Buying AP in Advance

[RuthieT]

Can I buy it 8 months before my trip and still be ok with activating it on my trip in October?

 

[DisneyMomma81]

I suppose so, but what about a MM? Perhaps you're staying onsite?? The two times we've upgraded our PHs to APs we made sure we had used our MM 1st

 

[dmked]

You can, but I don't see why? When we got our APs, we bought our 4 day PH first to use the MM, then upgraded to AP once the MM was used.

 

[RuthieT]

we have never been to MM...Is it a must for young kids?

 

[PeterBanning]

I sent a similar question to DLR customer service and following is the reply. I asked because our son is begging for an AP for his birthday, but we don't have any trips planned until later in the year. Hope this helps.

Thank you for contacting the Disneyland Resort.

In General, Annual Passes may be used on any day during regular park operating hours, excluding applicable block out dates, and will expire
365 days after the date of first use. First use occurs the first time a pass is used for admission to a Disneyland park.

However, if you purchase an Annual Pass using the Monthly Payment Plan option it will become valid on the date of purchase. It will then expire one year from the date of purchase.

Please note access to the Passholder Site requires that your pass be activated which can only occur once the ticket is used for the first time.

Should you have additional questions, please contact us again by replying to this message. Be sure to include your full name, order number, and e-mail address for future correspondence.

We look forward to future opportunities to entertain you.

Sincerely,

Meghan Lee
Disney Ticket Services

 

[Hound 109]

we have never been to MM...Is it a must for young kids?

Never been to MM??????



It's a must for everyone. FanstasyLand without lines (if you do it properly).


(but as DisneyMomma mentioned.....if you're staying onsite, you get it anyway. But if you're staying elsewhere, follow the advice of the posters above.)

MM is your friend......use it.

 

[DisneyMomma81]

we have never been to MM...Is it a must for young kids?

Heavens yes!! Read this ~ *MM Super Thread*

 

[Hound 109]

......However, if you purchase an Annual Pass using the Monthly Payment Plan option it will become valid on the date of purchase. It will then expire one year from the date of purchase.

Wow.....this is VERY important information for AP purchasers.


Thanks for posting this Peter.


To ALL.....has anyone else puchased the AP on the payment plan? Was this your experience?

.

 

[RuthieT]

Please note access to the Passholder Site requires that your pass be activated which can only occur once the ticket is used for the first time.

So, does this mean.. I can buy in advance and is only activated the first day we use it?

 

[Funball]

Can I buy it 8 months before my trip and still be ok with activating it on my trip in October?

of course. it does not activate the AP till you actually walk through the turnstile and they scan the card!

 

[sonnyjane]

To ALL.....has anyone else puchased the AP on the payment plan? Was this your experience?

.

I looked into it, but chose to just pay for it all at once. First of all, the payment plan is only available for SoCal residents, so not everyone can take advantage of it. I see you're in Texas, so unfortunately you would not be eligible.

Also, to get the payment plan, it required me to put all of my information (including my credit card information) on a form and mail it snail-mail, and I was neither comfortable enough nor patient enough to do that. I ended up just putting my AP on a 0% credit card and paying online. If you buy your AP at the park and are a SoCal resident, you can set up the payment plan that day without worrying about the paperwork. They require the price of a one-day ticket as a down payment.

 

[Funball]

i did the payment plan for like a month. it was easy to do, but like sonnyjane said, its' only for socal residents. the snail mail part did bug me, i didn't understand why you could fill out the form online and do it that way, but instead you have to print this giant packet of stuff, and send it in, but the thing was once they recived my packet of papers for my ap renewal-they had already processed it, so to my shock when i went to disneyland like 3 days later after i sent them stuff in, my pass i had with me was invalid and i found this out when i went through the turnstile and could not! because my new renewed pass was already processed with a new barcode etc. this i did not know, but know i do. anyhow a few days later i got my 'new renewed' pass in the mail. but shortly after i ended up just paying the rest of the amount in full even though i had already did one payment with my Credit card via the payment plan.

 

[jenpace]

You can, but I don't see why?

We've done this before: bought the AP's in advance one at a time over a period of months. When you're looking at $329.00x5 it's a really big chunk of change! Spreading out the AP purchases makes it a little bit less painful to the wallet.

We've bought them one a time in advance before but I prefer to just buy Disney gift cards until I have the amount needed for AP's. It's not a regular occurance but I've heard of people getting down to DL with their AP vouchers purchased at a Disneystore just to find out that the transaction wasn't processed properly and they can't trade it in for the actual AP.

 

[DisneyMomma81]

We've done this before: bought the AP's in advance one at a time over a period of months. When you're looking at $329.00x5 it's a really big chunk of change! Spreading out the AP purchases makes it a little bit less painful to the wallet.

I do this as well when we need PHs, I'll buy one 3 months out, the 2nd 2 months prior to our trip and the 3rd *and last* 1 month out or just prior to our visit.

 

[CrazyDuck]

The only reason I'd buy an AP that far in advance is if I was going to try and get the AP rate on a hotel room!

 

[Hound 109]

I looked into it, but chose to just pay for it all at once. First of all, the payment plan is only available for SoCal residents, so not everyone can take advantage of it. I see you're in Texas, so unfortunately you would not be eligible.

Also, to get the payment plan, it required me to put all of my information (including my credit card information) on a form and mail it snail-mail, and I was neither comfortable enough nor patient enough to do that. I ended up just putting my AP on a 0% credit card and paying online. If you buy your AP at the park and are a SoCal resident, you can set up the payment plan that day without worrying about the paperwork. They require the price of a one-day ticket as a down payment.

Good info.....thanks sonnyjane.

 

[jenpace]

The only reason I'd buy an AP that far in advance is if I was going to try and get the AP rate on a hotel room!

You don't need to have a current Annual Pass to get the special AP rate, just at the time of checking in.

 

[PeterBanning]

You don't need to have a current Annual Pass to get the special AP rate, just at the time of checking in.

But can you even find out what those rates are without an account? On the website it seems you have to sign in to your AP account to get those rates. And, from my email, Please note access to the Passholder Site requires that your pass be activated which can only occur once the ticket is used for the first time. This makes it seem like it would be hard to even book without an ACTIVE account. Not disagreeing with you, just confused about the process.

 

[Funball]

But can you even find out what those rates are without an account? On the website it seems you have to sign in to your AP account to get those rates. And, from my email, Please note access to the Passholder Site requires that your pass be activated which can only occur once the ticket is used for the first time. This makes it seem like it would be hard to even book without an ACTIVE account. Not disagreeing with you, just confused about the process.

[FONT=Comic Sans MS, cursive].umm I just read a thread that said yes when you call to make the ressies an ask for the AP rate, that even if you don't have one at that time you still can get it..so asnwer to your question is Yes![/FONT]


[FONT=Comic Sans MS, cursive]you can't view them online or anything, but you can get it over the phone-that is how i understand it
[/FONT]