Theme Park Tickets

[mrsmav]

We are going to DW in late August for our first stay at BLT. I have two questions about theme park tickets.

1. We will most likely buy park hopper 8 day tickets. Is there any advantage to getting them now? Are ticket prices expected to go up before late August? I will be purchasing them through undercovertourist with the mousedsavers discount.

2. If while we are at DW and decide to upgrade to an annual pass (for next year's trip) how does that work? What are the adavantages of doing this?

TIA

 

[pwiedower]

1. We will most likely buy park hopper 8 day tickets. Is there any advantage to getting them now? Are ticket prices expected to go up before late August? I will be purchasing them through undercovertourist with the mousedsavers discount.

If you wait till you purchase your tickets until you arrive they don't will not be able to take advantage of discount tickets you could get. As for ticket prices I do think Disney makes adjustments usually in June or July.

2. If while we are at DW and decide to upgrade to an annual pass (for next year's trip) how does that work? What are the adavantages of doing this?

If you want to upgrade your MYW ticket to an AP I understand you can handle that at any of the parks. There was a thread (i will look for it) that indicated if you use your MYW for the first day and THEN upgrade you might get the full value of the tickets rather than the discounted value (if you purchased from AAA, MouseSavers, etc).

 

[Sandisw]

Last year, the price of tickets was raised around the beginning of August and the notice was just a few days. I would consider buying them in July sometime.

If you upgrade to AP's, use the tickets first. That brings them to the value of Disney's prices. You would go to any guest services to upgrade. Be sure you have your DVC member card with you to get the DVC discount.

The AP will be backdated to the first day that you used your MYW pass, so if you are planning next years trip, keep that in mind.

We did that. We went last year Aug 5th to the Aug 12th and this year it is July 30th to Aug 5th.

 

[mrsmav]

Thank you.

We are not sure if we are going next year but if we do we know to go before the annual passes expire. (If we do upgrade.)

Thanks for explaining how we should use the tickets first to get the full value from them.

So - they do announce when prices increase on the tickets???

 

[goldenears]

Thank you.

We are not sure if we are going next year but if we do we know to go before the annual passes expire. (If we do upgrade.)

Thanks for explaining how we should use the tickets first to get the full value from them.

So - they do announce when prices increase on the tickets???

I think CMs usually find out on a Friday and the increase happens on Sunday.
You will see posts here on the board.
We are going in Dec. and I plan on buying before Aug.

 

[jerseygal]

We too are headed to AKV Kidani, 3 nights, Vero 4 nights August!

Thanks for the tip about possible price increase Aug..I will watch during July and purchase them then! This trip only looking for 2 day ticket...Will be fun to hang out and relax at Vero! First time for both resorts!

Can't wait!

 

[dumbo_buddy]

just a follow up question - if we are planning on buying APs for our september trip, should we also buy in july? can you purchase APs online with your DVC membership? i'm assuming the price of APs would go up just as the regular tickets would increase.

thanks

 

[ajjollie23]

I have never bought tickets from anyone other than Disney. How does that work? What is the mousedsavers discount?

 

[Tara]

just a follow up question - if we are planning on buying APs for our september trip, should we also buy in july? can you purchase APs online with your DVC membership? i'm assuming the price of APs would go up just as the regular tickets would increase.

thanks

Yes, you can buy them ahead of time (you'll get a voucher that has to be redeemed in person onsite), but I don't think you can do this online. And yes, if ticket prices go up, the DVC AP prices will, too.

We found it is a much better deal to buy tickets through Undercover Tourist and then use them 1 day, then upgrade them to the DVC AP. We bought our ticket through UT a couple of days before the 2009 price increase, so between the price increase and the discount from UT, we saved ~$125 total on 3 passes!

If you subscribe to the MouseSavers email newsletter, you'll get it monthly and it has a link to special UT prices that are even better than their regular discounts. I highly recommend going this route and UT is very trustworthy!

 

[Tara]

I have never bought tickets from anyone other than Disney. How does that work? What is the mousedsavers discount?

See my post just above.

In a nutshell, Undercover Tourist sells discounted park tickets. (others also do, but this is the company I've used) If you buy one of their tickets, you can upgrade it for any other ticket of greater value. The trick is that once you use the discounted ticket, its value converts to the actual retail price of the ticket on that day - no matter what you paid for it. So the trick to upgrading is to actually USE the ticket first. Then take it either immediately or anytime during your trip (within 14 days of first use) and you can apply the full value of that ticket to any ticket of greater value.

One trick to remember is to buy carefully - you want to buy a ticket that gives you a good discount off the retail value (so that when it converts to the retail value, you see the biggest $$ savings), but you want to be sure that the retail value isn't higher than the pass you are upgrading to.

This post http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1452684 on the Theme Parks board explains it all - see item #7 specifically.

 

[ajjollie23]

thank you for your help. We are going in Oct so I will have to look into this