There are SO many decisions to make when planning a Disney World trip and one of the areas with a lot of options is park tickets.
How do you know which ones to buy? Are the add-ons worth it?
Let me help how you decide which tickets to buy.
If your only factor in buying tickets is price, you’ll just end up with the Base tickets which are the least expensive and allow you to enter 1 of the 4 theme parks per day of your trip.
If you want to consider one of the 3 add-ons, you’ll need to complete Step 3: Make a Daily Plan in the planning process.
Once you know your daily plan, you can figure out which tickets you’ll need to buy to accomplish your plans.
I’ve surprised myself on some trips because I end up making a plan that doesn’t need any extras so we just bought Base tickets. Most times, we end up adding on one or two of the add-on options.
Everybody starts out with Base tickets. You choose the number of days you want to buy and you are allowed to pick 1 of the 4 main theme parks to enter each day with your tickets.
From there, you can add 3 options (add 1, 2 or 3 of these – any combination you want):
Park Hopper
If your daily plan has you going to more than one park in a day, you’ll need the Park Hopper option so you can go between parks as you wish.
People often ask “but if I buy Base tickets, can I just use 2 tickets to go into 2 different parks on the same day?” No, you can’t. You’ll need Park Hoppers to do that.
Park Hoppers are really nice in that you have a lot of flexibility. You can go to one park in the morning, head back to your hotel for a break and then go to a different park in the evening.
If you go to a morning Extra Magic Hour, you can enjoy that park for the early entry and then head out once it starts to get busy (and it will get busy) so you can enjoy a less busy park.
If you’re staying at an EPCOT-area hotel, it’s nice to go to whatever park you’d like earlier in the day and then head to the World Showcase for dinner.
Water Parks Fun and More
This lengthily-named ticket option allows you to visit the water parks, miniature golf courses, regular-sized golf courses, DisneyQuest and ESPN Wide World of Sports. The number of tickets you have for these extra activities corresponds to the number of days of tickets you purchase.
For instance, if you buy a 7 day Base ticket and add on the Water Parks Fun and More option, you’ll get 7 entries into the extra activities (water parks, miniature golf, et al). You can use these extra tickets whenever you’d like (multiple in one day, if you want).
The cost to add this option is about the same price that it costs to pay for a single ticket to a water park so it often makes sense if you plan on doing any of the “extras.”
No Expiration
Normally, your tickets expire 14 days after the first day you use them. By adding on the No Expiration option, you can use the remaining days of your tickets at a different time without worrying about them expiring.
Which makes sense for you?
Now, which tickets will you buy? If you have any questions about which ones make the most sense for you, leave it in the comments.
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