See the ticket details for both trips above for ticket validity dates.

July 15 is the last day to buy tickets for our late summer (September) trip, and August 15 is the last day to buy tickets for our fall trip. Registration and payments are made through my online payment platform.

I can’t hold spots, but we won’t run out of tickets as long as you order them by the deadline. However, due to the park reservation system, entry to the theme parks may become limited as we get closer to our travel dates. (This very likely won’t be a problem – parks haven’t been reaching capacity during our trips.)

My workload doubled in the past due to families doing partial registrations. Because of that, I will allow add-ons only on a very limited, case-by-case basis.

Since we won’t have any group events for our late summer (September) trip, there’s no need to get my tickets. We are planning group events for our fall trip, but you must have our tickets to join us. (I don’t recommend buying our tickets if you already have passes since we won’t have an educational program or after-hours party this fall. Save your money for one of my other trips!)

You don’t have to join the group unless you’re doing one of our optional group events this fall. Enjoy your trip as a family or invite relatives or other homeschooling families to join you!

Our tickets include all of the above. Scroll back up to the section above September or November Ticket Details near the top of this page for more information about what each trip’s ticket includes.

They’ve never limited our tickets, so don’t stress about ticket availability. Order when you’re certain you’re going and have the money.

I’ll email ticket numbers beginning in late July for our late summer (September) trip and beginning in late August for our fall (November) trip. Tickets will be digital/mobile, accessible through the My Disney Experience (MDE) app. A cell phone using Disney’s free MagicMobile service or a MagicBand (if you have one) will be required to access your tickets and enter the parks.

You’ll be able to make park reservations through your MDE account when you get your ticket numbers. We have student group tickets, so a park reservation is required for each day you want to enter a theme park. Please read this to see why park reservations are important. If you don’t have park reservations, you won’t be able to go to any of the parks. If you wait until our registration deadline, one or more parks may be unavailable. (This is unlikely during our travel dates.) Check Walt Disney World’s current park availability calendar here.

We can’t add days to these tickets or get tickets for fewer days. I’m offering only 4-Day tickets for September, and only 6-Day tickets for fall.

Everyone in your party will get the discounted tickets, but each family unit must order tickets separately (grandparents, single aunt, adult siblings can be included on your registration).

Ask others in your travel party (sister’s family, best friends and their children, etc.), to order tickets separately and note that they’re your guests in the comments section of their registration.

You’ll be able to add our tickets to MagicBands via the My Disney Experience website. I’ll email more information about that when I email your ticket numbers.

Disney no longer provides free MagicBands to their guests. If you have a MagicBand from a previous trip, you can use it for our trips. (Make sure it’s still “active” in your MDE account).

The FastPass system no longer exists, and Lightning Lane has replaced Genie+. Lightning Lane is a paid add-on that is similar to the previous free FastPass system. It’s relatively new.

Here’s a little more information about how our tickets work with Lightning Lane:

• Families who stay off property can purchase and choose Lightning Lane passes three days in advance of each day of their visit (park reservations are still required for our tickets).
• Guests of eligible resorts can purchase and choose Lightning Lane passes seven days prior to their check-in date for the length of their stay (up to 14 days).

If you want to buy Lightning Lane passes, you can do that through your My Disney Experience (MDE) account.

The price is per ticket, not per day.

When you submit your registration, your credit/debit card is charged for the full amount immediately through my online payment platform. I don’t offer a payment plan.

I accept credit/debit cards through my online payment platform. I can’t accept any other payment methods.

As of April 1st, our 4-Day tickets are $200+ less than regular 4-Day Park Hopper Plus tickets, and our 6-Day tickets are around $350+ less than regular 6-Day Park Hopper Plus tickets. (The discount can be a bit more or less than this because regular tickets are date-based. It depends on the date you first enter a park.)

There are no hidden charges – what you see is what you get. The price includes all taxes and fees.

Our tickets are nonrefundable and nontransferable. If something happens and you have to cancel before the trip, let me know right away and I’ll see what I can do for you. No promises, but the sooner you tell me, the better chance I have of helping you. If I’m able to refund any portion of your trip, cancellation fees will be deducted from your refund.

Payment/tickets can’t be transferred to a different Disney trip, or any other trip.

I could provide references from families who’ve traveled with me since I began doing these trips in 2006, but the references could be faked.

Instead, read my About page to find out more about me, then do a search of “Carolina Homeschooler trips” and “Traveling Homeschooler trips.” If I’ve cheated anyone, it’ll be all over the internet. 

My “Traveling Homeschoolers” name is newer, created in 2016 to differentiate between my local member trips, and trips that are open to everyone, so search both names.

You can also get a sense of who I am and what I do if you follow me on Facebook and read comments and feedback from my 41,000+ followers, and read the Featured post, where close to 200 travelers have shared feedback regarding my trustworthiness.

It’s too stressful to pay for any of my trips if you don’t trust me, so research before you order tickets.

You can use your park days and fun passes throughout the validity dates of the tickets. The days don’t have to be consecutive – you can skip days. Your fun visits can also be used any time throughout the validity dates, even before you use any of your park days.

We have premium tickets with the Park Hopper_® Option included, so visiting two parks in the same day will count as one park day (since you’re just hopping to another park).

Park days don’t have to be consecutive. You can go one day, skip the next, go the next day, then skip the next two days, then use your third day, etc., until you use all your days. Just stay within the date range of the tickets.

Fun Visits are included on our premium tickets, so you won’t get separate tickets. You’ll scan your ticket to enter a waterpark or miniature golf course the same way you would scan into a park.

Fun Visits are separate from park days – you can use them throughout the validity dates of our tickets. They don’t have to be used on days you visit the parks. You can use them before you visit any parks – you don’t have to use a park day first.

