We bought 10 day NE w/waterparks when they were $1800 for our family of four. We used them for 3 trips and still have 6 days of waterpark / Disney Quest visits. I did have a spreadsheet at some point, but can't find it. I do know that at this point the days we have left are basically "free".
So, that one vacation we shelled out A LOT! But every trip since has been very affordable. It's worked well for us. A couple times we got
free dining and had to buy 1 day tix. We upgraded them and used them on future trips. I considered that minimal cost as our dining cost and it's been a good deal. We may have some 1 day tix still laying around...hmmm... If we were lucky enough to get free dining in the future and it requires a 2 day ticket, it would be perfect for us!
We have found that 3 park days per trip for our family is ideal. However, we'd like to hop for one day to get in all 4 parks. So, I am thinking of buying us 10 day NE park hoppers. Then, we will need only base tickets for the next 10 years!
At current pricing a 3 day PH is $318.44.
A 2 day base + the cost of 1 day of a NE Hopper is: $187.44 + $65.60=$253.04
$65 x 4 people x 10 years = $2600 savings. And that is with no price increase.
$272.64 is the price for a 4 day base. So even if we did it that way and skipped the hopping, we'd still save about $20/day per person and wouldn't have to "waste" an extra day of our trip.
So, yes, I care, but not too much. I don't have to worry about it for a really long time and my kids will be grown by then. I realize I may only get 5 more trips out of my kids tickets and then turn the tickets over to them as they will be adults and on their own. I'm okay with that. And, you never know, they may still want to take
Disney vacations with us through college. I can dream, right?