New ticket system coming to WDW - Begins October 16th

[tinka-belle]

In the way distant past a Disney resort & ticket package included length of stay tickets for the entire trip that matched your number of resort nights. For new MYW packages as of Oct. 16 this is reverting back to length of stay for ticket validity, but at least you can choose fewer park days than resort nights. But some travel dates will not only have higher resort room rates but now higher park prices too, won't say I didn't see this coming.

It does prevent us from booking for example a FD package and using those package tickets later for anything but applying the value of the tickets to a currently priced and dated ticket for our chosen dates. At least that's how I read it for packages.

The real headaches are for people who purchase tickets and resort stays separately or stay off site and might not know their park dates yet. Now that flexibility to choose dates later will come with an extra cost. Adding the "flex" cost together with date specific pricing can be a significant ticket price increase.

 

[hiroMYhero]

I’ve read through this thread and my head is swimming. Here’s my scenario:

My split-stay reservations have been made for very early March. I’ll be at the first resort for the first three of the six days and plan on a 6-day PH ticket.

When I move to the second resort, I’ll be joined for the last three days by my adult son who will need a 3-day PH.

I saw upthread that the expiration date on etickets through UCT should be fine. But I was planning on visiting our local AAA office for discount tickets, which I believe are probably hard tickets. The discount is only off the UCT price by a couple of dollars and I initially felt better knowing I would have hard PH tickets in hand. Now, I’m not so sure. Is there any indication hard tickets purchased before Oct. 16 will lose their value before our visit in March?

Hard tickets if purchased through UT expire in February. This may be true for AAA tickets.

Why need hard tickets when you are onsite and will have MBs?

 

[greg9x]

Lol...well of course that's how a business who is planning on taking more money is going to spin it.... I dont think you'll ever find a quote from Disney admitting that they're doing something to make or save them money, but that's ALWAYS what it's about. It's completely just about them charging more.

I don't know if people are being sarcastic or if they really believe the Disney double talk.... Every change Disney does is to make more $$$$'s, nothing is going to benefit guests (unless they pay for that benefit).

Disney is opening it's nets as wide as they can for the upcoming predicted crowd draws, they aren't even trying to be discreet about it... be somewhat humorous if they turned people off too much and they get fed up before that happens.

 

[SaintsManiac]

I don't know if people are being sarcastic or if they really believe the Disney double talk.... Every change Disney does is to make more $$$$'s, nothing is going to benefit guests (unless they pay for that benefit).

Disney is opening it's nets as wide as they can for the upcoming predicted crowd draws, they aren't even trying to be discreet about it... be somewhat humorous if they turned people off too much and they get fed up before that happens.

I think new rides and new lands and new experiences do benefit guests.

 

[Tink's Pixieduster]

Hard tickets if purchased through UT expire in February. This may be true for AAA tickets.

Why need hard tickets when you are onsite and will have MBs?

Thank you, hiroMYhero - so even if discounted hard tickets are bought now and added to MDE, it sounds like they will expire before my visit actually begins.

The answer to your question, "why the need", I'm old, old school and I felt better having hard tickets in hand to add to my MDE account and then hold on to, rather than etickets that could be lost through electronic glitch, deleting the wrong email, or accidentally throwing away email printouts. It's been 4 years since my last WDW visit, back when MB's were fairly new and sometimes glitchey. I've ordered UCT tickets before, but they were also hard tickets. Etickets are a new experience for me, but so many others buy tickets this way, I guess I can, too.

 

[anomamatt]

I think new rides and new lands and new experiences do benefit guests.

This is a good point. It's hard to forget that the parks are currently crowded to the point where guests are unhappy with their experience. And A LOT is being added in the next couple years that will only draw more people to the parks. I don't know the solution, but after last year's D23 and seeing all the cool things coming, I figured we were in for several massive price hikes. This is probably just stage 1.

I still think what they came up with is needlessly complicated.

 

[mamapenguin]

Oh fess up Gryffindor Gal - you're goin to Universal.

I think I know which Ap will get renewed, as long as Uni doesn't get any screwy ideas.

 

[hiroMYhero]

Thank you, hiroMYhero - so even if discounted hard tickets are bought now and added to MDE, it sounds like they will expire before my visit actually begins.

The answer to your question, "why the need", I'm old, old school and I felt better having hard tickets in hand to add to my MDE account and then hold on to, rather than etickets that could be lost through electronic glitch, deleting the wrong email, or accidentally throwing away email printouts. It's been 4 years since my last WDW visit, back when MB's were fairly new and sometimes glitchey. I've ordered UCT tickets before, but they were also hard tickets. Etickets are a new experience for me, but so many others buy tickets this way, I guess I can, too.

You won’t have a problem with etickets. As soon as you link them to MDX, you won’t need to worry about them. But as a precaution, you can take a screenshot of the emailed ticket code and save it to your phone.

I do that with baseball game and airline tickets and just have the codes scanned to enter. It really is much easier.

