Park Tickets - Help - how many days? Hop? H2O Parks?

[Our2Girls&Disney]

Hi Fellow Disers!

I need help on a park ticket decision. We will be purchasing 3 adults and 1 child. Shocking how a 10 year old is an adult, but oh well that is their policy. We will be staying off site in my parent’s condo. Now that we have free accommodations we will be visiting the Orlando area more frequently, so I am pretty certain that I should get the no expiration tickets. My question is how many days would you purchase to get the most value? Would you include hopper and water parks?

I have purchased tickets from Ticket Mania in the past and I was pleased with their prices and their service. I am not afraid to try discount ticket brokers again. Any recommendations on the best rates from discount ticket brokers? TIA

 

[hncg57c]

Since you say that you will be visiting Orlando more often, I suggest that you get the 10 day no expiration ticket. As for park hopping, you can do without it unless you really want to. We used to park hop all the time, but when the new tickets came out, we left out park hopping just to save money. Get the water parks option only if you want to go to the water parks.

 

[WillCAD]

How many days will you actually be in Orlando? Out of those days, do you plan to visit Universal or SeaWorld? Do you need a day or two of rest to commune with your parents?

Also, how often will you be going down there? If you go often enough, APs might be a better bargain for you than MYW hoppers.

TicketMania is still great. Maple Leaf is about the same. Recently folks on the DIS have also been getting good deals from Undercover Tourist.

 

[aka-mad4themouse]

To save on tickets, try using one of the online ticketbrokers:
The Official Ticket Center
Ticketmania
Undercover Tourist
Discount Orlando Vacation
Maple Leaf Tickets
Compare their prices, including tax and shipping charges. And if you sign up for the MouseSavers.com Newsletter (which comes out on the 15th of every month), you'll find links in it for even lower ticket prices at one or more of the above ticketbrokers.

As far as what types of tickets to order, I would definitely get the 10-day no-expiry passes if I were in your situation. That would result in the lowest cost per park visit in the long run. In fact, I would give consideration to purchasing APs if you think that you'll be visiting more than once in a 365-day period and if you'll spend more than 10 days at the parks during that time, since you will also get free parking (valued at $10/day) with a valid AP.

As to whether to hop or not...that's really up to personal preference. During times when the park hours are extended, it's nice to be able to leave one park and visit another one in the same day. We often do AK and MGM in the same day, or go to a second park for the evening after taking an afternoon break at our resort. But that preference for hopping costs me an extra $192 for my family of 4. It's the same cost regardless of the number of days on your pass or whether it's an adult or child pass. Since a 10-day no-expiry pass can last us for 3 trips, I look at it as tacking an extra $62/trip for us.

The w/p fun option with add $53.25 to the cost of each ticket (if added at WDW). On a 10-day pass which gets 6 visits for that price, you're getting w/p-DQ-PI-WWoS admission for less than $10 each. That's a pretty sweet deal. Unless you're not buying the no-expiration option, really hate waterparks or need to trim the budget, I would recommend getting it.

 

[Nanu57v]

Unless you plan on spending a lot of time at the waterparks, I don't recommend the plus features. Its cheaper for us to buy gate price for water park tickets than to buy the plus features and not use them.

 

[Our2Girls&Disney]

How many days will you actually be in Orlando? Out of those days, do you plan to visit Universal or SeaWorld? Do you need a day or two of rest to commune with your parents?

Also, how often will you be going down there? If you go often enough, APs might be a better bargain for you than MYW hoppers.

TicketMania is still great. Maple Leaf is about the same. Recently folks on the DIS have also been getting good deals from Undercover Tourist.

We plan to visit Orlando area for a week. We only have 3 weeks vacation each so, we wanted to use 1 week for Orlando, 1 week for camping in July, and the other week for misc days. I don't think that an annual pass is for us. We wanted to go to Disney parks one or two days and also try Universal. The remainder of the days will be spent pool side and going to sightsee. We will not be spending time with my parents because they will be here when we plan on going.

I think that MYW tickets non-expiring tickets are the way to go for our situation. I just wanted to get the most bang for my buck. I also was not sure about hopping & water parks.

 

[Temair]

I would go for the 10 day MWY tickets. If your plans are not for the winter season I would get the water parks added on. They are in addition to the 10 days. I personal like the park hoppers, but I enjoy doing one park in the morning and then another at night, with a break in the middle. If it was me I would get the 10 day hopper & plus tickets.

Temair

 

[WillCAD]

We plan to visit Orlando area for a week. We only have 3 weeks vacation each so, we wanted to use 1 week for Orlando, 1 week for camping in July, and the other week for misc days. I don't think that an annual pass is for us. We wanted to go to Disney parks one or two days and also try Universal. The remainder of the days will be spent pool side and going to sightsee. We will not be spending time with my parents because they will be here when we plan on going.

I think that MYW tickets non-expiring tickets are the way to go for our situation. I just wanted to get the most bang for my buck. I also was not sure about hopping & water parks.

