a couple days at Universal when you could spend $25 and spend 2 more days at Disney? 

It’s kind of genius really.  It’s the same reason they work so hard to get guests to stay at Disney resorts. It’s the reason they make Disney transportation free. Why rent a car, if you can travel all over Disney property for free?  If you don’t have a car, you are less likely to leave Disney property. You won’t go to Perkins or Denny’s for a more affordable breakfast, or head to Universal Studios for a day.

Current pricing for one park per day passes (prices shown as a range):

STAR PLAYER: PARK HOPPERS

Park hopper passes are among the most flexible passes that Disney offers; however, they come with a price tag associated with that flexibility.  Some of you may remember the days when park hopper passes were available with the “no expiration” feature; sadly, that feature is no longer available.  If you purchase any park pass other than an annual pass you have to use the entire ticket up within 14 days of first use.

The primary benefit of a park hopper pass is, of course, freedom.  With a park hopper pass, you can visit one, two, three or even four parks in one day should you wish to.

I tend to use hopping privileges the most on short visits, because I want to make sure that we can visit our favorite attractions and our favorite restaurants–we can’t always do that if we stick to one park per day especially on a short weekend trip.  The last trip I did with my mom, we only went to Hollywood Studios basically for dinner and fireworks on one night of our trip–we spent the rest of the day doing other things.

The park hopper gives you the most flexibility— you can visit one park in the morning, and a different park at night.  You can visit one park all day but go to a different park for dinner.  You can even start with one park in the morning, move to another park for the afternoon, and then end the evening at still another park (or back where you started!).  If you are visiting during a busy season when park hours are extended, park hopping is especially helpful!

Peak seasons that usually have extended hours include the two weeks around Christmas, the week of Thanksgiving, spring break, and the very busiest weeks of the summer season.

The park hopper pass is not as helpful in the seasons when the hours are shorter, as you do not have as many open park hours to play with.  However, I have still found that I liked the freedom to hop during seasons with shorter hours.   I find myself using the hopper option when one park gets more crowded than I am comfortable with–I will modify my plans and move to a different park.  Or, even when the parks have shorter hours, Epcot and Magic Kingdom generally have longer hours than Animal Kingdom or Hollywood Studios.  So I will use my hopper and take advantage of that–I will visit HS or AK for the day, and then end each night at MK or EP, which works great for me personally.

FREEDOM TO HOP AWAY FROM CROWDS

The biggest benefit that hopping brings is freedom as I’ve said before.  When the park you chose feels too crowded, you can check your My Disney Experience app (or alternative app that you prefer), and if you see that lines are fairly short (comparatively speaking) at another park, you have the freedom to leave the park you are at, and move to a different park.  You can release any remaining fast pass + reservations at your current park if you want to, and leave.  Or if you suddenly get a craving for a particular  food item that can only be found one place, you have the freedom to hop over to that park for a snack, maybe a quick attraction or two, before returning to your original park to continue with your original plan.

Again, all of this goes back to what I’ve said before—research research research.  Before you make any decisions about your park passes, you want to do preliminary research on the time period that you’re going, the tentative park schedule for the days of your trip and which parks you think you will want to visit.  You also need to consider if you are staying on property and will have access to extra magic hours, and which days of your trip have extra magic hours at which parks.  It does make a difference.

So flexibility and freedom have value.  But flexibility and freedom also carry higher costs. Significantly higher costs. Only you can decide if the higher costs are worth the value. You have to decide if hopping is worth the higher costs.

Disney does not allow you to purchase park hopper passes for some of the people in your reservation and not for others.  If you are purchasing a vacation package, all tickets for all guests staying on that reservation must be the same.  For example if you have booked a family suite at Art of Animation, and your reservation includes four adults and one child, all five park passes will be the same.  The same number of park days, and the same, either park hopper or one park per day—whichever you have chosen.   

An alternative to this would be to purchase a room only reservation, and purchase your park  tickets a la carte.  This gives you more flexibility, but it also usually costs more to do it this way.  The packages are designed to try and save you money by linking everything together—because again, Disney is trying to entice you to stay on property and to stay as long as possible.

