dvc and park tickets

[jwmccullough]

I am looking for the DVC member point of view from those who are more experienced than myself. My first trip home is coming in August and I have been trying to figure out what my best value is for park tickets and what all I need to consider.
Right now I am currently of the thinking that buying Park Hopper Plus tickets are the way to go, but I want to make sure that I am not overlooking anything. Also, if you can, provide a suggestion on where I can get the tickets (gate/resort/Disney Store/ Online Broker)

Thank you all in advance,
Jess

 

[goofy4dvc]

If you are only planning on going to the parks, just get the PH passes. If you think you'll want to go to the water parks or pleasure island, then buy the PH+ passes. We've never purchased the UPH passes (length of stay) because we also go to US/IA and take a take off to swim and shop and DTD, etc. DVCers do get a discount (I think 10%) off of UPH, but it's never been the best option for us. You can find discounted PH+ passes and also if you buy PH or PH+ in advance (or from the Disney Stores) you can get a discount.

 

[blossomz]

Last year was our first trip home and we bought the biggest PH+ since they never expire. This year we bought vouchers for annual passes-from the Disney store before Disney Club closed so we got a discount. Our plan is to return next year prior to their expiration..then renew with the discount provided for renewing. If you are going with PH+ check out the info on discount passes at mousesavers.com and disneydollarless.com
both have links to sights with discounts. Good luck!

 

[sandieb]

Hi, Oh, the fun of planning. We just bought Park Hopper Plus tickets for family we are taking to WDW in May. My husband and I have annual passes, and we have made 3 trips with them = 26 days. We bought the PHP tickets at floridaorlandotickets.com and saved quite a bit off the Disney prices. Service was good, and we received them promptly. Good Luck with your decision. Sandie

 

[Deemarch]

How many days will you be going in the next year? After reading the boards, DH & I decided on APs. We are going 12/25 - 1/1/05, then planning May 2005 for 1 week & Oct. 2005 for 1 week. We are going to be saving about $500 by getting APs. Do your math before you decide!

Have fun!

 

[Dean]

It totally depends on your family, lenth of stay, park style and the like. If you will get more than 8 days in the next year, an Annual Pass or possibly Premium annual pass may be best. Otherwise, most will do best with either a Park Hopper or PH plus pass depending on the water park and Pleasure Island options. You should sit down with your family in mind and go through the options figuring per day costs. If the price is about the same, always go with the one that doesn't expire. Remember that with an AP or PAP and then a renewal, the renewal starts at the end of the original AP, not when you activate it. This can cut months off the usage the second and subsequent years.

 

[littlestar]

The last four tickets we have bought have been the 7 Day Park Hopper Plus passes. 7 days of Disney's main parks and then four plus features of either a water park, pleasure island, or the WW sports center. On the pluses, the water parks are the better value because it costs more to go to a water park ($33?) than say Pleasure Island. The passes do not expire until you use all the days. I think we paid $315 for the last two we bought. We bought those from Ticketmania and they gave us free shipping. The first two 7 Day passes I bought were from Paramount International travel agency in Orlando. I paid $307 a piece for those along with about $15.00 for shipping. Plus, they threw in (2) free character breakfast vouchers with those tickets!

I've heard that there was a price increase on Disney tickets recently. I'm not sure how much, though.

If DVC gave a discount on Annual passes, we would probably switch to buying Annual passes. Until that day comes, we'll stick with 7 Day Park Hopper plus passes. We figure we get about $550 worth of admissions for around $300, so not too bad!

 

[crisi]

I'll argue for the UPH, we use it, but I don't think its for everyone.

1) You buy it at checkin. For us this is good because there is no chance of leaving tickets behind, but a lot of people like to prepurchase and move the cash flow for Disney.

2) Its a little more expensive than a hopper, but it was only a few dollars a day.

3) You can attach it to your room key, making a "one card does it all" situation.

4) You don't need to track unused days and unused pluses from trip to trip - or track the ticket from trip to trip. (I'm not real organized, I'm pretty sure I'd loose them).

5) Once paid for, you have no restrictions on where you go during your trip. So there is no guilt about spending the day by the pool and just going into Epcot for dinner. (Although this isn't very cost effective - its something I'll do with a UPH that I wouldn't do with a PH).

