Beginning January 18, 2019, Walt Disney World will sell special 4-Park Magic Tickets. In this post, we review these tickets and compare them to other options.
Disney World’s 4-Park Magic Tickets Explained
Disney’s World’s 4-Park Magic Tickets are a special type of ticket that allows exactly one entry to each of Walt Disney World’s four parks within seven days of first use or by a date specified by ticket type, whichever comes first.
These tickets were announced via this webpage, and we’re getting all of our information from there.
These tickets will be going on sale January 18, 2019 and come in three categories—value, select, and summer. The three categories each have different prices and each allow entry on a different set of dates.
What Dates Do the 4-Park Magic Tickets Cover?
Altogether, there are ticket options allowing entry during the following dates in 2019:
January 18 through March 14
March 27 through April 9
April 27 through September 30
We’ll cover which ticket category covers which dates at what price in the next section.
How Much Do The 4-Park Magic Tickets Cost?
Disney doesn’t allow you to purchase these tickets yet, but they have posted pre-tax prices and we’re assuming standard 6.5% tax (same as on all other tickets). We’re adding tax and rounding prices to the nearest dollar based on these expectations.
4-Park Magic Value Tickets will allow entry January 18 through March 1 and cost $362 for an adult and $341 for a child.
4-Park Magic Select Tickets will allow entry:
January 18 through March 14
March 27 through April 9
April 27 through May 27
August 19 through September 30
and will cost $379 for an adult and $358 for a child.
4-Park Magic Summer Tickets will allow entry:
January 18 through March 14
March 27 through April 9
April 27 through September 30
and will cost $405 for an adult and $383 for an adult.
How are these different than other Four-day Tickets?
4-Park Magic Tickets are obviously different from Disney World park hopper tickets in that they don’t allow park hopping—you can only visit one park each day.
Unlike standard tickets, you cannot visit the same park twice over your four days. You get exactly one admission to exactly each of the four parks.
Moreover, the language on the website isn’t explicit about this, but it’s expected these tickets will be wholly non-modifiable. It’s often the case that you can add days or park hopper to your tickets. These tickets will almost definitely not allow such changes due to their structure.
Finally, the restrictions / dating / pricing are different from standard tickets. You must use the tickets within 7 days of first use, and the different ticket categories allow admission on different dates.
It’s very important to note the language here. Disney World’s tickets usually have a start date and a window. So when purchasing a standard ticket (not the tickets discussed in this post) for August 14, you’re told to use for any four days from August 14 to August 20.
The 4-Park Magic Tickets, however, come with fixed admission dates. For example, if you have a four-day that starts February 28, you need a “select” ticket, not a “value” ticket. Your value ticket would be good only on February 28 and March 1.
The 4-Park Magic Tickets also come with a seven-day usage limit. So you cannot use your value ticket once on January 20 and then three more times on February 1 through 3. You must use them within seven days of first use or by the last valid admission day.
One more thing…currently these tickets specific “one entry” per day. Typically, on a standard ticket you can leave the park and return. It would be a strange restriction for Disney to place on these tickets that you cannot leave a park and re-enter, but that is how we currently interpret the language.
If you’re considering leaving the park, for example to go to a nearby hotel for a drink or meal, you’ll need to check with Disney about the specific re-entry restrictions (and honestly—I’d probably try to avoid these tickets altogether to avoid wind up being in a “But I was told…” situation).
How Much Do 4-Park Magic tickets Save?
We ran the numbers and quickly compared 4-Park Magic tickets to standard four-day tickets that allow entry to one park each day (we covered the differences between these tickets immediately above).
What we found was pretty high variance in the savings. For simplicity, we’re only comparing adult tickets here. The numbers for child tickets looked roughly similar.
Comparing 4-Park Magic Tickets to Disney’s Standard Pricing
First, let’s compare 4-Park Magic Tickets to Disney’s pricing. It’s rarely going to make sense to purchase your tickets directly from Disney, but until we know whether discount ticket brokers can sell these 4-Park Magic Tickets, we wanted to be sure to compare apples to apples first.
