Disney World Resort has many ways to customize your Disney vacation, starting with the tickets. There are many Disney ticket options, which can be very confusing; every day we hear questions such as, "What is a 'water park fun and more' option?" "Should I get the 'hopper' option?" "How do I pick the right tickets for my vacation?" A vacation is supposed to be stress-free; that is why we've written this Guide to Understanding Disney Tickets. For more help, feel free to call one of our trained Disney Reservation Specialists, toll free 1-866-882.4720.

Disney Base Tickets
 

Disney World's Magic Your Way Base Ticket is the standard ticket type for Disney theme park admission; they're the base that you can add options on top of. These tickets get you into 1 Disney theme park each day. Walt Disney World tickets are designed to be used for a certain number of days; you can buy a ticket for anywhere between 1 day and up to 10 days of admission. No matter how many days of Disney theme park admission you buy, you use the same ticket every day you go to the parks. The tickets are not park-specific; that is, a 2-day base ticket will get you admission into, for example, Magic Kingdom on day 1, and you can pick another park- Magic Kingdom (again), Epcot, Animal Kingdom, or Disney's Hollywood Studios- on day 2. So that ticket you used your first day? You got it; you use it again for days 2, 3, 4 and 5.
 

As of February 27th, 2013  the gate prices with tax are as follows:
 

It's also important for you to know that with the Disney World Base Ticket, you only get admission to one major theme park per day for each day on your ticket. That 5 day Base Ticket could get you admission to Magic Kingdom your first day, Epcot the second day, Hollywood Studios on the third day, and Animal Kingdom on the fourth day. You then have a fifth day left on your ticket to spend at any 1 of those four main Walt Disney World theme parks. Also, you can leave and re-enter the same park on the day, but re-entry is for the same park only (be sure to get your hand stamped at the exit).

So, as you can already guess, there is no specific order to the parks. You don't have to visit all of 4 of them (you can go to Magic Kingdom every day of your vacation, or any other park if you wish).

As for expirations, you don't need to visit the parks on consecutive days. The ticket will expire 14 days after the first use (more on that later).
 

One of the great things about Disney World tickets is the ability to customize them to fit your vacation needs. The Park Hopper add-on is an option you can add to your regular Walt Disney World Magic Your Way theme park tickets. Having the Park Hopper option on your Disney theme park tickets means you can enter two, three, or even all four of the main Disney theme parks each day. The option works for park hopping every day that your ticket is valid, so you can use the Park Hopper every day you use your ticket.

The Park Hopper option adds only $55 to any Base ticket that's for 2 or more days. To add this option to a 1 day ticket, however, the price is only $35. Whether it's an adult or child ticket, 2 days or 10 days, the add-on is the same price per Disney ticket. Just remember, this only gets you park hopping access to the four major Disney World theme parks: Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Hollywood Studios, and Animal Kingdom.

Let's say that you added the Park Hopper option to your 5 day Disney Base tickets. Now these tickets are called 5 Day Park Hoppers. You could spend your first day at Magic Kingdom to have breakfast with Winnie the Pooh and explore that park, then "park hop" over to Epcot for the afternoon for the rides and dinner at one of the great restaurants there.
 

This is another option that you can add to your Disney base ticket for $60.71 (tax included), adult or child, whether for 1 day or 10 days. This add-on gives you admission to the minor parks. These include: Blizzard Beach water park, Typhoon Lagoon water park, Oak Trail golf course, Disney's Wide World of Sports, and Disney Quest. For 1 or 2 day tickets, you get two admissions to the minor parks; that is, you can go to a minor park twice. For example, with this option added onto your base ticket, you could decide to go to both water parks.

For more days, you get admission equal to the number of days on your ticket. On a 5 day ticket, this would mean 5 times. This means each initial entry- that is, if you enter a minor park you may re-enter later that day. But going to the same minor park the next day will use up another admission.

For example, you could choose to do Typhoon Lagoon in the morning, Oak Trail golf in the afternoon and finish the night at Disney Quest. This would use up 3 admissions from the total amount you have on your ticket. Or you could space it out and use one per day; any way you like.

Because the minor park admission is separate from main theme park admission, any day that you visit a minor park and do not go to a main theme park will not use up any of your regular Disney theme park days, only a WPF&M admission. Another reminder, each initial entry to one of those minor parks uses a WPF&M admission. So if you visit 3 on one day, it will use 3 of those admissions. However, you can return to the same minor park on the same day and it will still only use that first admission.

You do NOT need to get the Park Hopper option in order to have the Water Park Fun & More option added onto your Disney base ticket.
 

Still have questions?
The Orlando Vacation Store is your one stop shopping for all your Disney World vacation needs. Just call us toll free (USA)
at 1-866-882.4720 to speak with a vacation specialist and shop with confidence with our 100% package price guarantee!