Long term ticket planning on STEROIDs!

[peabody58]

So last month DW and I are discussing how our future years of vacationing at WDW will look like with our DVC membership, and she describes how maybe she won't want to go to the parks everyday, want more resort and lounging down time, possibly visit SW. LL, etc.

Well in addition to our PAP which expires this Oct., we currently have 4 regular AP vouchers ready to use, which will take us through 2016 or 2018 depending on how we split out our AP year visits. But I got to thinking, what if we went for just a few days and didn't want to activate our AP yet? What would a day or two at the parks cost? Guess I've been spoiled by my average park/day cost of $17 - $21 when using an AP. A bit of sticker shock to see what an occasional non-AP short visit would cost for park admission.

Well today one of my co-workers was telling me how he's going to visit the MK next week for just one day - using his no-expire tickets he bought 3 years ago. This got me to thinking' a bit, especially with the future availability of No-Expire Tickets in doubt; plus the guaranteed yearly price increase. Maybe I should bite the bullet and get the DW and myself the 10 day Hopper + Fun & More no-expiration tickets. Works out to $33.26 per person per visit (10 park admissions + 10 water parks visits). That would certainly open up a whole lot more vacation options, and could extend our ticket availability out past retirement (2020).

So this morning I bought 2 of the '10 Day Hopper + Fun & More No Expiration' tickets from UT Mousesavers link for $1344 (ouch). Will be using our tax refund to pay for the tickets vs. putting the refund into the bank.

I am justifying this decision based on:
1) I know we will use the tickets over the next many years since we are DVC and will be returning again, and again, and again... Did I mention 'again'?
2) I won't feel like I'm being gouged every time I visit WDW (well at least on park admission). I like to have things pre-paid and out of mind.
3) Treating this as an investment against future price increases.
4) I get 1% cash back on the purchase!! Factored that into the 'real' per visit cost above ($33.26 per visit).
5) Piece of mind knowing we have many vacation option/scenarios available, which unto itself may save money and/or improve our vacation experiences.
6) We are debt free and can afford it with tax refund.

Hope my rambling helps someone out in a similar position. This option obviously is not for everyone, but for us, it just made too much sense not to pursue.

 

[disfanforlife]

Sounds like a good plan. I have been thinking of purchasing some too!

 

[skylynx]

When we moved from Illinois to Colorado in 2011 we did the same thing because we figured we'd probably start going to Disneyland more than Disney World since it was closer, and so would only visit WDW two to three days per year. After having annual passes for years, it was pretty painful the first time we didn't renew, but it made no financial sense. Thanks to the DVC premium annual pass perk last fall, we have WDW annual passes again that we will drain the last magical drop of this year by going several times.

I am still VERY glad we have several remaining days on the 10 day hoppers plus water parks with no expiration we bought from UT when we moved to Colorado. We can drag out the water park visits (since we don't do those on every trip) for a long time after our PAP expires. Of course, if DVC offers that kind of deal again this fall, we'd probably go for it, and save the hoppers!

I also just bit the bullet and bought an 8-day park hopper with water parks and no expiration from UT for my DD20 as a junior college graduation gift as she'll probably still tag along with us in travel for a while, and after looking at the other ticket media prices, figured in the long run it will cost me less. Our travel patterns for the next couple years will likely be WDW visits two to three days per year. Buying Magic Your Way 2-3 day hoppers every year with the regular and steep price increases just seemed a really expensive option to me.
The No Expiration add-on is costly, but when we figured it out based on how we plan to travel with those tickets in the foreseeable future, it was well worth laying out the money in advance if you can free up the funding.

With ever-climbing prices, I think taking a long-term view is a solid consideration!

 

[cvjw]

I'm with you - we have eight 10 day non-expiring hoppers with the water park option in our safe right now, even though we have had AP's for the past five years. We also have a few days left on some non-expiring tickets that are almost 10 years old. I know at some point we won't purchase AP's every year, and can start using those tickets.

To show how much money you can save by buying your tickets early - I bought ten 7 day base tickets last year thru UT when they were $250 apiece. They are selling right now for $299.75 thru UT, and this is before the upcoming price increase. Buying those tickets early saved us hundreds of dollars.

 

[disneynutz]

We have AP's, PAP's and no expiration tickets covering our WDW vacations until 2026 or beyond. This year we will hit the parks more than normal using the PAP DVC deal, Next year we will take it easy with only a couple of park visits using our non-expiration tickets.

