Old park hopper tickets

[Bellamouse]

Please don't take this the wrong way but you are barking up the wrong tree. If your time and energy would be utilized better contacting Disney directly. Gripe here all you want but nothing will possibly change unless you take the effort to discuss with Disney.

Tough life lesson to learn sometimes is that we need to take our own accountability.

Thanks for the great "grown up advice". My posts are not directed at anyone personally (rather at a Disney policy I don't like), but you all clearly don't want to deal with the topic, but rather tell me about how I need to learn some hard lessons in personal responsibility! HA!

 

[vacationclub]

And it doesn't make sense that someone who wants to do nothing but gripe about Disney would buy 10 day no expriation passes....(for the 2nd time in 5 years). So clearly that's not my deal. But I just feel strongly about this one issue. Excuse me if that bothers you.

If you purchased 10 day no-expire passes twice in 5 years, it seems likely you may do this again in the future. So perhaps simply treat unknown passes as being expired and assume you have to buy more when you get there, and if you have a day left, a pleasant surprise. If you don't, and have to buy some more, this is something you've done a lot in 5 years so it doesn't seem like end the of the world.

Disney has a very legitimate reason for not giving out info over the phone. It makes it easy for others to sell their tickets at a lower cost than they are. The only way to avoid that is for you to physically show up at a concierge desk or a park and ask....something a potential purchaser (who was given all the right "answers") would be very unlikely to do, just to check it's validity before buying from a scalper (who would have to be watching from a short distance away).

 

[hydrotony]

You are right that old tickets have no expiration dates. My neighbor bought multi-day tickets in the 1970's when there was only one park and she still uses them no questions asked. The gate gives her a 1-day park hopper ticket when she goes in. Pretty sweet when you think of the cost now.

 

[Bellamouse]

If you purchased 10 day no-expire passes twice in 5 years, it seems likely you may do this again in the future. So perhaps simply treat unknown passes as being expired and assume you have to buy more when you get there, and if you have a day left, a pleasant surprise. If you don't, and have to buy some more, this is something you've done a lot in 5 years so it doesn't seem like end the of the world.

Disney has a very legitimate reason for not giving out info over the phone. It makes it easy for others to sell their tickets at a lower cost than they are. The only way to avoid that is for you to physically show up at a concierge desk or a park and ask....something a potential purchaser (who was given all the right "answers") would be very unlikely to do, just to check it's validity before buying from a scalper (who would have to be watching from a short distance away).

Another "solution". Lovely. Buying over $1200 worth of tickets is a big investment, and we don't always have the money to do this. If I could afford to do this, I wouldn't care about the policy at all. Oftentimes we are on a tight budget and only plan a Disney trip when we know we have days on our tickets. Then we go super budget. Off site condo shared with some others to defray the cost, priceline rental car, also shared, and so forth.

Not everyone who goes to Disney is rich and can pay rack rate at the Poly for 10 days. The only reason we bought the new 10 day tickets was because we just inherited a little bit of money and decided to "invest" in our future vacations again (and it's cheaper over time to buy the tickets in advance). Otherwise it would have been out of the question. It is unclear if we'll ever do it again. Only time will tell whether we will tire of Disney or want to keep on going back.

 

[POOHsie]

I already told you I have this "problem" solved at my own house. But there are thousands of people out there who may not realize this. I'm not looking for more makeshift solutions to a problem that has one EASY solution. Disney should be able to figure out a way (just like they did with the finger print thing) to identify the tickets as yours.

As I mentioned, my credit card company and bank both figured it out. Even my cell phone company won't talk to anyone about my bill except for me. There is a way, they just won't do it. Which is crazy IMO.

General admission tickets have no name or secret ID code attached to them. Do you buy tickets from anyone else who requires all that personal info about you, like a bank does? No. And the flip side of that is, tying old tickets to a particular person can be difficult. That creates a huge opening for ticket fraudsters.

