Walt Disney World is offering a free ‘bonus’ gift card with the purchase of a new Annual Pass, which is the most aggressive & attractive we’ve seen for buying an AP in roughly a decade. This covers the big promo along with our commentary about why this is actually a huge deal. Not necessarily a good deal in terms of the discount, but an important move in the bigger picture and one of many more “levers” we expect WDW to pull to revive declining attendance.
As you might recall, Walt Disney World recently reduced the Florida Resident Monthly Payment Program down payment from $205 to $99. To offset this the reduced down payment, Disney increased monthly prices, with the result being exactly the same–guests paid the same amount at the end of the 12 months, the allocation of costs just changed.
Although that was not advertised as a temporary promotion, it quietly ended a few weeks ago. The down payment returned to $205, and monthly payments have likewise are back at their previous numbers. It’s unclear what prompted this reversion to the prior numbers, but we speculated that Walt Disney World realized it wasn’t moving the needle at all and that more was needed.
When previously discussing the deposit reduction, we indicated that it was likely Walt Disney World would pull “levers” that involve Annual Pass promotions. In the past, we’ve seen special offers with bonus months or deeper discounts for DVC members. That’s one option. Another would be making the Sorcerer Pass available to the general public.
With Epic Universe now open and low summer crowds at Walt Disney World, the most logical move would be more promos and initiatives to attract guests–not fewer. Well, now Walt Disney World has done exactly that. Here are full official details:
Get a Free Gift Card with Walt Disney World AP Purchase
For a limited time, get up to a $100 Disney Gift Card eGift when you purchase a new Walt Disney World Annual Pass.
Gift card values vary based on Annual Pass type:
- $100 Disney Gift Card eGift – included with a Disney Incredi-Pass
- $75 Disney Gift Card eGift – included with a Disney Sorcerer Pass (for Florida residents and eligible Disney Vacation Club Members only*)
- $50 Disney Gift Card eGift – included with a Disney Pirate Pass (for Florida residents only)
- $25 Disney Gift Card eGift – included with a Disney Pixie Pass (for Florida residents only)
This offer is only valid for new Annual Passes. This special offer cannot be combined with any other discount or promotion, including any renewal discounts.
After purchasing a new Annual Pass, the Disney Gift Card eGift will be delivered within a few days to the email address provided at purchase.
Terms & Conditions for Disney Gift Card
- Disney Gift Card eGift value is based on the original Annual Pass purchased.
- The Disney Gift Card is redeemable for goods and services at participating Disney locations.
- Not redeemable for cash unless required by law.
- Not for resale.
- Issued by, and represents a legal obligation solely of, Disney Gift Card Services, Inc.
- Lost, damaged or stolen cards may be replaced only if verification of receipt and complete card number is provided.
- For card balance inquiries, call (877) 650-4327 or visit Disney Gift Card.
- View complete Disney Gift Card terms and conditions (including arbitration agreement).
Note that Walt Disney World has not announced when this special offer ends. This has become increasingly common with recent promos, and the end date is just whenever who manages the spreadsheets decides that they’re satisfied with the numbers. I’d expect this to stick around through at least the August and September 2025 off-season, but would not necessarily bank on it being available in October 2025 or beyond.
It’s also worth noting that price increases typically occur around the start of the new fiscal year. For the last couple of years, that has been mid-October, but that could happen by mid-to-late September. We mention that here because there’s nothing precluding a price increase during this special offer.
Even though this “free” gift card deal is a very clear sign of soft demand and Walt Disney World overshooting its pricing with Annual Passes, that does not mean they won’t increase prices anyway. As we’ve discussed repeatedly, Walt Disney World management went to the Kohl’s Business School. Their very strong preference is year-over-year price growth, with discounts as dictated by demand (or lack thereof).
Eventually, this strategy is going to backfire, but there’s no reason to believe they’ve changed course. If anything, this promo only reinforces that approach. We’ve seen the same happen with menu prices at restaurants, character dining experiences and more–even as demand has dropped dramatically.
