As far as upgrading a ticket that contains a normal Park Hopper ticket to an AP on your last day when your ticket dates contained Blackout dates for that AP.
I just had a very long and detailed phone conversation with Disney Ticketing. My plan was to buy a 5 day ticket ending December 20th and then on the last day upgrade to a Sorcerer Pass just like you could in the past. Initially he (and
DVC Member Services) said it would work fine. Then he went through and read the business rules for the new APs while I was on the phone with him. Apparently what I was told on online chat (that was my post quoted earlier in the thread) is correct. You CANNOT upgrade a regular ticket into an AP if the dates on the regular ticket would be Blackout Dates on that AP. So in my case I cannot upgrade to a Sorcerer Pass on 12/20, only to an Incredipass. This is obviously an annoying change that closes a sort of loophole many of us have used in the past that they seem to have closed with the new APs.