Cheapest way to get APs

[dr&momto2boys]

One more time...

We want to get APs for next May. With the rumor of ticket prices increasing next month we may buy now.

I read somewhere that the cheapest way to get APs is to buy discount MYW tickets, use them one day so they're worth current value and upgrade to APs with DVC discount at the park. A couple questions for those in the know:

Which ticket is the best to buy? A 10day parkhopper? or does it matter? Where at WDW can you do the upgrade? At customer service at any park? Can it be done any time before the ticket expires or must it be done the same day you use it? Probably same day, right, not to lose value?

Is it worth the hassle? We'll be buying for 2 adults and 2 kids. Is Undercover Tourist the best deal?

 

[Rob S.]

I beleive that your plan will not work. If you purchase a discounted MYW ticket now and upgrade to a DVC AP next May, you will still be paying whatever the cost of the AP is in May 2010, not today.

If you want to avoid the price increase, you should purchase AP vouchers now and then activate them next May.

 

[dr&momto2boys]

Oh yeah! Duh! Although what is the price difference anyway between 10 day MYW and a DVC discount AP? If the price difference isn't a lot maybe it's still a better deal? Can you tell I'm a novice at the whole AP thing!

I'll just get the vouchers anyway because I'm too confused about the whole thing!

 

[pickles]

be a subscriber to mousesavers.com

get their specials on the 15th of the month.

they list the savings per ticket..compare to what AP you are buying and its price.

I was able to save(on 5 people) $225(total) on top of my dvc discount, by doing the mousesaver deal and then upgrading to PAP's

however, I didnt have your problem of going next year.

I suggest making an extra trip this year to activate the tickets..sounds like a good excuse to go!!

 

[deva]

We were able to combine the 10% coupon (this is a referral coupon from another AP holder) with the DVC discount in June. At first the CM said she thought we could not use both, but the system took both discounts so it was a great deal. The 10% expires at the end of July.

 

[kimkatmom]

Does anyone know how much the AP's are going up? And do I understand that they will be going up in August?

Leslye

 

[Mickey'sApprentice]

We combined our 7 day MYW tickets with my $75 birthday giftcard. My AP was $21, and DH paid $96.

 

[Metsoskil]

I beleive that your plan will not work. If you purchase a discounted MYW ticket now and upgrade to a DVC AP next May, you will still be paying whatever the cost of the AP is in May 2010, not today.

If you want to avoid the price increase, you should purchase AP vouchers now and then activate them next May.

But if you use a day before upgrading, Disney will credit you May, 2010 prices for the MYW tickets also, so the increase is negated. I think the OP's plan will work fine.

To answer some of the OP's questions - You should buy whatever ticket you get the best discount on, without spending more than your DVC AP will cost. Yes, you can upgrade at any Guest Services window. The upgrade must be done within 13 days after the first use of your MYW tickets. You do not have to do it on the first day you use the tickets.

 

[BirdsOfPreyDave]

One more time...

We want to get APs for next May. With the rumor of ticket prices increasing next month we may buy now.

I read somewhere that the cheapest way to get APs is to buy discount MYW tickets, use them one day so they're worth current value and upgrade to APs with DVC discount at the park. A couple questions for those in the know:

Which ticket is the best to buy? A 10day parkhopper? or does it matter? Where at WDW can you do the upgrade? At customer service at any park? Can it be done any time before the ticket expires or must it be done the same day you use it? Probably same day, right, not to lose value?

Is it worth the hassle? We'll be buying for 2 adults and 2 kids. Is Undercover Tourist the best deal?

See this thread... http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2025263

Does anyone know how much the AP's are going up? And do I understand that they will be going up in August?

Leslye

See this thread... http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2225573

 

[fishermouse]

We combined our 7 day MYW tickets with my $75 birthday giftcard. My AP was $21, and DH paid $96.

Is it safe to assume you paid $96.00 plus the price of the 7day MYW ticket?
If so what was the price of the MYW? If you only paid $96 you are now my official travel agent How many days can you use on the MYW and still be able to upgrade? Never did all this We just buy our AP's and go but it could be fun seeing if we can save even more than the DVC and renewal discount.

 

[Metsoskil]

Is it safe to assume you paid $96.00 plus the price of the 7day MYW ticket?
If so what was the price of the MYW? If you only paid $96 you are now my official travel agent How many days can you use on the MYW and still be able to upgrade? Never did all this We just buy our AP's and go but it could be fun seeing if we can save even more than the DVC and renewal discount.

You can use all of the days on your MYW pass and still upgrade to an AP. As long as you do the upgrade within 14 days of first use, you are fine.

So, Let's say you buy a 10 day base MYW pass. You go to the parks for 10 consecutive days. On the tenth day, you decide, "Wow! This was great. We should do it again next month, but I want to talk it over w/ my wife, since she wears the pants in our family (that would be my thought). You take the next few days thinking it over, and then go back to a Guest Services window on day # 13. You can still upgrade to an AP.

However, if you buy a non-expiring MYW pass, you still only have 14 days from first activation to upgrade. If you only use 5 of your 10 days on your May trip, and then decide in August that you want to upgrade to an AP, you can't, even though you have 5 days left on your ticket.

BTW, we live in NEPA also (in the Poconos). The AAA in Scranton discounts MYW tix a lot. More than UT, so use them for your MYW passes. That's what we did for our upcoming trip, and we are upgrading to DVC APs.

 

[Mickey'sApprentice]

Is it safe to assume you paid $96.00 plus the price of the 7day MYW ticket?
If so what was the price of the MYW? If you only paid $96 you are now my official travel agent How many days can you use on the MYW and still be able to upgrade? Never did all this We just buy our AP's and go but it could be fun seeing if we can save even more than the DVC and renewal discount.

