Video:How to Pick the Right Disney Tickets for Your Family

Transcript:How to Pick the Right Disney Tickets for Your Family

Hi, I'm Ted Menzies for About.com and today I'm going to share some tips for purchasing tickets to Walt Disney World. Disney world in Orlando, Florida is the world's most popular vacation destination, welcoming over 17 million guests a year. If you're planning to make a trip to the happiest place on Earth, you have a number of options for buying tickets.

Selecting the Right Disney Tickets for Your Family

The customizable ticket program from Disney is called Magic Your Way, and allows you to purchase tickets based on your individual travel needs. A base ticket is good for one-day admission to a single park, either Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Animal Kingdom or Hollywood Studios. You may purchase base tickets in denominations from one to ten days. Prices differ for adults and children aged 3 to 9. Children under the age of three are free.

Notes About Selecting the Right Disney Tickets for Your Family

As you add days, the cost per day goes down. For instance, a five day adult ticket may averages out to about fifty dollars a day while the child ticket averages closer to 46 per day for a five day ticket. At the top end, a ten day ticket averages just around 30 dollars a day for adults, under 30 for children. So the longer you stay, the lower your cost is per day.

What to Consider When Choosing Disney Tickets

Disney has some additional options for tickets that you can add on for additional cost. One of the most popular is the Park Hopper, which allows you to visit more than one park in a single day. This can come in handy if you'd like to take advantage of Extra Magic Hours in different parks or make dining reservations at a park that you didn't plan on visiting for the day. Adding the park hopper for a single day is expensive, at 35 dollars. But once again, if you purchase a multi-day ticket, the price can be as low as an additional 5.50 per day on a ten day ticket.

The water park fun and more option opens a whole new world of possibilities. WIth admission to Disney's two water parks, the DisneyQuest Indoor interactive theme park, ESPN wide world of sports and golf at the Oak Trail golf course, you'll never run out of things to do. With the exception of a one-day ticket, the price for adding water park fun and more is the same as adding the park hopper. One important thing to remember with the water park option is that admission to these attractions is in addition to theme park admission. So if you buy a ten day ticket with the water park and more option, you actually get as much as 20 days of fun at every Disney property.

If it seems obvious that you should purchase the ten-day ticket, there's a catch: the ticket expires 14 days after the first use. One final option when buying tickets is the no expiration option, which lets you use your balance of days whenever you visit. This can come in very handy if you visit Disney world often, but never stay more than a few days. Unlike the other add-on options, the no expiration option actually gets more expensive as you increase the number of days on the ticket.

So which ticket is right for you? It all depends on how long you stay and whether you plan on park hopping or visiting areas outside the four theme parks. If you're unsure of how you're going to tour Disney world, your safest bet is to purchase a base ticket for the duration of your stay. If you decide while you're there that you'd like to add the hopper or water parks option, you can always upgrade your ticket.

For more great travel tips, be sure to visit About.com.