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| A surprisingly empty EPCOT. Where are all of the crowds? |
Now that you know a little bit about the parks, how to choose the best hotel for your Walt Disney World vacation, and more about why Disney MagicBands are so important, it's time to look at getting the perfect Disney tickets for all of your vacation needs.
Option 1: Basic Tickets
If the goal of your trip is to spend as much time as possible at any one park, this is the way to go. Magic Kingdom tickets cost the most for a single day pass coming to $105.00 for guests over the age of 10 and all of the other parks costing $97.00. While at first, the price of the Magic Kingdom ticket may come as a shock when compared to the other parks, keep in mind that demand for Magic Kingdom tickets is much higher with the total number of rides available within the park much larger than any of the other parks. It is a good idea, if you are staying for more than one day, to buy a multi-day park pass since the price per day goes down for the more days worth of tickets you buy. For example, if you buy a 2-day pass (which is good for one entry per day to any one of the parks), the price drops by $1/ticket. Add another day and it drops by approximately $6. This continues until you reach the magical number of 10 days where the price per day is a shocking $60.50 off the original $97 price tag making each day a total cost of $36.50! Wow! Keep in mind though that despite what a great deal the 10 day pass is, you only have 14 days from the first time you scan your Disney ticket before it expires. You won't be able to save unused days for a later trip. And don't even think of buying the 10 day pass and using one ticket to get into one park on day one and a second ticket to get into park two on day one; it won't work.You literally need to visit the parks over a 10 day period to take advantage of the low costs associated with it.
Moving on…
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| The frightening Tower of Terror looms ahead… |
Option 2: Park Hopping
For some of the smaller parks, I highly recommend park hopping. It costs an additional $58 per day (which goes down with the more tickets you buy), but it is very much worth it if you anticipate visiting more than one park per day. For example, Justin and I, during our very recent trip to Disney World, visited Animal Kingdom early in the morning on day one, did all that we could think of to do (and some things we didn't expect to do), then hopped on over to EPCOT to the Food and Wine Festival for lunch and exploring. On the second day of our trip, we hopped from Magic Kingdom in the morning, to EPCOT for lunch and dinner, then to Hollywood Studios to end our day. For us, paying for individual days at each of the parks would not have been worth it; we (or at least I) knew what we wanted to do, and park hopping made it so that we could do all of the things we wanted to do within a shorter time frame. If you have young kids, however, park hopping may be an extravagant expense that is not worth it for you. Exploring one park in one day can be a bit much … especially for people who have never been to Disney World before, parents with young kids who need frequent breaks or want to see all of the shows and meet all of the characters, or older folks who have a hard time getting around.
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| Want to play a game of golf while your family vacations at Disney World? You can! |
Option 3: Water Park Fun & More
I've personally never used this ticket option, but I can see how people who come in the summer or love water parks (and more) would love it. So, here's the deal – When you purchase this ticket, you are selecting the total number of days you want to spend at the theme parks (EPCOT, Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, and Hollywood Studios). For each of the days you spend at those parks (for example, 4), you can spend an equal number of days (4) at any of the water parks (Typhoon Lagoon, Blizzard Beach), the Oak Trail Golf Course, ESPN Wide World of Sports, Winter Summerland Miniature Golf Course, and/or Disney's Fantasia Gardens Miniature Golf Course. The way it works out is that you have multiple ways to use your tickets. You can spend one day at each park and then one day at each water park (or fun option) or you can use your park and fun admissions on the same day. Even better, for all of the "fun" activities, you can visit multiple in one day. Want to play mini golf and visit a water park? You can do that. Or you can visit Magic Kingdom during the morning, visit a water park when you get to the hottest part of the day and spend your even mini-golfing. Nice, right?
Because this ticket option is pretty complicated, visit Undercover Tourist to get a better idea of how it works.
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| Everything you ever wanted and more! |
Finally, Option 4: Park Hopper, Water Park Fun & More
Are you indecisive? Can't decide which park to go to? This ticket option would be great for you since it combines both options #3 and #4. You can visit any park any day for an additional $98 (which goes down when you purchase more days). Have breakfast at Animal Kingdom, take in a few rides at Hollywood Studios, enjoy the afternoon sun at Typhoon Lagoon, visit EPCOT for dinner, play mini golf at the Summerland Miniature Golf Course, and then return to Magic Kingdom for fireworks. Phew! I'm tired just thinking about it! Aren't you? :)
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| Who is your favorite Disney character? |
Purchasing
At Disney's website, they also give you the option to purchase "memory maker" which is a collection of all of the photos taken of you at the Disney parks. And, fyi, they take a lot! Did you hug Ariel? Give Mickey a high five? What about roller coasters – did you do any of those? If you want to remember all of your special moments on Disney property, purchasing the memory maker in advance might be just the thing for you.
If you decide to purchase your tickets elsewhere, be careful and make sure to only purchase from an authorized seller. Do not purchase tickets on ebay since tickets are non-transferrable. If the tickets you purchase on ebay, craigslist, or elsewhere have been partially used, you may lose money in the transaction, be unable to use the tickets at Disney parks, and struggle to get a refund.
One authorized retailer I recommend is Undercover Tourist. They are the company I bought mine and Justin's tickets from. We signed up for the Mousesavers newsletter which offers a discount code and let's you know about special Disney offers you can use to plan your vacation. Then, when you go to purchase your tickets, you receive a discount just for purchasing from them. Isn't that awesome?! Justin and I received $30 back for tweeting #amexuct with our twitter accounts that are connected to our Amex credit cards on top of the discount we were already receiving as well as the coupon code we were able to use. How awesome is that? Plus, you have the option of having your tickets sent to you, available for pick up at will call, or e-mailed to you (for connecting to your MagicBand). With so many options and such a great amount of savings, what are you waiting for? :)
Purchase tickets from Disney here and from Undercover Tourist here.
Have you ever been to Disney World in Orlando, Florida? Do you have any other tickets suggestions or helpful hints to share that I didn't cover in this blog post?