Okay, if you are only going to the Disney parks one or two days on each trip, and you don't plan on going more than once a year, then MYW tickets are definitely the way to go.

With the tiny price difference between days when you go to tickets longer than 5 days, the 10-day tickets really become a bargain. However, if you really aren't planning on more than one or two days at WDW on each trip, the money you save by buying 3 years worth of tickets all at once might be offset by the larger expense on the first trip.

Instead of buying a long ticket with no expiry, it would be more cost effective to buy a shorter ticket, say 2-3 days, without the no expiry option. Once you get through this first trip, you can re-evaluate your patterns and decide if you want to go to WDW for a few more days next time.

As to the hopper option, I am a huge advocate of ALWAYS getting it. But in your case, since there are 4 theme parks and you are only planing on going for one or two days, the hopper option becomes a MUST HAVE. If you get into Magic Kingdom one morning and find it mobbed, why spend the whole day waiting in lines? Hop to one of the other parks, which might have lower crowds, and enjoy more of your time. Also, if you finish up everythig you want to do in a park by 2pm, the hopper option lets you finish the rest of your day in another park instead of calling it quits so early.

If you are not heavy water park people, there is little reason to get teh water parks and more add-on. Again, you can try out one of teh water parks with a regular day ticket purchased at the gate, and if you like it and want to go back next time, you can add the water parks and more option to your ticket next year.

Basically, try before you buy - get just enough ticket for this trip so that you can establish a pattern and figure out what you will actually use, and then you can buy longer tickets or more options next time when you have a better idea of what you will need for each trip.

 

[seashoreCM]

To get a good bargain out of a non-expiring ticket, the ticket should completely cover two vacations of at least 3 theme park days each, if not a little more.

Your question really cannot be answered until after you cast your schedule in stone.

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

 

[dancin Disney style]

Unless you plan on spending a lot of time at the waterparks, I don't recommend the plus features. Its cheaper for us to buy gate price for water park tickets than to buy the plus features and not use them.

I disagree with the above. If you are buying 10 day passes you will get 6 water park admissions for less than the cost of paying gate admission prices 2 times. However, if you plan to travel more in the winter months it might be a waste of money.

Overall, I say buy the biggest tickets you can afford with the no expire option. After all the prices went up twice this year.

 

[Our2Girls&Disney]

Thank you everyone! We are torn between going in Feb or April again. Feb would be cooler, but that means no water parks or even the pool. I am leaning toward April because I want to try water parks. I think we will go for 10 day no expiration with H2O parks. If I am not hopping, that is like 16 park admissions right? Sounds like a good deal to me because it works to about $100 per day for the four of us. Plus we could use these tickets for a few years.

 

[WillCAD]

Thank you everyone! We are torn between going in Feb or April again. Feb would be cooler, but that means no water parks or even the pool. I am leaning toward April because I want to try water parks. I think we will go for 10 day no expiration with H2O parks. If I am not hopping, that is like 16 park admissions right? Sounds like a good deal to me because it works to about $100 per day for the four of us. Plus we could use these tickets for a few years.

Right, that's 10 theme park days and 6 Plus options.

I highly recommend sprining the extra $45 per ticket to get the hopper option. You may not think you will hop now, but over the course of 2 or 3 trips, at various times of the year, you will definitely want to hop for at least a few days. The most common scenario is - you arrive at MK one morning to find the place mobbed beyond all reason. If you have a hopper, you simply go to one of the other parks which is less crowded and go back to MK on a different day. This saves you a lot of wasted time standing in lines!

Also keep in mind that Plusses work different than park days. Plusses CANNOT be made into hoppers - but you can use as many Plusses in a single day as you want. For instance, you could spend part of the day at a water park, then go to Disney Quest, and you could even go to Pleasure Island that night; total usage would be 3 Plusses that day. And you can use Plusses on the same day as a park day.

 

[Our2Girls&Disney]

WillCAD: You bring up a very good point. After I thought about it a little, it is only like $100 difference between hopping and not hopping. In the whole scheme of things what is another $100. Not to mention, it would be nice to to do something like go to AK in the morning and MGM at night for Fantasmic.

Is AAA a decent discount. I got the mousesavers newletter and their really is not a great difference between the newsletter prices and the WDW website (I think $16 cost savings total). I was thinking maybe AAA might offer a better discount.

 

[dancin Disney style]

Is AAA a decent discount. I got the mousesavers newletter and their really is not a great difference between the newsletter prices and the WDW website (I think $16 cost savings total). I was thinking maybe AAA might offer a better discount.

Wait and see what specials Mousesavers offers. Unfortunately, you just missed a really good discount on 10 day passes. Mousesavers also has a sort of mini newsletter that has hot deals. It comes in between the regular monthly newsletters.

 

[Our2Girls&Disney]

Wait and see what specials Mousesavers offers. Unfortunately, you just missed a really good discount on 10 day passes. Mousesavers also has a sort of mini newsletter that has hot deals. It comes in between the regular monthly newsletters.

What mini-newsletter? I still have August and Septmeber newsletters in my inbox, no mini-newsletter. How do I get that?