3 day PH to AP upgrade- my experience and q about issue upgrading old AP

[gottalovepluto]

We upgraded our 3 day PH to SoCal Select APs on the last day of our trip. Took about an hour at the ticket booth late morning. The wait wasn't bad maybe 10 mins, I think our issue was the CM. She asked if anyone had ever had APs, then says actually just within the last 10 years. My dad had one about 5 years ago so we gave her his info. We ask if she needs our IDs and she says no. A couple mins later changes her mind and says oh she does need them after all. First hint we were in for a mess- of course she needed our IDs, not only to issue APs but to confirm we're SoCal residents...

-Blockout day. She printed off a piece of paper to get us in the parks on our last day as it was a blockout day for the APs we'd just bought. No issues there.

-MP. We bought it earlier that day, we were not buying it for our APs, we didn't want to have to buy it again. Guest Services in the park told us it wouldn't be a problem, the ticket booth CM would add it to our APs for today only. CM was lost. Told us she'd refund it and then we could purchase it again but needed supervisor approval, she came back and said she had approval but it had to be done after AP upgrade. Fine. After the renewal was done she moved onto the MP refund and after more consultation with her supervisor the sup came over and voila- no refund needed and MP was on out tickets for 1 day. Annoying but not shocking. (Inquire with your CM if you get a refund for previously purchasing MP on the ticket, after our upgrade I read that someone else here purchased MP with their ticket to AP upgrade and got a refund for the previous MPs they'd purchased on the tickets. I would have gone that route in a heartbeat had I known it was possible but I was desperately just trying to salvage the day of MP we'd bought.)

-The price. We were quoted (and had figured out for ourselves) it would $24/person to upgrade our 4 tickets. Sweet deal right? The CM even commented on how great it was. When the CM tells us the final figure it was over $400 and we were like- no. you literally just told us it would be $24/person. Supervisor time. The computer?CM error? wouldn't upgrade my Dad's ticket to an AP, it required a manual override or something. Eventually the receipt shows the full charge for him and then a "Credit" for the price of his ticket and the total price is back under $100. Is there a policy that if you've had an AP in the last 10 years you can't upgrade a ticket to an AP? The CMs didn't say anything about this being a policy, they just straightened it out to what it should have been which makes me think it was CM error.

-The physical AP. She issues our APs and then when she created Dad's she gives it to us and says he already has an AP but we're going to issue him this one anyway. Excuse me? Was she going to try to charge us for replacing his AP from 5 years ago? I would have been beyond upset if we'd needed to buy him a replacement AP to get into the park that day as there had been no mention of this. Is it a policy you don't get a new AP card if you've let your old one expire and then get a new AP, even years later?

Idk how much of this was the CM screwing up (I know it's not easy to do this ticket upgrade to AP) and how much was Disney policy I knew nothing about that might be buried in the fine print of APs that I never read. Anyone encounter any of this?

 

[theluckyrabbit]

I'm sorry for all the hassle with your AP upgrade. It does seem that mileage varies quite a bit depending on how new the CM is. If the CM is relatively new and has recently undergone training in all the rules and fine print, these kinds of transactions can be pretty messy. Especially since a new CM won't want to mess up (understandably) and get in trouble for overlooking something or for breaking the rules. I do know several people who were told that if they had an expired AP and wanted to renew, even more than a year later, Disney wanted them to bring the old AP card (if it was still in existence) with them to the booth. One person even got scolded for not bringing the old card. Apparently, since photos and expiration dates were removed from the cards, Disney would like to keep using the cards for as long as possible, rather than keep replacing them. Obviously, if the old card is no longer in existence or in very bad condition, then a new card will have to be issued. The last time we renewed, our CM graciously gave DH a new card at no charge because his magnetic strip was almost acratched off the old card. But that was up to her discretion, not required in any way. She could have charged us for a replacement card.

 

[Sun_soakin]

We had a similar experience last year when we upgraded tix right after new year. Only in our case we had to wait more than an hour before we got to the counter (crazy crazy booth lines) and then had this clueless sloth lady. Took at least 2.5 hours. Same issue with old APs...5/6 of us had old ones in the system but not my youngest (hadn’t been old enough to need one)....that really messed her up. I wished the supervisor she kept consulting with would have actually stayed and helped her. They need to upgrade their systems and/or training because it should not take that long!

 

[Angrose]

Is there a policy that if you've had an AP in the last 10 years you can't upgrade a ticket to an AP?

I don't think so. Last year I let my AP expire in March, then upgrade a ticket for my new AP in July. I didn't have any problems at all. I also had my old AP card. Sorry you had so many issues!

 

[smartlabelprint]

Well, we had AP’s that expired in March, maybe?? February?? Anyway. We just bought tickets. I probably threw away my old AP’s and I hope we don’t have an issue upgrading in March!

My DH wants to go to Comic-Con 3/24. Maybe I can at least get mine upgraded that day so I’m not wasting an hour of park time. They should have given you the MP for free since it took an hour. IMO

Maybe they will let me upgrade his and he can pick it up later?

