Disney World Ticket Price Comparison Tool - Find the Best Discounts and Deals for Disney Tickets

Disney introduced date-based pricing for multi-day tickets in Fall 2018, following its switch to date-based pricing of single-day tickets in 2016. Roughly similar to hotel room or airline ticket pricing, Disney’s ticket prices vary considerably based on the days of the year you’re visiting.

To avoid additional surcharges when buying tickets, you must tell Disney the first date on which you plan to visit a theme park or water park. Your ticket price will be based on that starting date, the number of days you plan to visit theme parks or water parks, and whether you plan to visit more than one theme park per day.

The highest-priced tickets are generally found on dates when most children are out of school: Christmas and other holidays, Spring Break, and summer vacation. Less expensive tickets are generally available during non-holiday periods when children are in school, and during months subject to inclement weather: January and February, for example, and peak hurricane season in September.

If you need to move your vacation dates from more expensive days to less expensive days, Disney will not refund the difference in ticket prices. But Disney will charge you the incremental cost if you need to move from less expensive to more expensive days.

One-day admission to a Walt Disney World theme park costs the same, no matter which park you choose to visit. This is different from in years past, when the cost to visit Magic Kingdom was higher than the cost to visit EPCOT, Disney’s Hollywood Studios, or Disney’s Animal Kingdom.

Note that Disney has not yet implemented date-based pricing for the Disneyland Resort's theme parks in California: Disneyland Park and Disney California Adventure.

Along with the introduction of date-based pricing, Disney shortened the amount of time you have to use your tickets. Previously, all tickets expired at midnight 14 days after first use. Now, a ticket's use period begins on the "start date" chosen at the time of purchase, and the time until expiration varies based on how many days you’re visiting the theme parks and water parks, as shown below:

For example, if you purchase a 4-Day 1 Park Per Day theme park ticket and specify you’ll start using it on June 15, 2023, you must complete your four days of theme park visits by the end of June 21, 2023. After that, the ticket is expired, even if you don’t use it.

Three add-on options are offered with each ticket, each at an additional cost:

Park Hopper Option

This add-on lets you visit more than one theme park per day. The cost is about $91 (including tax) on top of the price of any 4-Day or longer ticket (it's a bit cheaper for shorter ticket lengths). The longer your stay, the more affordable it is: as an add-on to a 7-Day 1 Park Per Day Ticket, for example, the flat fee works out to $11.41 per day for park-hopping privileges. If you want to visit the Magic Kingdom in the morning and eat at EPCOT in the evening, this is the feature to request.

If you buy a ticket but then decide later that you want to add the Park Hopper option, you can do so. Note, though, that Disney doesn’t prorate the cost: if you add Park Hopper on the last day of your trip, you’ll pay the same price as if you’d bought it before you left home.

Water Park and Sports Option

Adding the Water Park and Sports option to your 1 Park Per Day ticket allows you admission to Disney's two water parks (Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard Beach), as well as some of the sports-centric spots on Disney World property.

The locations and options you can choose with this ticket are: Typhoon Lagoon Water Park, Blizzard Beach Water Park, ESPN Wide World of Sports, Oak Trail Golf Course (for 9-hole golf or FootGolf), Fantasia Gardens Miniature Golf, and Winter Summerland Miniature Golf.

For an additional $74.55 (includes tax) per ticket you get a set number of visits based on the length of the ticket you purchase. For instance, buying a 4-day park ticket entitles you to 4 visits to a water park or sports location. You can't change how many "visits" you get; the number is fixed, and unused days aren’t refundable.

If you buy a ticket but then decide later that you want to add the Water Park and Sports Option, you can do so. Note, though, that Disney doesn’t prorate the cost: if you add Water Park and Sports on the last day of your trip, you’ll pay the same price as if you’d bought it before you left home.

Park Hopper Plus (PHP) Park Hopper Plus Option

Park Hopper Plus combines the benefits of both the Park Hopper and the Water Park and Sports options together for an additional $91 to $112 (including tax), depending on the number of park days. The number of "plus" visits to the Water Park and Sports venues equals the number of days on your ticket. For example, if you buy an 8-Day Park Hopper Plus ticket, you get eight "visits." You can't change how many "visits" you get; the number is fixed, and unused days aren’t refundable.

Note that Park Hopper Plus costs less than $22 more than Park Hopper on its own; if you are already planning to purchase Park Hopper and want to visit a water park only once, it's a good value.

