Best ticket option for DVC...

[lenshanem]

We need 7 park days admission next use year. 2 on one trip, 5 on the other. It looks like it would be best for us to get the 7 day plus hopper instead of the DVC 10% discount on UPH for the 2 trips. The AP doesn't look like it will be worth it this time. Just curious as to the general thinking with DVC members...
If you don't get the AP do most of you just keep buying the 7 day plus hopper and when it is used up buy another?
I divided it up and it appears to be about the same amount of money per day as a 5 day hopper, without the plus.

One more question - Our youngest will turn 3 after our 2 day trip so I was just going to buy her a 5 day hopper without the plus for the second trip. On the plus option they never expire so I was curious if we could at a later date use 2 options from ONE of our 7 day plus hopper tickets for a trip to say BB for BOTH girls, or no?

And if we keep buying these plus hoppers each year and keep accumulating the options has anyone sold them on ebay or given them to family and/or friends? It seems after awhile we would really start stacking up on the options since we wouldn't go to PI for quite some time until the kids are older. Just wondering..

Is there a way to check how many options are left on the passes if we start accumulating them?

Thanks!

 

[lenshanem]

Sorry, still thinking...
DVC 10% discount on UPH doesn't appear to really ever be a good option for us.
Buying 7 day plus hoppers continually seems the way to go.
Even with the AP you don't get any options and the premium AP doesn't seem worth it for that price.

At how many days is the plain AP worth buying over the 7 day plus hopper continually? 8 or 9 days? I'm starting to confuse myself...
Divided at 7 days the AP is 56.14 per day, at 8 days 49.12, but the 7 day hopper is at 46.71 per day. So it would seem until you reach 9 days would the AP be worth it cause even though 49.12 (AP) compared to 46.71 (7 day plus hopper) isn't much of a difference you still aren't getting the options.

Am I on the right track?

 

[DebbieB]

You sound like you are on the right track. A park hopper is also a good idea instead of UPH if someone would get sick or there would be a day you do not go to a park for some reason. With a UPH, you're paying for it anyway. With a PHP, you could save the day for another trip.

One of the items in your original post - you can't use the same PHP to get 2 people into BB on the same day.

My Mom has a PHP that she has used partially on 3 trips. She always writes the dates she uses it on the jacket they give you, park days and plus days. Guest Services could also check.

 

[AreWeThereYet]

We have always gotten park hoppers or park hopper plus passes. I usually pick mine up from AAA and get a slight discount. I know that www.mousesavers.com also lists discount tickets and where to buy them on a regular basis.

We just recently used the plus options from passes we bought two years ago and went to Blizzard Beach - a great use for the plus options. We still have three left so we just got 5-day hoppers this time around.

As far as sharing a pass - I don't think that will work. We accidentally demagnatized our passes last week and had to go to customer relations at Epcot to get them fixed. While there they were able to see that we had used each pass at MK in the morning and they could tell what and when we had used them in the past. They definitely seem to enforce the "one pass per person" rule.

The passes we had were purchased when our two DD were still "child" admissions, and the cast members at BB did not seem to mind that - they were content knowing that we had valid media to enter the parks for each person.

As far as selling or ginving the passes away: Since there are no names on the passes I don't imagine giving them away would be a problem. Selling on ebay or other auctions might get you some cash back but I would be wary of that myself. People bidding will want some sort of proof that the nubmer of days/options you say are available on the passes is correct....I can see how many unhappy buyers have been defrauded out of their hard-earned dollars that way.

As far as checking the tickets - anyone who can issue tickets (hotel front desks, customer relations at the parks) can check the history of each pass for you.

 

[Pa@okw95]

What I do is get a AP and plan my trips so I get 2 or 3 trips to WDW in year from purchase date. I will be for the first time buying 5 day hopper passes for everyone because we will be taking a year and a half rest from WDW. Trying to figure things down to the penny rarely works out in the real world when things are this close in cost anyway. Something will happen to make the per day cost not work out. It really kills me to buy passes to the parks because I really only go on two or three attractions per day when I do go. I got my passes for free for years so it got me into this habit of only going to the parks for any hour or two. If you have anyone in your party that may not want to go to the parks everyday then the hopper pass might be the one for him for sure.

