Cheapest Tickets?

[themerebear6453]

I'm planning a trip to Disney World and I wanted to get the cheapest tickets possible. What tips do you have for finding cheap tickets? Which sites are to be trusted and which sites aren't?
I'm planning on staying for three days if that helps.
Thanks and please redirect me to another thread if this topic has already been posted.

 

[Phonedave]

I'm planning a trip to Disney World and I wanted to get the cheapest tickets possible. What tips do you have for finding cheap tickets? Which sites are to be trusted and which sites aren't?
I'm planning on staying for three days if that helps.
Thanks and please redirect me to another thread if this topic has already been posted.

Do you mean park tickets ?

There are a few resellers out there that have discount tickets. There my also be discount tickets available through your job, or a club you belong to. AAA sometimes has discount park tickets.

However, you are not going to find any super deals. The most you are going to find is $10 to $20 off - if that.

WDW tickets cannot be transfered. If somebody buys a 10 day ticket and uses 2 days, they cannot give/sell that ticket to you for the remaining 8. Sometimes you will see some super deals, either at a gift shop or on ebay. It is your risk if you want to go that way, but if you drop the money and the ticket comes up invalid when you try to get in, you can kiss that money goodbye


There are many ways to save money on a WDW trip. Admission media is really not one of them.


-dave

 

[themerebear6453]

Thanks. I am a member of AAA and so far that's the best I can find. I guess I'll just have to try to save through hotels and food

 

[wendysue]

Try Mousesavers.com

 

[lilclerk]

Try the touringplans ticket calculator

http://touringplans.com/walt-disney-world/ticket-calculator

It'll give you the cheapest options for what you need.

 

[sbkline]

I subscribe to a magazine called "Orlando Attractions" and in the most recent issue, there was an article about discounted tickets to WDW, or other area theme parks. Like others in this thread have said, the bottom line was that any legit deal will only save you 5 to 10 percent or so. If you ever drive around the Orlando or Kissimmee area, for example, you may see those big balloons that say "discounted Disney tickets" or "we buy used Disney tickets" or something to that effect. According to the article I mentioned, what happens is that some of these people will buy your tickets from you, if you got an 8 day ticket and only used 6 days, for example, and they will then peddle these tickets to the public for a really cheap rate. People buy these tickets for a really discounted rate, but then are very disappointed when they get to the gate and the tickets don't work. One example given was that a father did this with his children, and then got to the gate only to have the tickets not work. He couldn't dissappoint the kids, so he was forced to buy real tickets at the gate. So now, he was out the money for the "discounted" tickets, and out the money for real, full priced tickets at the gate.

Three problems with these schemes: First, it is illegal to buy and sell used tickets in Florida. Second, there may or may not be any days left on the tickets. You may be buying a totally expired ticket, or there may be a few days left on it which will most likely expire soon, if the "no expiration" option wasn't purchased, but whether or not the tickets are legit is irrelevant because of the third point, which is that tickets (at least WDW tickets) are non-transferrable and are matched up with the fingerprint of the original user at the turnestyles. So even if it is a valid ticket with unexpired days, your fingerprint won't match at the turnstyles and you won't be let in.

So again, the bottom line of this article was that there are some ways of getting legitimate, discounted tickets, but most of the time, you'll only be saving 10 percent or less. Legitimate sources could include the Florida Welcome Centers, or certain travel companies which buy up bulk amounts of admission tickets and then re-sell at a discount in exchange for sitting through their time share spiel, or Triple A, as someone else mentioned. But I would avoid any balloon booths in the Orlando area, or internet sales, or anything else that doesn't look "official".

 

[sbkline]

Okay, just to elaborate a little more, here is a quote from page 39 of the fall 2010 issue of "Orlando Attractions".

Many Orlando-area ticket booths offer brand new attraction tickets at a steep discount or even for free, if you are willing to spend several hours touring a time share resort and listening to a sales pitch first.

It goes on to say that this particular tactic is perfectly legal and that you will get legit tickets. However, the tradeoff is that you have to give up several hours of your time listening to the sales pitch. Is it worth it? That's up to each individual to decide. But that was the only example given, at least in that article, of how to legitimately get a huge savings on theme park tickets. The other legit examples gave saving of 3.5 percent to 11.5 percent. So if you find any tickets that are discounted much higher than that, you may want to check really thoroughly to make sure they are legit.

And just as a final word of caution against getting tickets on ebay or other such things, it is possible to get a legit ticket, but I would consider it unlikely. For example, if someone had planned a trip, and bought a 7 day pass at his local Disney store, and then had to cancel his trip plans for whatever reason, he may put the ticket for sale on ebay. In that case, since the ticket had not yet been used, it would be valid. However, it is more likely that someone may have a few days left on their ticket and out of well meaning ignorance (he doesn't know that those days expire, or that tickets are non-transferrable and he thinks he is helping someone else out), or out of willful fraud, put the ticket up for sale on ebay in which case you get a junk ticket.

 

[Phonedave]

Okay, just to elaborate a little more, here is a quote from page 39 of the fall 2010 issue of "Orlando Attractions".

Many Orlando-area ticket booths offer brand new attraction tickets at a steep discount or even for free, if you are willing to spend several hours touring a time share resort and listening to a sales pitch first.

There are also certain tickets available to bulk buyers that are not available to the general public. So if you are going to go this route, be very certain you know what you are going to get.

I was in Orlando for an awards ceremony for my job a few years back, and one of the rewards was we had a choice of two tickets to either WDW or Uni. The thing was, they were AFTER 4:00 PM only tickets.

Now you and I cannot go and buy an After 4:00 ticket, but companies can in bulk. Someone may sit through a timeshare sales pitch, and then find they are not getting the type of tickets they expect.


