To fully understand your options you need to know what you need a ticket for and what happens when you go through the turnstile. Each separate park within Disney property requires your ticket to be swiped at the turnstile. If you have a one-park-per-day ticket, you may swipe your ticket at any of the parks and have entry to that park, and that park only, all day long. You may exit and enter as you will, but you may not enter a separate park on that day. Example : You have a 3 day pass at Disneyland without the park hopper option and you swipe your ticket at the Disneyland turnstile. You may not go to California Adventure at 7pm to see the World of Color Show. So, to see both Disneyland and Disney's California Adventure Parks, you need the park hopper pass, or at least a 2 day pass. In Disney World there are 4 separate parks. It's important to note that a 1-park per day pass cannot take off 2 days on the same day, that is why you will gain entry to one park and cannot gain entry to a different one. Your pass simply won't let you through the turnstile if you try. Downtown Disney is a fun shopping area and does not require a ticket.
First we'll cover the Disneyland options. Disneyland tickets expire 13 days after first use. So, plan accordingly if you want to break up your touring. Options are 1-park per day or park-hopper passes. You can buy from 1 to 6 days. Gate prices can be found here. There is usually some sort of discount available for advance purchase. Disneyland has 2 parks, and you could see a lot of each park in just 2 days, but 3 days is optimal. As you increase the days on your pass, you'll notice that the per day cost goes down, so another 25 dollars to go from 3 to 4 days might be worth it, especially if you don't plan to come back soon. Or you could add on 15 dollars for the park hopper pass, save 10 dollars a head, and save one night's stay, to make your vacation more budget friendly. For Disneyland, I recommend the 3 day park hopper pass. The flexibility is worth the price on a 3 day ticket. If your budget is more gracious and/or you have little kids, 4 or 5 days will allow you to relax your touring pace giving you plenty of nap and pool time.
You may purchase your tickets from Disney, AAA, or a ticket broker. Sometimes there is availability to purchase from big box stores in Southern California, or from Costco. Check the forums or mousesavers for up-to-date information. There is also a Southern California Citypass and if you are planning to do more than just Disneyland, this offers good savings if you do Universal and Seaworld. There are discounts available for students, youth groups, teachers, military and more should you qualify. Check mousesavers for more details.
Now for Disney World options. Disney World tickets have a couple more bells and whistles to add on. You may purchase from 1-10 days (unless you're from UK and then you can purchase up to 14 days). Disney World tickets start with a "base" ticket, which is a 1-park per day ticket and expires in 14 days from first use. Disney World has 4 parks - Animal Kingdom, Magic Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, and Epcot. Each park deserves at least 1 full day to tour, with Magic Kingdom and Epcot easily taking 2. Animal Kingdom always closes earlier than the rest of the parks, and is the smallest park, so a half day in this park is possible. When choosing our park tickets for Disney World, we like to buy as many days as possible. You can purchase a 4 day ticket and see each park, but again you will notice here that the per day cost goes down the more days you add.
After you choose how many days your ticket will be, you can choose to add on the park-hopper feature, water park fun and more, and no expiration.
- The park hopper option lets you visit as many parks as you like in one day. You could potentially go to all of them on a single day (though I do not advice this for a family trip). To add on to a single day ticket it's 35 dollars. To add on to a multi-day ticket it's 55 dollars. Our family really utilizes the park hopper option, and we love the flexibility. We like to get into one park early before the crowds and hop over to another park later in the day where we know the crowds are less. We also like the flexibility to eat where we like. We love Epcot restaurants and eat a lot of our meals at Epcot, it's also really easy to get to Epcot from Magic Kingdom or Hollywood Studios via boat, monorail, or a walking path making park hopper option quite convenient, but you can easily get by without it. It really depends on which parks you will spend your time in and your eating habits.
- The water park fun and more option gives you admission to the water parks (Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard Beach), wide world of sports, DisneyQuest, and a round of golf at Oak Trail golf course. The number of admissions you have is based on the number of days your ticket is. Again you may find that information here. In 6 trips to Disney World, we've visited a water park twice. I would recommend a water park for couples and families with older children, or extended stays at Disney World. It's 55 dollars to add this option to your ticket and it does not extend your expiration. To make it worth it you need to gain admission to these places at least twice. Unless you are a golfer more than a theme-parker, or you are staying more than 7 days, it's probably not worth it. You can pay 50 dollars for the water park at the gate.
