The key to deciding which park ticket option to buy is first deciding on your “trip style” and how many days you can go to the parks vs doing other stuff. Do you want to stick to one park each day? If so, do you have enough trip days to go to as many parks as you want? Or are you limited in days and have to cover all four parks in less than four days? Or have you been to each park many times already and know that you only need half a day at certain parks, and want to hop to another park for the rest of the day? Or do you want to be able to hop to different parks within a day so that you can do a restaurant in a different park? And finally, do you want to go to the water parks too?
Base Tickets
There are a variety of park ticket options available. They come in multiple-day lengths and vary in price depending on the time of year. Peak times will cost more. The base ticket lets you into just one park a day, but you can go in and out of that same park multiple times that same day. If you need to go back for an afternoon nap and return afterward, or go to a resort for lunch and return for the rest of the day, that’s fine.
Tickets have to be used within a certain number of days of the first day you start using them, but you can skip days in between if you have enough trip days. Your park ticket length doesn’t have to match your trip length. For example, if you get four-day park tickets, it may say that they have to be used within the next 7 days of first use. Therefore, you can go to the parks on days 1 & 2, skip going on day 3 and just do a resort pool day, then go to your third park on day 4, skip day 5, and go to your fourth park on day 6.
You don’t have to do each of the four parks on those four-day base park tickets either. You can go to the Magic Kingdom twice, and any two other parks for the remaining two days. You just have to stick to one park per day, whichever park it is.
If you have enough trip days, you may want to plan your park days for the days when you’ll have all day there to maximize their worth. Don’t use a park ticket on your arrival or departure day if you only have a few hours available, unless you have to in order to cover each park that you want to go to. In fact, that’s a good way to save on ticket costs. Just get tickets for the full days of your trip and use the partial arrival and departure days to do the resort pools or Disney Springs, so that you reduce how long of a ticket you have to buy. However, the price per day gets cheaper for each subsequent day. So, depending on the length of your trip, it may be a minimal cost to add additional ticket days to cover your partial trip days. But, every little bit helps, and if you have many people in your travel group, it could still add up. You’ll have to weigh if it’s worth it for the option to go to the park for that additional day vs how much time you’ll really have there once you account for transportation and such.
Park Hoppers
Update Jan 2024: Disney is now allowing park hopping anytime! You don’t have to wait until 2pm anymore. Yay!
Note: Hopping works differently post-Covid. As of June 2021, you can only hop to another park after 2pm, but you have to scan into the first park that you made Park Reservations for on that day first. You do not need a reservation to any park after the first one. Check what the latest procedure is when you go though.
If you add the hopper option to your base ticket, you can go to multiple parks a day, hopping as many times as you physically can or time allows. Plan according to each park’s different opening and closing times if you intend to do this to maximize your time there.
It’s one flat fee to add hopper for your entire ticket length. You can’t just add hopping for your last two days for less. It would cost you the same as it would if you had added it for the entire length of your ticket. So, if you think you want to add it, then you might as well add it as early as possible, so you get the benefit for the first few days too.
If you’re on the fence about hopping, think if you’ll really get the full use out of it depending on your “trip style”. The parks are enormous, and there’s definitely enough to do at each one to spend the whole day at one park, esp if you also intend to leave and return for naps or dining. You won’t get bored. It’s also good to stick to one park if you want a more chill trip and not rush around to multiple places. But there are also so many things to do that you may want to be able to cover multiple parks a day, especially if you’ve been to them before and don’t have to do everything in each park. We actually like to hop, but we like to go-go-go and cover many areas on short trips since we can usually only do long weekend trips.
Do the math if cost is a factor. It may just cost a few dollars more to increase a three-day base ticket to a four-day ticket. That’ll let you cover all four parks for minimum cost. It may actually be cheaper to get a longer base (non-hopper) ticket than a shorter length ticket with the hopper option. Of course, it also depends on how many trip days your group can take, and you have to factor in the additional cost of a longer resort stay, additional dining, and potentially different flight costs if flying on different days. Figure out the overall trip cost, not just the ticket cost.
Just know that if you plan to hop, you have to account for travel time (at least half-hour to an hour to get to another park usually depending on which transportation method you use), additional walking, and other side-effects that it adds to your trip.
Water Parks
If you want to go to the water parks during your trip, you can add the water park option as well for an additional cost and can also add it once you’re at Disney. Just double-check if the water park that you want to go to is open during your trip. During the winter months, they usually close one for renovations. If it gets pretty cold, they may even close the remaining one.