For reference, here are 2025 prices for each tier of Walt Disney World Annual Pass:
- Incredi-Pass: $1,549 – previously $1,449
- Sorcerer Pass: $1,079 – previously $999
- Pirate Pass: $829 – previously $799
- Pixie Pass: $469 – previously $439
Just “for fun” here’s how new Walt Disney World AP prices compare to when they were re-introduced with the new tiers back in 2021:
- Incredi-Pass: $1,299
- Sorcerer Pass: $899
- Pirate Pass: $699
- Pixie Pass: $399
For even more entertainment, below are prices for the old Annual Passes as of early 2020. Hopefully this last round of fun doesn’t make your stomach too unsettled!
- Disney Platinum Plus Annual Pass: $1295 / $999
- Disney Platinum Annual Pass: $1195 / $899
- Disney Gold Annual Pass: $719
- Disney Silver Annual Pass: $539
- Disney Weekday Select Annual Pass: $369
- EPCOT After 4 Annual Pass: $319
The Pixie Dust and Pirate Passes are available to only Floridians. The Sorcerer Pass expands eligibility to include Disney Vacation Club members. The top tier Incredi-Pass is the only AP available to the general public. Benefits for all tiers include up to 20% off select dining and merchandise, as well as free standard theme park parking and other perks. Blockout dates and reservation limits apply, and vary by tier.
It’s probably fair to say that the Incredi-Pass offers the worst value for money. I’d imagine that only a single-digit percentage of Floridian Annual Passholders hold that tier. Of Disney Vacation Club members, that number is probably a tad higher, but I’d bet on the Sorcerer Pass being significantly more popular. Judging by crowd patterns, the Pixie Dust Pass is probably far and away the most popular option, overall.
Turning to commentary, this free gift card offer only applies to the purchase of new Annual Passes during the promo period. It probably doesn’t apply to most of you reading this, which may lead you to believe it doesn’t really matter. However, it’s interesting for a few reasons–and I suspect many tourists are overlooking significance of this move since it doesn’t apply to you and won’t cross many of your minds as something that makes a difference. But it does!
The big reason is that this is Walt Disney World pulling a “lever” and trying to lure people to the parks. Offering a gift card makes purchasing an AP more attractive, and should stimulate demand. This is especially important right now, because attendance is very clearly down year-over-year.
What’s interesting, though, is that unlike the lowered down payment–which did not materially improve the value proposition–this does not reduce the barrier of entry for a Walt Disney World Annual Pass. Unlike that promo, the upfront cost here is unchanged. It’s the value proposition that has been altered. Just an interesting wrinkle between the two approaches.
This may not seem important to out of state tourists used to swallowing $5,000+ vacation costs, but it’s a big deal in what it symbolizes.
Walt Disney World pulling this lever suggests there’s more to come. One of our recent focuses has been decreased attendance, and we covered some of the reasons for this dynamic in Why Summer is the New Low Crowds Season at Disney World. I’m not going to rehash all of that, but here’s a list of quick hits for those who want the rundown:
- Epic Universe (negligible impact)
- International Travel Pullback (1% to 1.5% impact)
- Economic Uncertainty (no impact)
- Starlight Delays (no impact)
- Shifting Schedules (major impact)
- High Heat & Humidity (moderate to major impact)
- Shorter Park Hours (some impact)
- No Special Events (some impact)
- Minimal Mitigation (some impact)
In the more recent crowd report, Walt Disney World’s Slow Summer Continues in July, we added a couple more explanations.
Regardless of the reasons, Walt Disney World has already pulled from the 2019 playbook for discounts starting last year. As we’ve reported at length elsewhere, you could get the cheapest Walt Disney World trip in July 2025 since at least 2019. That’s kind of crazy if you realize how much base prices have exploded post-COVID.
There have been some incredibly aggressive discounts this summer, and despite that, attendance is still low. A big part of this is shifting seasonal travel preferences that have hollowed out the summer in favor of other more favorable times to visit, but it’s still the case that crowds are down much of the year as compared to the days of ‘revenge travel.’
Suffice to say, the 2019 playbook isn’t cutting it. Those deals haven’t been sufficient to entice enough people to visit, so now Walt Disney World needs to go a step beyond that into more inventive territory. It’s safe to say this is the beginning of that, and this gift card isn’t going to the be the solution in whole.
One of the above factors would pretty much necessitate as much. A confluence of them, coupled with the lack of new attractions around which to build a marketing campaign, all but guarantees better discounts and special offers. This is precisely what we’ve seen
I wouldn’t be surprised if there are more “levers” that involve Annual Pass promotions.