-dave

 

[Phonedave]

Try Mousesavers.com

I don't know if we are allowed to do this on this site or not


http://www.orlandofuntickets.com/


I have never used them, but I know people who have, and I have met the people who work there (in the parks). They have been around for a number of years, and are a legitimate reseller.

I really have no idea how good (or bad) their discounted rates are, or for that matter their customer service, but at least they are not going to cheat you.

-dave

 

[sbkline]

There are also certain tickets available to bulk buyers that are not available to the general public. So if you are going to go this route, be very certain you know what you are going to get.

I was in Orlando for an awards ceremony for my job a few years back, and one of the rewards was we had a choice of two tickets to either WDW or Uni. The thing was, they were AFTER 4:00 PM only tickets.

Now you and I cannot go and buy an After 4:00 ticket, but companies can in bulk. Someone may sit through a timeshare sales pitch, and then find they are not getting the type of tickets they expect.


-dave

I had never heard of such tickets before, but like you say, these companies that buy tickets in bulk can have "different" tickets than the general public gets. As another example, I work at Walmart, and one of our benefits is that we can go to the Walmart employee website and get discounted tickets for various places, including Six Flags, Universal and Disney. I was kind of thinking that when I checked a couple years ago, the Disney tickets had an expiration date (such as the end of the calendar year), whereas normally they don't (until you use them the first time). That may not be a problem if you buy them in February for a September trip. But if you bought them now, for an April trip, it would be disappointing to find out that they are only good for another two weeks.

 

[sbkline]

Another question for the OP, are you staying onsite, or offsite? Depending on your eating habits, you may be better off with the dining plan. I know there is alot of debate regarding the dining plan, as to whether it is worth it or not, and again, alot depends on your eating habits. But I have always found it to be a value for us, and I believe that the savings with the dining plan would be greater than the minimal savings on a legitimate discounted ticket. That's one reason why I don't buy discounted tickets off that Walmart site I was talking about, since I would then not be able to get the dining plan and I would end up spending more money on food than what I saved on the tickets. But in our case, we stayed for 7 nights one year, 8 another, 9 another and 10 this April. So the longer you stay, the more you spend on food and, therefore, the more you save with the dining plan. If you're only staying 3 nights, you would need to figure up approximately how much you would spend on dining for 3 nights and approximately how much you might be able to save on that amount with the dining plan vs how much you might save on the tickets.

 

[ncstate7991]

I had never heard of such tickets before, but like you say, these companies that buy tickets in bulk can have "different" tickets than the general public gets.

I was in Orlando for an awards ceremony for my job a few years back, and one of the rewards was we had a choice of two tickets to either WDW or Uni. The thing was, they were AFTER 4:00 PM only tickets.

Now you and I cannot go and buy an After 4:00 ticket, but companies can in bulk. Someone may sit through a timeshare sales pitch, and then find they are not getting the type of tickets they expect.

YES, you can buy an after 4pm ticket (I thought it was after 3pm, but that doesn't really matter) if you are in Orlando for a conference/convention. The price is ~$37. You have to go to an official Disney ticket counter, and I am not so sure about the main gates allowing these tickets as easily as say one in a hotel, at DTD, etc.

We purchased some from the Disney Store/Ticket place inside of Buena Vista Palace. It was a little after 1pm and we were walking from the pool back to the room. My wife saw the store and decided she needed to go to MK while we were down there. The lady was really nice and while nodding her head up and down said, "Are you with a conference?" Of course we answered yes, and she told us how the ticket worked. We ran to the room, took a shower, and before you knew it we had a wonderful unexpected evening in the MK. I would highly recommend this for someone in Orlando that wants to go into the park for just the evening!

 

[mbtohill]

undercovertourist.com sells Disney tickets for less then the Disney.com listed price. I have used them quite often

We have gone the AAA route before, the only thing about going through AAA is they only have tickets for up to 6 days, so if you are planning on a longer trip you would have to buy multiple sets of tickets.

 

[E P C O T]

Void.

 

[themerebear6453]

Thanks everyone. So far we're only spending two days in the parks and we're planning on making our breakfasts in the hotel and packing snacks to save on money for food so we don't need the diners plan. I've been researching and AAA really is the best deal and I know I can trust them. Thanks for mentioning parking, I forgot about that :/.
If you can think of any more money saving tips they're greatly appreciated.

 

[Nemo14]

How many people are you going with?

 

[jformica]

I have used several sites in the past but found the best to be mapleleaftickets.com. There are many others that I've used but in an effort not to waste time none of them will offer you an deals as they all have a 3 day minimum. There are a few exceptions but the savings are not worth the hassle of having them mailed to you or you having to pick them up.

 

[themerebear6453]

Just me and one other person are going.

 

[yensid67]

Thanks everyone. So far we're only spending two days in the parks and we're planning on making our breakfasts in the hotel and packing snacks to save on money for food so we don't need the diners plan. I've been researching and AAA really is the best deal and I know I can trust them. Thanks for mentioning parking, I forgot about that :/.
If you can think of any more money saving tips they're greatly appreciated.

Merebear:

If you are going through AAA, you should ask how to get a parking voucher, I think its free. BUT it does not mean you get your parking free, it means you can park at the front of the lot near the entrance.
Also, if you are good at reading maps, you may want to try to find your way around on something like Google Maps or BING maps. You may find 'excellent' ways around the world, if you get my drift!? For hotel you may want to try clarionlbv.com...they are less than 5 minutes away from Hotel Plaza entrance, and right behind The Crossroads Shopping Center at 8442 Palm Parkway. They have some really good deals for a room and ticket combo packages. Also if you intend on renting a car and are flying into Orlando, wait until at least a month before your departure to make your Rental Car Reservation, they should be the cheapest than reserving 6 months-year in advance!