Tickets for every day?

[DisneyATlast]

I've looked around on this forum for hours, and I'm sure the answer to my question is here somewhere, but I haven't come across it!

So...do you all usually get tickets to the parks for every day of your stay? Or are there other things to do on the resort that you skip some days? I plan on staying for a full week. At first I figured I would just buy the full park pass package for a week, but then got to thinking that I don't want to waste several hundred dollars if it's not realistic that we'll even go to the parks every single day!

What has been your experience? Do you buy tickets for every day and actually use them? Or have you bought tickets for every day and found yourself not going to the parks some days?

I had no idea there was so much planning to do until I found this site! Good thing I've got almost a year to plan because I feel lost, especially since I've never been!

 

[sillylily]

We never get tickets for the arrival day, or the day we leave. On arrival day, we do DTD, and since we drive we are out early. Our next trip is eight nights, and we are doing 6 day tickets.

 

[DisneyATlast]

We never get tickets for the arrival day, or the day we leave. On arrival day, we do DTD, and since we drive we are out early. Our next trip is eight nights, and we are doing 6 day tickets.

Thanks! What is DTD?

 

[AuroraRora]

We arrive early on arrival day, and leave late on departure day with the intention of getting the most park days out of out trip, so we always buy tickets for every day. Plus, if you're there for a longer trip, the cost to add on an extra day or two becomes so minimal that for us, it'd be worth it even if only got a few hours out of the extra days

 

[ColoradoLime]

Thanks! What is DTD?

Downtown Disney - where all the shops are.

 

[DisneyATlast]

Cool! Thanks everyone!

I have so many questions that I should probably just name a thread called "HELP!!"

I've been looking at the Disney site all day and trying to figure out the best package deal. I found a deal for a week at the Art of Animation resort that includes tickets to the parks and a food plan for around $2100 which sounds AWESOME to me!!

But...when I tried to proceed to find out what the booking process is (Like is there a down payment, or do I pay all at once, etc) the site would always say, "We are not able to book right now" or something like that...

Do you think there's any chance if I tried to book a stay for November-December 2013 sometime next month that I'd have any trouble at all getting the room/dates I want? I have no idea how far in advance people reserve or how quickly they fill up!

 

[dansdad]

Cool! Thanks everyone!

I have so many questions that I should probably just name a thread called "HELP!!"

I've been looking at the Disney site all day and trying to figure out the best package deal. I found a deal for a week at the Art of Animation resort that includes tickets to the parks and a food plan for around $2100 which sounds AWESOME to me!!

But...when I tried to proceed to find out what the booking process is (Like is there a down payment, or do I pay all at once, etc) the site would always say, "We are not able to book right now" or something like that...

Do you think there's any chance if I tried to book a stay for November-December 2013 sometime next month that I'd have any trouble at all getting the room/dates I want? I have no idea how far in advance people reserve or how quickly they fill up!

Disney just rolled out a new website and it has been acting a little goofy ever since. Since you have an idea of what you want, I'd call tomorrow.

You should have no problems booking for November or December right now.

When booking a package, you have to pay a $200 deposit at the time you book. After that, you have to be paid in full 45 days prior to your arrival.

 

[DisneyATlast]

Thanks! That's helpful to know. I was not prepared to pay the full amount right now, but $200 I can handle!

I've been reading that sometimes they offer discounts on rooms or food packages. If you already have a room booked when (and IF) the offer comes out, can you still use it? Will they adjust the rate of your package?

 

[dansdad]

They won't automatically adjust your package. But if you call, you can have the discount applied to your package.

 

[DisneyATlast]

Very good to know!

I have a feeling if I go ahead and book a room then I definitely won't get any discounts or offers since they know I'm already coming!

But...I'm not going to hold my breath in hopes of a discount and miss out on the room/deal I want either.

Oh well...I will just book it and keep my fingers crossed that maybe I'll still get an offer!

 

[Missytara]

Thanks! That's helpful to know. I was not prepared to pay the full amount right now, but $200 I can handle!

I've been reading that sometimes they offer discounts on rooms or food packages. If you already have a room booked when (and IF) the offer comes out, can you still use it? Will they adjust the rate of your package?

You can get a lot of info regarding discounts on the discount codes and rates boards.

Discounts are rolled out when they need to fill resorts; so depending on what time of year you go, they are blacked out because they don't need the incentive. For instance, holidays or weeks where they have large events (like Pop Warner) where resorts are already full.

In addition, the discount might not be for all resorts or all booking categories. I.E., you could be booked in a standard room at POR and the only discounts are, say, the Royal Rooms. Or you could be booked at BC and there are no rooms available for that particular discount, so you may have to change to another resort.

On the good side, you can decide whether to stay at the same resort and take the savings, or taking the opportunity to upgrade to the next booking category or resort level. Gives people an opportunity to go from value to mod, or mod to deluxe for the same price.

Only you can decide what is worth it to you.

 

[aaarcher86]

We never get tickets for the arrival day, or the day we leave. On arrival day, we do DTD, and since we drive we are out early. Our next trip is eight nights, and we are doing 6 day tickets.

We do the same thing! We drive down and arrive in the morning, check in, head over to DTD and do some shopping and relaxing!

OP, something you could consider is getting the minimum amount of tickets you know you'll use. Once your down there, if you wanted to add a day, you can upgrade your ticket and just pay the difference in days.

 

[frevic]

When we went in late November from a Monday to a Monday we figured we would hit the parks 6 days. We knew we wouldn't have time on the departure day and figured we would take Friday off and do other stuff such as DTD or the Boardwalk. We left a sit down dining reservation free to use that night. We did buy the 7 day park passes instead of 6 just in case which was about $35 more in total for the 4 of us.

Our plan was as follows:
Monday on arrival: MK after diner, we seen a parade, Wishes and went on a couple of rides.

Tueday: Downtown Disney late morning and Epcot in the evening for diner, Candlelight Processional and Illuminations.

Wenesday: Hollywood Studios early afternoon, stayed until early evening to see the Osborne Lights and back to the resort

Thursday: MK for 7am rope drop, hit the rides like crazy (between 20 and 25 rides) and went back to the resort for a nap before Chef Mickeys at night.

Friday: We gave the kids (7 and 4) their choice and they wanted to go to MK early and hit the rides again. We quickly booked a mid afternoon meal at the Crystal Palace and hit the rides again. I would never of planned this but that's what they wanted and they had a blast.

Saturday: Rope drop at HS

Sunday: Rope drop at Epcot.

We never spent more than 8 hours in the park except for our last day and it went great. For us breaking the week up into early and late arrivals for each park kept us somewhat rested and sane.

We were so glad we bought the extra day's tickets. It was such a small percentage of our $5,000 dollar trip and it paid off. We didn't buy the park hopper feature since we thought hitting more than one park with small kids didn't fit in with our plan and that would have added $250.00 to the week.

Enjoy your trip. I went on this site everyday last year to get tips but only started posting recently. I also listened to hours and hours of podcasts. The Be Our Guest and WDW today are my favourites. I found the planning to be half the fun and am working on next years trip. I also borrowed as many books as I could at the library and it seemed I always had a couple of them laying around.