Nonexpiring tickets - an investment in the future?

[elaine amj]

If I see myself at WDW for occassional short trips here and there in the years to come, would non-expiring tickets make sense? We love WDW and will likely continue to plan extended 10-12 day trip at least for the next couple of years. However, occassionally we find ourselves in Florida with a day or two to spare (cruise/other vacation). Would it make sense to do the following:

- continue buying regular 6-10 day tickets for our long trips
- also buy 10 day PH, WPF&M tickets as a hedge for future short trips.

We would use the nonexpiring tickets only rarely - maybe a day or two a year. Maybe no days for a year or two and then a day or two after that. We would not use it for any planned WDW vacation. No, we don't usually have a lot of unplanned short trips, but I can see it happening 1x every year or 1x every couple of years. So these tickets would be an investment with the expectation of it lasting 5-10 yrs.

I'm thinking with the way ticket prices continue to skyrocket, I could consider it an investment and I would pull it out of savings to pay for it. I'm thinking it would likely save me enough that it will outperform any mutual fund investment LOL.

Right now, we have a cruise on the Dream coming up in March and will be in Orlando for 2 days pre and post cruise. We would love to go to MK for one day - but cannot justify $90 pp. We have investigated all other options of things to do in Orlando and honestly, we would just end up in DtD or resort hopping. DH does not want to do Universal or Sea World.

Help me consider if this makes sense from a financial standpoint.

 

[FreeTime]

Disney has gotten rid of non-expiring tickets. So, this would work for you but you need to find someplace that still has them available (Disney Store, Costco) and snatch them up before they are all gone.

 

[ajasmom]

undercover tourist is still selling NE tix for the time being. I would get what you need while they are available. NE tix are still available at the gates but you have to ask for them they were removed from signs and website.

 

[meriface11]

I found the this morning on the Disney site on the magic you way page

 

[Cheshire Figment]

Disney has gotten rid of non-expiring tickets. So, this would work for you but you need to find someplace that still has them available (Disney Store, Costco) and snatch them up before they are all gone.

I found the this morning on the Disney site on the magic you way page

undercover tourist is still selling NE tix for the time being. I would get what you need while they are available. NE tix are still available at the gates but you have to ask for them they were removed from signs and website.

Disney is not eliminating No Expire tickets. The reason they are not listed on the web site is due to many people not understanding them, making the purchase, and then complaining about the pricing. The problem was too many people did not realize they had 14 days to use all the days on their tickets.

If I see myself at WDW for occassional short trips here and there in the years to come, would non-expiring tickets make sense? We love WDW and will likely continue to plan extended 10-12 day trip at least for the next couple of years. However, occassionally we find ourselves in Florida with a day or two to spare (cruise/other vacation). Would it make sense to do the following:

- continue buying regular 6-10 day tickets for our long trips
- also buy 10 day PH, WPF&M tickets as a hedge for future short trips.

We would use the nonexpiring tickets only rarely - maybe a day or two a year. Maybe no days for a year or two and then a day or two after that. We would not use it for any planned WDW vacation. No, we don't usually have a lot of unplanned short trips, but I can see it happening 1x every year or 1x every couple of years. So these tickets would be an investment with the expectation of it lasting 5-10 yrs.

I'm thinking with the way ticket prices continue to skyrocket, I could consider it an investment and I would pull it out of savings to pay for it. I'm thinking it would likely save me enough that it will outperform any mutual fund investment LOL.

Right now, we have a cruise on the Dream coming up in March and will be in Orlando for 2 days pre and post cruise. We would love to go to MK for one day - but cannot justify $90 pp. We have investigated all other options of things to do in Orlando and honestly, we would just end up in DtD or resort hopping. DH does not want to do Universal or Sea World.

Help me consider if this makes sense from a financial standpoint.

If you go to the locked sticky Everything About WDW Tickets in the TPA&S Forum, especially Post #18-B, you can get a lot more information. An easy way to get to the sticky is by clicking on the link in my signature. The ticket sticky is your friend!