I think Disney had figured out that most people calling about remaining ticket days were scammers working in the Orlando tourist area and also on the internet. This new ticket policy is an effective way to stop ticket fraud. It not only protects Disney, but also protects witless people who would buy worthless tickets (unknowingly), and arrive at WDW to find out they have to re-buy legal tickets. It's those victimized people that my heart goes out to. I have read one-too-many stories about some hapless family turned away at the MK turnstiles. Disney was hemorrhaging money lost through ticket fraud. They had no choice but to tighten their ticket policies.

It might be annoying to not know info on your old tickets in advance of your next WDW trip, but it shouldn't bust anyone's vacation plans. Most people would be staying longer than what was left on the old tickets, and would need to buy additional days anyway.

 

[TagsMissy]

Another "solution". Lovely. Buying over $1200 worth of tickets is a big investment, and we don't always have the money to do this. If I could afford to do this, I wouldn't care about the policy at all. Oftentimes we are on a tight budget and only plan a Disney trip when we know we have days on our tickets. Then we go super budget. Off site condo shared with some others to defray the cost, priceline rental car, also shared, and so forth.

Not everyone who goes to Disney is rich and can pay rack rate at the Poly for 10 days.

Again --- have you taken the time to contact Disney about your displeasure of this policy?? If you don't take the time to let them be aware if your feelings and open a dialogue with them there's nothing that can possibly change for the future. You have a lot of money invested in this it seems and time to discuss at length here, please take the same time to open a dialogue with Disney:

Disney Complaints and Comments:
Walt Disney World Guest Communications
P.O. Box 10,040
Lake Buena Vista, FL 32830-0040

Disney Guest Relations - 407-824-4321

wdw.guest.communications@disneyworld.com

 

[smidgy]

The ticket was purchased, it should be irrelevant who uses it[/B]. One person with one ticket coming through the door. It is a policy designed to make them more money, not to keep them from being "cheated".

..

see, this is not true with the "magic your way" tickets.

I could buy a 10 day , no expiration ticket, with the intention of using 5 days of it..... then, sell it to my neighbor, with the intention of using 5 days of it. we all know, after day 4, the tickets are only $8 each. then you split the difference. Disney is trying to make things easier and cheaper for you to stay longer (and, yes, of course, stay on property and spend money). they are NOT trying sell you 2 for the price of one tickets.


my sons are now 29 and 32. when they were 12 and 15, we purchased the 7 day "super-duper passes. we had 5 days in ANy park (hopping is ok) .. forever!!!(there were only 3 parks at the time). and 7 days in the minor parks. but those expired 7 days after first use of the park tickets.

this was our 2nd trip, and the boys were bored with the parks (translation: each had met a girl) so they stayed back at the resort the last day, with the arcade, the pools (and the girls)

anyhoo, theyeach still have a day left! when they ever return, they can only get the full value if they just go for one day. otherwise, I believe the value at the time will just be deducted from their MYW ticket. (I donot beleived there is "bridging" on these old passes)

but there was NO finger identification back then.

things change.. you let tickets go THAT long, you take what you can get.

cheshire figment has a stickey about tickets....but I totally understand why tickets are not transferrable.

 

[vacationclub]

Another "solution". Lovely.

Hmmm.... people are trying to give you perspective here. You clearly aren't interested. Do you understand why Disney does this? In the long run, it protects YOU. Just FYI, I don't think the fingerprint thing works for long periods, so they might not keep that data from your last finger scan (perhaps years ago) forever. Otherwise this wouldn't be an issue.

Just curious, how many days are you hoping are on these tickets for your next trip? Are you thinking it might have, maybe 1 or 2 days left, but you're not sure how many? I'm just curious what the worst case scenario is here.

