Why would I purchase 10 day passses with options?

[Mich Mouse]

Oh...Here is a question...Is the non expiration add on (which is only purchased at WDW???) priced at how many days are left on the pass, rather than how many there were when you purchased it?

Does that even make sense? What I mean is If I buy a ten day, park hopper, use five days and want to get the no expiration, is it based on the Ten day ticket, or five since that is what I am actually preserving?

 

[Camping Griswalds]

great question!! Can't wait for the answer to that one!!

 

[kath1210]

Kath,

Thank you for your response! Where did you purchase the tickets? Online before you left or on your vacation?

I have always purchased them online. In fact, because of the many ticketing options, Ticketmania warns that they may not have the exact ticket you want in stock when you come into their office.

 

[kath1210]

Oh...Here is a question...Is the non expiration add on (which is only purchased at WDW???) priced at how many days are left on the pass, rather than how many there were when you purchased it?

Does that even make sense? What I mean is If I buy a ten day, park hopper, use five days and want to get the no expiration, is it based on the Ten day ticket, or five since that is what I am actually preserving?

If you decide to add on the non-expiration later, you will need to pay the extra for all of the days on the ticket (i.e., 10 days, from your example), used and unused.

If you buy your tickets from Ticketmania, I think you can add on the non-expiration later, but I think you would have to do it through Disney. AND, Disney will charge you the difference between their price for the 10-day non-expiring ticket and the price paid by Ticketmania for the ticket (not what you paid to Ticketmania).

Are you a member of Mousesavers? Their latest newsletter has links to a special Ticketmania sale.

 

[seashoreCM]

One new caution. Sometimes you need to think about two future trips rather than one when deciding whether non-expiration is worthwhile.

It is usually not a good idea to use up the remains of an old ticket during the same vacation when you need to buy and start using a new ticket of fewer than 10 days.

So if you have two or three days left on your 10 day non-expiring ticket and your next trip is for five to ten days, you should save the old ticket for yet another trip. You will not go wrong on a trip when you have enough left over old tickets that you don't need to buy any new tickets.

The part below is for math whizzes only.
Valuing Non-Expiration.

Try this. Each remaining day counts two points. Each remaining plus counts one point. Let's say you have a 10 day pass with two days and two plusses remaining. Non-expiration for that pass costs $107. and in this case we need six points, or $18. for one point. The ninth and tenth days originally cost $4. each, adding the $36. for its two points brings the total cost per day to $40. The fourth and fifth plusses cost $0. each (since the plus pack costs the same $48. for a minimum of two plusses, the first two plusses absorb the cost at $24. apiece) so the leftover plusses now have a value of $18. each (one point only).

If your next vacation was for six park days, the fifth and sixth park days cost $9. and $3. respectively when you price out new tickets. You don't want to use $40. days off of an old pass when you could buy a new (six day) ticket with the less expensive days already attached. (You will also not go wrong using the days in any order if your new pass is 10 days non-expiring.)

But if your next vacation was for three days, two in the theme parks and one in water parks, the old pass makes a lot of sense because you are using $40. days and $18. plusses off the old pass instead of $64. per day and $48. for two plusses for a two day pass.

 

[brettb]

Brett,

Thanks for the information......


We have AP's that will expire during the trip, and only plan on using two or three days of the ten day ticket this August. So this makes sense according to your philosophy?

I have had AP's for years now, but since we are doing a DL/ California trip next summer, it doesn't make sense to get the AP this time. We will visit WDW this Winter for a few nights, and think the ten day ticket is the best value. Would you agree?

One thing I want to emphasize up front: We have no need for plusses so all my numbers are based on 4-park passes (i.e. no plusses). This also makes the math a lot simpler!

OK, if you check out the table here, you'll see that if you "need" 3 days for trip #1, if you buy a 10-day non-expiring ticket, those extra 7 days cost $19.17 each. (And your first 3 days cost ($219.39/3=) $73.13 each!) You could also buy 7-day non-expiring tickets and the remaining 4 days would also cost $19.17 each. (The big jump in the no-expiration option cost from 7 to 8 or more days is why a 7 day is as good "value-wise" as a 10 day. But of course you get fewer days at that bargain rate.)

If you only need 2 days, the remaining 8-days cost $23.70 with a 10-day pass with the first 2 costing ($164.01/2=) $82 each!

For the shorter passes, I think the fixed cost of making them hopper passes doesn't amortize very well....if you don't need hoppers, the equation changes completely.

Brett

 

[Mich Mouse]

Thanks, Brett.

I noticed the big jump from 7-8 day passes/no expiration!

I can't believe how much time I have spent on figuring this all out! I am pretty sure we are going to get the 7 day/hopper/no expiration for 2 Adults and we are going to renew one Adult AP. We wil use two days of the pass in August, and have five for our Winter trip. We are renewing the AP for about 82.00 more than the 7day/hop/no ex only because we think that we will save much more than that in resort discounts with the AP.

Wheeew! Can you believe that people just show up at the gate without even thinking about this? And miss out an all this planning fun!

And if you are wondering, I'm not joking.

Thanks Again!