 

[elaine amj]

Thanks...I read your sticky when I first came up with the idea so I could consider all the ramifications. It's such an awesomely helpful thread. Dh is a bit worried about this ticket "investment", especially since we will be in for the long term. He keeps saying maybe Disney will reach a price ceiling and stop raising prices. I read him the historic price list. That helped LOL.

I was trying to break down prices by day. The 10 day hopper WpF&M is $673.

I don't value WP or DQ as equal to the parks, so say I value those tix at $25 each.

10 day WP/ DQ x $25 a day = $250
That means...
10 day parkhoppers = $(673-250)/10 = $42.30 per day

A normal 10 day parkhopper ticket (at today's prices) would cost $383.95 so $38.50 per day.

Hmm....doing the math this way REALLY helps. We are not overspending too much at all doing the non expiring option.

Anything I'm missing?

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

Thanks...I read your sticky when I first came up with the idea so I could consider all the ramifications. It's such an awesomely helpful thread. Dh is a bit worried about this ticket "investment", especially since we will be in for the long term. He keeps saying maybe Disney will reach a price ceiling and stop raising prices. I read him the historic price list. That helped LOL.

I was trying to break down prices by day. The 10 day hopper WpF&M is $673.

I don't value WP or DQ as equal to the parks, so say I value those tix at $25 each.

10 day WP/ DQ x $25 a day = $250
That means...
10 day parkhoppers = $(673-250)/10 = $42.30 per day

A normal 10 day parkhopper ticket (at today's prices) would cost $383.95 so $38.50 per day.

Hmm....doing the math this way REALLY helps. We are not overspending too much at all doing the non expiring option.

Anything I'm missing?

We've been doing this for years. We never do 5 or 7 straight days of WDW parks anymore so it's nice to always have tix around for next time. Also like you said, a day or 2 around a cruise; that's our most common way we visit. We don't use the water park days up nearly as quick as the park days. Many of our visits were in cooler weather. So we'll be going for a water park long weekend in Sept.

 

[StephMK]

We bought them for our 2005 trip (onsite) and used most of the rest of the non-exp tickets during a 2011 trip offsite. I know someone could probably figure out the savings vs. loss of available money over those years but it was nice to have them.

The price to add the extra days was not significantly more at the time. Since we stayed offsite the next time, we didn't have to worry about a stay & play type of deal.

Next time, we will probably stay onsite again and still have 1 or 2 water park days left. Hopefully we'll do a room/ticket package then can visit the water parks with our leftover WP days.

The added bonus was the knowledge that we *had* to return since we had those tickets to use. Luckily, we all quickly became Disney lovers and plan to go again in a few years.

 

[DVC4FUN]

Sounds like a great idea! I also actually have a ton of extra 10 day no expire WP&More tickets and some with hopper (i don't hop much so didn't need many of these) around for the times I am not going enough to justify a DVC AP/PAP. Bought them a few years ago from UCT. And since lately haven't been going to water park much at all I buy the AP so the regular tickets I have are handy for the 1-2 days in the year we might want to go to waterpark when I have just the AP.Thu this year I will have a PAP bought when DVC had the $399 ($425 after tax) on them.

 

[ForMyBoys]

We bought non-expiring tickets, at the time undercovertourist had 8 day w/p and more tickets for a very good discount so we got 8 days instead of 10.

We are more relaxed tourists, we'll be in Disney this time from Sat to Sat and will likely only spend 3 days in the park, a day at a WP, a day touring DTD and a down day, we figure the 8 day park tickets will last us 3 vacations so even though they were close to double the price they were worth it for us. But yeah, the price is hard to stomach.

 

[I-4Bound]

We LOVE the no-expiration tickets and have been buying them for years. I get the 10 day passes, and they last us for several years. We only do about 2 park days per trip, so this works out great. I try to rotate so I am only buying one 10-day pass per year. With all the scares about the possibility of discontinuing the no-expire ticket, I am seriously thinking about scraping up enough money to buy a few more tickets. Every time I call Disney, they say the no-expiration option is still available, but Mousesavers keeps saying that they are probably going away. If anyone has any advice about this, I'd love to hear it

 

[Mrs. Ciz]

We bought non-expiring tickets, at the time undercovertourist had 8 day w/p and more tickets for a very good discount so we got 8 days instead of 10.

