Unused Ticket Question

[4under4]

A friend asked me a question that I couldn't answer, so I decided to seek the advice of the experts

My friend is going with her family (DH & 2 year old twins), along with her mother. They are getting the DDP, so everyone has to be on the same ticket of course. But her mother has no desire to go to the parks. She just wants to hang at the resort/pool, go to DtD, and give my friend & her DH some free time in the afternoons while the girls nap/chill out. Is it possible after the trip for my friend to reassign the unused ticket (which will not be activated) to herself or DH for a future trip, or will it just be wasted?

TIA

 

[MakiraMarlena]

Tickets can be transferred as long as they are unused.

 

[4under4]

Thanks for the quick response! Follow-on then... will this work?

Purchase 2 day PH for all 3 adults to get DDP

Day 1 - Friend & DH use their ticket
Day 2 - Friend uses her ticket, DH adds 2 days to his, then uses day 2 of 4
Day 3 - Friend transfers Mom's ticket to herself and uses day 1, DH uses day 3 of 4
Day 4 - Each uses the last day of their tickets

??

 

[Raenstoirm]

Thanks for the quick response! Follow-on then... will this work?

Purchase 2 day PH for all 3 adults to get DDP

Day 1 - Friend & DH use their ticket
Day 2 - Friend uses her ticket, DH adds 2 days to his, then uses day 2 of 4
Day 3 - Friend transfers Mom's ticket to herself and uses day 1, DH uses day 3 of 4
Day 4 - Each uses the last day of their tickets

??

No, tickets are non transferable once used. They take a finger print "scan" to match you with your tickets. But if you mean can friend use her 2 day ticket and then use moms unused 2 day ticket, I don't see why not.

 

[disney meema]

No, tickets are non transferable once used. They take a finger print "scan" to match you with your tickets. But if you mean can friend use her 2 day ticket and then use moms unused 2 day ticket, I don't see why not.

I giggled when I saw your response on the finger print at WDW since at Disneyland they now take your picture with a special digital camera so nobody else can use your 2 plus days tickets except you ... Unless you have an identical twin lol but everyday for 4 days my picture would show up when my ticket was scanned. ( I guess peeps were buying multiple day passes and selling part of the tickets for unused days so now the pictures for the last year )

 

[POOHsie]

Thanks for the quick response! Follow-on then... will this work?

Purchase 2 day PH for all 3 adults to get DDP

Day 1 - Friend & DH use their ticket
Day 2 - Friend uses her ticket, DH adds 2 days to his, then uses day 2 of 4
Day 3 - Friend transfers Mom's ticket to herself and uses day 1, DH uses day 3 of 4
Day 4 - Each uses the last day of their tickets

??

The choice being asked is: should friend use her 2-day PH ticket, then Mom's 2-day PH ticket. Or, should friend use her 2-day PH and upgrade it to a 4-day PH ticket, plus save mom's 2-day PH ticket to use on a future WDW trip.

Cost of 4-day PH (consisting of two 2-day PH tickets):
$252.41 (2-day PH) + $252.41 (2-day PH) = $504.82

Cost of 4-day PH, upgraded from 2-day PH:
$252.41 (2-day PH) + $124.60 (Upgrade cost) = $377.01

Price difference: $127.81

It doesn't make financial sense for your friend to use Mom's 2-day PH ticket. She would be overpaying $127.81 by doing this. PLUS, if she upgraded her own ticket from 2 days to 4 days, she could take her mom's ticket home. Ask at Guest Relations at the Parks and they'll put the ticket on a separate plastic ticket card that can be labeled and taken home. Your friend would be taking home a ticket worth $252.41 (in 2014) and could be used on a future WDW trip. A Disney MYW ticket that is unused never expires, and is completely upgradable.

 

[4under4]

The choice being asked is: should friend use her 2-day PH ticket, then Mom's 2-day PH ticket. Or, should friend use her 2-day PH and upgrade it to a 4-day PH ticket, plus save mom's 2-day PH ticket to use on a future WDW trip.

