Should You Buy a Disney World Annual Pass?

Last Updated on January 22, 2024 by Allison Lancaster

If you love Disney World, you may have thought about investing in the Disney World Annual Pass. Becoming a passholder gives you the opportunity to explore the area and enjoy the magic of Disney throughout the year, whenever you feel like going. However, before you decide to buy this pass, be sure to know what it can get you and what you can do with it.

disney world cinderella's castle and fireworks

We recently became Annual Passholders at Disney World! We contemplated the decision for awhile, but ultimately decided it was the best decision for our family this year. Here’s how we came to the decision to buy Disney Incredi-Passes for our family.

Look at the Options Available

When you’re thinking about buying the Disney World annual pass, you have a few good options. Disney offers several passes, including the Disney Pixie Dust Pass, Disney Pirate Pass, Disney Sorcerer Pass, and the Disney Incredi-Pass. The cost of each option varies, but you can choose from the most affordable pass to the most extravagant pass based on how much you can afford to spend.

For example, the Pixie Dust Pass is the cheapest option available for $399 plus tax, while the Incredi-Pass is the most expensive and extensive option available for $1299 plus tax. Only you can decide how much you’re willing to spend on the pass. Certain options are only available to Florida residents as well, so that is something to consider.

For us, we decided on the Incredi-Pass since we’re not Florida residents. We also added the PhotoPass to my Incredi-Pass.

You Can Add Some Extras to Your Pass for More Fun

No matter which Disney World annual pass you select, you can pay to have add-ons included into the pass for your convenience and fun. Some of these add-ons include the Water Park and Sports Option and Disney PhotoPass Downloads. You can get photos of all the incredible memories you’ll make while at Disney World, which is convenient if you don’t feel like taking a bunch of photos yourself while you’re walking around and having a good time.

Pro Tip: You don’t have to purchase Disney PhotoPass with all of your passes. Simply add it onto one, add that to the cart and then go ‘back’ and add your other passes without us. This tip saved us a couple of hundred dollars.

The Benefits of Having the Annual Pass

When you’re a passholder, you can take advantage of several benefits and have an excellent time with family and friends. Passholders receive numerous discounts throughout Disney World on food, the gift shop, and more. You’ll have more access to the magic and fun, making the visit to Disney World that much more exciting and enjoyable for everyone.

You can receive invitations to special events and get special merchandise available exclusively to passholders. If you love the idea of getting incredible discounts while having a good time and buying merchandise that you can proudly wear and keep for years to come, the annual pass is worth the investment.

Does buying a Disney World Annual Pass Make Financial Sense For Me?

There is a lot of math involved in this decision. You need to look at how many days per year you are going. How much the tickets are on that date, etc. For us, we go on a few shorter trips (5-7 days) per year. If you are going on one long trip of 10+ days tickets cost less the longer you are there consecutively.

Other things to look at are when deciding if you are going to buy a Disney Annual Pass:

You receive merchandise and food discounts. For us, this will save our family approximately $500 per year.
There are certain times of year they offer Annual Passholders discounts on rooms. We already had a trip planned in February before we purchased our annual passes, but we moved that trip to January and also applied our passholder discount. That decision alone saved us around $2,220. If your travel dates are flexible throughout the year, this can be a huge savings.

Enjoy Your Time at Disney World Even More as an Annual Passholder

Disney World is a magical place worth visiting multiple times with your loved ones. If you’d like to enhance the experience, save money, and have memorable times, investing in an annual pass is a good idea. The best part about this specific pass is that you have options. There are budget-friendly options for those who’d like to save money while still having an enhanced experience. And, there are also more expensive options that come with all the frills you could possibly want. So, what more could you possibly want? Consider which pass you’d like to invest in today!