Higher sticker prices and bigger discounts. If you ever needed proof that Walt Disney World leadership studied at the Kohl’s School of Business, here it is. After raising prices earlier this week, WDW has just increased discounts for reupping select Annual Passes.
As basic background, Annual Passes can be renewed during a 90 day window that opens 60 days before the AP expires, and extends up to 30 days after expiration. During that timeframe, Walt Disney World offers a renewal discount that varies based on the Annual Pass tier.
To renew an Annual Pass, log in to your account on Disneyworld.com or in the My Disney Experience app. You can also renew at any Walt Disney World Resort theme park ticket window or the Disney Springs Guest Relations location. It’s also possible to renew over the phone by calling (407) WDW-PASS or (407) 939-7277. Walt Disney World Annual Passes do not automatically renew.
To the surprise of no one, Walt Disney World does not offer an Annual Pass renewal discount out of generosity. It’s not about cutting the most diehard fans a break and rewarding loyalty. To the contrary, if Walt Disney World could identify the guests with the highest brand affinity and find a way to charge them even more, I’m sure they would.
You could say that they kind of already do. The Incredi-Pass is over $500 more expensive than the next highest tier, and over triple the price of the entry-level Pixie Pass. It’s the AP that saw the biggest price increase in October 2025 and it’s not offering a bigger renewal discount. Really makes you think!
Anyway, the reason Walt Disney World offers Annual Pass renewal discounts is retention. Every Annual Passholder reading this has probably considered letting their AP lapse at some point, and those who decided against doing that probably renewed after taking the discount into account. Suffice to say, the discount is a big motivator.
Years ago, there were times when we were on the fence about renewing or taking a few months’ break and getting new passes later. We always did the math and ended up renewing. I’m sure there are others who have made the opposite decision, realize they don’t miss not having an AP, and end up never buying new Annual Passes (or taking a longer break).
Given this dynamic and the cost of new customer acquisition, it behooves Disney to offer the renewal discount. It’s somewhat equivalent to streaming services trying to avoid churn because it’s hard to reacquire a lost customer, except with a subscription of a year-long duration.
Anyway, let’s dig into the latest details about Annual Pass pricing and renewals, starting with this week’s price increase…
Here are the new prices for each tier of Walt Disney World Annual Pass:
- Incredi-Pass: $1,629 – previously $1,549
- Sorcerer Pass: $1,099 – previously $1,079
- Pirate Pass: $869 – previously $829
- Pixie Dust Pass: $489 – previously $469
Additionally, the cost of adding-on PhotoPass/Memory Maker has increased by $10, from $99 to $109 per Annual Pass. This offers digital downloads of all photos taken by PhotoPass photographers at Walt Disney World, as well as on-ride photos and videos.
The Water Park & Sports add-on, which includes visits to Typhoon Lagoon and/or Blizzard Beach water parks, ESPN Wide World of Sports, and various golf courses of the regular, foot, and miniature variety. This also went up by $10, from $99 to $109 per AP.
We missed these in our previous coverage of Annual Pass increases. Suffice to say, there was a lot that went up on price hike day, and we’re still “digging out” and trying to cover the changes. We’ll have more, relatively minor updates throughout this week.
Here are the renewal discounts for each tier of Walt Disney World Annual Pass:
- Incredi-Pass: $250 – previously $250
- Sorcerer Pass: $170 – previously $150
- Pirate Pass: $120 – previously $120
- Pixie Dust Pass: $90 – previously $70
End renewal result for each tier of WDW AP:
- Incredi-Pass Renewal Price: $1,379 – previously $1,299
- Sorcerer Pass Renewal Price: $929 – previously $929
- Pirate Pass Renewal Price: $749 – previously $709
- Pixie Dust Pass Renewal Price: $399 – previously $399
Our Commentary
The two passes that saw the biggest price increases–the Incredi-Pass and Pirate Pass–did not see their renewal discounts change.
Conversely, the two tiers that went up the least–Sorcerer Pass and Pixie Pass–had their renewal discounts go up. Not only did they go up, but these renewal discounts increased by the exact same amount as the price increase.
Obviously, there are people purchasing new Annual Passes constantly, so the price increase coupled with the renewal discount does not amount to a complete wash. But it is nevertheless a fairly big “tell” in a few regards.
The first is that, although we joke about the Kohl’s Model of higher sticker prices and increased discounts, it really is “important” to the company that the theme parks raise prices annually.
