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Elways way
02-23-2005, 10:31 AM
Has anybody done this? Is it Kosher? I'm not an AP holder (for what reason I don't know since I'm there 12-15 days a year) and I usually just buy a park hopper from AAA for the number of days I will be there.....but I saw a bunch of people (and a friend told me to look into it) on Ebay selling their unused days. This would seem to make sense if you were just going for a couple of days, since you could buy a 5-day for $139 and then split the cost with a buddy going another time for a couple of days.

I know the hoppers expire 13 days after they are first used....but if you know you are going at the end of March and a friend is going the first week in April, this seems like a no brainer. Am I wrong? Has anyone done it before? Am I a bad person for even considering this?

I'm heading down on March 30th-31st (two days) and considered doing this. With the lowered rates thru April 28th, the savings woudn't be as much....but if we found another couple that wanted the three unused days for $80 (each) or so......It would be another $29 we could spend in the parks! Just a thought! Wanted to see what everyone else had experience with this. Thanks for any feedback!

Mukta
02-23-2005, 10:41 AM
I'm pretty sure this is frowned upon. A park hopper is supposed to be signed by the invidual and applies only to them. Sometimes they don't ask you to sign, but sometimes they do. I'm sure people can get away with it, but I don't think you are supposed to do that.

rentayenta
02-23-2005, 10:44 AM
We had friends who bought unused Hopper days on e-bay and it turned out fine. I wouldn't chance it- a few buck is not worth the stress.

When we went last March my dad had one day left on his Hopper. I gave it to a woman in line. That may be frowned upon too but it felt good to be nice and DL will make their $ anyway.

disneygurl92
02-23-2005, 10:47 AM
Yeah I agree I don't think thats the way it should be used. And remember Disneyland has tons of guards and cast members watching 24/7.

Elways way
02-23-2005, 10:48 AM
We had friends who bought unused Hopper days on e-bay and it turned out fine. I wouldn't chance it- a few buck is not worth the stress.

When we went last March my dad had one day left on his Hopper. I gave it to a woman in line. That may be frowned upon too but it felt good to be nice and DL will make their $ anyway.

Yeah! My girlfriend and I figured we would just give our extra day to someone in line or at our hotel! Just figured it would be nice to save a couple of bucks to spend on cool things at the park (i.e. Churros).

meagee
02-23-2005, 11:00 AM
My husband and I have frequently given away extra days on tickets. We would usually get a 5 day pass through my SIL (cheaper for us) and if we don't use all the days, we get a good feeling by sharing the magic with someone else. I have also thought about going on e-bay, but there is really no way to be sure there are extra days on the ticket until you get to the entrance, is there?

Earkid
02-23-2005, 11:22 AM
We had friends who bought unused Hopper days on e-bay and it turned out fine. I wouldn't chance it- a few buck is not worth the stress.I agree with Yenta. I wouldn't chance buying anything like this off ebay.

I frequently chat on ebay's boards and this topic is often discussed. People will buy "unused or partially used" parkhopper's and then get to the entry gate and find out that they are invalid.

On the other hand, I knew someone who sold her partially used parkhoppers to someone on ebay and the buyer said when they tried to use them they were no good and wanted their money back. The seller (who I know, so I don't think she was scamming) had no way of knowing if the buyer had actually used them and now were trying to get their money back or what. The buyer filed a complaint toward her and gave her negative feedback and then Safe Harbor got involved. It was just a huge hassle.

To me it just isn't worth it. I have no problem giving an unused day to someone but I wouldn't sell it to someone I didn't know.

MommyTo3Boys1Girl
02-23-2005, 12:53 PM
The tickets are not transferrable. I am sure Disney is coming up with a way to stop people from doing this.

CoasterChickie
02-23-2005, 01:05 PM
I'm sure it wouldn't be that hard for one person to use it the first three days and then another person to use it the next two days. I think it all comes down to your personal ethics and if you would feel comfortable doing something like that or not.


One thing I don't like about the system is that if you lose your park hopper , you have no way to prove that you did in fact have one and get it replaced for free. This happened to my son's friend and his mom had to buy him another ticket for a hundred dollars for the two days we were in the park.

Elways way
02-23-2005, 01:07 PM
I'm sure it wouldn't be that hard for one person to use it the first three days and then another person to use it the next two days. I think it all comes down to your personal ethics and if you would feel comfortable doing something like that or not.


