Ticket Strategy (no expiry vs. purchase new)

[rmreiman]

Hello,
I have a question regarding strategy for my ticket purchase for my February trip to WDW.

I am part of a family of 4 and we have 2 days left on Non-Expiry, Park-Hopper tickets that we purchased several years ago. In our upcoming trip to are planning on being in the parks for 3 days so I will need to purchase additional tickets.

I am debating between purchasing a 3-day tickets (with park hopper) or just buying a single day ticket and using the last 2 days on our no-expiry tickets. Can I even do this if my existing tickets are already linked? We bought our tickets several years ago and I am newly surprised by the cost of the tickets, especially a $58/ticket park hopper fee for the single day ticket, and am trying to glean any knowledge I can off of you Disney experts.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

All the best,
Rachael

 

[Marionnette]

Hello,
I have a question regarding strategy for my ticket purchase for my February trip to WDW.

I am part of a family of 4 and we have 2 days left on Non-Expiry, Park-Hopper tickets that we purchased several years ago. In our upcoming trip to are planning on being in the parks for 3 days so I will need to purchase additional tickets.

I am debating between purchasing a 3-day tickets (with park hopper) or just buying a single day ticket and using the last 2 days on our no-expiry tickets. Can I even do this if my existing tickets are already linked? We bought our tickets several years ago and I am newly surprised by the cost of the tickets, especially a $58/ticket park hopper fee for the single day ticket, and am trying to glean any knowledge I can off of you Disney experts.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

All the best,
Rachael

Those no-expiry tickets are like gold because you could use them for single-day visits to Disney if you wanted to. But, let's just assume that you want to make this next trip as affordable as possible.

The cost of a single-day, no-hopping ticket will range from $103 (for AK, Epcot or HS) to $112 (for MK). Those are adult prices. Child prices will be slightly lower. Hopping, like you already noticed, will cost you another $55+.

A 3-day hopper would cost you $346 for an adult! In my book, it makes no sense to spend 2-3X the amount of a single-day ticket just to save your no-expiry tickets for another possible trip.

Even with the no-expiry tickets linked in your MDE account, you could still add a 3-day ticket if you wanted to do so. However, the scanner at the gates will use the oldest ticket attached to your name first. This will happen whether you bought a new 3-day hopper or just added a single-day ticket to your account. So, you will need to make a visit to guest relations and have them prioritize your tickets so that days are taken from the right ticket. It can be a headache to have it fixed but they should know how to do it.

 

[supersnoop]

I think three days is within the threshold for buying a single day ticket. If you needed five days, I'd say to buy a new ticket.

Personally, I value the NE ticket days at $75/each, on average, but you might value them as high as $105 if you would actually use them for one-day trips. So, since you're looking at a $105 ticket plus 2x$75 for the NE days, you're at $255, versus $300-$350 for a three-day ticket (if you need the park hopper. I'd pick the one day you won't park hop and use the one-day ticket for that, and use the NE days when you do need to hop.

 

[rmreiman]

Those no-expiry tickets are like gold because you could use them for single-day visits to Disney if you wanted to. But, let's just assume that you want to make this next trip as affordable as possible.

The cost of a single-day, no-hopping ticket will range from $103 (for AK, Epcot or HS) to $112 (for MK). Those are adult prices. Child prices will be slightly lower. Hopping, like you already noticed, will cost you another $55+.

A 3-day hopper would cost you $346 for an adult! In my book, it makes no sense to spend 2-3X the amount of a single-day ticket just to save your no-expiry tickets for another possible trip.

Even with the no-expiry tickets linked in your MDE account, you could still add a 3-day ticket if you wanted to do so. However, the scanner at the gates will use the oldest ticket attached to your name first. This will happen whether you bought a new 3-day hopper or just added a single-day ticket to your account. So, you will need to make a visit to guest relations and have them prioritize your tickets so that days are taken from the right ticket. It can be a headache to have it fixed but they should know how to do it.

Thanks so much for your feedback! Makes sense!

 

[rmreiman]

I think three days is within the threshold for buying a single day ticket. If you needed five days, I'd say to buy a new ticket.

Personally, I value the NE ticket days at $75/each, on average, but you might value them as high as $105 if you would actually use them for one-day trips. So, since you're looking at a $105 ticket plus 2x$75 for the NE days, you're at $255, versus $300-$350 for a three-day ticket (if you need the park hopper. I'd pick the one day you won't park hop and use the one-day ticket for that, and use the NE days when you do need to hop.

Thanks! Gives me a new perspective! I think it is a good strategy to buy just 1 more ticket and just not park-hop.