Disney Parks Tickets Tips & Tricks

Wondering which Disney park tickets to buy to save money? Where to purchase them? Time-saving add-ons? We will answer these questions and more in this post, along with links to helpful resources concerning Disney park tickets, coupons, and discount options.

Tickets are often one of, if not the, most expensive aspects of any Disney vacation. Knowing that you have purchased the correct tickets for your family’s vacation needs will help reduce the stress of planning and know that you’ve done everything you can to save money.

When it comes to Walt Disney World and Disneyland tickets, the regular price increases should be emphasized. For the last several years, this has occurred in mid-February, meaning the next increase is likely to occur in February 2018. Purchasing tickets before the jump will secure the price for your vacation, and most do not expire until Dec 31 of the same year. That gives you plenty of time to secure additional money-saving reservations like hotels and transportation.

On the topic of money-saving; if a ticket deal seems too good to be true, it probably is. There are countless ways to purchase illegal and counterfeit tickets, as well as other money-saving “options”. Disney neither has the resources nor the desire to squash these productions. Only tickets purchased from Disney Authorized Resalers or Directly from Disney themselves will be honored at the gate. The worst of it is; Disney will not honor invalid/illegal tickets, nor will they have any sympathy for your blunder.

WALT DISNEY WORLD

The Disney resort with the most park ticket options is Walt Disney World. This is both good and bad. Good, in that you are able to custom-design your ticket purchase and know that you have bought what was best for your vacation. Bad, in that navigation these options can be a bit of a headache, to say the least.

Figuring out which option is best for you can be one of the most time consuming and stress-creating factors of the planning process. Disney representatives often only make matters worse, as they upsell or subtly “encourage”  guests into buying the more expensive tickets, and always encouraging guests to add the Park Hopper option, among other things.

Just knowing what your options are, not purchasing unnecessary add-ons and using the best seller available can save you a lot of money, and significantly cut down on the cost of your park tickets.

In a future post, we will be discussing which add-ons you should and should not get, how many days you might want tickets, and also compare prices (nothing beats that 7-day ticket, though). Stay tuned for that.

DISNEYLAND

Disneyland tickets is a little easier to handle since there aren’t water parks or other options at Disneyland Resort that can be added to the tickets. At Disneyland, it is basically a question of whether or not to get the Park Hopper option, and how many days.

If you already know how many days worth of tickets you need and are looking for the best price, then heading to Get Away Today is your best option, as many have mentioned they offer the best deals for non-California residents.

No matter where you purchase your tickets, you can add-on the new MaxPass digital FastPass service. As with most FastPass systems, this can be a time-saving purchase, especially during more crowded days. While we don’t like paying for FastPass in principle, this can enable you to do 3-4 additional headliner attractions per day, and it seems to be the trending option for more and more theme parks across the country.

DISNEYLAND PARIS

Disneyland Paris is a unique little theme park, in that Annual Passes are more often than not, cheaper to purchase than individual park tickets. For example, the lowest tiered Annual Pass, Discovery, is available for 139 euro, whereas a 2 day/2 park ticket (all tickets cover both parks, they are just being clear on what you are purchasing) will cost you 173 euro. What is that?!

Access is limited to 150 days a year due to block out dates, so depending on your schedule, the 189euro Magic Flex may be your best bet – but spending an extra 10euro to receive an Annual Pass and 10% discounts on all shopping. We definitely spend more than 100euro at the parks souvenir shops, so this option is right up our alley.  Did we mention the hotel discounts, since you won’t be purchasing the rooms and tickets as a package anymore? Annual Passes seem to be their upsell and they are doing a great job of promoting it.

Single-day tickets vary in price, according to expecting crowds and therefore make it hard to budget. Purchasing these at the door if you aren’t sure of your arrival date, or in advance online for a specific date, are the better options.

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