What is the Best Amount of Tickets for Disney?
That, my friend, IS the ultimate question!
The best approach is to start with the facts. Just the facts.
Walt Disney World is four separate parks! That’s F-O-U-R! If you’ve been to Disneyland, it is NOT that two-park experience. There are also two water parks you can visit on the sprawling acreage! Additionally, there is the shopping mecca known as Disney Springs! For the sake of general discussion, we won’t throw in yearly holiday parties or golf courses or that “other theme park” into this mix just yet.
Side note reminder: Keep your expectations in check: You CANNOT do everything in one visit! You simply cannot. Your best approach is to focus on what your group wants to do! Discuss with every member of the family or group and get their top 3 things they absolutely MUST do and that will be the basis of your planning! That way everyone goes home with their personal expectations met! This will make it a whole lot easier to get everyone on board for the next family vacation.
Visit the Parks that Appeal to Your Family
So, if you have lots of animal lovers in your group, you might want to spend two days in Animal Kingdom. Thrill seekers or movie buffs may want more days at Hollywood Studios. Princesses will want to camp out in the Magic Kingdom and world travelers will enjoy the World Showcase in Epcot. Water worshipers will need to decide if the pool at the hotel will meet their fun-in-the-sun quota or if a water park is a place they want to spend some time.
A good rule of thumb is one day in each park. That’s four-day tickets for each member of your party three and older. If you travel as most do, for a week, that gives you six days. You will have to determine if you want two more park tickets or one water park ticket or you want to use the other two days for shopping or resting. A Disney trip is not for the faint of heart. It takes a lot of work to have this much fun! The key is to work in what each member wants so the memories you leave with are positive!
Disney Tickets Get Less Expensive the More Days You Buy
Here’s the real consideration. As you examine the pricing of the tickets, you will notice that the more days you buy, the price per ticket drops. A two-day ticket is say $200, costing $100 per day but a six-day ticket may cost $408 working out to $68 a day! This means you double your ticket price from $200 to $400 but you tripled your days in the park from two to six. For another $50, you get a ten-day ticket with each day only costing $45. The golden nugget here is the more days you purchase the less you pay per day. The catch is once the ticket has been used on the first day, they are only good for the next 14 days. Only the one the tickets are issued to can use them. Use ‘em or lose ‘em!
One last wrinkle is the Park Hopper option which I do not recommend on your first trip to Disney. Few folks actually use them and they do cost more allowing the visitor to enter two different parks in one day. It accommodates those who have specific dining reservations or show preferences, hence the frequent visitor!
So, jump in, survey your group, and get those tickets! Disney, here we come!