Your Experience with Buying Disney Admission Years in Advance & Using Them

[newageretro]

I didn't realise buying something before the price went up was a money savings hack, I thought it was just good financial reasoning. I prefer the idea of dedicated money tied up in tickets because a vacation mutual fund is to easy to raid for every other vacation or issue that comes along. There has always been another vacation on the horizon so I found it handy to dedicate resources to a sole occurrence.

Time off is a non-issue, no matter what happens we are guaranteed 2 weeks off a year here, and if the sky falls as so many seem worried of, could I not sell the tickets?

 

[Judique]

I've got about 10 years worth of tickets put away.

Some are annual passes and some are 10 day non expiry park hoppers with water park pluses.

Not at all worried about whether that money could have earned more in a fund of some kind. I have other money in earning vehicles. This money is already gone to Disney World!

I don't foresee the Magic Kingdom disappearing in 10 years, nor do I think that Disney will add an expiration date to my NO Expiration date tickets.

The annual passes supposedly expire in 2030, so I've got 15 years if that date is indeed valid.

I guess in a way I am planning vacations 10 plus years in advance at Disney.

But, I've got a history of that, having purchased DVC more than 15 years ago.

 

[newageretro]

Thank You! Someone who gets it!
"Not at all worried about whether that money could have earned more in a fund of some kind. I have other money in earning vehicles. This money is already gone to Disney World!"
That's just it, I've spent my time on the boring "financially appropriate" bus, and want to do something that makes me happy.
Really if people were really that concerned about the money being better used elsewhere, they should probably never go to Disney World.
As someone had loosely said earlier, It's easier to plan a vacation when you've already got the tickets.

 

[Marionnette]

It wouldn't just a be a trip to Disney, it would be a whole Florida trip by that point, likely three weeks, Orlando, Miami, Keys.
And I don't full time plan, I just keep an eye on things, pay attention to what other people have done and speak highly of, take rough notes and e-mail them to myself and keep them in a trip folder for further research once I hit the two year mark. While everyone seems to take issue with planning far in advance, you would be surprised how much you can sometimes save if you can make bookings on the first day they are available, especially flights. Its not just ADR's to BOG that are easier, earlier.

I was hoping to get more advice to my actual question rather than my style of planning & travel.

You're preaching to the choir. when it comes to discount travel.

Your "actual question" has been answered. How many ways can people say the same thing?

• A ticket bought today is not likely to be valid for admission to a 5th gate, should Disney open one.
• A ticket bought today will most likely not be able to be upgraded for more days or added features 15 years from now.
• A ticket purchased today will most likely need to be exchanged for a ticket media that is accepted by whatever technology Disney has developed by the time that you visit.

This is a discussion board. People are going to talk about things which are tangentially related to a question in the OP. They're allowed to do that. You asked your question on a budget-related board. You're going to get a budget-related discussion. You, yourself, used the following logic in your OP:

Looking online I can see that in the last 10 years, the price of admission has just about doubled, so in an effort to keep ahead of the curve, I was thinking about buying 4 adult passes now, to use one day far in the future.​

That's why you are getting responses that point out that it is not a good hedge against price inflation.

 

[disneychrista]

I am not sure if this was mentioned or not but DisneyLAND does not bridge costs and the tickets have expiration dates. My understanding is that if they "expire" they will still give you the value of what you paid toward a new valid ticket but you are not saving anything by buying now vs putting the money in your sock drawer.

 

[newageretro]

True enough Marionette, it is a budget board. And while it may not be a good bet against inflation, it should be a good bet against demand pricing should they revise the system as predicted and cost increases in general as seen with the DL annual pass. I guess I should have broken it into two boards, with one being the analysis of bracing against future cost increases, and another on ticketing advice to see if anyone has ever heard of someone having a problem with this, except by the looks of things, no one here has ever heard of anyone having an issue with tickets not working, which was my biggest concern.

 

[DetroitDisney]

I prefer the idea of dedicated money tied up in tickets because a vacation mutual fund is to easy to raid for every other vacation or issue that comes along.

Not to be a killjoy, but what!?!?

Heck, why buy insurance? Worst case scenario the house burns down. Why go the doctor? The worst case is you succumb to illness.

If you have tons of expendable cash, then sure. Go nuts.

You came to the BUDGET board. In no way would it be a good idea to do what you're thinking. The previous poster has 10 years worth of tickets and likely goes every year, in which case the math is more in their favor. Plus the implication is that if they could afford dvc and 10 years of passes, they likely can handle the cash outlay.

You came to this thread trying to save money on tickets. Now it's about some sort of justification to buy something.

Best of luck. I'm out.

 

[Sunnywho]

...

