I’m four months out from my trip and wondering: Is there any reason to wait to buy park tickets?
PRO waiting: A deal might be offered? The possibility seems very remote. Prices only seem to go up. BUT there is the current 4-day 4-park deal. That one doesn’t interest me—I’ll be getting an 8-day park-hopper—but is it conceivable an offer might appear that suits me? [ETA: Another, arguably more important (to me) PRO.]
CON waiting: The price might go up while I’m dithering. I don’t think this is likely before the fall—and maybe not even then, given the lower attendance levels and the grief Disney’s been getting lately for price gouging. But it could happen.
I’d buy sooner. Another CON waiting is that you can make APRs as soon as you have tickets, in case there’s any concern those might get limited for your park day.
Good point, but I’m not at all concerned about making APRs this far in advance. I’m not going on any especially popular days and even if I were, I don’t think anything has sold out more than a few weeks ahead.
I’m just the kind of person who like to have things secured sooner rather than later, as long as it works financially (flights, hotel, car rental, tickets, APR, etc.).
Almost NEVER an up-side to waiting if you know you are going.
99.44% of the time things go up and no deals released.
The 4-park deal is a nice one, but super rare. I’d bet my bottom Mickey Bar there will never be a deal for an 8-day PH or anything near that.
If your trip dates are iffy - convention tickets, since they are not tied to dates, you get a free water park / mini golf etc day, they are discounted, AND you can use discounted Disney Gift Cards to pay and skim some more savings.
Me too. That’s kind of why I’m itching to buy now.
I left out another PRO-wait that’s relevant to me: It’s possible, though, not likely, that I might change my plans before the trip. For example, I’ve been vacillating between a 7-day and an 8-day hopper. And you never know when something else might pop up that necessitates a shift in dates. Everything else I’ve purchased till now—flights, resort—is changeable.
Are there ever convention tickets for as long as 8 days? I was under the impression they were usually for shorter stays. (I used a 3-day hopper convention ticket in April.)
Yes, it’s so little additional at that point. That’s why I landed on getting a ticket for every day of my stay including arrival and departure days. Even if I’m not 100% sure I’ll go to a park every single day, I’d rather waste a day than regret not having one, for that price!
I was doing the same thinking for our trip in a couple of weeks - then, knowing some people my family will try to push through the pain/heat too much, I thought I’d take the possibility of extra days out of the equation and create a sort of forced resort day at the end.
The only reason I don’t buy tickets in advance is that they’re non-refundable, which prevents me from canceling in case of unforeseen issues. I can’t think of any other reason.
Yes, this is a biggie. But you can apply the ticket cost to a future ticket purchase if you don’t use any part of the tickets, right? So unless you were never going to WDW again, you could at least recoup the purchase price later. (Is this official policy or is it at the discretion of the CM you reach on any given phone call?)
Right, I wouldn’t wait that long in any case. Although as I said, I wouldn’t be surprised if they skip the increase this year, given attendance levels and customer dissatisfaction with perceived value.
I took this risk for a Sept trip. Held out feeling pretty confident a deal would come out and sue enough they announced the 4 day discount, which for us was perfect. For an 8 day, not so sure. There is always undercovertourist for a cheaper rate. And if you don’t link them I believe they are returnable. So if something does come out you can repurchase.
I’ll be using Undercover Tourist Boardwalk Ticketing, because in addition to their regular discount I can get 5% cash back on my Chase Freedom card in 3Q 2023 (for live entertainment).
[Edited because Boardwalk Ticketing seems to use the right code to be eligible for the live-entertainment deal, whereas Undercover Tourist does not.]
