Ticket Strategy - small contracts

[peezee]

We just picked up our first contract at 100pts - at first glance it would seem to be the best vaule to get a 10day water parks and more ticket no expiration and use it over 3 or 4 trips;

Anybody agree or disagree with theory?

[Muushka]

I agree with your logic! It has been many years since we have had APs. We tend to relax more when we do total non-park days.

[heynowirv]

thats exactly how we do it. We too tend to not go to the park every day we're there ,so they last 2-3 yrs.

[OKW Lover]

Well, that depends on how you intend to visit. Please tell us you visitation plans (how many days and how frequent) since the AP may prove to be a better value.

[MouseMomx2]

If we're going to make more than one trip in a year we prefer getting APs as they allow us to be far more flexible in our park touring. We may go into a park just for a meal or just for a couple of hours of rides/shows. With APs we do not waste an entire day touring this way. Remember, also, that DVC members get a fairly significant discount on APs.

Again, it is only financially beneficial if we'll be at WDW for 2 weeks or more in a year but we seem to have no problem doing that. This year we'll have spent 41 days at WDW, making our per-day cost about $13.00.

[Sandisw]

I think that is a great option if you know that you plan to only visit the parks 2 - 3 days each trip. Then this will last you for several trips.

Plus, with the water park and fun option, you will have those for many trips. Even after the "park days" are gone, I believe you will still be able to use it for the water parks since its a No Exp--giving you a lot more value in the long run.

Good luck!!!

[Good Ol Gal]

dh wants us to do this also. This is going to be a switch for me.

in the past we got PAPs for:
3 trips in Dec 06, June 07 and Nov 07 (total 25 park days)
then let them lapse and got new ones for
3 trips in July 08, Dec 08 and June 09 (total 26 park days)

Those park days above don't count Disney Quest or the Water Parks. During the summer we tend to close the water parks down each night.... so you could add another 20 or so "days" to the PAPs.

I am nervous about getting the 10 day plus more because I'm afraid it will make me go back to worrying if I'm getting my monies worth out of the ticket. "I can't waste a plus option on Typhoon Lagoon for 2 hours!" And I won't be able to pop in for dinner at Le Cellier without planning a whole evening there also. Or just take the younger guys early in the morning while DH and the teens are sleeping and ride pirates or space or anything else!

I think we're going to try it though.. DH is convinced that it will be better.

Of course for our family of 6 the 10 day non-exp plus tickets will cost us about $3400, while the PAP for all 6 of us would be $3100.

but.. if we can really get them to last from June 10 - June 12 then it would be worth it.

[dianeschlicht]

I'm not sure that strategy would work for us. We are a 60's something couple, and we tend to like to visit at least Epcot in the evenings. We always get APs and even when we only take one trip a year, we just slide it by a few days, and get two year's worth of trips on one pass.

Of course, we do like to go to the parks every day, even if it's only for a meal or a show. I guess we kind of look at it as where we are. If we didn't want to be at WDW, we'd trade out to some other destination.

[BLTtinkerbell]

We just bought 10 day PH Plus More, No Ex. tickets for our family. We don't go every year & when we go, it is for a week. I wish we could go every year & buy APs but that won't work for us.

[peezee]

With the 10-day non expire Water & More; once you use all 10 "days" at the park, do you lose the ability to use the "plus" options?

Also, With the loss of PI, the plus options currently are just

DisneyQuest
Blizzard Beach
Typhoon Lagoon
9 Hole Course

Correct?

[bumbershoot]

peezee, according to Cheshire Figment's "sticky" about tickets (on the theme parks board), with the no-expire ticket with "plusses", those pluses do NOT expire. So you could hold onto that ticket for a long time, until you've used it all. Just be sure to make it no-expire.


As for AP vs the loaded, no-expire, ticket...only your personal touring and travel plans can tell you if it will work! If it will take you through a few trips, and you won't have to buy any more tickets halfway through a trip, that's great! Of course, if those few trips are all inside of ONE year, then that goes back into "should you buy the AP" territory.

[pouncingpluto]

This is what we've done... and then this year, when we're taking two longish trips, we've gotten APs, even though we still have some days left on our 10-day non-expiration tickets that we bought a couple years ago. We'll just use those in the future after our APs retire.

Of course, I swear it's going to take us about 20 years to get through all 6 water park visits, considering that I can't deal with water parks unless it's at least 85 degrees out and we never seem to visit the right time of year for that.

[disprincessatheart]

We've had AP's for a couple years now. We managed to do 3 trips on each set and loved them, but we got them free with our Disney wedding (long story on the 2 sets). Now that we're finally going to have to pay for tickets again, DH is convinced we should do 10 day tickets instead. He feels like we'll get 3 trips out of them and then we'll have those plus days to use for a LONG time! (he's right about the plus days) I'm not convinced. On our last 6 trips with AP's, we'd go to a park for a few hours in the evening after dinner, and we'd hit MK on our last morning for a few rides and lunch before heading out on the road. We certainly won't do that with a 10 day pass. Of course our next trip will be our first with our baby, so i think he's convinced we won't want to do any of that stuff with the baby. I guess we'll probably try it and see if it works out for us or not.

[cel_disney]

Originally Posted by disprincessatheart

We've had AP's for a couple years now. We managed to do 3 trips on each set and loved them, but we got them free with our Disney wedding (long story on the 2 sets). Now that we're finally going to have to pay for tickets again, DH is convinced we should do 10 day tickets instead. He feels like we'll get 3 trips out of them and then we'll have those plus days to use for a LONG time! (he's right about the plus days) I'm not convinced. On our last 6 trips with AP's, we'd go to a park for a few hours in the evening after dinner, and we'd hit MK on our last morning for a few rides and lunch before heading out on the road. We certainly won't do that with a 10 day pass. Of course our next trip will be our first with our baby, so i think he's convinced we won't want to do any of that stuff with the baby. I guess we'll probably try it and see if it works out for us or not.

You could always start with the 10 day non-expiring package and upgrade it to an AP before you leave if you think your vacation habits with baby will be more like your pre-baby habits!