In the past, we’ve seen special offers with bonus months or deeper discounts for DVC members. About a decade ago, we purchased a promotional Disney Vacation Club Annual Pass for $595. Around the same time (+/- one year), there was also a 15 months for the price of 12 months promo.
At some point in the not-too-distant future, we also wouldn’t be surprised to see Walt Disney World remove the reservation requirement. Yes, we’re aware that this was just heightened for the launch of Starlight night parade. And maintaining that might be necessary until mid-January 2026. But reservations weren’t really necessary for over a year prior to then, and removing that friction point might spur sales of new Annual Passes–and without any discounting being necessary.
I would argue that theme park reservations have outlived their usefulness at Walt Disney World on 98% of dates (if not more). It’s a totally different story at Disneyland, but not Walt Disney World. At this point, it probably makes sense to drop reservations entirely and use a mix of blockouts and the occasional (very, very rare) phased closure on the 1-2 days per year when necessary.
As mentioned above, another would be making the Sorcerer Pass available to the general public. Walt Disney World probably doesn’t want to do this, as “forcing” out of state fans to either buy the more expensive multi-day tickets or the top-tier AP is the desired outcome for the company. (We often hear from tourists who are annoyed about Disney’s AP policies, feeling they should be catered to since they spend more–but that’s precisely why they aren’t.)
Of course, this overlooks another possibility: those fans visiting not buying any APs and visiting less. At one point, Disney determined the calculus favored “forcing” more spending or fewer visits. I honestly have no clue whether that’s still an accurate assessment, or if Disney has even thought to revisit the decision.
We might find out soon, though. Annual Pass promos with limited time dollars-off savings or longer durations probably makes the most sense if Walt Disney World wants to do more to bolster their AP base. If I were in charge, I’d make a new ‘Animal Kingdom After 4’ Annual Pass and sell it to anyone.
Along similar lines, Walt Disney World might be doing this because they’ve spotted an opportunity to attract more locals before Universal Orlando opens the floodgates and starts selling Annual Passes that include Epic Universe. I’m skeptical that’s going to happen anytime soon–it really shouldn’t. But it will eventually.
Walt Disney World getting out ahead of that inevitability and capturing AP dollars would be savvy. It presents an opportunity for Disney to flip the script and attract locals who previously felt alienated by local-unfriendly policies. Right now could be a golden window of opportunity that many Floridians are “sitting out” Universal Orlando Annual Passes.
But that won’t last. Whenever Universal does start selling Epic Universe Annual Passes (whether that be in August 2025 or September 2026), there’s going to be a mad rush of locals buying them. And theme park budgets only go so far, meaning many of those same people may then “sit out” Walt Disney World APs.
Finally, one of the most common arguments among fans is about how Annual Passholders causing overcrowding. Because we are, in the infamous words of the former CFO, an unfavorable attendance mix. Meaning that, on average, APs spend less per visit. No matter how you might feel, that is statistically accurate.
In doing our part to help support the struggling business, we contributed tens of thousands of dollars to the company’s coffers last year. But we did so over the course of ~100 days in the parks, making our per visit cost lower than that of the average tourist.
Regardless, Walt Disney World and Disneyland doesn’t necessarily want to reduce the number of Annual Passholders. What they want is more granular control. This is why Magic Key sales use a Disney Vault strategy and reservations are required.
It’s the same idea with crowds, period. Disney doesn’t want lower attendance. If they could maximize guest spending & satisfaction, and crowds, they absolutely would. Hence the wait times we see between Christmas and New Year’s Eve, which is both the busiest week of the entire year and the most expensive.
That approach isn’t replicable most weeks, but that example should be proof positive that Disney wants to have its cake and eat it, too. Since that isn’t realistic most of the year, they instead optimize for spending, satisfaction, and crowds. Controlling the flow of Annual Passholders is one such way, opening that valve a little more–like right now–when tourist numbers are down (or projected to be down).
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 do you think of Walt Disney World offering a free gift card of up to $100 for new Annual Pass purchases? Think this freebie will move the needle on AP sales? Wish WDW would do more to incentivize Annual Pass purchases among out of state fans? Any expectations about special offers going forward? Think more “levers” are going to be pulled before this year is over? 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!