Walt Disney World has released resort room-only discounts for the remainder of 2024, covering travel dates this Halloween and Christmas seasons for the general public. This also includes the option to upgrade to a free Park Hopper ticket when booking as a package. This post covers whether there’s a catch–since we always say there’s no such thing as a free lunch–and why Walt Disney World is doing this in the first place.
Speaking of free lunches (or the lack thereof), this isn’t the only discount for these travel dates. Most notably, Free Dining is already available for a subset of these same dates. There are also discounts of up to 35% off for residents of Florida and up to 40% off for Annual Passholders. Of course, many of you don’t reside in Florida or are not an Annual Passholder–meaning you don’t already have admission–this is your best bet. And it’s a good one!
These new discounts for Halloween and Christmas also aren’t the only deals available to book right now–there are over a half-dozen different offers. For everything else, see All Current Walt Disney World Discounts in 2024. There are promos available for pretty much all dates between now and Christmas 2024, so that’s worth checking out if you’re debating a trip anytime this year, except the week leading up to New Year’s Eve…
Here are the official details from Walt Disney World: Stay in the magic this fall and holiday season—and save on rooms at select Disney Resort hotels!
- Save up to 30% on rooms for stays most nights from November 24 to December 25, 2024
- Enjoy other savings for stays most Sunday to Thursday nights from October 6 to November 21, 2024
Plus, get FREE Park Hopper benefits when you take advantage of this offer and upgrade to a Walt Disney Travel Company room-and-ticket package that includes non-discounted 4-day (or longer) date-based theme park tickets! With Park Hopper benefits, you can visit multiple theme parks each day of your ticket.
Unlike other discounts–Free Dining being the most notable one–there are no other “strings attached” to qualify for the free Park Hopper. You don’t have to purchase a Disney Dining Plan, upgrade accommodations, or buy anything else. You simply have to meet the minimum duration requirement, which I suppose will put some fence-sitting guests in a position where they’re extending from 2-3 days to 4.
Turning to commentary, this is actually a really savvy strategy on Walt Disney World’s part. It’s also one of those rare win-win scenarios where both Disney and guests, for the most part, come out ahead.
If you’re wondering why Walt Disney World is doing this, it’s not simply a matter of generosity. When they do special offers, there’s always an angle. Always. As we frequently say, discounts are out of necessity, not corporate benevolence. Walt Disney World is an extremely savvy and sophisticated business—they maximize profits to the greatest degree economically feasible. There’s also more than meets the eye here, even if this is the rare freebie from Disney.
In a nutshell, Walt Disney World is offering “free” Park Hopper ticket upgrade because we’re approaching the time of year when operating hours and special events throw a real monkey wrench into attendance dynamics. And that’s in a normal year. This year, there are more events and earlier closings than ever before.
As a result, it’s likely that Walt Disney World views putting more Park Hoppers into the hands of guests is a means of self-regulating crowd dynamics and prevented total chaos. Regular readers likely understand this right off the bat, as it’s a topic we’ve discussed at length over the course of the last decade. For those who are unfamiliar with this phenomenon, let’s take a step back and explain.
The months of August through December are lovingly known as “Party Season” at Magic Kingdom around these parts. During this timeframe, Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party (MNSSHP) and Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party (MVMCP) push Magic Kingdom attendance much higher on the dates they’re not occurring and lower on days of the events. This disrupts attendance dynamics and creates a “porcupine pattern” of wait times and crowd levels at Magic Kingdom, and has for years.
Magic Kingdom crowd dynamics during Party Season have been one of the key discussion points of our August through December crowd calendars for ages. It’s actually one of the easiest “predictions” we make. Those are air quotes around prediction because the porcupine pattern has played out predictably and consistently for at least the last decade. It’s akin to forecasting longer lines for Peter Pan’s Flight and Seven Dwarfs Mine Train than Carousel of Progress and Country Bear Musical Jamboree.
For our part, we’ve been strongly recommending that readers visit Magic Kingdom during the day on Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party and Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party nights, and then bouncing to another park at around 4 pm. We’ve highly recommended purchasing the Park Hopper add-on during Party Season and consider it almost essential from a strategic perspective.
