New "Magic Your Way" tickets discourage no expiration folks

[crisi]

You are right, they get more options, but they will cost them more.

I have a girlfriend who was visiting family in Florida last year. They took their daughter to one day at the MK. That was all they wanted to do. They may or may not ever go back. That ticket would now cost her a lot more.

 

[disneysteve]

have a girlfriend who was visiting family in Florida last year. They took their daughter to one day at the MK. That was all they wanted to do. That ticket would now cost her a lot more.

Currently, 2 adult and 1 child 1-day tickets would be $163.21. The new way, it would be $178.38, only a difference of about $15. And of course that assumes that Disney wouldn't have raised ticket prices on the existing tickets anyway. So I agree that it would be more expensive but not by a whole lot.

 

[diznee25]

Magic Your Way Tickets seem to be inconvenient for folks who want to visit the parks for 1 or 2 days. But there are ways around that. If you go a few days through out the year, why not purchase a Magic Your Way Ticket with 6+ days and add the no expiration option. That way you could go to the parks for a day or two at a time and save money. Or look into purchasing an Annual Pass?

These new tickets are perfect for my husband and I! We never need the plus options and we always buy the exact number of park days needed for our trips. And since we're from Colorado and only go out every 3 or 4 years, we always stay at WDW for a whole week anyway. So we'll save a ton of money with the Magic Your Way Tickets.
Hope they are still around for our next trip.

Diznee25

 

[FoodLover]

Yes, Check mousesavers.com for 10 day pricing. THe advanced 10 day is not out yet but the rest of the pricing is complete.

I just added the advance purchase prices for 10-day tickets.

If you like to "buy and hold" tickets to use over the course of two or more trips, and don't mind shelling out the money in advance, the new 10-day tickets with No Expiration option are definitely the way to go. The per-day price is incredible... beats the current 7+4 Park Hopper PLUS tickets by a mile.

Mary
MouseSavers.com

 

[lunchmomd]

I have three old tickets with three plusses left on each. Will I still be able to use them?

 

[disneyjunkie]

I just added the advance purchase prices for 10-day tickets.

If you like to "buy and hold" tickets to use over the course of two or more trips, and don't mind shelling out the money in advance, the new 10-day tickets with No Expiration option are definitely the way to go. The per-day price is incredible... beats the current 7+4 Park Hopper PLUS tickets by a mile.

Mary
MouseSavers.com

If you purchase a package for 8 nights, can you buy the 10 day pass?

 

[Pigsty333]

This might clear some questions. This is from the Disney's Travel Agent Site:

Walt Disney World Revamps Vacations


Walt Disney World Resort has unveiled an innovative new product lineup that will allow travel agents to better tailor clients’ vacations by allowing them to build customized theme park tickets and packages.

New Magic Your Way Tickets and vacation packages will be available for booking and travel beginning Jan. 2, 2005, and will provide a wider range of options that allow travel agents to design a Walt Disney World vacation that matches clients’ needs and desires.

For the first time ever, the new Magic Your Way Tickets will offer significant year-round savings that grow the more days a client visits. A seven-day theme park ticket, for instance, averages just $29 per day, or less than half the price of a single-day ticket ($59.75 per adult, before tax).



With the flexibility of adding options like Park Hopping or water park visits to theme park tickets or selecting a vacation package that includes meals, Disney’s Magic Your Way Vacations put travel counselors in control of framing the vacation that best suits their client’s desires and budgets.

“People today expect flexibility and customization whether they’re buying a computer or a cup of gourmet coffee,” said Randy A. Garfield, CTC, executive vice president of sales and travel operations, Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, and president of the Walt Disney Travel Company. “And now travel agents will have that same ability to customize their clients’ dream vacations, creating the ticket or package that is just right for them.”

Some clients may choose the new affordability of a 7-day Magic Your Way Base Ticket to the four Walt Disney World theme parks. Others may be interested in the added flexibility and fun of a ticket that includes admission to water parks, Downtown Disney Pleasure Island and other great venues. Or some may even choose to maximize a single day at Walt Disney World with a ticket that lets them visit multiple parks in the same day. Ultimately, this expanded menu of ticket add-ons puts the power of building a customized Walt Disney World itinerary into the travel agent’s hands.

With Disney’s Magic Your Way Vacations, a Walt Disney World vacation also becomes even more affordable. A family of four will be able to enjoy a weeklong (6-night/7-day) Walt Disney World vacation – including a stay at an on-property Disney Value Resort hotel with tickets to all four theme parks during regular or value season – for less than $1,500.