The big downside for us is that if someone does get sick, days are not refunded. And if you aren't planning on spending every day in the parks at least a little, it quickly becomes more than a few dollars difference.

We aren't there long enough to justify APs. I may eventually switch to hoppers, especially if we decide to do Universal or something.

 

[RweTHEREyet]

the other downside to the UPH's is if you encounter some days with really bad weather, and you decide not to go to the Parks, then you are out of luck there, too. With the weird weather we have had these past few years, that would be a big factor in my decision. I would hate to feel I "had" to go to the Parks just to get my monies worth.

 

[Deemarch]

Dean, a question about a second AP...Does it always have to be activated when you buy or can you buy one and have it activated later?

 

[Dean]

Originally posted by Deemarch
Dean, a question about a second AP...Does it always have to be activated when you buy or can you buy one and have it activated later?

In past years, when one "renewed" an AP or PAP, it started from the actual date you renewed it and gave you an additional full year from that point. A few years ago they changed so it started at the end of the old one no matter what date you activated or used it. This make a big difference obviously if you won't be going for a few months. The only way around this I'm aware of is to buy a new regular AP rather than the cheaper renewal and for many, this is actually the better and cheaper option. I think many who use the passes buy one and try to get 2 or more trips in then let it lapse and start over with their next trip with a new pass.

 

[calypso*a*go-go]

For any military I.D. card holders, don't forget the option of buying your tickets @ Shades of Green. You can stay anywhere on site and buy the Stars and Stripes Length of Stay pass. You can also buy AP's at a discount. Here's a link with the prices:

http://www.armymwr.com/shades/index.html

 

[barb45]

I always liked the UPH (with the DVC 10% discount) because of the one key card does everything aspect. I also liked the idea of not feeling pressured to go to the parks every minute of every day (with this ticket you would think that you'd feel more pressure but I just don't). I would just pop over to Epcot for a couple hours or dinner or over to a water park for an hour. Then I got sick - really sick one trip and lost 3 days on my UPH. My son got sick next and lost 2 days and so did my husband because he was taking care of us. If you add that up that is 7 days worth of tickets lost!! I don't like to think about it. The next year we got the Canadian deal - buy 1 7 day PHP and get the next at 1/2 price. The only problem with this deal is that there is about a 3 month window and then they expire.

Dean - how much is the renewal discound on AP's. If we can organize one of our trips for January and the next for December that would be a great price. This is the time of year we usually go and sometimes during March break.

 

[spartacus]

DW and I are going toWDW in July. we purchased our tickets from ticketmania.com. We purchased PH plus tickets for three days before the price went up for $175. that price is now $195. They are now selling a 3 day adult hopper for $170. They have many combination of tickets fro adult and children at good prices. \Subscribe to "mousesavers.com"
They will have their monthlu newsletter come out on theiternt on April 15. This newsletter has links to ticketmania.com with extra specials that are availabe for mousavers subscribers only.
We had to prepay over the phone. (Use the Disney Card). the tickets were mailed with other fees within the week.
Good Luck.

 

[Bojo]

Originally posted by littlestar
The last four tickets we have bought have been the 7 Day Park Hopper Plus passes. 7 days of Disney's main parks and then four plus features ... The passes do not expire until you use all the days.

Do you mean the passes expire after using all 7 park days, or 7 park days as well as 4 plus options? Are the plus options still valid if you've used 7 park days?

 

[littlestar]

The plus options are still valid even if you have used all 7 days admissions for the main parks. I look at it like 11 admissions, 7 for the main parks (and you can hop) and then 4 separate Plus admissions for the water parks/Pleasure Island. On the plus features, of course, you can't hop to Pleasure Island, Blizzard Beach, and Typhoon Lagoon. You have to pick one of those to go to and that counts as one plus feature used on the pass. The passes I bought do not expire until you use all the admissions. You don't have to use them in any sort of order.

We usually take 3 trips a year with our points. The last time we went to Disney we used 1 day off of the 7 day plus pass to park hop to Epcot and Magic Kingdom. So we've got 6 days of hopping left, with all 4 days of plus features left. We're going again in May. I plan on using another day of main park hopping and going to Typhoon Lagoon on another day. So that will leave us 5 days of hopping to the main parks and 3 days of plus features left on the pass.

 

[Bojo]

Thanks ls, that was what I thought - just wanted to be sure.