Ticket buying strategy: 3 day? 5? 10??

[EWL]

Hi all,
We're heading to WDW later this month and have the free dining package booked w/2 day base tix. When we found out about Wiggles, we added another night and planned to upgrade to 3 day hoppers (though I'm mad I didn't do it before the tix prices went up!! ) but now we're wondering if it's dumb not to add more days and get the no-expire option for some future trip. Prices will only keep going up and we're sure to go back at some point. Is it foolish not to get 10-day hoppers? Or should we just buy what we need now and not worry about it? On one hand I'm not thrilled about throwing out hundreds more $$$ but since they're already socking it to us for this much already (and it's a real shocker not having been to WDW for 5 years or so!!!) maybe we ought to get the most out of it we can. Anyway just curious what the "experts" have to say.....

 

[ms.ojo]

Not sure I"m an "expert" but here's my take. We usually tour 4 or 5 days on a trip. The other days are rest days or travel days when we don't do a park. The way Disney prices things the first few days are the most expensive...then it starts to get really cheap to add a day.

This upcoming trip I looked into buying a 5 day base ticket...or a 10 day non expriring ticket. (we opted not to park hop this time around and don't need water parks or Disney Quest yet as our children are young (7 & 4 this fall) so the hotel pool is thrilling enough. Ok. So IF I went and plunked down the money for the 10day non expriring it would save me about $75/trip (a 5day trip now and one down the road) versus the price I could have bought it through one of the reputable ticketbrokers which honestly isn't much of a saving off of regular disney prices. So $150 isn't anything to sneeze at...but did I want to spend $$$$ more now than I needed to to save $75/trip? I decided money was kind of tight for us now and we'd just buy what we needed for this trip and cross the next bridge when we come to it.

If I change my mind, I can still upgrade this fall when we travel and add days and the non-expiring option...of course it will cost me more than it would have a week ago!...but it will be less than it will cost me in another year or two. Thing is, I'm very organized...but I'd still worry about losing 4 tickets with such a value on them. Unless I was going back in the coming year...I think I'd stick w/ my dec'n.

Interesting to hear what others suggest....

 

[Gina35]

We were in the same boat and couldn't decide what to do. There are 7 of us traveling (5 at first, 2 coming 2 days later). I decided to get a few (10 day) passes and a few 5 day passes. The 10-days are non-expiring, but the 5-days are expiring. There's little difference between 3, 4, and 5 days that are non-expiring. I figured we'd have them if we wanted them for days that we didn't plan on going to parks but we might want to visit. Then we'll still have some of the tickets left for at least one more trip. I decided it would be easier to add a few tickets next time instead of buying all of the tickets for all of us.
That was my way to finally make a decision, which is always tough for me!

 

[HolliePoppins]

I thought the ticket price increase was for 2007 not 2006?

 

[merekc]

Couple of things.

The ticket increase went to effect Sunday. It doesn't matter when you use them.

One of the guidebooks I read said that something like 8 or 9 out of 10 people will never use the additional non-expiration tickets they purchased. They will get lost or just never go back. Great for Disney, not for the consumer. So if you tend to be disorganized in anyway, I would probably just buy the tickets you need now.

 

[seashoreCM]

If a non-expiring pass doesn't completely cover some future vacation (not necessarily your next), then that pass was probably not a good buy.

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

 

[jamounger]

Every time we go we are hauling old tickets. My current obsession has been figuring out how to maximize them. We have some old park hopper plus tickets that we can't upgrade to anything until all the plusses are used(you lose the plusses according to Tour Guide Mike)This is what we are going down with this Saturday: a 5dayMYW hopper expiring, a 4 daymyw hopper that expires, a 5 day MYW no exp hopping with 2 water park visits and 3 days left, and 2 5 dayHopper plus with 1 water park visit and 3 days left each.I think I will make all the MYW tickets 6 day no exp with water parks, use the pluses this trip from the old ones and save the days. After this trip i will be left with enough tickets for 5 days another visit and enough water park visits for several more trips. Makes my head spin.

 

[robinb]

If you are planning to return soon then buy the 10-day with the non-expiry option. A 3-day Base Ticket is $204 and a 10-Day non-expiry is $395, only $191 more for 7 more days.

 

[OKW Lover]

The choices for this poll didn't fit me. I buy an AP because I go to the parks more than 10 days in a year. Probably closer to 30. So the AP works better than three 10 day tickets.

 

[Gina35]

Every time we go we are hauling old tickets. My current obsession has been figuring out how to maximize them. We have some old park hopper plus tickets that we can't upgrade to anything until all the plusses are used(you lose the plusses according to Tour Guide Mike)This is what we are going down with this Saturday: a 5dayMYW hopper expiring, a 4 daymyw hopper that expires, a 5 day MYW no exp hopping with 2 water park visits and 3 days left, and 2 5 dayHopper plus with 1 water park visit and 3 days left each.I think I will make all the MYW tickets 6 day no exp with water parks, use the pluses this trip from the old ones and save the days. After this trip i will be left with enough tickets for 5 days another visit and enough water park visits for several more trips. Makes my head spin.

We are always bringing along old tickets too. I'm shocked to hear that 8 or 9 out of 10 do not use their old tickets; that seems really high to me. Either most people are very disorganized or they don't care about maximizing the
credit on their tickets! We have (2)10-d MYW non-expiring, (3) 5-d MYW expiring, and (5) old park hoppers, and one "plus" from a REALLY old park hopper. We'll be sure to use the days of our non-expiring tickets next visit, along with any of the old park hoppers that we didn't use this time.