Discount Disney World Park Tickets

Many of you are asking the question: Where can I buy discount tickets to Disney park tickets? There are a number of legitimate ticket sellers that can be found online, but there are also those that you want to steer clear of:

• Anyone selling tickets on Ebay
• Anyone claiming to be unused ticket brokers
• Anyone offering the unused days on previously used passes

Between the legitimate ticket sellers prices can vary from a few cents to around $10 on an adult 1-Day Magic Your Way Base Ticket. To help narrow your search for the lowest prices, The Practical Mom’s Disney Vacation Companion has surveyed nine (9) ticket sellers, including Disney, to determine who has the best deals. Rather than comparing every pass, only the 1, 3, and 5-Day MYW Base tickets were used. Tax and shipping charges were included. Shipping charges also varied greatly: anywhere from $5 – $16. The ticket sellers used in this comparison were:

• AAA
• Disney
• DWTickets.com
• GreatOrlandoDiscounts.com
• KnowBeforeUGo.com
• MapleLeafTickets.com
• OfficialTicketCenter.com
• OrlandoFunTickets.com
• Undercovertourist.com

We will only look at the end results and not at individual prices for each ticket sold by each of the vendors: that would only muddy the water. So, here are the results:

In the 1-Day MYW Base Ticket category the winner is: Disney. The cost of an adult pass (anyone ages 10 and over) is $84.14. The price for a child (ages 3 – 9) is $72.42. If buying your passes separately, rather than as part of a vacation package, you can opt to claim your passes at the Will Call window at any of the parks or for $5 they can be mailed to you. The total cost for a family of 4 (2 adults and 2 children) including tax and shipping comes to: $313.12.

In the 3-Day MYW Base Ticket category the winner is: OrlandoFunTickets.com. As do most of the online vendors, OrlandoFunTickets offers a buy 3 get 2 days free deal. The cost of an adult 3 day pass is $231.64 and for a child the price is $197.88. You have the option of picking up your discount Disney Park tickets at OrlandoFunTickets’s office, about an 8 mile drive from Disney’s Value Resorts, or for an additional $11.50 you can have them delivered to your hotel. You also have the option of having them mailed to you for an $8.95 charge. If you decide to have the tickets mailed to you then you will want to look at buying from Undercovertourist.com. Their individual ticket prices are only about $1.30 higher than OrlandoFunTickets, but what puts them out ahead is their free shipping. For a family of 4, the Undercovertourist.com price including tax is $863.80.

In the 5-Day MYW Base Ticket category, when looking at individual ticket prices, several of the vendors are tied or are within $.05 – $.10 of each other. What makes the difference is shipping charges. For our family of 4 OrlandoFunTickets.com and OfficialTicketCenter.com come in in a dead heat at $868.00. Even though most of the vendors offer a buy 3 get 2 days free deal, the price of a 5-day ticket offered by some is actually a few dollars more.

It is significant to note that all of our discount Disney World ticket vendors, including Disney, were very close. For example, the spread on a 3-Day MYW Base adult pass is only $1.60 between the lowest and highest prices. The difference is a bit greater for the 5-Day MYW Base adult pass: $6.92. For our family of 4, however, the gap increases to $38. In that race, Disney came in dead last with a total price of $906, including $5 for shipping. But, here is something you want to consider before buying: if you want to purchase the Disney Dining Plan you will need to purchase a vacation package that includes at least a 1-Day MYW Base ticket. You may think that you can buy the 1-Day pass and purchase your other days from one of the online ticket vendors and save a few bucks, but look closer.

Let’s say your family of four (2 adults and 2 children under 10 years old) decide to purchase a Disney vacation package including the Disney Dining Plan. In order to get the Dining Plan you opt to include only a 1-Day Base MYW ticket for each of you. You then purchase 3-day Park Hoppers from an online vendor that offers a buy 3 get 2 days free deal. The total cost for the 1-Day tickets plus the Park Hoppers would come to $1,396.66, including tax and shipping charges. If, however, you purchased 5-Day Park Hopper passes with your Disney vacation package, the total price for your passes would be $1,122.52: a difference of $274.14 more that you would pay by buying passes separately. Because you purchase a 1-Day pass and, in essence, 5-Day passes (3 + 2 free), which is a total of 6 days, we can make the comparison between buying 6-Day Park Hopper passes with your Disney vacation package and still have a difference of $261.36 that you would be overpaying.

Don’t be blinded by the words: Discount or buy 3 get 2 free. If you will not be staying at a Disney resort, or if you do not plan to take advantage of the Disney Dining Plan, then you may be able to save a few dollars. But, when buying a Disney World family vacation package that includes the Dining Plan, your best bet is to include all of your park passes in your package. Remember: DO YOUR OWN MATH!

For more information about Disney World vacation planning, check out these articles:

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