Annual Passes

Princess_taffy05

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Aug 6, 2007
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I am not sure if I am posting in the correct place...

We are not Florida residents, but would like to get annual passes. I know they are around $600(ish) each. My question is, we have a trip scheduled (with 8 day hoppers) in December. How do we "upgrade" those to AP and what would the difference in cost be? We would upgrade those tickets in December when we arrive so they would be active through the following 12 months.

Thanks in advance if anyone can answer this!
 
Use them first and then upgrade. Typically Disneywill bridge the prices meaning if price increase prior to you upgrading Disney will give you the value of the 8 day hopper. Currently an AP is $675.21 (all ages). Your 8 day PH would've been around $420. The AP is good 366 days from first use of ticket. If you used ticket (example) on 11/1, upgraded on 11/3, the AP is good until 11/1 following year. Are you booked for free dining? We considered it but with the sale Orbitz is running we got All Stars for $71.24 (after tax) free dining room was $140. Not worth it to us.
 
Any park ticket window or customer service area can help you upgrade. What they do is apply the price of your 8 day park hopper to the price of the annual pass. You just pay the difference.
 
Thanks for the reply...
So, the $420 would go towards the $675?

We aren't traveling during free dining time, but we don't usually do the dining plan because it isn't a good value for us and the way we eat (it is just my husband and I). If dining plan is offered for "free" when we travel, we do take it though!
We are hoping for a room discount. We had that last December for our honeymoon and it was great! Any discount is nice!
 

Thanks for the reply...
So, the $420 would go towards the $675?

We aren't traveling during free dining time, but we don't usually do the dining plan because it isn't a good value for us and the way we eat (it is just my husband and I). If dining plan is offered for "free" when we travel, we do take it though!
We are hoping for a room discount. We had that last December for our honeymoon and it was great! Any discount is nice!

Yes. Disney will always apply the price you've previously paid fully to an upgrade. It's a painless process that the people at the ticket counters are well trained on. They'll swap out your passes (annual passholders have passes that are marked specially as passholders). I'm not sure if they'll just give you Magic Bands with the passholder slider or not. You can configure those online and have them mail them to you.
 
Would we ask to upgrade on arrival day? We arrive 12/5, so if we upgrade on 12/5 it's good through the following 12/5? If we wait to upgrade until our last day, would it still be from 12/5?
 
Remember to use your ticket for at least one park entry, and make sure to ask for a ticket bridge. If the numbers from that CM don;t come out to those indicated here, ask for a supervisor, or ask for your ticket back and go to some other location.
 
Would we ask to upgrade on arrival day? We arrive 12/5, so if we upgrade on 12/5 it's good through the following 12/5? If we wait to upgrade until our last day, would it still be from 12/5?

That is correct. Use your ticket to enter a park first before upgrading to get the most value for your tickets. Do it the first day though so you will be able to take advantage of the AP discounts at stores and some restaurants.
 
Would we ask to upgrade on arrival day? We arrive 12/5, so if we upgrade on 12/5 it's good through the following 12/5? If we wait to upgrade until our last day, would it still be from 12/5?

Yes. The pass is always good from its first day of use, so any upgrade keeps that first day. So it will expire 12/5 the next year, no matter which day you upgrade.

You can upgrade on the first day or the last day. I believe they'll even upgrade any pass up to 30 days after the last use, so you can even upgrade a single day ticket used two weeks ago to a multiday.

One thing to consider when deciding when to upgrade is the discounts that come with it. Many of the World Showcase restaurants are discounted for AP holders on weekday lunches. The Rainforest Café and Yak & Yeti are discounted at Animal Kingdom. Hollywood & Vine and The Brown Derby also are discounted at the Studios. You also get merchandize discounts and many places at Downtown Disney offer discounts as well. You also get savings for any backstage tours you might be interested in taking, so there's more benefits than just getting park admission and parking included.
 
Yes. The pass is always good from its first day of use, so any upgrade keeps that first day. So it will expire 12/5 the next year, no matter which day you upgrade.

You can upgrade on the first day or the last day. I believe they'll even upgrade any pass up to 30 days after the last use, so you can even upgrade a single day ticket used two weeks ago to a multiday.

