As our family prepares for our move to Florida, we currently live in Maryland, I find myself thinking about taking the kids to Disney. It’s been over 15 years since I last went to Disney. Lyric (Coconut the1st), went to Disney when she was 7 years old. The other two coconut babies haven’t had the pleasure of visiting the happiest place on Earth.
So that got me thinking about taking Minuet Jazz ( Coconut Jr.) and Calypso ( Coconut Boy) to Disney. Since we will be living in Central-ish Florida, I imagine that we will visit the parks multiple times. It seemed like a good idea to look into the price of annual passes.
How many trips do you have to take to Disney World in 1 year to make the annual pass worth it?
Short Answer: Anywhere between 6 to 14 trips.
Long Answer: I looked up Disney’s annual passes and it came out to almost $1,450 a person. Speaking to other people, I learned that there are multiple passes, but the only one that showed for me was the most expensive, Incredi-Pass. It’s possible I was only given one option because I’m not a Florida resident – yet. Maybe out-of-state, first time customers only get to buy the top level pass, I don’t know.
For me, $1450 is a lot of money. This made me wonder, how many trips to Disney do you have to take in order to make this pass worth it?
I looked up the daily ticket price for Disney, it was $109 a day. Ok, so I think to myself, we have to go to Disney at least 14 times to make it worth it to get the annual pass. That seemed like a lot. That’s more than once a month.
Because I needed more guidance, I asked my friends this question and I got varying amounts of answers. The first thing they corrected me on is that it’s not how many trips, it’s how many days will make it worth the price. Most people, especially out of towners, like us, will take 1 trip to Orlando, stay multiple days at Disney. Going even deeper, it’s not how many days, but how many park visits will it take to make the price worth it. I didn’t account for the fact that you can visit multiple parks per day and each park has its own admission fee. But for the most part, it seems like if you visit Disney 9 days out of the year, the pass is worth the price.
What you get with the annual pass
Ticket Prices
When I looked up ticket prices, the Disney website said $109. However, I quickly found out that price is just the hook to draw you in. You can expect the real price to be anywhere from $150-$190 per ticket and that’s just for 1 park. If you want to go to multiple parks in one day, plan on paying $270 to $300 per ticket… Geez.
Free Parking
One would think with how expensive Disney is, they would at least offer free parking. No such luck. You are looking at spending $30-$35 for standard parking, a.k.a, the nosebleed section of parking, and $45- $55 for preferred parking. The annual pass gives you free standard parking. That’s $30 you can spend on food instead.
In-Park Discounts
There are discounts on food, up to 20% at some places. If you are considering staying at a hotel on site, you can save 20-35% at select lodging. Of course you can’t forget the Disney swag, there are also up to 20% discounts at various stores.
Yes, the annual pass is worth it, IF…
The annual pass is worth it if you plan on spending at least 9 days, throughout the year, at one or more of the Disney parks. The 9 days could be a single 9-day trip to Disney, a few long weekend stays, or 9 separate days throughout the year. Any combination of 9 days will make you feel like you really got your money’s worth.
We’ll be getting our annual passes next year!
I posed the question to my community on Threads. Check out what they all had to say about it. Please feel free to add more thoughts, comments, and additional insight.
Post by @coconutsinthebayView on Threads
Spend your money on experiences, not things – Coconut Mama