 

[afan]

Sheesh people just


I could be wrong but I don't expect an AP increase until spring of next year. When the AP price increase does come there will most likely be a change in AP types along with blackout dates

Not necessarily. If they are looking to not upset things more and put blackout dates in place for when Star Wars opens they need to do that in the next month or two if it's supposed to open Nov/Dec next year. They may not raise the price but they may change/update them and then raise them in Feb. Or just do it all now.

 

[anomamatt]

I could be wrong but I don't expect an AP increase until spring of next year. When the AP price increase does come there will most likely be a change in AP types along with blackout dates

We might not see them on October 16, but I would wager a fair sum that changes (price and potentially blockout dates) occur sometime >12 months out for SWGE. Just like Disneyland did... If they are going to change blockout dates or make the price dramatically higher, it's a lot easier to make changes more than 1 year out.

 

[DVC4US]

A few key things I've noted that are keeping my mind sane on this one...

1) the validation periods noted (i.e. 5 day validation period on a 3 day ticket) are for off site visitors. If you are staying on site and have booked a package that same 3 day ticket will be valid for the duration of your stay even if it is more than 5 days), i.e if you buy a ticket for start date Nov 1 and you have a 7 night stay, you can use that 3 day ticket from Nov 1 through Nov 8th. So the validation period really doesn't change for onsite, package purchasing guests.

But how would this affect those of us who stay on site but do not purchase a package? We are DVC so always stay on site but we purchase tickets separately(when we don't have APs). Seems a little unfair to those of us who don't need to purchase a package.

 

[OrangeCountyCommuter]

Direct quote from the Disney Parks Blog post:

"Introducing date-based tickets and pricing will allow us to better distribute attendance throughout the year so that we can continue to improve and deliver a great experience."

Are you really wearing rose colored glasses? LOL


It’s marketing. You notice they didn’t say “oh by the way we raised all the prices.”

 

[DisneyWishes14]

I wonder how upgrading tickets will work in the future. Are they trying to stop people from applying them to APs? I’m so torn on what to do with my PHs in my account.

Yup, same here. I was in the bad habit of buying tickets from UT right before price increases and stockpiling them in my MDE account. It was a good strategy for a while - I still have some non-expires and a 5-day PH+ with no expiration that I haven't used yet. However, I have 2, 5-day PH in there that expire in mid-January 2019 and I won't be using them before the expiration date. I really hope the new site allows me to upgrade prior to traveling, otherwise, I'm stuck with expired tickets that I can't use to make FP+. I know I can use the value of the tickets to get new tickets, but that won't help with pre-planning if I can only do that onsite.

 

[Tink's Pixieduster]

You won’t have a problem with etickets. As soon as you link them to MDX, you won’t need to worry about them. But as a precaution, you can take a screenshot of the emailed ticket code and save it to your phone.

I do that with baseball game and airline tickets and just have the codes scanned to enter. It really is much easier.

I've done this once or twice with airline tickets, but it's been a while. I think I can figure it out again.
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My main concern has been the mess that MDX has been in the past couple of weeks. I know there is a lot of time before my trip, but if I add ticket codes now, will they still be there when it's time for our trip, or will they disappear like so many FP's and ADR's have been recently disappearing? This is a genuine concern. I know that the recent problems have probably been linked to WDW systems preparing for the switchover, but MDX has always had random and sometimes extended periods of instability and I can only envision it happening more as the new ticket structures are further added and more experiences, rides, etc. are also added.

It seems my only choices are to get etickets now, or wait to see what prices are like after Oct. 16. I sincerely doubt prices will be better after the switchover, even though we're traveling before most spring breaks begin, so it seems etickets are the best course, even if I feel a bit uneasy (old school talking).

 

[StacyStrong]

We might not see them on October 16, but I would wager a fair sum that changes (price and potentially blockout dates) occur sometime >12 months out for SWGE. Just like Disneyland did... If they are going to change blockout dates or make the price dramatically higher, it's a lot easier to make changes more than 1 year out.

Yep. And I'm so nervous for this. I could remove the tickets from my package and get an AP now instead of upgrading in December, but I got a 150 credit from my credit card when I bought them and don't want them to remove that.

Ahhh!

 

[DCLPrincess]

I'm confused, if you go online now and buy a one day ticket you pay according go date. How is this different?

 

[AllThingsMickey4]

Dumb question, but I'm used to having an AP. We are planning a big trip next December (2019). Assuming that will probably be peak holiday/Star Wars season, can I go ahead and buy a multi day park hopper ticket to use next December? I read the terms and conditions and it said "must be used by December 31st 2019," but could that change even after I buy the ticket?

 

[hiroMYhero]

I've done this once or twice with airline tickets, but it's been a while. I think I can figure it out again.

Even with the mess with MDX, the data was still intact and recovered - most guests didn’t even know there was a problem and the system reset itself.

I have comp tickets (6) which are etickets linked to MDX and they remained intact throughout the glitching process. I always link the comps to MDX even though I’ll use the tickets at DLR...it just stores them for me.

 

[hiroMYhero]

I'm confused, if you go online now and buy a one day ticket you pay according go date. How is this different?

It’s different because as of October 16th, one-day tickets won’t be park specific.

 

[mamapenguin]

DL did that recently. Changed the number of blackout dates.

I think that was for purchased, but not activated APs.