Statement concerning the expiration issue on new Disney World ticket purchases
From a qualified Disney source concerning the Expiration issue of new ticket purchases. Read this carefully. Two or three times, if needed:
"All tickets purchased from February 12, 2017 through the end of the year will expire December 31, 2018. Any UNUSED ticket that does expire may be applied toward the purchase of a new ticket of equarl or greater value.
There will not be an option to roll over partially USED tickets to future trips. Those tickets will continue to expire completely 14 days after first usage."
In past years UNUSED tickets never expired. They now expire with tickets purchased from February 12, 2017 and beyond, but can be brought back to life at the time of usage based on prices at that time. You will pay a small fee to adjust between the price you paid at time of purchase and the time you wish to revive the ticket.
The FULL value of an UNUSED ticket will be applied when attempting to revive and UNUSED ticket.
UNUSED tickets may be brought back to life, USED tickets may not!
So, a partially used ticket cannot be used for future trips. If you buy a ticket and don't use it, you can bring it back to life by paying the price adjustment at that time or adding any extra days. Hope this clarifies yesterday's post.
HMM Bought tickets on Feb. 15 2017 from UT that they tell me were "grand-fathered" in on the no expiration. Was planning on using them in September 2018 but had to cancel. Cannot tell from MDE if there is an expiration date or not. But Feb 15 is certainly after Feb 12.
Contact the seller. I always buy my tickets direct from Disney to avoid issues.
Florida Resident 3-Day and 4-Day Tickets expire 6 months after first use or at the end of the following calendar year, whichever comes first, subject of course to the blackout dates at the time. They are slightly different because of your proximity to the park.
Therefore, it's important for you to make sure you get the Florida Resident tickets. You get a little more flexibility, and your scenario (use a few days, then come back and use a few more) will still work, within 6 months.
They should expire at the end of the following calendar year, if the current model holds. So any tickets bought anytime in 2019 that remain UNUSED should expire on Dec 31, 2020. If you want to use them beyond their expiration, you will have to apply the value of the tickets you've already purchased but did not use to the purchase of new tickets.
So essentially, once UNUSED tickets expire, they are no longer usable for admission, but they retain their value. You will be able to apply the value of the UNUSED tickets to the purchase of new tickets.
As always, if you've partially used a multi-day ticket, it will completely expire after 14 days. There is no USED ticket value after 14 days.
Point to note if you have an older pass (purchased prior to the addition of the expiration, when you add your pass to Disney's system it will add an expiration of 12/31/2030. You can see this when you move the pass around between identities under your MDE profile. My guess is that Disney needed to add a date and chose that one. Why they didn't go with 9999 for the year is beyond me.
If you're planning on keeping these older passes in your vault and passing them on, keep the receipt documentation with them.
So what will be the general length of expiration?? Say if your going in Dec 2019 but purchase your tickets in February 2019, at what point will th I see unused tickets expire? One year from purchase ?
Question... IF I understand this, I have tickets that were "no expiration" bought in 2009 - have 2 or 4 days "unused" - are you now saying they will be worthless after 2018?? (Paid extra for the non expiry option!!)
Incorrect. New rule applies to tickets bought Feb 12, 2017 and later.
Same issue here.. bought tickets in 2007 and still have 2/3 days left on adults and childens tickets.. I bought an upgrade at the time with the assurance from staff at disney world that tickets would never expire. Now planning a trip for next year and tickets are priced approximately €4500!! It’s just crazy..
Old tickets with non expire option are still valid
i bought a 6 day MYW ticket in 2016 that i am going to activate in May this year, if i added 2 days onTO my ticket and didnt use them could i use my unused days on an additional trip in Oct 18?
with no fees attached when I do activate them?
I purchased 7 day park hoppers for the price of 4 through park savers back on October of 2016... since it was before Feb 12, 2017 we're good on those, right? Our tickets are safe from price adjustment? Thanks!
Yes
I'm sorry but can someone clarify for me whether the expiration date will apply to my tickets? I bought them from undercover tourist this morning but they said they do not expire and if there is anything I will need to do to use them. They are 5 day magic my way tickets which we intend to use this November. Thanks to everyone for help on this issue!
You likely bought tickets that were issued to that seller before the expiration issue kicked in
So if I have UNUSED no expiration hoppers plus magic visits which were purchased in 2009, the no expire will still be honored by disney?
Yes
Disney is just following in Universal Orlando's footsteps. Universal implemented this ticketing strategy in November 2016. However I am not sure if Universal will allow you to pay a fee to revive an expired but unused ticket. We knew Disney would follow suit and start selling only tickets with an expiration. I think it is generous of Disney to offer an option to revive an expired ticket and not lose all your money. Disney has always had much friendlier policies than Uni.