 

[Bellamouse]

I disagree that Disney loses any money by tickets that are sold. Disney sold the tickets at some point to someone and received their money. It makes no difference if my butt is in the park or if someone else's butt is in the park on my ticket. It's still one butt. One ticket, one butt. The only thing they lose out on is additional ticket sales, but no loss on tickets already sold. What difference does it make if I stay in the park for 10 days or I go for 5 days and someone else goes for 5 days?? NO difference. They are still seeing one person go through the turnstile and use the rides and eat the food and walk around. It's irrelevant if it's me or another person.

If we were talking about fake tickets, that Disney never got any money for, that would be a different discussion. But they received the money for the ticket they sold whether it was to me or to my neighbor, and only one person enters the park for the ticket that they sold. So NO LOSS of money whatsoever. So there is no way they are "hemorraging money" as someone else suggested.

I can agree with many points though:

It's Disney's policy for their tickets to be non-transferable. Fine. If I don't like it, I don't need to go.

They put in the finger print readers so they can enforce this policy. Again, fine.

I do feel sorry for the people who buy from ticket scalpers only to find out they can't use the tickets when they get to the gates.

But by making their tickets non-transferable, they could TOTALLY add one more layer on to the sale of each ticket - like linking it to some kind of personal info about you (the AIRLINES do it every day!). Then when you call in to find out about the ticket that only you can use (because of their policy that I'm forced to live with), then they can accommodate me by telling me how much is left on the expensive ticket I bought. They have my money, I have a ticket that I don't know what its value is. Somehow that part doesn't seem fair.

It's not as though they ask for ID to make sure you're you when you're standing at the resort in Disney guest relations, asking how many days are left. So I don't really see what the difference is.

And I never said I have any tickets that I don't know how many days are left. I just know that my neighbors did, and so does the OP and thousands of other people. And it could hypothetically be me someday, although I have taken "personal responsibility" ( ) to come up with my own makeshift solution to the problem as suggested by others. So I hope that never happens to me - I have tried to make sure it doesn't. But to make things SO difficult for legitimate ticket owners is very UN-Disney, IMO.

As for formally complaining, yeah I suppose I could, but I know they don't care about my feelings on the subject so why bother.

If I feel like expressing my displeasure here, then that's my perogative.

 

[vacationclub]

I disagree that Disney loses any money by tickets that are sold.

Let me explain it to you as simply as possible. If Disney lets people easily re-sell unused tickets that were part of a 10 day no-expire, then a re-sale market exists where someone can sell left over 1, 2, 3 days on a ticket, (that were only purchased for say, 45 each day) at an increased value of say, 65 per day, still less than if someone off the street bought from Disney, but more than they were originally bought at. It HURTS ticket sales because it encourages people buy to more than they need (at a greater discount) so they can sell to scalpers later (or become scalpers themselves) who recycle them to others as "gray market" tickets.

In the short term, the fingerprint scan prevents this, but Disney apparently doesn't keep millions of finger prints data on file forever, probably only a week or two, so a secondary method of prevention must be implemented. The other method is to make the tickets difficult for a gray market buyer to determine it's actual value. If a scalper could just make a phone call while the buyer listened in and Disney confirms the tickets value, the scalper can easily sell re-cycle this unused multi-day ticket back into the market. Even if they had additinal info, the original buyer, intent on selling to a scalper, could easily provide this info either to the scalper or to Disney when acting directly as the scalper. This layer can be easily circumvented since it doesn't require photo ID.
Disney offers multi-day passes at a discount to be used by one person, but in doing so they risk competing with their own single day passes if any of those day passes are resold back into the market, thus de-valuing their own product. SO....this is why they do what they do.

If this were to continue, Disney would sell fewer and fewer fully priced tickets, and only sell highly discounted multi day tickets, even though they were being spread out among multiple users via the scalpers.

Yes, Disney could institute a very costly and complicated system of passwords, personal information, etc, but the negatives of that, including backlash from people questioning why they have to give so much info just to buy park tickets, obviously aren't worth hearing about occasional complaints from people who simply forgot how much is left on their ticket. Very few of these complainers will be so mad that they never go to Disney again, regardless of how much they make noise on the DIS.

