Disney park tickets

[flavor]

In spring 2008 we'll be going to Disney, Florida. Since we have children under 5, we'll be going only to Magic Kingdom. (we feel they're too small for the other attractions) We'll also be booking a vacation package through Southwest which offers a 3 day park ticket, per adult for $226. Is that a good deal? Does anyone know of another way to purchase the tickets for a good price? Thanks in advance.

[disneysteve]

In spring 2008 we'll be going to Disney, Florida. Since we have children under 5, we'll be going only to Magic Kingdom. (we feel they're too small for the other attractions) We'll also be booking a vacation package through Southwest which offers a 3 day park ticket, per adult for $226. Is that a good deal? Does anyone know of another way to purchase the tickets for a good price? Thanks in advance.

$226 is not a good price for a 3-day ticket. They are $216.20 at the gate. Ticketmania.com sells them for $215.00.

How long will you be there? If it is just for a few days and you want to just do Magic Kingdom, that's fine, but if you will be there a week or more, there is plenty for young kids to see and do at the other parks. Epcot, particularly Future World, is great. MGM (Disney Studio) has some attractions geared toward the little ones. And Animal Kingdom is terrific as little kids always like seeing animals. So you might want to rethink those plans.

[Tree0164]

Here are the price listing for Disney tickets Walt Disney World Tickets, Discount Disney World Tickets - wdwinfo.com

You may also want to check out AAA.

[flavor]

Thank you for your quick replies.
Our trip will be 6 nights, mid March. We were planning on spending 3 days at Magic Kingdom, and 2 days just splashing around in the hotel pool. We don't want to rent a car, but solely rely on the hotel shuttle transport to MK. The hotel we're thinking of is in the Lake Buena Vista area, only a 1/4 mile away from Disney World, and is also surrounded by many restaurants. So we'll be walking and using our stroller a lot. We're trying not to spend too much. But I wonder if we should rent a car. We also didn't know that the other attractions had something interesting for children under 5, but I think we'll do a little more research on that. Thanks for the website. We'll look into that in great detail. Again, thanks.

[disneysteve]

flavor - Just to be clear, we may be comparing apples to oranges. The price I quoted is for a 3-day non-hopper pass, meaning it is only good at one park per day. The ticket from the package could be a hopper, meaning it would let you enter more than one park per day (which may or may not matter to you).

I'm going to suggest 2 things:

1. Buy the Birnbaum Disney World guidebook. AAA sells it at a discount if you are a member. Otherwise, any bookstore will have it.

2. Head over to disboards.com. You will find many Disney fanatics (like me - I'm disneysteve over there too) who will be more than happy to help you plan your trip and get the most for your money.

[jasanderson]

I used to be a travel agent and I would highly suggest you call a travel agent to work with or even the Disney parkes themselves. I used to see many specials if you stay at one of the All-Star's resort and tickets thrown in, or possibly free meals, etc.

I am not sure where you are located but a travel agent would be able to give you information about package deals with air/hotel/tickets etc and look at all vendors. Most airlines, including Southwest, have some type of package offers. Carlson Wagonlit travel runs a lot of Disney specials as well. With their size they are able to offer good perks.

Please keep in mind that it is a lot less expensive to stay off site but then you need to factor in a car rental and the cost of parking at the resorts. If you stay at teh All-Stars they have food onsite but I don't believe they offer any type of cooking in your units. I was there 7 years ago and a hamburger meal in the park itself was close to $8.00. You are going to want to consider all of this in your spending money.

[minnie1928]

Thank you for your quick replies.
Our trip will be 6 nights, mid March. We were planning on spending 3 days at Magic Kingdom, and 2 days just splashing around in the hotel pool. We don't want to rent a car, but solely rely on the hotel shuttle transport to MK. The hotel we're thinking of is in the Lake Buena Vista area, only a 1/4 mile away from Disney World, and is also surrounded by many restaurants. So we'll be walking and using our stroller a lot. We're trying not to spend too much. But I wonder if we should rent a car. We also didn't know that the other attractions had something interesting for children under 5, but I think we'll do a little more research on that. Thanks for the website. We'll look into that in great detail. Again, thanks.

