Smart Travel: Upgrade Your Getaways
Disney Done Right: When to Go, What to Skip, and How to Save at Disney Parks
Wed, 21 May 2025
Get the most out of your next Disney trip with tips for saving on tickets, spending less time in lines, and finding legitimate discounts. When is the cheapest time to go to Disney parks? How can you save money and avoid long lines once you're there? Hosts Sally French and Meghan Coyle talk all things Disney, including when to go, how to find legit ticket discounts, and the best ways to save time and money once you're inside the parks. But first, producer Tess Vigeland joins Sally to break down the latest travel headlines, including the new Orlando theme park Epic Universe, Southwest’s upcoming baggage fee changes, Delta’s shift from cabin classes to “travel experiences,” and lower airfare prices in 2025. Then, Meghan and Sally talk about how to maximize your Disney trip, with strategies like where to buy discounted tickets, how to use multi-passes to skip the longest lines, and options to save on food. They also share when you might find fewer crowds and how to take advantage of those hours, what to eat (and skip), and how to enjoy Disney magic without even entering the parks, from scenic hotel views to free rides on the monorail and Skyliner. Card benefits, terms and fees can change. For the most up-to-date information about cards mentioned in this episode, read our reviews: Target Red Card: https://www.nerdwallet.com/reviews/credit-cards/target-redcard Resources discussed in this episode: Universal Epic Universe: How to Plan Your Trip for the Opening https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/travel/epic-universe Southwest Ditches Free Bags, Adds Basic Fares https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/travel/southwest-announces-bag-fees-and-other-negative-changes Delta’s New Fares Hint at Bigger Changes Ahead https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/travel/deltas-new-fares-hint-at-bigger-changes-ahead Travel Inflation Report: May 2025 https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/travel/travel-price-tracker The 8 Best Ways to Buy Disney Tickets https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/travel/best-ways-to-buy-disney-tickets In their conversation, the Nerds discuss: cheapest time to visit Disney World, Disneyland ticket prices, Disney World discounts, how to skip lines at Disney, Lightning Lane vs Multi Pass, Disney Premier Pass cost, Disney dynamic pricing, Delta travel experience, Disney World September prices, Disney World summer discounts, Disney credit card perks, Target Disney gift card trick, Disney ticket resellers, Undercover Tourist tickets, Get Away Today Disney tickets, Disney dining plan, Disney dining deals, Disney rope drop strategy, Disney World hotel benefits, Disneyland mobile ordering, Disney World free activities, how to save at Disney, Disney character meals without ticket, Disney gift cards at Target, when to buy Disney tickets, Disney crowd calendar, Disneyland Lightning Lane explained, Disney World 3-day 3-park pass, Disney World kids ticket offer, and how to eat cheap at Disneyland. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Chapter 1: What are the latest travel headlines affecting Disney trips?
Everyone is talking about inflation these days, but I have the wildest inflation example for you.
Wait, I thought you and Megan were going to do an episode of Disney.
Tess, we are. Okay. So I first got my Disneyland annual pass in 1999. At the time, the deluxe pass was $129. Slightly more expensive today? Ooh. Slightly? Well, adjusted for inflation, $129 in 1999 would be $245 today. Imagine getting an annual pass to Disneyland for $245 today. Tess, you thought Disneyland was crowded now.
Imagine if it was only $245 for an annual pass today.
To give some context, I will say Disneyland now consists of two parks versus in 1999, there was just one park. But roughly that same pass I had now today with similar blockout dates costs $1,400. Yikes.
Now, Sally, I think that would make Pluto's ears stand on end.
I love that, Tess. Okay, so on the flip side, I think, well, if Disneyland annual passes were only $245 now for the whole year, that would seem like a steal.
Welcome to Smart Travel, a deep dive into the tips, tools, and tactics to maximize your travel dollars.
I'm Sally French.
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Chapter 2: When is the cheapest time to visit Disney parks?
You are the map. We are the maps. That's what we are today for you listeners. Today, we are going to talk about how to save money at Disneyland and Walt Disney World. Now there are many other theme parks around the world and cruises. We are just going to focus on Disneyland and Disney World. That is up next after this.
As people plan their Disney trip, they want to know when is the best time to go. So that's what we'll start by talking about today. Now, Megan, when do you think it's the best time to go?
When there are less people there. So I would say midweek. Okay. And avoid any school holidays.
