Buying Disney World Park Tickets Now For Trip in May 2016

[peabody58]

Yes. We just bought 4 - 5 day MYW non-hoppers from UT for our Sept 2016 trip with our DD's and their mates. DW and I will be using our NE+ tickets we bought several years ago. In regards to WDW tickets, if you know you are going (soon or later), buying tickets now is a no brainer cost saving strategy as ticket prices will only be going up. DW and I (retired now for 6 months) bought enough AP's and tickets to last us till 2022 at least.

 

[larryz]

BUY NOW! As soon as you know you have an upcoming trip - whether it be in 10 years or one, buy tickets! They don't expire until after your first day of use and ticket prices go up every year! Unless you plan to do a Magic My Way package, buy your tickets!

Be careful not to buy too far in advance -- DD's AP voucher bought at a Disney Store apparently expires in 2030 (shows up in her MDE page where she linked it to the account).

 

[soniam]

The only problem with buying early is if the number of days could change. We have plans for a trip in early June that would be 8 days at WDW. However, in case Star Wars Weekends doesn't happen, we have a backup trip for Spring Break that we may not take. That trip would only use 5 park days. So, we worked the numbers with the current pricing, and it doesn't make sense for us to buy 5 day tickets and possibly have to by 3 days later. Buying 8 and potentially losing 3 isn't great either, but isn't too terrible. So, we are waiting to see if rumors become more serious about pricing changes or more info about Star Wars Weekends.

 

[bryanb]

The only problem with buying early is if the number of days could change. We have plans for a trip in early June that would be 8 days at WDW. However, in case Star Wars Weekends doesn't happen, we have a backup trip for Spring Break that we may not take. That trip would only use 5 park days. So, we worked the numbers with the current pricing, and it doesn't make sense for us to buy 5 day tickets and possibly have to by 3 days later. Buying 8 and potentially losing 3 isn't great either, but isn't too terrible. So, we are waiting to see if rumors become more serious about pricing changes or more info about Star Wars Weekends.

Interesting dilemma. I believe the price difference between 5 days and 8 days is about $10 per day, which sounds cheap but really adds up when multiplied by the size of your group.

But you can always upgrade your tickets from 5 days to 8 days!

Disney's current policy is that if you upgrade the ticket before you use it, you only get credit for the amount you paid. But if you use the ticket first and then upgrade it, you actually get credit for the current gate price of the ticket -- which would lock in the savings from having bought before the price increase.

I would probably buy the 5-day tickets, and then if you want to stay longer, add additional days once you've entered the parks at least once. Of course, they could always change their policies about price bridging, but that would reduce a guest's incentive to upgrade tickets during their vacation.

 

[Robo]

Be careful not to buy too far in advance -- DD's AP voucher bought at a Disney Store apparently expires in 2030 (shows up in her MDE page where she linked it to the account).

Unlikely that if you showed up with an unused AP voucher in 2031 that you'd get turned away.

(Be sure and post back to this thread with that info at that time.)

 

[soniam]

Interesting dilemma. I believe the price difference between 5 days and 8 days is about $10 per day, which sounds cheap but really adds up when multiplied by the size of your group.

But you can always upgrade your tickets from 5 days to 8 days!

Disney's current policy is that if you upgrade the ticket before you use it, you only get credit for the amount you paid. But if you use the ticket first and then upgrade it, you actually get credit for the current gate price of the ticket -- which would lock in the savings from having bought before the price increase.

I would probably buy the 5-day tickets, and then if you want to stay longer, add additional days once you've entered the parks at least once. Of course, they could always change their policies about price bridging, but that would reduce a guest's incentive to upgrade tickets during their vacation.

Thanks for the info. I had actually forgotten about adding days at the park. The only problem with waiting until we get to the park to upgrade, is that we can't get FP+ for the extra 3 days until we are in the park. We will probably just wait a little bit longer to see what's happening; however, I suspect we will end up doing the the longer trip and just buying the 8 days.

 

[Marionnette]

Thanks for the info. I had actually forgotten about adding days at the park. The only problem with waiting until we get to the park to upgrade, is that we can't get FP+ for the extra 3 days until we are in the park. We will probably just wait a little bit longer to see what's happening; however, I suspect we will end up doing the the longer trip and just buying the 8 days.

I would be cautious about relying on the upgrade strategy. If Disney switches to surge pricing and changes their tickets, you might not be able to upgrade MYW tickets to add days. That's what happened when PHs and PHPs were abandoned for MYW. The tickets are still accepted for the entitlements that they were purchased for, but no upgrades can be made to tickets purchased prior to the 2005 MYW changeover.

 

[DisneyYahoo]

I also bought 2 tickets out of 4 for our Feb trip because of the rumours about tier pricing. For the other 2 I have to decide if I pay for them of if I order them using airmiles points. I have to do our FP+ selections in December anyway so might as well have our tickets with the current pricing!

Which airline can you use airmiles to purchase WDW tickets?

 

[RustManFan]

I bought my tickets for 2016 at least as long ago as 2012 and probably earlier

 

[DisneyYahoo]

I bought my tickets for 2016 at least as long ago as 2012 and probably earlier

Smart!