“This new vacation product puts a weeklong Walt Disney World vacation within the financial reach of millions of additional families, literally growing the market of Disney fans that can benefit from a travel agent’s services,” added Garfield. “We think it will also result in increased client loyalty and an up-tick in business for those who successfully cultivate the new market of travelers Disney’s Magic Your Way Vacations will attract.”

The Walt Disney World Resort will switch to Magic Your Way tickets – available to all guests, whether or not they stay at a Disney resort hotel – beginning Jan. 2. The move is aimed at putting value, flexibility and relaxation back in family vacations while giving guests customized options, so they choose the ticket features they want.

“Recent research shows that longer vacations are high on the wish list for families,” Garfield added. “With so much to see and do at Walt Disney World, guests want to take a week to experience it all, at their own pace, without the rush. Now they can, at prices more affordable than they ever imagined, thanks to new value pricing that rewards longer stays.”

“Simply put,” he said, “the longer you play, the less you pay, per day.”

The Magic Your Way Tickets also offer clients more flexibility, allowing them to customize their tickets to create their dream vacation no matter its length.

With the Magic Your Way tickets, clients first choose the number of days they want on a base ticket that allows them to enter one theme park each day. Then, they can decide which options they want to add, paying for only those features they want, such as the ability to visit multiple Disney theme parks each day or to visit Disney water parks, Downtown Disney Pleasure Island or other exciting venues.

Add-on purchases to the base ticket include:


Park Hopper Option - Adding the Park-Hopper Option lets the guest come and go as they please through all four Disney theme parks on the same day or every day for each day of their pass. Extra cost to the base-price ticket: $35 – or just $5 per day on a seven-day ticket.

Magic Plus Pack - For Disney fun beyond the four theme parks, this option provides the choice of admission to Disney’s Blizzard Beach water park, Disney’s Typhoon Lagoon water park, DisneyQuest, Downtown Disney Pleasure Island or Disney’s Wide World of Sports Complex. Extra cost to the base-price ticket: $45 (includes 2-5 visits to Magic Plus Pack attractions, depending on the number of base ticket days purchased).

No Expiration Option - New Magic Your Way Tickets expire 14 days after their first use. Electing the No Expiration Option means the guest is free to come back and take advantage of unused tickets at any time. Extra cost to the base-price ticket: $10 if 2-day ticket purchased, up to $55 if 7-day ticket purchased.

Magic Your Way Premium Ticket - To capture all that Walt Disney World has to offer, this ticket combines the benefits of the Park Hopper Option and the Magic Plus Pack Option.

Advance Purchase Savings Tickets - The savings get even sweeter when clients purchase select, multi-day Magic Your Way Tickets of 5-days in length or more with either the Park Hopper Option and/or the Magic Plus Pack Option in advance, before leaving home.


Packages
These same, new ticket options are the cornerstone of a new menu of Walt Disney World Resort vacation packages offered by the Walt Disney Travel Company and other Disney select wholesalers. These new vacation plans, which no longer require a minimum length of stay of at least three nights, also become available for sale and travel beginning Jan. 2, and include the following options:

Disney’s Magic Your Way Package – This base package helps clients experience the magic of a Walt Disney World vacation at an affordable rate. The package includes accommodations at a Disney-owned and –operated resort hotel, and Magic Your Way base tickets for everyone in the group.
Disney’s Magic Your Way Package Plus Dining – This exciting new package features a new option that seasoned Disney guests have longed for – the ability to include convenient and affordable meals in vacation plans. The package includes everything from the Disney’s Magic Your Way Package, and adds a dining plan that includes two meals and a snack per person, per package night at more than 100 restaurants across the Walt Disney World Resort.
Disney’s Magic Your Way Premium Package – This deluxe package includes everything from Disney’s Magic Your Way Package as well as breakfast, lunch and dinner per person, per package night, along with other exciting options like recreation, theme park tours, and admission to the Cirque du Soleil show La Nouba, and more.

Even More Choices: Disney Resorts, Benefits

Staying in the “middle of the magic” at a Walt Disney World Resort hotel is the best and most relaxing way to enjoy a Walt Disney World vacation. With 22 uniquely themed Resorts – Value, Moderate, Deluxe, Disney Vacation Club Resorts, and Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort and Campground – there’s one for every taste and budget. Now that a longer Disney vacation just became more affordable than ever, clients will be able to enjoy their hotel like never before – spending quality “R & R” hours between park visits, whether it’s swimming, napping, shopping or dining.

