Did You Know We Can Go To Disneyland? Magic Key vs. Annual Pass

Did You Know We Can Go To Disneyland? Magic Key vs. Annual Pass

As a kid in the midwest it was an unspoken truth that if you wanted to go on vacation you went to Disney.


When people said Disney, they meant Disney World. When advertisements came on, or there was a "special episode" on during TGIF, they went to Disney World. It was just that place.


Sure Disneyland existed, duh, but it never seemed to dawn on me that it was an actual place that you could just, go to. I wasn't sure if we weren't allowed, or if it just never dawned on me that it was a place that one visits.

Me wondering why my bank account is so disrespectful

Imagine my surprise when researching Disney World annual passes, I found out that Disneyland also had annual passes for non-California residents. Even better, they had several options with most at a fraction of the cost of Disney World ones (looking at you Incredi-Pass). Since this is the year of me saying "heck yea", I decided to that it was about time to see what California had to offer.


It's weird to me how Disneyland and Disneyworld act as if they aren't the same things. They operate on two completely different apps (My Disney Experience vs Disneyland App), and even though their annual pass systems are similarly multi-tiered with various benefits there are some glaring differences.

Similarities

Like I mentioned, both the Annual Pass system at Disney World and the Magic Key Pass system at Disneyland are very similar.

Both parks have 4 tiers that provide passholders a range of discounts, special merch and access to parks. Recently Disneyworld introduced V.I.Passholder days throughout June that will give additional discounts on merchandise and food, access to a special exclusive lounge, bonus reservation days and passholder exclusive food and gifts. Had we not just returned from Disneyland in May, a quick trip to Orlando this month would definitely be in the works.


While not currently announced, a similar bonus might be made available to Magic Key Holders as well.


Additionally, both passes only activate on your first day in the park *NOT* the day that you purchase it and expire 1-year after that activation date. In essence you have 1 year to activate your pass once you purchase it, and then 1 year to use it before renewing.

Differences

The biggest difference that I saw was in the types of passes that non-residents were able to purchase.

Cost & Pass Type

At the time of writing this, Disneyworld has 4 tiers of annual passes:

Only pass available to non-FL residents or non-DVC members

Other passes include:

  • Pixie Dust Pass ($399)
  • Pirate Pass ($749)
  • Sorcerer Pass ($969)

An important thing to remember with these tiers is that the Pixie and Pirate have the fewest pass days, are the cheapest and are only available to Florida residents. If you are a DVC member then you are able to purchase the Sorcerer pass, but anyone else who falls outside of these two groups will have to purchase the Incredi-Pass. Granted it does come with the fewest blackout dates, but at that price it better.


Magic Key Passes also have 4 tiers with fewer blackout dates at the higher tiers. At the time of writing the available tiers are:

Of this group, only the Imagine Key is limited to residents of a specific range of zip codes in Southern California. Everyone else is able to purchase the Enchant, Believe or Inspire Key!


Instead of shelling out nearly $1600 for the most expensive (and most accessible) Inspire Key, anyone is able to purchase the Enchant Key for $700. That is HALF of the cost of an Incredi-Pass! Magic Keys also include discounts on Genie+, and photopass digital downloads (for Inspire and Believe tiers). The tradeoff of course is that the cheaper the pass the fewer days you can visit.

Park Reservation Calendar

The Disney World Incredi-Pass has virtually no blackout dates, but for $1400 it better not. Right now if I wanted I could reserve high demand days like holidays, summer weekends or festival openings if I wanted to.

Magic Key availability for the Enchant tier is considerably more limited for the same months. In fact, all weekends and holidays are blocked off from reservation for Enchant Keyholders.

For me this isn't as big of a deal since Disneyland is said to be more of a local's park and the weekends are when they are the busiest. And since I don't like heat, or people, not being able to go during the summer works well for me. I might be in the minority, but for me the trade off is works.

What's a Girl To Do?

Um...I bought an Enchant Magic Key, that's what a girl done did. Well, technically I got both passes as I want to be able to travel as much as possible this year and this will be the best way to compare the two destinations...Yeah, that's why.

When I was trying to decide which I would do I made a quick calculation on how many park days I would need to go in a year to break even.

For the times of year that I would go, average park tickets in Disney World would be in the $134 range, but with parkhopper that would bring it up closer to $200 a day.

$1400/$200 per day = 7 park days

For Disney World this would mean I need to spend at least 7 days at the parks between 2023 and 2024. Considering my April trip was already 3 days, I'm nearly halfway to that goal.


To calculate for Disneyland I used the same formula. A parkhopper ticket would be an additional $65+ on top of the regular ticket price, which would be around $160 - $220 which I averaged to $190.


$800/$190 = 4 park days

Four park days is INCREDIBLY reasonable in a year. Thinking about it in this way made the decision a lot easier to make and in May we were able to celebrate being Magic Keyholders on our first trip to Disneyland. The trade off of course are the blackout dates and getting to California from Michigan.


The blackout dates for the Enchant Key are weekends, holidays and most of the summer. Right now that looks like the second half of June through the first half of August. As just the idea of walking around in any crowded theme park in the middle of summer gives me irrational anger and hives, I'm okay with skipping out on those months. Flights to California are another story, which I'm planning to discuss in a later post on travel.

The Bottom Line

If the cost of an annual pass is likely to make your bank account cry (mine did), or you may not be cool with spending your money in Florida at this time, then consider a Magic Key pass. There are more options if you have flexibility on when you go. Considering at it's lowest, it is the same cost as a 4-day trip, then it might be worth it to buy one.

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