No more no-Expiration tickets?

[lawgirl]

As I was purchasing a 1 day ticket at Epcot (everyone else in the group was using the last day of our 10 day passes with no expiration that we've had for like, ever), the CM at the ticket window told me that he had heard that Disney was planning on doing away with the "no-expiration" park hopper passes...that you would always have to buy tickets for your exact dates.

Does anyone know anything about this? That would really mess things up for us. We usually buy the 10 day no expiration park hopper passes, and stretch them out over 5-6 trips (we usually stay for about 4 days, and go to the parks 1-2 days each trip).

If so, that would be a bummer. I need to stock up now

[BrerGnat]

I haven't heard anything like that, but it does make sense from a financial standpoint. Disney loses money on those non-expiration passes when compared to the "daily cost" of the non expiring ones.

Disneyland did away with non expiring passes YEARS ago and it has worked just fine.

[buzznwoodysmom]

We never get the no expiration option, so it wouldn't concern me either way.

However, I see OP mention "that you would always have to buy tickets for your exact dates". I hope that doesn't mean you wouldn't be able to purchase tickets for less days than your resort stay. We NEVER go to the parks everyday during our trips. Having to purchase tickets for each day of our stay would be a total waste for us. We have gone so far as to only do the parks for 4 days during a 9 night stay. We did a few waterparks during that time, but no way would I want to be in the parks for 9 or 10 days in a row. We enjoy, and NEED, those days off from the parks. I hope this won't be the case in the future.

[Basket Mommy]

We always buy the no expiration passes (usually 7-8 days) at a website where you buy X days, get y days free. Then, like the OP, we stretch those out over a couple of trips because we don't go to the parks every day, either. If we stay 7 days, we might go to the parks 3 or 4 of those days. The no hopper, no expiration passes just make more financial sense for us.

[Aurora]

Whoa! Maybe I was right when I posted about Disney getting rid of non-expiring passes on the thread re: wearable digital passes!

http://www.intercot.com/discussion/s...=195249&page=2

I guess it is/was only a matter of time.

But if you take a look at current ticket prices, it makes very little difference anyway. If you take two trips and go to the parks five days for each, you'll pay exactly the same amount for two 5-day park hoppers as a 10-day non-expiring hopper. I guess if your trips are far enough apart, you would save a small chunk on ticket price increases.

If true, I just hope they'll grandfather in all those old tickets. I have SIX water park days left on some non-expiring passes, enough for the next few trips!

[Gator]

I would be surprised to hear that. Not that it saves that much money with the extra surcharge. But it would make sense. The CFO can keep an eye on actual revenue per customer instead of worrying about old passes being used.

[figgie]

Disney just makes things harder. I'm sure they think it will make better financial sense, but this just muddles up my plans again. Used to be, we would keep several multi day passes in our drawer that we could pull out and take visitors to the parks whenever we had guests. This was when it wasn't name specific on a ticket. Now, we try to keep passes at least for the grandkids and family, with their names on the non expiration tickets so they will be here when they visit. Other visitors have to buy their own and it has cut down considerably on our park visits with guests. Now, I think even the family will have to be responsible for their own tickets since they will have to get them when they can visit. Little weekend pop-up visits will again change which will mean less WDW visits as well. Again, the locals are loosing out...

[BrerGnat]

Disney just makes things harder. I'm sure they think it will make better financial sense, but this just muddles up my plans again. Used to be, we would keep several multi day passes in our drawer that we could pull out and take visitors to the parks whenever we had guests. This was when it wasn't name specific on a ticket. Now, we try to keep passes at least for the grandkids and family, with their names on the non expiration tickets so they will be here when they visit. Other visitors have to buy their own and it has cut down considerably on our park visits with guests. Now, I think even the family will have to be responsible for their own tickets since they will have to get them when they can visit. Little weekend pop-up visits will again change which will mean less WDW visits as well. Again, the locals are loosing out...

