How to choose your tickets at DisneyWorld. It can be confusing

********* A VERY IMPORTANT NOTE WHEN CHOOSING TICKETS: If you are looking to experience to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter™, This is at Universal Orlando's Island of Adventure and NOT at Walt Disney World. Many people have mistakenly thought this is at Disney's Hollywood Studios(we encountered several people asking cast members at Disney's Hollywood Studios where it was in that park)and end up angry when they find out that it is not there.********

Choosing how you want to enjoy the magic at DisneyWorld includes determining what type of ticket is the best value for your family. Disney gives you plenty of options when it comes choosing tickets, but some people unknowingly purchase something they don't want, need, or don't get the right ticket for what they want to do.  Choosing the wrong ticket easily raises the cost of your vacation and can even put it out of your budget; it may even leave you feeling disgruntled during your stay at Disney World. Here I will try to explain the current(2012/2013) theme park, add ons, and annual passes that can be purchased without going into pricing just to give a general overview.  This broad overview will serve as a guide to help you understand the options you can choose, so you can experience most of what Disney has to offer based on specific ticket types.(There are other admissions, special tours, experiences, shows, events, and programs that are offered that are not part of  normally purchased tickets or vacation packages.)

The tickets have evolved and changed over the years, but make great souvenirs after your visit.

Theme Park Tickets

For 2012/2013  Tickets for Walt DisneyWorld are being called Magic Your Way Tickets.

Basic Ticket

The most basic form of these tickets are called the Magic Your Way Base Ticket.

Disney tickets use to be paper like this one.

Each Magic Your Way Base Tickets gives one person entry to one Theme Park per day for each day you have purchased for your ticket. Once you enter that park, your "stuck" in that park. You can enter and leave that same park as many times as you like during the regular operational hours of that park. This is a ticket that I would only recommend to someone that has no problem staying in one park for each day their ticket is valid. It is important to note the more days on a ticket you buy, the cost per day goes down.

Park Hopper Option 

The Park Hopper option is an up charge add on to your Magic Your Way Base Ticket. With this add on you are not stuck in the same park each day  your ticket is valid.  You have the flexibility to enter and leave  the Magic Kingdom Park, Epcot, Disney's Hollywood Studios, and Disney's Animal Kingdom on the same day for the entire length of your ticket. The Magic Your Way Base Ticket with Park Hopper is the ticket I recommend to everyone. It opens Walt Disney World up in so many ways allowing freedom to choose where you want to go based on crowds and where you would like to dine. Even with the best touring plans and itineraries, you may feel the need to deviate from the plan and just go where you feel like going. This ticket gives you that option.

Water Park Fun & More Option

This use to be the Water Park Fun& More option and had less restrictions

This up charge to the base ticket can be a great value or a tremendous waste of money; plus there is a lot of small print with this up charge. One would really have to consider how often they would like to visit the water parks or other offerings that this up charge offers.  It may prove cheaper to just purchase tickets individually to each offering than to add this up charge to your entire ticket, it just really all depends on your length of stay and an important side note to this up charge is  the Number of visits depends on number of days purchased on a Magic Your Way Ticket. This is where a travel agent like myself really comes in handy to help with the price break down and comparisons. This option includes includes entrance to Disney's Blizzard Beach Water Park ,Disney's Typhoon Lagoon Water Park, DisneyQuest Indoor Interactive Theme Park, Disney's Oak Trail Golf Course, ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex, Disney's Fantasia Gardens Miniature Golf Course or Disney's Winter Summerland Miniature Golf Course. All of these extras for this up charge do have a significant amount of fine print and restrictions.

No Expiration Option

If this ticket had not expired. Disney would have had to honor it.
This ticket is from 2003 and no longer offered.

In theory, if you purchase this option, your unused Theme Park days that you have purchased and Water Park Fun & More option that have been added on to those days never expire. Your Magic Your Way Tickets will expire 14 days after first use otherwise. As I said in theory because Disney can change their policies at anytime and laugh all the way to the bank with your money in hand. Back in the day, when a park ticket was bought, the ticket never expired. Someone decided along the way that this notion was a bad idea. So now Disney makes you pay to have that option. Honestly, unless under special circumstances, this option is a waste of money.  Why? Well when you book a package or buy your tickets you can choose the number of days you have on the ticket, so in theory you only pay for the days you are going to use in the theme parks, there is no need to buy more days than that. Unless you intend to spend single days at different times of the year at the park, even then if you go more than 10 days a year, it maybe worth purchasing an annual pass...See below. This is another place where a Travel agent, such as myself, comes in handy to help you figure this out.

******Warning Scam Alert***** Some agents may suggest you buy the no expiration option on your ticket and suggest you sell your remaining days on your ticket to a business that re-sells tickets or is a discount ticket seller. DO NOT DO THIS YOU WILL END UP IN JAIL AND FINED HEAVILY. If you buy a ticket from one these sellers, Disney will not honor it. You are out the money, you may even end up in jail for purchasing these tickets and fined also. ONLY BUY TICKETS FROM A DISNEY AUTHORIZED TICKET AGENT.
 

Let The Memories Begin tickets

Annual Passes

Basic Annual Pass

For really Lengthy stays, if you make several trips a year, or are a local(ish) type person; a Basic Annual Pass may be the best deal for you. The Basic Annual Pass provides a full year access to Disney World theme park with park hopping, "free" theme park parking, discounts on Resort Hotels, dining, and merchandise. Also occasionally there will be exclusive Passholder special events and privileges.
In the past there have been blackout dates with this Basic Annual Pass when you wouldn't be able to enter the parks. Currently there are no blackout dates listed but as always the fine print says "Pass types, entitlements and prices subject to change without notice." So yea Disney covers their butt on that one if they should again decide to implement black out dates.

Premium Annual Passes

The Premium Annual Pass is a great option if you plan on spending great lengths of time not only at the theme parks but at the water parks and golf courses etc.  What you get with this besides a large price tag is 365 days of access to all of the Disney World theme parks on the same day,"free" theme park parking, Access to Disney's Blizzard Beach Water Park, Disney's Typhoon Lagoon Water Park, DisneyQuest Indoor Interactive Theme Park, Disney's Oak Trail Golf Course, and ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex. You also get discounts on Resort Hotels, dining, and merchandise. Also occasionally there will be exclusive Passholder special events and privileges. Again though, there is the nice small print "Pass types, entitlements and prices subject to change without notice."  Greens fees for one round of golf; tee times are required and are subject to availability and some events require an additional admission charge."



There are other tickets  like the Water Park Single Day Tickets and DisneyQuest Single Day Tickets, both of these tickets have there pluses and minus, but then again it all depends on what your looking for out of your vacation.

When it comes to Universal Orlando ticket options, it becomes a whole different ball game. So stay tuned as we explore those options in a future blog posting.

 How many of you save your Tickets as a Souvenir from your trips?