One thing I don't like about the system is that if you lose your park hopper , you have no way to prove that you did in fact have one and get it replaced for free. This happened to my son's friend and his mom had to buy him another ticket for a hundred dollars for the two days we were in the park.

Wow! I didn't know they would replace a ticket! You learn something new every day! :D

SarahJanet
02-23-2005, 01:26 PM
Uh, I think what was said was that they WOULDN'T replace a ticket. Which really sucks, given how often you have to pull out your ticket to get fastpasses and stuff - it's easy to lose a ticket. That is quite cruel of Disney.

D-lander 1956
02-23-2005, 06:21 PM
I know that at WDW, if you have a Xerox copy of your hopper (front and back) and lose it, they WILL replace it. They scan the copy to see how many days are left, cancel the lost hopper out and re-issue a new hopper with the amount of days left on the old card. Every time we buy hoppers there, the first thing we do is copy them and keep the copies in our room.

Not sure if the same rule applies at DL, but it sure couldn't hurt to ask about it at City Hall. We have also copied our DL AP, just for safe keeping. ;)

JSKoehler
02-23-2005, 07:06 PM
Please excuse me while I get up on my soapbox . . .

When you buy a parkhopper ticket (or any other ticket to any type of attraction, like a movie), you are making a contract. I know that typically, you don't sign anything (and not signing your parkhopper is not an out, BTW), but that is not required to make a contract, which is simply an agreement, oral or written, express or implied, between parties in which there is an exchange of promises for consideration. On your part, you give Disney (or the movie theater) your money and your promise to abide by the conditions of receiving the ticket (Admit One . . . Good for the two o'clock show . . . three days in DL and DCA . . . etc.) as well as certain express or implied conditions inherent in the transaction (you won't go to a different movie in the multiplex or stay for two shows . . . you will get your hand stamped if you want to leave and return to the park the same day . . . etc.). They, in turn, agree to honor the ticket according to those terms. One of the terms of the parkhopper is that it is not transferable once used--i.e. the first person to use it will use all the days. When you sell (or buy) a partially used parkhopper, you are a party to a breach of the contract.

You may say, what's the harm, so long as only one person uses the parkhopper each day? Its not like you are going into the movie, then taking several stubs out to the lobby and sneaking a few friends in, right? That is right, the first example is a civil wrong (breaching the contract), the latter a criminal wrong (theft, because the people you sneak in didn't pay).*

The practical harm, however, is that parkhoppers are sold at a discount over single day admissions and the discount increases with the number of days purchased. So if everyone bought five-day parkhoppers and used them for two or three days then sold the balance to someone else, Disney would have a significant loss.

I would contend that there is an additional harm, a societal one. When we cheat--on our taxes, on an exam, or on admission to Disney--we weaken the moral bond between people that is the essence of a free society. In a democratic society, laws and contracts should be formed not with the belief that they can be enforced by threat or coercion, but with the expectation that they will be adhered to for the common good. The justification that "Disney is rich, and I am not" is a rationalization, and not a very convincing one. Selling the unused day from your park hopper may not seem like "such a big deal," and perhaps it isn't . . . but the mightiest fissures began as tiny cracks in the Earth.

I'll get off my soapbox now . . . I’ll leave it you all to figure out if I am a lawyer, a minister, an ethicist, or just a pest.


*I am not familiar with California law, but it may also be that selling the partially used tickets would constitute a scalping.

marktips
02-23-2005, 07:12 PM
*clapclapclaps*

Darkbeer
02-23-2005, 08:39 PM
You can thank the EBay stuff for one reason why Disney discontinued the "2 days free" promotion. They went to discounted 3, 4 and 5 day advance purchase tickets to help cut down on "unused days"...

Also interesting to note, you don't see folks selling the DCA portion of the current SoCal 2fer tickets. I wonder how much you could get for one on Ebay... $2 :confused: :~D

Elways way
02-24-2005, 09:00 AM
You can thank the EBay stuff for one reason why Disney discontinued the "2 days free" promotion. They went to discounted 3, 4 and 5 day advance purchase tickets to help cut down on "unused days"...

Also interesting to note, you don't see folks selling the DCA portion of the current SoCal 2fer tickets. I wonder how much you could get for one on Ebay... $2 :confused: :~D

I love hearing Darkbeer's resentment towards DCA! You'd think they built the park on his tribal burial land or something! :D

Earkid
02-24-2005, 10:12 AM
I think if Disney considered ticket sharing to be a serious concern then they would design security measures to thwart this activity.

marktips
02-24-2005, 10:16 AM
I think if Disney considered ticket sharing to be a serious concern then they would design security measures to thwart this activity.

