Welcome to planDisney, Tamara. It's so nice to meet you!
Currently, as long as you are booking a vacation package (
Disney Resorts Collection Hotel room reservation and
theme park tickets purchased together), 31 or more days out, you can pay your deposit at the time of booking and choose to make periodic payments, with the entire balance due 30 days before your arrival date. Your theme park ticket can be longer than your hotel stay, but it needs to be at least 2 days and can be a maximum of 10 days in length. You should review the
vacation package terms and conditions for more information and make sure to note the
dates of your ticket window before finalizing your purchase.
If you need another idea for how to budget, you can harness the power of the
Disney Gift Card, especially if you ultimately decide to make a theme park-only ticket purchase (
which must be paid in full at the time of purchase). Here's how this can work:
- Go to the theme park tickets page and find the dates and lengths of tickets you'd like to purchase to get an idea of how much your ticket will cost. Just note that prices are subject to change.
- Leading up to your trip, periodically purchase Disney Gift Cards in the amount you feel comfortable.
- Load them onto the Disney Gift Card website by logging into your MyDisney Account, clicking "My Cards," selecting "Add Card," and loading in the information. Not only will this help you keep track of your gift cards and your balances, but you can also currently transfer your funds to one card (up to $1,000).
- When you're ready to make your purchase, you can use your gift cards to do so. If your total purchase amount is above $1,000 and you have multiple gift cards, you would simply need to call a friendly Cast Member on the New Tickets line at the resort since only one gift card can currently be used per transaction on the Walt Disney World Resort website.
Tamara, best wishes for planning a fabulous trip. If you have any other questions,
I'm here!
Remember who you are,
Matt