Your park trip
Under 3 enters free at most parks. Kids 3–12 typically get a $10–15/day ticket discount.
Most regional parks don't have on-property hotels — we'll fall back to offsite automatically.
Used for both parks. If you'd stay somewhere different at each park, run the comparison twice.
Sets your round-trip flight cost. Choose “driving” to zero out flights.
Pick your parks and fill in your trip — we'll show the full cost side by side.
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How we got these numbers
23 parks with 2026 pricing data (updated September 2026), including regional gates: Carowinds, Six Flags Over Texas, Kings Dominion, Holiday World, and Kennywood, alongside Disney, Universal, SeaWorld, and Cedar Point. Ticket data comes from each park’s published 2026 rates. Hotel rates use on-property averages where a resort exists, and nearby off-site averages otherwise. Disney and Universal use a multi-day ticket ladder. Regional parks stay at single-day times park days. Results are estimates, not live quotes.
Theme park comparison — common questions
How much does a theme park vacation cost in 2026?
The gate price is not the trip. Pick two parks. The page holds the party, the nights, and the park days still, then adds hotel, tickets, food, skip-the-line, and parking. Disney and Universal use a multi-day ladder. Regional parks are usually another single-day ticket for each day you go.
Is a regional theme park cheaper than Disney?
Often on tickets, not always on the week. Carowinds, Six Flags, Kings Dominion, Kennywood, and Holiday World can show a much smaller gate price and still need a hotel and a parking charge. Holiday World’s free parking is a real difference versus a Six Flags lot. The result table shows which line moves the gap.
Does Disney or Universal cost more for the same family?
Hotel tier and skip-the-line decide it. Universal Express on a peak day runs several times a Disney Lightning Lane day. On-property hotels change the parking line. The comparison keeps the family and the nights the same so you are not comparing a weekend to a week.
Are multi-day tickets cheaper?
At Disney and Universal, later days cost less than another one-day ticket. Most regional parks do not publish that ladder, so this page prices them as single-day tickets times the number of park days.