During our DVC lifetime admission will cost more than buying the typical DVC contract.

Bill

 

[montrealdisneylovers]

Wow, I feel better now reading this thread!!

We are a family of 4 who travel to Disney every year for 4 nights. We do 2 maybe 3 park days every year. We have 5 days left on our 10 day PH WP and more no expiration tickets left and I just last week ordered us each another one!! I started wondering if I was a little nuts but apparently I am in good company !

I kind of wish I would have bought a bunch of them 10 years ago when the no expiration option was soooo much cheaper.

 

[skylynx]

It's funny how the justification for hedging purchases of Disney tickets is kind of similar to hedging our resort stay costs at Disney by buying DVC up front and locking in, as it were, prices for the future.

Sounds like I'm not alone in determining that since we know we are going to go to Disney anyway, we might as well, whenever financially feasible, pre-purchase what we are bound to use at some point for a substantially lower cost than it will be later. The more people you are buying tickets for, the greater the potential savings.

Some people stockpile toilet paper, ammunition, or bottled water...no reason not to stockpile Disney tickets!

 

[montrealdisneylovers]

It's funny how the justification for hedging purchases of Disney tickets is kind of similar to hedging our resort stay costs at Disney by buying DVC up front and locking in, as it were, prices for the future.

Sounds like I'm not alone in determining that since we know we are going to go to Disney anyway, we might as well, whenever financially feasible, pre-purchase what we are bound to use at some point for a substantially lower cost than it will be later. The more people you are buying tickets for, the greater the potential savings.

Some people stockpile toilet paper, ammunition, or bottled water...no reason not to stockpile Disney tickets!

I do that too!!!!! I once paid full price for toilet paper because we ran out and I said NEVER AGAIN!! Considering what it is used for, I buy a lot when a good brand is 50% or more on sale!

 

[luckyman_apd]

How about any of you guys with kids? My daughter is 7 now. We have a PAP to cover December and all of next year when she's 8. So for her, I might as well buy an adult ticket, but with my son 3, I guess I should grab a child's ticket? We really haven't planned out beyond next summer, but obviously we will be going.

We've gone more than we ever dreamed we would at this point. It hasn't gotten old, or tiring for us, but I do look forward to next week when we arrive for 2 nights prior to a cruise and we are NOT hitting any parks. Not sure if it will be relaxing or torture

 

[Piglets Mommy]

It's funny how the justification for hedging purchases of Disney tickets is kind of similar to hedging our resort stay costs at Disney by buying DVC up front and locking in, as it were, prices for the future.

Sounds like I'm not alone in determining that since we know we are going to go to Disney anyway, we might as well, whenever financially feasible, pre-purchase what we are bound to use at some point for a substantially lower cost than it will be later. The more people you are buying tickets for, the greater the potential savings.

Some people stockpile toilet paper, ammunition, or bottled water...no reason not to stockpile Disney tickets!

That's it!!!! I'm a Disney Doomsday Prepper! Forget a bunker and a tank, I'll be fine as long as I have enough Disney tickets! I have been looking into the 10 day non expiring passes too. We just bought into DVC on our cruise, but will still probably only have 3-5 park days a year, so AP's don't really make sense for us right now. Once the kids are in college, and DH & I can go more an AP may make sense for us. With the waterpark days added in, they really do make sense.

 

[disfanforlife]

We go once a year for 5-7 days. I am hoping that changes to twice a year. We have not had annual passes but I have had the 10 day tix twice and have 5 days left on our second batch. It makes sense for us to buys few 6 or 7 day passes and not the 10 day right now.

 

[bgraham34]

A friend of mine who is a huge Disney Fanatic and a DVC member since 1999 has a bunch of Passes left. When they first joined DVC they purchased 60 x 6 day park hoppers for around $240 a piece at a grand total of $14 grand. They did 1 for each of them for the next 30 years. She said its the best investment they ever made. Usually they upgrade their pass to an AP and still have 20 passes left each.

 

[montrealdisneylovers]

A friend of mine who is a huge Disney Fanatic and a DVC member since 1999 has a bunch of Passes left. When they first joined DVC they purchased 60 x 6 day park hoppers for around $240 a piece at a grand total of $14 grand. They did 1 for each of them for the next 30 years. She said its the best investment they ever made. Usually they upgrade their pass to an AP and still have 20 passes left each.

