Advice on Parking Fees - When Upgrading to Annual Pass

[bryanb]

Does anyone know if the ticket offices at Downtown Disney open before the rest of the area opens? I need to go upgrade my regular tickets into an annual passport (which comes with free parking). Downtown Disney opens at 10:00am, which means I would miss out on the rope drop that morning.

I'd rather not pay the $17.00 parking fee that the theme parks charge for entry (just to go spend hundreds of dollars more on annual passes that come with free parking!).

Any info or suggestions ware welcome. Thanks everyone!

 

[Accident]

I'm 99% sure they don't open earlier. I would call them up and ask though, they might credit the parking that day towards an annual pass if you went directly to a park to use their guest relations.

 

[bryanb]

I'm 99% sure they don't open earlier. I would call them up and ask though, they might credit the parking that day towards an annual pass if you went directly to a park to use their guest relations.

I think you're right. They'd have no real reason to open earlier. As for parking reimbursement, Disney definitely does that at Disneyland in California. If you buy a pass that includes parking, they'll refund you your parking fee for that day. I asked the CM at the Disney World customer service and she hadn't heard of that.

 

[Accident]

I think you're right. They'd have no real reason to open earlier. As for parking reimbursement, Disney definitely does that at Disneyland in California. If you buy a pass that includes parking, they'll refund you your parking fee for that day. I asked the CM at the Disney World customer service and she hadn't heard of that.

Call guest relations directly (guest services is different), I'm not sure their exact number but this webpage has a number specific to annual passes: https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/help/phone/ I can't see why handing them a receipt from that morning would not be applied to your cost of the annual pass, you can't buy any ticket until you pay parking if your driving to the parks.

 

[thiabelle]

As Robo advised me- if your tickets were purchased at a discount go and ENTER a PARK FIRST and they will bridge your tickets from the price they are today to the AP.
As for parking- I upgraded at MK on Thursday. I didn't pay to park but as soon as she finished with the upgrade she asked if I had my parking receipt in order to refund it. In other words you could hit rope drop with your tix and upgrade on the way out with the parking fee refunded.

 

[CAS239]

No downtown Disney guest service won't be open before the parks. If you can't go to DTD the night before then just head straight to the park.

Pay to park, keep your receipt, upgrade to AP sometime while you're in the park and they'll refund you the parking for that day if you show them the receipt

 

[bryanb]

You are all awesome! Thanks so much for that information as it will save me lots of valuable time. I was able to find a flight that cuts it really close to rope drop time. Now lets hope the lines to pick up tickets aren't too long in the morning! I'll be sure to bring my receipt with me.