How long does it take for a Disneyland Magic Key to pay for itself? We do the math

Despite the recent price hikes, Disneyland Magic Key annual passes can still pay for themselves as long as passholders visit the Anaheim theme parks at least once every three weeks and as little as four times a year — depending on your pass.

Disneyland increased Magic Key prices $100 to $125 on Wednesday, Oct. 9 while sales of the annual passes remained paused.

Magic Key sales will restart later this year. A specific on-sale date will be announced on the Disneyland Magic Key social media channels.

Disneyland has found that many Magic Key annual passholders don’t realize every one of their visits is equal to a parkhopper ticket worth $169 to $281 — a much higher value than a single park ticket worth $104 to $206. Parkhopper tickets allow visitors to go to both Disneyland and Disney California Adventure on the same day.

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Depending on how you do the math, your Magic Key annual pass can pay for itself in four to 17 visits.

Dividing the cost of a Magic Key pass by the cheapest $104 daily ticket, the $599 Imagine pass would pay for itself in six visits, the $974 Enchant pass in 10 visits, the $1,374 Believe pass in 14 visits and the $1,749 Inspire pass in 17 visits.

But the annual passes pay for themselves much quicker when you divide the cost by the cheapest $169 parkhopper ticket: Imagine (four visits), Enchant (six visits), Believe (nine visits) and Inspire (11 visits).

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The most expensive annual passes pay for themselves even faster if you visit on the most expensive $281 parkhopper days. Passholders who stick to the priciest days can pay for their Inspire pass in seven visits and their Believe pass in five visits. Enchant and Imagine keyholders are typically blocked out on the busiest — and most expensive — days of the year.

Factoring in the cost of parking and the discounts associated with each annual pass doesn’t change the math too much. If anything, the parking discounts help pay off the passes slightly faster.

“The Disneyland annual pass has always been a great value for those who are able to get there enough to enjoy the park throughout the year,” Mickey Visit founder Gavin Doyle said via email. “Having a pass totally shifts the way that you get to visit the theme park, giving you more ability to be spontaneous during visits and to see the latest new thing.”

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Depending on the cost, each Magic Key pass has a number of blockout dates per year. The $1,749 Inspire pass has 14 blockout dates in 2025, the $1,374 Believe pass has 65, the $974 Enchant pass has 148 and the $599 Imagine pass has 217, according to Mickey Visit.

An ambitious passholder with plenty of time on their hands could drive down the cost of their annual pass considerably by maximizing their visits.

Doing the math, the most expensive Inspire Key costs $4.98 per day for the passholder who visits 351 times in a year. The least expensive Imagine Key costs $4.05 per day for the passholder who visits 148 times in a year. The Believe and Enchant passes work out to about $4.50 per day.

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Of course, visiting that often would require the keyholder to get a reservation on every available date — a feat highly unlikely to happen.

California residents can spread out the cost of Magic Key passes by paying on a monthly basis. After a $189 down payment, the monthly cost is less than the cheapest passhopper ticket – Inspire ($130 per month), Believe ($99 per month), Enchant ($66 month) and Imagine ($35 per month).