Originally Posted By Goofyernmost >>>Be very careful with "gouge" around here. No less than 3 self appointed diction mods on LP only allow for strict usage, like the legal/criminal side of unfair business practices.<<< I guess your are right, however, two very important ingredients have to exist for it to have any importance. The first, of course, would be that I would have to give a rats butt about what they think. (I don't) and second, the purpose of language is to communicate ideas either verbally or written. Now, if you understood what I was saying by using the word "gouge" then it accomplished it's entire purpose, so technically it was totally effective and acceptable. (It did) I think we are good here! ;-)
Originally Posted By dizneed Gouge = Greed = Shareholders = Quick Turnaround Profits. Goofyernmost hit the nail on the head and I agree because that's what our reasoning was for adding the no-exp. option to our tickets. Most of us have been to the Disney parks countless times, when we do decide to go, we want our Disney "fix" so to speak. We don't need the cost of the 4, 5, 7 or 10 day passes and the cost of a 1, 2 or 3 day doesn't necessarily fit into our budget. I can understand that business is ever-changing but I strongly feel that we should have had advanced notice of this change. Disney owed us at least that.
Originally Posted By RoadTrip I guess I'm uncertain what difference advance notice would make. I assume all passes sold with the no-expiration option will continue to be honored until all days have been used. What would advance notice have accomplished? Someone please clue me in here.
Originally Posted By RoadTrip I better see the reason for concern now. i had assumed that like most discussions on LP this one referred to DL where the longest multi-day ticket you can purchase is 5-days. I didn't see that people would end up with many unused days, especially with the majority of DL guests being local and able to return easily. But noticing the WDW heading I see reason for concern. You can buy longer multi-day passes and most visitors are NOT local and would have more difficulty returning to the parks. I guess I still don't see what the advantage of advance notice would have been though.
Originally Posted By LadyandtheTramp "I guess I still don't see what the advantage of advance notice would have been though." I'm guessing that with advance notice, you could stock up and buy numerous 10-day tickets with no expiration, and then use them over years thus avoiding the increased ticket prices that WDW will impose each upcoming year.
Originally Posted By RoadTrip ^^^ OK, I guess that would certainly be possible. But since a 10-day hopper costs about $450, I guess I didn't imagine people running out to buy a bunch of them.
Originally Posted By RoadTrip Besides... wouldn't "stocking up" like that be an example of customer greed and an attempt to gouge the vendor you are dealing with? ;-) ;-)
Originally Posted By dizneed What I meant was that anyone who would have new unused park tickets would have had the option to add the no-expiry option to that ticket. For example I have two unused 7 day tickets that I would have wanted to add that option, now I can't. I was at EPCOT at the beginning of last month, if I had known I would have added the option to those tickets. Since we've been Disney addicts for so many years, 7 days is too many for us for one trip. With the option added, we would have been able to use those tickets on a few trips. Budget wise it made sense for us. Now, it will be considerably more money for the smaller multiday tickets with 14 day expiration which in turn will unfortunately force us to re-think who and where we’ll spend our money, Disney is not inexpensive.
Originally Posted By RoadTrip That makes sense. I hadn't thought about adding the no expiration option to existing tickets. Although I have to wonder why you bought them without the option in the first place if you think 7 days is too much for one trip. Even under the old system you could have only added the no expire option within 14 days of the first use. You would have had to add that option before you returned home after your initial visit.
Originally Posted By DouglasDubh <But since a 10-day hopper costs about $450> $450 is for an expiring ticket. A non expiring one was about $750. I think AAA still has them for sale. I bought a 10 day expiring park hopper with the water park option at AAA just before the prices went up. The sales lady said she thought they would continue to sell what they had at the old prices. Also, I read that unused non expiring tickets will become invalid at some point. I think it was 2020, but mIght have be 2030.