Airlines "do it everyday" because of security issues. The TSA MANDATES it, otherwise they probably wouldn't bother with additional layers of information involved. Airlines require photo ID, also for security. Park tickets and airline tickets are completely different animals.

The only thing they lose out on is additional ticket sales,

EXACTLY.

And I still don't think you grasp the concept that I can still sell my ticket to anyone I want to right now. I don't need Disney to confirm how many days are left in order for me to do that. The problem is the person buying would not be able to use the ticket once they got to the gate. So just knowing how many days are on the ticket is worthless.

Actually, knowing how many days are on the ticket are the ONLY thing that proves its value. So you CAN'T really sell it if you can't prove that unless you find some really DUMB buyers.

The only people who want to know that are broker/scalpers/thieves.

EXACTLY.

I wouldn't sell my own sister a ticket I know she couldn't use (as in, hey sis, you want to buy my ticket? Here are the last four digits of my ss# - call up Disney and find out how many days are on there....). Totally ridiculous.

yes, it is. Why would you do that? That scenario doesn't make any sense.

It is a policy designed to make them more money, not to keep them from being "cheated". .

Isn't not being "cheated" out of money, and making more money the same thing?

A stranger - a ticket broker or scalper, would not know my personal info, nor would anyone ever give it to them.

Unless A: they wanted to SELL THEIR TICKETS, or B: they WERE the scalper.

So I think they could reasonably affirm I am ME, just like my bank can when I call them.

Your bank asks for far more info than I'm sure Disney is willing to keep track of for each and every Guest who ever enters a park, or probably more than most guests are willing to provide.

 

[smidgy]

ok.. I like a bargain as much as everyone else. but I do not want to steal or cheat, (as I'm sure you don't either)


the way the Magic Your Way ticket works is. the longer you stay, the less you pay!! it's the way Disney set it up.. on purpose... for a reason.... (and, yes,of course, Disney is a company, with stockholders, and wants to make money).

this way, if we decide to add a day to our trip, for the 2 of us, it's only another $16, to add another park day.

of course they do this on purpose... if I stay at an offsite condo, and choose to go to other parks, and only 4 dyas at WDW parks, I am still paying a lot for my tickets. however, after 4 days at WDW , if i want to repeat parks, the price drops drastically. and this helps disney keep customers on property. other than go to ther orlando destinations.. which is their right.

they are basically giving REWARDS to those who stay at WDW.

now, anyone who buys the 10 day, no expiration, is allowed to save money on their next trip to WDW by using up the most expensive days on the 1st trip, on the cheap days on the 2nd. It was NEVER meant to RESELL.

and, of course, anyone with a rudimentary knowledge of arithmetic, knows this. you KNOW that purchasing a 10 day, no expiration ticket (knowing that the value, per diem, goes down) and trying to use half of the ticket your trip, and the other half for soeone elses's ticket. is cheating.

you are basically trying to get someone into the parks for $8.00 a day . you thought you found a loophole, and, drat.. it doesn't work....

 

[smidgy]

basically, disney has chosen a system to reward those who visit their parks , as opposed to other parks.. there is no way "getting around" the higher price of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd day (as much as you are trying to do.. which is what you are really trying)

 

[Bellamouse]

You've totally missed my point.

You must have missed the part about me not arguing about their policy for non-transferrable tickets. I have no issue with that. And I have never argued that we as ticket holders should be able to sell our tickets. I get all that. I just want to know how many stinking days I have left!!!

I don't look at the equation the same way you do. I see that I spent $570 (or whatever) on a 10 day ticket that doesn't expire. That's $57 a day. Not 80 the first day and 70 the second or whatever equation you want to use. It's $57 a day. They have collected $57 a day for my butt to be in their parks. Whether my specific butt goes there or someone else's butt goes there. I guarantee you they calculate the no expire tickets the same way I do because they have to figure at least some of those days get used in the future (unlike expiring tickets), when pricing will be different, and perhaps drasctically different (as in the case of the lady who has tickets from the 1970's she's using now). But all that aside, I still am not trying to convince them or anyone that we should be able to sell our tickets. So throw that part out. I AGREED that I am fine with the non-transferable aspect.

