More ticket questions.. Help me with ticket math!

[tigressjewel]

Ok, we are getting a deal for doing a timeshare tour. We get really inexpensive accommodations and two one day tickets. We are spending three days at the parks, so my question is: Should I upgrade those one day tickets to three day tickets, and if I do will it save me much money? What kind of credit do I get for the one day ticket? I also have to buy another adult ticket for my 13yo and a child ticket for my 8yo. Would I be just as well off to buy them direct from disney on those short term tickets? Thoughts? I'm not very good at ticket math.

 

[seashoreCM]

Except during special promotions run by ticket outlets, tickets for 3 or fewer days cost the same or only slightly less when purchased in advance compared with at the gate.

If the one day timeshare tickets can be upgraded (are standard magic your way tickets) it is cheaper to add days #2 and #3 slightly after use compared with throwing them away after use and buying more tickets. If the tickets did not come with hopping, the savings by upgrading as opposed to buying more tickets is only about ten dollars per ticket.

Some one day tickets from timeshare promotions are not standard and cannot be upgraded and cannot have hopping added. Some can be upgraded but from outside the park (more correctly prior to use) the starting value is lower and therefore the amount of money you have to add for more days is greater. You cannot tell until after you get to Disney. Ask the cost at Guest Relations outside before doing it. Get an individual price for each ticket, not jsut a total for a bunch of adult and child tickets. If you don't like the numbers, write down the numbers anyway, take back the old tickets unaltered, step out of line, and think about it.

On non-upgradable timeshare tickets, provided you can live with the restrictions, if any, and such as non-hopping, it is probably better for one adult to use both of them plus a new one day ticket on successive days and the others to get new 3 day tickets.

The 13yo can keep using any old ticket he possessed, or it will be exchanged free for an adult ticket if the turnstile CM catches him.

Some timeshare tickets have hard expiration dates even if not used, and this may limit your flexibility in saving them for a future vacation. OT: Because of this, doing a side trip to a timeshare to get tickets is not a good idea if your vacation is longer than 3 days and where using up a separate ticket for the fourth and succeeding days clips very little from your ticket budget.

Ph.D. in logic needed to understand what follows.

If the two timeshare tickets can be upgraded, prior to use the trade in value may be less than gate price depending on how much the wholesaler or travel agent or timeshare office paid to buy them in bulk. The dollar number you get from the guest relations window outside the park will reflect this.

If the timeshare tickets can be upgraded, after usage (and within 14 days of first usage) their value for upgrade purposes equals the gate price of an identical ticket. But from Guest Relations inside the park should you find out that the timeshare ticket could not be upgraded, both of them have already been used by two different family members so you cannot take advantage of one person's using both of them on successive days to make possible a cheaper 3 day ticket for the other person.

Or if you decided first to let one person use both of the timeshare tickets on successive days, should you find out from inside the park that the tickets could be upgraded, nobody should use the second timeshare ticket because everybody else already got new tickets and it is cheaper for one ticket per person to cover the whole vacation.

This last paragraph needs both a Ph.D. in logic and a Ph.D. in mathematics to understand. Should you ask for and obtain a trade in value from Guest Relations outside the park (this implies upgradability), choose to use the tickets as-is, and choose to do the upgrade inside for the reasons in the previous paragraphs, then in the event the CM inside says you cannot upgrade the tickets, then Disney has given you a bum steer and owes you some extra pixie dust if your calculations and subsequent choice of who uses what ticket turns out to be wrong as a result. You would need to write a report using the numbers you wrote down at the Guest Relations booth outside to figure out what your ticket budget would have been had you known that the tickets were not upgradable prior to entering the park.

Therefore a catch-22 exists.

Disney hints:
http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/disney.htm

 

[tigressjewel]

Ok, after reading this three times I think I get it. Bottom line is that I won't know until I see the tickets or possibly present them at Disney what their value is. It sounds like the best case scenario is that they are upgradeable after use and I do that from inside the park to get the most bang for my buck. If they are not upgradeable I'm better off to just use them individually for one adult, then purchase one seperate one day ticket, and then 3 day tickets for each other person in our party. Hope I got that right.