Even if this is largely symbolic or for the benefit of Wall Street analysts, it’s something we’ve seen pretty much year-in and year-out for decades. They even did it during the Great Recession, so of course they’re going to continue when the economy is comparatively strong and inflation is still elevated.
It’s also indicative of which Annual Pass tiers Walt Disney World wants to push the most and least. Between the price increase and renewal discount, it’s clear that Walt Disney World doesn’t want to price out the lowest tier Pixie Passholders, and at the other end of the spectrum, that there’s still plenty of pricing power over the top tier Incredi-Pass holders.
We’ve made the point previously when there have been complaints from non-Floridians who can only purchase the top tier Incredi-Pass that Walt Disney World would prefer they purchase the top tier or regular tickets. I wouldn’t be surprised if this AP is held by more non-Floridians than it is by locals.
Disney’s calculus is likely more or less what mentioned earlier–that frequent visitors from out of state have sufficient brand affinity and disposable income to continue justifying the ever-increasing prices. That, and the company’s desire to not reduce the total spend of regulars from out of state by too much as a result of the “discounted” admission that Annual Passes offer.
As a result, prices of the Annual Passes that are available to tourists will likely always be anchored to regular ticket prices. If in the event of a recession or economic downturn when it might benefit Disney to do more to fill the parks, there are likely other levers they’d pull first–like incentivizing AP sales among Disney Vacation Club members, offering bonus months, or other freebies with full-priced purchases.
Conversely, it suggests that Walt Disney World does not believe it has much pricing power over lower spending locals. That’s why the Pixie Pass hasn’t increased all that much over the last few years, and even with the blockouts, still offers great value for money.
My guess would be that Walt Disney World really doesn’t want to lose any current Pixie Pass holders. The company undoubtedly recognizes that the parks have excess capacity (especially on dates that AP is valid) and the lost incremental guest spending on food & beverages, merchandise, line-skipping and everything else amounts to far more than an extra $20 on the frontend.
There’s also the reality that Walt Disney World faces a lot of competition for locals’ time and money, and probably doesn’t want to lose Annual Passholders to Universal or other area points of interest. Capturing as many locals as possible before Epic Universe rolls out Annual Passes sometime in the next 12-24 months also makes sense!
We’ve commented previously that there are a lot of Pixie Dust Passes in circulation. This is because, unlike the other tiers, this option for Floridians didn’t have sales paused (in 2022-2023). The result has been quirky crowd dynamics, such as the weekends when that AP is blocked out being among the slowest days of the week at Walt Disney World.
Trying to ‘nudge’ Pixie Dust Passholders to higher tiers via higher pricing might’ve made sense. On the other hand, the gap between the Pixie and Pirate tiers is so significant that perhaps Walt Disney World (correctly) realizes that no such nudging is possible. That for a good portion of Pixie Annual Passholders, breaking the $500 barrier would cause them to cancel.
The theory we shared in the 2025-2026 Walt Disney World Annual Pass Price Increases post was that Disney may not want to lose ‘borderline’ APs, especially since that tier helps fill the parks during the off-season. Not overdoing the increases on the lower tier APs–even if they offer disproportionately better value for money than the higher tiers–makes sense. This renewal discount would seem to confirm this.
Ultimately, although there were a lot of price increases at the start of the new fiscal year, the percentages of the hikes on everything but higher-tier products was fairly minimal. Pretty close to being in line with inflation, which is interesting in and of itself. When combined with the above, it suggests that the company has hit the ceiling with some prices–even those that just increased–and we could see even more discounts as “offsets” in the near future.
It’ll be interesting to see what, if anything, else is offered to incentivize more Annual Pass purchases. As we’ve been discussing, Walt Disney World has plenty of excess bandwidth on the vast majority of dates (easily 340+ days of the year), so it makes sense to push Annual Passes. A similar approach was taken to hotel occupancy over the summer, resulting in a boost of a few percentage points thanks to aggressive discounts. That proved to be a win-win for guests and the company.
It wouldn’t surprise me if we see a repeat of the Free Gift Card for New Walt Disney World Annual Pass Purchase Promo in early 2026, or if Disney tries to pull other “levers,” such as 15 months for the price of 12. It’s our perspective it would be savvy of Walt Disney World to rethink the reservation requirement and ‘Good to Go’ days approach; that would be the most logical, no-cost way to increase sales.
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
Thoughts on the increases to both prices and renewal discounts for Annual Passes at Walt Disney World? Expect to see more discounts to incentivize attendance? Agree or disagree with our assessment? Any other considerations we failed to take into account or details we missed? 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!