The stupid scenario about selling tickets to my sister is to prove to a different poster that those are the sorts of people I would give my personal info to, not some stranger, a scalper. I was told that I could just "give my personal info" to someone else. But the only sorts of people I would give it to would be family or close friends. But as my scenario points out, that's ridiculous. I wouldn't be trying to scam my sister. I would never give a broker or scalper my ss# or whatever.

I am already thwarted in selling my tickets just by virtue of the fact that the buyer cannot use them at the gate anyway! So what is Disney so worried about? Even if I did sell them, the buyer can't use them! (And I absolutely believe they keep the finger prints for longer than two weeks. We last used our 10 day tickets in 2008, and when we just went two weeks ago, we used the same tickets and it asked four our fingerprints. Are you saying I could have sold them after all, since it was 3 years later? I don't believe that.)

So what good is verifying any days left on any ticket that can't be used no matter what? I, as a paying customer of Disney, should be able to some way find out the value of my own ticket. End of story. How they accomplish that is their problem. But to keep it a big secret from me unless I present myself at the gate is unfair. I, as a real customer and not a scammer, who spends big bucks, should not be unfairly penalized because of a few thieves.

 

[smidgy]

Well we will just have to agree to disgaree on this topic. Even their non-transferable ticket policy is a little crazy, IMO. They are not cheated out of ANY money. The ticket was purchased, it should be irrelevant who uses it. One person with one ticket coming through the door. It is a policy designed to make them more money, not to keep them from being "cheated".

.

You've totally missed my point.

You must have missed the part about me not arguing about their policy for non-transferrable tickets.

ok, you didn't argue about it. you just said it is a little crazy.

 

[Bellamouse]

Yes, I did say it was a little crazy and I still think so. If they're willing to let me into the park for $57 a day, no matter which day I go (today or 10 years from now), then it shouldn't really matter who goes on the ticket that's been paid for.

That said, that was not my main beef at all, and was more of just an aside. The part that really annoys me is not telling me how many days I have on my PAID ticket. I still find that ridiculous and unfair.

But the horse is really dead now I think......... I pass the sledgehammer to you in case you want to keep on beating....

 

[smidgy]

disney wants to reward people who stay longer.. AND wants to reward them even more for taking 2 trips! thus, the no-expiration bonus. ie, "come on down in the spring for the flower and gardern festival, then come on back in sept after the kids have all gone back to school! the last 5 days of tickets cost almost nothing!"

and they set up the NO TRANSFER to avoid the inevitable: "hey neighbor, sister, etc, I'll go for 5 days, then YOU go for 5 days, and it makes NO difference whose butt is in the park" scenario. and we'll all go for cheaper!"... which would defeat the marketing purpose of letting one person stay for cheaper the longer they stay!

see, disney put out a marketing idea.. it works... and .. unfortunately for some, they figured out (and closed) the possible "loopholes".

and now some are complaining about the loopholes being closed.

 

[vacationclub]

You've totally missed my point..

I didn't miss your point at all. You've made it clear you want to know why you can't call up and ask about a cards value. I've explained it.....thoroughly.

You must have missed the part about me not arguing about their policy for non-transferrable tickets. I have no issue with that. And I have never argued that we as ticket holders should be able to sell our tickets. I get all that. I just want to know how many stinking days I have left!.

And I just thoroughly explained why you can't, as it gives scalpers an advantage.

But the only sorts of people I would give it to would be family or close friends. But as my scenario points out, that's ridiculous. I wouldn't be trying to scam my sister. I would never give a broker or scalper my ss# or whatever

Disney would never ask for your SS number, so that's a pointless arguement. They may ask for a password, or phone number, etc, which you COULD give out if you WANTED to sell your remaining days into the gray market.

