Adding extra days? Advice please!

[Fabooliss]

Before I sit on hold waiting, I thought I'd ask the experts what/if it can be done!

I just found out that we can leave 2 days earlier for our December trip (hooray!!!).
We booked under the free dining promotion, and we can only extend out one of those days, the first day isn't eligible. OK... split stay it is! First night will be room only. Can't get around that but we want a park day the second day, can't do it without tickets. Is there any way we can access our tickets a day before our package starts? Anyone ever done this?

The problem is I managed to snag a standard room under the free dining promotion originally, and now only preferred rooms are available.

So it is going to be $758 more for one night (including one day's dining). If we just book a room only for two nights, its only $397 under the current promotion. We'd have to pay for food separately but we won't eat $361 food in 3 meals, even at Disney!

Any other thoughts on getting extra park time without breaking the bank?

Hope that makes sense!

 

[Alesia]

The Phone CM will tell you that you can't, but yes, you can pick up your tickets early. It just requires a trip to guest services.

Make sure you go ahead and add the extra days to your tickets now so you can book fastpasses.

 

[Sharla75]

I had this same question, as we added a single night stay before our dining promotion kicks in. I chatted with a CM online who told me we can definitely use our park hoppers a day earlier as long as we first visited guest services at the park of our choice. I printed out my conversation with the CM, in case there's a question about it when I actually try to do it in November. I hope it goes smoothly!

 

[Fabooliss]

Woohoo! Thank you! That saves us a large amount of money.
Which I will promptly spend at Disney.

 

[Fabooliss]

Make sure you go ahead and add the extra days to your tickets now so you can book fastpasses.

But, if I'm just picking them up early, I'm not really adding them "to the tickets" am I? So Fastpass date would stay the same?

 

[Alesia]

But, if I'm just picking them up early, I'm not really adding them "to the tickets" am I? So Fastpass date would stay the same?

Right. But you can't book fastpasses unless you have tickets. Say you only have 5 day tickets now - that means you can only book fastpasses for 5 days of your trip. If you want to book fastpasses for the other two days of your trip, you'll want to add the days onto your ticket before you're eligible to book the fastpasses.

 

[Fabooliss]

Ahh, ok! I'm with you now, thanks! We aren't adding an extra park day, we are adding a rest/resort day. We already had the extra ticket day, it was just going to only be a half day because we wouldn't have been there until afternoon. Now we can be there for rope drop and then take a day off and tour the resorts all decorated for Christmas the next day as well!
So happy!

 

[Fabooliss]

...just thought of this! Since I'm adding the days on at the start of the trip, even though I can pick up tickets early, I can't book Fastpasses for that day until I get to the park. Right?

 

[Accident]

...just thought of this! Since I'm adding the days on at the start of the trip, even though I can pick up tickets early, I can't book Fastpasses for that day until I get to the park. Right?

The system does block you from getting them outside of your reservation. I've never tried this but call them, tell them your plans and see if there is anything they can do so you can get fastpasses earlier than your check in date.

Last resort, I get fastpasses for most rides in the afternoon on the same day no problem the last month or so. It's not uncommon for me to decide I want to head to a park after work and grab some good fastpasses before I head over. I assume they started unlock some for same day visitors recently.

 

[Fabooliss]

Thanks for the encouragement!

We were planning on a late-day start after a late flight at HS, so TSMM fastpasses are important. May need to rethink!

 

[Accident]

We were planning on a late-day start after a late flight at HS, so TSMM fastpasses are important. May need to rethink!

the lines aren't multi-hour horrible since the third track opened. I also find the ride is empty and walkon closer to fantasmic starting so if your planning to do the star wars fireworks, go ride TSMM once or twice before getting a spot to watch them and it should be quick. This is how I ride it

 

[Fabooliss]

Great tip! Thanks.
Your MagicBand FAQ is great!

 

[Fabooliss]

update Some major Pixie dust just happened for me!
I tried calling, in case they could extend out even though it wasn't available online, no luck. So I logged into my MDE account and just kept refreshing now and then all day (I was doing it for an Ohana's reservation anyway). I lucked out! I managed to snag the extra night of free dining in a standard room. $230 more instead of $750. Woohoo!
Now I just need to get that Ohana's reservation!
Happy dance!!!!