WDW Ticket Prices

[firefly_ris]

Hi all. So I'm still in the "unsure" category but I'm just trying to get my ducks in a row. I've been working on figuring out a future trip for my young family of 5 in the next couple of years, but our 10th wedding anniversary is coming up at the end of September and my husband suggested a brief trip to Disney, with just the two of us. I'm 50% excited and 50% guilty thinking about going without the kids (we went several times before they were born, but now...). I'm sort of convincing myself by reminding myself that they are all still too small for a large number of the "big" rides, we could take more time at World Showcase, etc.

The last time we went we stayed off-site in a condo because of the size of our party (and size of our budget). This time I'm looking at something on-site since it will just be two of us -- early October prices for Coronado don't look too bad on Priceline. We have a lot of flight points accrued and should be able to fly for "free". So that just leaves tickets.

The dates would be October 10th to October 13th. My husband suggested getting 2 day base tickets. My thought was to get a hopper, since it's just the two of us it would be easier to do something like spend the morning/lunch at Epcot then hop over to Animal Kingdom for night-time stuff, and so on.... that would be a lot more cumbersome with the kids, stroller etc. Then I thought perhaps it would be good to get a 3-day hopper, depending on when our flight arrives, we could potentially go over to DHS just to get on the headliners and eat dinner or something and call it a night, leaving 2 additional full days after that.

So, to start I looked at Undercover Tourist, but their 3 day hopper is currently $25.90 more than on Disney's site, which seemed really strange to me. I know you only really get any kind of savings with the larger amount of days but thought it would at least be the same price. Something I'm doing wrong? 2 Day Hopper from WDW was $518.00 for the two of us, and a 3 day Hopper from WDW came out as $698.00... I guess I'd have to convince him that the extra $180 just to spend an evening at DHS would be worth it, because of the money we didn't have to spend on flights or a rental car... not sure that will fly, LOL.

I signed up for the Mousesavers newsletter last month but April's isn't out yet. Is there anywhere else I should be looking for ticket savings? Southwest had a deal going for a while but they only sell 4-day and up. Any other suggestions for me?

 

[FireflyTrance]

The Undercover Tourist prices on tickets already include tax. I'm not sure about the WDW ticket prices, they might not include tax until put in your zip code, so try that. When I priced out 5 day hoppers they were definitely cheaper on Undercover Tourist.

 

[firefly_ris]

Aha, that's where I was going wrong, thank you. After taxes Undercover Tourist comes out $22 cheaper.

 

[Marionnette]

Hi all. So I'm still in the "unsure" category but I'm just trying to get my ducks in a row. I've been working on figuring out a future trip for my young family of 5 in the next couple of years, but our 10th wedding anniversary is coming up at the end of September and my husband suggested a brief trip to Disney, with just the two of us. I'm 50% excited and 50% guilty thinking about going without the kids (we went several times before they were born, but now...). I'm sort of convincing myself by reminding myself that they are all still too small for a large number of the "big" rides, we could take more time at World Showcase, etc.

The last time we went we stayed off-site in a condo because of the size of our party (and size of our budget). This time I'm looking at something on-site since it will just be two of us -- early October prices for Coronado don't look too bad on Priceline. We have a lot of flight points accrued and should be able to fly for "free". So that just leaves tickets.

The dates would be October 10th to October 13th. My husband suggested getting 2 day base tickets. My thought was to get a hopper, since it's just the two of us it would be easier to do something like spend the morning/lunch at Epcot then hop over to Animal Kingdom for night-time stuff, and so on.... that would be a lot more cumbersome with the kids, stroller etc. Then I thought perhaps it would be good to get a 3-day hopper, depending on when our flight arrives, we could potentially go over to DHS just to get on the headliners and eat dinner or something and call it a night, leaving 2 additional full days after that.

So, to start I looked at Undercover Tourist, but their 3 day hopper is currently $25.90 more than on Disney's site, which seemed really strange to me. I know you only really get any kind of savings with the larger amount of days but thought it would at least be the same price. Something I'm doing wrong? 2 Day Hopper from WDW was $518.00 for the two of us, and a 3 day Hopper from WDW came out as $698.00... I guess I'd have to convince him that the extra $180 just to spend an evening at DHS would be worth it, because of the money we didn't have to spend on flights or a rental car... not sure that will fly, LOL.

I signed up for the Mousesavers newsletter last month but April's isn't out yet. Is there anywhere else I should be looking for ticket savings? Southwest had a deal going for a while but they only sell 4-day and up. Any other suggestions for me?

You may want to take MNSSHP nights into consideration. According to allears.net, there will be parties on the nights of 10/10 and 10/12. That means the MK will close at 7 on those nights. Guests with hoppers will head to the other parks for the evening. HS, being smaller than EPCOT, will likely feel more crowded as a result. AK tends to close early in the fall. MK will begin to get crowded at 4 PM on party days because guests with party tickets can enter at 4 PM. If you want to do an evening at MK, you'll only have one night (10/11) to do it. So, my point is that even though it adds to the cost of tickets, you may want to have that hopper option.

Keep an eye on park hours for your dates. Disney has only released park hours up to Oct. 3 to date. No need to buy tickets right this minute. Hold on until they publish your dates. Then formulate a plan and purchase the appropriate tickets.

 

[firefly_ris]

Good point, I totally forgot about the Halloween parties. So maybe hoppers will make more logical sense then... and my hope is that AK starts getting at least slightly longer hours in the fall since it will have Pandora and Rivers of Light going for it then.