There are many creative ways to manage park passes—if you have a unique situation, contact me and we can discuss.  There are a lot of different ways to fly around the world as they say.

Current pricing for park hopper passes (prices shown as a range):

 

FREE AGENT: PARK HOPPER PLUS

The park hopper plus pass is essentially the park hopper pass with “water park fun and more” added to it.  “Water park fun and more” means that you will get a certain number of visits (based on the length of your park hopper pass) to Walt Disney World fun locations including:

• Disney’s Blizzard Beach Water Park
• Disney’s Typhoon Lagoon Water Park
• ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex
• Disney’s Oak Trail Golf Course
• Disney’s Fantasia Gardens Miniature Golf Course
• Disney’s Winter Summerland Miniature Golf Course

For example, if you have a five day Park Hopper Plus pass, you’ll have five days that you can visit Walt Disney World theme parks, including park hopping privileges PLUS you will have 5 visits to “fun” locations in the list above.  For each visit, you can choose ONE of the locations in the list. 

BEST FOR LONGER TRIPS

The Park Hopper Plus pass is the most expensive of the short term passes but of course, also the most flexible. This pass is a good fit for families that are planning to visit Disney for a week or more, and are planning to build some “non-theme park” days into their vacation.  It’s also a good fit if your family enjoys the activities in the list above and will actually use the visits. 

It is not a practical purchase for your family if you are visiting for 6 days and purchasing a five day Park Hopper–you won’t have enough time to take advantage of the “Plus” features, and essentially would be wasting your money.  Unless you are visiting during a time of year when you are going to be able to take advantage of the water parks, it’s likely not a valuable use of your money.  It is also not a practical purchase if your family or group is unlikely to actually use the water parks and mini golf options—don’t waste your money.

However, if you love the water parks, and are visiting when the climate is warm enough that you will actually WANT to go in the water and use the water parks, you may want to consider the Park Hopper Plus option.  If you have the time to build in a few “rest” days, the water parks ARE a ton of fun…and even if you don’t love water slides, both parks have a lazy river and lots of places to sit by the water and relax.  Just to help you assess the value of the “Water Park Fun and More” add on, here’s some pricing to help you:

• Water Park Tickets: $62.84 Child/$69.23 Adult
• Miniature Golf: $12 Child/$14 Adult
• Oak Trail Golf: $39 per player

Current pricing for park hopper plus passes (prices shown as a range):

CURVE BALL: ANNUAL PASS

Generally speaking, when talking to the casual Disney vacationer, we usually focus on the Disney park pass types above. One category that usually gets completely ignored is the the annual pass. The main reason for this is that annual passes are fairly expensive–generally more expensive than your average one park per day pass or park hopper pass.

However, there are some benefits that come with an annual pass that might make it worth considering purchasing one for one member of your party. It really depends on the length of your trip, whether you want to park hop, if you will have a car on property, how often you visit Disney, how important memory maker is to you and your family, if you are a DVC member or Florida resident, and how much shopping and eating in the parks you do. The current price of an annual pass is $952.11 (including tax).  Keep in mind, Florida residents and DVC members are eligible for discounted pricing on annual passes.

Obviously, an annual pass is very expensive. I’m sure a few of you had a heart attack when you saw that number!  I know I did, originally–and it was less expensive in those days!  There are lots of sites on the Internet that will calculate out for you the ideal number of days of you would need to visit Disney in a calendar year to make it a wise or profitable decision to purchase an annual pass.

However, I tend to look at more than just the number of days and the cost of the pass. There are several benefits that the annual pass gives you that go beyond the simple price per day of the pass. These benefits, in my opinion, carry a LOT of tangible, cost savings benefits, and should be considered, along with the actual cost of the pass.  A lot of those websites will tell you if you’re not going to be visiting the parks for at least 12 or 14 days during a 365 period, an annual pass will not be worth the investment.  If you strictly look at the price of the pass and you calculate it out by the number of days, those sites might be right…but I believe you should look at more than that.

Here’s a brief list of the official benefits.

