Disney World tickets from The Disney Store?

[lilmis1107]

Ok, my sister is thinking about getting her teenage boys some tickets to WDW from the Disney Strore, for Christmas! They love the idea!
We were wondering.....if she buys these tickets would that mess up our chances for the free dining plan, if/when they offer it in 2010?
We will be staying on property and we will still need tickets for everyone else. We need to save anyway we can!

 

[happymommy]

Why not instead have her buy Disney gift cards? Then, they can be used towards at ticket, or an upgrade from a one day ticket, or souvenirs as well.

 

[peyjax]

Ok, my sister is thinking about getting her teenage boys some tickets to WDW from the Disney Strore, for Christmas! They love the idea!
We were wondering.....if she buys these tickets would that mess up our chances for the free dining plan, if/when they offer it in 2010?
We will be staying on property and we will still need tickets for everyone else. We need to save anyway we can!

To answer your question YES it will mess up your chances for free dining in 2010. They sell the package as a whole. There is no real advantage to buying the tickets at the Disney store. The only reason would be to get that part of the trip paid for well in advance.

I know someone who works at the disney store and after a couple of horror stories of people who did this I will never buy passes or tickets until I get there!

 

[mad hatter fan]

If she bought them, you could book the package with free dining with one day tickets for everyone. You can save the boys' one day tickets for a future trip and upgrade the other ones to the same number of days as the boys' tickets once at WDW. This would not necessarily be the best option, but it would work.

 

[lilmis1107]

Thank you, Everyone! for all your help on this.

Why not instead have her buy Disney gift cards? Then, they can be used towards at ticket, or an upgrade from a one day ticket, or souvenirs as well.

so.....can the disney gift cards be used towards the trip? at AAA? I guess we should just wait.
I wish I understood all the in's and out's of this stuff. you guys are great! Thanks so much. I would hate to have bought them and then screw up our free dining chances.

 

[Mom2Ben02]

Honestly, if it were me, I would just make "fake" disney tix - the kids are old enough to understand, and what do they need the actual tickets now for anyway?

If you bought disney gift cards (NOT disney store gift cards online!) they could be used through WDW reservations. I don't believe AAA would take them.

 

[unlimiteddisney]

I also don't know the ins and outs of the tickets and packages. Instead of buying any tickets or giftcards why not make fake tickets. She could put the tickets in a box with some other things about disney. I have heard other peple on the boards talk about putting ballons in a box that have Mickey on them. Search the board, I know there was a thread on giving a Disney vacation for Christmas. I would not risk buying anything. Merry Christmas

 

[mom2triplets]

Thank you, Everyone! for all your help on this.



so.....can the disney gift cards be used towards the trip? at AAA? I guess we should just wait.
I wish I understood all the in's and out's of this stuff. you guys are great! Thanks so much. I would hate to have bought them and then screw up our free dining chances.

Check with AAA, I beleive the payment is directly to Disney and they would except the gift cards toward the package. You only have to buy a 1 day ticket to get the free dining (if offered). you can use the gift cards to update the passes when you get there, and would be paying the same amout for the ticket this way if you had purchased them in advance from the Disney Store.

 

[lilmis1107]

Check with AAA, I beleive the payment is directly to Disney and they would except the gift cards toward the package. You only have to buy a 1 day ticket to get the free dining (if offered). you can use the gift cards to update the passes when you get there, and would be paying the same amout for the ticket this way if you had purchased them in advance from the Disney Store.

I'm sorry, I'm still confused. If I get free dinning, I want it for each day we are there. And if I upgrade when I get there, what am I upgrading to? If we purchase a disney gift card, you think we could use it toward the trip, when we go to AAA? I sent an email to my agent, but I havn't heard back.

Thanks again, to everyone!

 

[mad hatter fan]

The free dining is connected to the hotel nights in the package, not the number of days on the tickets. Meaning for example, you could book a 7 night package with free dining and get the dining plan for each night of your stay for free. You can choose how many days of tickets you want. You just have to have a least one day tickets. Then once at the resort you could upgrade some or all of the tickets to the desired length. Some people do this because not all family members need the same length of ticket (like your possible situation where the kids have tickets all ready but the parents do not) or because some or all of the family has APs or to just put off paying for some of the ticket portion until later. Hope I explained this more clearly this time.

 

[hercamore]

I don't believe AAA takes disney gift cards.

They'll want real payment in the form of check or credit cards to go into their AAA account, and they then pay Disney.



herc.

 

[Mom2Ben02]

Check with AAA, I beleive the payment is directly to Disney and they would except the gift cards toward the package. You only have to buy a 1 day ticket to get the free dining (if offered). you can use the gift cards to update the passes when you get there, and would be paying the same amout for the ticket this way if you had purchased them in advance from the Disney Store.

I had Disney Dollars and AAA would not take those - I am sure the gift cards would be the same thing.