Complicated ticket math - help needed, please

[wdw_bound]

Thanks to my first ever room-only PIN, I am taking DS to the world to celebrate his fifth birthday.

It will also be his first flight, and our first time using DME. We arrive at MCO around 2 pm on a Saturday and depart from MCO around 3:30 pm the following Tuesday. I'd like to carve out a little time for DTD shopping - probably on either arrival or departure day. Based on what we would like to do, we need 3 days worth of park tickets.

I have an adult and a youth ticket with a couple of days left on them (non-expiring option) - park hoppers with waterparks and more option included. We are 90% certain that the whole family will be returning to WDW in June for about a week.

With me so far? What is my best option as far as tickets are concerned?

a) Buy new 3-day park hoppers for each of us? Then we'd add more days onto the tickets for the June trip and buy adult tickets for DH and DD
b) Add a day onto the adult ticket and 2 days onto the youth ticket (if we used up the park admission, would we still have waterpark credits?). Then start from scratch for the June trip.
c) Is this even possible? Add days to the existing tickets to bring them up to 10 days, non-expiring, use them this trip and finish them off in June (the two trips combined would probably equal 10 days in the parks).

Any guidance greatly appreciated - the last several trips have been all inclusive packages, so I've not had to worry about tickets and getting the best deal before.

[BMan62]

I may be wrong, but I believe the rule is that you may not change a ticket, even non-expiring, after the 14th day after first use. In this case, you would have to use your existing non-expiring tickets 'as is' and purchase new for whatever 'coverage' you might need. You may, however, use the value of your existing non-expiring tickets to offset the costs for annual passes - depending on the number of days you will be visiting within the next year.

I am sure there will be others who can answer your question better than this.

[gerald72]

Is this trip/ his birthday in December 2009, or is this in 2010?
I only ask because the free day on your birthday could be factored in if its in 2009.

[wdw_bound]

It is in January. I was very bummed that the b-day promotion ended.

[tys_mommy]

How many days do you plan to visit the parks when you go back in June? Would an annual pass make sense?? You could then use the ap discount on your room when you return with the family over the summer?

[Ian]

It might help for you to put some dollar amounts around each option and do a comparison that way?

Also ... you mentioned that your existing passes had waterparks & more options on them ... do you plan on visiting the waterparks or just the theme parks?

Because if you could just get away with upgrading to base annual passes, my guess is that might be your best option. Quite honestly, I think that No Expiration option is a complete ripoff. You're better off using that cash towards an AP and then trying to plan a third vacation in there somewhere that would fall into your one year AP time span. Typically if you can get 10-12 days use out of an AP it ends up paying for itself.

[CleveRocks]

we need 3 days worth of park tickets.

I have an adult and a youth ticket with a couple of days left on them (non-expiring option) - park hoppers with waterparks and more option included. We are 90% certain that the whole family will be returning to WDW in June for about a week.

With me so far? What is my best option as far as tickets are concerned?

a) Buy new 3-day park hoppers for each of us? Then we'd add more days onto the tickets for the June trip and buy adult tickets for DH and DD
b) Add a day onto the adult ticket and 2 days onto the youth ticket (if we used up the park admission, would we still have waterpark credits?). Then start from scratch for the June trip.
c) Is this even possible? Add days to the existing tickets to bring them up to 10 days, non-expiring, use them this trip and finish them off in June (the two trips combined would probably equal 10 days in the parks).
I'll answer the part I highlighted in red.

No, it's not possible, and for 2 different reasons:

1) As noted earlier by BMan62, you can't add to or upgrade ANY Magic Your Way ticket after 14 days past that ticket's first use. And as BMan62 said, this applies even if it is a No Expiration ticket. So that's one reason why you can't add to it.

2) Secondly, no domestic Magic Your Way ticket can ever hold more than a total of 10 theme park days during the lifetime of that ticket. For example, let's say you buy a 7-day theme park ticket and you use 6 days of it. You want to add days to it and add the No Expiration option to it, for use in the future. Well, you bought a 7-day ticket. That means that the maximum number of days you can add to it is 3. You can't say, "There's 1 unused day left on it, so I'll add 9 more days to it to make 10." Well, you can SAY it, but Disney won't let you do it that way.

[CleveRocks]

For future reference, there are very few scenarios in which the No Expiration option isn't a complete rip-off.

The best value of the No Expiration option is for people who make frequent 2-day and 3-day trips.

But it's a complete rip-off for anyone who can't get at least 2 COMPLETE trips without adding any extra days. If you can make 2 COMPLETE trips on one No Expiration ticket, then it worked for you. But for your second trip, even if you have to add even just one little extra day, I'm sorry to say you wasted literally hundreds of dollars.

[gerald72]

For future reference, there are very few scenarios in which the No Expiration option isn't a complete rip-off.

The best value of the No Expiration option is for people who make frequent 2-day and 3-day trips.

