A Dad Lays Out Why Disney Isn’t Worth The Cost Without Line-Skipping Passes
He calculated out how long they would have waited in line without the passes, and it’s jaw-dropping.
It’s not a secret that making the trip to a Disney park is going to cost you. The tickets, the food, the very cute mouse ears — it all adds up! People literally go broke trying to make magical memories at the happiest place on earth. The problem is that the trip may end up being not worth the cost due to crowds and long lines for the best rides.
One TikTok content creator broke down his trip to Disneyland Paris, showing footage from his visit filled with crowds, long lines, and a huge credit card charge.
In his video, he explains that just the cost of basic tickets to get into the park will run you a pretty penny. So, he decided to upgrade his tickets for an extra charge.
“I'm almost embarrassed at how much money I spent. Just the tickets alone. That's 1100 euros,” Mario Zelaya points out. “For Americans, that's 1,200 bucks. For Canadians, that's $1,600. Why the hell would I do that? The regular tickets were 112 and then we upgraded and got the premier passes for 160 euros per person.”
Zelaya goes on to explain that he decided to upgrade his tickets because he wanted to make his trip worth it. Disney parks are crowded. Lines are long, and he didn’t plan to spend half his trip standing in a queue.
“It is crazy how overflowing Disney is. It doesn't matter if it's in Paris, if it's in Orlando, or if it's in California, it is like this all the time,” he continues.
“This is a crappy ride, like this isn't an exciting ride at all,” he says in a voiceover while showing footage of a car ride. “It's these kind of miniature cars that you stay on track, you're not really accelerating, you kind of are, but it's massive, it's nothing great, it's nothing spectacular.”
The wait time for this less-than-exciting ride: an hour and 15 minutes.
After doing some Disney Math, he figured out that if he didn’t have the upgrade ticket which included skipping long lines, he would have spent 25 hours of his trip waiting in lines!
“Now, if you total up all the rides that we did, when we did all of the rides, we would have been waiting in line for over 25 hours. Twenty-five hours in line. I think the math works out that you're better off buying the Disney Access Pass to bypass the line than you are to buy a three day park stay because if you buy the three-day park stay, and you don't upgrade, you're basically waiting in line,” he said.
At the end of his explanation on Disney’s expensive reputation, Zelaya concluded that going to Disney is not even worth it to him at this point. However, if it’s a bucket list trip, spend the extra money to not wait in hours long lines.
“My advice, don't go to Disney. If it's your kids' lifelong dream, if it's yours, fine, go do it, but get the line bypass,” he concluded.
In his caption, he broke down his “Disney rules” if you’re planning a trip.
“Here’s the Disney rules: 1) Expect crazy long wait times 2) if you don’t want to wait in line, expect a huge bill to upgrade to a Premier Pass. 3) if you decide to wait in line instead because the Premier pass doesn’t cover ALL the rides, expect a huge bill regardless 😭,” he wrote.
According to MouseHacking, a popular Disney blog, a baseline Disney World vacation for a family of four (two adults, one child 10+, one child 3-9) for five nights costs $6,320 ($316 per person per night) in 2023.
This estimate includes flights, transportation to and from Disney World, a five-night stay at Pop Century, five day tickets without park hopper, Genie+ at two parks (recommended Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios), quick service meals, snacks, and two table service meals.
Now, if this is a once-in-a-lifetime trip, and you want to just do it up right with upgrades to the Contemporary hotel, park hopper tickets, more days of Genie+ and a couple individual Lightning Lanes, plus upgrades to dining and a ticketed event, the entire trip can cost as much as 10k for a family of four for five days.
It’s up to you to decide if that’s worth it to get your Mickey Mouse-shaped pretzel and ride It’s A Small World. And if you do decide that you want to go — sounds like the line bypass option might be well worth it.
