Tips about Tickets

If you don't have your Annual Passholder card with you and you are dining at a restaurant that accepts the discount, open the My Disney Experience app to "My Passes" and show the server. We think this is a great tip for locals who are blocked out of the parks, but still dining on property. Thanks to our server at The Wave for this tip! - Michelle B.

In mid-April 2014, my wife and I bought annual passes for Walt Disney World. These were linked to our MagicBands. I had previously linked a 10-day non-expiring hopper pass to my band. We visited WDW several times after that. When trying to enter a park on our most recent trip, I was surprised to find that the nine days left on my park-hopper were gone. A cast member at Guest Relations assured me the hopper was used up, so I bought a one-day hopper. Later in the day it occurred to me that maybe my park-hopper pass had been used before the annual pass. A cast member was able to see every day we were in the parks for the past few years, and yes -- the system had mistakenly used up my hopper before using the annual pass. It took a while to work out a solution. Disney could not replace my nine days remaining on the non-expiring hopper as that option is discontinued. They gave me three, three-day expiring park hopper passes to be activated on future visits. My warning: Be sure to unlink your non-expiring hopper passes if you decide to purchase an annual pass. - Carl

Just learned that if you go to a park prior to checking in to your Disney resort they will reimburse you for parking! Did this myself this past weekend when we stayed at Art of Animation and worked perfectly! Couldn't quite get up early enough to do check-in before park opening and I didn't want to waste any of my theme park time! - Mary

EDITOR'S NOTE: this is also true if you are going to purchase an annual pass that includes parking. Just bring your parking receipt to the Guest Relations window and they will credit what you paid for parking that day towards your annual pass.

Just learned that if you go to a park prior to checking in to your Disney resort they will reimburse you for parking! Did this myself this past weekend when we stayed at Art of Animation and worked perfectly! Couldn't quite get up early enough to do check-in before park opening and I didn't want to waste any of my theme park time! - Mary

EDITOR'S NOTE: this is also true if you are going to purchase an annual pass that includes parking. Just bring your parking receipt to the Guest Relations window and they will credit what you paid for parking that day towards your annual pass.

On a recent trip I discovered that the new touch and go, RFID cards will still work while in a lanyard pouch. However, after I traded my paper annual pass for a new touch and go pass, it would not work in the pouch anymore. Apparently if you have more than one of the new types of cards together in a pouch or hold them together the sensors pick up both chips and can not tell which is which. The cards do work if you hold them up to the sensors one at a time still. They just can not be stacked together.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Annual Passholders can log into their My Disney Experience account and order a Magic Band at no additional cost.

On a recent trip I discovered that the new touch and go, RFID cards will still work while in a lanyard pouch. However, after I traded my paper annual pass for a new touch and go pass, it would not work in the pouch anymore. Apparently if you have more than one of the new types of cards together in a pouch or hold them together the sensors pick up both chips and can not tell which is which. The cards do work if you hold them up to the sensors one at a time still. They just can not be stacked together.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Annual Passholders can log into their My Disney Experience account and order a Magic Band at no additional cost.

Buy tickets in advance (as soon as you know you're going). We usually have about a year between trips, and with four travelers, I'll buy one ticket a month, for example. If the timeframe for the next trip works out, we upgrade the pre-purchased tickets to annual passes when we arrive at the resort. Ticket prices rise every year, but a ticket you buy at today's prices does not begin the expiration countdown until it is used for the first time at a park; so you could buy a ticket today, and hold onto it until that dream trip finally happens! - Bitterchickey

My fiance and I stayed at Walt Disney World as part of a business thing, and were able to get a "ConventionEars" ticket for 6 p.m. admission, which we used on our day of arrival. It was half the price of a regular admission, and Magic Kingdom had Extra Magic Hours until 2 a.m. that night, so we got a full day for half-price! Make sure to look into ConventionEars if you're at WDW for business. - Kris

If you're going to the parks with a military ticket, you'll need to stop by Guest Relations the first day to show your ID. We didn't realize this last year and wasted 20 minutes of the morning Extra Magic Hour. After the first day you're good to go and can go straight to the turnstiles of your park. - Angela Shull

If you add the "water park and more" option and love to golf, be sure to get an early tee time reservation. (It's free as part of your ticket.) My husband started his round at Oak Trails at 7 a.m. and was done in plenty of time to join the rest of us at the parks for the day. Ask the front desk of your Disney hotel for a free cab voucher to and from the course, too. - Nicole Amidon

For anyone considering purchasing Disney tickets through a military MWR office, check to see if your command offers matching funds. While we were stationed in Pearl Harbor all the ships on the waterfront gave matching funds each month. Our command put in $30 per sailor per month, so when we decided to visit Disneyland while my husband's ship was doing exercises in San Diego we bought one ticket on June 30 and one on July 1 and saved an extra $60. - Lindsey B.

Don't purchase park admission media you don't need. For instance, if it is unlikely you'll hit a water park don't add that option. If you know you'll only be in the parks three days, purchase tickets accordingly. - Hilary Sommer

We have been planning a March 2009 family get-together at Disney World since last summer. Trying to read up on and make all the right choices has been overwhelming. Your AllEars.Net site and newsletter helped a lot. We are all driving from Canada and we are staying off-site, so attraction ticket prices with foreign exchange rates added on has been a wait-and-see decision. Until a trip to one of the Disney Stores in the Toronto area in February, that is. Much to our delight (and financial relief) we learned that the attraction tickets (including the 6.5% Florida tax) are currently priced in Canadian dollars and the prices are comparable to all of the other US-priced tickets out there. The brochure price is what you pay, as no other taxes are added. Our family group of 12 adults and one child are very happy to pass this information on to all of the Canadians who are planning a trip to Disney World in the near future. - Anne Hewton

Disney recommends writing down the numbers from the back of your tickets and your photo pass cards in case they are lost/stolen. Rather than writing them down, my husband and I texted them to one another. This way, the numbers were in both of our cell phones, which we always had with us. It was better than having to remember to keep track of a separate piece of paper. We also did this with confirmation numbers for meals and other events. - Christina Rocco

A quick note to let everyone know that Will Call tickets can be picked up at the ticket counter (lobby concierge) at any Disney resort, which is something I really wish I had known. Our Halloween Party tickets had not arrived before we left for Orlando. We discovered at check-in that the person who took our reservation, in an attempt to update our information with our new home address, forgot to change the city. Oops... So, with us in Orlando and our tickets floating around our old city, the staff at the front desk did everything they could to try to get us new tickets, but in the end they had to refer us to Guest Relations. That night, in costume, I went up to the Guest Relations window expecting to have a problem, but I couldn't have been more pleased. After checking my ID, my confirmation number, and verifying that the tickets had not been used, the cast member gave me new tickets and even gave me back the $3 I had paid for shipping, without me even asking! So, my advice to everyone is to use Will Call at your resort. If you must have your tickets shipped to you, double check your address and hang on to your confirmation number. Then, if something does go wrong, and you must go to Guest Relations, don't be afraid. Their staff is the best of the bunch. - Sandra DeTora