Annual Pass Question

[jenbright]

We are not current annual pass members. Our first trip will be Dec 26-Jan 1. I would like to purchase park hopper tickets online and upgrade them on our last day to the Disney Deluxe Passport. I've read online that Disney will credit the full purchase price of my hopper tickets toward the Passports. Can anyone confirm that? We don't live in CA so I would prefer to not buy the ultra expensive Signature Plus Passport if possible. Any issues I'm not thinking of?

 

[Aladora]

I upgraded 3 park hoppers to 3 deluxe APs in September. Two of the hoppers were bought from LMT at a discount and the third one was "bought" by redeeming Airmiles. In all three cases I was credited the full gate price of the hoppers towards the cost of the APs.

 

[SMD]

Do the hoppers you're buying cost less than the deluxe AP? That's the only reason you'd only be able to upgrade to the higher level AP.

 

[smartlabelprint]

Yes. We did this exact thing. 3 day to a deluxe. It's best to change earlier in your trip to take advantage of your food discounts.

 

[MacMama0930]

I agree about doing it earlier - you get a lot of merchandise and food discounts.

 

[Ryan120420]

Yes. We did this exact thing. 3 day to a deluxe. It's best to change earlier in your trip to take advantage of your food discounts.

I agree about doing it earlier - you get a lot of merchandise and food discounts.

One big problem with this is the Deluxe Pass will be blocked during the entirety of the OP trip (Dec 26 - Jan 1st) . So upgrading before the last day of the OPs parkhopper ticket is not an option. The only way for the OP to take advantage of the AP discounts is to upgrade the parkhopper the morning of the last day of the trip (Blockout dates never apply when you upgrade), and use the AP discounts then.


As for the OP question, you will receive full credit for what you paid for your tickets. You will pay the difference between the gate price of the Deluxe pass and what you paid for your tickets.

 

[ChloroformSdxn]

Seconding what the poster above said - while normally you would want to upgrade earlier in your trip, in this case, it makes sense to wait with the blockout dates. I *think* though, you could upgrade on your last day and still get into the park because you upgraded it that day, so don't buy souvenirs until then, so you'll still save a little.

If for some reason though you want to upgrade to the highest class which includes those dates, then upgrade earlier for the food/merchandise.

Other, random thing - if you buy your tickets at a discount, don't upgrade until you've traded them in for tickets and have gone through the turnstile. If you go through the turnstile, you'll get the full price value of the tickets credited. If not, you'll only get the discounted rate you paid applied towards the passports.

 

[Kindermouse]

agreed with above (except I had used my ticket for 3 days before I upgraded and I still was only credited the discounted price I paid) as well as wanting to point out that we also wait to upgrade so we can use our magic morning. You loose that when you upgrade and for us the best day to use it was our last day in the parks.

Even if you upgrade on a blockout date you can still use it to enter the parks that day, however if you upgrade on day 2 and days 2 and 3 are blocked out then you'll get go in on day 2 but be blocked on day 3.

 

[Aladora]

Other, random thing - if you buy your tickets at a discount, don't upgrade until you've traded them in for tickets and have gone through the turnstile. If you go through the turnstile, you'll get the full price value of the tickets credited. If not, you'll only get the discounted rate you paid applied towards the passports.

Not necessarily true. When we upgraded the 3 hoppers to 3 APs last month we had not used the hoppers to enter the park and we were still credited the full gate price for all 3, even though two were bought at a discount and the third was "bought" by trading in Airmiles.

The AM ticket was a regular paper ticket, just the same as a regular hopper but the 2 LMT tickets were just the voucher PDF that I was sent by Last Minute Travel and it was absolutely clear that try were from LMT Club.

As always with things like this, your experience might be totally different from mine but I wanted to let people know what I experience just last month.

 

[SMD]

The tickets are coded with a price that the reseller is supposed to charge. Going through the turnstile doesn't change that. DLR does not price bridge, so you go in expecting to pay the actual different between the discounted price (if you didn't pay full price) and any additional value is pixie dust. The only times I can recall where the upgrade value was provided by the company are City Pass publishes the upgrade value on their site, and years ago Costco had a 4 day ticket deal with a $50 gift card that had an upgrade value printed on the package that was different than the amount paid for the tickets.

