Category — e. What to Budget for Walt Disney World

OVERVIEW: WALT DISNEY WORLD ADMISSION TICKET PRICES 2012 TO SUMMER 2013

(This page is sponsored by Undercover Tourist.)

Three types of Walt Disney World prices are important to think about:

• Walt Disney World theme park admission ticket prices—the tickets that grant you admission to the parks
• Walt Disney World resort hotel prices, and
• Park and hotel food prices

This page focuses on Walt Disney World theme park admission ticket prices from summer 2012 until the summer of 2013, when, based on past practices,  they will go up.

MORE DETAILS ON WALT DISNEY WORLD ADMISSION TICKET PRICES 2012 AND 2013: HOW THE TICKETS WORK

There are multiple types of Walt Disney World theme park tickets, but the one most relevant to most first time visitors is the Magic Your Way ticket, with the Park Hopper option.

You buy one theme park ticket for each person who will be three years old or older at the time of your visit (kids younger than three enter the parks for free.) The tickets have two pricing levels: one for kids who will be younger than ten at the time of your visit (but 3 or older) and the other for people ten or older.

When you buy your tickets, you also say how many “days” you want—from one to ten. Each “day” you buy permits unlimited visits to one theme park on one day. If you also add the Park Hopper option, you can make unlimited visits to any of the theme parks in one day–one theme park, two, three, or all four theme parks.

• For example, if you buy a three day ticket without the park hopper option, you could make two visits to the Magic Kingdom on day one, three visits to Epcot on day two, and two visits to the Animal Kingdom on day 3
• If you have a three day ticket with the park hopper option, you could for example make two visits to the Magic Kingdom and one to Disney’s Hollywood Studios on day one, one visit to Epcot and two to Disney’s Animal Kingdom on day two, and one to Epcot and two to the Magic Kingdom on day three
• What you can’t do without a park hopper ticket is visit more than one theme park one the same day. For example, you can’t, on November 25th, use one day of your three-day ticket to visit the Magic Kingdom, and another day of this same ticket to visit Epcot that same day. More than one theme park in a day requires a park hopper

You do not have to use your days all in a row boom boom boom—e.g. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Once you use your first day, you have 14 days to use all the days on your ticket. So on a three-day ticket you could visit the theme parks Monday, Thursday, and Sunday.

• You can also add days at the same price that you would have paid had you bought all those days at once, but have to do so no later than the day you use the last day of your original ticket (and within 14 days of the first day)
• So if you buy a three-day ticket, and realize a few days later that you need more days, you can add two days and they will cost only the difference between what you paid originally for a three day ticket, and what you would have had to have paid for a five day ticket, so long as you add these days no later than the day you use your third day
• You can also add stuff like the Park Hopper during the same day window at the same price as you would have paid when you first bought your ticket

However, you can’t “subtract” days if you overbuy.

HOW WALT DISNEY WORLD PRICES ITS THEME PARK ADMISSION TICKETS

1. While Disney typically increases ticket prices at least once a year—typically in the summer—it does not change theme park admission prices based on the seasons of the year, the way that it increases and decreases prices at its resort hotels. You pay the same amount for admission on the busiest and the least busy days of the year.

(This material, by the way, is updated as of Disney World’s June 2012 price increase, and applies to tickets bought in 2012 through Disney’s next price increase, likely in the summer 0f 2013.)

2. Disney sells tickets by the day—one through ten days. The way it prices these days, the first three days are very expensive, while days after the third are comparatively almost free. See the image for exact Disney World prices.

For example, a three day ticket costs (including tax) an adult $258, or an average of $86 a day. A ten day ticket would cost the same adult $339. The added 7 days cost in total around $81—or less than $12 per day.

3. A park hopper costs (after tax) about $37 for a one day ticket, and $61 for all other ticket lengths, regardless of whether you add it to a two-day, ten-day or anything in between. So a three day adult ticket with the park hopper added costs $319, and a ten day ticket with a park hopper costs $400.

I have also uploaded an excel spreadsheet with the same data in it as the image, so that you can multiply by the number of members of your own family.

TIPS AND TRICKS FOR WALT DISNEY WORLD THEME PARK TICKETS

There are other ticket types than the ones discussed above—less relevant for first time visitors. For details on all of them, see this page on MouseSavers.com.

While it’s hard to find discounts on tickets, it is sometimes possible. Check sponsor Undercover Tourist, MouseSavers.com, Triple A if you are a member, and if you have military ties, this page and also MilitaryDisneyTips.com.

Since you can add on to your tickets–days, park hoppers, etc.–, but can’t subtract, it doesn’t really pay to overbuy. Start with the minimum you think you need and add on later if needed.  Remember to add no later than the day you use your current last day!

All of this site’s To-Do Lists tell you exactly what ticket type you need for their associated itineraries.

FREE TICKETS ON YOUR BIRTHDAY?

Disney world no longer offers free tickets on your birthday.

Follow yourfirstvisit.net on Facebook!

Walt Disney World is offering a free dining promotion for arrival dates from August 25th to September 29th 2012.

This deal must be booked by May 18, 2012–the end of this week.

So if you’ve been dawdling, book it now!

For more on the deal, see this.

Disney released and discussed its quarterly earnings yesterday, and its domestic parks shot out the lights, with increases in attendance, per-attendee spending, hotel occupancy, and hotel revenues per room.

