What tickets should we get?

[bella]

Really, really considering Florida this year. We have 2 girls who will be 7 and 2, in fact the little one will be 2 and 3/4 as we will be going in October.

We are only going to Orlando for one week and then down to the Gulf Coast, Clearwater to visit friends for the following week.

There are so many tickets to choose from and have had some advice from so many lovely people on this forum already.

Magic Kingdom appears to be a must, but what ticket do you sugget - do we get a 3 day, 4 day or what? Do we hop or not and is it better to get a ticket that does not expire as hopefully we will come back in two or three years?

Any advice, tips will be all greatly received and very much welcomed!

Thanks

[Nostromo]

It is my opinon only, but I suggest going for a 3-day Magic your way ticket that allows hopping but expires in 14 days. I have based this on the following reasoning: 1) You'll be in Orlando for a week only and in order to get the proper flavour for future visits, you need to see all the main parks. So, 3 days for WDW, 2 days for Universal and 1 for Sea World with a rest day in between. 2) The Hopping facility allows you to go to Fantasmic! at MGM if you decide that MGM is the one you want to leave out. After Magic Kingdom & Animal Kingdom, I think using the third day to visit a Water Park with your kids will be more rewarding. 3) You will almost certainly want to stay longer and plan your visit accordingly for your next visit. So, I see no point in carrying over an entry or two from this trip to that next one.

[florida4sun]

Ideally you want to do a day in each of the disney parks so a day ticket would be best. If your pushed for time then a 3 day with hopping. Although I think you would be rushing around somewhat with a 3 day ticket.

<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by bella
Really, really considering Florida this year. We have 2 girls who will be 7 and 2, in fact the little one will be 2 and 3/4 as we will be going in October.

We are only going to Orlando for one week and then down to the Gulf Coast, Clearwater to visit friends for the following week.

There are so many tickets to choose from and have had some advice from so many lovely people on this forum already.

Magic Kingdom appears to be a must, but what ticket do you sugget - do we get a 3 day, 4 day or what? Do we hop or not and is it better to get a ticket that does not expire as hopefully we will come back in two or three years?

Any advice, tips will be all greatly received and very much welcomed!

Thanks



[/quote]

[florida4sun]

You cannot use the regular tickets for a water park they would need a 3 day ticket with options.

<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by Nostromo
It is my opinon only, but I suggest going for a 3-day Magic your way ticket that allows hopping but expires in 14 days. I have based this on the following reasoning: 1) You'll be in Orlando for a week only and in order to get the proper flavour for future visits, you need to see all the main parks. So, 3 days for WDW, 2 days for Universal and 1 for Sea World with a rest day in between. 2) The Hopping facility allows you to go to Fantasmic! at MGM if you decide that MGM is the one you want to leave out. After Magic Kingdom & Animal Kingdom, I think using the third day to visit a Water Park with your kids will be more rewarding. 3) You will almost certainly want to stay longer and plan your visit accordingly for your next visit. So, I see no point in carrying over an entry or two from this trip to that next one.
[/quote]

[christhear]

It is also worth mentioning that your youngest will not need a ticket this year as she is under 3, If you get ones that don't expire you would need to buy a seperate ticket for your youngest on your next Journey and could all end up with different amount of days left / different options if the tickets change again.

[Nostromo]

<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by florida4sun
You cannot use the regular tickets for a water park they would need a 3 day ticket with options.
[/quote]

Thanks for letting me know Martin. I noticed from the OV links that addition of 2 options adds ony £17 to a 3-day Magic "hopping but expiring" adult ticket. Should be worthwhile. Day 1 for MK, Day 2 for AK plus visit to fantasmic and day 3 for the water park(s). I still think the 2 year old will not enjoy MGM much and the 7 year old only just. But both will have fun in the water parks.

[Snapper]

Hi Bella,

This isn't going to be a great answer, because it is going to result in a question.

In order to know how best to do your tickets you kind of need to know if you are going to return to Orlando again. The general rule of thumb behind the Disney tickets is that the more days you buy the better value they work out at when you divide the cost by the number of days you get.

It's a bit more fiddly now that Disney have introduced the 14 day expiry though as you now have to pay extra for the 'does not expire' feature.

So I think you have a couple of options.

Option 1 is to buy the ticket package that exactly suits your planned theme parks. Probably a 3 day pass for your week in Orlando. This might also sway your choice of which theme parks to visit as well; one decision kind of affects the other.

Option 2 is to buy the biggest ticket available and pay for the never expires option and probably the 'plus' bits that get you into the water parks. This then becomes quite a formidable ticket in terms of where it gets you, but it isn't cheap. It only works out as good value if you plan to return to Orlando, and maybe return more than once.

So the first question you have to answer is whether you will, for sure, be back at Orlando. If that's a yes then option 2 is at least in play. If its a no or a not-sure then go option 1.

The next question to answer is your plannned theme parks, but if you go option 1 you could use a 3 day Disney pass as a base for which theme parks to visit.

It might not quite be the answer you were looking for, but the planning is fun isn't it??