There's A New Ticket Deal In Town!

Walt Disney World has just announced a new set of ticket deals for it's Orlando parks. The new deal will run for date-based tickets between April 2, 2024 to September 22, 2024 and include 3-day 3-park and 4-day 4-park tickets.

But is this a good deal? When we looked a bit more into this deal there were several factors that standn out that will help determine if this is a good deal for your budget.

On the Disney World ticket website, the stated prices for these deals will be around $89* per day for the 3-day tickets, and around $99* per day for the 4-day ones.

This works out to be about $267 total for a 3-day ticket and roughly $396 for a 4-day ticket. These prices are also for an adult (10+) ticket, with tickets for children ages 3-9 being slightly less.

However, when you actually click on "continue" you'll be brought to a park calendar with prices ranging from $99 to $120. You almost have to be eagle-eyed to see that these prices range "from $89/day" and "from $99/day" respectively.

While this can feel a bit disingenous, the fact is that these prices are still much lower than the regular day tickets which claim to start at $109, but acutally range from $120 to nearly $160 a day.

For single day, single park tickets there is a substantial savings to be had with this deal.

Another consideration to keep in mind is that unlike regular single-day or date-based ticket options, parkhopping is not an option that can be added on. With the way Disney has operated similar deals in the past, it would be safe to assume the following:

These seem like common sense, but here's what each of these assumptions really mean.

The ticketing website clearly states that each ticket is specific to a particular park. This is most clearly understood when you look at the 3-day ticket as it does not include Magic Kindom. If you were to purchase these tickets you would only be able to access EPCOT, Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios.

Similarly, each park can only be visited once. If you purchase the 3-day but plan to skip Animal Kingdom to double up on Hollywood Studios or Epcot, then you may have to think again. Like the above point, each ticket is limited to a single park and if you want to visit the same park more than once you'll have to pay for an additional single day park ticket.

And finally, each ticket is limited to a single day. While I have not confirmed this, it seems likely that to prevent park hopping folks with these tickets would not be able to use two tickets in the same day. So if you want to start your morning off in Animal Kindgom but ride Slink Dog Dash at night these tickets may not offer that as an option.

A final consideration to make is around when. In the previous version of this deal that was available only to Florida residents, tickets could be used at any time during the promotion. For this version, WDW clearly states that the tickets must be used within 7 days of first use.

This isn't a huge deal as folks that would most likely use this deal would probably plan on being on vacation for the 3-4 days to use the tickets anyway. The bigger timing issue to consider is the duration.

The website states that this deal will be for tickets from April 2 to September 22, 2024. As far as I've seen there are no blackout dates for these tickets or other limitations on days when this can be used. This means that this deal applies to tickets during the spring break and summer seasons, some of the busiest times in Disney World and for travel.

I'm not sure if this is in response to projections that park attendance will be lower this year as compared to the previous post-COVID records, or to the well founded complaint that a Disney trip is no longer affordable for a typical family vacation. Either way, this deal will likely be very popular.

When you consider all of the factors of cost, the limitations and the popularity of this deal it could be one that works well for you and your family.

Even for me as an Annual Passholder, this deal presents a great opportunity for me to take my little ones, or go on an adults trip with non-passholders and not feel as if I'm breaking their bank. I guess we'll just have to wait and see how this deal plays out.