So, various podcasts, and what I have read, about the date base ticket system, the assumption seems to be that the less crowded days have a lower price and the more crowded days have a higher price. That being said, I am going the week BEFORE Thanksgiving. The prices for most of my week are more expensive than Thanksgiving week. For a 7 day park hopper, 11/21 (Thursday before Thanksgiving) is $85 and Thanksgiving day (11/28) is $81.
So, should I expect my week to be more crowded than Thanksgiving week or is the date base pricing not really indicative of the crowd level Disney expects? Just curious. I plan on it being more crowded than normal regardless since there doesn’t seem to be many “low” times anymore.
I think this is because you need to look at all of the days AFTER the start date. When you choose 11/21, your days following that are the entire Thanksgiving week. If you start with 11/28, then you are mostly looking at the week after Thanksgiving which is not that crowded.
I’m not sure I follow…below is what i see from the calendar. I selected 7 day park hoppers starting on 11/16. Just looking at the cost it is showing per day, 11/21 is higher than 11/28 (Thanksgiving Day). Also, I already bought my tickets from UT, so this is just a curiosity question based on what my understanding of the date based pricing is vs. what I was seeing.
I guess what I’m asking is:
Are date based prices supposed to reflect what Disney expects crowds to be? Everything I had heard/read said yes.
If yes to #1, should I expect the week before TG to be more crowded than the week of TG?
Thanks…it’s weird. I see that. They even out on day 3 and then 4+ the week before has higher prices. I just would’ve expected the opposite regardless of the # of days.
“Calendar shows an average price per day… determined by your selected day of first use…”
You aren’t seeing the actual price per day, you are looking at the average price across all days of your 7 day ticket. If you buy the ticket that starts on 11/16, ALL of your days cost $81 each. Does that make more sense? They get more expensive the closer you get to Thanksgiving but once you get past Thanksgiving and the majority of your 7 days are less crowded, the price goes back down.
They price it per day, but they factor in days you could potentially go in your selected window, not the days you actually plan to go.
For example, a 7 day ticket can be spread across something like 12 days. So, even if you plan to use your days all in a row, they price them higher if that 12 day window falls on busier days because you COULD use them on those days.
So to reduce cost, figure out which days you might possibly go then pick the start date with the cheapest price that contains all of your days within the window. This means you actual start date might be different from the date you bought tickets for.
Try to pick a window that avoids two weekends for example. A start date of Monday, for example, with a twelve day window avoids two weekends. But a start date of Thursday would include two sets of weekends, making the price higher.
Maybe it’s the same thing and the lightbulb is just not clicking for me. It happens like that many times.
What I believe you are saying are that the total ticket cost is the average of the days I “could” go during my timeframe. I see that. If I do a 7 day park hopper starting on 11/14 it’s like $529/ticket. If I start it on 11/16, ti’s $538/ticket. That, I get. I might not get the Disney math behind it, but I understand it can fluctuate.
What I am trying to understand is how are the per day prices shown on the calendar calculated? And, whey is the price for 11/21 (week before TG) higher than 11/28 TG day. I would have expected it to be lower based on the assumption that the more crowded days have higher ticket prices. It is lower if you do a 1 or 2 day, but not when you do 3+ days.
Also, if it’s an average of this that and the other thing, then why even bother showing it like that on the calendar?
Again, just curious. I already have my tickets purchased.
The price they show is the average price you will pay if you set your start date as that day.
So, in the example calendar above, if you pick November 11 as your start date, you will pay the equivalent of $77/day. If you pick November 14 as your start date, you will pay $79/day. So, that effectively means an extra $14 (7 days times $2) per person.
I double checked the windows. A 7 day ticket expires 10 days after the start date. So, a ticket purchased for a Nov. 16 start day can be used any seven days up to and including Nov. 25. This means you are spanning two weekends with a start date of Nov. 16, which makes the price higher. (Weekend days cost more than week days, generally.)
If you planned to go on Nov. 16 through Nov. 22, then, you could save yourself money by buying your tickets with a start date of Nov. 13, even though you will ACTUALLY go Nov. 16 as your first day. All this means is that the last day your tickets would be valid is Nov. 22 instead of Nov. 25. But since you don’t plan to be there on Nov. 23 or later anyhow, it makes no difference. In the meantime, you would save yourself $3/day per person, or $21 per person.
Now, as far as why Nov. 21 is higher than Nov. 28? It is because the days following Thanksgiving are cheaper days than the days BEFORE Thanksgiving. Those cheaper days are factored into the average price even if you weren’t planning on actually being in the parks on those cheaper days!
@ryan1 Thanks for the info. I think the last paragraph answers my question. I actually did my tickets from UT based on your advice in another post. We are there 11/16-11/23, so I started my tickets on 11/14 to cover our whole week. Saved about $8/ticket than starting 11/16. There are seven of us, so $56 total.
