Tickets and Annual Pass Questions - Please add your ticket questions to this thread

[gottalovepluto]

I would tread carefully on ticket upgrades if you are worried about your park reservations. Scott Gustin on Twitter specifically said when a ticket is upgraded it’s park reservations will be cancelled so WDW is recommending guests upgrade on the last day of their ticket.

My takeaways

1. That is a horrible recommendation money wise as you lose all your AP discounts those days, well horrible for us customers anyway.
2. I can’t find where Disney stated this publicly (could have been a media briefing as this blogger does have access to those?)
3. I absolutely believe WDW IT could have engineered a mess like that #DisneyIT and Disney is too cheap to let them engineer a fix it button

 

[Robo]

Thanks for all the updates on this thread - exciting news today. I'd like advice on the best way to upgrade.

We have 4 x 10 day hoppers purchased with a Feb '22 start date. I'm taking a solo trip arriving Sept 8th (perfect timing) and want to upgrade my Hopper to the Sorcerer Pass. Couple questions:

1. I arrive the night of Sept 8th, staying at the Dolphin, so I assume the ticket deck there will not be able to handle an AP upgrade. Best to just head to the TTC or is there somewhere in the Epcot resort area that can handle this?

2. I assume I'll need to change the start date on my ticket from Feb '22 to Sept '21 before I upgrade? The price will be lower so no cost to change it, but should I wait to have the CM change it? I worry that I'll start the clock on my 10 days when i'm only there for 4 and something will go wrong (Covid uncertainty I guess).
The downside to waiting is that right now I can't make park reservations for the September trip - but I'm not to worried about them filling up, and I'm staying onsite so I have that buket.

3a. For the other 3 Hoppers - Can I upgrade them all on Sept 8 but then not activate them until Feb when my family is there?
3b. Or should we just wait?

1. There is a full Guest Relations and Ticket Booth outside the Epcot International Gateway entrance.
Just stroll over there and either can help you.
2. I don't think you'd need to change anything just to use the value of an unused ticket toward the purchase of a higher-level ticket (AP in this case.) Once you upgrade, only the rules of your new ticket will apply.
3a. Yes.
3b. Can't predict what will happen in these uncertain times.

 

[rickyjmtl]

Hi guys!

Just want to make sure my plan is sound.

So we have two base tickets with no park hopper.

We are coming in on Sept. 25th. until Oct. 2nd

I have a house with my mom down in florida. I have bills (electrical and water).

My husband has none if that.

So my plan is to upgrade his tickets to the Incredi-pass on the 8th.
I'll do it on the phone in order not to lose my park passes.

We will use his magic band for everything we buy in order to get the rebates.

I, on the other hand, plan on getting the Pirate Pass.
I will first add on the park hopper on Sept 8th.

I will then upgrade while at Magic Kingdom on Oct. 1st at Guest Relations to the Pirate Pass.
I would be surprised if they kick me out since it's a blocked date but I'll do it at the very last minute.

We then are two more trips planned during this AP year.

Am I missing anything?

 

[BayGirl22]

1. There is a full Guest Relations and Ticket Booth outside the Epcot International Gateway entrance.
Just stroll over there and either can help you.
2. I don't think you'd need to change anything just to use the value of an unused ticket toward the purchase of a higher-level ticket (AP in this case.) Once you upgrade, only the rules of your new ticket will apply.
3a. Yes.
3b. Can't predict what will happen in these uncertain times.

Thanks Robo - appreciate all your contributions here. Good to have the expert opinion that my plan will work.

Glad I can upgrade at the International Gateway - in an ideal world Food and Wine is where I'm headed for dinner anyway.

 

[DISJeff74]

I have 3 day base tickets that I want to convert to a Sorcerer AP for 3 people. I have park reservations on the 30th (HS), 1st (MK) and the 3rd (Epcot) and I have had them for months. Is the consensus:
1 - I have to make the ticket to AP upgrade in person?
2 - I may lose the reservations due to the upgrade?

 

[jwinky]

I need advise on how to handle.

If I have one day left on my ticket on Sept 8th, can I call on Sept 8th to upgrade to AP before the ticket expires? I cannot physically be at the guest relations or ticket booth to upgrade since I would have already return back from my trip. I wasn't sure if being at Guest Relations or ticket booths was required when taking a partial used ticket pass to upgrade to AP vs an unused pass.

 

[Robo]

I have 3 day base tickets that I want to convert to a Sorcerer AP for 3 people. I have park reservations on the 30th (HS), 1st (MK) and the 3rd (Epcot) and I have had them for months. Is the consensus:
1 - I have to make the ticket to AP upgrade in person?
2 - I may lose the reservations due to the upgrade?

