No more "No Expiration" park passes!

[jar]

So bummed out I wasn't on top of this. We do lots of 1 or 2 day visits and always park hop. $170 for a one-day park hopper! Will definitely change how we come to WDW. Weekend trips not economical anymore. Gotta carefully ration the few days I have left on my last no-expiration ticket.

 

[ThurlFan]

They were gradually increasing the cost of the no-expire add on for quite a while. Also, they made a change to the rules on how the cost was calculated. Back when, if you bought too many days and had a couple left over, then the cost to have them not expire was equal to the current rate for the number of days you had left. Then they changed it, so if you bought a 10-day ticket and had two days left, they charged you the no-expire price for a whole ten day ticket instead of for just the two days you had left over. That drove down the advantage also.

We used to get no-expire tix for our annual trips, but then it became more cost-effective to buy an annual pass every other year (and go June one year, and May the following year just before the passes expired). Add that to the other cost increases, and the ghost towns that are Future World and DHS and 2015 will be the first year this century that we don't go to WDW visit at least once.

 

[syraphill]

They worked great for our situation. We go about once a year for a conference, but only go to parks for a day or two. One 10-day non-expiring ticket was WAY less than 10 1-day tickets or 5 2-day tickets when we bought them several years ago.

 

[tlmadden73]

Q: why would someone buy one 10-day no expiration pass versus 2 5-day expiring ticket?

A: to save money and protect themselves against Disney's annual price increase.

That's why I bought them. Also since my son was young I was planning several SHORT (2 park day) trips. (one last year in October and one later this year)
a 2 day ticket is near $100/day..

My no expiration tickets cost me (purchased last year) around $75/day WITH park hopper option.
Right now a 5-day park hopper costs about $76/day (using Undercover Tourist pricing).

So at this point, I'll continue to use the no-expiration tickets as long as I can't get a ticket price to an average of less than $75/day. (At current pricing I would need to stay 6+ days to do that!) .. and while I like Disney I would rather have several short trips over one giant one.

I also like the flexibility it gives you without feeling you waste anything.

Want to cut your park days short and have a pool day? Who cares .. your tickets never expire.
Want to take that planned day off and go to a park instead? You already have the ticket in hand (or wrist).

It was a nice perk .. and if I had had children earlier in my life I would have probably stocked up on them and used them exclusively as the way to pay for park tickets.
Even though I knew they were going away, I couldn't justify spending that much money (after already having 8 days left on my current ones) in one big chunk on future vacations (even thought it would probably save me money in the long run).

 

[peg110]

That's why I bought them. Also since my son was young I was planning several SHORT (2 park day) trips. (one last year in October and one later this year)
a 2 day ticket is near $100/day..

My no expiration tickets cost me (purchased last year) around $75/day WITH park hopper option.
Right now a 5-day park hopper costs about $76/day (using Undercover Tourist pricing).

So at this point, I'll continue to use the no-expiration tickets as long as I can't get a ticket price to an average of less than $75/day. (At current pricing I would need to stay 6+ days to do that!) .. and while I like Disney I would rather have several short trips over one giant one.

I also like the flexibility it gives you without feeling you waste anything.

Want to cut your park days short and have a pool day? Who cares .. your tickets never expire.
Want to take that planned day off and go to a park instead? You already have the ticket in hand (or wrist).

It was a nice perk .. and if I had had children earlier in my life I would have probably stocked up on them and used them exclusively as the way to pay for park tickets.
Even though I knew they were going away, I couldn't justify spending that much money (after already having 8 days left on my current ones) in one big chunk on future vacations (even thought it would probably save me money in the long run).

You point out many of the reasons I would have done it too. Unfortunately for me, I didn't get the 'Disney Bug' until about 8 years ago. While we would continually look at our options for pricing (and the NE tickets) it was hard for us to justify the extra cost for an NE Ticket not knowing if we would (or could) make it back particularly since we live in Northeast Pennsylvania. However, for us, we also tend to make it a long trip (our next one in June 2016 will be 12 days at FW with about 6 or 7 of them in the Parks.... Still in planning though). So it typically is cheaper for us to get the non-NE tickets.

I would also like to add that another good reason to get the NE option is as an "Investment" much like any other investment. Buy low, sell (or use) when it's High, enjoy the savings/earnings. Try to get a WDW ticket for $34/day. You can if you get a 7 day ticket (maybe) but as it has been pointed out, if you only want a 2 day pass, it's not possible.

I will also say that there have been times when we bought a 7 day pass and only used 6 days because we ended up staying at the pool or just a rest day. It would be so much better if we knew we could save it for another trip instead of throwing it away (essentially).

 

[gmboy95]

WDW recently discontinued the no expiration option. I don't understand why they would do that. It seems like such a money maker for them. It's like unused travelers checks. They get paid a premium up front and then earn interest on the money until the check is cashed. For some people, it could take years before they use the passes. What a bummer! This definitely puts a cramp in my plans for the future. It was worth a little extra for the convenience. Now I have to carefully plan out exactly where and when we will go to the parks. So much for "Magic your way."

There is nothing that is done lately that does not maximize every last dollar that they can squeeze out for sure

 

[seashoreCM]

(snip) I will also say that there have been times when we bought a 7 day pass and only used 6 days because we ended up staying at the pool or just a rest day. It would be so much better if we knew we could save it for another trip instead of throwing it away (essentially).

This is one example where adding non-expiration was not cost effective. Last year, when you could add non-expiration to preserve the seventh and last day, adding NE would have cost more compared with throwing the partially used ticket away and buying new tickets for next time.

 

[jamarmiller]

Easy answer. We have a 10 day pass that we use one day a year from. The passes are so old each day costs us $34 to go into the park... Do away with no expire then i have to buy a single day pass each year at a cost of....what ever it is... definitely more then $34. So for us the death of no expire means when our passes are gone we will no longer go into the parks. Just does not make financial sense for us. ...........

pretty much the same for my family and I. And we are way more conservative now. We would do 3-4 days a year but now we do 1 or 2.