Cons

One of the most recent changes to standard admission tickets qualifies as the most significant con. Disney introduced surge pricing a few years ago in an attempt to standardize attendance. The goal here is to increase park traffic on slow times on the crowd calendar while reducing them on the most popular days of the year.

Due to surge pricing, odds are good that you’ll pay more for park admission than you would have five years ago. And I mean an amount beyond standard ticket price inflation.

Certain park periods receive larger crowds since guests have an easier time attending on those days. For example, most government holidays lead to heavy foot traffic at Disney parks. With so many travelers having the day(s) off, crowds swell. Surge pricing punishes guests for attending on those days by charging more admission.

The other important con of a standard admission ticket is that it’s disposable. Once you use all of your park days, your ticket does you no good. For multi-day tickets, you'll have an expiration window 14 days after the first use, which means that the clock is always ticking. Once you've used your allotment, your vacation is over. Then, you must start again with new admission tickets for your next trip.

Also, I’m going to list Park Hopper as a con for one simple reason. Disney really ought to include it as part of the standard admission package at this point. When you buy tickets to Disneyland Resort, they should work at either park, and the same is true for Walt Disney World. Charging more money each day to visit multiple parks irks me, especially in the wake of so many recent ticket price increases. Do the right thing, Disney. It’ll buy you some much-needed positive PR.

Annual passes

With regular admission tickets, you purchase a small number of days that you can access a Disney theme park. I describe the annual pass as buying in bulk. You get 365 admission tickets this way, although I don't know anyone who has visited a park for 365 consecutive days. Unfortunately, life gets in the way. Even so, the idea of visiting Disney whenever you want throughout a calendar year is quite appealing.