Which is exactly what they did at WDW with biometrics. I wouldn't think DLR is too far off from something similiar.

Tinkerbelle923
02-24-2005, 01:13 PM
JSKoehler-
You just go ahead and stay on the soapbox...
I feel exactly the same way (and am glad I'm not the only one)

I had typed a whole long spiel about why it's wrong but figured all the rocks people will throw at me would crack the monitor on my computer...so I will simplify, selling unused ticket portions is wrong, giving them away, though a nice thought and gesture is also wrong...buy what you need, eliminate the problem.

PsychDoc
02-24-2005, 06:26 PM
I know that at WDW, if you have a Xerox copy of your hopper (front and back) and lose it, they WILL replace it. They scan the copy to see how many days are left, cancel the lost hopper out and re-issue a new hopper with the amount of days left on the old card. Every time we buy hoppers there, the first thing we do is copy them and keep the copies in our room.

Not sure if the same rule applies at DL, but it sure couldn't hurt to ask about it at City Hall. We have also copied our DL AP, just for safe keeping. ;)
Wow, that's a great idea! I never even thought about it. I'm usually the designated ticket/FP runner/holder. I'm so paranoid, constantly checking and rechecking my tickets. It's funny, I'm more worried about loosing my ticket than my wallet!

disneyhound
02-24-2005, 06:35 PM
I love hearing Darkbeer's resentment towards DCA! You'd think they built the park on his tribal burial land or something! :D
Like the song says, "They tare down Paradise, and re-build the parking lot". ;)

hbquikcomjamesl
02-24-2005, 07:06 PM
Aside from the moral thing, consider:
Disney is in business to make money. That was quite true even when Walt was alive and running the show, albeit back then, making money was at least as much a means to the end of making people happy as vice versa. But the practical thing is that nobody is subsidizing Disneyland.

By analogy with transportation: It's not like the trucking industry, that doesn't pay a fraction of its fair share of the cost of the Interstate Highway System. It's not like the Airline Industry, that gets an Air Traffic Control system paid for with our federal taxes, and airports paid for by our local taxes. It's like a railroad. It has to pay for everything it builds, and the cost of ownership for every acre of land it builds it on, and it has to pay property taxes on that land.

If it doesn't get adequate revenues, the suits aren't going to feel much like cutting their own paychecks (or dividends) in order to put more money into nicer stuff. That's why DCA, which could have fully lived up to the promise of the old "Westcot" concept, was built on the cheap, and is still struggling to become as good as AK or MGM. That's why our Innoventions ended up never even approximating the quality (or the amount of guest traffic) of Epcot's Innoventions. That's why the Rocket Rods not only failed, but shredded the Peoplemover tracks beyond economic repair in the process. That's why our last Tomorrowland renovation didn't even come close to WDW-MK's Tomorrowland.

You're already getting a substantial discount when you buy a multi-day Hopper. You're already getting an even bigger discount when you buy an annual pass, assuming you use it often enough for it to pay for itself. You're not doing anybody any favors when you push it.

Darkbeer
02-24-2005, 07:09 PM
I just checked EBay, they do have some DCA half of the 2fer for sale, one is for 4 tickets (2 Adults, 2 kids), $16.50 for all 4.

A single kids ticket is $1.04

JSKoehler
02-25-2005, 03:04 AM
Here's an idea for any Disney Execs monitoring this board (as if): why not create a "donate the unused magic" program. Patrons who have unused days on a park hopper (typically one day on a five day, I'd guess) would be able to turn the passes in at Town Hall or some other location on the the last day they leave the parks (or by mail before the passes expire). In return, they could receive a coupon or voucher good for some small discount when next purchasing a parkhopper. Disney could then calcuate the actual value of the days donated and apply some portion of that to a charitable cause. This would not only give those tempted to sell their unused days a viable (and ethical) alternative, it would also, I think be good PR for Disney and less expensive than implementing biometrics.

JSKoehler
02-25-2005, 03:07 AM
JSKoehler-
You just go ahead and stay on the soapbox...
I feel exactly the same way (and am glad I'm not the only one)

I had typed a whole long spiel about why it's wrong but figured all the rocks people will throw at me would crack the monitor on my computer...

That's why I had that heavy-duty, rock-proof monitor installed years ago :)