Annual Pass

[sammydeville]

Hi,

We are going to Florida at the end of October and will be doing mainly Disney parks we are also planning a trip for August next year so we are thinking that an Annual Pass will benefit us.

My question is should we buy the UK 14 days tickets and upgrade when we get there or just buy the annual pass in the first place?

I have searched for an answer but everything I could find seemed a little dated.

Thanks in advance

Sam

 

[wayneg]

We found upgrading a lot of hassle, different prices every guest services we tried, DTD telling us it wasn't even possible.
If you know you want AP then I would just get it from the start.
Do your sums though, I just looked at a basic AP without water parks and it looks like £576.

 

[danielocha30]

If you buy the 14 days and later upgrade your annual pass will be dated from the day the 14 day ticket was used for the first time, if you buy a annual pass you get a voucher to exchange for the actual pass at the gates and its dated on the first day you use it, not from the date you buy it.
Upgrades can not be done at the hotel concierge, only at the ticket booth or guest relations.

 

[wayneg]

If you buy the 14 days and later upgrade your annual pass will be dated from the day the 14 day ticket was used for the first time, if you buy a annual pass you get a voucher to exchange for the actual pass at the gates and its dated on the first day you use it, not from the date you buy it.
Upgrades can not be done at the hotel concierge, only at the ticket booth or guest relations.

Unless the CM gets it wrong, we upgraded 21 day tix on the last day, started AP on that day so we got 1 year 3 weeks use

 

[Elise79]

Unless you have to buy a ticket to get free dining I would buy the AP straight out or buy discounted MYW to upgrade.

We have upgraded package Ultimate tickets before and like Wayne have always found it a hassle.

 

[sammydeville]

Thanks guys.

Do you know if I buy the AP straight out can I link it to my account and make Fast passes before I activate the pass? I have seen that you can only book 7 days in a 30 day period which isn't an issue.

 

[Jon84]

Agree with the others, AP from the get go is much easier!

Thanks guys.

Do you know if I buy the AP straight out can I link it to my account and make Fast passes before I activate the pass? I have seen that you can only book 7 days in a 30 day period which isn't an issue.

Yes you can, we did this with ours last time. If you are staying onsite then it goes up to 60 days prior to arrival, for the length of your stay

 

[Diz22]

Agree with the others, AP from the get go is much easier!



Yes you can, we did this with ours last time. If you are staying onsite then it goes up to 60 days prior to arrival, for the length of your stay

We upgraded our 14 day ultimate last week. I asked for a price in AK and then in MK. It was a painless process and took about 10 minutes. I was worried since we'd used them for DQ but it didn't matter. They applied the DVC discount and away we went. Valid from the first day we used our ticket.

 

[sammydeville]

Hi guys,

So I decided to just buy the AP straight away but when ever I press purchase pass on the USA website it takes me straight to the uk website. I know in the past you could change the location in the top right hand corner but currently the only option is uk or Ireland does anyone have any ideas how to stay on the USA website to complete the purchase?

Thanks

Sam

 

[Jon84]

Hi guys,

So I decided to just buy the AP straight away but when ever I press purchase pass on the USA website it takes me straight to the uk website. I know in the past you could change the location in the top right hand corner but currently the only option is uk or Ireland does anyone have any ideas how to stay on the USA website to complete the purchase?

Thanks

Sam

We did ours over the phone, it was just easier, and could ask any questions, they are so helpful.

Remember you can only buy in Dollars, so it might be worth using a Travel Money card (Halifax Clarity, or a decent top up card) to stop your bank or other credit card charging you 2% of the total as a fee!!

 

[Lottie]

We upgraded our 14 day ultimate last week. I asked for a price in AK and then in MK. It was a painless process and took about 10 minutes. I was worried since we'd used them for DQ but it didn't matter. They applied the DVC discount and away we went. Valid from the first day we used our ticket.

Hi - we will be doing the same next April - would you mind telling me how much it was to upgrade? And did all your pre-booked fast passes still work? We are DVC members so should have a discount.

 

[sammydeville]

Me again.....

So I just read that you have to activate your annual pass when you get there but you don't get your magic band at the time, that arrives around a week later by post but that won't be much use to us does anyone know if there is a way to collect a magic band at the time without paying for a new one?

Also if change my mind and book the 14 day tickets here is it true that you can only have so many days remaining on your pass in order to upgrade to an annual pass? I seem to remember reading this at some point.

Thanks

 

[Jon84]

You won't get an AP Magic band Delivered to home as you are outside North America.

You can however get it delivered to an address in the States of your choosing. I'd probably only trust a Disney Resort with this. You just have to order the bands in plenty of time.

 

[sjt22]

We upgraded our 14 day pass whilst out there a few weeks ago the price we were quoted everywhere was $384 until we went to guest services at disney springs when they quoted $281 at that is obviously a big saving, as we went to buy it a cast member pointed out that this was the upgrade price for florida residents and then quoted us the $384. They work it out as the difference in the price of the uk 14 day ticket in dollars and then deduct it from the annual pass price. On our last day we tried guest services at hollywood studios and got the quote of $281 again, the DH was honest and said that he was sure it was the florida resident price(we didn't want to pay and then be told we can't use them) at this point another cast member came up and said it was the normal upgrade price, took our passports for I.D told us it would run out from first day of use a year later so that would be august 29th 2017 but when she ran it all through it shows as valid until september 11th 2017.
It was a saga trying to do this but paid off for us in the end.

Sarah x

 

[Diz22]

Hi - we will be doing the same next April - would you mind telling me how much it was to upgrade? And did all your pre-booked fast passes still work? We are DVC members so should have a discount.

So sorry not to answer your question earlier.
DVC members are eligible for the Gold pass same as Florida residents. Make sure you say from the start you're DVC We paid around $160 to upgrade. We were quoted the same in 2 places and it seemed reasonable to me. Maybe I could a argued for a better price but I was happy that the process was quick and efficient. All FP's still worked fine.
Good luck.