AP Expiration/Renewal & FP+

[Tess]

I previously posted this on an existing thread, but no answer was forthcoming. I thought I would give this another try as a stand alone. Hope someone can answer with certainty.

We will be a group of six. Three of us have APs and the balance of the folks have PH for various # of days depending on their length of stay.

My concern is that my AP and that of my husband (and we are the planners), will expire a few days into the trip. We cannot renew until 60 days before expiration, but I will be scheduling FP+ for everyone prior to that date.

Will I not be able to book the entire length of stay for my husband and I since our APs will expire prior to the end of our vacation. We arrive on 9/25 and expiration date is 9/29--we depart 10/3.

Will I have to wait to renew our APs until 60 days prior to AP expiration date and then complete the FP+ scheduling for us while the other members of our party will have FP+ available for the length of our stay since their admission media is good for the length of their various stays?

When renewing an AP now, does the renewal automatically show up in MDE or do they provide a new number that must be linked?

FP+ has created more issues than it resolves--we didn't find it all that wonderful on our last trip and it has created more than a few headaches that we never had with the prior system. Frankly, we scheduled all the FP+ in May and didn't need them since we are rope droppers and the queues were just not that busy to require a FP+.

Appreciate any help since our 60 days is on Sunday.

 

[olliffm1]

Just did my renewal and had the same situation.

As far as the fast pass goes, for a while it let me trade future non AP dates for other days that were good with my pass. So, what would happen would be I would create fast passes for a "fake" day. Then I would try to set up passes for the day I wanted but my pass wasn't valid yet. It would give me the option to trade with existing days. I would trade the fake day for the future date. Slightly complicated but it worked for all but 1 day.

Yes, your AP renewal goes straight to MDE. When I did renew I was able to go back and copy the day that I missed as soon as I paid. (The system does let you copy over fast passes from people that are linked to your MDE. Sometimes you can copy over Fast passes that you can't get otherwise, but not always)

If you are going to renew before the 30 day mark, you should be ok to copy over fast passes with the exception of maybe A&E. The one day I had to wait on I was still able to copy over Mine Train.

Hope that helps and have a great trip.

 

[Tess]

Just did my renewal and had the same situation.

As far as the fast pass goes, for a while it let me trade future non AP dates for other days that were good with my pass. So, what would happen would be I would create fast passes for a "fake" day. Then I would try to set up passes for the day I wanted but my pass wasn't valid yet. It would give me the option to trade with existing days. I would trade the fake day for the future date. Slightly complicated but it worked for all but 1 day.

Yes, your AP renewal goes straight to MDE. When I did renew I was able to go back and copy the day that I missed as soon as I paid. (The system does let you copy over fast passes from people that are linked to your MDE. Sometimes you can copy over Fast passes that you can't get otherwise, but not always)

If you are going to renew before the 30 day mark, you should be ok to copy over fast passes with the exception of maybe A&E. The one day I had to wait on I was still able to copy over Mine Train.

Hope that helps and have a great trip.

Thanks for the response. I was afraid that was how we would have to roll this trip. I double checked our APs and they expire on 9/27. We will renew them on 7/29 (I think that is 60 days), but I will book the other FP+ for our group on 7/27 and try to copy it back to my husband and I when we renew on 9/27. How I miss the old FP system!

 

[confusedwife]

We just went through this.
4 out our 5 AP's expired 4 days before our next trip.
But the 5th one expired 6 days into the trip.

We called and asked if there was anything we could do and they let us renew all 5 passes 60 days before most expired. So my daughter's was renewed 64 days before expiration.

We explained why we were worried (FP+) and they seemed to think it was no big deal.

So I suggest calling and explaining your situation. if it doesn't work, then hand up and try again! The first person we spoke to was convinced you could only renew 30 days in advance!

Good luck.
And it does show up immediately on MDE.
They sure make this more stressful than it should be!

 

[HockeyMomNH]

Could you buy tickets for the days you need to cover the trip and then upgrade the ticket to an AP once you arrive? I'm not sure if that would work for a renewal, but maybe someone else might know?

 

[CookieGVB]

Could you buy tickets for the days you need to cover the trip and then upgrade the ticket to an AP once you arrive? I'm not sure if that would work for a renewal, but maybe someone else might know?

I was thinking the same thing. Any ticket/AP experts out there?

 

[Tess]

Could you buy tickets for the days you need to cover the trip and then upgrade the ticket to an AP once you arrive? I'm not sure if that would work for a renewal, but maybe someone else might know?

I was thinking the same thing. Any ticket/AP experts out there?

I suppose that is a possibility BUT with a renewal, my date would stay the same regardless of when I renew it. If I purchased two six day hoppers, I would have to link them and then trade them up (after entering a park with them first to get a better value--bridging?) for our renewals and hope that when the renewal APs are relinked my FP+ don't disappear.

As I said, this system is not ideal.

I think I will just wait the two days and renew online then copy over the FP+ from the others in the party. If for whatever reason I can't copy them over, I will be ticked but get over it.

As I said, it was busy in May when we were there, but we are rope droppers and, with the exception of EPCOT; we rode all of the headliners multiple times in the other parks without a FP+--we had them, but didn't bother to use them. The early bird gets the worm or in this case, multiple rides.