Tell me about your 10 day No-Expire tix

[I Believe n Fairies]

We just got back from a GREAT time at WDW on Wednesday. I'm glad to be home because this trip was without the kids, but I'm already thinking about a future trip.

DH and I were discussing the 10 day no expire option on tickets. We love WDW (we've only been twice and that has been in the last 11 months) and know that we'll be back soon. Have you done this option? How did it work out for you? Would you do it again? How does it effect the dining plan?

DH will only be able to get away for no more than five days at a time, so we were thinking about getting two trips out of the tix.

So, give it to me straight, how was it for you???

 

[Susieab]

Well we do the 10 day passes. We bought my son's last trip (in December) and my husband/daughter and myself this trip. It is a chunk of $$ to spend at one time but if you are going to be going it is worth it. We bought the 10 day park hopper with no expiration.

One note to think about, the concierge told us this....if you have a child that is going to be 10 soon then go ahead and buy the 10 day ticket for them at the child price. If you buy it at a resort, etc. where it is in the child's name then it is good no matter how old they are. So we bought our daughter's who is 8 and if she is "running low" before she turns 10 then we will buy another one so that we can save the money rather than buying an adult pass.

Ssie

 

[DizneyNutz]

We just got back from a GREAT time at WDW on Wednesday. I'm glad to be home because this trip was without the kids, but I'm already thinking about a future trip.

DH and I were discussing the 10 day no expire option on tickets. We love WDW (we've only been twice and that has been in the last 11 months) and know that we'll be back soon. Have you done this option? How did it work out for you? Would you do it again? How does it effect the dining plan?

DH will only be able to get away for no more than five days at a time, so we were thinking about getting two trips out of the tix.

So, give it to me straight, how was it for you???

DW and I always buy the 10 day tickets, because of the per day average cost. We are DVCers so we know we intend to return. With that being said we have figured it every way we can and don't see that the dining plan would be a plus for US, so we don't even factor that in. We love the 10 day hopper w/no expiration option however and have already bought one for our 6 month old grandson, because we know it will not be cheaper when he actually turns 3. We bought ourselves and him a new 10 day ticket right before the new price increase.

 

[Kathi OD]

There really is no way you can lose w/ the 10-day expiration option. We were last in WDW Nov. 2005. My parents went with us and bought a 5day Park Hopper, while DH and I got 10day no expirations. I know that when we took the total cost of the tickets and divided them by the number of days they were good for, ours were much less than my parents, even w/ the no expiration option. I want to say our tix were something like 20 a day less expensive (not really sure there and2 years back is a long time for me).

As a matter of fact, when we go again in November I will be buying another 10 day, no expiration pass for each of us and 2 for each of the grandbabies (one is almost a year and the other is not born yet). Since we know we will return again and again, the no expiration is a no brainer.

 

[KarlaG4Kids]

We use the 10 day passes too. We really like them. The only drawback is if you want to use the DDP you will have to buy at least a one day ticket to get that. But with the new DDP for 2008 it isn't as great of a deal so you will probably come out farther ahead by using the 10 day hopper and paying for your food on your own. IMHO! Of course you must be careful about putting your unused passes in a safe place for future uses.

 

[Kathi OD]

We use the 10 day passes too. We really like them. The only drawback is if you want to use the DDP you will have to buy at least a one day ticket to get that. But with the new DDP for 2008 it isn't as great of a deal so you will probably come out farther ahead by using the 10 day hopper and paying for your food on your own. IMHO! Of course you must be careful about putting your unused passes in a safe place for future uses.

I didn't have to buy a ticket for our trip in November and we'll be on DDP. CM just said we would pay for DDP at check-in. I wonder if it is because we are DVC members?

 

[KarlaG4Kids]

Maybe it is because of DVC. I have always been told it had to be the magic your way package to qualify for DDP. But the Magic your way package could have just a one day ticket. It was worth it for us last year, but I'm not convinced it will be the best buy beginning in 2008.

 

[CleveRocks]

There really is no way you can lose w/ the 10-day expiration option.

Perhaps not the way you use it. If you just continually buy 10-day non-expiring passes, then that I suppose makes sense.

However, there are PLENTY of ways for people to truly waste a lot of money by buying the no expiration option.

Let me explain ....

Generally speaking, buying the no expiration feature is ONLY a good idea if you can FULLY cover one or more future vacations with those left-over non-expired tickets. If you have to add even one more day in the future to cover your park admission needs, then the no expiration option is a terrible terrible deal, money-wise.

Let me just show some math. I'll give some examples, one where buying the no expiration option is a great deal, and two others where it's a terrible deal.

