2024 Disney Park Tickets Tips & Tricks
Our 2024 ticket buying guide covers how to save money on park admission at Walt Disney World, Disneyland, and other theme parks. This covers info & tips on the best deals & time-saving add-ons for Florida, California, Paris, Tokyo, Shanghai, and Hong Kong–every park in the world! (Updated January 17, 2024.)
The first thing you need to know is that Disney typically raises ticket prices each year in February. This usually impacts a variety of park ticket durations, with off-season ticket prices usually not increasing much (or at all) to keep base prices the same (and thus conceal the increase). For example, the lowest price dates at Animal Kingdom have not increased at all since 2018–but all other parks at Walt Disney World have increased significantly, especially during peak season.
Multi-day prices and popular dates (e.g. Spring Break, Columbus Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s) typically increase by much larger amounts. Unfortunately, with the date-based system, it’s easier to obfuscate the increases. The good news here is that the 2024 ticket price increase has not occurred at Walt Disney World or Disneyland. At least, not yet.
The bad news is that ticket prices at Walt Disney World did not increase at all last year, meaning that it’s highly likely–almost a sure thing–that there will be significant increases in February 2024. Accordingly, we’d recommend buying now from Get Away Today to lock-in current savings, beating the next price increase and get the lowest rates.If you’re looking for the short and sweet version of that post, that’s it–buy now from an authorized discount ticket seller to save up to $75 per ticket!
Disneyland is a slightly different story, as ticket prices increased there in October of last year. Sometimes, tickets increase in both October and February, and that may be the case this year as the California parks have continued to experience pent-up demand. However, with nothing new on the horizon in 2024 and signs of ‘revenge travel’ exhausting itself, our expectation is that Disneyland probably won’t raise rates in February 2024. We’d put the chances of it at under 50/50, whereas Walt Disney World is above 90%.
In this post, we cover other ways to score legitimate discounts on Disney Parks tickets. We cannot stress the “legitimate” part of the above enough. There’s a plague of fake and unauthorized tickets being sold for the parks. Roadside stands, eBay, Craigslist, shady websites, etc–there are many Disney ticket scams to which budget-conscious guests fall prey. Worse yet, if you innocently purchase invalid tickets from a scam, you’re going to pay twice, because Disney isn’t going to accept the fake tickets.
Suffice to say, if a ticket deal seems too good to be true, it probably is. While it is possible to save money on Disney tickets, most savings are of around $5 to $50 per ticket, with the biggest savings being on multi-day tickets for 5 days or more. (Sometimes, 10-day tickets are discounted by $80 or more.) However, you will never find legitimate, half-price tickets.
Tickets are often one of–if not the–most expensive aspects of any Disney vacation, so we understand the desire to save as much money as possible. However, you have to be smart about it. Spending money on a shady but “great deal” that turns out to be a scam will cost you more in the long run. Our Disney ticket tips & tricks cover only the best, legitimate ways to save money on Disney tickets, and authorized sellers from which to buy those tickets.
With that out of the way, let’s start by discussing the options for discount Walt Disney World tickets…
Walt Disney World
Walt Disney World has myriad ticket choices that enable you to buy exactly what you need and nothing more or less. It’s a complicated, date-based system that can be difficult for a first-time Walt Disney World guest. Disney representatives often only make matters worse, as they upsell or subtly “encourage” guests into buying the more expensive tickets.
To underscore just how much you can save by knowing which type of tickets to buy and from which authorized discount ticket brokers to buy them, Get Away Today currently has select multi-day Walt Disney World park tickets discounted by up to $75 off! This will save you a lot of money over buying park tickets directly from Disney. Use code DTB23 at checkout for even bigger savings.
Another excellent ticket seller we recommend is Undercover Tourist. These two typically compete with each other on prices, and are usually within a few dollars of one another. Which is better often depends upon the ticket type and when you’re searching. Both sellers offer huge savings on 10-day tickets with all the add-ons, but that’s an extreme example–more common savings are around $35 to $40 for multi-day base tickets.
You can order tickets for use now through December 31, 2024, and you will receive confirmation codes via email for My Disney Experience. In our Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets post, we discuss which add-ons you should and should not get, how many days you might want tickets, and also compare prices among the four reputable Orlando discount ticket brokers.
Simply knowing about the different options so you don’t purchase unnecessary add-ons and buying from the discount sellers with the best price on particular tickets can save you a lot of money, and significantly cut down on the cost of your park tickets. It’s pretty easy to do, especially since many guests (especially those families with small children) don’t truly need Park Hopper or other add-ons.
Disneyland
Disneyland Resort park tickets are slightly more straightforward. Since there aren’t water parks and only two parks–Disney California Adventure and Disneyland–it’s a pretty simple process. It’s basically a question of whether or not to get the Park Hopper option, and how many days to stay in the first place. (There are also various ticket tiers with different pricing, which effectively means you’ll select dates for visiting when buying the tickets.)