One thing to keep in mind, 1/4 mile from Disney World probably means 1/4 mile from the edge of Disney property....not from the park itself. Disney property is huge, so don't expect to get from your hotel to the park in 3 minutes or anything like that. Also, our first year we stayed off property and were very disappointed to find out that the bus WENT to the park every half hour but that we couldn't RETURN to the hotel until after 4:00. Thankfully, no one got sick or overly tired.

I also highly recommend wdwinfo.com for tips/advice. You can find me over there too (same name...different board )

[disneysteve]

1/4 mile from Disney World probably means 1/4 mile from the edge of Disney property....not from the park itself.

Also, our first year we stayed off property and were very disappointed to find out that the bus WENT to the park every half hour but that we couldn't RETURN to the hotel until after 4:00.

Two very good points. All the area hotels list themselves as being very close to Disney, but you need to understand what that means. Things aren't that close. For example, the Magic Kingdom is over 2 miles away from Epcot, and those are both on Disney property.

On the other hand, the place we've stayed the past few years is offsite in Kissimmee and one time I timed the drive from the condo to Animal Kingdom - it took 4 minutes door to door, so sometimes offsite is much closer to certain points on property than the onsite hotels.

As for hotel shuttles, forget it. If you are staying offsite, you need a car. We wouldn't even consider staying onsite without a car. You waste half your vacation waiting for buses. It is much quicker, easier and more convenient to do your own driving.

[Scanner]

For me, I wouldn't stay offsite. The cost of the rental car offsets the decreased hotel costs.

And as much as I can rival DisneySteve's enthusiasm, I use an agent too.

You can get AllStar Resorts or Pop Century on property for around $99/night, unless it's peak demand time. If you really want to go off property, which in 3 days, why would you. . .I would just call a cab.

As far as whether to spread your parks, that's a hard call. In 3 days, you can really, really do the Magic Kingdom, some things twice. See the parades and fireworks (which cuts into attraction time).

I would do the Liberty Tree Tavern for lunch (a little splurge but not overly) and Aunt Pollys for some lemonade and ham sandwiches (not really a splurge).

If you start park hopping, you are only going to gloss over the parks with 3 days.

I may actually be inclined if you are tying to save money to stick to the Magic Kingdom and really do it.

After all the other parks, it still remains my favorite. (and believe me, I love EPCOT).

With a 3rd child on the way, I am wondering how to do lodging myself and will need advice on that. He/she throws a monkey wrench into everything, the little monkey.

If you really want to do anotehr park one day, it may be more frugal to buy 2 days Magic Kingdom and 1 day another park, no hopping. Check with the agent.

[disneysteve]

For me, I wouldn't stay offsite. The cost of the rental car offsets the decreased hotel costs.

You can get AllStar Resorts or Pop Century on property for around $99/night

In 3 days, you can really, really do the Magic Kingdom, some things twice. See the parades and fireworks (which cuts into attraction time).

With a 3rd child on the way, I am wondering how to do lodging myself and will need advice on that.

If you really want to do anotehr park one day, it may be more frugal to buy 2 days Magic Kingdom and 1 day another park, no hopping. Check with the agent.

Scanner - I'll be your agent. I've planned many, many Disney trips for friends and family.

Staying offsite involves much more than just saving money. You also have to consider all the greater amenities. Sure, you can get AllStar or Pop Century for $99, sometimes even less. But for that same $99 (or less) you can get a 3-bedroom, 2-bath single home with a private screened-in swimming pool and spa with a full kitchen, living room, dining room, garage, washer and dryer (not coin operated) and more. So comparing onsite and offsite is often like comparing apples to giraffes.

Three of our last four trips, we rented a timeshare unit. It was a 2-bedroom, 2-bath unit with a full kitchen, whirlpool tub in the master bath, living/dining room, washer/dryer, 3 TVs, VCR, DVD player and stereo. We paid $40/night and, as I said above, we were about a 4-minute drive to Animal Kingdom.

