Do grandparents need park tickets if they’ll stay at the resort hotel?
No. A theme park ticket only covers entering a theme park. Grandparents who stay back at the resort hotel with the baby, or who want a quiet day while the rest of the family does the parks, can do the whole day there without one: every hotel restaurant, the pools, Disney transportation, and Disney Springs®. The one detail that matters is how the trip gets booked.
With no ticket at all, a resort hotel guest can:
- Eat anywhere at the resort hotels. That includes character dining at the hotels, such as Chef Mickey’s at Disney’s Contemporary Resort. Restaurants inside a theme park are the exception, since reaching the table requires park admission.
- Swim and play. Resort hotel pools are open to every registered guest of that resort hotel, along with playgrounds, campfires, and outdoor movie nights.
- Ride the transportation. Buses, boats, the monorail, and the Disney Skyliner carry resort hotel guests with no ticket check.
- Spend a day at Disney Springs. The shopping and dining district charges no admission.
The booking matters more than the ticket. On a Walt Disney Travel Company package, the ticket is part of the package for each guest on the reservation. Book room-only instead, or give the grandparents their own room reservation, and then buy tickets only for the people entering parks.
Ticket lengths do not have to match either. The parents can carry four-day tickets while a grandparent buys a one-day ticket for the single park day they want, or adds one mid-trip if they change their mind. Tickets are priced by date, and Disney sells them right up to the day of use.