 

[Marionnette]

True enough Marionette, it is a budget board. And while it may not be a good bet against inflation, it should be a good bet against demand pricing should they revise the system as predicted and cost increases in general as seen with the DL annual pass. I guess I should have broken it into two boards, with one being the analysis of bracing against future cost increases, and another on ticketing advice to see if anyone has ever heard of someone having a problem with this, except by the looks of things, no one here has ever heard of anyone having an issue with tickets not working, which was my biggest concern.

I'll concede that buying MYW tickets now will allow you to avoid the surcharge that comes with surge pricing. In fact, I purchased a few passes when it looked like a change would be coming soon. However, I own DVC and I visit at least every other year, if not more often. I'll be using those tickets within the next couple of years (or someone in my family will). I wouldn't do it for a possible vacation that won't happen for more than a decade.

 

[hsmamato2]

I've got about 10 years worth of tickets put away.

Some are annual passes and some are 10 day non expiry park hoppers with water park pluses.

Not at all worried about whether that money could have earned more in a fund of some kind. I have other money in earning vehicles. This money is already gone to Disney World!

I don't foresee the Magic Kingdom disappearing in 10 years, nor do I think that Disney will add an expiration date to my NO Expiration date tickets.

The annual passes supposedly expire in 2030, so I've got 15 years if that date is indeed valid.

I guess in a way I am planning vacations 10 plus years in advance at Disney.

But, I've got a history of that, having purchased DVC more than 15 years ago.

BUT...I'm going to assume based on your outline that you visit Disney regularly,as you own DVC. That means you have multiple entry options to USE over the next 10 years,to go along with your DVC purchase.(i.e. spending a lot now to save over a 10 year span)
OP is describing something different. Buying tickets now and not going to Disney for 10-15 years is a different scenario.
***OP you can do whatever you want with your own money- the advice here is only advice. If you want to tie a large chunk of money up right now,that's your business. I personally would be using that money along the way to enjoy vacations with my growing family. but that's just advice.***

 

[FlyingBelle]

Two years ago I bought tickets because I had heard prices were going up again, and we would go to WDW a couple times a year. I bought 4-day single-park tickets from Undercover Tourist, and they were offering the 5th day free.

Well, two years later and life has changed. Now we only go to Disney about every 18 months, and our trip last month with friends was the free dining, so we had to purchase park hoppers to get the free dining. Our next trip we only expect to be at the park for 2-3 days.

So, we are still holding on to those tickets. Was it a waste of money? No. But would I do it again? No. Now I'm looking for when I can take my kids out of school long enough for 5 days at the park (we won't go in summer or holidays).

OP - I totally get your mindset, I'm the same way, but it just hasn't worked out quite right for us yet.

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

I bought non expiring tickets in 2004 and I still have 2 days left. And bought another pair last year when Ebates /Orbitz had their 20% off sale.

 

[gduvall]

I have a few years of tickets that I bought in advance. When we became DVC members I knew we would be planning multiple trips. I bought enough tickets for 5 years for us, then we ended up buying AP's for 2 years. Then there was a great deal with orbitz through ebates for a 20% rebate about a year and a half ago. Now there is a promotion for $30 off Amex from UT. So, if there is a special I tend to buy ahead. But for my next trip in January, I am using some of the "older" tickets and had no problem linking them.

is there still a promotion for $30 of Amex from UT, I can't find anything

 

[halssister]

We just took our second trip in July. The tickets for that trip were purchased about 3 years prior. We use the Disney Rewards Visa to earn Disney dollars and when we had enough saved up for three tickets, we bought them. Then when we got close enough to actually pay for the room, we booked the trip. They were just standard four day tickets (not hoppers, not no expiry, etc). We had no trouble using them, except I did have to call to add them to our account because they were too old to do it through the website. We did similar for our first trip, and will likely do it again for our next trip. That being said, I'd be nervous about buying tickets THAT far out (10 years), especially with all the talk lately about tiered pricing and other potential changes that may be in the works. I would just personally be too nervous that something may change and I'd be out all that money!

 

[disfanforlife]

is there still a promotion for $30 of Amex from UT, I can't find anything

Yes, you need to log onto your Amex online to sign up for it. It's valid until December 31, 2015

 

[mom-2greatkids]

I have two different experiences with pre-purchasing tickets. DH and I attended a wedding in FL in 2004 and purchased 7 day tickets knowing we'd use 2 days and save the other 5 days for the next family vacation. These were the old tickets that automatically included hopping and did not expire. Low and behold the ticketing structure completely changed in 2005 with the introduction of MYW Tickets. We would have been much better off getting MYW tickets (and dining plan) for our 2005 trip for our family of 4, but we couldn't because we had already invested in the old tickets.

On the other hand, about 6 years ago Universal was offering a 4 day ticket to both parks for $99 per person. We bought 4 and sat on them for a couple years until the first WWOHP was completed. It was great to have an economical way to visit WDW and Universal in the same trip.