First, I need you to answer some questions about your family’s travel habits.

1. How many full vacation days will you be spending at the Walt Disney World Resort (don’t include travel days-unless you will be arriving early in the morning or leaving late at night)
2. Is this your first visit to Walt Disney World, have you visited before but still consider yourself a newbie, or are you a veteran Disney guest?
3. Which parks are you planning on visiting on this trip?
4. Do you plan on visiting either of the Disney Water Parks or Disney Quest?
5. Do you like to jump from park to park or do you prefer to stay in one park all day?

Now that you have that information let’s move forward.**All prices quoted here are valid for non-Florida residents and is updated with the August 2009 price increase. Florida residents prices vary and are lower than non-resident prices. For current pricing go to DisneyWorld.com**

The Magic Your Way base ticket is a one day one park pass. You add how many park days you want to purchase to that to create your base ticket. Disney does reward you for longer visits. Per day ticket prices decrease dramatically when you purchase tickets for 4 or more days. To simplify things I am only quoting prices here for adult tickets, which is everyone ages 10+ (children under 3 get in free).

Magic Your Way Base Ticket Price (including tax)

These tickets expire 14 days from 1st use.

1 Day   $84.10

2 Day  $166.14 ($83.07/day)

3 Day  $233.24 ($77.74/day)

4 Day  $239.63 ($59.91/day)

5 Day $242.82 ($48.56/day)

6 Day  $246.02 ($41.01/day)

7 Day $249.21 ($35.60/day)

8 Day $252.41 ($31.55/day)

9 Day $255.60 ($28.40/day)

10 Day $258.80 ($25.88/day)

If this is your first trip to Disney World, you don’t plan to visit more than 1 park per day and you don’t plan on visiting the water parks or Disney Quest then this ticket is for you.

Now to the add-ons. If you want the flexibility to visit more than one park on any given day, you need to add the parkhopper option. This is a great value for multi-day tickets because it is a flat fee of $52+tax whether you have a 2 day ticket or a 10 day ticket.

The other add-on is the water parks and more option. This gives you “options”, which equal days you can spend at Typhoon Lagoon, Blizzard Beach, Disney Quest, Disney’s Wide World of Sports or golfing one round at Disney’s Oak Trail 9-hole golf course. The number of options is based on the number of days that your base ticket is for. A 1 or 2 day base ticket gets 2 options and 3-10 day gets the same number of options as you have days on your base ticket. This is a very inexpensive way to extend your vacation. You could get a 4 day base ticket with waterpark options for $239.63 + $52+tax and for less than $300 you can have 8 days of activities in the waterparks, theme parks and Disney Quest.

The final add-on is the non-expiring add-on. This eliminates the 14 days from first use rule and allows the ticket to be good forever, by the person whose biometric scan is attached to it.  The price on this varies between $18.00-$209.00 depending on the number of days on your base ticket. You would really have to do some serious math to prove this option worth it for most people.

It is very difficult to find any deeply discounted tickets to Walt Disney World. Do not buy used tickets with days left over on them. You can often find them on eBay, Craigslist or other sites but many, many people have gotten to the park with a useless ticket in hand. There are a few reasons for this, first-there is no way to know how many days are left on a Walt Disney World ticket without taking it to a ticket window, so you can never be sure if there are days left. Second, Disney has been using the biomtric finger scan to tag a ticket to a specific person since 1996. It is not worth the savings of buying a partially used tcket to find out that you cannot use it.

I hope I was able to simplify the Magic Your Way ticket choices for you. If you have a question about ticketing that I didn’t address please feel free to leave it in the comments or e-mail me at Cindy at themommaven dot com. I love comments and am more than happy to help you plan your Disney vacation.

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My first visit to Walt Disney World was in 1972, I was 8 years old and we flew down from Massachusetts to spend a week at the Magic Kingdom. We spent one day in each land and left no stone unturned. We returned a few more times in the 70’s. In 1980 we moved to Florida, less than 2 hours from Walt Disney World! We would visit the Magic Kingdom and later EPCOT Center whenever relatives and friends came to visit from up north. In 1983 I auditioned to be in the “Kids of the Kingdom”. This was before Disney had the sub-categories dancers who could sing and singers who could dance. I am a singer who could dance but back then you had to pass a grueling dance audition before they ever heard you sing. I made it to round 2 of the dance auditions and that was it. Two of my friends from college did get hired and one performed at Disney for several years. The 80’s were filled with Disney trips for Grad Night, Magic Kingdom in heels and a dress is not my favorite way to go. Night of Joy events several years in a row and weekend trips with friends were also part of that long ago decade.

I got married in 1991 to a wonderful man who, other than an annual trip to Night of Joy with his buddies, didn’t grasp the love of all things Disney. This of course translates to my dream of a Disney honeymoon did not come true. We did visit Disney together before we had children and then when we had 1 child and then 2. My husband’s 1st big Disney breakthrough was in the fall of 1997. Disney ran a ticket promotion for Florida residents 97 days for $97! The ticket was good any and all of the days from mid-September thru mid December. We went for 4 days as a family in September and then 3 days just the 2 of us in the beginning of December. Once he was surrounded by the magic that is Disney at Christmas, he was sold!

We have been seasonal passholders on and off ever since. We have logged over 100 stays on Disney property, not to mention the times we stayed off property. Our children have been giving out of town friends and relative tours of all 4 Florida parks for years. We have celebrated birthdays and anniversaries with Disney. We have travelled with groups as small as 2 and as large as 13. We have stayed in Value Resorts, Moderate Resorts and Deluxe Resorts. Between the 4 of us we have ridden every ride currently on Walt Disney World property except for 2. We have attended Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party, Epcot’s Food and Wine Festival, Epcot’s Flower and Garden Festival, and many other special events.

Our favorite thing to do at Disney is show first timers around. There is nothing like the wonder on the face of an adult or child when the magic kicks in. My hope with this column is to help those of you who have visited Disney World to remember the magic and those who have never been to want to be a part of the magic. If you have specific Walt Disney World park, hotel, dining or vacation planning questions please feel free to leave me a comment and ask. I’m here to spread the magic the best I can.

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