Picking ride tickets up at park?

[gibbo01]

We are going to WDW over easter and we have booked our Disney tickets online.
we recieved an "E" voucher this morning to swap for our tickets at any of the parks on the first day.
We will arrive late afternoon 4-5pm ish and dont really want to do a park on our arrival day, as we need to do some food shopping etc (villa)

Can we get into ANY park without paying the parking cost to "pick up" our tickets the day before?
This will cut down on valuable time so that we dont have to que on the first morning to collect them for as long?
There are 10 0f us and we all need to be there to collect our tickets so cant justify 3 lots of parking just to pick up the tickets.

 

[LaurenT]

There is a Guest Services at DownTown Disney. I would stop there on arrival day to pick them up.
Free parking and you won't have the hassle associated with going to a park at that time of day.
And you are correct, during spring break you do not want to be waiting at the ticket booths in the morning.

 

[gibbo01]

Thank you for that lauren,
I had realised there was a Guest Services there but i didnt think they could provide me with my park tickets?
I hope so...
I will check this out on arrival

Like you say, i will be doing enough queing for the rides at easter, so if i can drop a bit, all the better..

 

[Robo]

There is a Guest Services at DownTown Disney.

Yes, and there are actually TWO Guest Relations at DTD.

 

[Cheshire Figment]

You can also go over to one of the water parks. And if it is late afternoon you will probably be able to find parking spaces close to the front of the lot. You can go to any ticket or Guest Relations window.

 

[BrettS]

Frankly, getting your tickets at the park in the morning really isn't that bad... I doubt it will cost you more then 5 or 10 minutes. A lot of people come with their tickets in hand so they don't take up space in the line and Disney has a lot of ticket windows open in the morning. Unless you want to go to downtown Disney anyway it will cost you much more time to make a special trip there to pick up your tickets than to just get them at the park in the morning.

Also note that if you're staying on site at a Disney villa that you get free parking at the parks.

 

[mesaboy2]

Frankly, getting your tickets at the park in the morning really isn't that bad... I doubt it will cost you more then 5 or 10 minutes.

Sorry, but I'll disagree. I saw pretty long-looking lines at the TTC a week ago. My only thought was that I was glad I didn't have to go through them. I also think it highly depends on what time of morning you get there--so we may both be right.

 

[disprincessatheart]

Sorry, but I'll disagree. I saw pretty long-looking lines at the TTC a week ago. My only thought was that I was glad I didn't have to go through them. I also think it highly depends on what time of morning you get there--so we may both be right.

I agree. The lines never really look long, but when you actually wait in them it takes a while! We had some issues with last years annual passes and spent probably 30 min in line for guest services on two different mornings. It sounds like the op has the time on arrival day to stop by dtd or a water park (I really like the water park idea - probably way easier than parking at dtd) and then they won't have to chance wasting time the next morning!

 

[gibbo01]

Thanks for all your advice
I will try the water park idea first (closer) and if not DTD
If all that fails i will queue

 

[BrettS]

I agree. The lines never really look long, but when you actually wait in them it takes a while! We had some issues with last years annual passes and spent probably 30 min in line for guest services on two different mornings. It sounds like the op has the time on arrival day to stop by dtd or a water park (I really like the water park idea - probably way easier than parking at dtd) and then they won't have to chance wasting time the next morning!

The guest services line can definitely take a little while at times because they only have a limited number of guest services cast members and I'm not surprised that you had a 30 minute wait if it was a busy time. However the lines at the ticket windows tend to be shorter and move faster as ticket transactions tend to be pretty quick and straightforward while guest services transactions tend to take longer since they involve problems that need to be worked out.

That said, even if the ticket line takes 30 minutes, which I doubt it would, it'll still be much less time than driving to DTD (or a water park), parking, walking in, waiting in line there, then walking back to your car and driving back to the resort... I bet total time to pick up the tickets early will be well over an hour.

However, if you want to be at DTD anyway for dinner or shopping then it certainly makes sense to pick up your tickets then. Or if you're a diehard night person and don't want to take any extra time in the morning then I can certainly understand spending more time in the evening to save a few minutes in the morning, but I really don't think it'll take as long as you think to just pick up the tickets at the park.

 

[casper_jj11]

You can also go over to one of the water parks. And if it is late afternoon you will probably be able to find parking spaces close to the front of the lot. You can go to any ticket or Guest Relations window.

Cheshire can you upgrade tickest at teh water park too? We'd like to upgrade one of the tix to an AP and get Tables in Wonderland... is that also available at the water park?

 

[Cheshire Figment]

We can do anything at the water park ticket or GR windows that can be done with the exception of the Disney Premier (two-coast) Passport.

And most of us working at the water parks have a better understanding of ticketing than the people in the theme parks since they very rarely get involved with water park or DQ ticketing.