Annual Pass Benefits:

• Admission for one year to all four Walt Disney World theme parks
• Visit up to four theme parks in one day
• Parking at the theme parks (savings of $25/day)
• Up to 20% discount on select dining
• Up to 20% discount on merchandise in park stores and in Shop Disney Parks online
• No blackout restrictions
• Disney Photopass Downloads for all photos captured during the period the pass is active and tied to the passholder account (Savings of $169 per trip, equivalent of Memory Maker purchase)
• Special limited edition merchandise, only available to passholders
• Invitations to special events
• Occasional “freebies”, only available to passholders

Right off the bat, you can see that there are some categories that could save you significant money.  If you will have a car on property, for example, and you intend to park at the parks, you will save $25 per day in parking.  Even for a 5-7 day trip, that’s a benefit that adds up quickly.

PHOTOPASS AND MEMORY MAKER

If you usually purchase Memory Maker* (or download Photopass pictures), you will be saving up to $199 per trip. Even if you only visit once during the year–if you’ve rented a car and park at the parks just 4 days (but visit the parks for 8 days total), you’ve already saved $299 off the cost of your pass.And you haven’t even started saving on meals or merchandise yet.

*To clarify the Disney Photopass downloads that are included with the annual pass:  Technically, this is not the same thing as the Memory Maker product.  The Memory Maker product is a one time purchase, for a specific vacation, for all Photopass pictures and ride videos taken by Disney during that vacation.  If you purchase it before your trip, it’s $169; if you purchase it during or after your trip, it’s $199. 

If you don’t purchase Memory Maker, and you want to keep or download any of the Disney ride photos, videos or Disney Photopass pictures taken during your vacation, you will have to pay for them individually.  Prices start at $14.95 per photo; there are packages available, but generally speaking, they are expensive–Memory Maker is almost always the best value–especially if you try to make sure your family or group takes a lot of Photopass pictures.  Memory Maker basically gives you access to your photos online for 30 days, and permission to download them.  After that, photos are removed from the online portal.

With an annual pass, any Disney ride photos, ride videos or Disney Photopass photos associated with the magic band tied to the annual pass are available for download on that person’s My Disney Experience site for the entirety of the year their pass is active.  If you take a trip near the end of the life of your pass, your photos are available online for 365 days from the date they are taken.  You do not pay for the downloads, you don’t have to order Memory Maker or anything else, the photos are simply in your account, available to download whenever you want them.

If you’ve read any of my other articles, you know that I am a big proponent of both Photopass and Memory Maker. I love pictures. I love photos as souvenirs. I love photos as memories. And I love the Photopass service. I cover both topics in detail in this article.

ANNUAL PASSHOLDER DISCOUNTS

Annual pass holders also can get room discounts. Generally these discounts are offered on a limited short term basis. They can be hard to get before they are gone, but vigilance can really pay off. As a passholder, you will have access to these discounts for 365 days.

If you have an Annual Pass, you can get 10% off most merchandise purchases at the parks–and sometimes 20%.  There are some exceptions: some shops aren’t owned by Disney; those shops may not honor the discount. However, even if you just buy a couple of T-shirts or some coffee mugs, you’d be surprised how quickly that discount can add up.  Disney does have strict rules–you can’t use your annual pass to purchase merchandise with the intent to resell it or anything like that, or they will rescind your pass.  But there have been some years I did a lot of Christmas shopping at Disney, and the discount really helped!

Most Disney restaurants also give 10% (and sometimes 15-20%) off to annual passholders as well.  Some quick service restaurants even offer the discount.  Tip: if you have an annual pass, ask EVERYWHERE if they offer a discount for annual passholders.  I’ve been very surprised by some of the places at Disney that I’ve gotten discounts. One thing to remember: while your Magic Band can serve as your annual pass for park admittance and many other things, you will need your actual annual passholder plastic card to get any of the discounts, so make sure you carry that with you always. Most cast members will ask for your pass and your ID to verify they match before applying the discount.

If you are fortunate enough to be able to visit Disney once every year or so, another way to maximize your savings with an annual pass is to plan your trip for the second year a couple weeks EARLIER, so that it will fall within the 365 days your pass is active.  That way, you’d get two trips out of your pass, instead of just one.