I am already thwarted in selling my tickets just by virtue of the fact that the buyer cannot use them at the gate anyway! So what is Disney so worried about? Even if I did sell them, the buyer can't use them! (And I absolutely believe they keep the finger prints for longer than two weeks. We last used our 10 day tickets in 2008, and when we just went two weeks ago, we used the same tickets and it asked four our fingerprints. Are you saying I could have sold them after all, since it was 3 years later? I don't believe that.)

Yes, I'm saying that. Just because it asks for your finger after 3 years doesn't mean it's comparing it to old data before letting you in....it could be asking for NEW data since it may not have any....just like it does for any new hopper pass it sees. They only simple explanation for Disney's policy is that they don't keep fingerprints forever, so it's safe to assume that is the case. Just because you don't believe it, doesn't make it untrue.

So what good is verifying any days left on any ticket that can't be used no matter what? I, as a paying customer of Disney, should be able to some way find out the value of my own ticket. End of story.

In your opinion. Entitled are we?

How they accomplish that is their problem. .

EXACTLY. It IS a problem....a problem not worth solving for a small percentage of people that represent very little loss for Disney, but lots of fun on DISboards.

I, as a real customer and not a scammer, who spends big bucks, should not be unfairly penalized because of a few thieves.

But you are, just like when you get on an airplane and get your bags searched, or worse. Crystal balls are only in the Haunted Mansion, and don't exist in the real world, otherwise we would all know who is good and who is bad.

Regarding the "butts' in the park, etc, take an economics class and it might make more sense.
As someone in this thread said earlier....If you don't get it, you don't get it and no amount of reasoning will make you get it. Oh, wait, that was you.

 

[Bellamouse]

Yes, I'm saying that. Just because it asks for you finger after 3 years doesn't mean it's comparing it to old data before letting you in....it could be asking for NEW data since it may not have any....just like it does for any new hopper pass it sees. They only simple explanation for Disney's policy is that they don't keep fingerprints forever, so it's safe to assume that is the case. Just because you don't believe it, doesn't make it untrue.

Well then, I'm sure the scammers are well aware of this. So the finger scanners are basically useless with no expiration tickets. I wonder if there is a premium among the scammers for those?

Regarding the "butts' in the park, etc, take an economics class and it might make more sense.

How lovely, personal attacks. What friendly people here. If they don't like what you write, they basically call you an idiot. Very nice.

 

[vacationclub]

Well then, I'm sure the scammers are well aware of this. So the finger scanners are basically useless with no expiration tickets.

Yes, exactly after a time period the finger scanners are apparently useless, THUS THE POLICY of not revealing a cards value.....as I've explained a few times now.

How lovely, personal attacks. What friendly people here. If they don't like what you write, they basically call you an idiot. Very nice.

I didn't call you an idiot, I said you should brush up on economics so you can further understand what others are trying to explain to you but you can't grasp. You've actually been quite abrasive with several comments and to other posters, including your "lovely, another solution' comment, and others. So, it's not like you weren't inviting a bit of bristle in return.

 

[Cheshire Figment]

If a person purchases a ticket for the exact number of days they are planning to use, and use all the days there is no problem.

If a person purchases a ticket that they intend to cover more than one trip, by purchasing the No Expire Option, it is their responsibility to be aware of how many days remain on the ticket.

Because the way Disney tickets are structured, the greater the number of days the less the daily cost, it is Disney policy not to assist anyone in getting detailed information about days remaining as the holder has shirked their responsibility. As a Guest convenience, Disney will, over the phone, let a person know whether or not the ticket is still valid, and in person will let a person know what actually remains.

See Post 18-B of the ticket sticky for detailed daily pricing information for both expiring and non-expiring tickets.

And I am not calling anyone an idiot, but if you do not like this policy contact Disney and provide them with their thoughts, don't constantly challenge anyone who disagrees with you.