Using GAD tickets on a 9-day package -- any suggestions?

[themerriemonarch]

Each member of my family of 5 earned a GAD ticket last winter. We were planning on using them on our 9-night trip to Disney World next month. Four of us are staying the 9 nights, and 1 family member is coming for a long weekend.

But I can see that the rules seem to work against us maximizing the value of our GADs.

The four of us staying the 9-nights are on a bounceback free dining promo. Because we have to buy at least a one-day ticket ($84) as part of the promo, it was a no-brainer to pay about $160 more ($240ish total) to get the 10-day MYW tickets. (BTW, we're getting the basic MYW, as we have left over water park days from some old no-expiration passes we have).

As I understand it, when you're buying tickets as part of a dining package, there's no way to get any discount from "turning in" a GAD voucher. Is that correct?

Ideally, then, we'd love to let our "fifth family member" (the only only coming for a few days who doesn't have a MYW ticket) use our GAD vouchers. But as I understand the procedure, she'd be able to use her own GAD, but we couldn't give her our GADs for her remaining days. And that would be "policed" by the requirement of a finger scan when the GAD is exchanged for the free day ticket. Correct? Any way around this?

So does that leave the 4 of us with the 10-day MYW package tickets with nothing to do with our GAD vouchers other than turn them into the special fastpasses? I guess that's better than nothing, but we're not going at a particularly busy time, and the regular fastpasses have always worked fine for us in the past.

Anyone with any other ideas? It seems kind of unfair that we're getting almost nothing out of our GAD vouchers (even though we're giving Disney a fair bit of money), but I guess Disney is taking steps to minimize the amount of revenue lost by this promotion.

 

[doconeill]

Someone else can definitely NOT use your GAD ticket. You have to use it, on the day you redeem it.

Are you going to go to WDW again? If so, keep the tickets from the package - do NOT use them, and if you want ask the resort concierge to separate them onto separate media. Then upgrade your GAD tickets to what you will need. If you want, get the package tickets bumped down to the minimum number of days allowed per your deal (avoids overspending now for a shorter trip later).

On your next trip, book room-only, use the tickets from the previous package once and then upgrade them to what you need for THAT trip. That will get you the best value for all of it.

I don't think it has anything to do with minimizing loss. The details have always been in place, and the reward for volunteering is a one day ticket for the volunteer, and options for those in your situation that don't want to do the above. Disney has never really allowed combining tickets.

 

[themerriemonarch]

Thanks, Doconeill -- it's a very clever idea!

But I don't think it will likely work for us because, for several years now, we always come for free Disney Dining -- which requires us to buy at least a one-day ticket. So using the GADs to effectively buy future-date tickets (by saving my current package tickets) won't likely save me money, and will result in considerable extra out-of-pocket expense now.

Any other ideas? Or is there really no way for me to get any value out of my GADs?

 

[doconeill]

Thanks, Doconeill -- it's a very clever idea!

But I don't think it will likely work for us because, for several years now, we always come for free Disney Dining -- which requires us to buy at least a one-day ticket. So using the GADs to effectively buy future-date tickets (by saving my current package tickets) won't likely save me money, and will result in considerable extra out-of-pocket expense now.

Any other ideas? Or is there really no way for me to get any value out of my GADs?

Depends what you mean by "value".

Are you going to get a full 1-day's ticket worth of value out of it if you also want to use the package ticket? Not without pocketing the package ticket for a future trip. It would be silly to use it for one day when an extra day on the package ticket would cost you $3.

If your package tickets are not park hoppers, you could use the GAD ticket to park hop just once, rather than add the $52 to park hop...but if you need to park hop more than once its a total waste.

Plenty of people ascribe a high value to the GAD Fastpasses.

And you also have the option of the souvenir hat figuring and trading pins, which are exclusive to the GAD program.

 

[themerriemonarch]

Yeah, unless there's some other trick, I think the special fastpass is the best option for me here.

Oh, well. It would have been nice to actually save a few bucks with our "free" tickets!

 

[maggiew]

Where are you staying? You might want to price it out and use a % off room code instead of free dining. Then you can use your GAD voucher for your tickets.

Maggie

 

[ZuZugal]

Depends what you mean by "value".

Are you going to get a full 1-day's ticket worth of value out of it if you also want to use the package ticket? Not without pocketing the package ticket for a future trip. It would be silly to use it for one day when an extra day on the package ticket would cost you $3.