1- Very likely.
2. No. Not at all.

 

[DISJeff74]

According to guest services:
1 - Yes. It is recommended that I upgrade the last day of the multi-day ticket AFTER I have entered the park (10/3 in my case). I will get credit for the full 3 day ticket. The start of the AP will be the first day I enter the parks on the multi-day ticket (9/30 in my case)
2 - Yes. The reservations will be auto canceled If I attempt to do it before I enter the parks.

I assume now I wait to upgrade in Epcot on 10/3.

 

[lanejudy]

2 - Yes. The reservations will be auto canceled If I attempt to do it before I enter the parks.

Unless something very different has changed (possibly with Disney IT?!) - this has NOT been the case with any ticket changes or upgrades or add-ons in the past year. People have used regular tickets to upgrade to Recovery APs with no problems. I'm not seeing why suddenly there would be a problem now. But if you want to be extra careful, wait and upgrade at the end of your trip.

 

[Minnie368]

We’re going to a convention in Jan and looking to get 8-day PH. Convention price is $75 less than purchasing direct through Disney. Can convention tickets be upgraded to AP? Particularly would like to purchase the PH now and upgrade before we go because this trip is in January and we have another in March but don’t want to wait till Jan to make the March park reservations because it’s during busy spring break time. Also, will the $75 savings carry over to the purchase of the upgrade to AP or will we lose that value anyway so that we may as well just get an AP to start with instead of messing with the convention tickets?

 

[Robo]

We’re going to a convention in Jan and looking to get 8-day PH. Convention price is $75 less than purchasing direct through Disney. Can convention tickets be upgraded to AP? Particularly would like to purchase the PH now and upgrade before we go because this trip is in January and we have another in March but don’t want to wait till Jan to make the March park reservations because it’s during busy spring break time. Also, will the $75 savings carry over to the purchase of the upgrade to AP or will we lose that value anyway so that we may as well just get an AP to start with instead of messing with the convention tickets?

You've figured it correctly in that you may as well just get an AP to start with.

OR, you can buy 8-day PH from an authorized WDW ticket discounter and save some money (and make all of your trip's park reservations in advance) and then upgrade the discounted tickets to AP during your trip, and "keep the discount" in the upgrade transaction.

 

[mousestruck]

We’re going to a convention in Jan and looking to get 8-day PH. Convention price is $75 less than purchasing direct through Disney. Can convention tickets be upgraded to AP? Particularly would like to purchase the PH now and upgrade before we go because this trip is in January and we have another in March but don’t want to wait till Jan to make the March park reservations because it’s during busy spring break time. Also, will the $75 savings carry over to the purchase of the upgrade to AP or will we lose that value anyway so that we may as well just get an AP to start with instead of messing with the convention tickets?

Convention and special events cannot be upgraded, in my experience. We have upgraded tickets purchased through an authorized reseller several times, keeping the savings and therefore receiving a discount on APs. However, I will say that process is always a bit stressful. Not every CM knows how to bridge the tickets, so you really need to know what you should pay and be prepared to ask for a manager or go to another Guest Services if the price isn’t right. That being said - we have saved some money going that route.

 

[jmakesmagic]

We have a trip planned for November (10 day park hopper tickets). We purchased through Disney so it’s letting me modify the dates online. I’d like to squeeze in a trip before HEA goes away - the last weekend it’s running so I’m not sure if I should be worried about making park reservations. I read somewhere that they won’t be doing upgrades over the phone at launch. I should be able to modify my ticket dates to a date in September and then upgrade to an AP at guest services when I get there, correct? We are staying onsite in November, so I can make those park reservations again once I activate the AP?

 

[Robo]

We have a trip planned for November (10 day park hopper tickets). We purchased through Disney so it’s letting me modify the dates online. I’d like to squeeze in a trip before HEA goes away - the last weekend it’s running so I’m not sure if I should be worried about making park reservations. I read somewhere that they won’t be doing upgrades over the phone at launch.
1. I should be able to modify my ticket dates to a date in September and then upgrade to an AP at guest services when I get there, correct?
2. We are staying onsite in November, so I can make those park reservations again once I activate the AP?

1. If you can modify your ticket start-date, then yes.
2. At some point, yes.

 

[Anal Annie]

I was just coming here to ask about our scenario and now I'm worried about our park reservations being canceled if we upgrade when we arrive. We have 7-day hoppers for our trip that is scheduled from Sept 26 - Oct 3rd and will probably bite the big bullet to upgrade to the Sorcerers pass at Guest Services when we get there. I purchased these tix thru UCT which had a savings of about $43 per tix over the WDW site so I wondered if when I go to upgrade if the difference would be calculated from the gate price or will they know I bought the tix from a 3rd party and they'll charge me from that price? (The difference to upgrade on 3 tix between the two is like $130 additional.) But now it remains unknown if they'll cancel our park ressies?? This could be an evil unfounded rumor at this point?? I guess we'll have to wait for next week to see what happens to the first guinea pigs to try this???

