Old tickets

[fishy_mouse]

Hi All,

I am going to WDW for 9 days in June. The longest MYW ticket offered was 7 days, so I bought it.

I have 4 old tickets from 4 and 5 day passes purchased in 1991/1992. They each have a day remaining. At the time purchase, you could park hop with them. Also, they had no expiration. I am considering using them for an 8th day theme park admission.

My questions are: Can I still use them for theme park admission and will the park hopping on them still be vaild?

 

[Mymatisse]

The answer to both your questions is yes.

 

[WillCAD]

Yes, those tickets are still good.

However, there are two restrictions:

1-Since the tickets are so old, they are not the current type with the magnetic strip on them. This means they will not work in the gates, which means you have to go to Guest Relations or a ticket window at the parks and get a new pass with a magnetic strip. You will NOT be trading these in for MYW tickets, you will simply be getting a new card with a magnetic strip on it that works in the gates. (When you do this, ask the CM if you can keep the old tickets as souveniers after they have been marked as used).

2- Since those tickets were bought before Animal Kingdom opened, you won;t be able to use them to get into Animal Kingdom. Disney's rule on old tickets is that they are only good for use at the theme parks which were open at the time the tickets were bought. Dumb, I know, but that's the rule.

 

[QuickGold]

Yes, the old theme park ticket is still valid.

 

[GoldenOldie]

...2- Since those tickets were bought before Animal Kingdom opened, you won;t be able to use them to get into Animal Kingdom. Disney's rule on old tickets is that they are only good for use at the theme parks which were open at the time the tickets were bought. Dumb, I know, but that's the rule.

This hasn't been true since January 1999. Once the old tickets are converted to the magnetic strip ones at Guest Relations, the tickets will be good at all four theme parks no matter how old the original tickets are.

 

[seashoreCM]

I would suggest keeping the old ticket for the future and trading up the brand new 7 day MYW for a 10 day MYW as soon as you get there. The cost will be about eleven dollars.

Therefore by using the old ticket for your eighth day you have placed a value of eleven dollars upon it. Used as-is on a 1 to 3 day Disney vacation in the future that ticket is worth sixty dollars. (Not all of us have a 1 to 3 day Disney vacation in our foreseeable schedules)

Based on the vintage of the old ticket as described, I am guessing you get $20. to $25. out of that old ticket using it as a trade-up towards a new ticket. (The trade up value is pro-rated from the purchase price.) But there is a fly in the ointment. The new ticket must have non-expiration because the old one did. If you were not planning non-expiration, its added cost outweighs the value of the trade-up.

One intriguing use of an old hopper: If you can get your hopping needs down to just one day, buy a non-hopping ticket for the rest of your vacation. You might save as little as three dollars on the difference in cost of a one day shorter MYW pass but you save $37. on not buying hopping.

For standardization reasons, the ticket you get by doing the normal even exchange of your non-magnetic ticket may well be a one day MYW with hopping and non-expiration and good at all 4 parks, which is the closest non-inferior equivalent.

Disney hints:
http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/disney.htm

 

[WDSearcher]

2- Since those tickets were bought before Animal Kingdom opened, you won;t be able to use them to get into Animal Kingdom. Disney's rule on old tickets is that they are only good for use at the theme parks which were open at the time the tickets were bought. Dumb, I know, but that's the rule.

No, it's actually not the rule. Any type of old tickets can be turned in for tickets that are good for any park currently operating.

 

[Simba's Mom]

Yes, those tickets are still good.

1-Since the tickets are so old, they are not the current type with the magnetic strip on them. This means they will not work in the gates, which means you have to go to Guest Relations or a ticket window at the parks and get a new pass with a magnetic strip. You will NOT be trading these in for MYW tickets, you will simply be getting a new card with a magnetic strip on it that works in the gates. (When you do this, ask the CM if you can keep the old tickets as souveniers after they have been marked as used).

Did things change? We went within the last year or two and used a couple of old tickets from the late 80's, the kind that you stamped the date, no magnetic strip. We just went to the front gate, and the CM would stamp our ticket (after they located the one stamp lying around), then open the wheelchair gate to let us through. At the Fastpass machines, we'd just show the tickets to the CM, who'd print us out a FP.

 

[WillCAD]

I guess things must have changed, because I got my info from AllEarsNet, which is usually gospel.

http://www.allearsnet.com/pl/ticket.htm#6

I was, however, wrong about old tickets not being good at animal Kingdom after you trade them in for the current ticket media. This rule did exist when AK first opened (there were a lot of angry people being turned away from the AK gates with older tickets!), but according to AllEarsNet, if you convert older tickets to the current ticket media, they will be valid at all 4 theme parks.

 

[fishy_mouse]

Seashore,

Trade up looks like a good option. I get days 8 and 9 for $11 instead of one extra day already paid for. I can save the other tickets for later.

It is all part of a MYW vacation package. Can I upgrade the theme park tickets at hotel check in?

Thanks to all for the information.

 

[MiaSRN62]

The longest MYW ticket offered was 7 days, so I bought it.

I thought they offered a 10 day base MYW pass ?

 

[STEPHILL]

I was just there last week and my parents had tickets from 1997. We went to MK, no problem. MK was extremely crowded, so we hopped over to AK. Well, their system would not read my parents tickets, so luckily we had our hands stamped at MK and they let my parents in. If not, it would not have been a good day, because MK and MGM were packed that day.
Also, you know how Disney says their "old" tickets never expire, well that is true, but don't try to trade them in for Magic Your Way Tickets. They apply the days left on the old tickets to the end of your Magic Your Way Tickets. For example, my parents had 2 days left on their old passes, if they would have applied them to the 7 day MYW tickets, those old tickets were only worth $12-15. The CM suggested they use up the old passes and purchase a 5 day MYW ticket. So, if you are thinking that you have 2 days left at $50/day = $100 off the total price of MYW ticket, that is not how it works.

 

[seashoreCM]

>>> The CM suggested using up the old tickets and buying a new 5 day MYW pass.

They would get six dollars of value out of the old tickets because they could have bought a new 7 day MYW pass for six dollars more and held on to the old passes.

You don't get any change back when you do a trade up.

Ask for the dollar trade up value of the old pass as a separate question before actually requesting the trade up.

A confusion stumbling block occurs when you select options for the new ticket and get the price. The old pass contributes dollars towards the price of the new pass, not days towards the contents of the new pass. Then you know the trade in value from the question you asked above and then say "Do it". Next the ticket agent changes the price of the new ticket because he forgot to include the mandatory non-expiration because the old ticket being traded does not expire and the new ticket has to have all the attributes of the old. At this moment you should feel free to abort the trade up, take back your old ticket, step aside again, and think things over.

 

[GoldenOldie]

...This rule did exist when AK first opened (there were a lot of angry people being turned away from the AK gates with older tickets!)...

Yes it did. From the time AK opened in April of '98, you had to pay to upgrade your old park hopper, value pass and all-in-one tickets to include AK. But due to disappointing attendance during the first 9 months that AK was opened, Disney reversed course in January of '99 and started allowing all tickets in at no additional charge to try to boost park attendance.