Disney News & Updates

Is a Walt Disney World Annual Pass Worth It If You Live Out of State?

2026-09-07
Vanessa, Troy and Arianna together in front of Cinderella Castle at Walt Disney World.

Fair warning: there’s a lot to unpack here. 😂

But if you’re seriously wondering whether a Walt Disney World Annual Pass could make sense for your out-of-state family, stick with me.

There’s a whole lot more to this decision than ticket price — and some of the biggest perks are the ones people barely talk about.

When our family first started seriously considering Walt Disney World Annual Passes, I did what most people probably do:

I searched.

And searched.

And searched some more.

I could find plenty of information explaining what an Annual Pass included, but very little from families like ours — people who DIDN’T live in Florida and were trying to figure out whether spending that much money upfront could actually make sense.

At the time, we lived in Georgetown, South Carolina, about a seven-hour drive from Walt Disney World.

We loved Disney.

But we couldn’t exactly decide on a Tuesday afternoon to pop over to EPCOT for dinner. 😂

Our question wasn’t simply:

**“How much does an Annual Pass cost?”**

It was:

**“Could a Walt Disney World Annual Pass actually be worth it for an out-of-state family like ours?”**

After becoming Passholders ourselves, I can tell you the answer involves a whole lot more than dividing the price of an Annual Pass by the price of a park ticket.

That’s why I wanted to write the article I wish I’d been able to find when WE were making the decision.

How We Ended Up Considering Annual Passes

Our Disney trips had gradually become more frequent.

We visited four times in 2023 and three times in 2024.

Then came 2025.

We already had a trip booked for our son Seth’s birthday, and on the drive home we somehow managed to book THREE more bounce-back trips.

Apparently driving home from Disney is a dangerous time to make financial decisions. 😂

At some point, the obvious question finally hit us:

**ARE WE CRAZY?**

**WHY AREN’T WE ANNUAL PASSHOLDERS?**

So I started researching.

And honestly, there was some fear involved.

Annual Passes are a significant upfront expense, especially when you’re buying them for multiple family members.

Would we really use them enough?

Would we regret spending the money?

What if life happened and we couldn’t make all the trips we thought we’d take?

And I had another question that wasn’t financial at all:

**Would going to Disney more often somehow make it feel less special?**

That one mattered to me.

Eventually, we stopped looking only at admission prices and started looking at **how our family actually vacations at Walt Disney World.**

That’s when the math became much more interesting.

First Things First: What Can an Out-of-State Family Buy?

For most guests who aren’t Florida residents, the Walt Disney World Annual Pass available for purchase is the Disney Incredi-Pass.

Eligible Disney Vacation Club members may have other options.

Disney currently lists the Incredi-Pass at **$1,629 plus tax per person age 3 and older.**

It currently includes:

Don’t Let the “5 Reservations” Rule Scare You

For an out-of-state family coming for a long vacation, that five-reservation limit can sound terrible.

**“Wait — we’re coming from South Carolina for TWO WEEKS and we can only reserve five park days?!”** 😳

There’s an important distinction.

Annual Passholders staying at a Disney Resort hotel or another eligible select hotel can currently make theme-park reservations for each day of their eligible resort stay **in addition to** their normal rolling reservation allotment.

So an eligible resort stay works differently from simply holding five individual park reservations without one.

Disney also uses Good-to-Go Days, when Passholders do not need a theme-park reservation.

Passholders can currently enter the parks after 2:00 PM without a reservation in many circumstances, with an exception for Magic Kingdom on Saturdays and Sundays.

Reservation requirements and availability can change, so always check Disney’s current rules for your dates.

**GOOD TO KNOW:** If you’re staying at an eligible Disney Resort or select hotel, your resort-stay park reservations are handled differently from your normal rolling reservation allotment.

The Annual Pass Math People Forget

Here’s where I think a lot of Annual Pass comparisons fall short.

They take:

**ANNUAL PASS PRICE**

÷

**REGULAR PARK TICKET PRICE**

=

**NUMBER OF DAYS TO “BREAK EVEN”**

That’s useful.

But it isn’t the whole story.

The better question is:

**What does your family actually pay for when you vacation at Walt Disney World?**

Because admission is only one piece of the Disney puzzle.

When you do your own Disney math, think about:

And then there are benefits that aren’t quite as easy to put into a calculator.

1. Park Hopper: Savings for Some — a Whole New Freedom for Others

Park Hopper was already part of our Disney vacations.