Benefits of staying at a Disney resort include more time in the parks, more convenient transportation and more magic all around:

Extra Magic Hours: Each day, one of Disney’s magical theme parks opens one hour early exclusively for resort guests, or, as a new feature, stays open up to three hours extra after regular park hours so Walt Disney World Resort hotel guests can enjoy select attractions (valid theme park ticket and Resort ID required).

Convenient Transportation at No Extra Charge: Motor coaches, monorails or boats arrive steps from any Disney resort door to get guests to and from Disney theme parks, water parks, Downtown Disney Area and more.

Dining Plan: Guests selecting accommodations at a Disney-owned and –operated resort hotel can book Disney’s Magic Your Way Package Plus Dining, which includes two meals per day and a snack per person, per package night at more than 100 select restaurants across the Vacation Kingdom.

 

[fdecker]

That's nice, but compare apples to apples. Most people on the planet are not going to go to Disney for more than a week their entire lives. It's the trip OF their lives. Others might get to go 2 or 3 times in their lives. So, buying multiple passes or 10 day passes isn't realistic. Compare a 5 to 7 day PHP today with a 5-7 day equivalent MYW ticket. It's a lot more. It makes my point that it only rewards people who are going to buy long stays.

-f

This is a copy of a post I made to another thread, but it shows that the new tickets WITH the non-expiring option can actually save a tremendous amount.

Current prices:

5 day park hopper: $265
If I buy 3 this year and 3 more next year (assuming no price increase), I'll spend $1590.

New prices:

10 day non-expiring park hopper: $344
If I buy 3 this year and use 5 days this trip and 5 days next trip, I'll spend $1032.

Savings with the new system: $558.
And the actual savings is probably even more since the cost of the 5 day would likely go up during the year between visits.

Sounds great to me.

 

[disneysteve]

Most people on the planet are not going to go to Disney for more than a week their entire lives.

I think there is a significant percentage of Disney visitors that are repeat customers and lowering ticket prices for multi-day passes may encourage more people to come back again since it makes the trip more affordable. Obviously, that's what Disney is hoping too.

I agree that the new tickets reward longer stays - that's the idea. Disney has more competition than ever and anything they can do to keep people in their parks is a good business move.

Average length of stay has increased over the years as Disney has added new parks and attractions. It makes sense to me to make it more affordable for people to stay longer. That does result in higher costs for folks only visiting for a day or two, but Disney knows that that's not where the money is.

With the new tickets a 5-day hopper is $242.83. The current way, a 5-day hopper is $265.19. So the new tickets are cheaper anyway.

 

[fdecker]

Steve, I don't mean to sound like I am arguing about you, but this is a perfect example I think of how you can paint numbers so sound any way we like. But in this case, you aren't using the advance purchase discount, and you keep forgetting about comparing apples to apples with the "no expiration" options. All tickets now are "good for life". None of the new tickets are without an expensive option. To use a similar example:

Current 5 day PHP never expires: $300.33 (275.86 in advance)
New 5 day MYW PH w/Plus & no expire: 205.55 + 37.28 + 47.93 +37.28 = $328.56.

So you are trading days in the park and plus options to lose the no expiry. It can be a good deal for a lot of people, but it severely discourages buying expiration "insurance" as I now view it. If you can plan well, or buy many days and use them up, you do well.

 

[disneysteve]

Steve, I don't mean to sound like I am arguing about you, but this is a perfect example I think of how you can paint numbers to sound any way we like.

Absolutely, you can manipulate the numbers lots of ways. Sorry if I wasn't clear in the example I gave. Here it is again with more detail.

Current 5-day Park Hopper, gate price: $265.19 (never expires)

MYW 5-day with Hopper option, gate price: $242.83 (expires)

These prices come from mousesavers.com.

So if you are going for a week and need 5-days admission and don't plan to go back anytime soon, which describes lots of WDW guests, the new tickets will actually save you money.

The only point I was trying to make is that the new tickets don't represent an across the board price hike. For many guests, the new tickets will be about the same price or even cheaper than the current options. As I said, for my family, we will save $558 over our next 2 trips and there are only 3 of us. For a larger family, the savings can be even more than that.