We live close so cheaper to buy a multi-day ticket at one time, use say 3 days one trip and 2 days a few months from then, but in the same year. That was the good old days when they never expired.
So if I purchase a 5-day ticket and only use 4 days in June 2017, I can purchase a new, say 4 day ticket before we depart in June, pay the difference and those tickets will be good until December 31, 2018? I miss the days when tickets NEVER expired.
The new ticket would be valid until 2018, but the used one would be worthless
Whew!!
I have no problem with expiration date on tickets. I appreciate the updates, but cannot see why this is hard to fathom. A business selling anything wants the item consumed in a timely fashion, so they can set budgets and plan business expenditures. This way, they know how many tickets are out, at a given time frame, with more being added daily, of course, which I would think would give more estimates on crowd control and thus, security. I was already under the assumption anything I purchased expired 14 days from use, and it never occurred to my business sense to purchase something I *may* never use, years in advance. The recent and future ticket increase, in my mind, is expected, so no disdain there. Like everything commerce and entertainment related, prices historically go up, not down.
Since 2014, we have bought one pass at a time as we had the money. We now have saved $328 compared to today's prices for the same tickets, a 21% savings. So certainly more than a few dollars. We will use the passes this Spring. I absolutely bought tickets early to save money over the annual price increases.
Well, Disney tickets have appreciated far faster than inflation over the past 20 years. Heck, if I'd been contributing to a Disney Ticket Fund instead of my 401k,id probably be ahead.
I think this is horrible. I would buy tickets say 1 at a time to use two years from now.So even if you buy your tickets at a slight discount-too far ahead of time-you will be forced to pay current (gate?)prices. Correct? There is enough planning and expense with a WDW vacation this added latest ticketing expiration is terrible.I can just see the problems this is going to cause-more waiting to get into the parks because people didn't realize their tickets expired. Make DVC reservations 11 months in advance and if I buy my tickets then-they expire-ridiculous! Composing letter to WDW now.
You'd be required to bridge the difference after it expires, so essentially, yes you'd be paying the going rate at that time.
I saw someone the other day mention they had an unused ticket that was only a few dollars from decades ago. This would put an end to the 20 years from now showing the ticket we ONLY paid $124 for....
Not sure why the need to emphasize not being able to use partially used tickets after they expire. That has always been the rule (other than for those who have old non-expiration tickets who couldn't upgrade anyway). I expect these changes affect a very small number of people. The added cost for buying at gate is a far bigger deal.
Because there was confusing over used vs unused tickets with this new twist.
Thanks for the clarification. Makes sense. I see this as targeting travel companies that purchase tickets in bulk and use them for years. For instance, my first WDW trip was purchased through Costco travel. We loved it so much and added days to our ticket once we were there and the cast member mentioned that the tickets had originally been purchased a decade earlier. Now I am a DVC owning, AP holding full fledged Disney addict but I discovered then how places like Costco and undercover tourist are able to offer "discounted" tickets.
I didn't know Travel companies did that Amanda. Interesting.
Just want to mention that tickets purchased under the 25% Off Canadian Resident Discount continue to be non-expiration until first use.
More wrinkles :)
I purchased from undercover tourist this morning but it indicated it was an existing price ticket. Is that correct that I do not need to concerned with this? Very confusing. Thanks!
So this came about because people buy tickets and just do not use them for years at a time in order to save a few dollars? I guess I am asking, does the general public really need to concern itself with this? I cannot see a situation where I would really need to have this information..lol! Thanks for being so on top of this though!
I guess Disney felt people were doing something like that in the past. Otherwise why add expiration to unused tickets? It had to have been a small number though.
Thanks for the info, Kenny. However I feel a need to clarify something. A one point in time, you could pay an extra fee so that your ticket/s would not expire. The very first time I went to WDW (back in the 80's) it was an option you could get.
No expiration option was for USED tickets. You could use a few days, then hold the others for future trips. This is the first time they have attached an expiration for UNUSED tickets and then added the weird resurrection option to allow people to basically price bridge an expired, UNUSED ticket. Make sense? Caps are for discussion, not screaming.
I bought 7 day park hopper tickets from undercover tourist last weekend. They claimed never expire if not used. Tickets already purchased r not affected correct?
You're fine as it was before February 12, 2017 nonsense began.
What if I paid extra for the non-expiration tickets?
Tickets purchased before February 12, 2017 do not fall under this odd new rule.
Thank you for clarification.
It seems like Disney is purposely making it confusing
Seems that they are trying to prevent people from using ticket purchases as investments since they keep increasing 5% or more per year. Never thought of stashing tickets instead of stock myself.
What do you mean by a partially USED ticket? You buy a 5 day ticket, but only do to parks 3 days. Are two days partially used as they were purchased all together with the 5 days?
Buy 5 days and use 3 and you're out of luck. It dies within 14 days of first use.
Makes much more sense. Thank you.