Yes, we had purchased our MYW months earlier. The expiration date of our DVC AP was 366 days after the first day of our vacation. That is why it doesn't matter how many days you use as long as you are within 14 days on an expiring ticket.

Gee, I thought the $21 was the real deal.

I'm not a travel agent, but I will say that I think the cheapest tickets is probably getting a group together. If you can ever get a group together...you only have to have 10 rooms on any 1 night. That means that one group could go to Disney one week, and the other group could go the following week. You can even choose to stay at 2 different resorts.

I've tried to get a group together before, but didn't pull it off. I was trying to make it either a fundraiser or a perk of our neighborhood association.

But anyway...if you are a a good organizer, and you are involved with a group...its worth giving group sales a call.

 

[dr&momto2boys]

Currently undercovertourist.com shows a 6 day parkhopper for $17 less than gate price. That's the biggest discount other than some of the non-expiring tickets.

Some of the non-expiring tickets are as much as $22 less. Can I do the upgrade with non-expire tickets? The one I'm looking at is about $390 and the DVC discounted AP is about $399 right? Any special rules apply here? (Like I read not to get tickets with water park options unless I wanted to upgrade to a premium annual pass--and I don't.)

I appreciate the help! Thanks!

 

[CarolA]

Just a warning...

I did the "upgrade for savings" plan

NEVER AGAIN!

Took THREE tries for Guest Services to get it right. And if I hadn't kept pushing it would have cost me MORE then the outright purchase.

(And I am not alone, there are lots of posts on screw ups on the Theme parks board!)

So if you do this, pack you patience and check EVERYTHING very carefully (price, expiration date!)

 

[BirdsOfPreyDave]

Currently undercovertourist.com shows a 6 day parkhopper for $17 less than gate price. That's the biggest discount other than some of the non-expiring tickets.

Some of the non-expiring tickets are as much as $22 less. Can I do the upgrade with non-expire tickets? The one I'm looking at is about $390 and the DVC discounted AP is about $399 right? Any special rules apply here? (Like I read not to get tickets with water park options unless I wanted to upgrade to a premium annual pass--and I don't.)

I appreciate the help! Thanks!

You can use the non-expiring tickets. In fact, those are the ones you'll get the best discounts on.

You can also use tickets that have the WPF&M option for a regular annual pass so long as you haven't used the ticket to enter a WPF&M attraction. Once you've done that, you will need to upgrade to the premium annual pass.

CarolA's warning is quite valid. You should know how much you expect to pay for the upgrade, and insist the CM has done something wrong if that isn't what the total comes to. Ask them to give you the total before they finalize the transaction. If the CM doesn't do the transaction correctly, it will cost you more than the original ticket. The CM must first convert your ticket to an intermediate ticket, charging the difference in your ticket cost and the current gate price off to an internal voucher account. They then upgrade that intermediate ticket to your annual pass. If they skip this intermediate ticket step, you don't get the price break. (Ask them if they did this if the prices don't seem to match.)

Also make sure your expiration dates are correct. They should match the first day you used your MYW ticket.

 

[bumbershoot]

Just a warning...

I did the "upgrade for savings" plan

NEVER AGAIN!

Took THREE tries for Guest Services to get it right. And if I hadn't kept pushing it would have cost me MORE then the outright purchase.

(And I am not alone, there are lots of posts on screw ups on the Theme parks board!)

So if you do this, pack you patience and check EVERYTHING very carefully (price, expiration date!)

But weren't you doing it with the very complicated 4/3, no-expire, ticket? That's what was giving CMs fits.


The normal "bridging" process hasn't seen posts of people who had the same negative experiences as those who bought multi-day non-expire 4/3 tickets (and some wanted to use both the 10% thing AND the DVC discount).


NOrmal bridging process means that you buy a ticket for, say, $90 (yeah right). Before you use it, the price goes up to $100. When you use that ticket and then go upgrade, the ticket's value is "bridged" to $100, and then you pay the difference between what you're upgrading to and the $100 (instead of the $90). That's the savings of buying a ticket at a discounter and/or ahead of time.

 

[dr&momto2boys]

Thanks everyone for the information! I think we're going to buy the 6 day hopper at a $17 savings per adult (even though we could get $22 savings with the non-expire.) I want to put less money into it now for use next May. Then whether or not the ticket prices go up we'll have saved a significant chunk for the 4 of us. Thanks a lot for everyones help and we'll keep a look out for any problems in the transaction!

Update:
Actually, through the last Mousesavers newsletter link we just saved $30 per adult ticket and decided to go with the 6 day park hopper non-expire for $348. Multiply that by 4 (not quite since 2 are kids tix) and it's about $120 savings BEFORE any price increase is taken into account. It's worth packing my patience if needed!

 

[disneygal55]

Is this right? First I buy 10 day pass expiring at $237 now and the ticket prices go up in August...let's say to $260.Next I renew my DVC AP by going to WDW and activating a renewal pass January 2010 {the pass increases from $369 to let's say $390} I could trade in a ticket that I paid $237 for $260 towards the increased AP{$390} price??So it would save me about $100 {4 adult tickets} and make the increase a wash?

 

[Princess Tink]

Actually, through the last Mousesavers newsletter link we just saved $30 per adult ticket and decided to go with the 6 day park hopper non-expire for $348. Multiply that by 4 (not quite since 2 are kids tix) and it's about $120 savings BEFORE any price increase is taken into account. It's worth packing my patience if needed!

That's the same thing we did 6 day PH with non-expiry, we plan on upgrading in August... I figured this would give us the 'best price'.