Numbers Don’t Lie: It’s Time To Get Your Disney World Annual Pass

Edit: Blog updated April 2019 to reflect new pricing in WDW

A financial guide on when it makes sense for you to stop buying tickets and get your Walt Disney World annual pass.

When the time came for Aleta and I to decide whether we should get an annual pass for Walt Disney World or if we should just continue to purchase tickets every time went, we took our time to make our decision. In the end, I think we ended up giving ourselves a good one to two whole…seconds.

All right, it was a particularly easy decision for us. We live in Maryland, sure, but we go to Florida often. I have been going to Florida at least twice a year since I was born; and since Aleta and I got married we have been going to Disney every time we went to Florida. I also had a general idea about how many days we would need to spend in Disney throughout the year to break even on the passes, so we just went for it (#noregrets).

Although I have previously done a little math about the breakeven point (I figured it would be about 7 days in Disney to make it worth it), I have been wanting to break the numbers down even more. Thus, this blog post; because I decided that if I am going to crunch the numbers, I might as well do it not only for my own edification, but for others as well! 

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1. General Admission Ticket Pricing
2. Are you a Florida Resident?
3. Out-of-Staters

Disclaimer: I will just be using the basic annual pass (The Disney Platinum Pass) compared to general admission tickets with park hopper (park hopper is necessary to make sure the tickets are equal, i.e. they both get you into the four main parks). I will not be including taxes and fees or pricing for the water parks, as it adds a few too many ripples, and I do not feel every scenario needs to be explored for the sake of the annual pass decision. The differences are very minute for some of those factors, so it would not change much either way.

Disclaimer out of the way, let’s get to it!

1. General Admission Ticket Pricing

Below is a table with the ticket prices for Magic Kingdom and the other three parks (different pricing) and their variations. Here are what general admission tickets will cost you when you just go one day at a time (not multiple days in a row).

2. Are you a Florida Resident?

If you are a Florida resident, why do you even need this explained? Go get an annual pass!

All right, fine, we will take a quick look at the numbers. The Disney Platinum Pass is only $749 per year per person for Florida residents. How does that compare to the single day park hopper option? Well here is a nifty table for you:

If you are just going to Disney on days where you can get value ticket pricing (which is typically during the week) then it will take you until the fifth visit for you to save money by getting the annual pass. But essentially, if you plan on going to Disney World five or more times, it is totally worth the purchase.

In addition to that, Florida residents can also have their ticket broken down into monthly payments so they do not have to come out of pocket for the entire pass right away. Being in Florida has its perks, like being the state where Disney World is. Good enough perk for me, but you also have those other things I just mentioned, so go out and get that annual pass!

 3. Out-of-Staters

Now that we have seen how good the Florida residents are living, time to look at the out-of-staters’ costs.

The cost for an annual pass is $894 per year per person. To get a good comparison, I do not feel that using the single day ticket pricing model is a great representation of how we would purchase our tickets to Disney. If you are out of state and are contemplating an annual pass purchase you are probably looking to go for a few vacations throughout the year, not just a day here and there. So, I am going to base everything on three day stays; long weekends, essentially.

The reason multiple days makes a difference is because you get a discount per ticket when you buy for more than one day at a time (but they must be used within 14 days of your first use, you cannot buy a 10-day pass and use it 10 different months throughout the year). Prices range from $109 for a one-day ticket to $44 per day for a 10-day ticket. A three-day ticket costs $104 per day per person. Soooo, time to table it up:

After two three-day weekends, you are $132.20 away from breaking even on the annual pass. Just throw in one additional day at any ticket price (value, regular, or peak) and you are pretty much good to go!

Just because I love tables, I am also going to show you where you break even on a few other scenarios (tables.are.awesome):

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The main take away from these tables is this: if you plan to vacation in Disney more than one time per year, at least about three days per stay, you will find the annual pass to be worth it. But just to make sure you have no doubts, here is one more thing to help you feel even more confident in your purchase: memory maker is an additional $169 per stay at Disney. If you are an annual passholder, memory maker is included. So, add $169 to each of those stay...Yeah, pretty worth it now, right? Thought so.

Also, you get discounts on hotels and purchases throughout the park as an annual passholder, meaning you break-even quicker than what I just showed you. But to break down those numbers would require a much more in-depth analysis and I think you get the picture.

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I hope this helped you make your decision! Be sure to subscribe to our newsletter or follow us on Instagram and Facebook for more tips and information on Disney! If you have any suggestions for another topic you would like me to discuss, by all means, let us know!