Yes, I think that is sort of the rule of thumb is if kids are out of school, I'm talking summer. Thanksgiving, Christmas, any of those other holidays, that's when it's going to be crowded. So if you can avoid any of those times, that is ideal. Now, it is interesting that you said midweek because yes, you get fewer crowds. You also get lower prices.
Disney rolled this out somewhat recently is that they do the dynamic pricing. And I know some people love and hate dynamic pricing. But what's nice is that if you are going on a day that's busier, you're going to pay more. And if you're going on a day that's less crowded, like a Tuesday, you will pay less. I think that's nice to reward you for shifting your schedule to a less crowded day.
And especially if you're going with multiple people, say bringing your whole family, saving $20 by going one day earlier per person can really add up. You can also save by buying packages of tickets. When you go for multiple days, for example, for Disney World, then the price per day is lower usually than if you buy just one day ticket.
Sally, I know last time you were at Disney World, you were sitting on the bus and just crunching the numbers about when the actual best month to go was. Disney World is. What did you find?
Yes, this is really interesting. The cheapest time to go to Disney World on average is actually September. Their ticket prices average $125. Compare that to July where ticket prices average $157. So basically $32 cheaper per person to go in September versus July.
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Chapter 3: How can you save money on Disney tickets?
So if you go when it's hot, then the ticket prices are generally a little bit lower if you can avoid like the summer vacation crowds. And most of the kids are back in school by September anyway, so you have fewer crowds and lower prices. And I still can't stop thinking about how you mentioned you had a $120 Disneyland annual pass back in the day.
So Walt Disney World tickets, that's the park in Florida, start now at $119. for an adult for a one-day ticket. So basically, my annual pass is a bargain compared to prices now. Disneyland starts at just over $100 per adult one-day ticket. Again, though, prices are dynamic. So that lower ticket price is going to be on that random Thursday in September.
It's going to be a lot more if you want to go on the day after Christmas like everybody else.
And while we're talking about prices, we should mention that these are like very base prices. There are so many add-ons you can get at Disney. For example, a park hopper, which lets you go to multiple Disney parks in one day. Lightning lane passes, which let you access this line that's hopefully a little bit shorter.
I priced this out. And so on July 5th, that's the Saturday after July 4th, if you get a Park Hopper ticket, which that allows you to go to multiple Disney parks with the Lightning Lane, that gets you into the Expedited Q access, that would come out to $303 per adult.
Oh my gosh, I cannot afford that. And also adults are like anyone over the age of 10, which is crazy that you'd pay that much for a 10-year-old. All right, let's talk about how you can avoid paying $300 per adult ticket. One of the best ways to do it is to go on those lighter days, but also maybe buying from authorized discount resellers like Undercover Taurus, Getaway Today.
They have really small discounts, but it is something. Yeah.
Yes, they can add up. So undercover tourist is one of my favorite places to buy Disney tickets. In fact, I often buy my tickets from them myself. So for example, I just looked up undercover tourist prices at the Disneyland Resort. A two-day, one park per day ticket would be $320. That's a $10 savings from $330 at the gate.
$10, you times this by your whole family, and that's more money in your churro fund.
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Chapter 4: What strategies help avoid long lines at Disney?
And I'll throw in one more Disney World ticket offer through September 22nd, 2025. That's a three-day, three-park ticket. And it comes out to starting at $89 per day plus tax. The catch with this is you cannot go to Magic Kingdom. It only works at Disney Hollywood Studios, Epcot, and Disney's Animal Kingdom. But honestly, those are my three favorite parks.
And Sally, you've got another hack. This one is using gift cards.
Yes. So I am a Target red card holder. This is Target's branded credit card. There is no annual fee. And you can buy Disney gift cards at Target. Here's where the red card kicks in. This Target credit card gets you 5% off the purchase price of most items at Target stores. And that includes Disney gift cards. So what I do is ahead of a Disney trip, I buy a bunch of Disney gift cards at Target.
$100 gift card just cost me $95. I can use that to buy tickets. I can also use it to buy anything else that they sell at Disney as long as they accept gift cards. So any of the shops, any of the restaurants, for the most part, this is a great way to save at Disney.
All right, moving on. Let's talk about making the most of your time at Disney. So the less time you spend waiting in line, the better. What are some of your hacks, Sally, for doing this?
So I think we need to address the big one, and that is all of these ways you can pay to skip the line. There are a few ways you can do this. There is a Lightning Lane single pass. This gets you expedited entry into one ride. Then there is a multi-pass. This gets you into up to three rides at a time.
