Disneyland Magic Key Pass question

[Sleeper73]

Me and my wife recently moved to SF bay area and would love to start going regularly to Disneyland a few times a year. Currently Inspire is only pass available and had a couple questions. Firstly, do both of us need a pass or can we get away with just one of us? And in the end, is it worth it overall? We have done some of the math and seems like could be good but require a certain number of days visited each year before we start seeing the full benefits. We would be driving down for weekends mostly (Fri-Sun) and staying at Disney properties more likely than not.

Thanks for any advice or input.

 

[Steven G]

Each person would need their own pass, you can't share pass.

In the past, if you had around 10+ visits a year, it was probably worth it.
However, with reservations, that has changed, and has "devalued" the pass somewhat.

Please check here:
https://disneyland.disney.go.com/passes/blockout-dates/

You will notice that there are some dates that are no longer available on the weekends (during busier periods even more days may be no longer available), which is when you want to go.

As long as you can plan ahead (more than a month) you should be good with a pass, but just be careful with the reservations.

On the other hand:
You did mention that you are planning on staying at Disney Hotels, so if you do that, you should be able to use the hotel reservation calendar instead which is much more available, and my caveats above don't apply.

 

[monkeypat83]

The way I decide if a pass is worth it is to look at how much a ticket for a typical trip for me would be and then see how many of those trips it would take for me to break even also taking into account a little bit for the food/merchandise discount. So for your proposed 3 day trips a 3 day park hopper ticket is $420 so if you took 4 three day trips and you bought tickets for each you would spend $1,680 on tickets and the pass is $1,599 so if you are indeed planning to take at least 4 trips in a year period then it becomes worth it for sure especially since this calculation doesn't factor in any hotel or food/merchandise discounts you would also have with a pass. If your Friday to Sunday trips only have you going to the parks 2 days that ticket is $345 so 4 trips would only be $1380 and then you would really have to think about if you will save the other $219 in hotel/food/merchandise discounts (I would tend to think you will) and if you are going to take 5 trips a year for either 2 or 3 days or any combination then that math is easy (get the pass)

 

[Sleeper73]

Thanks for the quick replies.

Steven I see what your saying exactly and we were seeing if the pros out weighed the cons in the long run, since $1600 for us both is much different than $3200 (1 each) and would require double the trips required.

Monkeypat that is how I was looking at it at first but was worried that there would be issues getting tickets for my wife since she wouldn't have the pass and would end up buying them separately. So we would end up buying 2 passes (1 each) which of course doubles the price and doubles the number of trips to break even

 

[Lisa24jks]

Like the others have said, I basically did the math based on how much I was going in 2021/2022 and paying out of pocket for tickets. I'm not a local either and live 4-5 hours away. I had to get Inspire as well, because I needed more weekends available. I usually go for at least 2 days when I go, but will also spring for at least one or two 3 day trips during the year, so I figured I would just go for it and see if it works out.

I'm now being a huge nerd about it and keeping a spreadsheet of my savings to see if it will be worth it to renew at the end of my year. I bought in November, but didn't activate until January, and it's already paying off quite nicely (especially with the free parking, merch discounts, etc.). I'm sure I'll break even and then some.

So it definitely feels like a huge chunk of change when you buy it (and it is!), but right now it feels like less of a burden to plan a trip. The ticket money is already spent. Now I just have to worry about gas/hotel/spending money. (And yes, I logically know that those trips still cost me ticket money. But it's money I spent in November and not RIGHT NOW.)

 

[monkeypat83]

Thanks for the quick replies.

Steven I see what your saying exactly and we were seeing if the pros out weighed the cons in the long run, since $1600 for us both is much different than $3200 (1 each) and would require double the trips required.

Monkeypat that is how I was looking at it at first but was worried that there would be issues getting tickets for my wife since she wouldn't have the pass and would end up buying them separately. So we would end up buying 2 passes (1 each) which of course doubles the price and doubles the number of trips to break even

It doesn't double the trips needed because all my math was for one person. Taking 2 people for a 3 day trip would be $420 each so $840 in tickets for the trip. The only thing that changes when considering 2 vs 1 person with a pass is the discount because obviously if you are together you would only be using the discount once per transaction