Theme Park Ticket Expiration

[disneymom2000]

I bought a 7 day park hopper ticket for my godson for his 5th birthday. His parents have put off going to WDW due to other scheduling. He will turn 9 in May 2011 and he needs to use the ticket before he is no longer in the "child" category so they are thinking about going early next year. On the first day they enter the park and activate his ticket, can they go to customer service and put an extension on this ticket (they only plan on going for 5 days - so what to do with the other 2 days) or do they just lose the other days due to his age? :confused: I can't find any of this specific information under info central.

[gerald72]

Yes, one of the days needs to be used while the child is still a child (unless you pay to upgrade to adult prices). But the remaining days can be used whenever. If the no-expiration option wasn't purchase, the tickets expire 14 days after first use, regarless of age.
It doesn't make sense economically to purchase the no-expiration option to save 2 days.

[Mrs Bus Driver]

The question is would it be cost effective to make the ticket non-expiring? To just save 2 days I don't think so but I am sure someone will come along and let you know the cost. :mickey:

[ibelieveindisneymagic]

Hmmm...this is a bit of a tricky one.

As long as he uses one of the days before he turns 10, Disney will upgrade the ticket to an adult one at no charge.

But, if you don't have the non-expiring option, then the ticket will expire after 14-days of first use, no matter what.

Is is worth it to upgrade to a non-expiring ticket? You would have to do the math, but to upgrade to a 10-day ticket, non-expiring, MIGHT be worth it, if the extra 5 days will completely cover the new trip.

[DizneyRox]

But, if you don't have the non-expiring option, then the ticket will expire after 14-days of first use, no matter what.
is it a MYW ticket or older? Prior to MYW tickets they didn't expire so that ticket may be good till done.

[diz_girl]

Is is worth it to upgrade to a non-expiring ticket? You would have to do the math, but to upgrade to a 10-day ticket, non-expiring, MIGHT be worth it, if the extra 5 days will completely cover the new trip.

It only makes sense if the family comes back for another trip with exactly 5 days in the parks.

If the remaining two days aren't used, it's not really that bad, as the difference between 5 and 7 days for a child is about $5. So only $5 is lost if they don't convert it to a 10 day non-expiring pass and don't use the last two days. Yes, $5 is $5, but hopefully not too much to get worried over.

[disneymom2000]

I guess there was some confusion when I bought the ticket at the Disney Store. The clerk said I didn't need to purchase non-expiring at that time but the first day I used it at the parks, if I wasn't going to be staying the full 7 days, then at that time I could add on the non-expiration part. I will talk to my cousin and give her the scenarios that I received here.

[DizneyRox]

That was the spiel at the Disney Stores. Only add the no-expiration if you need it. As others have said, you really only want to add no-expiration if you stand to lose more than you would gain. Generally, it's NOT a good idea to add the no-expiration option. When you are "saving" a large number of days, sure... Otherwise it's often just money in Disney's pocket (which was by design when they broke it out of the passes).

[PopPhan]

I would not worry about the No Expiration option for 2 days of a 7 day pass. You would need to upgrade to an Adult ticket and then pay the No Expiration charge on the original 7 days of the ticket at the Adult rate, which would be $115.

If you made it a 10-day ticket, it would cost $9 for the additional days plus $209 for the No Expiration option.

Financially speaking, just use one day on the original pass, upgrade to Adult (no charge) and forget about the 2 days that won't be used.