For a family of 6, we’re talking $3000 for park tickets I’ve always bought a package through Disney so if we canceled (which we have 3 times since shutdown!) we get our $200 fee back and call it a day. Now we’re booking offsite so have to buy tickets separate and I guess I never realized 1. how expensive they are and 2. that we can’t get them refunded. So in case we end up canceling our March trip I don’t want to spend that money and what we just get to reuse the tickets at a future time?
So how far in advance would you buy the tickets if you were me? I know I have to get park reservations and so that’s the big reason to do it sooner than later.
Well… since we never knew if a trip would actually happen or not we always waited to get our tickets at the Shades of Green after we arrived. Over the years we’ve had to cancel and reschedule all planned trips at least once due to deployments or change of military orders.
I would buy them sooner if you’re at least 50% confident March will happen so you can make the park reservations, as long as you know you’ll go at some point, if March gets cancelled. They retain their value so can always be applied to a future trip.
I say work the system. Book a package onsight with park tickets. Then buy your real tickets separate right before the trip that way you have your park reservations. Then cancel the onsight stay once you have loaded the real tickets. That way you dont ha e to buy the real tickets until a few day before the cancelation deadline
If you know you will end up going eventually, then I would buy sooner than later because invariably there are ticket pricing increases. If you think you might cancel and NOT reschedule some future date, then I guess I would hold off.
Also, consider buying tickets from Undercover Tourist to get a (sometimes significant) discount. They will accept returns, minus 5%, up to 90 days after purchasing in most cases.
I will second this, and add that you can cancel the package whenever you want and the park reservations will remain. This has been my experience several times since park reservations began. In fact I have some (park reservations without tickets attached) sitting in MDE that I need to cancel.
I’ve always bought a package through Disney so if we canceled (which we have 3 times since shutdown!) we get our $200 fee back and call it a day. Now we’re booking offsite so have to buy tickets separate and I guess I never realized 1. how expensive they are and 2. that we can’t get them refunded. So in case we end up canceling our March trip I don’t want to spend that money and what we just get to reuse the tickets at a future time?