One thing to consider when deciding when to upgrade is the discounts that come with it. Many of the World Showcase restaurants are discounted for AP holders on weekday lunches. The Rainforest Café and Yak & Yeti are discounted at Animal Kingdom. Hollywood & Vine and The Brown Derby also are discounted at the Studios. You also get merchandize discounts and many places at Downtown Disney offer discounts as well. You also get savings for any backstage tours you might be interested in taking, so there's more benefits than just getting park admission and parking included.
This is not correct, macphisto96. You might be thinking of AP renewals. See second paragraph below. MYW ticket upgrades must be done in person. You can't complete your trip, return home, then upgrade to AP. MYW Tickets expire 14 days after first use. The day after you've used your last park entry, OR 14 days from first use of your MYW ticket, you can't upgrade.

In the case of AP renewal, you can renew from 60 days before expiration to 30 days after expiration. You can do your renewal online. You save about $100 by doing a renewal. However, the renewal Month and Day will be the same as previous. If future WDW trips aren't until at least a couple months after your AP expires, it's best to get a new AP at that future time. Here's a link to AP renewal info: https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/passholder-program/renewal-information/

Some MYW tickets cannot be price-bridged. Those are MYW tickets sold directly from Disney online, through Disney mail order or Disney will call, or MYW tickets sold at a Disney ticket booth. Eligible for price-bridging are tickets sold indirectly by Disney, such as Resort Package tickets, The Disney Store tickets and third party reseller tickets such as from AAA and UCT.

As previously noted, use your 8-day ticket to enter a theme park first before doing the upgrade. This step bridges your 8-day ticket value from any possible old price to current gate price. Then go to Guest Relations inside or outside a theme park gate (or at DTD). The CM will do a procedure to bridge your ticket to current gate price. At this time, gate price of your 8-day PH (with tax) is $419.61. Gate price of a regular AP (with tax) is $675.21. Difference you owe will be $255.60. The AP will be dated to the first day you used your 8-day ticket, because Disney is giving you full credit for your 8-day ticket. Otherwise Disney would be giving you free tickets for the days between first use of the ticket and the actual date you did your upgrade. Would be nice, but not good accounting. :littleangel:

As others mentioned, be sure the cost quoted to you is the one posted above. If the cost is higher, ask if they "bridged your ticket." If they didn't, for any reason (and there are lots given, none of them correct), ask for your 8-day tickets back and go to another person or another Guest Relations facility. Disney ticket prices could go up again before your trip starts. Here's the link for MYW ticket prices: https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/tickets/ and AP ticket prices: https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/passes/annual-pass/purchase/
 
Yes. The pass is always good from its first day of use, so any upgrade keeps that first day. So it will expire 12/5 the next year, no matter which day you upgrade.

You can upgrade on the first day or the last day. I believe they'll even upgrade any pass up to 30 days after the last use, so you can even upgrade a single day ticket used two weeks ago to a multiday.

One thing to consider when deciding when to upgrade is the discounts that come with it. Many of the World Showcase restaurants are discounted for AP holders on weekday lunches. The Rainforest Café and Yak & Yeti are discounted at Animal Kingdom. Hollywood & Vine and The Brown Derby also are discounted at the Studios. You also get merchandize discounts and many places at Downtown Disney offer discounts as well. You also get savings for any backstage tours you might be interested in taking, so there's more benefits than just getting park admission and parking included.

I believe your used ticket expires 14 days after the first use . Unless of course they're no exp.
 
Remember to use your ticket for at least one park entry, and make sure to ask for a ticket bridge. If the numbers from that CM don;t come out to those indicated here, ask for a supervisor, or ask for your ticket back and go to some other location.

Exactly...also though you won't have an AP when you arrive look for AP specials. When you check in just notify them that you plan to upgrade to an AP and that you'll bring it in later for verification. You shouldn't have a problem. If you do ask for a supervisor. December 5 there should definitely be AP discounts. A website called Mousesavers posts all resort discounts as soon as they are released. With Florida and AP discounts they usually only announce 2 season at a time. Right now it still has late Spring and summer, "Fall" discounts haven't been released yet. But I'd expect them in the next few weeks. They may not have discounts for December until August or September. Just keep checking.
 
Exactly...also though you won't have an AP when you arrive look for AP specials. When you check in just notify them that you plan to upgrade to an AP and that you'll bring it in later for verification. You shouldn't have a problem. If you do ask for a supervisor. December 5 there should definitely be AP discounts. A website called Mousesavers posts all resort discounts as soon as they are released. With Florida and AP discounts they usually only announce 2 season at a time. Right now it still has late Spring and summer, "Fall" discounts haven't been released yet. But I'd expect them in the next few weeks. They may not have discounts for December until August or September. Just keep checking.

Thank you so much!!
 














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