You can do a round of miniature golf in the morning and visit a water park in the afternoon. This counts as two visits because they’re two different sites.

You can visit a water park in the morning, leave for lunch, then come back to the same waterpark in the afternoon. This counts as one visit because you’re coming back to the same water park.

You can do only one mini golf course on the same day, and the round must begin before 4:00 pm.

You can only do one round of Foot Golf, and it has to be on a Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday after 2:30 pm. It’s subject to availability, so try a different day if there’s no availability on your first date.

They usually close one of the water parks for refurbishment during fall/winter. Typhoon Lagoon will likely be open during our spring trip.

You can all your fun visits for water park instead of using them for other sites. It’s up to you!

We won’t have group hotels for any of our Disney trips in 2025. However, we will have group hotels at Universal if you’re combining both trips (at great discounts!).

Here’s advice and information staying at a Disney resort vs staying off-property, regardless of whether or not we get discounted group rooms this spring.

Notes about staying off-property:

• You will not be able to purchase Individual Lightning Lane experiences as early as on-property guests.
• Depending on the hotel, an off-property hotel may be less expensive for what you get (but compare – hotel prices have increased a lot since Covid).
• Depending on the hotel, they may have bigger rooms for a comparable or lower price than on-property hotels and may accommodate larger families less expensively.
• Some hotels offer free breakfast (of varying quality).
• They’re not usually themed as well as on-property resorts, and it may not feel as “magical.”
• They may not have the same level of customer service as on-property resorts.
• You won’t be able to take advantage of early entry into any of the four Walt Disney World theme parks every day.
• You may feel disconnected from the group. (But families aren’t necessarily staying in the same resort unless you know other families and plan it that way. Still, some families have said they feel more disconnected if they stay off-property.)
• If driving to the parks, parking will be an extra $30 per day.
• If you don’t have a car, transportation to the parks won’t be as convenient. Even if your hotel offers a shuttle, it may go only to the parks (not to Disney Springs® or other areas). And it’ll almost certainly be less frequent, with longer wait times than on-property transportation. To make it worse, hotels often share shuttles, making many lengthy stops along the way. Many travelers end up unexpectedly renting a car (or getting Uber or Lyft) due to the inconvenience and hassle, so factor the price of a rental car or Uber/Lyft rides into your budget, even if you don’t think you’ll need it.

My advice:

• Choose the accommodations that best fit your needs and budget – on-property, off-site, timeshare, rental, campground, whatever.
• If you won’t have your own car and don’t want to rent one or arrange for Uber/Lyft rides, an on-property resort will most likely be your best bet. The extra money you spend will be offset by no parking fees (currently $30 per day at the parks), and much better transportation options (more convenient, frequent, and less time-consuming than off-site hotels, regardless of what the off-site hotels advertise).
• If you want to be in the middle of the magic, choose an on-property resort. (Disney does “magic” very well.)
• If you have a camper, consider Disney’s Fort Wilderness campground. However, note that the Fort Wilderness bus system has a large footprint and may take additional time when compared to transportation at other Disney Resorts. (Having your own transportation may be preferable.)
• If you’re on a tight budget, will have a car, and don’t mind being more removed from the magic, choose an off-site hotel nearby. Look for one that offers a good free breakfast at the hotel (saves money and time). If you have a camper, consider an off-site campground.
• Don’t buy into the myth that you’ll spend all your time traveling to parks if you don’t stay on-site. The parks, resorts, water parks, and Disney Springs® are spread out over miles. Even guests who stay on-site have to drive to get to the different areas (or use on-site transportation). Many off-site hotels are located nearby (or even inside the Disney Springs® area), so you probably won’t have to drive much farther than we will.
• Choose whatever is best for your family’s budget and preferences. You’ll have a great time regardless of where you stay.

Standard Parking at the theme parks is $30 per day for cars and motorcycles if you’re not staying on-property. (It’s free for on-property guests.) If you hop parks, the fee covers all the parks you visit that day.

Disney doesn’t charge for overnight parking at their resort hotels.

Walt Disney World provides transportation to the parks, water parks, and Disney Springs® during times they’re open to the public. Here’s more information.

Their Magical Express service was discontinued in 2022. Here are some transportation options.

Dining Plans are available for families who pay full price for a package deal (including a Disney hotel). They’re not an option for our group, whether free or not. Here’s more information:

Free dining isn’t really free, and the paid dining plans may not be the best option for your family, either. It’s pre-paying for your food so you’ll have an all-inclusive vacation. (Which can be appealing but may also end up being more expensive.)

The dining plan (whether free or not) has changed a lot over the years. Some resorts are excluded from dining offers and certain room categories may not be available. Also, there are fewer dates available now for the dining plans.

The dining plan (whether free or not) doesn’t include gratuity. Meals at on-property restaurants are usually more expensive than off-property restaurants, so their gratuity is also more expensive. In some cases, just the gratuity alone for a “free” meal was the same or more than what we paid for pizzas for our family of five off-property.

In our experience, we could pay out of pocket for our dining (on-property or off), and it was less expensive, more relaxing, and much more flexible than the dining plan. (We did the free dining for five years straight before ditching it.)

Every family is different, though, so I encourage you to check out your options and do the math for your own family and circumstances.

I’ve done this trip every fall* since 2006 through Carolina Homeschooler, then moved it to Traveling Homeschoolers beginning in 2016. Sometimes I do a spring trip, too.

*Except for fall 2020, when Disney canceled our trip due to Covid.

Since this is a private group trip, tickets must be ordered through Traveling Homeschoolers.

Our Universal trips are around the same dates as our Disney trips, so you can likely combine both. Here’s more information. (Many families do both Disney and Universal in the same visit.)