Obviously, if your trip is a very brief one, an annual pass may not be a practical investment for you. But if at least a couple of the following items apply to your situation, it might be worth doing the math to see if one annual pass might offer enough savings to make a purchase worthwhile:

• You are traveling with a larger family or group
• You will be renting (or bringing) a vehicle
• You plan to use Photopass
• You plan to eat at table service restaurants as a group at least a few times
• You expect to purchase souvenirs at Disney owned gift shops at the parks or your resort
• Your trip is 5 days or longer

BUT WAIT, WHAT ABOUT THE UNIFORM?

Hopefully, by this point, at least some of your questions about Disney park passes have been answered. But this is usually where a whole bunch of NEW questions come up. “If I buy a 4 day park hopper, how do I get a Magic Band?” or “Is my 3 day one park per day pass going to work the same as a Magic Band?” or “What IS a Magic Band, and do I need one?” I cover Magic Bands in more detail in a different article, but in a nutshell, here’s the basics:

A Disney Magic Band is a waterproof wristband with an embedded RFID chip in that will contain information about you, your resort reservation, your Disney park pass, your Disney Photopass pictures, even your payment information–if you choose to link all those things to your Disney account, and by extension to your Magic Band. They become your hotel room key, your entrance “key” to the parks, your Photopass ID, even your method of payment–simply by touching your Magic Band to the touch point on a door, stanchion or kiosk when directed.

Magic Bands are automatically mailed out by Disney to all Disney resort guests or Annual Passholders. You will have an opportunity to “customize” your bands prior to the mail out date if you want to–if you don’t, the bands will be the default gray color for everyone in your party. Disney does not charge an extra fee for the Magic Bands. If you have added your Disney park pass information to your Disney account, that information is linked to your Magic Bands, and they work as your entrance pass to the parks, as well as your room key, once you’ve checked into the hotel.

You can also purchase specially designed and limited edition Magic Bands in Disney stores and at Disney gift shops and link these bands to your account. These special Magic Bands will then work as your Disney park pass (or room key) as well.

Once you have a Magic Band, you can customize it however you like. The internet is FULL of pictures of people’s customized bands. You can paint them, bedazzle them, attach things to them…You can buy stickers for them , all kinds of stuff. For our wedding trip, I got a package of stickers; we customized our bands and then let the group choose the band stickers they wanted to use.

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All Magic Bands do include a little extra “Magic” here and there. For example, when you ride the “It’s a Small World” attraction at Magic Kingdom, there are devices near the end of the ride that are scanning the Magic Bands and will show your name on the signs at the end of the ride. There are lots of little magic touches like that–nothing necessary, but nice little magical bonuses. The bands also help various rides link ride photos to your account. Don’t worry, there is also usually a place at the end of the ride where you can identify your photo and scan your park pass or Magic Band to link your photos.

Note: You do NOT have to have a Magic Band to use your Disney Park Passes to enter the parks. If you are not a Disney Resort Guest, you will be sent a plastic card when you purchase your park pass. It looks a lot like a credit card. It will have a lot of numbers on it. You will enter the numbers on your My Disney Experience account to link your pass to your account. You will use the card to enter the parks if you do not elect to purchase a Magic Band, and you will use your card to scan for Photopass pictures.

WHICH PLAYER IS THE WINNER?

Choosing which Disney Park Passes are right for you and your travel group is a challenge, as you’ve probably realized by now! It’s more than just “how long are we going for?”. Choosing the RIGHT pass takes some planning and some thought (and some budgeting!).

Ultimately, which Disney Park Pass is right for you depends on your unique situation.  Your family, your budget, the way you like to travel, etc.  Every kind of Disney park pass has its advantages. Which one will be the best player for YOUR Disney vacation depends on YOUR team.  In this article, we’ve talked about each type of Disney Park pass, the benefits and drawbacks of each, and included current pricing for each type of pass.

Now it’s up to you.  Think about your unique situation, how you like to visit Disney, what your budget concerns are, and how flexible you like your vacations to be. If you need advice, I’m always here to help.  Feel free to reach out to me at brooke@disneycastledreaming.com.  You can also find me on Facebook at DisneyCastleDreaming, DisCastleDreams on Twitter, and DisneyCastleDreaming on Instagram.

Happy Dreaming!

Brooke