So when we compared what we were spending on regular tickets with the price of Annual Passes, comparing the Incredi-Pass against the cheapest one-park-per-day ticket wouldn’t have made sense.

We needed to compare it with what WE would actually have purchased.

But there’s another side to this perk that I think is easy to overlook.

Maybe you’ve always skipped Park Hopper because adding it to everyone’s tickets wasn’t where you wanted to put your vacation budget.

An Annual Pass suddenly gives you that flexibility.

Imagine wrapping up your afternoon at Animal Kingdom and somebody says:

**“Let’s go to Magic Kingdom tonight and watch Happily Ever After!”**

And you can. ❤️🏰✨

Maybe you want one more ride on a favorite attraction.

Maybe EPCOT sounds fun after dinner.

Maybe your plans simply changed.

If you were already buying Park Hopper, that benefit can represent money you were already spending.

If you weren’t, it can add something completely new to your vacation:

**Freedom and spontaneity.**

Those aren’t exactly the same as “savings.”

But they absolutely have value.

2. PhotoPass: One of Our Favorite AP Add-Ons

This is one I almost forgot — and it’s actually one of our favorite parts of having Annual Passes.

Before APs, buying Memory Maker for an individual vacation was expensive.

And once I paid for it, I felt pressure to use it.

**“We bought Memory Maker — we’d better stop for pictures!”** 😂

Now we have the Annual Pass PhotoPass Downloads add-on.

We stop for photos when we want to.

If we don’t feel like stopping?

We don’t.

There’s no pressure to turn the vacation into a PhotoPass scavenger hunt just because we paid for Memory Maker for that particular trip.

Vanessa, Troy and Seth pose together near a fountain at EPCOT while Seth holds out his hand for a Disney PhotoPass Remy Magic Shot.

The Annual Pass PhotoPass Downloads add-on currently costs **$109 plus tax for the year** and includes eligible PhotoPass photographer images, Magic Shots and selected attraction photos and videos captured while the benefit is valid.

For comparison, Disney currently lists Memory Maker at **$185 when purchased at least three days in advance** or **$210 at the regular price**.

For our family, over multiple trips throughout the year, we ABSOLUTELY get our money’s worth from the Annual Pass add-on.

For a family that normally purchases Memory Maker on multiple vacations, this is one of those comparisons where you might look at the numbers and immediately go:

**“Ohhhhhhh.”** 💡😂

3. Parking Can Add Up Fast

Standard theme-park parking is included with the Disney Incredi-Pass.

That can be especially valuable for an out-of-state family staying outside the Disney bubble and driving to the parks.

At the current standard parking rate, multiple park days across multiple vacations can add up quickly.

Families staying at a Disney Resort hotel already receive standard theme-park parking during their stay, so the financial impact will be different.

You don’t want to count “savings” for something you weren’t going to pay for anyway.

But if theme-park parking is normally part of your vacation budget?

This is definitely worth including in your family’s Disney math.

4. Yes, the Merchandise Discount Can Add Up 😂

This may be dangerous information.

Annual Passholders currently receive up to 20% off select eligible merchandise at participating Walt Disney World locations.

Twenty percent may not sound like something that should influence a major financial decision.

Until Disney shopping begins. 😂

A Loungefly.

A pair of ears.

A Pandora charm.

Festival merchandise.

A shirt you absolutely did not need.

Another Loungefly that is apparently COMPLETELY different from the other Loungefly.

That 💩 adds up fast. 😂🛍️

Disney Pandora Groot charm purchased during a Walt Disney World trip.

For example:

**$1,000 in eligible merchandise receiving a 20% discount = $200 saved.**

And yes, I understand that spending $800 does not technically mean I “made” $200.

Please do not interfere with my Disney Passholder Math. 🤣

For families who already enjoy buying Disney merchandise, those savings can become very real over the course of several vacations.

5. Dining Discounts

Annual Passholders also receive discounts at participating Walt Disney World dining locations.

This wasn’t a major factor in OUR decision.

Our family isn’t big on sit-down Disney dining, and the way we handle food in the parks means we simply don’t use this benefit as heavily as some families might.

But if character meals and table-service restaurants are a big part of your Disney vacations, this perk could matter much more to you.

Discount percentages, participating restaurants and restrictions can change, so check Disney’s current Passholder dining offers before putting a number into your own calculation.

6. Passholder Resort Offers

Disney periodically releases special Disney Resort hotel offers for Annual Passholders.

We’ve seen offers with substantial discounts on select resorts, rooms and dates.