The underlying rationale for this is that many day guests avoid Magic Kingdom on MNSSHP or MVMCP because the park hours are shorter and Happily Ever After fireworks are not shown to regular guests. This results in significantly lighter crowds on days of the holiday parties when Magic Kingdom closes at 6 pm.
After all, why go then when you can visit a day earlier or later and have a 10 pm or 11 pm closing? That amounts to staying an extra 4 hours later, seeing fireworks, and getting to enjoy the cooler evening hours in the park. In theory, it’s a no-brainer!
The problem is that it’s such a no-brainer that almost everyone does it. These same guests then flock to non-party days in Magic Kingdom. For visitors without Park Hopping (which is a lot of people), visiting Magic Kingdom on non-party nights is the obvious, intuitive choice. For the same admission price, they get several more hours in the park and get to see the fireworks.
This no-brainer line of thinking is exactly why our zig when they zag recommendation has been to do Magic Kingdom on days of Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party or Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party and to Park Hop somewhere else at around 4 pm, which is when the mix-in starts for those hard ticket events.
This zig when they zag approach is so counterintuitive that–even though we’ve strongly recommended it for like a decade and the wait times data clearly bears out that we are correct–the vast majority of guests still aren’t doing it. Most people don’t read this blog and even those who do often disregard the advice as impractical to them (in this case, that has meant no Park Hopper tickets).
Even though Magic Kingdom has longer hours on non-party days, you will often get less done than you could before 4 pm on a party day. So long as you’re comfortable missing the fireworks or are fine watching from a resort restaurant or the TTC, we highly recommend doing your days in Magic Kingdom on party dates due to the significantly shorter lines and lower wait times. It’s usually so slow on these days that using Lightning Lanes is unnecessary, which also means saving money by not having to buy the paid FastPass+ service!
For those with the Park Hopping option, this is the real no-brainer. You can do Magic Kingdom until 4 pm on the day of MNSSHP or MVMCP, and then bounce to EPCOT or Disney’s Hollywood Studios and have dinner and enjoy the nighttime spectaculars in one of those two parks.
On a non-party day, you can start out at Disney’s Hollywood Studios and/or EPCOT, and then bounce back to Magic Kingdom in the evening hours to catch Happily Ever After and nighttime in the park. If nighttime in Magic Kingdom is a must for you (and we do recommend it–nothing beats seeing the park illuminated in the evenings!) this is the optimal approach for minimizing your exposure to crowds and congestion.
Or rather, this has been the optimal approach historically. That’s because, again, most people don’t read this blog and even many of those who do don’t purchase Park Hoppers.
Now Walt Disney World is throwing us a curveball by giving away the Park Hopping option.
The biggest winners here are obvious. Anyone who qualifies for the free Park Hopper upgrade without making any changes to their Walt Disney World vacation package and previously had a regular ole base ticket. Congratulations, this is essentially a free lunch from Disney–and we said there was no such thing!
Although it may appear otherwise at first blush, Walt Disney World is another big winner. Even though they’re giving something away, they’re mostly doing that with something that has no cost to them–and with a minimum baseline (vacation packages that includes a non-discounted 4-day or longer date-based ticket).
More to the point, they gain the theoretical redistributive effect on attendance from giving away free Park Hoppers. This means that they can schedule more early closings during Party Season, effectively allowing them to sell the park twice. And that’s exactly what they’ve done!
Magic Kingdom has more events packed into Party Season than ever before, and this promo should help make sure that doesn’t create too much of an attendance roller coaster. After having crowd woes on certain dates last October through December, this just makes sense.
But that’s not all–as Walt Disney World has also added more Jollywood Nights dates at Hollywood Studios. And not only that, but the park is closing earlier this year on Christmas party nights. This means that, unlike last year, Jollywood Nights almost certainly will throw a monkey wrench into attendance dynamics. That’s a double-whammy during one of the busiest times of the year at Walt Disney World!
The biggest loser with this free Park Hopper promo is me.
By that, I mean my demographic–Annual Passholders who pay close attention to the calendar during Party Season and visit the parks with the earlier closings. Honestly, that might be such a narrow group that it’s really just me, a category of one. (Not really, there are at least dozens of us…dozens!)
