New 4-Park No Reservations Discount Disney World Ticket for Summer & Fall 2023
Walt Disney World has introduced a new special offer on 4-Day, 4-Park tickets which will not require theme park reservations and will be discounted. This shares details about the deal and whether it’s too good to be true, plus our commentary about why it’s being offered and whether it makes sense to buy. (Updated July 3, 2023.)
You can now purchase the 4-Day, 4-Park Magic Ticket for $99 per day plus tax. In total, that comes to $396 before tax ($421.74 after tax). This special ticket offers one day of admission to each of the four theme parks for a total of 4 admissions, on 4 separate days. No Disney Park Pass theme park reservations are needed for the 4-Day, 4-Park Magic Ticket.
The 4-Day, 4-Park Magic Ticket is valid for admission now through September 29, 2023 and is subject to blockout dates from July 1 to July 4 and September 1 to September 4, 2023. This ticket must be used within 7 days of first use or by September 29, 2023, whichever comes first. You can buy directly from Walt Disney World or at an even deeper discount via Get Away Today, which offers an exclusive discount to readers of this site–enter promo code DTB23 at checkout for an extra $5 off this 4-Park Magic Ticket! The ticket is also offered by travel agents, other authorized third parties, etc.
4-Day, 4-Park Magic Ticket Important Details:
- The 4-Park Magic Ticket includes one admission to each of the Walt Disney World theme parks (Magic Kingdom, EPCOT, Disney’s Hollywood Studios, and Disney’s Animal Kingdom theme park) for a total of 4 admissions, on 4 separate days.
- Limit one admission per theme park, and one theme park per day. Ticket may not be used to enter the same theme park more than once. (Note: this is Disney’s official verbiage, but we assume you’ll be able to exit and reenter the same park on the same day–so midday breaks should still be fine with this.)
- All tickets are non-transferable and non-refundable, and exclude activities/events separately priced.
- Admission is subject to capacity closures and other restrictions.
- The 4-Park Magic Ticket is subject to blockout dates from July 1 to July 4, and September 1 to September 4, 2023. Ticket is not valid for admission on blockout dates.
- Ticket expires within 7 days of first use or on September 29, 2023, whichever occurs first.
- Parks, attractions and other offerings are subject to availability, closures and change or cancellation without notice or liability. Admission to a theme park is not guaranteed.
If the this 4-Day, 4-Park Magic Ticket sounds vaguely familiar, you have a great memory, because it isn’t exactly brand new. The last time Walt Disney World released this special offer was on February 26, 2020 with the ticket itself valid through June 30, 2020. Back then, it was called the 4-Day, 4-Park Discover Ticket and was advertised mostly in the Miami, Jacksonville, Tampa, and Orlando local markets.
It also was significantly different. Back in 2020, the Discover Disney tickets could be used on both consecutive and non-consecutive days, anytime between the start date and June 30. Most significantly, they were only available for Florida residents, and the 4-day Discover Disney Ticket cost $49 per day plus tax or $195 total, or $175 for the 3-day Discover Disney tickets. Given the limited time it was actually on sale and how few days during that window that the Walt Disney World theme parks were even open, it’s probably fair to say that not many fans took advantage of that deal.
In terms of commentary, this is a savvy move by Walt Disney World. It should be apparent from the deal description, but in case not, this 4-Day & 4-Park ticket prevents its purchasers from spending multiple days in Magic Kingdom or Disney’s Hollywood Studios. It’s one day at each and every Walt Disney World theme park with no option to purchase Park Hopping or any other add-ons that are normally available even with special tickets (such as Florida resident tickets).
In the past, the company has used theme park reservations to limit access to Magic Kingdom and Disney’s Hollywood Studios, redistributing attendance and push people towards Animal Kingdom and EPCOT to increase the utilization of those parks and normalize numbers across all four parks. That was an instance of the infamous “yield management” approach discussed by executives on earnings calls and in interviews.
It’s a somewhat similar idea here. If left to their own devices, tourists would not visit Animal Kingdom and EPCOT in the same numbers or with the same frequency as Magic Kingdom (also known simply as “Disneyworld” to many casual guests) or Disney’s Hollywood Studios (aka “The Star Wars Park” or “The One With All the ‘Big’ Rides and New Stuff”).
The 4-Day, 4-Park Magic Ticket essentially accomplishes that, with its purchasers spending 25% of their vacation days at each park. This makes it a fantastic deal for Walt Disney World visitors on a budget or those who dedicate a day to each park. That’s doubly true now that there’s per-park pricing for the Genie+ service, as that’s also cheaper for 3 parks and more expensive for Magic Kingdom or the multi-park option.
