Is my thinking logical? If so, why don't more people do this?

[Erineliza38]

Ok, my DH and I purchased DVC last August. We have two year old twins. I was talking about our first trip with them next June and how we could save some money. I recently purchased a non-expiration ticket to cover my two trips with family this year and it got me thinking. Why don't more people just buy the 10 day no expiration ticket up front to cover ticket costs for a year or two and save money that way?
If my figuring is correct, buying 2, 3, or 5 day tickets separately each year of our next three trips comes to $2367 (with park hopper added that third year) for our family of 4. If I were to purchase 10 day no expiration tickets with park hopper option now- to last for our next three trips - it costs us $1950. a $400 savings. Am I thinking about this correctly? Any flaws in this plan?

 

[eliza61]

why do you say people don't do that? I know people who all the time buy a 10 pass and for what ever reason don't use the entire pass so they convert it over to a non expiration pass.

 

[CarolMN]

Many people do what you propose. It can save money, depending on how you vacation.

For those who usually go one week each year, another trick is to buy an AP or PAP. Then schedule your "annual week's trip" to be 51 weeks apart.

 

[Erineliza38]

I haven't read much about people doing that- so I just thought there might be a reason not to do it. I asked why more people don't do that- I wasn't assuming that no one does it. Nothing meant by my question- just seeking knowledge.

 

[thebwit]

I didn't think about this. I will have to look into this more for my trip in Sept

 

[BrettS]

There are a lot of variables, but in general, if you take shorter trips (5 days or less) you'll save money with the 10 day NE tickets. If you take longer trips (6 days or more) it's cheaper to get expiring tickets for the length of your trips. If you'll be taking two or more trips in one year then it'll be cheaper to get a DVC annual pass.

 

[chepic]

We are still working on a 10 day pass we bought 5 years ago. Because we go so often, we tend to go into the parks only 1 or 2 days during our stay, so it really extends the life of the pass. I wish you didn't have to pay more to make them non-expiring now.

 

[vicki_c]

It would never work for us, because we never have multiple trips that add up to 10 days exactly. We usually come for 7-8 days at a time.

If your current + future trips don't exactly add up to the total number of NE days you have (10 in this example), it will cost you more money to do what you're proposing because you would have to buy extra tickets to use for those days over 10. Because Disney front-loads the ticket prices so heavily, that is not cost effective at all vs. just buying a new ticket for a future trip.

So it can work great for people who know that NE ticket will cover more than one trip exactly, and doesn't work at all for those who don't meet that criteria.

 

[BrettS]

It would never work for us, because we never have multiple trips that add up to 10 days exactly. We usually come for 7-8 days at a time.

If you go 7-8 days at a time then you're much better off with expiring tickets anyway (unless you do two or more trips in a year and get AP's).

However, if someone always goes for trips of 5 days or less it doesn't matter if they add up to exactly 10 days or not... if you run out of days part way though a trip you can just get another 10 day NE ticket for that trip and your next few trips. This is about the only instance where using two tickets in one trip actually makes sense.

 

[Mickey'sApprentice]

I think this is only ideal if you enjoy waterparks.

10 days in the parks and 10 admissions to a waterpark seem to be a great value.

So many people go to Disney thinking that they may never return or not in the foreseeable future. For others, $2000 is a real chunk of change.

DVC members tend to get annual passes because they get the $100 discount and they are more likely to go more than once a year.

 

[CarolAnnC]

I haven't read much about people doing that- so I just thought there might be a reason not to do it. I asked why more people don't do that- I wasn't assuming that no one does it. Nothing meant by my question- just seeking knowledge.

Actually theme park ticket discussion mostly takes place over on the DIS's Theme Park Attractions & Strategies board. There you will find lots of ticket discussion and the tips on how to get the most out of the passes.

We allow some ticket discussion here only as it pertains to DVC. Thanks!

 

[ClarabelleCow]

In almost 9 years of owning DVC, we have purchased three ten day tickets at this point, the first time they were 10 day, no exp, park hopper with water parks, we are still using water parks off those tickets, hubby and daughter still have 2 days left on their 10 day no exp park hoppers. We go once or twice a year, and dont do parks daily, and if we do park days, plan on two parks per day if it works out that way! Last year we went three times and half our group still had days left. All depends on how you travel

 

[Orsino]

We are still working on a 10 day pass we bought 5 years ago. Because we go so often, we tend to go into the parks only 1 or 2 days during our stay, so it really extends the life of the pass. I wish you didn't have to pay more to make them non-expiring now.