Originally Posted By RoadTrip OMG! I had no idea the non-expiring option added that much to the cost. If you had planned to use it over two years you would now have to buy a 5-day hopper this year ($400) and a 5-day hopper next year ($420 assuming a 5% price increase). So your total cost would be $820 instead of $750. I don't know that an extra $70 spread over two years is a reason to stop going to WDW, especialy when now you aren't out all that cash up-front. But that is a decision every individual has to make for themselves and I know there are PRINCIPLE OF THE THING folks who are more upset about the loss of an option than the dollars involved. I personally hope a LOT of people give up WDW and go to Universal. It will make my visits to WDW much more enjoyable,
Originally Posted By FerretAfros >>Also, I read that unused non expiring tickets will become invalid at some point. I think it was 2020, but mIght have be 2030.<< I would be very surprised if this were true, especially since the big selling point of the non-expiring tickets was that they don't expire. Disney will still honor a ticket from decades ago if it is unused (or has unused days on it from the pre-expiring ticket days), despite there being a monumental price difference; they'll even let you trade in your old A-E tickets for cash value toward a park entrance ticket (though I'm sure those have far more value as a collectible). I can't see them actually announcing that all those old would suddenly have no value, when they've kept the practice up for so long
Originally Posted By Goofyernmost >>>>Also, I read that unused non expiring tickets will become invalid at some point. I think it was 2020, but mIght have be 2030.<<<< If it's 2030 there is a better then even chance that I will have already expired anyway, so it doesn't really matter. I know there are PRINCIPLE OF THE THING folks who are more upset about the loss of an option than the dollars involved. I personally hope a LOT of people give up WDW and go to Universal. It will make my visits to WDW much more enjoyable, I spoke out negatively about it, but, it wasn't because it was a huge possible problem for me, in fact, I felt really that it gave me more options then before. I used to spread them out over about 4 years, on average, so even though it was expensive it managed to skip over at least 3 price increases helping with the savings. My problem or relief of problem, is that when I have a prepaid ticket I am inclined to use it. Therefore that would block out the other local possibilities because I didn't want to spend the extra amount for other places when I had a paid ticket for Disney. Now I am free to just make those trips to Uni or wherever without having to ignore my paid tickets and buy additional ones for the other places. I am not, by a long shot, one of the big spenders at WDW. A couple of quick service meals and a sinful amount of Mickey Bars. I stay offsite always and I do not buy souvenirs, so I'm not a huge loss to them and I probably am one of the prime targets justifying the change. But, if I'm not on the grounds, I don't spend anything, including the admission, so... good for them, I guess. Even if they still had them, they have priced themselves out of being enticing to me anyway. Now over that same 4 year period, instead of buying 10 park admissions and whatever extra that they can squeeze out of me, it will probably be more like 5 or 6 days or less, which is fine with me. Without the savings it is not worth the investment.
Originally Posted By RoadTrip As I said, that is everyone's decision to make. Your decision makes sense for you. Since I have lodging at WDW paid by DVC points it wouldn't make as much sense for me. Though at times I have spent a couple of days at Universal while staying at WDW.
Originally Posted By Goofyernmost I have as well, RT, but I don't always have that time and sometimes I travel there on a budget just to have a getaway. I invested, heavily, in the 10 day, PH, No-Ex. Ticket and find that when I am pressed for time, I cannot just leave my paid attendance in my pocket and then go someplace else and pay for admission. I know it's all the same but it is the game that my mind plays with the rest of me and it governs how I act. Now I will just have to make the decision concerning which place I will put my money. Not a big deal really, but, it does free me up a bit. How's that for taking Lemons and making a bitter-sweet Lemonade?
Originally Posted By dizneed >>Although I have to wonder why you bought them without the option in the first place if you think 7 days is too much for one trip.<< I had used a points program to get these two 7 day tickets, which I have done before. Adding the no expiry would cost around $225.00 each. It was good value for us and a deciding factor for our visiting Disney.
Originally Posted By leemac <<OMG! I had no idea the non-expiring option added that much to the cost. If you had planned to use it over two years you would now have to buy a 5-day hopper this year ($400) and a 5-day hopper next year ($420 assuming a 5% price increase). So your total cost would be $820 instead of $750. I don't know that an extra $70 spread over two years is a reason to stop going to WDW, especialy when now you aren't out all that cash up-front.>> The differential used to be a lot lower. Irrespective the difference between a 5-day and 10-day ticket is only about $50. So you are still protected against the price rises that have been far outstripping CPI-U for years. I've still got days left on a number of passes that I've had for years. It is nice to know that my per-day price has been locked in. So when the day comes when my Silver Pass needs to be returned I'll have prepaid passes. I know that I'll be quids in when I eventually use them. It is the removal of the flexibility that will annoy people. It is narrow-sighted as it is effectively a gift card and corporates love gift cards. Cash upfront now and the prospect that they will never get used (lost, eaten by the dog, dead owner). Even when they are finally used then they just book the revenue.
Originally Posted By dizneed Hello, a quick update. Guest Relations exchanged my two 7 days tickets for two 3 day and two 4 day MYW Base tickets. I think that was awesome on their part.
Originally Posted By FerretAfros That sounds like a really fair compromise. You still get a couple vacations out of the tickets, but they also conform to the new rules. Although big changes like this are always tough to adapt to, Disney does a pretty good job of accommodating old stuff too
Originally Posted By dizneed Agreed FerretAfros. Guest relations originally offered a cash exchange for my tickets but I had refused as it meant more to me to have the media to visit the parks than cash.