Decide how many times you want to go, though. Depending on how many times you intend to go to the water parks, it may be more cost-effective to buy a single day water park ticket separately instead of adding the water park option to your entire base ticket length. This option let’s you go to the water parks as many times as you want during your entire base ticket length. It also doesn’t count as a hopping park so you can go to a water park, or both, for half the day, then go to one of the four theme parks for the other half, even if you don’t have park hoppers, for every day of your ticket length. This could be nice during the hotter months and if you’re big water park people.
Annual Passes
If you think you’ll be going to Disney World for multiple trips within a 12 month period, it may be worthwhile to get an Annual Pass. There are numerous tiers of annual passes that differ for various factors – Florida residents, blackout dates, water parks, reservation limits, etc. They’re all listed on the Disney site and are always changing, so check there for the latest tiers and prices. Yes, there’s a scary high cost for one, but if you do the math for multiple trip tickets, it may be surprisingly worthwhile.
Annual passes include the hopper option by default. They use to include the Memory Maker photo option too, if you want the ability to download the park photographers’ pics and ride photos, but they don’t anymore. If that’s an option you want, be sure to add it to one member of your party. Annual passholders can buy the unlimited annual MemoryMaker for a discount. As long as your party members are all linked to that Disney account, they can get everyone’s pictures. There are additional benefits like free park parking if you will be driving a car to the parks, and 10% dining and shopping discounts. So, once you factor all that in, it could be worthwhile for you. You can get creative and have one person in your party get one for the discounts if that provides some savings still for you.
You can also upgrade your current ticket to an annual pass when you’re on your trip too, but you must do it before the end of the last park ticket use day, which may not coincide with your last trip day so be aware. If you do it that way, they will credit the cost of your current ticket towards the cost of the annual pass, and you just pay the difference. So, if you’re not sure now, wait until you’re midway into your trip to see if you get bitten by the Disney bug and will definitely return for another trip or two within the next 12 months from the first day of your ticket. However, once you decide to upgrade, then go do it at any Guest Relations desk as soon as possible (but definitely before your last park day or they won’t give you credit for your current ticket), so that you get the benefits for the rest of your current trip too.
We’ve had annual passes for the past several years, and have loved having them. We’ve definitely gotten our benefits from them by making about three trips a year, even with just long weekend trips. We started out on our first trip in 2010 thinking that was our “once and done” Disney trip, so we planned it to do eeeeeverything and be done with it. We won’t be one of those people who go many times a year. Ha! We were wrong. We got bitten by the Disney bug! And realized that we can still never do everything. And it has been neat to see the kids be able to do different things during each trip as they grew older. It’s just a different type of trip than other trips we take around the country, even though we love those too. There’s something about that Disney magic or pixie dust or something, but if we don’t go after a few months, we definitely get the pangs to go again. After a few trips, the planning will get easier too, so it’s sort of a default trip when we don’t have the time or energy to plan a trip to a brand new place. There’s usually something new to check out by then anyway, and the trips are still as magical. So, don’t rule out an annual pass right away. Definitely think about it during your next trip.
Park Reservations
Update January 2024: If you have a ticket where you selected the start date when you purchased it, you don’t have to make park reservations anymore. Only those with annual passes, military tickets, and some other specialized passes still do. The info below is valid for those who still have to make reservations.
A new feature that goes hand in hand with park tickets has been introduced post-Covid reopening – Park Reservations!
You are now required to indicate ahead of time which park you wish to enter on each day of your trip. If you do not make a park reservation to that park, you will not be allowed to enter, even if you have your regular park tickets.
You have to select the first park you intend to go to for the day, even if you plan to sleep in and go to it later in the day. If you have hopper tickets, you do not have to select the parks that you wish to hop to (you can just leave your first park n hop to any other park like usual, as long as they’re not closed for capacity), but you do still have to scan into the first park that you selected before you can hop to any subsequent parks. You can’t just skip the selected park and go to another park with your hoppers. You can leave your first park to go back to your resort or park hop, and return to that first park later in the day still.
It is vital to make these reservations as soon as you buy your tickets because they can fill up fast, especially for holidays and other busy days, so you don’t want to be blocked out of entering the parks.
It doesn’t cost anything additional. You just have to go into your MDE app or account to “Make a Park Reservation” for each day of your tickets as soon as your tickets are linked.
In fact, you should check if there’s any availability left for the parks you wish to go to before you buy your tickets, incase you need to shift your trip days to ones with availability. Check for availability here. Make sure to select the right category for the type of ticket you have, since the calendar shows availability for different types of tickets.
During your trip, if you wish to change your plans, you can modify your current park reservation and select one for different park, as long as it has availability. Make sure to double check that the other park indeed has availability before you cancel your current one though!
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Adventures By Anne 