If you buy a ticket but then decide later that you want to add the Park Hopper Plus option, you can do so. Note, though, that Disney doesn’t prorate the cost: if you add Park Hopper Plus on the last day of your trip, you’ll pay the same price as if you’d bought it before you left home.

An Annual Pass provides frequent or unlimited use of the major theme parks for one year. Annual Passholders must make park reservations for the first park they plan to visit on any given day. There are four versions of Annual Passes:

• Incredi-Pass: $1,489.94 (tax included) - SALES TEMPORARILY SUSPENDED IN NOVEMBER 2021 - Available to anyone with no blockout dates. Can have up to 5 park reservations at once.
• Sorcerer Pass:: $1,031.99 (tax included) - SALES TEMPORARILY SUSPENDED IN NOVEMBER 2021 - For Florida Residents or Disney Vacation Club Members. Thanksgiving and Christmas periods are blocked out. Can have up to 5 park reservations at once.
• Pirate Pass:: $797.69 (tax included) - SALES TEMPORARILY SUSPENDED IN NOVEMBER 2021 -- For Florida Residents only. Holidays and busy weekends are blocked out. Can have up to 4 park reservations at once.
• Pixie Dust Pass:: $424.94 (tax included) - For Florida Residents only. Almost all weekends and all holiday periods are blocked out. Can have up to 3 park reservations at once.

All passes include theme park parking and discounts on dining and merchandise. The Park Hopper option is included with an Annual Pass, but PhotoPass and access to the Disney water parks must be added on for $105.43 (tax included) for each option. There is no child price for annual passes: all guests 3 and over are charged the same amount. Check Disney's Annual Passholder Program webpage for the latest information.

Disney's date-based pricing scheme is the most complicated system it has ever used for ticket purchases. It’s so complicated, in fact, that we wrote a computer program to analyze all the options and to look for loopholes in the new pricing rules. Our Park Ticket Calculator aggregates ticket prices from Disney and a number of online ticket vendors. Answer a few questions relating to the size of your party and the parks you intend to visit, and the calculator will identify your four cheapest ticket options. It’ll also show you how much you’ll save versus buying at the gate.

The program will also make recommendations for considerations other than price. For example, Annual Passes might cost more, but Disney often offers substantial resort discounts and other deals to Annual Passholders. These resort discounts, especially during the off-season, can more than offset the price of the pass.

The Ticket Calculator will automatically use all of the tips below, and more. If you’re interested in doing this yourself, here’s what to consider:

Tip #1

Be realistic about what you want out of your vacation. A seven-day theme park ticket with seven PHP admissions might seem like a wonderful idea when you’re snowbound in February and planning your trip. But actually trying to visit all those parks in a week in July might end up feeling more like Navy SEAL training.

Tip #2

If you’re not park-hopping but going to visit just a water park once, you’re almost always better off purchasing that admission separately rather than in the PHP option. If you plan to make two or more PHP venues, or if you’re planning to park-hop, you’re better off buying the add-on.

Tip #3

Buy from a third-party wholesaler. Disney contracts with third-party ticket vendors to offer discounts to price-sensitive consumers who’d only visit if they get some kind of “deal.” By using other companies, Disney doesn’t have to offer those discounts directly to people who’d visit anyway. These vendors sign contracts with Disney and provide exactly the same tickets you’d purchase at Walt Disney World.

Tip #4

Choose a Start Date earlier than your arrival date. Let’s say you’re visiting Walt Disney World for a four-day weekend starting Sunday, December 24, 2023. If you select December 24 as your first day in the parks when buying a ticket, you’d pay $402.64 per adult with tax. However, if you instead chose Thursday, December 21, 2023 as the first date, you’d pay $7.14 less per adult. And because both tickets are good for 7 days from the start date, both would be valid during your four-day weekend.

Tip #5

Consider the Park Hopper Plus add-on instead of the Flexible Dates add-on. This tip works if you’re going to park-hop and you need your tickets to be valid for one day longer than the default duration. (For example, you’re going to visit three parks over 6 days, but 1 Park Per Day Tickets expire after 5 days.) Instead of buying the lexible Dates add-on, which costs an additional $33 to $89, purchase the Park Hopper Plus option for a flat $27.

In the past, Disney has raised prices 1-2 times per year, with increases averaging between 5-10% each year. Nowadays ticket pricing is associated with the dates for which the tickets are valid, and movements in price are more subtle. However, we still expect prices to go up over time. If you are budgeting for a future trip, to be safe plan for tickets to increase in price by about 10% per year.