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

[vacationclub]

A previous poster made a good point, that each traveling party should consider their preferences and habits when making decisions about the type of ticket media to purchase. Based on our experience, and for our family we find that it does not pay for us to purchase Park Hoppers. By the time, you leave one park, walk to the bus, boat or monorail line, board the bus, boat or monorail, arrive at another park, we figure that we've lost at least an hour on our day. Generally we visit Disney on the least crowded days, so we prefer to purchase the multi day, one park per day tickets. YMMV

We lose the same hour you do. But that hour is well worth what we gain, by using the rest of the day to visit another park, or maybe even 2 other parks. Instead of paying for an entirely new park day , we pay a little more for a park hopper and hit 2 or 3 parks in the same day, regardless of the hour in between.

Sometimes the transportation just getting there can be interesting (boat from EPCOT to DHS, Monorail from MK to EPCOT)

If you don't need all day trapped in just one park, paying for a day plus park hopper is cheaper than paying for 2 days without park hopper.

 

[richmo]

robo's ticket advice at the top of the thread is right on, as usual. It is easy to buy the wrong kind of ticket. If you "underbuy", fortunately, Disney is pretty good about letting you upgrade.

A few things I'd add:
- While robo is correct that it makes no sense to buy more days than you need, it is important to remember that the incremental cost of the extra day is quite small once the ticket gets over 4 days or so. I don't have the numbers in front of me, but sometimes an extra day added on to a ticket is only $2 or $3. Therefore, I'd be inclined to add "extra" days to a ticket for days that you might not think are worth it: like arrival day, departure day, maybe an "off-day" where you might go in for dinner or nighttime show only. Don't think of an addon day costing $40 or so, its often much, much less.
- Related to that, if you're an occasional visitor to the area and you also want to hit Universal, Sea World, etc., from an economic standpoint, it makes a lot of sense to separate your trips. Instead of mixing Disney and Universal each trip, do Disney one trip and save the other parks for another trip. (the big drawback to this is I find it hard to visit Orlando and not go to Disney...although we've done this and got our fix at Downtown Disney)
- Finally, if you are staying offsite and have a car, if you're there a decent number of days, it may make sense to get one annual pass. This way you avoid paying the increasingly expensive parking, you have eligibility for Tables In Wonderland and get some of the other discounts for passholders that you can apply to your entire party (water parks, DQ, golf, etc.). And, if you return before your window expires, there's one less ticket to buy.

 

[doconeill]

A few things I'd add:
- While robo is correct that it makes no sense to buy more days than you need, it is important to remember that the incremental cost of the extra day is quite small once the ticket gets over 4 days or so. I don't have the numbers in front of me, but sometimes an extra day added on to a ticket is only $2 or $3. Therefore, I'd be inclined to add "extra" days to a ticket for days that you might not think are worth it: like arrival day, departure day, maybe an "off-day" where you might go in for dinner or nighttime show only. Don't think of an addon day costing $40 or so, its often much, much less.

It's more than that now...used to be $3, then $4 - now it's $8!!!

But there is no need to add in advance (unless you are afraid it will be $10+ when you next go...), as you can easily add as needed while there.

- Related to that, if you're an occasional visitor to the area and you also want to hit Universal, Sea World, etc., from an economic standpoint, it makes a lot of sense to separate your trips. Instead of mixing Disney and Universal each trip, do Disney one trip and save the other parks for another trip. (the big drawback to this is I find it hard to visit Orlando and not go to Disney...although we've done this and got our fix at Downtown Disney)

If you're doing a short trip, sure...but if you are here longer, it's hard to not want to do more. Our last trip included a day at Universal, and our next one will as well - mostly for Harry Potter. Ideally, if we could squeeze two days in, we'd do both parks and the per-day cost is cheaper - but that comes out of our Disney days.

We're also DVC and typically rent a car, so we're not likely to stay onsite at Universal (although it might be a possibility for a weekend in the fall if I attend the same event and my family insists they come this time )

 

[seashoreCM]

If you don't need all day trapped in just one park, paying for a day plus park hopper is cheaper than paying for 2 days (separate ticket cards required without park hopper).

I stuck some words in your mouth for emphasis.

 

[Sandi]

See, I told you I was confused.
Thanks for the clarification. We've only ever bought the military tickets, so I don't know how all that works. I'm trying to save as much $$ as I can, so I guess it looks like just buying the 10 day hoppers from UT would be best.

My sister thought the same thing. We've traveled to WDW several times together and it wasn't until the last time that the light finally went on with respect to the cost of adding park hopping. She thought it was $55 per day per ticket, so it would have added more than $200 per day for her family. No wonder she thinks I'm rich! (I'm not.) I love hopping and we always get the PH feature.