Disney World Annual Pass: When Does It Make Sense?

We talked before about the benefits of buying a Disney World Annual Pass, but when does it make sense for your trip? There are a lot of benefits, but that doesn’t always mean you will use them to their full advantage. Every family vacations differently and Walt Disney World is no different. Today we are going to discuss a few scenarios where buying an Annual Pass makes sense for your family.

You are going more than once in a year

The most common reason to get an annual pass is that you are planning on visiting Walt Disney World more than once in a year. This does not have to be a calendar year. If you are going in July of 2018 and planning on visiting again in April of 2019, your annual pass would still be good.

Disney has recently changed how they sell tickets, and while there are still ways to get discounted tickets to Walt Disney World, in almost any scenario, an annual pass makes more sense.

Unless you are only going for 3 days each time, your tickets alone cost more to buy them separately that together. However, if you are only going for 3 days each time it still makes sense for at least one person to have an annual pass because you would automatically have access to Disney’s PhotoPass system. This means you would be saving $169 for both trips.

You have a car during your trip

If you plan on driving your car to the parks every day and are there for a while, this could save you a lot of money. Disney recently marked up their theme park parking fee to $25 a day. It is important to note if you are park hopping you only have to pay once for the day. You do not have to pay for each park you go too.

There’s a Room-Only discount

When you have a Walt Disney annual pass you (typically) get a larger discount on hotel rooms. The discount has sometimes gone as high as 40%! While this isn’t the norm, you will regularly get 25% off rooms that are normally closer to 10%-15% off. Depending on your length of stay, this can add up quickly.

The biggest piece of advice I can give you for this is to check what the current offering is. It isn’t a hard and fast rule that a particular hotel will be 25% off so play with the hotel dates and stays. Recently I noticed Coronado had a larger discount than Caribbean Beach. While this can probably be attributed to the construction, it can vary depending on what capacity is like for each hotel.

We are going to Disney World quite a lot next year. I used my perks as an Annual Passholder to get a room at Art of Animation for $150 a night. During that same time period, a room at any of the All-Star resorts was $137. Upgrading for as little as $13 a night seemed like a no-brainer!

If you are looking at staying at a deluxe resort, even with the discount I would still suggest looking into renting points (more on that here). The majority of the time I do the comparison, renting points through David’s Disney Vacation Club Rental is still much cheaper than directly through Disney.

You eat in the parks frequently

If you have visited this site before you know that I love eating in Disney. So much so that we frequently purchase a Disney Dining Plan. I think the food is half the fun! I know there are some people who could skip the food completely and make food at their hotel. However, if you are like me and frequently enjoy eating in the parks, the food discount can add up as well.

You will also be eligible to buy a Tables in Wonderland card. It is $150/year and is only eligible for Annual Passholders, DVC members, or Florida residents. This card includes discounts on alcohol as well and bumps up the discount to 20% at most restaurants.

You buy a lot of merch

This isn’t typically a selling point for buying a Disney World annual pass, but it should be mentioned. If you are going with a large group and plan on buying quite a lot of items, just having one person that is an AP could help. The discounts range depending on where you are shopping, but they are typically around 10%. Occasionally you will get 20% off items as well, but this is more a nice gesture from Disney rather than a standard thing.

You plan to add Extra Magic

Do you plan on taking a behind the scenes tour? Thinking about participating in After Hours? Want to do Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party? Think a dessert party could be fun? If you are planning on adding extra magic to your stay, be sure to look up the cost for a Disney World annual pass member.

Only one member of your party needs to have an annual pass to buy tickets. The discount varies per event so be sure to check Disney’s site.

If you want to learn more about all of the benefits of buying a Disney World Annual Pass, check out this post! It gives you an overview of everything you would have access to as an Annual Passholder.