 

[luvmygirls]

Can someone help, I'm a little confused?? Reading about the "new tickets". Back in August, we purchased 4 day PH's from the Disney site. (I think like 215.00/adult & 185.00/child) These are for our trip next October, are we going to be able to use these still, or do we have to upgrade to park-hop? We plan on spending only 1/2 day at AK, then moving on to Epcot for the remainder of that day. Donig MK 1 day, MGM 1 day, and leaving the last day for wherever we want to return. ANY help would be appreciated, thank you!
Shelly

 

[disneysteve]

Can someone help, I'm a little confused?? Reading about the "new tickets". Back in August, we purchased 4 day PH's from the Disney site. (I think like 215.00/adult & 185.00/child) These are for our trip next October, are we going to be able to use these still, or do we have to upgrade to park-hop?

You can still use them. Your tickets don't expire even though they won't be selling that type of ticket anymore. We have 1 day left on our PH from last trip. We'll use that next year in November and buy 10-day MYW passes for the rest of that trip and the following trip.

 

[yecats]

Initially when I read about the changes in tickets, I thought to myself, yep I'm getting screwed over again. However when I saw the 10 day ticket available for slightly over what I would've paid for a 7 day PHP I began to think a little differently. They have given you options but I want more options than given. Looking back at my last couple of trips, I've had days where 1/2 were done park hopping and half were done one park one day with a blend of these throughout a week's trip. I would love to be able to buy the 10 day MYW ticket, pay the no expiration fee but only have half the days as park hoppers with slightly adjusted price. I'm one of those people who hates to know that I've paid for something and not using it which is why I'll probably never purchase plus features ever again (I've only got about 24 plusses racked up on old tickets at this point). Theres good and bad about these tickets but for many I think that they'll work fine.

 

[luvmygirls]

Thanks DisneySteve! You have put my mind at ease, I appreciate the fast reply!

 

[LIFERBABE]

I would love to be able to buy the 10 day MYW ticket, pay the no expiration fee but only have half the days as park hoppers with slightly adjusted price.

I was just thinking how this could be accomplished too! Our MK days we stay all day, or return for Spectro or Fireworks so no hopping on MK days. I would hop on AK day or Epcot days.

We do use Plus Options, but no more than 2 each trip.

So I came up with my 5 year plan, purchasing 7+4 day PHP's from HSC and 10 day MYW tickets with no expiration for each of us. We're DVC, so I broke that down over the course of 4 vacations. We could use 1-2 hoppers per trip and 2-3 MYW days and 1 plus. My boys love DQ (they could go every night), so the DQ AP's would be separate ($68). It is a big financial outlay to purchase this combo, but I can break it down qtrly and purchase as I save up the money although the PHP's I would get now, before they run out. Our avg. cost per trip would be $579 for the 4 of us, and Im locking in the boys child ages by purchasing now.

I know this will not work for everyone, but that is all we have to work with and I won't have to worry about trying to squeeze 2 trips out of an AP (although I may purchase one for myself using the DVC discount and the combo for Dh and the boys) or not being able to hop or visit a WP. We like to do other things and get alot of relaxation in too, so I could see us not having to purchase additional WDW tickets for 4-5 years.

 

[MrsPete]

I think there are two important points for money-saving folks here:

Plan ahead and think realistically about what matters to YOU. Will your family "hop"? Do you care whether the tickets will expire? Will you use the plus features? Can you afford to pay for two trips' worth of tickets now? Regardless of what the rest of us need, be sure you are buying only what works for your family.

Once you've made your decision, do the math for yourself. Disney's ticket prices are designed to maximize their profits. You should take a few minutes to make sure you're maximizing your savings.

 

[LovePug]

I think there are two important points for money-saving folks here:

Plan ahead and think realistically about what matters to YOU. Will your family "hop"? Do you care whether the tickets will expire? Will you use the plus features? Can you afford to pay for two trips' worth of tickets now? Regardless of what the rest of us need, be sure you are buying only what works for your family.

Once you've made your decision, do the math for yourself. Disney's ticket prices are designed to maximize their profits. You should take a few minutes to make sure you're maximizing your savings.

Perfectly said .

 

[JimC]

...So if you have tickets like we do and want to "upgrade", it will cost $7.43 to get one more plus feature. Not a bad deal until you try and add the no expiration option that is already included with the old PHP:

5 day MYW w/3+, hopper, and no expire - $320.54 (another $37.28!) So now it's an extra $38 to use any extra days. If you only have 1 day left, you are almost better off just losing it and buying tickets again the next time.
-f

Maybe I am misreading this. Why would you need/want to "upgrade" an old ticket? The old tickets are still valid for whatever use they were sold for.

 

[LoveToDisney]

I read somewhere that the new tickets will require biometrics so they couldn't be shared the way we have used the leftover PHP tickets for guests. Once the 10-day ticket was used for a particular person, only that person could use it again.