Free Muppets Magnet & More Perks, Plus Disney World Annual Pass Discount Predictions
Walt Disney World has announced new perks including a free Muppets magnet at Hollywood Studios for what’s basically an extension of AP Appreciation Days, albeit a light one, for late summer and early fall. This covers all of the official details plus our predictions about an upcoming Annual Pass discount, since many readers have asked about one–and we’re still expecting it to come.
As basic background, V.I.Passholder Summer Days just wrapped up at the end of July, after starting in mid-May. Officially, these AP appreciation days are the company’s way of saying ‘thank you’ for being a Walt Disney World Annual Passholder! Unofficially, they’re the company’s way of saying “please come visit during the hottest and slowest months of the year, we’re begging you; that whole ‘undesirable’ quip was just a joke, we swear!”
Regardless of the real reason for V.I.Passholder Summer Days being offered, it was a good run that was longer than last year with some highlights, like 40% off select restaurants! I’ve been surprised that these V.I.Passholder Days end so early at Walt Disney World, but at the same time, DVC Welcome Home Weeks just started to briefly fill the void.
Over at Universal Orlando, AP appreciation days run from August 15 through September 30, 2026. This strikes me as the more logical timeframe, although May through July also makes sense. And it probably makes sense to not go overboard with a single event that’s interminably long, as locals would lose interest and it would become ‘less special’ if it consumes the entire calendar.
In other words, it makes sense that V.I.Passholder Summer Days ended and, almost immediately, Walt Disney World is filling the gap with a new slate of offerings–but not a named event–over at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Speaking of which, one interesting wrinkle to this year’s offseason offerings is that they’re DHS as opposed to Animal Kingdom. Usually, that’s the park Walt Disney World wants to push APs towards during the offseason, due to its anemic attendance.
I assume the underlying motivation for locating that Muppets freebies and special offerings at DHS is simply as a tie-in to Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring The Muppets. But it nevertheless is interesting that Disney chose to go this route, as opposed to an Encanto or Indiana Jones sticker to get APs excited about the upcoming additions. Maybe they want to boost numbers at DHS since that’s where so many 2026 additions are concentrated, including the upcoming Magic of Disney Animation.
Anyway, here are the Muppets freebies and offerings you can enjoy at Disney’s Hollywood Studios over the next couple months…
Free Muppets Magnet
Head over to Disney’s Hollywood Studios for the newest Passholder magnet featuring Kermit the Frog. Move right along to Mickey Shorts Theater from August 11 to September 24, 2026—from park open to park close—to pick up a magnet!
While you’re at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, take a zany ride through Hollywood set to the rockin’ sounds of the Electric Mayhem at the new Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring The Muppets.
Each Passholder must be present and show their valid Annual Pass card, linked MagicBand, MagicBand+ or Disney MagicMobile pass, and a government-issued photo ID to receive a magnet. Limit one magnet per Passholder.
Muppets Magnets are available while supplies last. There’s usually a long line for these magnets on release day, and then again on the first weekend they’re offered. However, we’ve found that simply going a couple of weeks later cuts the wait time down to near-zero, and we’ve yet to encounter any issues with Walt Disney World running out of magnets. Knock on wood. I’m a huge Muppets fan, but will grab mine around Labor Day as opposed to enduring the day one or two crowds.
AP PhotoPass Muppets Magic Shot (Free)
Hi ho—come find this limited-time Magic Shot featuring Kermit the Frog playing his banjo. Make it a duet when you pose with a banjo prop!
Find the Disney PhotoPass photographer waiting at the end of Hollywood Boulevard, close to Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway. You can snap up this Passholder-exclusive Magic Shot from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM every day from August 11 to September 24, 2026.
Key Lime Kermit Milkshake (Not Free)
It’s so easy to enjoy a green milkshake—available in Disney’s Hollywood Studios from August 11 to September 24, 2026. Hop on over to Dockside Diner to purchase the Key Lime Kermit Milk Shake—Vanilla Milk Shake, Key Lime Cake Crumbs with Key Lime Sauce and Sprinkles.
I’m not normally one for Walt Disney World’s pricey and sugar-forward beverages, but make an exception for milkshakes–especially Key Lime ones themed to Kermit the Frog. This one sounds like it could be fantastic.