As for the “why?” of this 4-Day, 4-Park Magic Ticket being released right as summer tourist season should be starting, we’re not going to belabor the point made in today’s previous post about V.I.Passholder Days, but suffice to say, pent-up demand is finally exhausting itself and there are signs of softness on the horizon for Walt Disney World. We’ve mentioned repeatedly that Walt Disney World already has released 14 different discounts for 2023, which is more than were available for the entirety of last year.
Just last week on the company’s earnings call, CFO Christine McCarthy warned of a slowdown at Walt Disney World in the coming quarters to soften the blow to investors. This wasn’t news to us–it’s already happening! We’ve been discussing the higher than normal attendance drops in recent WDW crowd reports.
As for whether we’d recommend the 4-Park Magic ticket deal for Walt Disney World visitors, that depends. First, are you currently planning on visiting all four theme parks? Do you intend upon spending an entire day at each of them? Would you skip the Park Hopper option?
If the answer to all 4 of those questions is yes, then buying this ticket is absolutely the right decision for you. If you’re on a tight budget and a vacation to Walt Disney World is already stretching your vacation dollars, then this ticket offer also probably makes sense if it fits pretty with your vacation parameters or is “close enough.”
In pricing out Walt Disney World tickets, it should be fairly obvious that the 4-Park Magic ticket is a good deal–and that’s even as compared to discounts offered by authorized third party ticket sellers. As compared to front gate prices, this is a tremendous savings on admission–over $100 per person.
Accordingly, if you’re a bottom dollar kind of visitor and this works within your Walt Disney World vacation plans, it’s a pretty open and closed case. You should buy the 4-Park Magic Walt Disney World ticket–it’s a good to great promo for your circumstances. It’s rare to see this deep of discounts offered to the general public on tickets, and it’s a really attractive offer even considering the “catch.”
Another great use case that’s discussed in the comments below is for those who are planning to attend Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party in August or September 2023. Keep in mind that MNSSHP attendees are allowed to enter Magic Kingdom as early as 4 pm with purchase of admission to that separately-ticketed special event.
With this 4-Park Magic ticket plus Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party tickets, you could do morning and early afternoon at Animal Kingdom, and then bounce over to Magic Kingdom at 4 pm for MNSSHP. Or, you could do Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party on a different day completely, enjoying pool time or Disney Springs on your MNSSHP morning. Either way, you’d be able to spend 1.5 days at Magic Kingdom! (From that perspective, the savings offered by this 4-Day, 4-Park Disney Magic ticket also makes it easier to justify the high cost of MNSSHP.)
In short, there are many use cases for the 4-Day, 4-Park Disney Magic Ticket. However, it’s not for everyone, and we would encourage those who are on the fence to give it more thought and consider whether the savings are enough to overcome this ticket’s shortcomings. As with everything, there’s no one-size-fits-all advice when it comes to Walt Disney World, but this is not a ticket that we would personally purchase or recommend to most first-timers or infrequent visitors.
As explained in our Money-Saving Guide to Walt Disney World Tickets, we are huge Park Hopper fans and advocates. That’s one of the first and highest-priority splurges we’d recommend making, even if it comes at the expense of table service meals, Genie+ and Lightning Lanes, or just about anything else. That’s especially true for those with fewer days at Walt Disney World. (Not so much for parents with small children or anyone else who realistically won’t spend all day in the parks.)
Although all of them can be full-day parks, we struggle with recommending that first-timers spend 25% of their vacation time at Animal Kingdom. This might upset its staunchest advocates–and we have come around to view DAK as a full-day park–but it’s very difficult to argue that the average first-time visitor is going to want to spend the same amount of time at Animal Kingdom and Magic Kingdom.
Realistically, that’s just not a good allocation of time for most people. This isn’t just our bias or personal preferences–there are stats to support it. For one thing, Animal Kingdom sees millions fewer annual guests than Magic Kingdom. For another thing, wait times show that Animal Kingdom crowds arrive late and leave early. (There’s a reason Animal Kingdom is the next park that’s earmarked for expansion.)
When it comes to Animal Kingdom, the ‘average’ guest is rolling up at around 10 am and leaving before 3 pm. The average first-timer can certainly spend more time at DAK, but you could easily arrive at opening (or better yet, for Early Entry) and leave fully satisfied at 1 pm, get to Magic Kingdom right at 2 pm, and still have a chance at the afternoon TRON Lightcycle virtual queue.