Cost of 4-day PH (consisting of two 2-day PH tickets):
$252.41 (2-day PH) + $252.41 (2-day PH) = $504.82

Cost of 4-day PH, upgraded from 2-day PH:
$252.41 (2-day PH) + $124.60 (Upgrade cost) = $377.01

Price difference: $127.81

It doesn't make financial sense for your friend to use Mom's 2-day PH ticket. She would be overpaying $127.81 by doing this. PLUS, if she upgraded her own ticket from 2 days to 4 days, she could take her mom's ticket home. Ask at Guest Relations at the Parks and they'll put the ticket on a separate plastic ticket card that can be labeled and taken home. Your friend would be taking home a ticket worth $252.41 (in 2014) and could be used on a future WDW trip. A Disney MYW ticket that is unused never expires, and is completely upgradable.

Thanks so much for the detailed response. Yes, I can see why it would make more sense to take it home! I'll let her know.

 

[POOHsie]

Thanks so much for the detailed response. Yes, I can see why it would make more sense to take it home! I'll let her know.

Many guests don't realize that WDW tickets are priced sky high for the first few days, then decrease in price. After Day 4, each additional day only costs $10.65. In the example, the first 2 days cost $252.41 and the second 2 days cost $124.60. Another reason for that is, your friend already purchased PH option with the first 2-day ticket. The upgrade to 4 days doesn't require another PH purchase, except an PH increase in price of $11.71 to go from 2-day PH to 4-day PH. The PH ticket option covers up to 10 days per ticket. But if your friend used two 2-day PH tickets, she would technically have purchased PH option twice ($52.18 x 2) for a 4-day ticket.

If your friend wants to save a little money now, she could book three adult 2-day base tickets. After check-in, she and DH could upgrade their tickets to 4-day PH tickets, and take home mom's 2-day base ticket worth $200.22.

WDW Ticket prices, including Tax: https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/tickets/

 

[Raenstoirm]

If your friend wants to save a little money now, she could book three adult 2-day base tickets. After check-in, she and DH could upgrade their tickets to 4-day PH tickets, and take home mom's 2-day base ticket worth $200.22.

I do have a "but" to that notion though which may throw a wrench into the idea of it being a savings. If they are not going back for some time or plan on doing free dining or even the regular dining plan again you will continue to face the same issue. Grandma's ticket will just be hanging out without being used for potentially years on end. For example if they go again next year with no grandma, Mom and dad have to buy the same package to get dining at this point mind you (dining plan is being tweaked as we speak) so they both have 2 day tickets again with this 3rd 2 day ticket sitting on their account. So next year they upgrade to 4 day tickets (to save that $123) and bring that 2 day ticket home yet again. So unless their plans change for next year (aka no dining plan) it is actually costing them money this year since they bought the ticket anyway and then have to pay to upgrade 2 tickets, so the out of pocket expense for this trip is actually more.
In the long run it is cheaper to save the ticket. In the short term it is cheaper to use it now. It really depends on their future vacation plans.

 

[txnana]

As a grandmother, who visits WDW with grown children and grandchildren, I don't think I could be that close and not see the look on my grandchildrens' faces while meeting characters, seeing the castle or riding rides. I don't do many rides but I get to enjoy the sights and sounds of the parks along with them. I hope she rethinks not going to the parks!

 

[cvjw]

Tickets that aren't used are technically transferable, but once it is assigned to your mother in MDE, it may be hard to reassign it to someone else. Disney IT can do it, but I don't know if they will.

My Mother, her ticket, and her FP+ reservations vanished from my MDE account when the CM was trying to link up 2 MDE accounts. They told me to just readd my mother's ticket to my MDE account, using the numbers on the back. When I tried, I got an error message that the ticket in question was already assigned to another guest. Disney IT had to go into my account and manually readd her ticket - over-riding their own system.

If you assign the ticket to your mother in MDE, getting it transferred to you later on could be problematic. You could always use it at the park entrance, but it might affect you making early FP+ reservations if the ticket can't be reassigned to you in your MDE account.

 

[bumbershoot]

As a grandmother, who visits WDW with grown children and grandchildren, I don't think I could be that close and not see the look on my grandchildrens' faces while meeting characters, seeing the castle or riding rides. I don't do many rides but I get to enjoy the sights and sounds of the parks along with them. I hope she rethinks not going to the parks!

Alas, different grands are different! My MIL sat in an RV in Anaheim rather than going into the park to have fun with her family. They weren't her grandkids, but her grand niece and nephew (adorable children)...and she sat in the RV with FIL and her sister (the grandma of the kids). They just TRULY felt that Disney is for small children and to torment their parents, and felt that grandparenthood means you don't have to suffer it. I don't understand, but they exist!

 

[Robo]

Ahh, the fun of trying to decode "ticket secrets!"