AAA, Safeway, Costco, and a handful of other SoCal retailers have small discounts of a couple dollars per ticket in store from time to time, but those savings are usually smaller. Additionally, there is a Southern California resident special on tickets from now through June 2, 2024. If you’re not a Southern California local (with ID to prove it), your best option is purchasing online via authorized discounted sellers.
The best deals for buying Disneyland tickets safely and securely via Get Away Today, which is an authorized seller of Disneyland tickets with the best prices and customer service that we’ve found. They have tickets that are valid for admission from now until December 31, 2025.
One thing to note here is that Disneyland tickets are available through the end of 2025, not just 2024. Although we’re uncertain that a price increase will happen this February, we’re pretty confident one will happen in February or October 2024, and there’s a 99.99% or higher chance that Disneyland will raise prices before December 31, 2025. Buying now locks in current prices, and could mean avoiding between one and three price increases! If you already know how many days worth of tickets you need and are looking for the best price, that’s all you need to know.
If you need more assistance with determining how many days to buy tickets, if you should get the Park Hopper option, and whether a Magic Key might actually make sense, check out our Tips for Saving Money on Disneyland Tickets post.
Tokyo Disney Resort
Your options are pretty limited when it comes to tickets for Tokyo Disneyland and DisneySea, but the good news is that park tickets there are significantly cheaper than for the US Disney Parks. The Japanese parks most definitely are locals’ parks, so the pricing strategy there is to charge a premium for Annual Passes and less for one to four day tickets.
Not only are the single and multi-day ticket prices lower, but for Americans, the dollar-to-yen exchange rate is excellent right now, making park tickets for us a relative steal. Of course, you still have to pay for airfare to get there in the first place. Read our Money-Saving Tips for Tokyo Disneyland Park Tickets post for our full recommendations on buying the best tickets–and at the best prices–for Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea!
Although not at a discount, you can purchase Tokyo Disneyland & DisneySea park tickets in advance from Klook. This is what we strongly recommend doing because the official TDR website has issues with foreign credit cards. (Some work, most don’t. If you run into a problem, it’s them–not you!)
Unfortunately, these are the exact same price as buying directly from Tokyo Disney Resort. However, the big difference–and huge advantage–is that you can actually buy them with a U.S. credit card and purchase them before you arrive. While buying tickets upon arrival is an option (physical credit cards do work once you’re on the ground in Japan), that’s only if tickets don’t totally sell out. Not worth the gamble when flying halfway around the world, in our estimation.
Hong Kong Disneyland
Hong Kong Disneyland has by far the easiest ticket system. There are 1-day and 2-day park tickets (no Park Hopper since there’s only one park), and three tiers of Annual Passes: Silver (valid for 250 days per year), Gold (valid for 340 days per year), and Platinum (valid for 365 days per year). Each of these passes also offers discounts on food, merchandise, and hotels. The break even point on the Silver is 3 days, with the other passes having varying break even points of ~6-10 days based upon whether you’d buy 1 or 2 day tickets.
About the only way to save on single day Hong Kong Disneyland tickets of which I’m aware is to buy from Klook, which will save you about $8 per ticket, and will allow you to instantly print your ticket. You can also use the coupon to purchase a discounted meal voucher for Hong Kong Disneyland.
Disneyland Paris
It used to be the case that Disneyland Paris Annual Passes were a bargain, and we recommended those over regular tickets to anyone spending at least 3 days in the park. Despite living in the United States, we were Disneyland Paris APs for several years. That has changed in the last couple of years due to massive price increases.
Disneyland Paris has also adopted surge pricing on regular tickets, meaning that single day ticket prices vary based upon anticipated attendance. This makes things a bit more complex, since there are three tiers of normal single day tickets now: Mini, Magic, and Super Magic.
Note that only the single day tickets are subject to the tiered pricing. If you purchase a multi-day ticket, the tiers are irrelevant. However, even if you are going for multiple days, you should look at the tiered pricing calendar, as 2 Mini tickets (if you’re going during a slow season) is actually a cheaper option than one 2-day ticket. Zut alores, très compliqué!
For multi-day tickets, there are also some money-saving options available, particularly for Europeans. Americans might have a more difficult time scoring deals, but we cover all the ways to save in our Disneyland Paris Park Ticket Tips & Info post.
Shanghai Disneyland
The good news is that park tickets for Shanghai Disneyland are inexpensive as compared to the US parks, especially during their low seasons (they also have surge pricing); the bad news is that prices have already increased and upcharges have been introduced since Shanghai Disneyland opened two years ago.