Overall, buying a 4-Park Magic Ticket could save an adult between $3 and $69 total for the four days versus buying a four-day ticket from Disney. Percentage-wise, the discount ranged from 1% to 16%.
The best savings come for a visit beginning February 15. A standard four-day ticket costs $431.46 starting that day, a 4-Park Magic Value ticket will cost $362.10.
The worst savings come for a visit beginning July 7. A standard four-day ticket costs $407.94 starting that day, a 4-Park Magic Summer ticket will cost $404.70.
Comparing 4-Park Magic Tickets to Discount Disney World Tickets
We advocate buying Disney World tickets through a discount broker, and we discuss different options in our post on that issue. We’re using Undercover Tourist for this example because their system makes it easiest for us to compare multiple dates at once (they also often have the lowest-priced tickets).
Compared to discount Disney World tickets, the 4-Park Magic Ticket saves a maximum of around $45 total per person and can actually cost up to $18 per person compared to a four-day Disney World ticket bought from a discount broker.
Obviously if the discount brokers get to sell these tickets, they’ll price them at a discount and we’ll have to compare those prices. As of yet, we don’t know whether this will be the case.
Should My Family Buy 4-Park Magic Tickets?
This is obviously the big question, and the toughest one to answer. We’ll use the discount price comparison, as there’s really no reason you should be buying standard tickets at Disney’s prices.
Check the Bottom Line…
If your family can get $180 in savings (the higher end for a family of four) buying the 4-Park Magic Tickets, it’s hard to argue against them.
For a four-day visit, especially for first timers mostly likely to be on the fence about these tickets, it would be standard to visit each park once. So if you’re looking at exactly four full days in the parks, these tickets might make sense on certain dates. But read on to the next section before you close this page!
Obviously on dates when these tickets will cost you money, you’ll want to avoid them, as they’re worse than standard tickets.
…And Make Sure To Consider All Your Options
Most important though is that you actually consider all your options. For example, Undercover Tourist’s lowest-priced five-day tickets are often only a few dollars more expensive than their four-day tickets. Even six day tickets can be around only $25 more than four-day tickets! For tickets starting July 7, Undercover Tourist’s standard five-day ticket is cheaper than the 4-Park Magic Ticket, and the six-day ticket is only $9 more!
So you might compare four-day ticket prices and find the 4-Park Magic Ticket comes out slightly ahead. That’s great, but might it make sense to add a fifth (or sixth) day and upgrade to standard tickets for something like $50 to $100 for your entire family?
Think about it. If you’re planning four full park days, you’ll probably be flying in and flying out on the days around those four days. You might have time for a fifth park, and that could be huge. If that fifth morning is, for example, Extra Magic Hours at Magic Kingdom, your entire trip could go differently.
And then there’s the flip side. Did you just read that and think “actually we’re flying in on day one and flying out on day four”? Then you probably need park hopper tickets. If you only have two full days and two partial days, the 4-Park Magic tickets are definitely not for you. You might decide to get a three-day or even two-day park hopper instead, but you’ll really want to consider that four-day park hopper.
Conclusions About 4-Park Magic Tickets
Like all ticket options, the calculus here is simple if you keep in mind a few gritty points. Always start by comparing the ticket options available for your dates, including comparing prices on the 4-Park Magic tickets to the prices on standard tickets at discount ticket brokers.
Then expand your search. Might it make sense to buy a 2-day park hopper or a six-day standard ticket (or anything in between) instead, given how those tickets are priced and what times your flights arrive and depart?
Do the 4-Park Magic Tickets Make Sense For You? Have you used them? Tell us about your experience!
All Your Other Disney World Planning Questions Answered
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Just starting out? Check out our Walt Disney World planning guide! If you're still picking dates, we've got everything you need to know about Disney crowd calendars. For picking your hotel, check out our Walt Disney World hotels guide.
When it comes time to book, we've got you covered with posts on how to book cheap flights, how to get the best deal on your Disney hotel, and where to find discount Disney World tickets. And of course everyone wants to know whether or not they should get a Disney World dining plan!
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