We are more relaxed tourists, we'll be in Disney this time from Sat to Sat and will likely only spend 3 days in the park, a day at a WP, a day touring DTD and a down day, we figure the 8 day park tickets will last us 3 vacations so even though they were close to double the price they were worth it for us. But yeah, the price is hard to stomach.

This is exactly the way we do a week long trip. I also bought No Expire tickets - 10 day hoppers with WP & more. They will last us at least 3 trips, maybe more. We don't go every year so APs won't work for us. The No Expire tickets make each of our trips more economical!

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

We too have done this for years. We just used up our last non exp. tickets I bought back in 2004 and printed on the ticket is says I paid $315 for 7 days. So we paid $45 for each park visit. Plus we got 3 free days to the water parks.

I'd say its a great investment. Look one day tickets today are close to $90 so i saved half off the reg. price.

Plus ticket prices are do to increase this spring.

 

[elaine amj]

These stories definitely help make my decision easier.

 

[DizneyLizzy]

I am actually using a very small portion of our tax refund to buy another 10 day no expiration ticket each for my husband and I. We each have about 6 days left on our current passes, and he will finish up with his later this year. Since Disney ticket prices have been going up faster than inflation, it totally makes sense. I do figure it's an investment. At $655 on UT, a 10 day NE works out to $65 per day. Since we never spend more than 3 or 4 consecutive days at Disney in one trip, $65 per day is less than we would ever pay for 3 and 4 day tickets.

 

[scrapbooksellman]

I am so confused. Maybe one of you could help.
We are going to Orlando in July with 1 or 2 days at WDW, staying off property. We will mostly likely go back next feb. for a week on property.
(DH, DD12, DS9)

Should I buy nonexpiring tickets to use on both trips, annual passes or just day tickets for July and book a package for Feb?

 

[elaine amj]

In your situation, no expiring may not be such a good deal. We love the free dining pkg..for us, that's the best discount possible. One time I priced out nonexpiring instead and it wasn't a good idea.

Keep in mind there is a hefty surcharge for nonexpiring. We don't plan on using ours for our normal long trips. Just the side trips when we're in Florida for other reasons. The wp&m really extends the value of the NE passes for us . plus we are thinking we will use this for 2-5 yrs, maybe more.

I guess u have to do the math. Which is hard with not knowing what pkgs will be offered next yr.

 

[Cheshire Figment]

You might want to look at the Everything About WDW Tickets locked sticky in the TPA&S Forum. Especially the items bolded in the list below.

Post and Contents

1. This Table of Contents
2. Magic Your Way (MYW) Ticket Basics Including Definitions
3. Annual Passes and Water Park Tickets
4. Tickets Available Only to Florida Residents
5. Tickets Not Available to the General Public
6. Upgrading MYW Tickets (Not to Annual Passes)
7. Upgrading Tickets to Annual Passes
8. Dealing With Tickets Issued Prior to 1 January 2005 (Pre-MYW)
9. Children and Adults
10. Special Events
11. Comprehensive MYW Ticket Example
12. Hotel Card (Key To The World (KTTW))
13. Lost Tickets
14. Finger Scans
15. Frequently Asked Ticket Questions.
15A. Hopping Rules
15B. WPF&M With No Expire
15C. No Expire Upgrades
15D. Upgrading an Unused Ticket
15E. Upgrading Special Tickets
15F. Checking on Old Tickets
15G. Renewing Annual Passes
15H. Upgrading a Completely Used Ticket
15I. Getting Park Tickets Before Package Start Date
15J. Upgrading After Departure

Page Two of the Sticky

16. 2012 MNSSHP and MVMCP Information
17. 2012/2013 Armed Forces Salute Tickets
18A. Prices Effective June 3, 2012
18B. Per Day Pricing for Ticket Combinations
18C. How to Save Money on Annual Pass Purchases
19A. "Free" Tickets and Special Promotions
19B. Special DVC Member Premium Annual Pass Promotion
20. Ticket Purchase/Upgrade Locations and Telephones
21. Florida Resident Installment Purchases of Annual Passes

To get there directly, follow the link in my signature. The ticket sticky is your friend!