Theme Park Ticket Purchase Strategy - Worth It?

[ArRzrbk]

I am thinking about buying non-expiring Park Hopper theme park tickets for our upcoming April trip to Disney. I would get the 7 day tickets for our four day trip. That would leave us at least 3 days (assuming we do go to the parks all four days this time) for another trip next year. Is that smart? Do ticket prices increase significantly each year?

I do know that the price of a four day Park Hopper ticket is $220.00. The 7 day Park Hopper with no expiration date is $278.00. If my figuring is correct, that means we are paying $58.00 for three days worth of tickets for our future trip.

Also, someone mentioned you had 14 days after your first ticket use to add on the non-expiration feature later. Do you save any money by waiting until after your first trip is over?

What do you all think?

 

[aka-mad4themouse]

The cost of an adult 4-day MYW Hopper (expiry) is $220 before taxes. The cost of the adult 7-day MYW Hopper (non-expiry) is $278, again before taxes. That's when you purchase the passes from Disney. You can get both for less elsewhere.

The 4-day MYW Hopper (expiry) is $225 with tax & free shipping at Ticketmania. The 7-day MYW Hopper (non-expiry) is $286. The difference in cost would be $61/adult ticket. So, you would get 3 extra days for about $20/day buy purchasing the non-expiring 7-day passes. I think that it's worth the money.

You could wait until the end of your trip to add the no-expiration option to any ticket that you have nut there is no advantage to it. You would be charged the cost of adding no-expiration to all of the days originally on the tickets and not just on the days that remain. I think that purchasing them in advance with all the options that you intend to use is a better strategy.

 

[Ozymoe]

I don't know if you are interested or not, but it is possible to get a 10 day non-expiring park hopper ticket that also includes 5 days of options (Blizzard Beach, Typhoon Lagoon, Disney Quest, Pleasure Island and/or Wide World of Sports)...that's 15 days of Disney!

MouseSavers.com is a great resource for info and tickets. Mary has a newsletter that you can subscribe to (free). It comes once a month on the 15th. In the newsletter is a link for TicketMania tickets that gives the lowest price I've ever seen for these 10 day fully loaded non expiring tickets!

We're not supposed to give out the price but others have already posted it on this forum so I don't think it's a huge secret or anything. I'll just say that for less than $75 over the cost of the adult 7 day non-expiring park hopper with no options that you are already considering buying...you could add 5 waterpark or DisneyQuest days and 3 more park days...which I consider a HUGE bargain!

 

[MrsPete]

Yes, that's a good strategy -- we use it too. For our family, a 10-day hopper pass with pluss options is about a 3-trip purchase. We don't go to the parks every day of our vacation, and we do enjoy SeaWorld and other non-Disney attractions. Buying the largest possible hopper pass gives you the lowest per-day admission price and insulates you from future price increases.

One hint: Because they represent a significant investment in future vacations, keep those tickets somewhere safe, and write down how many days they have remaining. I'd also suggest xeroxing them (front and back) so that if they're destroyed they can be replaced.

 

[boucheresq]

thats exactly what I did recently - we went in January for 4 days, but I bought the 7 day and plan to use the remaining 3 days when we go back in October

 

[Disney Debbie]

If you KNOW you'll be going back - then definitely buy the most days at a time the first time. I just bought a 10 day non-expiring park hopper for my 2 day trip next week! But we go a day here a day there all the time because my folks live in Ocala. I KNOW I'll use those days. It averages out to about $37 a day - not counting the 5 plusses!


P.S. - Sooooeeeeee Pig!
(My dad got his doctorate at Fayetteville )

 

[funcinderella]

I sent you a PM about the 10 day

 

[Ozymoe]

It averages out to about $37 a day - not counting the 5 plusses!

If you buy the 10 day non-expiring loded with 5 options park hopper from TicketMania through the MouseSavers Newsletter link it averages out to $35.80 a day...with the 5 option days FREE!