Need Advice - Use Old Non-Expiring Tickets or Get New Ones?

[rowan555]

My family of 4 went to Disney in 2006 and we ended up with 5 (I think?) days of park hoppers and 2 plus passes left over at the end - I paid to have them converted to non-expiring tickets.

Fast forward to now - my daughter and I are considering a 5 or 6 day trip to Disney. We will stay on site in a value resort. We have been to Orlando twice in the past two years and went to Universal and Sea World, so I'm fine with just making this trip Disney-centric. That being said, I'm trying to figure out what makes more sense:

1. Use our old tickets and save the money
or
2. Go ahead and get new tickets for this trip and keep the 5 days of non-expiring park hoppers for use in the future

Money isn't a huge issue right now - meaning buying new tickets won't "break the bank." I try to be frugal when possible, but I'm thinking it might make more financial sense to save our old tickets since if we go again in 3 or 4 years, tickets will only cost more then, making the old passes more valuable. Either way we will probably end up using a "plus pass" day from the old tickets to hit one of the water parks, as we've never been to them.

Since you guys have loads of experience with this and I'm rather Disney-ignorant, I appreciate any and all comments and suggestions!!!

 

[Robo]

My family of 4 went to Disney in 2006 and we ended up with 5 (I think?) days of park hoppers and 2 plus passes left over at the end - I paid to have them converted to non-expiring tickets.

Fast forward to now - my daughter and I are considering a 5 or 6 day trip to Disney. We will stay on site in a value resort. We have been to Orlando twice in the past two years and went to Universal and Sea World, so I'm fine with just making this trip Disney-centric. That being said, I'm trying to figure out what makes more sense:

1. Use our old tickets and save the money
or
2. Go ahead and get new tickets for this trip and keep the 5 days of non-expiring park hoppers for use in the future

Money isn't a huge issue right now - meaning buying new tickets won't "break the bank." I try to be frugal when possible, but I'm thinking it might make more financial sense to save our old tickets since if we go again in 3 or 4 years, tickets will only cost more then, making the old passes more valuable. Either way we will probably end up using a "plus pass" day from the old tickets to hit one of the water parks, as we've never been to them.

Since you guys have loads of experience with this and I'm rather Disney-ignorant, I appreciate any and all comments and suggestions!!!

If you don't care, I don't care.

The only difference I can see is that if you buy new for this trip, then don't ever go again, you'd still own the Non-expiring tickets with no use for them.

 

[mom2rtk]

Since you can't buy new non-expiring tickets, I'd consider just getting new tickets for this trip.

You'd need to consider though what your future Disney plans are. I'm not sure of the math, but usually non-expiring ticket days don't really pay off unless you use them on shorter trips (1, 2 or 3 days?) Not exactly sure what the cutoff is, but if you would be able to use them on a couple shorter trips in the future, I'd save them.

 

[Robo]

usually non-expiring ticket days don't really pay off unless you use them on shorter trips (1, 2 or 3 days?) Not exactly sure what the cutoff is,

Under 5 days. In general, the shorter the trip, the more the "savings" using Non-Expiring tickets... if that fits your travel plans.

 

[Robo]

Under 5 days. In general, the shorter the trip, the more the "savings" using Non-Expiring tickets... if that fits your travel plans.

If the NE's were Hoppers... even GREATER savings.

 

[ArwenMarie]

Tough to say. You're basically betting with yourself. Only you know what the chances of going back are (I know, super helpful right!)

My gut would be to just use them if you have had them since 2006, unless you have an idea of going back within the next two years or so.

Good luck deciding

 

[kathy884]

There is no right or wrong answers. If it were me, I'd use the tickets you have. I just hate the idea of something like that going to waste. But I'm at the point in my life too where I don't know when if ever I'll get back to Disney, even though I was just there this past December and even though I really love the place. If I didn't have any specific plans, I'd use them the first opportunity I had.

For us theme parks just aren't as much in the picture now. 2015 is Puerto Vallarta for spring break and Estes Park / Rocky Mountain National park for an August trip -- love those places, but no SeaWorld/Disney/Universal. And we're already talking about 2016 possibilities, and it doesn't look like Orlando is in the picture again. It looks like we'll do a cruise for spring break and stay at a house in Keystone, CO for summer

 

[wisblue]

I have a few of those days left on some old tickets too, and my plan is to save them in case I take a shorter trip (like 2 or 3 park days) where the per day price for new tickets is quite a bit higher.

For example, one of my daughters has 5 days left on an old 10 day hopper and has a week long trip planned in April. But, because she is also planning on a trip for her spring break next year ((which will be earlier than this year) she is getting a DVC annual pass that she can use on those 2 trips and saving the 5 days for the future. In the future, if she goes for a long weekend she can use some of those 5 days then without shelling out any cash.

I have 3 days left, but if I was going for 4 or 5 days or more I would probably get a new ticket instead of using up the 3 days and then paying the high per day price for 1 or 2 days.

If you don't ever see yourself visiting WDW for just 2 or 3 days you might do just as well using the old tickets now. But, as others have said, it is very personal depending on your best guess of how you might visit WDW in the future.

 

[VickieMouse]

I am trying to make the same decision. We are going in August, and I think we are going to save the NE tickets since they are something we can no longer buy. Ours are new though so we will use a WP option to activate them since we have a child's ticket for my daughter who will be 9 for this trip. I have the same thoughts as you - they will only get more valuable as time goes on. Plus, this is a trip we would love to go to the parks most days whereas in the future, 1-2 park days per trip (esp depending on the time of year we go) may be more our travel style. My vote - save them IF you know you will be back!

 

[mackeymouse4eva]

My vote would be to save them. Reason being it appears that you have made trips to the area but do not always visit WDW. I find the non-expiring tickets very useful in these cases. You would get a greater value saving the tickets IF you might decide on a primarily Universal/Seaworld trip, to say "hey let's hit the Disney parks on one of our days." Especially if you have hoppers because you could easily hit 2 or 3 (or all 4) parks on that single day, doing the attractions you enjoy most. It would be unlikely to be on your Non WDW trip and decide to hit WDW for a day if you have to fork out $145 for a single day hopper ticket. Also the non expiring tickets are perfect if you ever might do a long weekend type trip. We often go during the party seasons and purchase a party ticket and only use 1 additional day off of our non expiring ticket. If I add a waterpark day, or Seaworld etc I easily have a 3-5 day vacation without paying the huge gate prices for a 1 or 2 day ticket.

Of course if you think there is a really good chance that you will not be back , then use the old tickets , get the value from them and save some money on this trip.

However, it sounds like you have a decent chance of visiting again , especially to non Disney parks. In that case save them, I have no doubt you will find great opportunities to use them for single day admissions and save big money.