Park ticket, park reservation dilemma "room only"

[markpenske]

We currently have a "room only" reservation arriving on December 12th. There is a possibility we may not be able to go. With the room only Ressie we can cancel 5 or 7 days before arrival with no penalty. Currently we have no park tickets.
So, if we go we would like to purchase tickets once we arrive but are worried we might get "sold-out".
- Do we need a park ticket before we can make a park reservation?
- If we purchase a park ticket Do we need to specify the date in advance? If so, can we switch it if we decide not to travel?
- If we purchase tickets does that change our "room only" reservation to a "package" which has a different cancelation policy?
- Do you think park reservations will sell out for the days of December 13th-17th?
Thanks in advance for your feedback.

 

[Marthasor]

1). Yes, you have to have tickets linked in your My Disney Experience account in order to make park reservations
2) When purchasing tickets, you have to select a ticket starting date as that determines the price of the ticket. If you do not use the tickets, you can use the value of the tickets purchased towards the purchase of future tickets at the prevailing rates.
3) If you purchase tickets separately, your room does not become a package. Separately purchased tickets are non-refundable, however. If you add tickets to your room reservation, it becomes a package. If you want a more lenient cancellation policy with your tickets, you may want to consider a package - you would need to pay in full now and $200 of that is, technically, non-refundable, however, if you decide not to go in December, you can modify your dates and not lose your $200. You could be charged a $50 change fee, however, if your new package is equal or greater to the original one, they usually waive the fee.
4) Maybe. Maybe not.

 

[Selket]

If you can afford to have money tied up in the park tickets you could go ahead and buy them and make your park reservations. If you do end up canceling, the money you paid for the tickets will still be there as a credit for new tickets - which could cost more on a future trip - but whatever you paid would still have the full value. So if you pay $600 for the tickets you'd have $600 to buy new tickets. I don't know what happens if your new tickets are less - say your next trip was only 2 days and your ticket was $300. There's a ticket sticky and you might want to post there.

The advice about converting to a package is good as well as long as you're ok with the change fee and you want to plan a future visit.

 

[thanxfornoticin]

Seems like you might be running a risk of waiting too long, deciding to go, and then finding park reservations are unavailable. That's likely to be a busy week, and some of the parks are already filled back to 12/18 (I say 'back' from Christmas Day), just on the fringe of your trip. That doesn't mean they'll be unavailable for you, but it's a risk either way. I expect you don't want to keep the room and then not be able to purchase tickets or reserve a slot at the parks. That appears to be happening a few days around Thanksgiving. Hope it all works out for you and your trip is a good one!

 

[markpenske]

So, for example:
I buy tickets for Epcot - December 12th and we cancel our trip - I can use those tickets in May 2022 and pay any cost difference?
I'd be ok with that

 

[Marthasor]

So, for example:
I buy tickets for Epcot - December 12th and we cancel our trip - I can use those tickets in May 2022 and pay any cost difference?
I'd be ok with that

Yes, as long as you don't use those tickets in any way, you can use the value of the tickets toward the purchase of new tickets for May 2022. If you go this route, I would make sure you save the ticket confirmation number in case the tickets, for some reason, fall off your My Disney Experience account.

 

[thanxfornoticin]

So, for example:
I buy tickets for Epcot - December 12th and we cancel our trip - I can use those tickets in May 2022 and pay any cost difference?
I'd be ok with that

Apologize if you already know this, but you don't need to buy a ticket for a specific park anymore. They have done away with that. A 1-day pass is good for any single park. You just mentioned EPCOT, so I thought I'd throw that out there.

 

[markpenske]

So, an update to the original post. We bought "three" 2-day base tickets. We linked them and reserved park days for December 14th & 16th. Now we found out we must cancel our trip.
We would like to get a credit for the money paid for the tickets. What is the process? Do we need to "un-link" them? Do we need to call WDW? I thought (but dont remember) if we do not scan the tickets on the day reserved they will automatically become credits? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[lanejudy]

I replied on the ticket sticky... essentially, you don't need to do anything at this time to keep the credit as it will automatically be in your MDE account. I do recommend that you make note of the ticket numbers and the value because they will likely disappear from your view upon expiration. However, WDW should have no problem pulling it up for you when you are ready to use the credit towards new tickets.

 

[loves to dive]

Just for future reference there is a third party vendor that you can buy refundable tickets from. If I'm not mistaken you have to get the physical tickets as opposed to digital ones so they need to be ordered enough in advance to be mailed to you. Google discount disney tickets and look for a frog, not allowed to say the name but they are an authorized Disney retailer.

 

[starry_solo]

Just for future reference there is a third party vendor that you can buy refundable tickets from. If I'm not mistaken you have to get the physical tickets as opposed to digital ones so they need to be ordered enough in advance to be mailed to you. Google discount disney tickets and look for a frog, not allowed to say the name but they are an authorized Disney retailer.

I thought this would only work if the purchaser hasn't linked the tickets to MDE.

 

[loves to dive]

I thought this would only work if the purchaser hasn't linked the tickets to MDE.

Nope, the two aren't related. The refund is offered by the third party vendor as long as you haven't used your tickets.

 

[Kjdisney]

Nope, the two aren't related. The refund is offered by the third party vendor as long as you haven't used your tickets.

This is correct. I purchased both WDW 5 day PH and a 3 day Universal park to park through the frog vendor for my husband and I. When I had to cancel because I broke my ankle, I had the option of returning the tickets with a 5% restocking fee or changing the dates to reuse the tickets.

I had the physical WDW tickets, and Universal e-ticket, both were linked to theme park app. I returned the Universal, because we weren’t sure if we would be able to stay as long on our new trip in January, and changed the dates from October to January on the WDW tickets through MDE.

Very easy to do, and received the funds back for Universal tickets within 3 days. The interesting thing is I didn’t think I would get full value of the WDW tickets, since Oct pricing was more than Jan, but I did. Through the frog vendor, you basically are getting the amount of the sales tax in a discount on ticket price. I thought that since my ticket was discounted, that would be reflected in the ticket value. But it isn’t, you get the full value of the ticket.

I found this out because after I changed the dates I decided to add Genie+. I expected it to be at least $150 + tax, and it was $102.00 including tax to add for the 5 days. I called and talked to CM which confirmed that it was less due to the higher ticket value for Oct ticket. So very nice to know that even if you change your “frog vendor tickets” you still retain the full discount.