 

[gottalovepluto]

We had a similar experience last year when we upgraded tix right after new year. Only in our case we had to wait more than an hour before we got to the counter (crazy crazy booth lines) and then had this clueless sloth lady. Took at least 2.5 hours. Same issue with old APs...5/6 of us had old ones in the system but not my youngest (hadn’t been old enough to need one)....that really messed her up. I wished the supervisor she kept consulting with would have actually stayed and helped her. They need to upgrade their systems and/or training because it should not take that long!

2.5 hours?! Omg you are a Saint. I would have completely lost my cool at 1.5 hours and we would be without APs with a very unfortunate family tale of "remember that time gottalovepluto broke down at the Disneyland ticket counter?"

 

[gottalovepluto]

I don't think so. Last year I let my AP expire in March, then upgrade a ticket for my new AP in July. I didn't have any problems at all. I also had my old AP card. Sorry you had so many issues!

Good to know! I hadn't read of anyone here having issues, I so hope it was just a CM issue.

 

[Sun_soakin]

2.5 hours?! Omg you are a Saint. I would have completely lost my cool at 1.5 hours and we would be without APs with a very unfortunate family tale of "remember that time gottalovepluto broke down at the Disneyland ticket counter?"

That was total amount of time (including the hour plus just to get to the counter), but yes...I lost it. At one point she had printed out 5 of the six APs I needed and realized she messed something up and threw them away and started over! I was livid. She generously offered us a single fast pass as a consolation.....but we were headed home. We do have a family tale, sometimes my kids say “remember that sloth lady”...she really was that slow. It nearly killed me.

 

[cruisehopeful]

Is it a policy you don't get a new AP card if you've let your old one expire and then get a new AP, even years later?

Not in my experience. When I bought an AP after not having one for a couple years, I was asked if I still had my old card. I said no. There was nothing else said. They just gave me a new card.

Last time I bought an AP, I had purchased a voucher online in order to get the extra month free. I didn't use it until a few months after my other one expired and figured that they would use my old card for the new one. Nope. They said they wanted me to turn in the old card so they could destroy it and they gave me a new card.

Anytime I've ever had to go to the ticket booth, though, it has taken a long time. I can never understand what is going on. The people in front of me have really long transactions and then mine always take longer than I expect. They must have a very laggy, screwy computer system. And I agree, there is very little training. There is always a supervisor floating around, but seems like those working the window haven't been trained in anything complicated.

 

[Lesley Wake]

Is it a policy you don't get a new AP card if you've let your old one expire and then get a new AP, even years later?

I’m another one that believes this could be an obscure reference in the CM handbook but not actually enforced. I had an AP that expired in Nov 2016. I ended up getting a new one in April 2017. They gave me the same AP number, but a new card. I hadn’t even told them I had a previous AP (wasn’t hiding it, they just didn’t ask)-when they put my ID into the system it automatically recognized me and spit out the information.

 

[Niltiac]

I’m another one that believes this could be an obscure reference in the CM handbook but not actually enforced. I had an AP that expired in Nov 2016. I ended up getting a new one in April 2017. They gave me the same AP number, but a new card. I hadn’t even told them I had a previous AP (wasn’t hiding it, they just didn’t ask)-when they put my ID into the system it automatically recognized me and spit out the information.

Interesting - seems like this is never handled the same way twice. We had AP's that expired in Oct 2016. Went to exchange vouchers for new AP's in Oct 2017. I brought the old AP's since I had heard that they reuse them, but they didn't - we got new cards and new numbers, and they didn't seem to want the old ones back. I had to be careful the rest of the day to keep track of which ones were which.

 

[DL_Forever]

We currently have AP's and they are due to expire next month. We had gone in early October and purchased MaxPass by day for each of the two days we were in the park, as I was unsure if I wanted to add it to our AP's with out seeing how it worked first. It cost us $80 ($10 each day x 2 days x 4 people). When we went back for our 8 day stay in December I decided to add it to our AP's ($75 each AP). I had talked to a CM over the phone prior to our trip and was told that if I took my original receipts to the ticket booth they would credit me back the $80 from the prior purchase, which they did do. It took about 30 minutes. They asked if we wanted to renew our AP's while we were there and I told them no as we didn't plan to purchase ap's for another 2 years. The CM then told me to make sure that we hang our to our AP cards as they will be reused when we purchase our AP's in 2 years.

 

[gottalovepluto]

We currently have AP's and they are due to expire next month. We had gone in early October and purchased MaxPass by day for each of the two days we were in the park, as I was unsure if I wanted to add it to our AP's with out seeing how it worked first. It cost us $80 ($10 each day x 2 days x 4 people). When we went back for our 8 day stay in December I decided to add it to our AP's ($75 each AP). I had talked to a CM over the phone prior to our trip and was told that if I took my original receipts to the ticket booth they would credit me back the $80 from the prior purchase, which they did do. It took about 30 minutes. They asked if we wanted to renew our AP's while we were there and I told them no as we didn't plan to purchase ap's for another 2 years. The CM then told me to make sure that we hang our to our AP cards as they will be reused when we purchase our AP's in 2 years.

Where do you find the receipts?
ETA: oh duh, the email

 

[DL_Forever]

Where do you find the receipts?
ETA: oh duh, the email

Yes the email