This is an illustrative example, and admittedly the most extreme one. With that said, we also favor splitting up both EPCOT and Disney’s Hollywood Studios into two half-days, but it’s much easier to fill an entire single day at them.
The salient point is that if you’re a first-timer with 4 days at Walt Disney World, you should spend at least 1.5 of those days at Magic Kingdom. Allocating the same number of days to both ‘kingdom’ parks is an inefficient use of time, and money is equally valuable (if not more so) to time for many people on vacation.
However you split up the rest of the time between EPCOT and Disney’s Hollywood Studios comes down to personal preference, and there are arguments for and against excessive Park Hopping. (It does “waste” time, but much of that time is spent on novel transportation systems like the Skyliner or FriendShip boats, which are some of the best non-attraction attractions in all of Walt Disney World!)
Finally, you should not ascribe any value to not having to make Disney Park Pass reservations. Many Walt Disney World fans have become vehemently anti-theme park reservations, and for good reason. It’s another unnecessary layer of friction, source of stress, and so forth. Walt Disney World has already announced reservations are being retired for most ticket types in 2024, and this is essentially a “sneak peek” at that.
However, you should not be willing to pay more for the “peace of mind” of bypassing park reservations in Summer 2023. It’s a red herring or illusory perk. As of right now, every single day for the remainder of 2023 is green on the reservation calendar. If the rumors of a significant summer slowdown are accurate–reinforced with each new special offer like this one–reservations are going to be ample throughout Summer 2023.
It’s great that Walt Disney World is (finally) getting rid of reservations, but we would pay exactly $0 extra to have “early access” to this perk. At least, for Summer 2023. The calculus would be different if this were offered for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and NYE, but that’s not the case. The point is that making and modifying reservations might be a slight chore this summer, but it shouldn’t be an actual problem like the past couple of years.
If Walt Disney World offered a ticket or Annual Pass type that had unrestricted Park Hopping…now THAT is a perk for which we might be willing to pay extra! (Not to give them any ideas or anything…hopefully the 2 pm restriction ends sooner rather than later without an upharge, or is at least moved forward to noon.)
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 purchasing the 4-Day, 4-Park Magic Ticket? Do you think this is a good deal, or is it too restrictive in ‘forcing’ you to spend 25% of your time at each of the 4 parks? How do you feel about Walt Disney World ending reservations early for this special offer? If you’re a tourist, does the 4-Day, 4-Park Magic Ticket appeal to you? 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!
Has anyone used these tickets yet? I am trying to confirm if you can leave and re-enter the same park in the same day. I would really rather not have to call Disney and sit on the phone 🙂
Disney’s description of the 4-park ticket is poorly worded. Yes, you can exit and re-enter the same park on the same day. Numerous posts on theme park sites that I follow have confirmed this.
yes! just got back on Saturday. We had no problem leaving the park and then re-entering later in the day. I had no issues getting virtual ques for guardians or tron either. Everything worked the way a normal ticket would. It was great
You allowed to leave and re-enter, but only to the same park you attended that day…
Your ticket entry will be registered from the original park you entered that same day only
Do you think Disney will stop selling these tickets before summer ends ? Planning on waiting and buying mine in July…
So just to clarify…does this mean you can NOT even make reservations with this ticket? Or are reservations just optional?
I have been to Disney 7 times just in the last decade, with and without kids. I don’t think I’ve gotten ParkHopper more than once. To me, it’s just not worth it. I am happy to stroll and meander through each park and enjoy it to the fullest extent. Sometimes I leave and return the same day. I even spend a full day at Animal Kingdom. I guess for people who are only interested in certain attractions, getting in and getting out with a ParkHopper is worth it, but I’m not that gal.
I just got my 4-day pass as well as an additional 1-day pass to MK. Cost was almost the same, but a little less as just getting a 5-day, but not having to make reservations and having flexibility appealed to me. 🙂
Do you know how “not having a park reservation” will work with using the Tron or Guardians Virtual Queue? Assuming the system will somehow recognize/allow?
I have the same doubt, including for Genie+ who with park reservation, can schedule a ride at 7am, will it be possible without park reservation?
Planning our sons 1st birthday to Disney World this year. May I ask for opinions. This deal would save us about $260 in a family of 5 trip. Our current plan is 4 tickets: 1 MK, 1 AK, Epcot, 1 MK (choosing to do MK twice for our baby rather than the limited rides he could get on at HS.