What I mean by this, more broadly, is that the free Park Hopper promo is going to normalize crowd levels to some degree. Those who have benefited from the Party Season zig when they zag early closing strategy probably will find the Magic Kingdom slightly busier on those 6 pm closing days than it was in previous years. It’ll still be far less busy than the 10/11 pm days, but this promo will help close the gap to some degree. (It’ll be a similar story at DHS.)
The real question is “to what degree?” That’s unknown and unknowable until Party Season starts, as it’s impossible to say: 1) how many people will take advantage of this promo, and; 2) how many will understand how to leverage Park Hopping strategy during Party Season.
My guess is that the answer to the first question is “a lot, but probably fewer than you might think.” Walt Disney World fans massively underestimate the popularity of single day tickets, and even after that, 2-3 day tickets are more popular than longer duration ones. So most guests won’t end up qualifying for this.
To answer the second question, even most of those who do won’t think to employ this zig when they zag strategy. Again, it’s just so counterintuitive that it’s undesirable unless you’ve read about it or reviewed wait times data. Who really wants to leave Magic Kingdom at 6 pm and miss fireworks? There’s limited appeal, even for guests with Park Hoppers.
Circling back, Walt Disney World undoubtedly has other reasons for offering free Park Hopping upgrades and, I guess, I’d be remiss if I didn’t at least touch on those. I’ve focused on the Party Season angle because, admittedly, it’s most interesting and potentially impactful to my strategy. It’s also one of those ‘golf clap’ moments where I have to hand it to the company for getting clever.
Another reason for this special offer could be getting guests to upgrade to longer ticket durations, resort stays, and vacation packages. There are undoubtedly going to be some guests who don’t quite qualify, but will spend a bit more on their bookings–adding days/nights–in order to qualify. It also will convince some people to book who wouldn’t in the absence of this offer, boosting occupancy numbers (which have been lagging in 2024) in the process.
This will help Walt Disney World hit those coveted per guest spending marks, which have been starting to decline in recent quarters. This is precisely why Disney does Free Dining, so the same logic could be extended to this offer–despite it double-dipping on resort and ticket savings.
In fact, I’d be willing to bet someone said in some meeting (paraphrasing), “well, even if the attendance redistribution gambit doesn’t pay off, at least we’re locking them into at least 4 days and increasing per caps in the process!”
Finally, it prevents people from purchasing other ticket deals. That means not buying from authorized third parties that offer superior savings, and many of which have their own special offers. (See our Guide to Discount Walt Disney World Tickets.) It also means potentially forgoing future special offers that are released directly by Disney.
For instance, right now there’s the Discount Multi-Day Magic Tickets at Walt Disney World for Spring to Fall 2024, which runs through September 22. This discount debuted last year and ended around roughly the same time–it was not extended for October through December. Ticket deals for the heart of the Halloween and Christmas seasons are fairly unprecedented–we wouldn’t expect to see them again. But that doesn’t mean there’s no chance–anything is possible as Walt Disney World pulls its “levers” to entice guests to return during this post-pent-up demand period.
Beyond that, there are probably other motivations for Walt Disney World offering free Park Hopper upgrades during the busy Halloween and Christmas seasons, but it’s early and this discount just dropped–so I haven’t had time to consider every angle. One thing that I really hope Walt Disney World has considered is the potential for this to backfire and be counterproductive. This may not result in higher attendance on 6 pm park closing days at all. Instead, more people having Park Hoppers could mean even more guests crammed into Magic Kingdom for those exceedingly rare and extremely enticing 11 pm closings.
Planning a Walt Disney World trip? Learn about hotels on our Walt Disney World Hotels Reviews page. For where to eat, read our Walt Disney World Restaurant Reviews. To save money on tickets or determine which type to buy, read our Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets post. Our What to Pack for Disney Trips post takes a unique look at clever items to take. For what to do and when to do it, our Walt Disney World Ride Guides will help. For comprehensive advice, the best place to start is our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide for everything you need to know!
YOUR THOUGHTS
What are your theories as to why Walt Disney World is giving away free Park Hopper upgrades to guests who buy 4 day or longer base tickets? Think it’s to redistribute crowds during Party Season, increase per guest spending, some combination of both, or something else entirely? Does this convince you that you can, from an objective perspective, come out ahead by doing party shortened days at Magic Kingdom? Do you agree or disagree with our assessment? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback—even when you disagree with us—is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
