Unused Multiday Passes

[bcti]

I was reading in "the unofficial guide to walt disney world" that there is quite a business in orlando selling unused portions of multiday passes. They said in the book that the price was up to 50% off. I was just currious what peoples experiences were with these ticket brokers.

 

[westjones]

We haven't done this, but friends did when they went last year and it worked for them. They bought passes from someone at a stand near a gas station and the passes worked. I don't understand how they know for sure what days are left on the passes.

They are the only ones I know who have tried this.
DJ

 

[campingcorgi]

You can't tell by looking how many days are left on a ticket........

 

[capegirl]

Please think twice before buying Disney Park Hopper tickets that have days left on them. When you put your ticket into the machine at the gate, there are occasions when you must place two fingers into some sort of scanner that records your finger measurements. Disney is doing this to prevent anyone other than the original ticket holder from using your ticket.
My husband and I had a couple of days left on our passes, which we passed on to our daughters. When they tried to enter the MK
with these tickets they were turned away because their finger measurements did not match those of the original ticket holders.
We could not believe that Disney would do such a thing! If someone has purchased a pass they should certainly be free to give their unused days away for another to enjoy.

So... if your buy a pass from someone who has already used it at the parks...this could happen to you.

 

[DMRick]

When they tried to enter the MK

Tyhat's very unusual, unless you tried to give your kids annual or Florida passes. I am the keeper of the passes. When we go with our family, I hand one pass out to one person..and they may not have used it before. I have only had to do the finger scan on my AP..and I believe as mentioned the Florida Pass. What would have been the reasoning, since they didn't have your finger scan to compare it? That would really slow down the entrance lines.

 

[JudyS]

Originally posted by capegirl

My husband and I had a couple of days left on our passes, which we passed on to our daughters. When they tried to enter the MK
with these tickets they were turned away because their finger measurements did not match those of the original ticket holders.
We could not believe that Disney would do such a thing! If someone has purchased a pass they should certainly be free to give their unused days away for another to enjoy.

I think it's only annual passes that use the finger ID. I had that with my Water Park annual pass, and thought it was way cool!
Unfortunately, weather closed the water parks, so I didn't get much use out of my pass.

Anyway, in Florida it is against the law to sell unused portions of multi-day passes. (I'm not sure if it's illegal to give them to a friend. ) So, I would assume these used ticket brokers are not very reliable.

 

[GAIL HAYDEN]

Originally posted by capegirl
Please think twice before buying Disney Park Hopper tickets that have days left on them. When you put your ticket into the machine at the gate, there are occasions when you must place two fingers into some sort of scanner that records your finger measurements. Disney is doing this to prevent anyone other than the original ticket holder from using your ticket.
My husband and I had a couple of days left on our passes, which we passed on to our daughters. When they tried to enter the MK
with these tickets they were turned away because their finger measurements did not match those of the original ticket holders.
We could not believe that Disney would do such a thing! If someone has purchased a pass they should certainly be free to give their unused days away for another to enjoy.

So... if your buy a pass from someone who has already used it at the parks...this could happen to you.

It is a bio scan and only for annual passport holders and some Florida resident tickets and some military. Not for regular every day run of the mill tickets. If there are no names on the tickets, then there is nothing to match anything to.
As to warning someone about purchasing "used" tickets, I think your warning was excellent.

 

[CarolA]

Disney has begun using the finger scan more and more. They used to only use for Annual and Seasonal passes. Now they have added Military, the 30 day pass sold in Europe and I heard the 4 day $99 ticket they sold to Fl Residents was a finger scan.

I think you will see more of this since they want to prevent the resale. Not only does it cost them money, they get to be the one's dealing with the irate person who actually bought a ticket that only had the plus options left or some other mess.

I am a little confused why the poster thought that the ticket they had finger scanned on would be transferable. I mean once they do the scan the ticket is tied to you. And yes, Disney does mean that part about "non-transferable" even if you give it away.

 

[lentesta]

Hi folks!

Let's not forget that commercial transactions involving unused park tickets is a misdemeanor in Florida. While the chances of prosecution are slim, it's still the law.

And as campingcorgi says, there's no way to tell whether the tickets you're buying are valid. I've (thankfully only once) seen a mom break down crying when she found out the used tickets she bought for her entire family were no good. Literally laying down on the concrete and sobbing. That happend at the Magic Kingdom turnstiles. Not a pleasant way to start one's vacation. To me, the risks outweigh the rewards. Caveat emptor.

Hope this helps!

Len

 

[disneysteve]

Originally posted by capegirl
We could not believe that Disney would do such a thing! If someone has purchased a pass they should certainly be free to give their unused days away for another to enjoy.

I disagree. The tickets are sold as non-transferable for a reason. Disney, or any company, has the right to control how their tickets are distributed. Otherwise anyone going to Disney, even for 1 day, would buy the longest multi-day ticket they could, use whatever days they needed, and sell the ticket to a friend or relative. That's why the per day cost is cheaper on a multi-day ticket than for a single day pass.

Steve

 

[capegirl]

I was terribly dissapointed with the fact that Disney has resorted to what amounts to another "invasion of privacy" with regards to the finger scan. This procedure that we were subjected to at each and every gate diminished some of that "magic" that Disney strives so hard to create.