If we switch to this deal, it would make it a 1,1,1,1 with HS included; saving us $260. Our primary for us is that our baby enjoys all that he can. Would y’all recommend keeping the 2 MK days for the extra cost or switching? Thank you. I know our baby will only be 1 and may not remember much but seeing his reaction to rides and shows is more than worth it.
Hi – you may have already decided one way or another but I love Disney with little ones and so I thought I’d add my two cents. If the 260$ savings will allow you to splurge on something like a character dinning experience – then I would go with the savings and skip the second MK day. I find the character interaction to be so much fun and memorable – Great pictures too! So I would chose that over a second MK day. Also Epcot has great character meet and greet opportunities. It’s my favorite for meeting Disney characters. I find that even though Epcot is seen as a more adult park it’s got lots of great moments for little ones. I would actually say it’s the middle schoolers who like Epcot the least. Sometime after age 7 but before 12 (with my brood) is not for Epcot. With the caveat that guardians may revolutionize Epcot’s appeal.
Hi! We are planning a trip this July 5th-11th. Given that it still falls within the week of July 4th, would there be any concern with these tickets with parks reaching capacity that week and not having the reservation?
No. In fact, there’s little concern of the parks reaching capacity on July 4 itself. Don’t worry, and have fun!
Do you think they will extend this 4 day special ticket to mid December? We are going Dec. 9-16. But we plan on doing 4 day park ticket with 1 park per day plus MVMCP ticket so this would be perfect! We bought this special ticket last time we went in 2019 and did the Halloween party for our second day at MK and it worked out great. Would love to do that again only we don’t want to go back when it’s so hot so this time we planned our trip for December and to check out the Christmas party.
I do not.
It’s been offered to help summer attendance; it probably won’t be needed October through December. (That is, unless something goes terribly wrong and demand drops even more.)
I also think these tickets are great for us Southern Californians (who don’t need to do the exact clone rides at MK). Prior to Tron opening, we would only visit MK on about 1/3 of our trips. Considering now if we can squeeze in a late summer trip with these tickets and a MNSSHP.
My family doesn’t visit enough to warrant annual passes. However in the past, I have jumped on these similar 4 park deals. It’s a bit disappointing that they are making us use it within 7 days of the first visit. We like breaking down our Disney World visits into two parks per trip and a 3 to 4 day stay at the resort. Maybe it’s just a few of us who visit like this, but I feel like they’re leaving some money on the table.
Tom – I don’t know if you see comments in real
but we are at MK today. Park opening time 9:00 am. I made GP as normal @ 7:00. GP is telling me I can book my second one at 10:35 am and not 11:00. ( assuming I don’t scan in at the first GP, which we will) Maybe I missed a comment re this change but that’s almost a half hour early on the 2 hour rule…YAY.
What’s the return time on your first LL? That should explain the 10:35 am booking time for the second selection.
These are stand ALONE tickets and cannot be combined.
I called WDW today and was told that Genie+ can be purchased with these offer tickets and VQ’s will be available.
The double disclosure that admission to a park is not guaranteed makes me nervous. While there is a similar disclosure for the standard tickets it’s not prominently disclosed and twice. Maybe the reason they are removing reservation requirements is to be able to turn away those guests more easily based on capacity/staffing at any given day.
We’re not park hopping and only truly care to do 3 theme parks and a water park. This ticket would be great as it gives 4 parks for the price of 3 in case we feel like going to the 4th park once there. But we’re staying at at a resort that gives extended evening ours so we have to get into MK on a Wednesday for that. I’d love to enjoy the savings but I don’t think we’ll risk it.
Guess time will tell how things go without reservations for these. As of now. Summer reservations are wide open including 4th of July.
“The double disclosure that admission to a park is not guaranteed makes me nervous.”
I understand the trepidation, but I wouldn’t be even remotely worried about this. It’s boilerplate, CYA language.
Attendance is slowing–there’s next to no risk of these tickets being denied admission. If they were selling this over Thanksgiving, I’d say you have reason for concern, but not the next few months.
If this is a good deal for you, don’t let that be what stops you from buying.
I was Alittle worried about the no reservations and if parks would be at capacity, but we’re taking our chances as it’s such a great deal and I bought our tickets today, can’t wait 🙂
But will you be able to book your first ride at 7am at GP or VQ even without a park reservation?
Hi there, to purchase this ticket tomorrow, is it available on the my Disney experience app?
Tom- Congrats on your latest news- you all didn’t have to share your journey but I know so many appreciate it. On to the serious stuff….lol….what will be the scoop on these no park res needed tix for joining VQ since to book a VQ you have to have a valid park reservation? Will this be treated like AP? Thank you so much!!
