Discounts on Park Tickets

Question: I have sat down this morning to plan a spring break trip for my family to Disneyworld… We lived in south Florida up until 3 years ago…and I always took advantage of the Florida resident discounts… this is my first trip as an out of state resident (Alabama) and I’ve nearly had a heart attack at the cost of this trip so far…

I have 4 children… 16, 10, 8, and 4 …all girls… and I’m actually looking for tickets only to the 4 parks (different park daily) for 4 days… and hoping to do one character breakfast for the 4 year old….

I have plenty of hotel points and our lodging will be free… and we will be driving to Orlando.

Are there any cheaper ticket sites than buying directly from the Disney website?? Help!!!!!


Answer:

Great question, and I am going to start with what NOT to do, before going into what you can do to save a little on park tickets.

Don't buy older, used tickets from anyone (before the finger scan) because there is no way to verify the # of days left on the ticket until you are at the park, ready to use it. Someone may sell you a ticket that they say has 4 days left, but in reality there's only 1 day left. Also, don't buy into the whole "get a free ticket" in you listen to a 90 minute time share spiel, unless you are willing to use up most of one of your vacation days listening to a sales pitch. Those spiels always take longer than 90 minutes and are never worth it (in my opinion). Finally, beware of eBay and Craigslist - lots of scamming going on there.


But onto where you can get valid discounted tickets. Unfortunately, there really aren't great discounts on the park passes for the most part. As you well know, the FL discount is probably one of the best Disney offers. But there are a few places you should try. I am only recommending vendors that sell new ticket passes (nothing used).

For reference without any discount, a 4 day no park hopper pass for an adult will cost you $239.63/each and for a child $204.48/each, including taxes.

One place you can check for a discount is AAA. If you're a member of AAA, I know that some branches offer discounts, but I'm not sure how much those discounts are. Another place to check is your corporate office - my workplace offers me Disney discounts through a website called www.ticketsatwork.com. Another good website to check out is Undercover Tourist (http://www.undercovertourist.com/united-states/florida/orlando/attractions/tickets.html). Their prices are a little cheaper: $232.95 for adult each and $198.95 for child each. That price includes all taxes and shipping is free. Not much, but something.

Something else that is a great idea to help save some money is to get involved in Disney's Give a Day, Get a Day program (http://disneyparks.disney.go.com/disneyparks/en_US/WhatWillYouCelebrate/index?name=Give-A-Day-Get-A-Disney-Day). Your entire family can volunteer (the opportunities vary for each area, but in my area I had the choice to make 2 fleece blankets as my volunteer job and didn't even have to take a day off work) and in return Disney will email you a free ticket voucher, which is good at any of the 4 parks, though not at the water parks. This will save you the cost of one day at least, and you will be doing something nice for someone else!

I wish I had better discounts to recommend to you but really there isn't much out there. I do want to note that if you plan to make a return visit to Disney in the next year or so, then it would be worth getting a 10 day pass for everyone and add the no expiration option to it. You'll save money (lots) in the long run. And your 8 year old, who is a child now, would be able to exchange her no-expiration child ticket at the park ticket gate for an adult ticket free of charge, last I heard. So you'd be paying child's prices for an adult the next time around. And if you ever want to visit the Water Parks or DisneyQuest, you can add that option to the 10 day no expiration pass for $55.38/ticket (the cost of one day's admissions to either place) and you will have 10 visits to the water parks/DisneyQuest that will never expire until used up, even when the tickets no longer have park days on them.

Hope this helps a little bit and have a great time on your trip! If you haven't already decided what character breakfast to go to, I've heard Chef Mickey's at the Contemporary Resort is one of the best and is a short monorail ride from the MK.