Walt Disney World annual passholders can buy friends and family deeply discounted tickets

Walt Disney World is offering its passholders an unusual perk: a hefty discount on 1-Day Park Hopper tickets for friends and family. I’ve been a passholder for more than a decade, and I cannot remember seeing such a deal.

From Aug. 12 through Sept. 30, passholders can purchase the tickets at almost half off — $79 per person — for up to six people per passholder. The regular price for the 1-Day Park Hopper is between $155 and $160 for adults and $149 to $154 for children ages 3 to 9. (The price range is because of Disney’s seasonal and tiered pricing.) 1-Day Park Hopper tickets allow guests admission to any or all of Disney World’s theme parks — Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, Epcot and Hollywood Studios — on that same day.

To take advantage of this offer, passholders must accompany their guests to a theme-park ticket window to purchase the tickets. This is the only way the tickets can be purchased, and the Park-Hoppers must be used the day of purchase.

While that deal is open to all annual passholders — local or not — there are two other ticket offers right now that cater to Florida residents. The 3-Day (and 4-Day) Florida Resident Disney Select Tickets give the guest access to one theme park per day for the number of days purchased at a significant savings. These tickets are not Park Hoppers, and they expire within six months of the first use or Dec. 17, 2017 — whichever comes first. There also are blockout dates: Dec. 15 to Dec. 31, 2016; Jan. 1 to Jan. 2, 2017; April 8 to April 21, 2017; June 5 to Aug. 10, 2017.

The 3-Day Florida Resident Disney Select Tickets are $199 plus tax per person (ages 10 and older), which makes the price per day about $66. The 4-Day Florida Resident Disney Select Tickets are $219, which makes the price per day about $55. Guests do have the option of adding the Park Hopper feature to this Florida Resident deal at an additional cost. For the 3-Day ticket, it’s an additional $27.50 plus tax, which makes the price per day about $75.50. For the 4-Day ticket, it’s an additional $34.50, which makes the price per day about $63 plus tax.

But when Florida residents are spending more than $250 for four days, they might want to consider an annual pass. The Florida Resident Silver pass has the same blockout dates as the Disney Select Tickets and includes admission to the four theme parks with Park Hopping AND parking included for one year for $389 plus tax.

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