Annual Pass Upgrade Question

[jolaf408]

(apologies if this is the wrong place to post)

Hi Everyone!

I have a Disneyland Annual Pass (Disney Signature Passport, which costs $849, and expires in April 2017). I will be going to to WDW in October (21 - 29) with four other friends (5 of us total), and we're going to purchase a 5-day MYW Hopper + Water Park Ticket ($390 through Park Savers).

I want to upgrade to the Premier Passport, since we have several dining reservations throughout the parks (I wanted to add on Tables In Wonderland), we tend to purchase quite a few merchandise, and we definitely want to take advantage of PhotoPass as well.

My question is -- can the value of my current Disneyland Annual Pass ($849), AND the cost of my 5-day tickets I bought ($390) be applied to the total cost of the Premier Passport ($1439). OR, am I only able to upgrade one (my current AP OR the 5-day ticket). I understand that whichever option I choose, my AP would still expire in April 2017. I spoke with someone from the WDW website on the chat feature and they said I would only be able to upgrade one, and then I spoke with a representative on the phone who wouldn't give me a 100% confirmed answer, but he said that he doesn't see why Guest Relations wouldn't be able to apply the cost of both.

If I can only upgrade one, I guess it makes more sense for me to upgrade my current AP to the Premier, and then I can just reassign my tickets to another member in my group. But then my concern would be, how would I be able to make FastPass reservations when our 30-day window comes, if I can't purchase an AP until I'm physically at the park?

Thanks in advance for any help!

 

[Robo]

One of the problems with FP+ is that you cannot book advance FP+ without already owning WDW tickets at the time of the booking.
But, if you ARE going to purchase the 5-day Parksavers ticket in advance, you CAN book FP+ based on that ticket. When you arrive and upgrade your DLR AP to the Premier AP, your FP+ will still remain for you.

You can only upgrade one "old" ticket to one "new" ticket.

Think carefully about TiW as it's initial cost can eat up a lot of savings if you don't book enough expensive meals to cover it.

 

[Snookies]

If you can can confirm that you may apply the value of both to a premiere upgrade, I' d use the 5-day ticket as your fp generator, then upgrade at guest relations at wdw when you arrive. If you can only apply one, upgrade the dlr pass to a premiere at disneyland if you're close to disneyland and go frequently. Then you can use the premiere to book fp and reassign thhe 5-day ticket to someone else. If you're not close to disneyland, I would call wdw and see if they will upgrade on the phone. If not, you may consider holding the ticket for yourself as a fp generator, then either using or upgrading it for yourself on a future trip. This is expensive, but if you know you're likely to return to wdw within 2 or 3 years, you may consider it a viable option.

 

[jolaf408]

If you can can confirm that you may apply the value of both to a premiere upgrade, I' d use the 5-day ticket as your fp generator, then upgrade at guest relations at wdw when you arrive. If you can only apply one, upgrade the dlr pass to a premiere at disneyland if you're close to disneyland and go frequently. Then you can use the premiere to book fp and reassign thhe 5-day ticket to someone else. If you're not close to disneyland, I would call wdw and see if they will upgrade on the phone. If not, you may consider holding the ticket for yourself as a fp generator, then either using or upgrading it for yourself on a future trip. This is expensive, but if you know you're likely to return to wdw within 2 or 3 years, you may consider it a viable option.

Thanks so much for this information, the embarrassing part is that I JUST came back from Disneyland this past weekend, and of course none of this crossed my mind until about an hour ago. I live in San Francisco though, so I'm about 6 hours away and I'm fairly certain I won't be back before my WDW trip. I'm going to try calling tomorrow and see if I can get a definitive answer, and will take your advice from there. I'll also see if they're able to make any special circumstance where they can upgrade me over the phone. I'll be at work that day, so I'll have access to a fax machine, etc. if they need it. IDEALLY, I'd love to be able to use the 5-day ticket to book my FP's and apply the value of both that ticket and my current AP to the cost of the premier. We'll see. Thanks again!

You can only upgrade one "old" ticket to one "new" ticket.

Think carefully about TiW as it's initial cost can eat up a lot of savings if you don't book enough expensive meals to cover it.

Thanks for this, and I completely misread the pricing for TiW -- I thought it was only $75, not $150

 

[jolaf408]

Update in case anyone runs into something similar --

I called and spoke with another representative on the phone, who was probably the most helpful (not sure if I'm being bias though, since he was also the one to give me the answers that I was hoping for, lol).

Rep said that since it will be my Disneyland Annual Pass that I'll be upgrading, I shouldn't have any problem applying the cost of my 5-day park hopper tickets towards the cost of the upgrade. He even put me on hold to speak with another person to get confirmation. Basically, he said, as long as I go up to Guest Relations, and say something to the tune of: "I have a Disneyland Annual Pass that I want to upgrade to the Premier Passport, but I also purchased these 5-day park hopper tickets, and want to apply the cost of these tickets towards the upgrade."

The rep said it's "weird territory" but it happens frequently and I shouldn't have any problems doing it. Expiration date for the pass will still be April 2017, as I suspected, and I would just need to pay whatever the remaining balance is upfront (which should be less than or around $200).

Thanks to everyone that helped!

 

[nkushch]

I'm going to be in the exact same boat for a November trip. Can you post back after you've done so? Thanks!