 

[jgates]

We did the finger scan on the adult tickets for the 10-day Worldpass. They never had Kendra do hers (9 at the time). Otherwise, when we checked out of the hotel, I suppose we could have sold it to someone in the lobby for the rest of the time. (Any 10 days out of 21). Realistically you could have 3 families going in a staggered time frame use the tickets in a 3 week period. So I can see their not doing it.

 

[GAIL HAYDEN]

Originally posted by capegirl
I was terribly dissapointed with the fact that Disney has resorted to what amounts to another "invasion of privacy" with regards to the finger scan. This procedure that we were subjected to at each and every gate diminished some of that "magic" that Disney strives so hard to create.

Not an invasion at all. It is a bio scan, it measures that is all.
It does not send any info to anywhere except to their computers, and is of little use to anyone but Disney. You were not subjected to anything, you CHOSE to purchase a pass that required it. Not all do, and you could have chosen one that did not.

 

[disneysteve]

Originally posted by capegirl
I was terribly dissapointed with the fact that Disney has resorted to what amounts to another "invasion of privacy" with regards to the finger scan. This procedure that we were subjected to at each and every gate diminished some of that "magic" that Disney strives so hard to create.

Funny, we feel just the opposite. First of all, there is no invasion of privacy. My finger scan isn't being used against me in any way. Second of all, we all think the scan is cool. Disney has often been among the first to put new technologies into general use so we feel we are on the cutting edge.

Steve

 

[Cheshire Figment]

I have a few comments about this thred.

First of all, the finger scan encode is recorded on the ticket when it is first used; it is not recorded anywhere else. Then when you use the ticket it only reads the scan and matches what is on the strip on the ticket. If there is not a match, the CM at the gate is then supposed to ask for an ID to match with the name on th ticket.

The scan is used on all annual (including seasonal) passes, both Florida Resident and non-resident. It is also used on certain other passes. It is NOT used on limited entry tickets (such as one day, park hoppers, park hopper pluses, or length of stay or unlimited magic passes). All annual passes have the name on them.

It is illegal in Florida to resell partially used tickets; however normally the only people they go after are the resellers, not the buyers.

HOWEVER, you are taking a real chance if you purchase a ticket from someone, unless it is a person you know very well. There is no way to tell how many days are actually available on the ticket. WDW has a cental ticket computer which tracks all tickets by the encoded serial number and knows which ones are currently valid and how many days (or plus features) are still available.

BTW, the biggest reason Disney pushed for the law restricting ticket resales had to do with tour operators, especially from a large South American country. They would buy multiday tickets and then "loan" them to their tour group members, therefore allowing two or even three people to use a pass designed for one person. When you consider how the per-day rate drops on multiday tikets, this comes to a large amount of money they were not paying to Disney.

 

[bcti]

I ended up purchasing a seven day park hopper from Paramount. I just didn't want to mess around with the chance of purchasing a no good ticket. You pay so much to get down there from canada that I didn't want to spend time messing around. I will however most like sell off any unused days on ebay.

 

[Julia M]

it seems if they are going to use finger scans for park hoppers, they need to have a place to put a name. I know on our last trip, we had different people doing different things on different days. I was the keeper of the tickets, and would pass them out as needed. For example, my brother took my son to MGM, while dh and I took the little ones to MK. We could easily have the "wrong" pass. Since db and I have different last names and reside in different states, it could be difficult.

It could be the same thing with reusing passes from previous trips. We have leftover days from last time, but bought new hoppers for this trip. We'll probably take a third trip, using leftovers from both.

My guess is Disney will be a little more cautious with these type of passes.

Just curious.

Julia

 

[GAIL HAYDEN]

Originally posted by Julia M
it seems if they are going to use finger scans for park hoppers, they need to have a place to put a name. I know on our last trip, we had different people doing different things on different days. I was the keeper of the tickets, and would pass them out as needed. For example, my brother took my son to MGM, while dh and I took the little ones to MK. We could easily have the "wrong" pass. Since db and I have different last names and reside in different states, it could be difficult.

It could be the same thing with reusing passes from previous trips. We have leftover days from last time, but bought new hoppers for this trip. We'll probably take a third trip, using leftovers from both.

My guess is Disney will be a little more cautious with these type of passes.

Just curious.

If they start to use bio scans for park hoppers, I feel secure that they will start putting names on them. Just like they do with any pass that needs to bio scan.

Julia

 

[Julia M]

I'm sure that's true for new passes. I was meaning everyone with old passes. I guess they might just make you turn it into a new pass, but it seems like it would be alot of hassle, for a day or two per ticket.

Julia

 

[snyderla]

How are us tourists suppose to know it is unlawful to sell unused days on passes? I saw many stands selling them. Our most recent trip we needed to buy 1, 1day park hopper because my brother was coming up for a day at MK, but it was closing at 5 PM for MNSSHP, so we thought if he had a park hopper, we could just go over to DS or EPCOT for fireworks afterward. My dad found someone at an open stand selling the tix for $60+, so we decided against it. If we had known it was illegal to sell them in the first place, we would not have even stopped at the stand at the gas station!

Lori