The important words are:

**SELECT.**

**AVAILABLE.**

**AND SUBJECT TO CHANGE.** 😂

I would never buy an Annual Pass assuming every Disney Resort stay is automatically going to be discounted.

But when a Passholder offer lines up with a vacation you were already taking?

That can be another very nice perk.Disney’s Pop Century Resort television displaying a Happy Anniversary message for Troy and Vanessa.

One other part of Disney Resort reservations that has worked well for us personally is flexibility.

I’ve moved our reservation dates rather than cancelling the trip and asking for a refund, and the money we had already paid moved with the changed reservation.

That is specifically OUR experience with modifying our reservations — not a promise about how every reservation, rate or cancellation will work.

Always check the terms attached to your reservation.

7. Water Park & Sports: Don’t Ignore It Just Because We Don’t Use It

This one doesn’t matter much to our family TODAY.

But when our kids were younger?

Disney’s water parks were a HUGE part of our vacations.

We went when we took the kids in 1999 and again in 2004, and those water-park days were part of the Disney experience for us.

Disney currently offers an optional **Water Park & Sports add-on for $109 plus tax** with an Annual Pass.

Depending on Disney’s current offerings and restrictions, it can include visits to whichever Disney water park is open, along with eligible golf, FootGolf, miniature golf and ESPN Wide World of Sports experiences.

For our family at this stage of life?

We probably wouldn’t get enough use from it.

But a family with younger kids taking multiple Disney trips?

I would absolutely look at it.

If water parks and mini golf are already things your family loves doing on vacation, this could change your Disney budget considerably.

But the Biggest Difference Wasn’t Financial

This is the part I didn’t fully understand until we became Passholders.

Our Annual Passes didn’t just change what we paid for Disney.

**They changed how we did Disney.**

And one of my biggest fears before buying them turned out to be wrong.

Going more often didn’t make Disney feel less special.

In some ways, being Passholders allowed us to enjoy it MORE.Vanessa’s family, including Grandma Trudy, together at Walt Disney World during Disney Starlight.

**THE BIGGEST SURPRISE?**

**Our Annual Passes gave us permission to slow down.**

We Stopped Treating Every Park Day Like a Mission

When you buy regular vacation tickets, there can be a natural pressure to maximize every day.

You paid for today.

You’re at Magic Kingdom today.

**YOU’D BETTER MAKE MAGIC KINGDOM COUNT.** 😂

Annual Passes changed that mentality for us.

We knew we’d be back.

We could spend fewer hours in a park on a particular day while actually visiting the parks more often throughout the trip.

We didn’t need to conquer Disney every single day.

For our family, that was incredibly freeing.

Arrival Day Suddenly Became a Disney Day

Before Annual Passes, we might arrive at Walt Disney World and decide it wasn’t worth using another full day of park admission just to go in for a few hours.

With an Annual Pass?

**Drop the bags with Bell Services and GO.**

We’ve arrived later, gotten settled and headed to Magic Kingdom simply to enjoy the nighttime parade and fireworks.

There’s no longer that question:

**“Are three hours in the park worth using another ticket day?”**

Our admission is already there.

And suddenly arrival day becomes another opportunity to enjoy Disney.

And Departure Day Can Still Be a Park Day

This one can be especially nice for out-of-state families flying home.

Maybe resort checkout is around 11:00 AM...

...but YOUR flight isn’t until that evening.

Instead of spending hours waiting around the resort or sitting by the pool because you don’t know what else to do, you can leave your luggage with Bell Services and head back to a park.

One last favorite ride.

Lunch at EPCOT.

A little shopping.

One final walk down Main Street. ❤️🏰

Then head back, grab your bags and start the trip home.

Those few hours don’t require buying another day of park admission when you already have an Annual Pass.

Arrival and departure days are difficult to represent on a traditional “break-even” calculator.

But for an out-of-state family?

Those extra Disney hours can have a LOT of value.

So How Many Trips Make an Annual Pass Worth It?

Everyone wants a number.

One trip?

Two trips?

Three trips?

But I don’t think the number of trips tells the whole story.

Two 10-day vacations are very different from two three-day weekends.

And a family buying Park Hopper, Memory Maker and merchandise while paying for parking has a very different calculation from another family taking the exact same number of trips.

By the time WE became Passholders, our trip frequency made it obvious that we needed to seriously run the numbers.

If you’re considering several Walt Disney World trips during one year, I would absolutely do the same.

Just don’t stop at ticket prices.