You select an arrival window, and then once you've used up one of those rides, then you can go select another ride. And then there's something called the Premier Pass. This is very limited. It is new. It is somewhat in testing and it's super expensive. So for context, a single ride pass is about $10 to $30 per ride. That multi-pass is about $20 to $30 per park. The Premier Pass, wait for it.
I hope you're sitting down. On the low end for a smaller park like Animal Kingdom is about $130. But I've seen it at the Magic Kingdom for about $450. $450. That's more than the ticket. Yes.
So I think a lot of people are not buying this, but this is something where if you are doing a once in a lifetime trip to Disney, maybe you're coming from an international destination and you're only going to be at Disney World for one day and you want to see it all. Maybe this is worth it because you do not spend any time in line.
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Chapter 5: What dining options should you consider at Disney parks?
This is a great opportunity to take some photos. Often the shops are open. You can browse around. But you want to get up to those, quote, ropes. Sometimes it's not a literal rope. It's just an employee standing there. But at that time, when they, quote, drop the ropes, you beeline to the top ride you want to go to.
I also like the opposite of the rope drop, which is going on all of these rides that are really popular late at night when most people are like, all right, they're either watching the fireworks or they're heading back to their car anyways. I've gone on Space Mountain in like five minutes.
There's a lot of ways that you can stay later and ride a bunch of rides in the last hour of the park being open as well.
The best time to avoid the lines is during the parade, during the fireworks. And then in general, there are a lot of families who will say, we're going to do the first half of the day or the second half of the day. What happens is kind of in that noontime, everyone has overlapped and everyone is there. So either commit to the morning, commit to the evening, but avoid the afternoon time.
I say do rope drop. Then midday, you're tired, you're hot. Go back to your hotel, lay in the pool or your bed, and then come back in the evening when the lines are shorter and it's cooler.
Yeah, then you get a break from the park as well. I think you'll just enjoy the experience a little bit more if you're not feeling super drained at the end of the night.
Exactly right. Now, speaking of hotel, Disney also has a benefit for its hotel guests. Hotel guests get something called early entry. This is a bonus 30 minutes extra in the morning. So if the park opens at 8, that means hotel guests can start getting on the rides at 7.30. And then the rope drop still sort of applies. So you might be in the park at 7 a.m.
just moseying around ready to beat everyone else who's a hotel guest at the rope drop.
I also love doing a single rider if you're not riding with small children. And then for food as well, that's another place where you shouldn't wait super long to get your food because there's just a gajillion places to eat inside of these parks. You can mobile order your food ahead of time and go pick it up so you can save time on lines there. I would also just say strategizing.
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Chapter 6: How can you enjoy Disney without entering the parks?
Great tips to save time when ordering food. Let's talk about saving money when ordering food.
The number one tip here is bring your own food. Yes. That'll be way cheaper than anything Disney sells. So many people are shocked to know that Disney allows your own food. Especially your own water bottle because there's a lot of places to refill that. If you do want to eat at Disneyland or Disney World and see some characters... you actually don't have to do it inside of the park either.
You can get that character meal experience without needing like a theme park ticket. And maybe on a day that you're not going to the theme parks, you could book a character meal at one of the hotels. And then quick mention for the Disney dining plan where you can pay a certain amount, usually $60 or $100 per adult, and then you can redeem at different restaurants inside of the parks.
We've looked at the numbers. It's not that much cheaper, and you can definitely save more if you're just bringing in your own food. But if you did want to just like budget for it ahead of time, and there are sometimes some offers, different discounts on Disney dining. So if that's interesting to you, you can look up the Disney dining plans.
There are a lot of really good offers coming up the rest of 2025 and even into 2026, including a really good offer in 2026 where all the kids staying in a Disney-owned hotel room get the dining plan free if the adults in the room have paid for it.
And then for different restaurants that you say people should 100% visit when they're at Disney parks. Do you have any recs, Sally?
I will give you two. One is Trader Sam's. This is not even in the parks. This is at the Disneyland Hotel. And there is also one at Disney's Pollination Resort in Disney World. Super fun to keep art. And then my second one, I think you're going to agree with me, is Oga's Cantina in Star Wars Land.
Oh, yeah. Super cute. Their little robot DJ is so adorable. His name is DJ Rex. And they have really fun food. And then for merchandise, I'm not a big spender on like clothing and things like that. But for some reason, when I'm in Disney parks, I get this real urge to buy a shirt or like ears or something.
Because there's so many stores everywhere. You're like, I can't not look at the shops because every time you leave a ride, there's a shop.
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