 

[WDWfantasy]

What I do is get a AP and plan my trips so I get 2 or 3 trips to WDW in year from purchase date

Ditto here. We buy PAP's because we go to the water parks alot and visit PI and DQ each trip. For instance, we purchased PAP's on May 26, 2002 for a 14 day stay for DH, myself and our 2 DDs. DH and I returned to WDW for 9 days for a 15th anniversary trip in December. The 4 of us went back to WDW on May 3rd for a 15 day stay. So the girls got 29 days worth of use out of their PAP's and DH and I got 38 days use out of ours. That made the cost of theirs just under $18 per day and the cost of ours just under $14 per day. We won't buy PAP's again until next trip in June, 2004. We aren't park commandos by any means but we do go to some park or waterpark for awhile every day that we are there. Even if it's only in the evening after dinner to do a couple of attractions and watch fireworks. It's nice to not have to calculate days used etc. but only is worth it if you can use it for several days in a year. You do get some discounts associated with APs and PAPs too. Although those are becoming less appealing each year. It used to be free kids meals or desserts with adult meal purchases at several restaurants. Now it's 10 percent off at several restaurants during lunch Monday - Friday only. We do like the free admission to O-Rays games at WWoS. We go a couple of times on each trip. Lots of fun for an evening out. Good luck with your research and on making the decision that's best for your family.

 

[ToyStory Fan]

It really depends on what you are planning as far as future trips go. You can't go wrong with the PHP because they don't expire. The UPH even with 10% is not worth it most of the time. AS far as AP/PAP's go, if you are planning on more than 9 days within a 1 year span and not going to the waterparks or quest, you are ok. We got PAP's last trip, and did 10 days with 11 more on this upcoming trip, so we are still ahead I think.

 

[lenshanem]

Thanks everyone.

Pa@okw95, you are posting to me after the GF saving a buck thread scandal? LOL
Actually Pa@okw95, I woudl buy the AP if I could, but my oldest starts Kindergarten thsi August so it would be hard to plan our trips to maximize the worth. I don't wnat to pull her out of school. We have set times we can go so we cna't really offset our trips yearly by a week. Bummer.

 

[JimC]

APs are the pass to get at 8 days. PAP a few days more. We get APs because we rarely use the water parks and can buy the odd ticket there if we decide to go. If we were regular water park attendees we would get PAPs.

We also plan to get an extra trip in right before they expire. But we find that we always manage to have opportunities to go more often and having the AP is a great advantage.

For example, we leave Friday on a surprise trip for wife to celebrate our 25th anniversary because we have APs and got great AP rate. We would not do that if we did not have those passes.

I saw a survey on these boards and I believe that APs and Park Hoppers were the most common tickets among DVCers. Maybe someone can provide a link to it, but I can not find it.

 

[lenshanem]

Kami, I forgot to mention if you already know that the Orlando Rays are leaving after this season since you had mentioned you go to games often with your PAP. If you knew, woudl you also happen to know if there is going to be another minor league team to atek their place?
It is a shame cause we wnet last trip to see a game and had a nice time and we just bought into DVc, too so we are know sure to go down often!
I really hope so cause hubby is a huge baseball fan.
Thanks!

 

[TChrist05]

We have bought annual passes for the past ten years.....we just joined the vacation club on May 16th....are there any discounts on annual passes for vacation club members? We always get about 3 trips to Disney on an annual pass....and sometimes when my wife and daughter go to super soap weekend in November they get a 4th......thanks for the info...
Tom

 

[sueg]

After reading about free admission to Orlando Rays games w/ an AP, in this thread, I called MS for another question. At the end of the conversation, I asked MS about APs & Orlando Rays. The woman I spoke to said she used to work in ticketing & had never heard of that AP benefit. But after checking, she confirmed the benefit. I love when I learn something from the Bds. & teach it to MS.