Anyone buy the 10 day non-exp ticket over the AP?

[MARY-IN-OH]

I was thinking...(I know, sounds dangerous doesn't it???). yep, here she goes again..! anyhow,

Since I plan to buy DVC and go to disney every year (or every other year, sometimes maybe twice per year!), and (all of) my immeidate family will not come with me every trip (hopefully! ), since everyone is gettin' older, busy lives, no money, and all that, do you think it would be a good idea to buy them the 10 day non-expiring hoppers with (10) plus options?

I mean, that ticket can be stretched to anywhere from 3 to 5 vacations! And, non-expiring means that if someone takes a long hiatus from doing disney, they will be there for them forever.

Each person could do 3-4 park days (use "hop" option), a water park day and a PI or DQ day, and a resort day for like 3 - 4 vacations, right? (plus price is locked in for awhile until someone needs a new ticket).

My family is two teens, my grown DD and our three g-kids, my Disney sister, and my DH).

It is an awful up front cost the year it's purchased, but for the next couple of DVC vacations, it's "like" having no ticket cost and no resort cost (don't ya think?)
thanks,
-mary
(dvc wannabe)

 

[Tink-n-Belle]

I have 2 10 day passes no expiration for each of us! that should last us 5 or 6 trips and I bought them in 2005!!!

It was alot up front, but hey, the only thing I have to pay for is my DVC dues, food and transportation. Its great!!

If I know I am going to get 2 trips within a year (last time I got in 3 -1 week trips within a year) and go to the parks everyday I'll buy an annual pass.

But with the 10 day hoppers we can take a break and not go into the parks everyday and enjoy the resort. We are also planning to go to SW & universal studios sometime in the future. I also bought the waterpark passes on 1 ticket so we can go there for 5 days and not do the parks.

 

[RLRDA]

We bought the 10 day non-expiring park hopper plus tickets for our family because we usually go once a year and can probably stretch 3 trips out of them by using the water park/Disney Quest feature. It didn't make much sense for us to buy APs because we couldn't be sure we'd be back within that 12 month period.

 

[Harley-Mouse]

This is what we do. The up front is worth it. We have gone on 3 trips with one 10 day pass.

 

[photobob]

It really depends on what your travel patterns are to see what works best for your situation. We bought an AP for a trip the last week of June. We decided to take a three nighter in February and we are going the first week of June. We'll get about 14 days of park use from the AP which is a good bargain. We'll probably not go again until the next June when we'll buy another AP and start the process over again.

 

[bobbiwoz]

If you can't use an AP, I think that they are the way to go! My DSis buys them.

Bobbi

 

[drag n' fly]

We have been pouring over this too. For quite a few years we will only be going once a year and I was thinking of doing this also.

 

[Muushka]

Yes, we bought 2 a couple of months ago. With the rising cost of APs and our not that burning desire to go into the parks each and every day, it is a great option for us. We have a host of ticket options available to us at this point.

When we think we may have a 'park-heavy' year, we will cash in our AP vouchers.
And we also have 4 USF/IOA APs to cash in for some variation.

 

[jekjones1558]

We got these for family who will continue to share DVC vacations with us every-other year or so. We also got one for DH who is not able to make many WDW trips any more and can't do many park days when he does go. I have a couple of DVC discounted AP vouchers to use for myself since I go at least 3 weeks every year. Predicting travel plans is the key to this decision.

 

[murcor]

yes, that is what we do too!

Got 1 day left to use on our 4th trip, ordered another one through mapleleaftickets to use when that day is used up! It can be stretched a long way, especially with the extra water parks etc.

we generally go for 10-12 days each trip and only go to the parks 3-4 times

 

[miwdwfan]

Our family of 5 uses the 10 day non-expire park hopper approach. We only goes once a year, and we've been so many times over the years that we get our fill of the parks in 3 days. We also usually take in one of the evening events like MNSSHP or MVMCP. The rest of the time we spend at water parks or at the resort.

 

[simzac]

We also buy the 10 day passes as we always go the first week of January due to school schedules, thus the AP does us no good.

 

[Jaaron2]

We just did 2 days ago. The no Exp. date works well if your not sure exactly when you will be going back. For us we go the same time every year so the AP dosent work.

 

[bmalonef45]

We did the same thing with the 10 day no exp. I'll be going on my 4th trip and using the last of mine. I will probably buy another one as the rest of the family still has days left. The kids more than the adults because we have been once without them. It offers the best flexibility for us since we don't always go more than once a year.

 

[3DisneyKids]

We also love this option. Just be aware that it is up to YOU to keep track of how many days are left on each ticket. The only way you can find out how many days are left on a ticket is actually at the entrance to a park (guest relations or turnstyle).

 

[BroganMc]

I talked my sister into getting 7 day park hoppers w/o expiration this last trip. She was just going to get the number of days she expected to do a park (4 days), but I convinced her it made more sense to buy a larger ticket. Now she can come back in two years, have 3 days of parks and 6 days of waterparks.

My dad and I are still using some old 7 day hopper plusses from '04. Used them for a friend one year and we use the plusses ourselves sporadically. I only wish they worked for DQ. I'm tempted to buy another hopper just for the plusses, but we go too often to warrant the cost over an AP. And Disney's finger scans make the family passes unusable.

 

[drag n' fly]

I just want to confirm this. If we buy non expiring park hopper passes they could technically be used at Disneyland or WDW right? Since they are not annual passes.

 

[summergolf]

Hi NE Ohio neighbor

this year we bought the AP because we are taking 3 trips in one year.
Next year we will buy the 10 day no expiry and should be able to spread it out
over 2-3 years

 

[MARY-IN-OH]

Wow! Thanks for all the positive responses everyone! I showed them to my DH, and he had to admit it sounds pretty good. I think one thing that really concerned him about DVC was paying the high cost of theme park tickets every time someone wants to come with us.

Now he is going to have to find something else to try to steer me away from my DVC plan. (shhh...we don't need him to know about the maintenance fees just yet...)

(Hi Summergolf!!)
-mary

 

[Duane]

One thing to remember on the "regular" tickets, they are not transferrable and a finger scan is attached to each ticket. Didn't know if you planned on "spreading" the tickets among several folks.

It would not be fun to get to the turnstile and be turned away.....