Same here. Has it really been 5 years already?! We bought a 10 day non-expiring ticket back when they were first introduced. At that time, the cost for non-expiring wasn't as high as it is now so the deal was fantastic, something like 33 dollars a day. We still have two days left, which is kind of hard to schedule, but I view them as essentially free since we would have paid much more any other way.

We also went during off-season and got park hopping and water parks added on for free.
Looking back, I wish we had bought two sets!

Current policies aren't as ridiculously good, but the strategy still works if you go to Disney less than once a year. If you can fit an annual trip with the 51 weeks between, then an AP is generally better.

 

[emacek]

We'll bought 10-day nonexpiring for our (non)DVC trip last New Years. We have 5 days left.

We suspect that we'll string those 5 days along--we have a 3 day November trip that will only have 1 park day.

We then have 3 trips planned for 2011 (Valentines, September, December) so those will be AP.

The other 4 days of the non-expiry will be used for a short trip in a year where it's the only one. My guess is that we'll use nonexpiring for years we only go once and APs for years where there are 2+ trips covering 8+ days.

emacek

 

[dacky041208]

I'll admit I'm with the OP in thinking a lot of people don't do the math to figure out what tickets are truly best for them. We're from PA, so anytime we go (a DVC point stay or not) the can be a big expense for the trip. That $400 ticket savings would be wiped out (and then some) by taking a 3 flights instead of one (usual trips are 10-14 days).

 

[kirstenb1]

We do this. We can get 2-3 trips out of the 10 day tix. We're having to buy them this trip---ouch!!

 

[photobob]

I think most everyone who owns DVC probably does either AP's or 10 day non expiring. I am always trying to plan the way to make ticket purchases the most economical and plan my trips accordingly.

 

[Tink-n-Belle]

I did this back in 2005 when we purchased our DVC. I bought each of us 2 10 day hoppers so 8 in all with 20 days each. Believe it or not I still have 16 days left for each of us.

The reason: we decided to go 3 times within a year (feb 06, nov 06 and feb 07) so we purchased an annual pass.

Feb 08 we went to Epcot and DHS in one day and then purchased tickets for the Pirate and Princess party. We got to MK at 4pm and stayed until 12 midnight. The Pirate and Princess party had very low crowds so everything was a walk on -- so we slept in the next day and enjoyed the bW and went on the water mice. Then went to the AKL for one night and decided to just hang out at the resort with the animals and at the pool.

April 09 -we went to Disney with their dance school and had to purchase tickets through them (which are discounted very nicely !!)

Feb 10-- We went to Disney for a week but only went into the parks for 3 days. We had planned to go to Seaworld, but it was really cold (50 degrees) and rainy the week we were their so we just hung out at the BLT and enjoyed the resort!!!

April 2011-- we are going to Disney with the dance school again, so we will still have 16 days left--- and the next year I definitely want to do universal with the kids

So since I paid 2005 prices it was so worth doing.

I also found out that my kids were under 9 when we bought the tickets so the CM's told me that we can still use them until they are 30 yo. So needless to say we have many years left on them which is great because I don't have to budget the money for tickets!! Each trip cost us about $1500 for dues, $700 for dining out and $900 for airfare. Not bad!!!! for a week in a 1 bedroom at the BW and BLT!!!!

PS -I also bought the waterpark options so we have another 5 days at the waterparks too, in addition to the 16 days at the parks.

 

[vicki_c]

I can't believe so many of you only do the parks for a few days on longer trips.

We don't go commando for touring the parks (as in racing from attraction to attraction), but for my family, every day is a park day even if it's just for an hour or two! We have only had 1 no park day ever that I can remember and it was Christmas Day!

(and yes, we have APs which are sadly expiring in another week)

 

[ToddyLu]

I can't believe so many of you only do the parks for a few days on longer trips.

We don't go commando for touring the parks (as in racing from attraction to attraction), but for my family, every day is a park day even if it's just for an hour or two! We have only had 1 no park day ever that I can remember and it was Christmas Day!

We also do the parks daily! This year we are planning on purchasing AP's and getting 2 or 3 trips out of them.