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It’s everyone’s dream to get a great deal on discount Disney World tickets, and I like to go so often that I HAVE to find a way to get cheap Disney World tickets. To help us both save money, I’m going to take you through 9 different ways to get discounted Disney tickets and maximize your savings.
Table of Contents
My Favorite Disney Planning Tools
Buy The Right Disney Tickets
The first and easiest way to keep more money in your pocket is to buy the right Disney tickets.
Seriously.
When you go to purchase your Disney tickets there are two important things you want to pay attention to:
- How many days you should buy.
- If add-on options are right for you.
Your vacation agenda should be 70% completed by the time you go to buy Disney tickets. You should know what each day of your vacation is going to roughly look like.
Why?
That’s exactly how you’re going to know how many park days to purchase. It’s important to know exactly what you are looking for when you are looking at purchasing tickets, because prices vary based on when you are coming, how many days you plan to go to the park, and the specific type of ticket you want.
For example, a 4-day park ticket might seem like the way to go for a 7-day vacation. But that’s not necessarily true. Consider getting a 3-day ticket instead. It might not seem like what you initially wanted, but when you look at a possible plan for a 3-day ticket purchase for a 7-day ticket, it might just be more appropriate, and save you some great money.
Note: If for some reason you haven’t planned by now when to go, check out the Walt Disney World crowd calendar. The less crowded days and times of year will generally mean tickets are cheaper!
Here’s an agenda with only a 3-day ticket involved:
- Day 1 – Arrival
- Day 2 – Epcot
- Day 3 – Legoland/Universal/Disney Springs/Etc
- Day 4 – Rest
- Day 5 – Animal Kingdom
- Day 6 – Magic Kingdom
- Day 7 – Home
As Walt Disney World tickets expire 14 days after first use, you don’t want to waste your money on days your family will be too tired to fully enjoy. They’re expensive! Take your time each day and relax as you adventure through the parks. I know you might feel like you have to see everything during this trip, but going a little slower will make each moment more memorable, and allow you to really enjoy your vacation. It shouldn’t feel like you’re working!
Here’s how long I think you need to fully enjoy each park within Walt Disney World:
A single, standard ticket at Disney World is currently listed on the site at $109 for one day.
But as the price changes with more days and add-ons, you can actually save money if you buy tickets for a few days in a row. The more days you buy tickets for, the less the price. To give you an idea of the savings, if you buy tickets for 7 days right now, the pricing starts at $67 a day.
Disney World tickets have three ticket add-on options:
- Water Park and Sports option
- Park Hopper option
- Park Hopper Plus option
The Water Park and Sports option is a new offering for Walt Disney World, though they had a similar deal in years previously. With this option, which is added on to your theme park tickets, you get 1 admission to one of the four theme parks (Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, Epcot, and Hollywood Studios) per day, along with one visit per day to any of these Walt Disney World experiences:
- Disney’s Blizzard Beach Water Park
- Disney’s Typhoon Lagoon Water Park
- NBA Experience at Disney Springs
- ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex
- Disney’s Oak Trail Golf Course
- FootGolf at Disney’s Oak Trail
- Disney’s Fantasia Gardens Miniature Golf Course
- Disney’s Winter Summerland Miniature Golf Course
Another benefit of this option is that it’s flexible. You have the number of experiences based on how many park tickets you have, but you can use multiple visits in the same day. This option is a little pricey, so it’s likely only beneficial for certain people, depending on what they want to do during their vacation.
For the regular Park Hopper option, you pay an extra fee to be able to visit multiple parks in a day. This is great if you want to say, start the day at Magic Kingdom, then hop over to Epcot for the second half of the day to wander around and have dinner somewhere in World Showcase. Pricing starts at $65 per ticket, but increases with more days.
The last add-on option is Park Hopper Plus. It’s essentially the Park Hopper and Water Park and Sports option put together. You can go to multiple parks each day you have a ticket, and have a visit per day for all the experiences I listed under the Water Park and Sports option.
While this is a great add on, you really have to fit your vacation to use it. In the agenda above, with a 3-day park ticket, is there any real time to use three days worth of these extras? While I’d say that the Park Hopper option is the most beneficial out of all of them, don’t add any of these options unless you know you can make room for it and get your money’s worth.
UnderCover Tourist
For the BEST discounts on multi-day Disney world ticket, head over to Undercover Tourist.
They are a reliable ticket broker offering fantastic Disney World ticket discounts. They buy tickets wholesale from Disney, get a great deal, and sell them to us at a slight markup, which is still cheaper than buying from Disney direct.
I’ve used them for every single Disney trip I’ve been on.
Click here to visit UnderCover Tourist.
A lot of their deals will save you anywhere between $20-$50/ticket, with special deals offered periodically saving you more! And while that doesn’t seem like a whole lot, it does add up. Their cheapest ticket offerings are the base option, so no Park Hopper or other add-on. But their tickets are FastPass+ enabled, so you can add them to My Disney Experience, book FastPasses in advance, and get MagicBands, just like when you purchase directly from Disney. If you really want to have tickets with one of the add-on options, Undercover Tourist offers them as well.
Disney’s Magic Ticket for 4 Theme Park Ticket
This is one of the best Disney deals I’ve seen in awhile.
