FastPass-SchmassPass... Many guests buy the wrong TICKETS!

As wdw vacations get more and more expensive there will be less of this. I think there are very few people who will just fork over thousands without doing some basic research on what they are buying! This is why I started looking at the dis so much. I heard about a family of six that spent 12K on their vacation and I thought, "it can't possibly NEED to be that expensive. There must be a better way.". And there is. You may have to do some work but there are more economical options. The dis, mouse savers, and others are available to everyone.

I don't think the numbers are necessarily as small as you might think. Travel agents still exist, and plently of people use them to plan their trips. But how the airlines, hotels, etc. treat the travel agents has changed, such that you can generally get as good a deal online as you can from a TA - but they still go to the TAs so they don't have do deal with the hassle.

Vacationing at WDW however can be complicated, and it takes a seasoned, knowledgeable person to plan it well. I believe "certified" Disney TAs take classes on it...but of course details change given that Disney doesn't seem to train the CMs in certain areas on this very well, I have my doubts that some of the TAs get it right either. I'm sure there are some excellent ones...the ones you hear about on the podcasts, like Dreams Unlimited, tend to be among the most knowledgeable.

The use and purchase of hoppers and non-expires is completely subjective and depends entirely on the habits and intentions of the persons buying. For some, who wont' be coming back for a long time, and know they will go to the parks exactly 3 days during their trip, the no-expire isn't really needed. But a hopper may be very worthwhile.

For those who KNOW they will return again and again, but each time they go they may only go the parks a few days, then non-expire are very good investments if you buy in bulk.

It's cheaper to buy 10 NE PH tickets in one shot, and use them over many visits, than it is to buy just the amount you plan on using each visit (say 3-4) without the NE option.

But you have to be very careful. Unless you can finish a vacation without buying another ticket to do so, or just repeatedly get 10-day NE tickets over and over, it can be MORE expensive to use a NE ticket + another ticket than it would have been to get the right-sized tickets to begin with. Of course, if you can squeeze 3-4 trips out of a single NE ticket, you can really make out.
 
Yes if you book through the website it will by default give you the max ticket, including a day when you arrive and a day when you leave.

It will also offer you the WPF&M option but it will not tell you specifically that if you go to a WP instead of a major park on a day that you should get a ticket for one less day.

This is I think is the number one question, besides using two "days" in one day, people not knowing exactly what a day is and thinking they need a "day" for every day they are there including days they may even be off property at SW or US.

Disney unfortunately made them pretty complicated. Sure, we all understand how it works but we've been here a while.

Just look at Park Days vs. WPFM "admissions"...you get the same number, but they are handled very differently.
 
I once had a TA tell me that Disney never discounts. Needless to say, I didn't bother to use that TA, but I wonder how many people might have booked with her believing this and never knowing about PIN codes, AAA discounts, etc.
 


I was about to make the same comment as Chartle. The Disney website can be a royal pain because it will give you more expensive options as a default. DDP whether you want it or not. MYW tickets + PH + WPM - this last one especially can really elevate the cost of a vacation.

Of course it's so much easier for all of us Disers- knowing the various options are as second nature as breathing to most of us by now. But for the Disney virgin it could be very confusing. Just look at the number of posts we see from newbies who get several different numbers when looking at reservations for the same resort on the same dates. Dollars to donuts, most of the time it's because of a different selection of tickets (or room category, or type of dining plan, yadda, yadda).

Sure wish they could simplify the reservations pages a little; but I'm not foolish enough to hold my breath.
 
Huh, I didn't realize this was common.

Our trips are 7 days, six nights, but we only buy five days worth of tickets since the first and last days are technically half-days due to fly-ins and fly-outs.

If I understand things correctly, the cost of a 6-day ticket is not much more than a 5-day ticket (less than 10 dollar difference). In my view, ten bucks is a pretty good price for a half-day.
Once we went to Epcot on our departure day -- rope drop, then left around 11:00AM. The 'cost' of that ticket was something like 6 dollars each.
 