 

[ChloroformSdxn]

Oh interesting. I've always received full ticket price applied to the season's pass, even if that's not what I paid, but we went through the turnstiles.

 

[GrantFam]

We bought three day park hoppers for our family over Memorial Day weekend, and then upgraded to deluxe annual passes at the end of our visit since that weekend, as a holiday, was blacked out for the deluxe passes. The full amount of the three day park hoppers was credited toward the purchase of the annual passes. Have fun!

 

[jenbright]

Thanks everyone! I hadn't thought of using Magic Morning first. We'll definitely wait 'till the last day to upgrade.

 

[Reepicheep]

Seconding what the poster above said - while normally you would want to upgrade earlier in your trip, in this case, it makes sense to wait with the blockout dates. I *think* though, you could upgrade on your last day and still get into the park because you upgraded it that day, so don't buy souvenirs until then, so you'll still save a little.

There is an additional complication which might come into play in this scenario . My experience from this past August is as follows:

We had 5 day park hoppers which I used as follows:

August 3 Wed: day 1
August 4 Thu: day 2, used Magic Morning
August 5 Fri: day 3
August 6 Sat: day 4 (blockout day for Deluxe passports)

On Saturday, I went to the ticket booth to upgrade our 5 day passes to Deluxe passports. I was told that, since my annual passports would be back dated to Wednesday August 3rd, we would NOT be able to enter the parks on Saturday.

I didn't make an issue out of this, and just waited until Sunday to do the upgrade. I suspect the employee may have been wrong when she said we wouldn't be allowed into the parks, but I don't know that for certain.

 

[Minnie Loves Mickey]

We just upgraded our Tickets purchased through Gay Days website the 1st of October never went through the gate just straight to the ticket booth to upgrade. We were given the ticket booth value not the discount amount we paid. Also since the line we went through the Cast Member was in training we were given 2 front of the line passes to use that day.

 

[Kindermouse]

There is an additional complication which might come into play in this scenario . My experience from this past August is as follows:

We had 5 day park hoppers which I used as follows:

August 3 Wed: day 1
August 4 Thu: day 2, used Magic Morning
August 5 Fri: day 3
August 6 Sat: day 4 (blockout day for Deluxe passports)

On Saturday, I went to the ticket booth to upgrade our 5 day passes to Deluxe passports. I was told that, since my annual passports would be back dated to Wednesday August 3rd, we would NOT be able to enter the parks on Saturday.

I didn't make an issue out of this, and just waited until Sunday to do the upgrade. I suspect the employee may have been wrong when she said we wouldn't be allowed into the parks, but I don't know that for certain.

I have upgraded several times on blockout days and never been not allowed to enter the park that day so I am gonna guess that the CM you were dealing with didnt know what she was talking about. I have also been given misinformation by well meaning CM so many times that it's to the point of irritation. For example last March I had the Ariels Grotto Dining package and while I waited for the viewing area with my son who was in a wheelchair because of a recent surgery I ask the CM where should we walk to get to the viewing area since everyone was being sent down steps-she told me that I had to be in the regular handicapped area since I couldnt access the DP viewing area because of the stairs-she was wrong and we had a terrible view experience because of it. I should have asked someone else. on my Last trip I had a CM in city hall tell me that DAS was only for specific diagnoses when that is not true, and I verified that it wasnt true with Disney.

I feel like many people, myself especially, take what CM's say as the truth even though the fact of the matter is that they are just people working a job for a company, not everyone has been there for years, and not everyone knows it all and yet so many CM seem to prefer giving people incorrect answers rather than saying "I dont know". You could ask me a great many things about the school district that I have worked for since July and very often my answer would be I dont know-but I am going to come right out and say it rather than give incorrect answers.

 

[calilou]

If I don't like the answer I receive from one CM, I don't hesitate to ask another. I'm always polite, never pushy. I think everyone is doing their best, but some CMs are more experienced and knowledgeable. This is especially important when you've done your homework and are pretty confident you know how things should work.