As a reminder, Annual Passholders must have valid admission and a theme park reservation for the day to enter Disney’s Hollywood Studios, unless visiting after 2:00 PM or on a “good-to-go” day without a park reservation. Given the offseason crowds, or lack thereof, we’re expecting most of these weekdays to be G2G days.
AP Discount Prediction
The best predictor of future discounts is past ones, as Walt Disney World tends to follow a pattern with special offers each year. This is true for hotel and ticket deals, many of which are similar each year and released around the same time. While there’s less recent precedent for discounts on Annual Passes, the first promo of 2026 mirrored last year.
The last Annual Pass promotion that Walt Disney World offered was 50% off down payments, which ended June 24, 2026. That was not an actual deal (hence “promotion”) as it simply shifted around the timing of payments, as opposed to reducing the total. So don’t be too worked up if you missed it.
More notably, Disneyland released a deal offering a Free Disney Dining Gift Card Up to $100 with Magic Key Renewal! While Walt Disney World has done AP deals in recent years, that’s unprecedented for Disneyland, suggesting that a comparable or better deal is coming soon for Walt Disney World.
That comes against the backdrop of Walt Disney World’s new survey testing huge $400 Annual Pass & Lightning Lane discounts back in the spring. As we wrote there, we expect both of these offers to come to fruition, and it’s not the least bit surprising that Walt Disney World would first start with reducing the AP down payment. The best predictor of future special offers is past ones, and we’ve seen this before–less than a year ago.
Last year, Walt Disney World offered ~50% off down payments for about 3 months before having a brief gap in promotions. Then, on July 25th, they released a real deal: Free Gift Card for New WDW Annual Pass Purchases.
That actual discount offered gift card values based on Annual Pass type:
- $100 Disney Gift Card eGift – included with a Disney Incredi-Pass
- $75 Disney Gift Card eGift – included with a Disney Sorcerer Pass (for Florida residents and eligible Disney Vacation Club Members only)
- $50 Disney Gift Card eGift – included with a Disney Pirate Pass (for Florida residents only)
- $25 Disney Gift Card eGift – included with a Disney Pixie Pass (for Florida residents only)
Last year’s discount was only valid for new Annual Passes. It couldn’t be combined with any other discount or promotion, including any renewal discounts. That actual deal ended on September 30th of last year, right before the start of the new fiscal year.
It is our expectation that history will repeat itself, and Walt Disney World will bring back this gift card deal for new AP purchases in the coming weeks. There are only a couple of wrinkles that could throw a monkey wrench into this.
The first is new leadership, both at the top of Parks & Resorts and at Walt Disney World. However, new Parks Chair Thomas Mazloum was aggressive with discounting during his tenure at Disneyland.
Likewise, new Walt Disney World President Joe Schott restored deals at Disney Cruise Line, and he’s still brand-new, so whatever special offers are on the horizon were probably set in motion before he started yesterday. Accordingly, there’s no reason to believe leadership changes would adversely impact the trajectory of discounting.
As for what “lever” Walt Disney World would pull, the most obvious follow-up is the gift card deal from last fall. Another wildcard would be the Annual Pass Bounceback discussed in the aforementioned survey.
Perhaps Walt Disney World will go even further, as we’ve previously suggested that they should, by bringing back the ’15 months for the price of 12′ (or 3 free months) deal. This makes a lot of sense, especially given that the next ~15 months probably have no major new attractions or lands opening.
Such a promotion would be the surest sign that Tropical Americas isn’t debuting until October 2027 or later. Not only that, but as Universal Orlando and Epic Universe endure their own struggles, the likelihood increases that the new park rolls out APs by early 2027. Getting out ahead of that and locking more locals and theme park fans into Walt Disney World APs might be savvy.
There’s also the wildcard of the international travel pullback, which continues to be a hot topic. As previously discussed, the lag between booking and travel could mean that the impacts of this are now being felt worse than they were last year.
There’s always the possibility that declining consumer confidence and economic anxiety will result in a tourism downturn at some point in the future, especially the longer gas prices and airfare are elevated. Although I feel like we’ve been on “Recession Watch” for the last 3 years, pretty much since pent-up demand burned off in the second half of 2022 (ironically enough, the last time gas prices spiked significantly).