But it's a complete rip-off for anyone who can't get at least 2 COMPLETE trips without adding any extra days. If you can make 2 COMPLETE trips on one No Expiration ticket, then it worked for you. But for your second trip, even if you have to add even just one little extra day, I'm sorry to say you wasted literally hundreds of dollars.

And if those two trips are within a year of each other, you are probably better off getting an annual pass.

I'd say a ten-day no expiration pass is a good deal if you can get two or three trips out of it over a period of a few years, and add the water parks and more option to it, giving you ten water park visits.

[Red Randal]

For future reference, there are very few scenarios in which the No Expiration option isn't a complete rip-off.

The best value of the No Expiration option is for people who make frequent 2-day and 3-day trips.

Haha. I only laugh at that because that actually describes my usual scenario.

Anyway...I agree with the poster who mentioned just buying an annual pass, which always ends up working out for the better if you can take advantage of the room discounts (especially if you're into moderate or deluxe resorts.)

[Ian]

So given the fact that you can't upgrade your existing passes, you'd probably have to buy brand new 7 or 8 day hoppers with the no expiration option to use in conjunction with the existing unused ticket days you have now.

Let's take the cheaper example and say you want to buy a 7 day hopper, no expiration. That would cost you (for an adult) $416.21 ($249.21 base + $52 hopper + $115 no expiration).

An annual pass would cost you $520.79, or about $104.58 more. But the thing is, you could use the credit from your existing passes to upgrade to an AP so you'd cut a good bit off of that ... maybe even enough to offset that additional $104.

Add to that the fact that you could potentially squeeze in another trip some time in 2010 and the AP's definitely become the better deal. In fact, if you factor in possible AP discounts you could get for your June trip they're probably the best way to go no matter what.

[bouncer]

Exactly what does the AP discount? I know the generalization-you occasionally get room & dining discounts and DTD shopping discount. But how much & what are they, what about blackout dates? MIL winters near Tampa...if she would go for an overnight trip should I encourage her to get an AP to be applied to our Dec 2010 trip? She is not sure that she will even be able to get there but would it make it worth our while to apply to next December or just get passes to match our days - MYW + Hopper?:confused:

Thanks

[CleveRocks]

But the thing is, you could use the credit from your existing passes to upgrade to an AP so you'd cut a good bit off of that ... maybe even enough to offset that additional $104.


If by "existing passes" you mean the ones that the OP already has, the ones left over from a previous trip, then you already answered the question earlier ... passes past 14 days from first use can't be added to or upgraded in any way. You can't "use the credit" from those older passes because they are past the 14 day mark from first use. Those unexpired days can be used for park admission, but they CAN'T be used for any cash or credit value and they can't be upgraded. Period.:mickey:

[Ian]

Yeah you're right ... I could have sworn you were allowed to upgrade to annual passes at any time, but quick research shows that's no longer the case.

You can upgrade if you've never used the tickets or if it's within the 14 day window, but after that they're not upgradeable period.

They must have changed that at some point, because I did it in years past. Maybe when they moved to the whole MYW concept.

[MarkC]

WDW Bound, your signature line doesn't show where you live so I'm not sure how easy it is for you to venture to WDW. Even in Nebraska we've bought annual passes on 3 separate occasions. You can time your trips to make sure they fall within your pass dates. Two of those times, we ended up with an extra trip due to a bowl game, cheap airfare, etc. that we would not have without the passes. So if you live close enough or have the time to utilize the annual pass, I strongly encourage you to buy them. You get room and food discounts, plus discounts on mini-golf, tours, etc. They are well worth it. Best of luck. Mark

[KylesMom]

But how much & what are they, what about blackout dates? There are no blackout dates with an annual pass. You can enter the parks 365 days a year with them.

As far as what they are? Entrance to the parks with the ability to park-hop each day through the length of the ticket's life, one calendar year. As Ian previously mentioned, an Adult A/P currently costs $520.79. While discounted rooms are not offered all of the time, we buy the pass for the days we will use them. We take one annual trip each year, and ensure that our tickets are used for two trips. This year we are in line to buy new passes, so we'll go late July/early August. In 2011, we'll go in June & our park passes will still be valid.

In doing the math for a co-worker recently, the value of the pass kicks in after roughly eleven days . . . i.e., it's cheaper to go with an A/P if you're going to the parks for longer than that in a calendar year. :mickey:

Don't confuse an Annual Pass with a Florida Resident Pass, however. Those do have blackout dates.

[bouncer]

My fault...I meant to ask "What are the discounts?"

[wdw_bound]

Thanks for the responses, everyone! I knew I could get some great advice here! I should probably have clarified that we purchased these tickets before the expiration component was added, so at least we didn't pay extra and get taken ;)

I like the idea of an AP - especially if I can convince DH that means I have to take one for the team and visit a third time in 12 months. :mickey:

[CleveRocks]

Thanks for the responses, everyone! I knew I could get some great advice here! I should probably have clarified that we purchased these tickets before the expiration component was added, so at least we didn't pay extra and get taken ;)

Just to clarify ... are these tickets from before 2005? Or do you mean that you bought base tickets and then added the No Expiration feature later?