By Superhero Diva
Disneyland Main Street Train Depot
For most of us we have to travel in order to enjoy “The Happiest Place On Earth”. So that means only being able to go to Disneyland about once a year or so, sometimes more if you are lucky. My family enjoys taking our yearly family vacation to Disneyland very much; it’s the only place we’ve gone to on vacation so far. Due to my husband’s job and the cost to even go on a trip, we are only able to go on one family trip per year.
Each time we have gone to Disneyland, we have to account for many expenses but the top main three are always the cost of flights, the hotel and park tickets (Especially because we try and have tickets for at least 4 days in the parks).
For years, my husband and I always wished we could have annual passes to Disneyland. Having passes would make it so much easier to try and squeeze in a second or third trip each year. This year we are fortunate enough to be able to go to Disneyland for a second trip. We are also going during the start of the holiday season and for my very first Disney race (lots of new fun things for us to enjoy).
So this has gotten me to do some serious research on the benefits, costs and restrictions of having a Disneyland annual pass. I only compared the Deluxe and Premium passes because for most of us (who do not live near Disneyland) we would choose one of these as our options.
The cost of one adult 4 day Hopper ticket to Disneyland is $300.
The cost of one Deluxe Annual Pass with 315 days of admission is $549.
The cost of one Premium Annual Pass with 365 days of admission is $779.
So here it is all laid out…
| Deluxe Pass – $549 | Block out dates: | Premium Pass – $779 | Block out dates: |
| -It’s a Hopper Pass | Sept 5-6, Nov 27-28 | -It’s a Hopper Pass | None |
| 315 days of admission | Dec 19-31, Jan 1-2 | 365 days of admission | |
| -No Parking included | Feb 13-14,Mar 19,25,26 | -Includes theme park Parking | |
| 10 % Dining Discount | April Saturdays, May 29 | 15% Dinning Discount | |
| 10% Merchandise Discout | June Saturdays | 20% Merchandise Discount | |
| 20% Tours Discount | July 3-4 & Saturdays | 20% Tours Discount | |
| 10-15% Discount in Downtown Disney | 10-15% Discount in Downtown Disney |
After looking at all this I decided that the Deluxe pass would suit my family better for these reasons:
-We live out of state and never rent a car when we visit, so we don’t need theme park parking.
-A big reason is because getting us Deluxe passes instead of Premium is a $690 price difference for our family of 3.
-We sometimes use Saturdays as travel days so it’s not a must to be able to attend the park those days.
-The discounts are tempting on the premium annual pass but we would never, ever spend enough on dining or merchandise purchases to justify the cost difference between the Deluxe and Premium pass costs.
-Even with these passes, we would still only be able to travel to Disneyland once or twice, maybe three times per year.
Disneyland tickets
It is a big decision for any family to make such a big purchase especially when you can feel the added pressure to use it. Look at past trips, see how many days you normal spend at the parks, how much you ate in the park or brought your own meals, etc. There are so many factors to consider when making the commitment to an annual pass. All in all, I really hope that this helps you in your decision, to take that leap, in purchasing an annual pass or not.
I’m not sure if you realize this but Disneyland stopped selling Premium passes on approx 10/4/15. It has been replaced by the Signature and Signature Plus passes which are $849 and $1049, respectively. At the same time, Disneyland raised the price of Deluxe Pass to $599. I thought that you might want to correct this post since it was posted 1/6/16.
Thank you Jill, it was supposed to be updated, but apparently was not. We will get that remedied. Thank you for bringing it to our attention! 🙂 ~Character Diva
thanks for this post