I have been asking this same question. I am wondering if you wont be able to book anything until youve scanned in to your chosen park for the day which mays 7am VQ wont be a thing with these tickets.
Does anyone know of this type of discount can be combined with a resort discount? To me, it seems like it should be able to, maybe if you purchase separately? But I may be wrong. Thanks!
No, These are stand-alone tickets and cannot be included in a package. Just need to crunch the numbers to see if keeping your existing package or the new promo would be a better deal. Just a note to remember, the promo is 1 park/day and you cannot repeat parks.
Wondering if we purchased these if we could add them on to a discounted room only reservation the same way if I purchased undercover tourist WDW tickets?
Allison,
I just purchased the special pricing tickets ($99 each day for 4 parks.) I had to pay the cost of the tickets up front for my sister and myself. I was also able to get the discounted Disney resort price and that balance is due 30 days before our trip. So, yes, you can get the discounted tickets (pay in full upfront) and also get the discounted room rate!
Will this ticket option be available all summer to purchase, in other words if we are planning a trip for September is there any hurry in purchasing this ticket option? Secondly, what about children? Will there be a corresponding discount for them? Also just to add my two cents, the younger the children the less likely you are to use park hopper. This has been my experience through the many ages and stages of visiting Disney. Having just returned from Disney World we only hopped once. The teens hopped more, but the adults were too tired to add all those extra steps into and out of the park. The 2pm restriction definitely factored – I just found it exhausting to hop. Also the virtual queue for Tron and Guardians made it difficult to hop – waiting for your queue number.
Yeah I think hopping depends on what type of visitor. We are frequent visitor (without small kids) and don’t need to do everything every trip. It’s great to mix up the day, or doing MK before a holiday party while crowds are low, or HS quieter evenings, stuff like that. We also stay at DVC park resorts making hopping easy in and out of the nearby parks. Hoppers are expensive but I feel like we get value using these ways.
I love when we’ve already hit 4 parks in the first 2 days. Feels like we already got so much done early on.
As a more or less “first timer” (We visited Magic Kingdom last year) with young children, this offer definitely appeals to me! We are planning a 7 night 5 park day trip for the last week of April 2024, but this offer combined with the low prices of the family suites at AoA this summer was *almost* enough to make me change our plans. The savings for a family of 5 are significant, and we will not be doing park hoppers anyway. We do want 2 days at MK, but if this offer were available again in the Spring, I would book it and drop the second MK day. We are taking our older two kids to MNSSHP over a long weekend in August, so if we were able to move the big trip up it would have worked out perfectly.
Serious question – Is this offer only available through Disney or will Get Away Today and Undercover tourist offer it also? I like their option to pay through Paypal to get my tickets, and this 4-day pass actually would work out perfectly for a pair of friends I’m bringing down in August . We wanted a relaxing trip while just hitting the highlights of each park in the evening, and spending the heat of the afternoon at the Beach Club pool, which puts us squarely in the ‘good offer for us’ category.
I’ll reach out and ask.
The vast majority of the time, authorized sellers have access to this type of deal. Sometimes Disney is weird with these offers and doesn’t sell them through intermediaries, but that’s pretty rare. Since the whole goal is to incentivize summer travel and get people to visit DAK and EPCOT, I’d imagine they’ll promote these tickets far and wide.
Great to hear! I’ve got some time so I’ll wait and see what pops up. Thank you for responding – especially given the other post you were writing at the time of this!
I can confirm availability at UT, as I bought them today myself. They’re $370 and change before taxes. Also, they refunded the original tickets I bought from them for this trip within hours at 100% since I bought these tickets in their place. Great customer service!
“recommend to most first-timers or infrequent visitors”
Interesting, because I recommend Park Hopping to more frequent visitors who have a better idea of how they’d like to spend their time, whereas less frequent guests and first-timers want to see almost everything because they don’t know when they’ll be back.
The other reason to consider this ticket is that if you’re not specifically planning a trip with a first park day on Monday (or some Tuesdays), this is the same price or cheaper than a three-day adult base ticket. To be sure, a lot of people are this year, but if you’re not this gives you a fourth park day for free.
Again, it makes sense to compare alternatives that work for you, your trip and your budget. If spending a little more money gives you a lot more enjoyment to your vacation, spend money on that instead of something else; it’s good to have tradeoffs if you know what they mean for you and your family.
As long as you purchase the tickets and use them before September 29th it should not be a problem…as long as you start your first day on Sept 25th and do the 4 days straight your ok.