Dollars and Sense | Walt Disney World Student Seminars

No matter which way you plan your Walt Disney World vacation, the tickets take up quite a chunk of the budget. Unlike food with it's free dining promotions and resorts with their room only savings and PIN codes, park tickets pretty much cost the same all year long. The only savings to be found are often through sketchy methods like buying tickets through eBay or Craigslist (a bad idea, and sometimes a scam) or sitting through timeshare presentations (not how I want to spend my vacation).

When we started homeschooling last summer (trust me, I'll get back to the ticket savings), I started googling away seeing if there were any homeschool events at Disney we could attend.

Why?

In order to homeschool successfully, we needed field trips and through the inspiration of the lovely Jodi Whisenhunt and her blog Magical Mouse Schoolhouse, I was convinced that going to Walt Disney World could be very educational. Besides, if we could set our own schedule, we ought to be able to take care of low crowd seasons or something. It just always came back to the tickets. That's when I discovered a little secret. The former "Disney Homeschool Days" still exist under the name of "Disney Student Seminars."

When you attend the Disney Student Seminars you can purchase park tickets for you and your mouseketeers at extremely reduced rates. Like one third the cost of normal tickets.

If you order free tickets for your student (Elementary through High School age) to attend the Disney Student Seminar, each student (and a guardian) can purchase theme park tickets at a reduced rate that is the same for both the student and the adult.



One ticket to the Magic Kingdom Please!

If you have a single child in the program, you can purchase park tickets for the child and two adults at the adult rate, but after that it's one for one. Three kids, three adults and so on.

What kind of Walt Disney World Ticket savings are we talking about? Here are the numbers that were current for the February 2015 seminar.

Disney Youth Education Series Tickets
Ticket Description	Seminar Price	Non-Discounted Adult
1-Day Student Seminars (For Florida Groups Only)	$93.00	$99.00
3-Day Student Seminars Starter Package	$173.34	$291.81
3-Day Student Seminars Hopper Package	$200.50	$344.00
3-Day Student Seminars Premium Package	$221.50	$383.40
4-Day Student Seminars Starter Package	$188.15	$313.11
4-Day Student Seminars Hopper Package	$215.33	$377.01
4-Day Student Seminars Premium Package	$236.33	$404.70
5-Day Student Seminars Starter Package	$202.97	$323.76
5-Day Student Seminars Hopper Package	$230.15	$387.66
5-Day Student Seminars Premium Package	$251.15	$415.35
6-Day Student Seminars Starter Package	$217.80	$334.31
6-Day Student Seminars Hopper Package	$244.97	$398.31
6-Day Student Seminars Premium Package	$265.96	$426.00
7-Day Student Seminars Starter Package	$232.63	$345.06
7-Day Student Seminars Hopper Package	$259.80	$408.96
7-Day Student Seminars Premium Package	$280.79	$436.65
8-Day Student Seminars Starter Package	$247.44	$355.71
8-Day Student Seminars Hopper Package	$274.62	$419.61
8-Day Student Seminars Premium Package	$295.61      .........

You get the idea.

Another way to view it? For around $290 dollars an adult can get a 3 day non-hopper pass. With the student seminar discount, it's an 8 day hopper with enough left over for them to treat a few friends to a Dole Whip.



More Dole Whip for Less Dough? Sign Me Up!

If your party includes children too young to participate in the program, they do not qualify for reduced tickets. If a family of four (with children ten and above) spends seven days at the parks without park hoppers, instead of budgeting $1,380 for tickets, they only need to set aside $930. They've saved over $450 on their tickets alone or about one third of the usual cost.

The fine print: Your Disney Student Seminars reduced cost tickets must be used during the "program term (this spring from January 29, 2015 through February 14, 2015). You MUST ATTEND the seminar in order to use your theme park tickets. While the Disney Student Seminar itself carries no cost, the individual Youth Education Series events are available to add on at $35 per participant. You must use park entry tickets for the day of the seminar.

For more information about Disney Student Seminars, check out the Disney Youth Program site.