- The no expiration option could save you some money should you plan to visit Disney World again. No expiration is simply that - you could come back 2 years later and use your pass again...or 10 years. This option has a variable rate based on the number of days your base ticket is. As a West Coaster who really enjoys the park atmosphere, I've never considered this option much because the maximum days I can purchase is 10. This means I could spend 5 days in the parks on one trip and 5 on my next trip, but to get the no expiration on a 10 day pass is 225 dollars. This is no savings when compared to two 5 day base tickets. Not one penny. Nada. And I really like my time in the parks, so 5 days is a couple days too few. However, if you add on the park hopper option and the water park option, it will save you from paying these fees twice. I recommend a full week to see just the parks at Disney World for first time guests. With all there is to do, one day in each park just isn't enough. But, now that I'm a veteran, I can see that purchasing a 10 day pass with all the options could help save me money, and not miss out on much. With a 10 day pass with park hopper and water park option with no expiration, I would get to see all the parks for 5 days, hop to my favorite restaurants, visit a water park, and stroll around at Downtown Disney for a cost of 332 dollars per trip. This is about the same as purchasing two 5-day park hoppers and getting 2 free water park days (or more). Also, I would save on ticket price increases, which happen almost every year. Not substantial savings, but a little. You can save even more by purchasing a ticket through a broker. Purchase the ticket with the greatest percentage of savings, and then you can upgrade your ticket once you arrive. If I remember correctly, I purchased my last 10 day hopper pass for 299 from a broker 18 months ago. I could have then paid 225 dollars plus 55 dollars for the water park and no expiration options, yielding 2 5-day hopper and waterpark pass trips for 579 dollars, or 289 per trip.
I just mentioned that you can upgrade your ticket once you've arrived. You can also upgrade your ticket after you've used it. As long as you still have days left on your ticket (and it hasn't expired), you may upgrade it by adding on any of the options. The one thing to note is that your ticket will still expire 14 days from your first use, and the no expiration option is based on your base ticket days, not the days left. But being able to upgrade your ticket once you've arrived gives you the option to purchase a base ticket first to see if 1-park per day will be sufficient. If you find once you've entered the parks that you'd really like the flexibility of park hopping just visit a ticket counter or guest services counter. If the base ticket works for your family, you've saved yourself almost 60 dollars per person, if not, at least you tried.
You may purchase your ticket straight from Disney, but discounts are not often given for just a ticket purchase through Disney World. Ticket brokers and AAA are a better option. Ticket brokers often have a slightly higher discount than AAA. Purchasing tickets once in Florida is also an option at many Wal-marts. I would check in at disboards to see what is current. There are also discounts offered for residents, military, students, and Canadians. Check mousesavers for what is current.
Annual passes for either Disneyland or Disney World are an option should you be planning to visit the parks twice in one year. Disneyland has 2 options for non-residents. The best option would be for the non-peak days pass which gives you admission 315 days of the year and costs 379 dollars, offering you a savings of approximately 75 dollars off two 3-day passes (at full price - with current discounts, you might only save about 25 dollars). The premium annual pass gives 365 days of admission and free parking, it is 499 dollars. If you decide before you've used all the days on your ticket that you like Disneyland SO much that you must come back before the end of the year, you may upgrade your ticket to an annual pass and just pay the difference.
Disney World annual pass options include a pass that gives you 365 days of admission and parking for 552/509 dollars or a premium pass that also give admission to the water parks and DisneyQuest for 691/636 dollars. To make the premium pass worthwhile you'd need to visit the water parks or DisneyQuest a minimum of 3 times. Again, if you decide while vacationing that you MUST come back soon to Disney World, you may upgrade your ticket to an annual pass before you've used the last day on your ticket and pay the difference.
There is one other annual pass option, it's price tag is 773 dollars and it offers premium annual pass features of both Disneyland and Disney World. I see no savings in this option unless you can go more than 3 times within the year, or perhaps some extended stays.
Overall, the best ticket options that I've found in the past are tickets bought through brokers that have been mentioned at mousesavers. Sometimes the best deal is to create a hotel and ticket package with Disney World when they are offering a low season discount, usually this includes free dining, which is a very good savings.
Up next I'll be giving my tips on Disney travel with little ones, and what to expect when you're expecting.
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