Disney does not break out Orlando vs. California any more, but it did report that Disneyland had its highest attendance ever for the quarter (January-March) so it’s unclear how park attendance at Walt Disney World went. However, since the vast majority of Disney’s hotel rooms are in Orlando, clearly the Orlando Walt Disney World hotels performed well.

Hotel bookings for the current quarter (April-June) are running slightly above last year, and hotel prices for the quarter are showing “low single digit” increases–pretty good considering that the earlier Easter in 2012 compared to last year means a couple of weeks of high spring break rates are lost vs. last year.

All this suggests that Disney strategy of continuing to limit its discounting will continue.  

Based on its behavior so far, it’s not clear if it will offer fewer programs, fewer eligible dates, a smaller number of rooms/hotels eligible for discounts–or all three.  But however it limits its discounts, the net effect is that fewer vacationers will get them.

The economy is the wild card in all this.  A major economic setback will throw this up in the air, and the continuing struggles among those who want to have their euro but spend it too could have widespread ripple effects.

But so long as the economy continues to slowly recover, deals at Walt Disney World will slowly diminish.

DISNEY WORLD DEAL FOR LATE SUMMER/EARLY FALL 2012

Walt Disney World has announced a new promotion for stays from August 15 through September 29, 2012.  Book between now and and August 14, 2012.

Savings range from 15-30%.

Value Resorts discounts:

• 15% off Disney’s All-Star Movies
• 20% off Disney’s All-Star Sports and All-Star Music

Moderate Resorts discounts:

• 20% off at Disney’s Port Orleans Riverside
• 25% off at Disney’s Coronado Springs, Caribbean Beach, and The Cabins at Fort Wilderness Resort

Deluxe Resorts discounts: 

• 20% off at Disney’s Polynesian, Grand Floridian, and Contemporary Resort
• 30% off at Disney’s Beach Club, Yacht Club, BoardWalk Inn, and Animal Kingdom Lodge (standard view)

Disney Vacation Club Resorts discounts:

• 30% off at Disney’s Old Key West Resort and Saratoga Springs

For Disney’s page on this deal, see this.

For other Disney World discounts, see this.

DISNEY WORLD DEAL FOR SUMMER 2012

Walt Disney World has announced a new promotion for stays from mid-June though mid-August 2012.  Book between now and and June 14, 2012.

Details are sketchy, and there may be actually two deals–one room only, and one packages, with different dates.

But based on this and this, here’s what it looks like:

• Selected Value Resorts and Moderate Resorts: arrival dates 6/15 through 8/4/2012, 15% off values, 20% off moderates.
• Selected Deluxe Resorts and Disney Vacation Club Resorts: arrival dates 7/15 through 8/14, 20% off of some, 25% off of others.

I’ll revise and update this page as more details emerge…or I understand them better!

For Disney’s pages on this deal/deals, see this and this.

For other Disney World discounts, see this.

FREE WALT DISNEY WORLD DINING: A GOOD DEAL FOR MILITARY FAMILIES?

(Updated to reflect Shades of Green’s new 40% discount.)

Inspired by this post on MilitaryDisneyTips.com, what follows tries to guide military families intending to travel to Walt Disney World to the best deal possible during the period that free dining is available.

It’s a tricky question because there’s a bunch of other deals also available during this period, some of which can be combined

• Disney’s offer of heavily discounted Military Salute 4 day tickets
• Its Military Salute offer of discounts of 30-40% off of Disney World resort hotels
• Shades of Green, which is always a deal compared to Disney deluxe resorts, and usually one compared to its moderates (and where you can combine lower-cost hotel rooms with the discounted Military Salute tickets). Shades now has discounts of 40% off during the free dining period, making it an even better deal

Here’s the basics:

• The discounted tickets are $138/person for 4 days.  That’s almost half price.  But they can’t have days added to them, so for longer trips, there quickly becomes no savings. The discounted tickets plus a regularly priced day is still a small bargain, but a normal Disney 6 day ticket is cheaper than a military salute ticket plus 2 regular days.  So longer trips yield less or no savings
• The room rate discount percentage is higher for deluxes (40%) than for moderates (35%), and higher for moderates than for values (30%).  Since deluxe prices are much higher, savings are much greater the more expensive the room.  A $400 a night deluxe room saves $160 a night at 40%, while a $125 a night value saves only $38 a night at 30%.  These savings occur for every night of your trip, so longer trips increase savings
• Dining plan savings also happen for every night of your trip, and are the same if you stay in a deluxe or a moderate.  They are less if you stay in a value, as what you get for free in a value is the “quick service” plan, not the regular dining plan. You save more per night with a larger family, and less the more of your family is under 10.
• Shades of Green gives you value for money every night, but is dull compared to alternatives.  At its 40% discount, it is a remarkable deal

Sadly, you really do have to do the math for your own family, because of savings differences in both the ticket deal and the dining plan based on how large your family is and how many are younger than ten at the time of your visit, differences in the length of your stay, and the specific prices of the resort types you are aimed at. 

But if your family looks like my example family of two adults and two kids, one younger than ten and one older, and is taking either a three night or an eight night trip, I can give you an exact answer:

• For shorter trips, staying at Shades of Green and using the salute tickets is the cheapest option.  If you don’t want to stay at Shades, answers vary.
• For longer trips, Shades is the cheapest option if you’d otherwise stay at a deluxe resort, but free dining is the better deal if values or moderates is your alternative

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