Is there a benefit to purchasing DCA tkts early?

[lpoeppelman]

Have a group of 15 people and going in two days... is there a benefit to purchasing the tkts ahead of time? If we do purchase now, how do we get the tickets? Will call? Just using a one-park-one-day tkt at DCA.

 

[ParkHopper1]

Only advantage is that you will not have to wait in line at the ticket booths to buy tickets. If you buy on line, you will receive an email that you print out and just take the paper vouchers right to the gate and they give you an actual paper ticket right there.

If you were buying a three day or longer ticket, you need to buy in advance to get a Magic Morning.

Advantage of pre purchase: Saves time in the AM not going to ticket booth
Disadvantage: You have to make sure you have all the vouchers accounted for for everyone when you arrive.

For a group of 15 I would just buy day of unless you are a seasoned traveler and highly organized. Less to worry about.

 

[lpoeppelman]

Only advantage is that you will not have to wait in line at the ticket booths to buy tickets. If you buy on line, you will receive an email that you print out and just take the paper vouchers right to the gate and they give you an actual paper ticket right there.

If you were buying a three day or longer ticket, you need to buy in advance to get a Magic Morning.

Advantage of pre purchase: Saves time in the AM not going to ticket booth
Disadvantage: You have to make sure you have all the vouchers accounted for for everyone when you arrive.

For a group of 15 I would just buy day of unless you are a seasoned traveler and highly organized. Less to worry about.

thanks - only thing is, printing may be an issue. Is having it on your phone an option?

 

[theluckyrabbit]

I believe you can show the email on your phone.

 

[lpoeppelman]

I believe you can show the email on your phone.

last question - do you go in the regular line for entry, or do you have to go to a will call line?

 

[theluckyrabbit]

I've read about people going right to the turnstiles.

 

[bumbershoot]

If you buy from disneyland's website, you go straight to a turnstile. If you buy elsewhere you might have to go to will call.

I'm not sure about the phone at all.

If you buy that day it's going to take ages. I'm not sure what other people do at the ticket booths, but each transaction (except our own, which seems to fly by) seems to take 20 minutes. I used to joke that people are brokering peace accords with hostile nations when up at those ticket booths.

 

[pinkprincess30]

I would avoid buying there if at all possible. The inconvenience of finding a place to print is a bummer but you can do that on your own timeline, not wasting park time. The ticket booths are slow. If you have pre-purchased tickets, just take your print out to the turnstile and they will give you a real ticket right there as you enter the park.

 

[travelgirl06]

If you buy from disneyland's website, you go straight to a turnstile. If you buy elsewhere you might have to go to will call.

I'm not sure about the phone at all.

If you buy that day it's going to take ages. I'm not sure what other people do at the ticket booths, but each transaction (except our own, which seems to fly by) seems to take 20 minutes. I used to joke that people are brokering peace accords with hostile nations when up at those ticket booths.

I used to wonder what took "everyone else" so long at the ticket booths then we upgraded our tickets to APs this past weekend and it was quite a lengthy process (and our CM seemed to be actively working on it the whole time)... Luckily the line was short (and there were several windows open) so we weren't holding too many people up . I think in general the ticket options are just somewhat complicated and if people arrive not knowing exactly what ticket they want to buy it probably takes the CM a bit to explain/takes the people time to decide.

In response to the original question, We had bought our "regular" (2-day) tickets online at the Disneyland website. They emailed me a link and I could pull them up on my phone. We just showed the tickets on my phone at the DCA gate and the CM the gave us paper tickets and we walked right in - no will-call or issues with the tickets when purchased through Disneyland. We had 3 tickets, and I could scan through all 3 with the same phone link. Hope that helps!

 

[GenGen22]

Another good reason for buying in advance is you never know if the prices are going to go up so, if you buy the tickets in the same year as your trip the tickets will be the old price and good until the end of the year.

 

[kathy040690]

I just bought a ticket for myself on the Disneyland website and my ticket went straight to my phone on the Disneyland app