Fortunately, there are now discounted 1-2 day tickets available via Klook. Depending upon the ticket season, you’re looking at a savings of around $5-10 per ticket. Not huge savings, but considering that tickets are in the $65-75 range, that’s not bad–and it all adds up.
Regardless of how you purchase your Shanghai Disneyland park tickets, we recommend getting digital tickets. Once you have them, take a screenshot of the ticket (for safety in case the internet is down) as well. Make sure to bring your passport in case the Cast Member requests to check your ID (you should always have your passport on your person when traveling internationally).
Shanghai Disneyland also offers “Disney Premier Access” which is a paid, digital FastPass service for its most popular attractions. If you only have 1-day in Shanghai Disneyland and don’t arrive at rope drop, this can be a good, time-saving purchase. If you do rope drop, stay late, or have multiple days in the park, we view this as unnecessary.
Planning a visit to one of the Disney theme parks? Check out our Disney Parks Trip Planning Guides for everything you need to start planning a trip to Walt Disney World, Disneyland Resort, Disneyland Paris, Tokyo Disney Resort, Hong Kong Disneyland, and Aulani in Hawaii.
Your Thoughts
As for tickets, what are your preferred type of tickets to get? Do you purchase optional add-ons, like Park Hopper or MaxPass? Do you have an Annual Pass? Any tips or tricks of your own to add? Any questions? Hearing feedback about your experiences is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
Hi Tom/Others who have used Get Away Today,
1. I see that the tickets are non-refundable should anything happen – is this correct or am I reading disclaimers incorrectly? Most other sites I’ve looked at (Undercover tourist) allow for refunds?
2. It says that you pick your tickets up at the gate by showing your ID and voucher. I don’t want hard copy tickets, I just want to link to my Disney Experience and use the magic bands, book fast passes, etc. Can this all be done when you purchase through GAT?
Thanks!
Hi- I was wondering if “Get Away Today” does e-tickets for Disney World to link to our account immediately, or do they just mail the Disney park tickets? Thank you so much!
I have reservations already booked for the end of August but I’m planning to change then when free dining comes out. I wonder if I will then have to pay for parking because I changed my reservations?
It’s probably me, but I thought I’d send an FYI that this is the second time I’ve tried one of your discount codes and it hasn’t worked. Months ago I used the code you offered on your blog for the Hotel Tonight app; it didn’t work, I followed up with them got some excuse I don’t remember and in the end it didn’t work. Just now I just tried KLKDTB on Klook and it said the promo code wasn’t valid. I wouldn’t say anything except that it’s the second time for me.
Sorry about that–it’s not you. I started removing (and I think I got them all) the Hotel Tonight app code once I received a message that it wasn’t working. If I’ve missed it somewhere, I apologize.
As for this code, I just received it from Klook this week, and added it to the post a couple of days ago. When I tried to use it just now, I got the same “this promo code is not valid” message that you received. I’m not sure why, as it wasn’t supposed to expire until December 31, 2018. In any case, I’ve emailed them to look at what’s wrong with the code. My apologies.
Thanks for looking into! Although it’s unfortunate that the promo code isn’t working on Klook, it’s nice to know it’s not me. And truly, my apologies on my atrocious use of punctuation marks and the word ‘just’. Rereading my comment is making me cringe. Thanks again.
Haha, this blog is hardly a typo-free zone, so don’t worry about it.
The coupon code is now working–hope you haven’t placed your order yet! 🙂
Thank you! We recently placed an order and your code worked this time. Yay for slightly cheaper tickets, right?
Tom –
My family will be visiting WDW March 17-22, 2018 We will stay on Disney property — plannng to book room thru godisney site. But to save $, we thought about buying our WDW park tix from ParkSavers like you suggest. I know when you stay on Disney property, you can start booking your FastPasses 60 days prior and we are already within that window. But if We buy the tickets separate from our room — thru ParkSavers — are we still allowed to book FastPasses 60 days prior or would we then have to wait til 30 days prior?
Additionally, we are meeting another family down there. They are renting a house, but we will spend March 19 together at MK. Since they are staying off property they can’t book FP til 30 days out. We are a family of 3 and so are they. We plan to stay at The All-Sports hotel (sleeps 4). But can I count them in my ‘group’ on the Disney experience app and book their FP at the same time (earlier than the 30 days prior, like as soon as we buy them)? Or would I need to wait til 30 days prior so we are all on the same FP schedule.
Thanks for your advice. Have spent at least an hour every night this past week surfing your blogs and taking notes!