If your package tickets are not park hoppers, you could use the GAD ticket to park hop just once, rather than add the $52 to park hop...but if you need to park hop more than once its a total waste.

Plenty of people ascribe a high value to the GAD Fastpasses.

And you also have the option of the souvenir hat figuring and trading pins, which are exclusive to the GAD program.

You can count me in on this!!

The fastpasses are IMMEDIATE...so if a line is long you get a FP and get on right away. Even if you are going at a slower time I think the FP option is a great one. We did not even consider using the GADs on tickets as I thought having the FP's was an awesome value.

Since you volunteered already, you can consider donating your GADs as well if you want to. the value of giving - great "heart" value right there.

 

[themerriemonarch]

Where are you staying? You might want to price it out and use a % off room code instead of free dining. Then you can use your GAD voucher for your tickets.

Maggie

For NINE nights? No way!

Especially since it's Pop Century. I might save $20/day and lose $300 a day in free food.

 

[maggiew]

For NINE nights? No way!

Especially since it's Pop Century. I might save $20/day and lose $300 a day in free food.

Well, that is why I asked where you are staying. If you were staying at the Grand Floridian, the %off might be a lot better.

Sorry to have tried to offer a suggestion.

Maggie

 

[disneydentist]

How about this? Someone can correct me if I'm wrong.

Purchase the package with ONLY one day tickets. Have guest services take them off your KTTW cards and put them on separate tickets.

Redeem your vouchers on your first day for admission and upgrade to 10 day MYW tickets.

Give your one day tickets to the fifth guest. These tickets would no longer be tied to anyone. They would simply be one day tickets usable by anyone, if I understand Disney's rules correctly.

 

[doconeill]

How about this? Someone can correct me if I'm wrong.

Purchase the package with ONLY one day tickets. Have guest services take them off your KTTW cards and put them on separate tickets.

Redeem your vouchers on your first day for admission and upgrade to 10 day MYW tickets.

Give your one day tickets to the fifth guest. These tickets would no longer be tied to anyone. They would simply be one day tickets usable by anyone, if I understand Disney's rules correctly.

This would normally be OK, except as I understood it the fifth also had a GAD voucher that I assume would be used for them. It would make sense to upgrade that, and pocket the 1-days for a future trip. Although some of them could be used as additional days for the 5th - but each additional day you lose some value over the original cost of those tickets ($2 second day, $16 third, $73 fourth, $76 each additional).

It may be too late to change the tickets in the package as well.

 

[themerriemonarch]

Very interesting! Thanks. So if I remove the 1-day tickets from the package, anybody could use them?

Would they let me downgrade the package tickets?

 

[doconeill]

Very interesting! Thanks. So if I remove the 1-day tickets from the package, anybody could use them?

Would they let me downgrade the package tickets?

You don't remove the tickets from the package. You have to have at least 1-day tickets (or whatever is required under the terms of your code, etc.) as part of the package.

You can call and downgrade the tickets in general. It may be a problem if you are too close to your checkin date though.

After you check in, ask the resort concierge to separate your tickets from the KTTW card. Use them how you see fit. An unused ticket can be used by anyone.

 

[themerriemonarch]

You don't remove the tickets from the package. You have to have at least 1-day tickets (or whatever is required under the terms of your code, etc.) as part of the package.

You can call and downgrade the tickets in general. It may be a problem if you are too close to your checkin date though.

After you check in, ask the resort concierge to separate your tickets from the KTTW card. Use them how you see fit. An unused ticket can be used by anyone.

Sorry, my wording wasn't precise.

So if I downgrade the package tickets to one-day, I can ask guest relations (what about the hotel front desk?) to put the tickets on separate ticket stock (which I assume are the regular paper cards). And then these never expire, and anyone can use them as 1 day, 1-park tickets?

I then go to a theme park entrance, and present my GADs. They give us one-day tickets. Do I then go inside the park that day to guest relations and say "please upgrade these to 10-day MYWs"? And then they deduct the value of the GAD from the retail price of the 10-day MYW, which I presume would save me something like $79, and I pay them the difference?

Meanwhile, I could use the single park tickets for our visiting "fifth family member," or just save them for another trip?

If I do the math, pay $80 for 4 1-day tickets as part of my package would cost me $320, and it would cost me about $175 x 4 to upgrade 4 GADS to 4 10-day basic MYWs. So that $1020.

Alternatively, buying the package with 4 10-day MYW alone costs about $1030 -- and I don't even have any tickets for our 5th family member. So I'd be ahead of the game with the "sophisticated" strategy.