 

[Robo]

I was just coming here to ask about our scenario and now I'm worried about our park reservations being canceled if we upgrade when we arrive. We have 7-day hoppers for our trip that is scheduled from Sept 26 - Oct 3rd and will probably bite the big bullet to upgrade to the Sorcerers pass at Guest Services when we get there. I purchased these tix thru UCT which had a savings of about $43 per tix over the WDW site so
1. I wondered if when I go to upgrade if the difference would be calculated from the gate price
2. or will they know I bought the tix from a 3rd party and they'll charge me from that price? (The difference to upgrade on 3 tix between the two is like $130 additional.)
3. But now it remains unknown if they'll cancel our park ressies?? This could be an evil unfounded rumor at this point?? I guess we'll have to wait for next week to see what happens to the first guinea pigs to try this???

1. The "gate price" is not a factor in upgrades.
2. They will be able to tell that you bought them from a discounter, but the "discounter's price you paid" is not a factor in upgrades.
The ON-LINE Disney price (on the date the the tickets were minted) is used to determine the value of discounted tickets.
3. As far as anyone "officially" knows, there is no reason to expect park reservations to be cancelled.

AND, (if it worries you) there is a simple way for you to MAKE SURE this can't happen...
Just don't do the ticket upgrade until ON the day that you use your last entry on your current ticket.
You can upgrade as late as close of business on the day that you use your original ticket's last asset.
No affect in the "trade-in" value.
Your new AP will be back-dated to the first date that you entered the first park on your original ticket.

 

[mousestruck]

1. The "gate price" is not a factor in upgrades.
2. They will be able to tell that you bought them from a discounter, but the "discounter's price you paid" is not a factor in upgrades.
The ON-LINE Disney price (on the date the the tickets were minted) is used to determine the value of discounted tickets.
3. As far as anyone "officially" knows, there is no reason to expect park reservations to be cancelled.

AND, (if it worries you) there is a simple way for you to MAKE SURE this can't happen...
Just don't do the ticket upgrade until ON the day that you use your last entry on your current ticket.
You can upgrade as late as close of business on the day that you use your original ticket's last asset.
No affect in the "trade-in" value.
Your new AP will be back-dated to the first date that you entered the first park on your original ticket.

Robo - How do we know when the tickets were minted? If I buy a ticket from an authorized retailer today, would I make note of the online price of the same ticket on Disney’s website today - or is that not necessarily the price that would be used for the upgrade?

 

[Robo]

Robo -
1. How do we know when the tickets were minted?
2. If I buy a ticket from an authorized retailer today, would I make note of the online price of the same ticket on Disney’s website today -
3. or is that not necessarily the price that would be used for the upgrade?

1. No way for a guest to know, for sure, without asking the seller.
(You could certainly try making contact with the seller.)
But, GENERALLY, if it's been awhile since the last price increase,
the discounted tickets you buy will very likely be valued the "same as"
the current posted price list on the date that you bought the discounted tickets.

2. GENERALLY, yes. (See #1 above.)

3. See #1 above.

 

[Anal Annie]

1. The "gate price" is not a factor in upgrades.
2. They will be able to tell that you bought them from a discounter, but the "discounter's price you paid" is not a factor in upgrades.
The ON-LINE Disney price (on the date the the tickets were minted) is used to determine the value of discounted tickets.
3. As far as anyone "officially" knows, there is no reason to expect park reservations to be cancelled.

AND, (if it worries you) there is a simple way for you to MAKE SURE this can't happen...
Just don't do the ticket upgrade until ON the day that you use your last entry on your current ticket.
You can upgrade as late as close of business on the day that you use your original ticket's last asset.
No affect in the "trade-in" value.
Your new AP will be back-dated to the first date that you entered the first park on your original ticket.

Yeah, but...naturally if we're paying another $323 PER TIX we'd like to have the AP perks at the front of the trip not after the trip is over...
Guess we'll keep an eye out next week to see how it really works for those who go next week and try it.

 

[poohs_hunny]

I'm pretty sure I know the answer to this, but thought I'd double check. I have a 6 day ticket left from a cancelled trip when the parks were closed last year. I will be using it this month, but may be shortening my trip and only needing 4 days. There's no way to change the 6 day ticket to a 4 day before use, correct? Thanks for any help you can give!