Extra Magic Hour and 4 Day PH?

[takemetoo]

If you are staying on site, but buy 4 day hoppers in advance, can you still use the Extra Magic Hour (or whatever they call it now), or do you need to have a package? I saw somewhere that they do not encode pre bought passes onto your room key: can you still buy phs at the resort and have them put on your key (we did that on our honeymoon 5 years ago)? Will that cost a lot more?

Should we just get a package? We're planning on going Dec 26th to Dec 31st 2005, but only going to the parks for the 4 full days in the middle, no water parks. We'd use the extra time in the parks if we had it, but aren't planning on it.

My head is spinning from all the choices.

It's me, dh, ds5 (at that point) and ds2 (at that point). My parents, brother and his girlfriend are all coming, too, but they'll have different rooms/reservations so I can book seperately for them.

Thanks for any advice/ encouragement. I'm going crazy trying to figure it out for EVERYONE. But thats another post alltogether.

Amy

 

[CarolMN]

Originally posted by takemetoo
If you are staying on site, but buy 4 day hoppers in advance, can you still use the Extra Magic Hour (or whatever they call it now), or do you need to have a package?

You don't need a package. EMH is open to all on - site guests, guest of the Swan/Dolphin resort and the Hilton in DD.

I saw somewhere that they do not encode pre bought passes onto your room key: can you still buy phs at the resort and have them put on your key (we did that on our honeymoon 5 years ago)? Will that cost a lot more?

It is true that you can no longer have "pre bought" passes encoded onto your room key. If you want passes encoded onto your room key, you must buy the passes at the resort. You will pay gate price rather than advance purchase price if you do that. Only you know if the convenience is worth the extra cost.

Should we just get a package? We're planning on going Dec 26th to Dec 31st 2005, but only going to the parks for the 4 full days in the middle, no water parks. We'd use the extra time in the parks if we had it, but aren't planning on it.

My head is spinning from all the choices.

It's me, dh, ds5 (at that point) and ds2 (at that point). My parents, brother and his girlfriend are all coming, too, but they'll have different rooms/reservations so I can book seperately for them.

Thanks for any advice/ encouragement. I'm going crazy trying to figure it out for EVERYONE. But thats another post alltogether.

Amy

You need to do the math for yourself. In my experience, packages usually include things we would not use.

If this were my decision, I'd buy the 4 day Park Hopper Tickets in advance even though it means I would have to keep track of the tickets separately from the room keys. Not a big deal for me. YMMV.

Best wishes -

 

[takemetoo]

Okay, so we'll be able to get in early regardless, phew. Now I just have to figure out who will complain about having two passes to keep track of.

It's funny, doing the math is the easy part. I'm just having one heck of a time figuring out how to negotiate everyone's desires. For some of the adults in the party the extra $ for the "convienience" of a package might be worth it. I wish I could quantify everyones desires and just plug them in to an equation so it was straight math. I see why they all leave the planning up to me: no choices to make and they can complain all they want.

Okay, I shouldn't complain, I really do like all the planning. Thanks for the help!

Amy

edited to ask: what does YMMV mean?

 

[CarolMN]

Originally posted by takemetoo
Okay, so we'll be able to get in early regardless, phew. Now I just have to figure out who will complain about having two passes to keep track of.

It's funny, doing the math is the easy part. I'm just having one heck of a time figuring out how to negotiate everyone's desires. For some of the adults in the party the extra $ for the "convienience" of a package might be worth it. I wish I could quantify everyones desires and just plug them in to an equation so it was straight math. I see why they all leave the planning up to me: no choices to make and they can complain all they want. ...(snip).....

Yep! That's most definitely the hard part! Good luck!

edited to ask: what does YMMV mean?

Your Mileage May Vary. Just a short cut way to say that it's my opinion and you (or others) may have a different one!