Walt Disney World has already pulled from the 2019 playbook for discounts. If there is a downturn, they’ll need to go a step beyond that into more inventive territory. It’s safe to say this is the beginning of that, and reducing the upfront Annual Pass payment won’t have sufficiently moved the needle.
Any one of the above factors alone would pretty much necessitate this. A confluence of them, coupled with the lack of new attractions around which to build a marketing campaign, all but guarantees better discounts and special offers.
It’ll be interesting to watch what discounting “levers” Walt Disney World pulls going forward in 2026. We’re expecting even more than last year, which is really something since there were a lot of them then! Whenever more discounts are released or rumored, we’ll send you an alert ASAP if you sign up for our FREE Walt Disney World newsletter.
Planning a Walt Disney World trip? Learn about hotels on our Walt Disney World Hotels Reviews page. For where to eat, read our Walt Disney World Restaurant Reviews. To save money on tickets or determine which type to buy, read our Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets post. Our What to Pack for Disney Trips post takes a unique look at clever items to take. For what to do and when to do it, our Walt Disney World Ride Guides will help. For comprehensive advice, the best place to start is our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide for everything you need to know!
YOUR THOUGHTS
Will you be taking advantage of this Muppets freebies at Disney’s Hollywood Studios between August 11 and September 24, 2026? If there is an Annual Pass discount, what would be enough to convince you to purchase? Are you an Annual Passholder? Thoughts on AP perks? What would get you to visit the parks, spend more money, or buy an AP in the first place? Do you agree or disagree with our commentary? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
We are DVC members so we have the sorcerer’s pass which is set to expire October 21st. We have trips planned in September, early December and mid January so planning to renew. I was going to renew early but now thinking it may be better to wait to see if any great discounts materialize. if a great discount comes out for new passes only I guess I could wait and let my pass expire and then get a new one November 30. Or maybe just wait until end of September and renew before annual price increase in October. In any case, I guess it doesn’t make sense to renew now. August is almost over- any more news Tom?
Nothing new.
Last year, the discount was released at the end of July, so it’s already a month late. While that’s definitely not reassuring, I don’t think that’s necessarily conclusive, as the goal last year was to increase sales before the end of the fiscal year–there’s still a full month to accomplish that.
We’re at Kidani WDW right now and they are not offering anything to visitors or guests. A magnet, what? We simply don’t bother with them and if we do get one by chance we slap them on the deep freezer in our garage so if one is in marketing or brand development you can quickly guess how elevating that is to your brand. The 40% food discounts was a great idea, too short lived and limited availability but it really made us APs and/or blue card DVC feel like our long term investment meant something to Disney. But it is fading fast. So far we have only visited Typhoon, Downtown Disney (to a local that is what it always will be)) and the arcade. Meh, the Disney magic started fading 10 years ago and jacking up the prices by 50%, then putting them on a 20% discount then reducing the rides and entertainment by 50% gimmick is getting very annoying and not worth it. Plus I am super ticked off at Kidani for messing up my little one’s entire bday week this week, even Trex lunch. And no, guest services didn’t make it better after 3 visits and 10 calls, just a bunch of I’m sorry we failed. They couldn’t even be bothered with writing his name on a bday button yesterday. Yep, Disney, so magical and special *sarcasm.
Just curious, if you think the AP discount will come to fruition, would you suggest holding off purchasing if the next discount offer is the gift card? This would be the first year getting AP’s for the family. I’d had to pull the trigger during a gift card promo just to see them drop the prices up to $400 per pass a month later. I’ve also read prices normally increase in October, so it seems like the next discount might be the last until that happens? Just looking for some guidance from those with way more knowledge about Disney’s trends lol
If they do the gift card–or any discount–that’s it for the year. Nothing else will be released before prices increase.
One way or another, buy your APs before October. Even if no promo is released, which is also a very real possibility!
Understood, thank you for the quick response!
I’ve been an out of state AP for years—I often joke that it’s cheaper than therapy—but even I’m on the fence about renewing when it expires after my upcoming trip. It’s not about the parks not having anything new so much as the resorts being construction sites. Virtually every deluxe resort we stay at is under some kind of major renovation and even Swan and Dolphin oddly have no availability for the Crescent Lake portion of our annual late May split stay. Even when we were talking about branching out and trying something new, it was like “sike! they’re refurbing this one too”. And it’s been very frustrating, the lack of details on how extensive/disruptive construction could be and neither myself nor partner do well with uncertainty as neurospicy folks. We’re just not value or mod folks because we value quick access to the parks on touring days, do a lot of resort days on our trips and make heavy use of the resort amenities.