GREAT DEAL
Let's say you will be using 5 park days on this trip and know you will be using 5 park days on your next trip.

10-day base ticket with no expiration = $431.33
Two separate 5-day base tickets = $457.96
So if you will use exactly 5 park days now and exactly 5 park days later (and not need to buy any additional days), then buying the no expiration add-on is a good deal. You save almost $27 by using this option over buying separate tickets.

TERRIBLE DEAL #1
But let's say you'll have 5 days left over after this vacation, but plan to go to parks for 8 days some time in the future. That means that in addition to buying the 10-day NE ticket at $431.33 now, you will have to buy a 3-day base ticket for the next trip, which will cost $216.20. That puts your total ticket cost for the 2 vacations at $647.53 for 13 days of park admissions.

So let's say you buy a 5-day base ticket now, and for your next trip you buy an 8-day base ticket next time.
5-day base ticket = $228.98 (buy now)
8-day base ticket = $235.37
That puts your total ticket cost for the 2 vacations at $464.35 for 13 days of park tickets.

In this example, using the no expiration option costs about $183 more than buying separate tickets for each trip.And remember, that's $183 per person! If you had 4 in your party, that's throwing away $732!!!

TERRIBLE DEAL #2
At this point, some of you might be saying, "Now Eric, you gave an extreme example, an example of needing to buy 3 days of extra tickets. What if I'll only need to buy a teensy-weensy 1-day ticket to add to my next vacation ... surely then it would still be cheaper to buy the 10-day non-expiring ticket and just add that little one day ticket later!"

Nope. That would mean you'd need a total of 11 park days. The 10-day NE is $431.33. Adding one additional day would cost $75.62, for a total of $506.95.

If you bought the 5-day now it would be $228.98, and the 6-day later it would be $231.11, for a total of $460.09.

So by being off by just one day, the no expiration option would still cost you about $47 MORE than buying two separate sets of tickets.

BOTTOM LINE
If you KNOW you will need to buy extra tickets in the future to add to your left-over non-expiring tickets, it's a bad deal (EXCEPT if you're just always committed to a cycle of always buying a new 10-day non-expiring pass). In one of the examples above, buying the non-expiration feature would cost you an incredible $183.18 MORE than buying the two sets of tickets separately, just by having to by an extra 3-day ticket. And by the way, that's $183.18 extra PER PERSON. In the other example, adding just 1-day to the 10-day NE ticket still cost you about $47 more PER PERSON than buying separate tickets.

So make sure you do the math before you buy!

 

[kykatt2]

"CLEVEROCKS" is right ....and especially IF you are only doing the 4 main parks...
IF you are looking into the "waterparks and More" option on the 10 non expire.. then a 5day trip now and a 7+ trip later can work out best( espically with the annual and occasionally semi-annual)Considering the rate hikes that ALWAYS happen. We bought a 10 day non expire w/ parks and more
2 +years ago. There have been 3 rate hikes since them. ( we bought the day before the rate increase)

We went 5 days to the parks and 2 to the "other"( water park, Disney Quest) options. We had a 9 day vacation this time... 5 in the parks and using all the rest of our "other" visits with I think 1 day left over on the "Other" visits.

It was a HUGE Chuck to pay down at first. But it made for a Cheaper vacation next time around ( not knowing what the next year could bring with Finances). Not having to buy Tickets... we had the decision to make..to stay again at the "Value" Resorts and keeping it cheaper or Upgrading to a "Moderate" and it still being cheaper that our "usual" vacation costs.. just not as much savings.

IN the end we stayed once again at POP.. and banked the money we could have spent... and put it towards next years vacation( or an emergency where we needed the cash) where this time we are looking to stay at a moderate resort.

 

[Kathi OD]

Perhaps not the way you use it. If you just continually buy 10-day non-expiring passes, then that I suppose makes sense.

However, there are PLENTY of ways for people to truly waste a lot of money by buying the no expiration option.

Great examples! That is why we always go w/ the 10 day NE option. The only time we will lose that way is when we die and our heirs will lose however many days are left on the tix (or Disney doesn't offer them any more) .

 

[I Believe n Fairies]

Thanks everyone for all of the great advice! CleveRocks, I appreciate you doing the math for me. Math is a weak subject for me, so thanks for letting me copy your paper..

I think for us, we would do ok with the 10 day option. Trust me, dh is too tight to add a day if we were running low on the 10 ne option. So, I really don't see a negative. As for dining, I'm still not sold on the '08 plan, so we may would be ok without the plan.

Thank you my dis friends. Now, I just got to bite the bullet and buy the tix.