Do Your Own Disney Math

Look at what your family would REALLY buy during those vacations:

Then think about the things that are harder to put into a spreadsheet:

**SAVINGS AND VALUE ARE NOT ALWAYS THE SAME THING.**

Sometimes an Annual Pass replaces something you already pay for.

Sometimes it gives your family something you previously chose not to put into the vacation budget.

Both are worth considering.

And please don’t create $2,000 worth of imaginary discounts just so you can announce to your spouse:

**“LOOK! DISNEY IS PRACTICALLY PAYING US TO BECOME PASSHOLDERS!”**

Troy isn’t buying that argument either. 😂

The Cons: An Annual Pass Isn’t Automatically a Good Deal

We love being Passholders.

But there are absolutely things to consider.

The upfront price is significant.

Especially when purchasing passes for several family members.

You still have to get to Florida.

Gas, airfare, hotels and other travel expenses don’t disappear because Mickey gave you an Annual Pass.

An AP can encourage more Disney trips.

**“Well...we already have park admission. Why don’t we go again?”**

😂

That is another Disney vacation.

It is not technically “saving money.”

Separately ticketed events still cost extra.

An Annual Pass does not automatically include separately priced events, including seasonal parties.

Benefits and rules can change.

Discounts, reservation requirements, participating locations and other Passholder benefits can change.

And if you’ve never been to Walt Disney World and don’t even know whether your family will want to return multiple times?

I personally wouldn’t spend thousands of dollars just because an online calculator says you could theoretically save money.

You need to know YOUR family.

Not Ready to Commit? Know About Eligible Ticket Upgrades

Maybe you’re already at Walt Disney World when it hits you:

**“We’re coming back.**

**We should have bought Annual Passes.”**

Depending on the ticket, you may still have an option.

Disney currently allows certain eligible theme-park tickets to be upgraded to an available Annual Pass, subject to eligibility, timing and other restrictions.

A one-day eligible ticket can currently be upgraded on or before the day you use it.

An eligible multi-day ticket can currently be upgraded on or before its last day of use.

Special-event tickets and complimentary tickets are not eligible for an Annual Pass upgrade.

When an eligible used ticket is upgraded, the Annual Pass is generally backdated to the first day that original ticket was used.

That can be useful for a family that isn’t ready to commit before the vacation but realizes during the trip:

Yep.

**We’re coming back.** 😂

Don’t Forget About Renewal

The financial picture can change again after your first year.

Disney currently allows eligible Annual Passholders to renew **up to 60 days before and 30 days after their pass expiration date**, and Disney offers a renewal benefit during that window.

I remember our Incredi-Pass renewal savings being significant, but I’m NOT going to give you a number from memory and pretend it’s current.

The important thing to know is that renewal pricing may make Year Two look different from Year One.

For us, that mattered.

So...Would We Do It Again?

**YES.**

And I can answer that from an interesting perspective now.

We originally made this decision while living OUT OF STATE.

Today our circumstances are very different.Vanessa and Troy celebrating their anniversary together at Walt Disney World.

We live in Florida, and Troy works for Disney, which gives our family access to other admission benefits.

And we STILL renewed our Annual Passes.

That probably tells you something about how much we value them.

But I wouldn’t tell every family reading this to go buy one.

I’d tell you to stop asking:

**“Is a Walt Disney World Annual Pass worth it?”**

And start asking:

**“IS IT WORTH IT FOR OUR FAMILY?”**

Look at the trips you’re genuinely going to take.

Look at the tickets you’d genuinely buy.

Look at Park Hopper.

PhotoPass.

Parking.

Resort offers.

The activities your kids actually enjoy.

And yes...

Look at your Loungefly, ears and Pandora habit. 😂🛍️

Then consider something much harder to put into a spreadsheet:

**WHAT WOULD IT BE WORTH TO EXPERIENCE WALT DISNEY WORLD DIFFERENTLY?**

For us, becoming Annual Passholders didn’t make Disney feel less magical.

It gave us permission to slow down.

We stopped feeling like every park day had to be conquered.

We could arrive for a few hours.

Hop somewhere else.

Leave when we’d had enough.

And know there would be another Disney day.

That turned out to be one of the biggest perks of all.

And it’s something no ticket-price calculator ever showed me. ❤️

Important: Annual Pass prices, benefits, discounts, policies and availability can change. Always check Walt Disney World’s current Annual Pass information before purchasing.

6 Ways Our Disney-Loving Family Actually Saves Money at Walt Disney World

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