Disney doesn't want to make it easier or cheaper. They would LOVE it if everyone bought a one day park hopper whenever they were visiting relatives in the Orlando area. Disney loses a LOT of money on these no expiration passes. When you have people making several trips out of a 10 day pass, the amount you pay per day is way less than if you had to buy, say three sets of 3 Day passes. Or, 5 sets of 2 day passes. It makes more financial sense for Disney to offer multi day passes that expire within a short time frame from first use (Disneyland uses 14 days) or Annual Passes.

I hear you, though. It does make things more expensive. That is the reason why my parents haven't gone to Disneyland more than once with our kids. They live in L.A., but just refuse to pay for a one day pass on principle (we always held APs when we lived there), so they only went with us when we gifted them with tickets one year for Christmas.

[BowTie7]

I am sure that there is very careful analysis of the use of no expiration tickets. While those on this board who use these tickets undoubtedly keep very careful track of the tickets, one can assume that lots of the no expiration tickets never get fully used. Plus, I believe that Disney books revenue from tickets when sold (vs when actually used), so the no expiration tickets help push up the current bottom line.

[Aurora]

Disney just makes things harder. I'm sure they think it will make better financial sense, but this just muddles up my plans again. Used to be, we would keep several multi day passes in our drawer that we could pull out and take visitors to the parks whenever we had guests. This was when it wasn't name specific on a ticket. Now, we try to keep passes at least for the grandkids and family, with their names on the non expiration tickets so they will be here when they visit. Other visitors have to buy their own and it has cut down considerably on our park visits with guests. Now, I think even the family will have to be responsible for their own tickets since they will have to get them when they can visit. Little weekend pop-up visits will again change which will mean less WDW visits as well. Again, the locals are loosing out...

I have a couple more thoughts on this:

I wonder whether this has anything to do with the number of DVC members there are now. Disney just lowered the price of a premium AP to $399 for DVC members. Why? As just a feel-good loyalty perk? Maybe, maybe not.

Some DVCers buy annual passes, and others, like us, will buy the 10-day no-expiration tickets and use them on multiple trips, sometimes over multiple years, because we don't go to the parks every day of our vacations. This might be a way to make all of us have to choose between APs or just enough days we need, costing more per day. On our last trip (7 days), we went to Disney parks only 3 of our 4 park days -- the fourth we went to Universal. Which brings me to my second thought...

I also wonder whether this is an attempt by Disney to try to get back guest days that they are losing to Universal now. If you are holding a 10-day no-expiration ticket, you don't really care, ticket-value-wise, that you are visiting Disney parks for only a few days in one trip, because the value will remain for all 10 days. So you head off to Universal for a couple of your vacation days.

But if you have to buy a 3-day expiring ticket, there's little value in that. A 5-day expiring ticket, though, has greater value, and so there may be an incentive to buy the extra days to get the most out of the ticket. So you wind up giving Disney more of your time and money.

Too much of a conspiracy theory?

[epceddie]

We've really cut down on the visits we make to the parks. We spend a lot of our time pool hopping and visiting resorts.
We've purchased 10-day expiration tickets in the past and have gotten a lot of use out of them.
We like to visit in October and December, so in the future we may end up buying tickets just to a MNSSHP or MVMCP.

[mdricks]

This would really hurt me
I buy a 10 day and stretch it out for separate trips

Boo hiss

[lawgirl]

This would really hurt me
I buy a 10 day and stretch it out for separate trips

Boo hiss

I hear you! Me too!

[W24toISMdirect]

Realistically speaking, the "No Expire" Hopper option is a significant up-charge for a service that many guest pay for and never use ("Better to get it and not need it that not get it and need it" mentality among guests who are intimidated by and inexpirienced with WDW planning) so essentially this is a pure profit proposition for Disney. Unless it's just too much of an administrative headache with the other changes going on (which is possible) I don't see this happening.

[DizneyRox]

Just looking at the cost of non-expiration on a 10 day ticket. I brings the cost up to like $600. That tells me they DO NOT want people buying it. If people are still purchasing it, then thats on them fort their reasons, but for whatever reason Disney doesnt want it happening.

Buy in traditional Disney fashion, if people want to buy it, far be it for them to not allow people to spend their money.