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

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

Magic Key sales are scheduled to restart this year. A date will be announced on the Disneyland Magic Key social media channels.

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

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

If you divide the cost of a Magic Key pass by the cheapest daily ticket — $104— 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 more quickly when you divide the cost by the cheapest parkhopper ticket, $169: Imagine (four visits), Enchant (six visits), Believe (nine visits) and Inspire (11 visits).

The most expensive annual passes pay for themselves even faster if you visit on the most expensive parkhopper days, $281. 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.”

Depending on the cost, each Magic Key has a number of block-out dates per year. The Inspire pass has 14 dates in 2025, Believe has 65, Enchant has 148 and Imagine 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 pass, Inspire, costs $4.98 per day for the passholder who visits 351 times. The least expensive, Imagine, costs $4.05 per day for the passholder who visits 148 times. The Believe and Enchant passes work out to about $4.50 per day.

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 Keys by paying in installments. After a $189 down payment, the monthly cost is less than the cheapest park-hopper ticket — Inspire ($130 per month), Believe ($99), Enchant ($66) and Imagine ($35).