Buying more that 10 day tickets.

[jmartinez1895]

This may be a dumb question, but we have never stayed more than a week so I'm not sure what to do. We where looking at maybe staying about 13 days or so for our next trip. I was playing around with numbers on the disney site and got a quote for a room, dinning and tickets, but noticed that the tickets stop at 10 days. To stay longer than 10 days would we be better off buying AP's and if we do that how do we do dinning? THanks for any and all help.

 

[vicki_c]

Buy a shorter ticket with your package, upgrade to the APs after you are there.

 

[StitchandPooh'sMom]

Dining is tied to your room reservation, so you'll have 13 days of dining if you have a room for 13 nights.

You can get an AP for more nights, but it is a lot more than a 10-day base ticket (and about $15 more than a 10-day ticket and a 3-day ticket). One thought is to add the water parks option ($57.51 per ticket) - it would give you ten entries to the water parks, Disney Quest and the Oak Trail golf course). Or plan for a couple of down days - Downtown Disney, mini golf, time at the pool, etc.

If you do want 13 park days, it is cheaper to upgrade to an AP if you plan to park hop, since hopping adds $57.51 to the base ticket price (and you would pay it twice if you bought a 10-day ticket and a 3-day ticket per person, if you wanted to hop with both tickets). Having an AP also gets you some other discounts, like merchandise (I think) and free parking (which you would have for being onsite anyway).

Gate prices (adult):

AP - 531.44
10-day base - 279.03
10-day with water parks OR park hopper - 336.54
3-day base - 238.56
10-day base + 3-day base (no hopping or water parks) - 517.59

Since you want to book a package with dining, if you decide to buy two tickets per person, you could buy one ticket per person through Disney and the other through a discounter like Undercover Tourist - that would save a bit off the total ticket costs. Your ticket days don't have to match your room and dning days.

 

[clanmcculloch]

A much cheaper option would be to add the Water Park & More option. You'll still only get 10 days in the 4 main parks but using the WP&M entitlements you can go to water parks and Disney Quest on the additional days. Your tickets will expire 14 days from first use but with a 13 day trip that's fine.

If you want to be in the main 4 parks more than 10 days then this won't work, but if you're just wanting to make sure you've got some park to go to each day then it's definitely an option.

 

[jmartinez1895]

We may just hang around DTD. My youngest has immuno issues and can not be in public water so the water parks and pools are off limits to us. I was hoping to spend most of our days in the parks, but I can do without for 3 days if it means a huge price jump. Thanks for the help.

 

[PrinceCharmingsMom]

I would definatley allow for a rest/shop day at the outlets and a DTD day. That would take up 2 days. We love DTD especially in the evening.

 

[NeverlandClub23]

We're going for 13 days this December. We're doing 8 day hoppers, 1 day at Sea World, 1 day at Universal, 1 day at Discovery Cove (got a great deal on the American Express one day sale thing), 1 day we're going to the Christmas party so we're not using admission for that day (we'll just relax or go to DTD until we can go to MK for the party). The other free day is a relaxation day. We may go check out Celebration or drive to the gulf coast to a beach or something like that, or just hang out at the pool.

Our WDW trips are usually 7-8 days and by the end of the 8th day we all have felt like we've seen and done everything we could possibly want to do at WDW (we also go at a fairly uncrowded time so that helps).

Also wanted to add that we're (my boyfriend and I) doing the dining plan while my parents are not. My mom got a 30% off room only code and is buying one AP for herself and a regular hopper pass for my Dad. We're doing many TS meals but they don't eat a ton and may be purchasing the Tables in Wonderland card ($75) with the pass (you get 20% off at most TS restaurants but 18% gratuity is automatically included). They haven't decided for sure if that's what they want to do.

There are many benefits with the annual pass. A few are: you get discounts on select nights of MVMCP and MNSSHP party tickets, 50% off miniature golf, and 10-20% off many restaurants around DTD and some other WDW restaurants (mostly the WDW TS discounts are Mon-Fri. lunch only), discounts on rental cars, etc. These are just a few examples. You would just need to crunch the numbers to see what works best for your situation.

 

[SandrA9810]

There's plenty to do at the World with a few extra days. And being there for 13 days straight... you're gonna need a break from the parks.

Plenty of resorts offer day time activities, usually by the pool side, but you don't have to be swimming. There's night time movies at the Deluxe resorts and the campgrounds. There's biking at Fort Wilderness/Wilderness Lodge, there's the family bikes (which cost more) at Port Orleans, Boardwalk, and I believe SSR. There's a carriage ride through Port Orleans Riverside or Fort Wilderness.

If you wanted to spend two dining credits, you could go to the Luau at the Poly or the Hoop De Doo review at Fort Wilderness. I know at FW, there's buses after the show to take you back to your resort, but you have to go to the Magic Kingdom and take the boat (or any other park and bus) to get there.

You could probably spend 13 days just resort hoping and dining at the different resorts. There's so much good food to try outside of the parks, and very fun atmosphere like the Whispering Canyon Cafe at Wilderness Lodge. And there's plenty of Character dining locations outside of the parks too.

 

[tzolkin]

We may just hang around DTD. My youngest has immuno issues and can not be in public water so the water parks and pools are off limits to us. I was hoping to spend most of our days in the parks, but I can do without for 3 days if it means a huge price jump. Thanks for the help.

Our last two trips (12 days) we did our 10 park days in the middle and didn't do any parks on arrival or departure days. We drive about 23 hours straight so we let DH rest and the kids and I hang out at the resort or do a little grocery shopping when we arrive. On our last day we sleep in and then hang out at the resort until we're ready to head home.

We could definitely do a sleep in/DTD day in the middle of our trip if we stayed a bit longer. And since you're planning to do the dining plan maybe a character meal at one of the resorts on your off day(s) would be fun too.

 

[jmartinez1895]

And since you're planning to do the dining plan maybe a character meal at one of the resorts on your off day(s) would be fun too.

We always do character meals. I did not even think about going to one of the resorts for this, Thanks for the idea.

 

[las3888]

DH would never take a trip for 13 days (!) so to me it seems like a luxury. However, for most of our trips we go from 4-7 nightsm and we use about 3-4 park days at the most. We own at DVC and go at least 2x a year so we are not fanatical about being in the parks everyday either. However, we always have a rental car to get out and about on our down days. Hope that helps - if it were me, I would do 10 days with the 'plus' option to go to water parks on off days.

 

[frannn]

We have the same problem- we are going to be there 11 days, and want to visit parks each day, including arrival & departure days. We are going in Sept, when MNSSHP is going on. I believe you can enter the park at 4 pm with just the halloween party ticket. We'll be taking DD8 to BBB to get beautified, have lunch at DTD, then make our way to MK. This way, we'll use the 10 day hopper for the rest of the trip, and have the halloween party ticket for the day we are missing.

 

[squirrel]

I've been going for 14 nights for the past few years.

I take one of my niece's each trip and we don't go to a park on arrival or departure day. We go to the parks for a few days and then take a day off and go to DTD or check out other resorts. Then back to the parks for a few more days and then another day off.

We also get another park day in by adding in a MNSSHP night. That day we sleep in and don't do a TS meal.

 

[mariacj]

We are in the same boat, but we are using our Waterpark options...


Other things to do outside of parks:

Hoop dee doo Review
Horse Rides
Renting water bicycles (Might be fun)
Miniature Golf
Monorail Resort Hopping
AKL Savannah
Character Meal (Park Fare, Cape May, Ohana (AM))

Walk alongside the Boardwalk with Ice Cream

There are plenty of lovely children play areas around the resorts... I know you will have fun either way!