GAD 6 day park hopper no expire large family

[QuiverofArrows]

Hi. So glad I found this board too! : ) My family is hoping to take our 1st family vacation. (Okay, we are visiting family a few days before too but will be vacationing the following week.) We will be in town from Nov 28th to Dec 4th. We have tickets for VMCP on the 30th and currently have GAD vouchers for December 2nd. I'm wondering if it's possible to do the following below. We were going to do a couple ADR but would need to apply that money towards the other tickets. Our baby had one open heart surgery and could be facing another so we have to get the no expiration option so that isn't flexible. Our family volunteered and all but the baby and 5yo have vouchers. A friend might be able to get us one day passes for 2 people which would cover one of us and our 5yo. We could then use one of our GAD for Fastpass for the group hopefully. So, instead of getting the ADR's, the children would like to get a 6 day park hopper instead. We would use 2 or 3 days now and the rest for another vacation later.

If we get in with free passes, can we upgrade our tickets to a 6 Day hopper using the one day credit that we would get from a friend?

One of our children will be 8 1/2 on our trip and might turn 10 before we returned. Does anyone know if we can upgrade the remainder of days on our tickets for her and if so how much that would cost?

When we've priced it out before, it was less expensive to stay in a villa. We found one in Davenport that is a 4BR/3BA with private pool for $600/week. Is there a dining promotion during the time we are looking at being there? If so, is there a place that would be large enough for 8 people? (Our oldest won't be with us.) Does anybody know the prices so we can figure out if it's worth the difference to stay onsite?

Thanks so much!

 

[doconeill]

Some of your questions beget other questions...

First, you say you "currently have GAD vouchers for December 2nd." GAD vouchers aren't tied to a date, and Dec. 2nd is part-way through your time down there, so I'm unclear what you are thinking. Even if you entered a date when getting your voucher, the date is meaningless.

If you want the biggest bang for your buck, you want to redeem the GAD vouchers for your tickets on the first possible day and then upgrade them to what you need for your stay.

I'm guessing you are thinking that you may have to leave early, and therefore are thinking of getting non-expiring tickets. This almost certainly won't make much financial sense. It will cost $84+tax to make a 6-day ticket non-expiring. If you get to use 4 of the 6 days of the ticket, you'd spend $84 to save the $6 extra the last two days cost. And if those two days don't cover the next trip entirely and you have to buy another ticket to finish the next trip, you will have spent more than if you had just bought another ticket to cover the whole second trip.

On the getting older thing - it is not a problem. They will upgrade it to an adult ticket at no cost, as long as the age difference makes sense (that is, they aren't 16 when the child's ticket was last used a year ago...)

On where to stay and dining - first, no discounts have been announced for that period yet. Second, word is that the discounts are likely to be cut back, so they may not extend free dining this year again.

For a party of 8 in a single accommodation, the only rooms on property that would likely suffice are the DVC 2BR suites, or some of the deluxe suites (not sure of which ones that will hold 8). A 2BR would sleep two in a master BR, two in the LR on a queen pull out, and 4 in the second bedroom (which is more or less like a typical studio, but the second bed may be another queen pull-out). Most AKL rooms and BLT rooms also offer a chair sleeper for a 9th person. I don't know the price offhand but you should be able to plug the dates in on the WDW site and find out. They can be expensive especially if you have to pay rack rate to get free dining.

The Treehouse Villas at Saratoga Springs can also sleep 9 in a three-bedroom configuration, with one room having bunk beds.

 

[QuiverofArrows]

I'm sorry I wasn't clearer. My husband printed off the vouchers and he called and asked me for the date we planned on being at Magic Kingdom so until I read your reply, I assumed we had to go on that day. We don't have to be at Disney every day on a vacation. As a matter of fact, I think we all would enjoy ourselves more when we space out the activities with a day of rest/laundry/pool time every 2-3 days. Having said that, I think 6 days plus a VMCP is plenty of time for us to spread out over two vacations. If Geneva needs to have another surgery then there is a good chance that she would need it before we would go on vacation so I would like to see if it would be possible to get the tickets and have the no expiration date for them and use the GAD ticket credit for one of those days.