I was about to make the same comment as Chartle. The Disney website can be a royal pain because it will give you more expensive options as a default. DDP whether you want it or not. MYW tickets + PH + WPM - this last one especially can really elevate the cost of a vacation.

Of course it's so much easier for all of us Disers- knowing the various options are as second nature as breathing to most of us by now. But for the Disney virgin it could be very confusing. Just look at the number of posts we see from newbies who get several different numbers when looking at reservations for the same resort on the same dates. Dollars to donuts, most of the time it's because of a different selection of tickets (or room category, or type of dining plan, yadda, yadda).

Sure wish they could simplify the reservations pages a little; but I'm not foolish enough to hold my breath.

While I have never seen Disney add the DDP or park hoppers, one thing that gets me is that you price out a trip with tickets and maybe the DDP and it says that will be say $2,500 at a mod. It will then show you other comparable resorts or maybe upgrades for much cheaper.

You select one and realize that it takes you back to square one and you have to reconfigure everything the same to really compare.

Of course I haven't stayed on site for 12 years but I still like to shop from time to time. :thumbsup2
 


If I understand things correctly, the cost of a 6-day ticket is not much more than a 5-day ticket (less than 10 dollar difference). In my view, ten bucks is a pretty good price for a half-day.
Once we went to Epcot on our departure day -- rope drop, then left around 11:00AM. The 'cost' of that ticket was something like 6 dollars each.

It is currently $8+tax a day beyond 4 days. It used to only be $3...but it depends on what people want to do on departure day. Early flights can preclude going to a park, especially if you are taking ME to get to the airport.
 
I had buying park tix for arrival day back fire on me royally. WE were to arive in Orlando around 11:30a so figured ok we will go to Ak for few hours. Well deicing failures at home airport for friend caused her to miss her connecting flight and the weather (snow) caused our flight to be delayed inleaving. By time we got to orlando it was 4:30p. WE totally wasted a day of tixs. Yes it was 4 bucks but still 4 bucks times 3 ppl is a mcd's trip.
 
Personally, I think buying 6 days for a 6 day trip is waste of money. I'm not going to go the parks every single day, especially days that I'm not in FL the whole time. In fact, I can do 2-3 parks in one day...there's one park day ticket. That's just me.

$8 to see the castle, the parade, fireworks, and ride a few rides on the evening of our arrival is well worth it to me.
 
If I understand things correctly, the cost of a 6-day ticket is not much more than a 5-day ticket (less than 10 dollar difference). In my view, ten bucks is a pretty good price for a half-day.
Once we went to Epcot on our departure day -- rope drop, then left around 11:00AM. The 'cost' of that ticket was something like 6 dollars each.

Yes some people do that, but to keep from being :offtopic::goodvibes. Many people here ask if their are half day tickets because they don't want to waste a "ticket day" for only a few hours. So many people don't know about adding a day to a ticket.

Now there are some situations where they can't add a day such as using a fixed length Military ticket or left over days from an old ticket, both of which can't be upgraded.
 
As wdw vacations get more and more expensive there will be less of this. I think there are very few people who will just fork over thousands without doing some basic research on what they are buying! This is why I started looking at the dis so much. I heard about a family of six that spent 12K on their vacation and I thought, "it can't possibly NEED to be that expensive. There must be a better way.". And there is. You may have to do some work but there are more economical options. The dis, mouse savers, and others are available to everyone.

I'm a researcher. The number of people who plan a vacation, or buy a car, or a carseat, etc without doing any research whatsoever always amazes me. But, I just don't see people who have non-researching personalities starting. Disney prices have been going up since its opening, and there are still those who go completely unknowing and unprepared. I don't think that will change.
 
Huh, I didn't realize this was common.

Our trips are 7 days, six nights, but we only buy five days worth of tickets since the first and last days are technically half-days due to fly-ins and fly-outs.

Same here. We usually go to Orlando for 11 days 10 nights. First and last day are travel days. By the time we get to Orlando, it's usually in the early evening by the time our flight arrives. We opt for a nice dinner, usually at Shula's. So we don't do a theme park this day. The last day our flight leaves usually around noon, so another no theme park day. So that leaves us 9 days to do whatever. We'll usually by a 5 day park hopper. We also do US/IoA and SW as well.

