Disney/Universal Orlando tickets

[metalblue]

Anyone been recently? And how much did you pay for park tickets? Two of us going next month for a week and the cost I’m seeing at the moment seems a lot for the week. Cheers.

Unfortunately there aren’t really any ways to do it on the cheap.

 

[tony coleman]

Cheers all. Some great advice given. We have done the parks twice before with the family. Last time in 2015. So where would be the vest place to purchase tickets now. Here or wait until we are in Orlando ?

 

[metalblue]

Ye we stayed in Disney daughter was 5 so it was the all in experience and we had a brilliant time, they treated my daughter like a princess the whole thing was great, apparently a lot of the benefits of staying in have disappeared dining plan, extra hours etc. If we did go think I’d stay outside and hire a car.

They still do “magic hours” if staying on resort but “felt” less than before. The magic hours are definitely a good way of booking Disney dinning is back for 2024. Went last year and it cost a bomb, hardly any Character dinning available, car hire cost me double what it did pre covid, still was an amazing holiday though.

 

[BlueMoonday]

Cheers all. Some great advice given. We have done the parks twice before with the family. Last time in 2015. So where would be the vest place to purchase tickets now. Here or wait until we are in Orlando ?

Curveball but if you've done Disney before, have you considered universal which is around £350 each for the week? You can do the whole lot in 3 days but would leave you time to maybe visit Kennedy Space station, Disney Springs (which is free to enter) and check out downtown Orlando. There might be pre season Magic games on too.

 

[Blue Maverick]

They still do “magic hours” if staying on resort but “felt” less than before. The magic hours are definitely a good way of booking Disney dinning is back for 2024. Went last year and it cost a bomb, hardly any Character dinning available, car hire cost me double what it did pre covid, still was an amazing holiday though.

Ye not as long as they were, I’ve seen the dining plan has come back but even the basic hotels (we stayed in one last time) it’s coming in at £3-4k more than last time, I really can’t justify that.

 

[Blue Maverick]

Dining plan has been removed (it may be coming back?) but we've got some cashback deal for next year that is worth $1100 to buy food/merchandise with.

It is an expensive holiday all round, but when you go to the parks/hotels, you can see where the money goes.

Dining plan is back nest year, I just think when you’ve had stuff for free like Fastpass, to then charge for it is a pure money grab, I know people who went year after year when it was affordable, but now unless you are well off it literally is a holiday of a lifetime.
Disney have misjudged a lot, they are closing the Galactic Starcruiser (£4k for 2 nights!) there film and Tv is bombing and the parks aren’t as full, with the cost of living it’s showing people are been more careful, I follow a few YouTubers and they are Disney experts and very critical of them and what they have done, lots going on politically as well fighting the governor etc.
If I get a lot of disposable income I might do one last push to go but I can get 2/3 decent holiday for one Disney these days.

 

[RobMCFC]

Dining plan is back nest year, I just think when you’ve had stuff for free like Fastpass, to then charge for it is a pure money grab, I know people who went year after year when it was affordable, but now unless you are well off it literally is a holiday of a lifetime.
Disney have misjudged a lot, they are closing the Galactic Starcruiser (£4k for 2 nights!) there film and Tv is bombing and the parks aren’t as full, with the cost of living it’s showing people are been more careful, I follow a few YouTubers and they are Disney experts and very critical of them and what they have done, lots going on politically as well fighting the governor etc.
If I get a lot of disposable income I might do one last push to go but I can get 2/3 decent holiday for one Disney these days.

Yes, I know exactly what you mean. The Genie+ is a pure money grab, and I wish it was still Fastpass, but we made it work for us this year.

We were lucky that our holiday was booked before Covid and, although Disney didn't have to, they honoured the Genie+ we paid for through Virgin. Really, it should have been Virgin that sorted this out but they refused to get involved. Behind the scenes, Virgin take your money and only buy the park tickets/Genie+ just in time for your holiday. As Disney don't offer a pre-paid Genie+ any more - i.e. you have to buy it on a daily basis. they could have refused to honour it.

Virgin flights = Great
Virgin Package = Not worth it. We've booked direct with WDW for next year.

Anyway, the bottom line is that we had Genie+ for every day, but next time, we'll just pay for the headliners and buy a day's Genie+ for Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios for one day each. I think AK and EPCOT are do-able without Genie+.

 

[RobMCFC]

@tony coleman - Forgot to mention. To get in at any Disney Park, you have to reserve your slot in advance.

Technically this means that if you don't, you will be refused entry into a park even if you have a valid ticket.
You could turn up at the park on the day and book there and then, and in all probability outside the busy summer season, you'd probably be OK.

When we were there in June, we were able to swap a few of our booked days within 24 hours of going. But getting your tickets early and booking what park you need to go to on what day is something to think about.

 

[Blue Maverick]

@tony coleman - Forgot to mention. To get in at any Disney Park, you have to reserve your slot in advance.

Technically this means that if you don't, you will be refused entry into a park even if you have a valid ticket.
You could turn up at the park on the day and book there and then, and in all probability outside the busy summer season, you'd probably be OK.

When we were there in June, we were able to swap a few of our booked days within 24 hours of going. But getting your tickets early and booking what park you need to go to on what day is something to think about.

Ye park hopping is a lot harder now, when we went with fastpass, I planned it like a military operation booking 6 month in advance what we were going to do, it took a lot of stress out of it, that’s not possible now and lots of complaints at people just looking at their phones all day trying to get that next Genie plus ride.
@RobMCFC i think I’d do similar to you get genie plus for a few days to see how we go and pay for the big rides (that’s another ripoff) the wife isnt bothered about going but I’d like to take our daughter again, especially Universal when the new part opens Epic.

 

[Tuearts right boot]

Dont know if they still do it but years ago there were ' agents ' who would buy unused tickets off folk and sell them on. Obviously most of the best rides were gone but you could get lucky. Times may well have changed over the years.....