Help with Tickets & when to buy?

[Squiffy]

Hi, we have just booked our 1st holiday to Florida for 2006!!
Can I have some advice on the Park Tickets to purchase for 14 days and how long before my trip can I buy them?

 

[annette_tr9]

you can buy the tickets when you want to, the disney ones never go out of date and our universal/sea world/ busch gardens didn't have a date on them either. you can always tell them when you trip is when you buy the tickets so that they send you ones you can use!

if you have the money now i would buy them while the pound is so strong and before they have this year's price rise!!

 

[Miffy2003]

Hi Squiffy and welcome to the Dis

The tickets for Disney have just changed totally a few weeks ago so I'm not sure what's best to tell you.

Who is in your group (any children and what age?) and do you have an idea of which parks you want to do? If you can give a little more information people will have a better idea of what ticket might suit you best.

What time of year are you going and where are you staying?

Sorry that's not very helpful for the moment!

Cheers

Karen

 

[Squiffy]

Hi Karen,

Yes, we will be taking 3 kids, they will be 13 , 8 and 6 . Having never been to Florida we want to do it all!! I know it's just not possible in 2 weeks so would appreciate some advice.

There are so many ticket options out there, how can you possibly know which will suit if you've never been before?

We are going Easter 2006, (we have to go in the school hols.), and are staying on I-Drive.
I would have liked to go for my Daughters 13th Birthday on Christmas Day but it is apparently the busiest time of year. From what I hear Easter is bad enough!!

Thanks!!

 

[KayleeUK]

Just wanted to say - Welcome to the DIS

 

[Miffy2003]

Hi Squiffy,

You've got a good range of ages with your children there so I would guess you might want to cover Universal as well as Disney?

What I would do first of all is decide which parks you absolutely must do, which ones you would like to do and so on. Then you will see how many days you have left! Don't forget to build some rest days into your plans as well.

I found these boards invaluable for planning my trip but I also liked Simon Veness' A Brit's Guide to Orlando to give me an overview and help me build my itinerary. Then you can see how many "days" you need at each park; whether you want a ticket that will allow you to park hop, whether you want access to the water parks etc etc. I found this a good starting point and I honed my plan later with the help of these boards.A Brit's Guide

 

[Miffy2003]

Oh, and if you are animal lovers you might want to think about SeaWorld. For a first trip and if you are staying for a fortnight I would give Busch Gardens a miss, but this is just my opinion and I'm sure others may disagree

 

[tony64]

I agree about Busch for a first trip .
You will be worn out just doing Disney and Universal.
If you think you will be going back in years to buy 7 day park hoppers as they are better value for money and never expirer.
Also the £ is strong at the momnet so it's a good time to buy

 

[Squiffy]

Thanks for the replies.

I'm still undecided about which tickets to buy though.

I don't want to buy a flex for universal and 5 day premium disney then regret not getting a longer disney pass!!??!!!

We might just get the flex and the 14 day ultimate disney then we can hop about all over the place, it takes the worry away totally.

I've got loads of time to decide so I'll "Watch this space".

Thanks again.

 

[Miffy2003]

Hi Squiffy,

I must admit we like the convenience of the unlimited access type passes as you have more flexibility then. For example, if you are very tired one day and leave the park after a few hours you don't feel you've "wasted" a day as you would be with old style 5 Day Park Hopper passes.

Cheers

Karen

 

[badger1518]

Hi Squiffy

We went for the first time with our two boys (10+11 now) in december 2003
We did universal studios, universal ioa, sea world twice,the four disney parks, typhoon lagoon, a day at clearwater and a day at busch gardens. My wife also crammed in shopping trips as well. We were there for two weeks and found it was too much for the children, some attractons we missed due to time and we were just exhausted. The disney tickets are good as they dont run out ( i believe the new ticket type is the same ), we still have three days left which we will use again and probably top this up and add a flexi ticket. Sometimes when you buy a ticket for sea world and enter the park, you can return in the next seven days once for free ( this might just apply for certain times of the year). Busch gardens is a nice park for rollercoasters but a long way to go, i found universal ioa to offer some great thrill rides.
Hope this is of some help

Steve

 

[juliebro]

I would recommend that you carefully plan out what you really want to see, adding in 'rest' days - else you'll all be exhausted after the first three days - like we were on our first trip! Once you have a plan - which you can post on the boards for comment - you can work out what is the best ticket combination. We bought too many tickets - a 5-day parkhopper plus and a 14 day 5-park flex ticket - and didn't get the full benefit of them. Lucky that the Disney tickets didn't expire - we used them on the next trip.

Julie

 

[rosiejo]

We've just bought the tickets for our trip and have gone for the 21 day disney and 14 day 5 park flex. personally i don't see the point in the 5/7 day disney tickets - especially as at the moment it only costs an extra tenner for the 14 day ticket. You will get your money's worth even if you only visit each park once - and that ain't gonna happen! It's just nice to be able to come and go as you please and not worry about wasting a day on your limited 5/7 day ticket. Plus you get to do all the extra stuff like disney quest and typhoon lagoon and pleasure island. Take a look at the daily gate price - then look at the price of the UK tickets - and yes you'll be quids in even if you don't go to a park every day of your trip. Dont' think you have to go use the 14 day ticket every day for 14 days to get your money's worth - it just gives you complete flexibility - meangin you can spend the day at universal and then head to disney on the evening for the fireworks for example. those fireworks are so good you will want to see ALL of them more than once - you can't do that on a five day ticket :0)

Check out http://www.attraction-tickets-direct.co.uk/ for some excellent prices.

RJ

 

[Squiffy]

Well it sounds like the 14 day ultimate to me, no worrying about counting visits. I want to spend our time playing not worrying!

I'm just not sure whether to buy at this years prices or wait. Will either type of ticket expire? 14 day ultimate and 4 park orland flex?

and will we get charged the difference in cost when we go to the parks? as prices are sure to go up?

and is it best to use an american site or uk site to buy?

 

[rosiejo]

Hi Karen,

I reckon I'd buy them now - prices are low as they've just launched the new tickets and the dollar is good. They don't expire until 14 days after you activate them so there's no need to worry about that.

I think the prices will only go up from here :0)

You won't have to pay the difference in prices when you get there - once you have your ticket it's paid for and you can use it - they won't ask what you paid for it.

Personally I'd buy from a UK site - or your travel agent. if you want to get the 14 day Disney ticket its only available to UK custoemrs anyway so you won't find it on a US site. You could get teh Orlando Flex ticket from a US site I suppose - I'd just rather stick to a UK one so you don't have to worry about them getting lost in international post - or the company not being cosha and you not having any comeback.

We got our tickets through Keith Prowse at Lunn Poly - but the manager there price matched the internet price at attraction tickets direct for us - so we got net prices with travel agent peace of mind... Hooray!

 

[tartangirl]

Hi,

I would be careful buying now. Normally it's not a problem but I notice that the 1/2 price child tickets for the Flexticket say they are valid for travel until 31st December 2005.

Normally the Flexticket has no expiry date so these may be different ones and just because your not getting the ticket at 1/2 price doesn't mean it wont be the same ticket.

I'd buy from the UK unless you cant get the ticket you're looking for. The disney tickets we get are a pretty limited choice but if the 14 day ticket meets your needs you only get it in the UK and it's a pretty good price at the moment.