Waterparks plus ticketing question

[Aurora's Mommy]

I was looking on line for prices, and I'm getting really confused. All the Disney website says is that the number of waterpark passes you get is dependent on how many days you purchase, but no where does it say how many that is (even if you go all the way to check out).

So, my question, if we purchase a five day ticket, how many waterpark passes do we get? Also, if we use all five days, but not the waterpark passes, is the ticket still valid (I realize that it expires in 14 days from date of first use).

We are planning on going the week before Labor Day, and it will be hot! We will be there a total of 6 full days, and I'm hoping to spend the last day at BB, as well as part of a day at TL.

 

[StitchandPooh'sMom]

If you add WPFM to a 5-day ticket, you get five entries into the water parks. Those entries will expire 14 days from first use, so they are still valid even if you use the five park days first. You can add no-expiration even if you just have WPFM enries left.

The WPFM option is $55.38 with tax, regardless of the number of days on your tickets. A single adult water park admission is $47.93 for adults and $42.54 for kids, so if you are only going once, it is better to buy a separate water park ticket.

Unlike the main park days. you can use more than one WPFM entry in one day. So if you go to BB in the morning and TL in the afternoon, you use two entries. You do not need to add the hopper option to go to both water parks (and/or Disney Quest) in the same day.

 

[Me!Thatswho]

The WPFM option is $55.38 with tax, regardless of the number of days on your tickets. A single adult water park admission is $47.93 for adults and $42.54 for kids, so if you are only going once, it is better to buy a separate water park ticket.

I have a question about this one. On our last trip this past Dec-Jan, we, for the first time, purchased the WPFM option. While our trip totaled nine days, we were only able to get over the BB once because our vacation coincided with the cold spell that hit around NYE. Would it have made sense to purchase the non-expiration option in order to save the extra water park entries for future trips?

The reason why I ask is on our next trip (Sept/Oct) I have been thinking about adding the WPFM option in order for us to hit TL, which my DS and DD having been begging to visit. It'll be a brief stay (only five days), so, if I purchase the base tickets with WPFM and no expiration options, I would have four extra visits banked for future trips. Is the extra fee for non-expiration worth it in order to avoid having to buy the WPFM option for the next few trips, particularly in light of the inevitability of future price hikes?

 

[seashoreCM]

For Magic Your Way tickets purchased after ca. December 2007, the number of water park fun visits you get is equal to the number of theme park days on that ticket card, but with a minimum of two visits. If you add more days later, more water park fun visits will appear also. A different formula (6 visits on a 10-day) applied to tickets purchased earlier but the tickets will be changed to match the current formula if they are upgraded.

It is not possible to answer the question of non-expiration without first mapping out the exact dates you will use the water park entries and any leftover theme park days. Then you compare with what new expiring tickets would have cost you.

A.B. in math needed. The cost of non-expiration normally belongs to next time's ticket budget. It does get a little more complex when you decide to buy new tickets for theme park visits and use an old ticket only for water park visits. In which case the old ticket delivers $55. worth of value when you use it two or more times for water park fun because the alternative of adding water park fun to the new ticket costs $55.

Alternative calculation. Non-expiration for a 5 day pass is $78. If you did not use any water park fun this time then the entire $55. also gets deferred to the future making the investment $133. or $27. per visit for 5 leftover visits. If you used one visit already, that absorbs $47. (single ticket price) from the $55. water park fun leaving $8. to defer to the future making the investment $78. + $8. = $86. or $22. per visit.

Non-expiration for a 9 day ticket is $190. You used one water park fun visit absorbing $47. of the $55. cost deferring $8. to the future making the investment in water park fun $198. for 8 remaining visits or $25. apiece.

Ph.D. in math needed to figure out how much things are worth if there are both theme park days and water park visits remaining on the non-expiring ticket. You may come up with a substantial investment per day in leftover theme park days but if you try to use leftover theme park days and new ticket theme park days during the same vacation, some of the leftovers might give you as little three dollars of realized value apiece. You would then need to rationalize that the water park visits were worth more and the theme park days had less invested in them.

 

[ToyStory Fan]

It is not possible to answer the question of non-expiration without first mapping out the exact dates you will use the water park entries and any leftover theme park days.

A.B. in math needed. The cost of non-expiration normally belongs to next time's ticket budget. It does get a little more complex when you decide to buy new tickets for theme park visits and use an old ticket only for water park visits. In which case the old ticket delivers $55. worth of value when you use it two or more times for water park fun because the alternative of adding water park fun to the new ticket costs $55.

Non-expiration for a 5 day pass is $78. If you did not use any water park fun this time then the entire $55. also gets deferred to the future making the investment $133. or $27. per visit for 5 leftover visits. If you used one visit already, that absorbs $47. (single ticket price) from the $55. water park fun leaving $8. to defer to the future making the investment $78. + $8. = $86. or $22. per visit.

Ph.D. in math needed to figure out how much things are worth if there are both theme park days and water park visits remaining on the non-expiring ticket. You may come up with a substantial investment per day in leftover theme park days but if you try to use leftover theme park days and new ticket theme park days during the same vacation, some of the leftovers might give you as little three dollars of realized value apiece.

And I would bet my paycheck that Disney has several Ph.D. math people sitting around modelling out all of the various permutations and combinations of days, passes and discount rates. I've tried doing some of it on my own and I'm an Excel whiz...it is just mindboggling how they do it.

 

[PrincessArlena'sDad]

Simple answer:
For how many additional trips will you be able to use the WP&M option? Figure $50/trip (either to add theWP&M option or for a single admission ticket).

So, if you could use this year's ticket for 3 additional trips: that's a value of about $150. If you could only get 1 additional year's worth, that would be a value of $50.

Compare this number to the price of the non-expiration option (which varies based on the number of days on the ticket).

 

[Cheshire Figment]

Two parts to the answer.

1. The number of fun visits you get, when you purchase WPF&M, is the same as the number of days of the base ticket. The exception is a one day base ticket will get two fun visits.

2. This post includes the assumption you have a ten day MYW ticket with both the Park Hopper and Water Park Fun and More (WPF&M) options.

Hopefully this will make it a little clearer. In effect you have two tickets with different privileges on one card. Everything expires 14 days after first use unless you have the no-expire (NE) option. If you have the NE option all the entitlements are good until they are used up. Even if you use up all your major park days, the WPF&M entries remain valid until used. (Note you do not have to use the days consecutively.)

You have ten days of access to the four major parks (AK, DHS, EC, MK), and may visit more than one major park on a single day without any extra charges. Without the Park Hopper option you can only go to one major park per day.

You have ten entries to the minor parks (BB, DQ, OT, TL, WWS). These may or may not be used on the same days as you go to the major parks. However, if you went to TL in the morning, Oak Trail* in the afternoon, and Disney Quest in the evening of one day you would have used three of the ten entries. (Note that leaving and returning to the same minor park on the same day does not use an extra entry.)

If you go to minor parks only on one day and do not go to a major park you do not use up one of your major park days.

If you were to go to a Water Park in the morning and then one of the major parks for the remainder of the day you would have used one minor park entry and one day of major park entry.

Note that with the MYW ticket unless you have the hopper option you can only go to one major park per day. Unless you have the WPF&M option you cannot go to a minor park without upgrading or purchasing a separate ticket.

*Oak Trail is a nine-hole "Executive" walking (no carts) golf course. Each person must have their own set of clubs and they can be rented for $15 per person if they don't bring their own.