As Robo pointed out, we wasted money on our first trip. We bought a 5 day w/park hopper. We only hopped on one day, but could've really done without it. We found ourselves staying at the same park all day. This was before I found the Disboards. :laughing: Now that I found the Dis, I've learned how to make the most of park hopping. :thumbsup2
 
I'm a researcher. The number of people who plan a vacation, or buy a car, or a carseat, etc without doing any research whatsoever always amazes me. But, I just don't see people who have non-researching personalities starting. Disney prices have been going up since it's opening and there are still those who go completely unknowing and unprepared. I don't think that will change.

TOTALLY agree with this.
 
When I worked at the turnstiles, I often saw guests who had bought 1-day tickets and it seemed like they did that for every day of their trip. I knew someone who worked at the ticket booths and she told me stories about trying to convince those guests to not buy the 1-day tickets.

Funny story: sometimes I'd see guests with e-tickets for Disneyland, not realizing that they were at WDW.
 
But you have to be very careful. Unless you can finish a vacation without buying another ticket to do so, or just repeatedly get 10-day NE tickets over and over, it can be MORE expensive to use a NE ticket + another ticket than it would have been to get the right-sized tickets to begin with. Of course, if you can squeeze 3-4 trips out of a single NE ticket, you can really make out.

I'm not sure I follow you here. Please show an example of what you mean.
 
What do you mean? How is that $8?


Depending on the number of days you purchase your ticket for, the difference between doing say 6 days or doing 7 days of a base MYW ticket is only $8.
So in theory maybe you normally wouldn't plan to do a park on your arrival day because you'd only get a few hours in the evening, so you only buy a 6 day ticket even though you'll technically be on vacation for 7...BUT for an extra $8 you can get that 7th day and go to MK in the evening of yur arrival day for the parade, fireworks and a few rides.

Seems worth the extra $8 to me.
 
What do you mean? How is that $8?

Adding a day to a MYW ticket of 4 days or more is just $8+tax at the current costs.

I'm not sure I follow you here. Please show an example of what you mean.

From my web page on tickets:

For example, lets say you got the maximum ticket - 10 days, no options. The adult base price is $291. To add the NE option is an additional $225, so now its $516. If you used 7 days on your first trip, you now have 3 days left. But if your next trip will require 4 park days, then you will have to purchase an additional 1-day MYW ticket for $85, so now your pre-tax total is $601.

If you had stuck to a 7-day base ticket, and then gotten another 4-day ticket on the second trip, your total cost would have been $267 + 243 = $510. You ended up spending $91 MORE to get the NE option...
If you will make LOTS of trips, open-ended, then there is the technique I call "chaining". You get a 10-day NE ticket, use it up and when you need another park day you get another 10-day NE ticket, use it up, and so on. That works fine, at least until you finally decide no to go any more... :)
 
Depending on the number of days you purchase your ticket for, the difference between doing say 6 days or doing 7 days of a base MYW ticket is only $8.
So in theory maybe you normally wouldn't plan to do a park on your arrival day because you'd only get a few hours in the evening, so you only buy a 6 day ticket even though you'll technically be on vacation for 7...BUT for an extra $8 you can get that 7th day and go to MK in the evening of yur arrival day for the parade, fireworks and a few rides.

Seems worth the extra $8 to me.

You're right, my bad on that. It's been a while since i've done it that way, been in the never expire game for a while.

It appear the big break comes at 4 days. I've been going enough that I don't really want to spend around $320 per person per trip just to have access every day of a 6 day trip...I'm good with between $57 and $170 per person per trip for between 1 to 3 days of full access...I spend the other days doing other things.
 

GET A DISNEY VACATION QUOTE

Dreams Unlimited Travel is committed to providing you with the very best vacation planning experience possible. Our Vacation Planners are experts and will share their honest advice to help you have a magical vacation.

Let us help you with your next Disney Vacation!






Top