I'm not sure I understand however why you told me this:

The 13yo can keep using any old ticket he possessed, or it will be exchanged free for an adult ticket if the turnstile CM catches him.

Thank you so much for taking the time to go over this with me though. I had no idea there is a difference in upgrading before use or after use. On a one day ticket (standard, not timeshare), would you still have the full 14 days to upgrade it, or do you have to do that the day you are using it?

 

[Cheshire Figment]

If you are getting "Touch of Magic" tickets, or vouchers for them (especially from Westgate or Orange Lakes), they cannot be upgraded or modified in any way.

 

[tigressjewel]

If you are getting "Touch of Magic" tickets, or vouchers for them (especially from Westgate or Orange Lakes), they cannot be upgraded or modified in any way.

I don't know what type of tickets we're getting, but I will look for that when we get them. We are touring Silver Lake Resort. I actually chose it for the better accomodations not necessarily for the disney tickets, though free tickets are always a good thing. I was reading some reviews and feedbacks about Silver Lake and saw someone mention that they upgraded their one day ticket so thought I would check it out. I hadn't really thought of doing that before I saw that. I was just planning on buying two two day tickets and two three day tickets to give us all three days at the park. I'm sure it will work out either way, I just need to write all the numbers down and look at it side by side.

 

[LoveToDisney]

Be wary that the "90 min" tour with Westgate will be more like a half day and don't expect to get a full day at the parks on the same day you do your tour. The 90 min only begins once you are introduced to the sales person who will cram Westgate down your throat. Any breakfast, photos or sitting and waiting that you do while you wait for your sales person is all in addition to the 90 min tour. We saw many a discouraged "touree" leaving the Westgate properties upset that it took so long to say, "NO!" for their "free" tickets. Now that Disney has changed their pricing of longer tickets, it is fairly inexpensive to add more days to tickets (but that doesn't help for shorts of trips as yours).
Regarding upgrading the tickets, don't expect to be able to do it. If it was even allowed, it would only be from the wholesale rate that the vendor paid.

 

[seashoreCM]

I'm not sure I understand however why you told me this

OT: Sorry but I have this bad habit of, once I have the floor (your attention) I tend to cram a lot of extraneous information down people's throats.

If the timeshare presentation is advertised as 90 minutes, the salesman gets to do no more than 90 minutes of actual cramming before the office staff has to give you your prize and let you go. And if the presentation advertises a courteous tour, the salesman had better be courteous or I dare say you have the right to cut him off and the office staff still has to give you the prize.

 

[tigressjewel]

OT: Sorry but I have this bad habit of, once I have the floor (your attention) I tend to cram a lot of extraneous information down people's throats.

If the timeshare presentation is advertised as 90 minutes, the salesman gets to do no more than 90 minutes of actual cramming before the office staff has to give you your prize and let you go. And if the presentation advertises a courteous tour, the salesman had better be courteous or I dare say you have the right to cut him off and the office staff still has to give you the prize.

I'm happy to say that this is not a Westgate property. I've been to the westgate tour before and I'm familiar with the 90 minute (3 hour) tours! We don't plan on hitting the park until the day after our tour. We will probably go sightseeing at the resorts that afternoon and check out all the holiday deco! Maybe hit downtown as well. Kind of a find all the free stuff to see at Disney day. I think we've decided to just buy a single day ticket, then three day tickets for everyone else, just to keep it simple.

I do appreciate all the info and insight on this topic very much! Along with all the bonus information that you crammed.. err.. offered. When do I receive my Ph.D in logic parchment?

Oh, almost forgot to say, thanks for the advice on the 90 minute thing, I will most definetly be keeping it in mind! I found some more helpful advice on TripAdvisor from a couple who toured the same resort. They said it was nothing like Westgate, not as pushy. They also said that as soon as they sat down with the salesman they told him they were interested in timeshare, and wanted all the information but under absolutely no circumstances would they buy today. They reported that he talked to them for 45 minutes, handed them brochures and let them sit and read them on their own for the last 45 mins of their required time. They were also the couple that said they upgraded their tickets and how I got the idea for it in the first place. Just a little FYI for anyone who finds it useful.