Upgrading Pre-COVID Tickets and Passes

[Husker Mike]

In February 2020, we had all of our plans ready for a Disney cruise, sandwiched by trips to Universal and Disney World for March... that, of course, did not happen. (Our cruise was cancelled the night before we were going to fly to Orlando.) So we still have a single UO Power Pass and three two day park-to-park tickets (with two extra days) sitting in our Universal account untouched. Universal says the Power Pass is good for one year from first use (which hasn't happened) and the three 2+2 day passes expire on Dec. 21, 2021.

We also have American Airlines flight credits that will expire at some point; last I heard was March 31, 2022. Problem is, I'm still not sure what we are going to do, but I have some general thoughts. We have a reservation on a Disney cruise in late July that I suspect will probably be cancelled. (It's looking a little better to be able to go now, but by no means anywhere near likely.) We're also not interested in spending two weeks in Orlando in late July, so we're wondering what our options are to salvage as much of the tickets as we can by turning this into two trips. The value of our Disney World tickets is supposed to be guaranteed not to expire, so right now, we're planning to use those in April 2022. (We'll probably have to pay the difference between the value of 2020 tickets against 2022 prices, which is entirely fair.)

What I'm thinking is whether we could go to Orlando in either July (if the cruise happens) or October (during fall break) before the three 2+2 day passes expire, and then pay to upgrade them to annual passes at that time. Then, when we come back to Orlando in April for the Disney World (and likely take five for the Disney cruise), we would have four annual passes to still use at Universal at that time. If the Disney cruise happens and we can upgrade the day passes to annual passes, we'll probably only spend one day at Universal before the cruise. If the Disney cruise gets scuttled, we haven't decided, but I'm leaning towards fall break in mid October (better weather, probably smaller crowds) for a relatively short trip. And through all of this, I assume the Power Pass I purchased (for UOAP hotel deals) is good and will remain good indefinitely until I choose to use it.

Next stupid question: our schools moved spring break from mid March to the first week of April this year. A Power Pass would have worked just fine for us in 2020, but it wouldn't have worked in 2021. And we don't know what the 2022 blackout dates will be for a Power Pass, but presuming that it's the week before and after Easter, it should be fine for us... but in case they extend it, is it just a matter of paying the extra $50 to upgrade each Power Pass to Preferred?

Thanks in advance; I hope this makes sense.

 

[Gr8t Fan]

You can definitely pay the difference to upgrade a Power Pass to Preferred - no problem there at all. And the pass is not activated until first use.

 

[AJA]

You can upgrade any pass. We purchased Season Passes knowing there is a 50/50 chance we could go for a Mardi Gras trip next year (the Studios is usually blocked out because of concerts) and just plan to upgrade then if we do get to go.

 

[Husker Mike]

Thanks!

Anybody know what the rules/processes are for upgrading the multi-day tickets to annual passes?

 

[CAPSLOCK]

You can upgrade them at any guest services. Upgrade while they are still valid (ie, before the end of your last park day). They will be credited as 3 day tickets.

For 2 trips, you probably want to upgrade one AP to the Preferred for the discounts. If so, might as well do it right off the bat for maximum benefits.

 

[CRSTEPHE]

You can upgrade any pass. We purchased Season Passes knowing there is a 50/50 chance we could go for a Mardi Gras trip next year (the Studios is usually blocked out because of concerts) and just plan to upgrade then if we do get to go.

How much did it cost to upgrade a pass? I have 3.

 

[macraven]

Price depends on which pass you want to upgrade

I have had the AP for years and years edited the starred the two Tyles of ep
Back in the olden days by when there were only two levels allowed I went with the ap that had better perks

 

[Husker Mike]

Thread Revival!

When our July cruise was cancelled, we flipped to salvaging our Universal tickets in October and booked again for a Disney cruise in early April. So we're planning to upgrade our 3 2+2 day passes to annual passes (unless we decide we hate Universal) so we can spend a couple of days at Universal pre or post cruise. If they are crediting me what we paid for the 2+2 passes to an annual pass, that'll be about $110 for a Power Pass, which will certainly be cheaper than another 2 day ticket. But there's an issue in that math, in that our last full day (Saturday 4/9) is a Power Pass blackout date. Easiest solution would simply be to say we'd start at Universal, go on the cruise, and then finish up with 2 days at Disney World. But since we also found out that one of my son's buddies is also going to be on the cruise as well, we thought we might want to coordinate our schedules, figuring they weren't going to pass up a trip to the parks either.

Soooo... let's say I decide to upgrade to the Power Pass...and then we decide we want to finish up at Universal because that's how things are rolling. Can I do another upgrade (i.e. $50 more per person) to get to preferred... or do I have to make the call in October?

 

[mamapenguin]

I think the wild card is: will they raise pass prices again before your April trip? Yes you can upgrade, but the price may or may not change. This year prices went up 4/1.

 

[CAPSLOCK]

What mamapenguin said.

You may consider upgrading one to the Preferred regardless - for $50, you add food / merchandise discounts and free parking. Hard not to have $50 in savings over 2 trips.

 

[ClapYourHands]

I think the wild card is: will they raise pass prices again before your April trip? Yes you can upgrade, but the price may or may not change. This year prices went up 4/1.

Since a price increase would presumably include all levels of AP, it doesn’t really matter if the prices go up again or not. The cost to upgrade is the difference in current costs.

The current non-FL resident preferred price is $450. I bought a seasonal AP for $300 (before the price increase to $350), and upgraded to the preferred for $100 last week.