Similar question on the Get AWAY Today tickets. Are all tickets for WDW good through 2018? Reason I ask is the 4 day hopper 1 day free doesn’t show up in August when we’re going. I want to buy them now. Here’s what a supervisor at Get Away told me:
The promotional offer tickets are only valid if they show up as offered on the dates you put in for travel. So since the 4 day hopper 1 day free doesn’t show up during my August 2018 dates, if I purchase them now, and take them to Guest Services in August “Disney will say, Sorry, these tickets aren’t valid for this date” . The BIGGER ISSUE – Get Away today told me that there is only “ABOUT a 5 day grace period for ticket pick-up from your dates of travel” . NOTE: There is nothing on the website, in the small print, in the terms and conditions regarding EITHER of these restrictions. Think I’ll stick with parksavers or Disney.
Hi! You said “Even if you aren’t traveling until December 2018, buying tickets at today’s prices is a good idea. ” but when I came to WDW website, it seems that the tickets are valid until December 31 2018…
I´m planning to go on 2019 January… are you sure that a can buy now and use next year?
thaks for your attention!
Larissa
Brasil
I guess there is not a real strategy for buying annual passes to disney world. We are also DVC members and florida residents so we get a small discount but not that much with the tiers added and price increase each year. I have to pay monthly payments just to keep them. We are at disney at least 5-7 times a year though even for a day trip. But we do go thru disney to purchase our passes.
Can you buy an annual pass now but not use till 2019?
Hi Tom! Hi Sarah! One day our family will run in to you at Disney and it will be like meeting a celebrity! (Y’all Not us hahaha)
Our trip is booked through Disney (we did the bounce back offer w free dining) we won’t have it paid for in February, will they raise the ticket price we end up paying for OR will we still get the price that we booked at?
You guys helped make our first Disneyworld trip in 2016 FAMAzing! And every trip since then! Christmas 2016, Summer D23/Disneyland, Spring 2017, Hallowscream 2017 and now August 2018!
So long as you don’t modify your dates, your current pricing is locked in. If you modify anything after the ticket price increases, your pricing will be updated to whatever it is currently.
Amongst this massive maze of information I’m trying to schedule a tour to the Grand Central Air Terminal next to the Imagineering building in Glendale California. Please help!
Bought a package of Universal and Disney from Getawaytoday. Credit card purchase confirmed and confirmation number sent. Getawaytoday just called and said their system couldnt process my details on their end… scamtastic.
Hi Tom! I’m planning to go to Magic Kingdom just for 1 day since my budget is so low
Could you help us to maximize our 1 day Magic Kingdom trip?
Whichever that we shouldn’t missed on that 1 day trip?
since my kid just 4 years old, and we also bring along our parent so we must think how to make our visit there more effective
Tom – figure you would know the answer to this or at least where you could point us. Years and years and years ago WDW offered a “lifetime ticket”. There was even a special ticket booth to purchase them on the ground floor of the Contemporary. Through research it looks like they did away with lifetime tickets shortly after instituting multi day tickets sometime in the 80’s. But am wondering if you’ve ever heard of such a thing being offered now? Understanding that in the Disney way it would be likely prohibitively priced, still we have some Disney stock assets that are earning us almost nothing (and don’t look like they will be for quite a while…) and would consider turning those proceeds into something we would actually use. Thanks for taking the time to read and appreciate any response you may have. Cheers!
Such a thing most definitely is not offered now. I think the price would be quite scary if Walt Disney World did offer such a ticket, too. Sorry!
Apparently the original cost was about $500. A lot in the 70’s but what a bargain overall! Thanks anyway.
Can you add these tickets to a resort reservation and also still qualify for free dining?
Typically, you still have to purchase some form of ticket directly from Disney to qualify for Free Dining.
Tom, are the Get Away Today 7 Day Park Hopper Tickets for Disney World good through December 2018? The reason I ask is that the Get Away Today website asks for your arrival date. If I set it to April 2018, I do not see the 7 Day Park Hopper at all, much less for the same price as the 5 day, whereas if I set the arrival date for December 2017, it is there. I just want to be sure that if I get them through Get Away Today Vacations, I can use them in April of 2018.
Thanks for a great website!
Are there any date ranges given for the Universal park tickets? The Universal website only sells tickets that are good through 5/11/2018, and we will be going to Disneyworld in August. We intend to visit Universal for two days while we stay in Disney.
Hi Tom, Can Park Savers and Get Away Today park hopper tix be upgraded to 10 day tix or AP’s? Will they be “bridged” to retain the initial savings? I keep reading conflicting articles and posts. Some say they are others say the discount is lost if you upgrade. Can you verify this for me?
Hi Tom, just checking again to see if you have an answer about this. I know a while back you did a blog post regarding ticket bridging and just wondering if that is still able to be done today with authorized third party tickets and still retain the discount.
Do you know if the Get Away Today tickets are no longer available? I clicked on the link and it only showed Universal for the Orlando area.
They do, but your dates must be 10+ days out. So, once you change the calendar date on the landing page, you should see them. Let me know if that doesn’t work!
Is there a discount for 65 +