Nice to be able to do that!!! But wow, does that put into perspective what we actually spend at Disney!!!

They were actually very smart people as one did not pay extra for non expiration at that time. Today a 10 day park hopper with water park and fun no expiration is about $670 a piece. I suppose we will look back at this as a bargain in 15 years!!! If I had the extra cash floating around, I would buy more too but college is coming for our 2 daughters!!

 

[mdsd8700]

We have been using NE tickets longer than I can remember, way before we owned DVC. We generally do no more than 3 park days. So a 10day NE lasts us three trips. We also have been visiting DLR every other year. We currently have a NE 10 day set that we haven't even used. For the last month I have been planning on getting another set but haven't pulled the trigger yet. I will be doing that in the next week for sure.

The NE tickets don't work for everyone but they have been great for us.

 

[Shellandscott]

I do not know how to quote... But you said....
" Works out to $33.26 per person per visit (10 park admissions + 10 water parks visits)."

I did not think it was 10 + 10. But 10 days. If you visit a waterpark and no other park it counts as a day, if you go to a Park and a water park in a day, still counts as one day. Maybe I miss understood what you meant. But my math it is 67.20 per person per day of use of the 10 day hopper water park and more no expiration date.

 

[cvjw]

I do not know how to quote... But you said....
" Works out to $33.26 per person per visit (10 park admissions + 10 water parks visits)."

I did not think it was 10 + 10. But 10 days. If you visit a waterpark and no other park it counts as a day, if you go to a Park and a water park in a day, still counts as one day. Maybe I miss understood what you meant. But my math it is 67.20 per person per day of use of the 10 day hopper water park and more no expiration date.

We consider it 20 days. 10 park days and 10 water park days. When we don't have AP's and use the non-expiration tickets, we do not go to a park for 1/2 day - it is full day only to get the best use of the tickets. We consider visiting a water park as our park of the day - we would not use a regular ticket and a water park ticket in the same day - although you could if you wanted.

 

[mort1331]

We consider it 20 days. 10 park days and 10 water park days. When we don't have AP's and use the non-expiration tickets, we do not go to a park for 1/2 day - it is full day only to get the best use of the tickets. We consider visiting a water park as our park of the day - we would not use a regular ticket and a water park ticket in the same day - although you could if you wanted.

I was confused by this as well. So are you saying that you get 20 days. For example you could go to the parks for 10 days straight, then the waterparks for the next 10 days? If so this is a better bargin then I first thought.
Anyone with clear confirmation would be appreciated.

 

[bgraham34]

Nice to be able to do that!!! But wow, does that put into perspective what we actually spend at Disney!!!

They were actually very smart people as one did not pay extra for non expiration at that time. Today a 10 day park hopper with water park and fun no expiration is about $670 a piece. I suppose we will look back at this as a bargain in 15 years!!! If I had the extra cash floating around, I would buy more too but college is coming for our 2 daughters!!

They said since they had the money to buy DVC why not buy the tickets too. Man I wish I had that ability.

 

[peabody58]

I was confused by this as well. So are you saying that you get 20 days. For example you could go to the parks for 10 days straight, then the waterparks for the next 10 days? If so this is a better bargin then I first thought.
Anyone with clear confirmation would be appreciated.

Yes - you get '20' visits with the 10 day NE plus tickets. How you use those 'visits' will determine if you can stretch the tics out for 20 days of 'visits', or only '10' days of 'visits' if you do both a park and WP the same day. This why many people get the max'd out NE tics - better long term value when used diligently.

From the UT website:

Park Hopper + Water Park Fun & More options combined on one ticket.
If you were to visit Blizzard Beach & Typhoon Lagoon then you have used 2 "Fun Visits". If you visit a Theme Park and then a Water Park (both on the same day or not), that would be 1 "Day" and 1 "Fun Visit" used up.
Unused "days" and unused "Fun Visits" never expire.
Days do not have to be used consecutively.

PS - thanks for the great reply's so far, I was so sure this thread would get flamed or go south. Almost makes me want to go stock up on more tics, but DW has told me no more Disney purchases!! Kudo's to all of you who were able to pre-purchase your tics back when cost was lower.

 

[disfanforlife]

This is true. We have the watermark and fun on the 10 day tix that I bought years ago. Still have five days and all 10 of the fun days left. Reason being is our last two trips I used 6 and 7 day Regular tix. We have yet to visit a waterpark. Just hasn't worked our yet.