If it was just my wife and I going, we might possibly consider staying onsite, but with kids, there is no way I would consider it. And with 2 or 3 kids, absolutely not. The offsite options are so great, numerous and cheap that it just doesn't make sense to cram yourselves into one little hotel room.

As for doing another park, a 3-day ticket will allow that. A non-hopper ticket lets you go to one park each day. It doesn't matter which park. So you could do 2 days at Magic Kingdom and 1 day at Epcot, or 1 day each at 3 different parks. Unless you are going at a peak time, like Christmas week, you really don't need 3 days to see Magic Kingdom. Two would be plenty.

Sorry to turn this into a Disney forum, but as you can tell, it is a topic I'm quite passionate about. Head over to disboards.com and you'll find lots of other people like me (yes, there are others ).

[herm4]

Disney Steve,
OMG! I am sooo checking with you before planning our next trip to Disney! I thought we had gotten the best deal in the past but I can see that you have a much better idea!

[Scanner]

DisneySteve,

You are my new agent. You are hired.

I know as the 3rd child comes, our philosophy on Disney vacations will have to change.

[filifefc]

Just wanted to bring this up, even though I don't recommend it.

If you have some time to kill, attend one of those timeshare presentations and they will give you a big discount on the tickets. It's a torture to sit through 3 hours of high pressure sales presentation, but you do save a lot. (and make sure you don't end up buying the timeshare)

[MonkeyMama]

I have to agree - 3 days at Magic Kingdom is too much. There is so much else to see and do - get the park hopper. You can skip Animal Kingdom, but Epcott and the Studios are SO fun. Oh but the Animal Kingdom is very appropriate for young kids. But I do see what you mean. They young kids do slow you down a bit.

Incidentally, just another point. If you think you will go back again someday. Dh and I went to Florida for our homeymoon in 2000. We were going to spend 2 days in the park but got a 4-day parkhopper. You can use them any time and we figured might as well pay the practically 2-day price for 4-days.

Anyway, I "sprained" my neck and we only ended up going one day (no didn't get hurt at the park. Just slept on it funny. Don't laugh...). So fast forward to 2007. Dh and the kids went. They used up only one day due to bad weather. We still have 2 days of park hopping for 2 adults which will make our next trip so much cheaper. We'll probably buy 4-day park hoppers for the kids. We didn't buy any this time because his parents paid for them, in exchange for using one of our adult passes.

Prices have come up A LOT in 7 years and I keep looking back and thinking that was the smartest purchase ever. We were DINKs and barely made a dent in our wallet last time.

Just something to remember for the frugalites.

P.S. I just checked and we paid $170 per ticket at the park in 2000. Today the same tickets are $260. It seems like amusement parks as a whole have gone up astronomically in recent years, so might have been an extra good time to prepay.

[disneysteve]

You can skip Animal Kingdom, but Epcott and the Studios are SO fun.

We were going to spend 2 days in the park but got a 4-day parkhopper. You can use them any time and we figured might as well pay the practically 2-day price for 4-days.

I respectfully disagree about skipping Animal Kingdom. I think it is by far the most underappreciated park. Just the new Finding Nemo musical stage show is worth the cost of park admission all by itself. The 45-minute show rivals the best Broadway has to offer and is great for all ages. Add in the Kilimanjaro Safari, Festival of The Lion King (what I previously listed as the best Disney park show ever until Nemo came along) and all the other attractions and I just don't understand why people downplay visiting this park.

As for park tickets, Disney made a major change to their ticketing system about 3 years ago. They now have what they call Magic Your Way tickets. You buy a base ticket for anywhere from 1 to 10 days. The base ticket is a non-hopper. You can then add, for a fee, the hopper option. The base ticket also expires 14 days after it's first use. You can, also for a fee, add a no expiration option. Prior to this, all tickets had no expiration but that is no longer the case.

The new MYW tickets are still a great deal, though. We buy a 10-day no-expire hopper. We use 5 days one trip and save the other 5 for the next trip. That saves us hundreds of dollars over buying a 5-day each visit.