For the time being we’ve decided on the Swan Reserve and the GF. But depending on bounceback availability at the latter we may scrap the trip entirely and just head to France. I haven’t been to Europe since before Covid, and we can always add a couple of days at Disneyland Paris to get our fix. It’ll probably be cheaper anyway. And I admit to being more than a little irritated that any specials they’ve had on APs have been solely on new ones. It’s not fair and makes me feel even less valued even as someone who comes 2-3 times a year and spends big on resort stays and extras. It’s really not encouraging me to come back while we’re in this calm before the expansion storm period.
Im considering an annual pass for next year. I wonder how it might increase purchases if they included some lightning lanes into the mix. Like adding two per park per visit as a perk? Id likely buy it 🙂
Hi Tom. This is totally unrelated but I cannot find where the food booths or menus have been posted for the Epcot Food and Wine Festival. Any clue when they might release this information? It starts in 3 weeks and still nothing? I can’t believe Disney has not yet released the food booths when it starts in 3 weeks! Please let me know if I have missed something. Keep up the great work! Thanks!
Animal Kingdom arguably doesn’t have the capacity right now to take on more guests, so HS makes sense to help balance out crowds (Diet EPCOT is over soon, I think).
The big lever might be letting DVC owners buy lower cost APs, but that’s been decades past since that’s been thrown.
Animal Kingdom runs into issues when it reaches a tipping point (which is definitely much lower than the other parks), but based on my experience this summer, it’s nowhere near that. I’ve encountered multiple ~30-45 minute posted waits for Flight of Passage, with the actual wait being less than that.
EPCOT also would’ve been a better alternative, even with Food & Wine starting. I assume the rationale is just to tie this into RnRC.
I’m on the fence about a WDW pass renewal. Thanks to RetroMagic, a NYE trip, and a trip a few weeks ago, we got like 5 weeks out of our APs – which make it well worth it compared to tickets. A significant discount could make me pull for another year and squeeze in some weekend trips and such. If they do the usual discount, or whatever – it’s easy to wait out the difference until the next trip. I also want a UOAP with Epic, and I might hold out for that and just do a strong “Universal year” for our AP trips. We did LOVE the Summer discounts and enjoyed a trip just to leverage those, and that was fun – and the lower crowds were a bonus.
Also curious to see what’s going on at Disneyland with APs. The MK calendar is wide open (by this time last year, the first days of Halloween season and Halloween were sold out), and the only date sold out is the first day the lowest-tier can come back after long summer blackouts (and they’ve refilled this day *many* times). MK Terrace is down to a single shift (2pm to 8:00pm), they’ve got such a gut of those popcorn buckets, they did a summer refill deal. With slower Oogie sales, and everything – it feels like the locals are balking from Disneyland for a bit. I wonder if they’ll “disappointment sandwich” this year’s price increases with some operational changes or something to make it seem like a better value, or figure out how to get those “medium whales” back – and not be so dependant on the lowest-tier and SoCal ticket specials. Of everyone I knew, the $25/$50/$100 dining voucher just wasn’t enough value to pull the trigger on a renewal vs. just waiting out the ~30 days or less of value they provided or just entering a holding pattern like I’m on right now.
Time will tell on both coasts.
I’m wondering what’s going on with Disneyland, in general.
To go from the most aggressive ticket deal in a decade (literally!) in the winter and spring to nothing at all (unless you count the limited $59 night tickets and Anaheim resident deal, and I do not) is quite the overcorrection. In more ways than one, it feels like DLR is asleep at the wheel right now.
With that said, I’m also curious as to what the offset or make-good will be when the inevitable price increases hit. Sure seems like they need more than the usual.
Of course there will be a discount gift card for new Incredi-pass purchases. I just bought 2 Adult passes this week although not activated till August 20 when our first visit will be. Just our luck to pay over $3300 with no gift card. If it wouldn’t be for our 50th wedding anniversary plans for Disney World with 8 days reserved at Caribbean Beach we would reconsider. We did wait until now to purchase and are glad whatever happens. Hopefully we can travel enough now that we are retired to have made a wise investment. Have a Magical Day!