For around only $89/day or $356 + tax, you can get a 4-day park ticket. That will generally be $30 to $50 savings per ticket. Definitely worth it! Disney was intending to offer this until September 2020, but given the current situation, this deal was removed from the site. But considering how much they’ve offered it recently, it’s highly possible that they will continue the deal when the parks fully open up again.
Raise and Target = Disney Discount
Real life example: I was having a get-together and I can’t cook. I ordered pizza for everyone, but not before I saved 12.5% by getting a discounted Dominos gift card from Raise.com.
That’s the power of Raise.com, it’s a site dedicated to the selling and buying of gift cards. Here you can buy discounted Disney gift cards as well as other retailers.
There’s nothing to signing up, and there’s a one-year guarantee on all of their gift cards. One of the things I love about Raise is that when you purchase an ecard (which covers most of the offered gift cards), you get it almost immediately.
Current Discounts:
Pizza Hut – 8% off
Target – 0.2% off
Disney – 1% off
AMC – 25.4% off, 6% cash back
Walmart – 2.5% off
Fandango – 16.8% off
Click on this link or use code vseijo and sign-up for Raise and get $5 free towards your next purchase.
But that’s not all…
Get discounted Target gift cards from Raise and use them to buy Disney gift cards at Target. There was once a time where you could combine this discount with using a Target RedCard and get an extra 5% off, but not anymore.
I’ve seen up to 7% off target gift cards so take your time to take advantage of this trick. The discount will likely change over time, so constantly checking Raise will help you get the best deal.
ParkSavers
Similar to UnderCover Tourist, ParkSavers is an authorized Disney ticket reseller.
They also sometimes have specialized deals on certain ticket combinations. With the current situation, there’s no deal for Disney World tickets, but check back often for their pricing. You could end up saving anything between $15-$60 on your tickets.
Get Away Today
Very similar to ParkSavers and Undercover Tourist, Get Away Today is another great option for discounted Disney World tickets. They are an authorized ticket broker company, and just like at Undercover Tourist, the tickets work perfectly with My Disney Experience, FastPass+, and MagicBands. Use these sites knowing that you aren’t being scammed when trying to get a great price on Disney park tickets!
AAA Disney World Ticket
Most AAA offices offer discounted 3-7 day Disney tickets. But Disney recently ended their relationship with AAA, so although some clubs still have deals, it’s usually a better idea to purchase them elsewhere.
US Military Discount
Disney Armed Forces Salute tickets are offered to active or retired Reserve, National Guard, Coast Guard, Commissioned Corps of the Public Health Service (PHS), Commissioned Corps of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Also eligible are spouses, unmarried widows, 100% Service Connected Disabled, Foreign partners/Coalition partners. You can purchase a maximum of 6 theme park tickets.
For $265/ticket + tax, active or retired US Military can purchase a 4-day Disney Park Hopper ticket, while a 4-day Disney Park Hopper Plus ticket is $315/ticket + tax.
For $283/ticket + tax, active or retired US Military can purchase a 5-day Disney Park Hopper ticket, while a 5-day Disney Park Hopper Plus ticket is $333/ticket + tax.
Where to buy?
- Pre-purchase the tickets (in the form of an exchange voucher) at a military base (MWR/ITT office), tax-free! Take that voucher to the theme park to exchange for actual tickets.
- Activated tickets can be pre-purchased at Shades of Green, also tax-free.
- Tickets can also be purchased at the theme park ticket windows or at Disney Springs’ Guest Relations, not tax-free.
*Military ID will be checked when entering the park with these tickets
The Military Salute tickets are a special currently going on. The ongoing Military Discount is about 6.5% off and comes mostly from not having to pay tax.
For more information visit the Military Disney Tips website.
Florida Residents
Though not helpful to many, Florida residents can get good deals on Disney World tickets. This year, Disney brought back the special Discover Disney ticket deal, with a 3-day Discover Disney ticket for $175 + tax, or $59/day + tax. These tickets were only available for use until the end of June 2020. But since Florida residents have currently been unable to use these tickets with the parks closure, Disney might extend the deal once Walt Disney World reopens.
But Florida residents really win with the prices on the annual passes. Not only can you get about $100 off but you can pay for it in monthly installments. Non-Florida residents do not have this option. For the lowest option that includes visitation to all four parks, the Theme Park Select Pass, it costs $467.54 with tax included. This includes at least 325 days of access at select theme parks, and at least 175 days of access to all four theme parks. This option is subject to blackout dates, but there are more extensive options, like the Silver, Platinum, and Gold passes, that have a few or no blackout dates, for higher prices.
Timeshare Tours
Certain timeshare companies will give you free or very heavily discounted Disney tickets if you go through a tour with them.
These tours often take all day and are unpleasant, to say the least.
I remember sitting through one of these when I was about 12-13 years old with my mom and little sister. We were promised a two-hour time frame, but it seemed like we were there all day.
Westgate Resort still does these for discounted Disney tickets.
You might have the time to fit this in during your vacation, but I would really think about it before putting your family through one of these tours. This option can be good for some people, so check out reviews and consider if it is worth it.
If you need more tips on how to save money on your trip to Walt Disney World, check out my Disney on a Budget 2021 guide!
So we’ve gone through 9 different ways to maximize discounts on Disney World tickets. Why pay full price when you can keep a couple of dollars in your pocket. Out of these 9 methods, which one is your favorite? Have you tried any other creative ways to save??
My Favorite Tools
