Hi mom!
Before we get started, let's define a few things.
Park Hopper - a ticket with variable number of days that allow you to "hop" between the major Disney parks and only use one hopper day. Unused days on these tickets never expire.
Park Hopper Plus - a ticket with variable number of days that allow you to "hop" between the major Disney parks and only use one hopper day. PLUS this ticket has a variable number of plus option. Each plus options is good for a single admission to the Disney water parks, Pleasure Island, or Disney's Wide World of Sports. You cannot hop with the pluses. (A visit to Typhoon Lagoon and Pleasure Island in one day would use up two pluses.) Once again, unused hopper days AND plus days never expire.
Ultimate Park Hopper. (or Unlimited Park Hopper - I don't recall what they are calling it these days) - a ticket that is tied to a Disney Resort stay. It is good from the time that you check in until midnight of the day that you check out. (You can "drop" a day at the beginning or end of your stay IF you purhase your UMP at the time of check in. ) These tickets can be used for admission to ALL Disney parks, water parks, Pleasure Island, and Disney Quest. If for some reason you cannot make it to any park during your stay, you have "lost" the price that you have paid for that day. And again, UMPs expire at midnight of the day that you check out.
Something that I do not know is if you can get the UMPs if staying at DVC - although I would imagine that you can.
If you want to get UMPs and know that you want to drop a day, you will need to purchase your passes when you get to WDW. If not, then you can order your passes through CRO (Central Reservations.)
If you want to buy plain hoppers, your best price is usually pre trip at a
Disney Store or through CRO.
If you want park hopper pluses, your best prices are ordering tickets through a discount ticket vendor before your trip. If you are interested in this, we can recommend a number of reputable dealers.
And then there is one more option for PHs and PHPs - You can join Connections - through HotWire or other ways. They have the best prices on PHs and PHPs. But you must be a member. You can do a trial membership for 30 days for $1 and cancel after you have purchased and received your passes.
Whew! I'm tired!
Hope that this answers some of your questions and has not made you more confused.
Feel free to ask more questions!
PS - To determine what is the most cost effective depends on your family. Do you like to park hop between the major parks and the water parks in one day? Is Disney Quest important to you? Do you go to the parks EVERY day? If so, then you may want to get the UMPs.
OR are you not even interested in the water parks and Disney Quest - then the regular park hopper would be your best (and most economical) bet.
But if you think that you would like to go to the parks, and then maybe hit a water park or Pleasure Island once. If you think that you may want to take a day off in the middle of yout trip to take a break, then the park hopper plus would be the best thing for you.
For our family, we buy the park hopper plus. We take one or two days off within our vacation. We usually go to Typhoon Lagoon once and Pleasure Island once. And I also like to buy more days that we what know that we will need so that I have days left over. It makes going back to WDW that much more real.
OK, I am going to stop rambling now...