If we are able to use the credit of our GAD at $79 then that would be $288/adult for a 6 day park hopper pass with no expiration. That's just over $70 to pay now for an additional 3 days for another year's vacation, right?

It seems as though driving in and staying in a villa will be our most economical solution. I called in for reservation information a couple of times and was told something differently each time so thank you for the resort information.

If we have a free pass to the MK, can we pay the difference in price for a 1 day ticket and the 6 day park hopper?

Thank you for your help. I appreciated reading the link from another post to the fastpass explanation.

 

[doconeill]

The "free passes" depend on what they actually are, but they are likely not upgradable at all. Complementary tickets are not upgradable at all.

If your plan is a firm 6 days over 2 vacations, then yes, the NE ticket would make sense, and yes, the pre-tax cost to upgrade a GAD ticket is $288 for an adult.

Note that you can upgrade the ticket as many times as you want during the first 14 days, so you wouldn't have to add No Expire until you think you need it. It costs the same no matter how many of the 6 days you've used.

 

[QuiverofArrows]

Thanks so much. That was helpful.

 

[Cheshire Figment]

(Add 6.5% tax to all the following numbers.)

Under current pricing a six day base ticket is $231 adult/$198 Ages 3-9. Adding hopping to any ticket is currently $52. Adding No Expire to any six day ticket is $84. Under current pricing a GAD ticket is worth $79 adult/$68 child.

If the tickets from your friends say "CP" or "COMP" or "Complimentary" on them their dollar value is zero and they cannot be upgraded or modified in any way.

And to get any sort of dining plan you must be staying at a Disney owned and operated Resort and you must also purchase tickets as part of a package.

You might want to look at the Everything About WDW Tickets locked sticky in this Forum. Especially the items bolded in the list below.

Post and Contents

1. This Table of Contents
2. Magic Your Way (MYW) Ticket Basics Including Definitions
3. Annual Passes and Water Park Tickets
4. Tickets Available Only to Florida Residents
5. Tickets Not Available to the General Public
6. Upgrading MYW Tickets (Not to Annual Passes)
7. Upgrading Tickets to Annual Passes
8. Dealing With Tickets Issued Prior to 1 January 2005 (Pre-MYW)
9. Children and Adults
10. Special Events
11. Comprehensive MYW Ticket Example
12. Hotel Card (Key To The World (KTTW))
13. Lost Tickets
14. Finger Scans
15. Frequently Asked Ticket Questions.
15A. Hopping Rules
15B. WPF&M With No Expire
15C. No Expire Upgrades
15D. Upgrading an Unused Ticket
15E. Upgrading Special Tickets
15F. Checking on Old Tickets
15G. Renewing Annual Passes
15H. Upgrading a Completely Used Ticket
16. 2010 Give A Day, Get A Day Promotion
17. Information on Disney's Armed Forces Salute 2010
18. Prices Effective August 2, 2009
19. Special Promotions and "Free" Tickets
19A. AP 15 Months for Price of 12 Renewal
19B. Florida Resident Four Day Dream Ticket

To get there directly, follow the link in my signature.

 

[seashoreCM]

The order in which you do things is important.

Each person with a Give A Day voucher should not have a ticket bought in advance.

Redeem the voucher at the park on your first theme park day and receive a one day ticket.

Enter the park, then upgrade the one day ticket to have more days as needed. If you are really uneasy about having to go home early, then add just a few days at a time, repeat as needed.

Don't add the non-expiration until/unless you have to cut the vacation short and go home early.

 

[QuiverofArrows]

Thanks so much. We actually decided to use the money we would have spent and get another villa for my sisters to stay in FL with us. My mom passed away this year and my brother-in-law's cancer has spread so we'll have a small service for my mom and spend some needed family time together. My aunt entered us in a contest and if we might win then we'll get more days. Otherwise, we'll just enjoy our one day and VMCP. Thanks again! This was helpful.