AP Question

[aussietravellers]

We are looking at a trip to Disneyland this year and I was thinking of getting an AP. I was thinking of getting it just before I book our accomodation, so that I can use it to make the accomodation booking to get a discount, but I have a few questions.

If I purchased an AP (probably the premium), how soon after I have purchased it can I book accomodation and receive the discount and can I purchase the pass online and then call or book the accomodation online pretty much straight away or do I have to wait a certain period of time?

Is there always a discount on accomodation? is there a minimum amount of discount? I can see a lot on the discounts at restaurants and stores but not on the accomodation. I don't know when we will be going, it will be during the Australian School Holidays at some stage, so could be April, could be June/July or it could be August/September/October.

Do the annual passes have a photo on them? If we purchase them online, when do we get the pass with the photo? Are we still able to use the annual pass without an actual photo card (if we have one). Or do they just send a card with your name on it in the post with no photo or do they send a temporary card to use until you get one with a photo?

What happens when ordering them online from the Disneyland site, are we given our annual pass number straight away to use for bookings? How does it work?

Sorry for all of the questions, I have looked on the Disneyland website and can't really find the answers and have looked here at other posts but can't really seem to find the answers.

Any other handy info or benefits that they don't list on the website?

Thanks so much in advance

 

[mareeld86]

Hey,
Just to let you know. We have tried to purchase AP through the disneyland web site with mulitple Australian credit cards but none of them worked we tried for 4 weeks to purchase them with heaps of phone calls to disneyland about it but apparently disneylands websited doent accept australian credit cards.
I work in a bank so i had all the info in front of me why it wasnt working and it was rejected.
Hope this helps a little.

 

[Sherry E]

We are looking at a trip to Disneyland this year and I was thinking of getting an AP. I was thinking of getting it just before I book our accomodation, so that I can use it to make the accomodation booking to get a discount, but I have a few questions.

If I purchased an AP (probably the premium), how soon after I have purchased it can I book accomodation and receive the discount and can I purchase the pass online and then call or book the accomodation online pretty much straight away or do I have to wait a certain period of time?

Is there always a discount on accomodation? is there a minimum amount of discount? I can see a lot on the discounts at restaurants and stores but not on the accomodation. I don't know when we will be going, it will be during the Australian School Holidays at some stage, so could be April, could be June/July or it could be August/September/October.

Do the annual passes have a photo on them? If we purchase them online, when do we get the pass with the photo? Are we still able to use the annual pass without an actual photo card (if we have one). Or do they just send a card with your name on it in the post with no photo or do they send a temporary card to use until you get one with a photo?

What happens when ordering them online from the Disneyland site, are we given our annual pass number straight away to use for bookings? How does it work?

Sorry for all of the questions, I have looked on the Disneyland website and can't really find the answers and have looked here at other posts but can't really seem to find the answers.

Any other handy info or benefits that they don't list on the website?

Thanks so much in advance

Okay, let me see if I can answer some of your questions, and then other folks will fill in anything else I missed.

First of all, as for the Australian credit card issue - while the DLR website may not accept it, I am sure the actual Reservations people (Central Reservations/Room Only) are quite used to booking people from all over the world, so rather than booking online you would simply have to call the Reservations number to reserve your DLR hotel room.

Secondly, you don't need to have the Annual Pass up front to book a room at the discount. You simply first find out if there are any special 'AP rates' at the time of your visit (and people here on DIS can help to tell you if the AP calendar shows any great rates), you tell the person in Reservations on the phone that you want to book the AP8 rate or AP9 or whatever it is by that time and that you plan to pick up your AP when you arrive at DLR. They will reserve your room at the AP rate and then you have to show them your AP when you check-in. They are fine with that. In fact, the Reservations folks may even be able to add the cost of an AP onto your hotel bill and give you a voucher at the front desk, but I am not sure about that.

So then, assuming you don't have a voucher, what you would do is, when you arrive, go straight to the ticket booths, pay for your AP, go to the DL Bank and get your photo taken, and THEN check in to whichever DLR hotel you have chosen. If you don't have your AP fully activated upon check-in, then I think the Reservations folks may assume you have to be charged the regular hotel rate and adjust your reservation accordingly in their system, charging your card full price, but if you can get your AP as soon as possible before you check out and show it to the front desk, then they can adjust the price again and give you the cheaper rate. Just to avoid any confusion or extra trips to the front desk of the hotel, I would suggest you just get to DL as early as possible and get the AP all activated and taken care of, then go check into the hotel. In any case, you can still book a hotel room with the AP rate in advance even if you don't have the card yet. But, no, your AP is not considered active and you can't use it for any discounts until your picture is on it (other than for reserving your DLR hotel room). So it is best to just get the AP taken care of right away when you arrive. If you can't use your credit card on the DLR website to order the AP, then you will have to get it when you are here. IF you were to get it from the website, I am sure there is some sort of voucher you print out which you would then take to the park to have activated.

And if there are no special AP rates available at the time you are going to DLR, then you can ALWAYS get 10% off of any room (365 days a year) with the AP. So it helps for discounts any day of the year - it is just a matter of how good the discount will be!

As soon as the AP is activated - the very instant - you can begin to use it for discounts on food and merchandise. It can be used all over DLR in the parks' shops and restaurants, and also including the character meals in the hotels, the restaurants in DTD, World of Disney and Marceline's in DTD, just all over. There are very few limitations and restrictions overall. There are some, but not many. The Premium will give you 15% off food in the parks and the hotels, and 10% off at the DTD restaurants, if I recall correctly. You get 10% off of merchandise in the parks and the select DTD stores.

I think I covered pretty much everything.

 

[Vala]

Central Reservations did accept German credit cards as of last week and the charge did go through, so hopefully there shouldn't be a problem with Australian ones.

The guy I spoke to was in fact pretty thrilled to book for someone from Germany. So if there's any issues I'm sure they'll work it out with you.

 

[bumbershoot]

You can even book your rate AND arrange to buy your AP at the desk (and then you'd go to the park to activate it and make it real).

Buying AP, the ONLY time you actually get your REAL AP is once you're in Disneyland and go have your picture taken. You don't get an actual AP buying it ahead of time.

The thing with the Australian credit card, I remember a thread about that, might have been the PP who couldn't get it to go, but there were other Australians whose cards WERE accepted on the site. So it's not all Australian ccs that aren't accepted.

I also think that that was a problem with the "$30 off an AP promo", and there were some issues with that site anyway, I got a weird error message for awhile until I figured out what was going on.


So when you're ready to book, call them, tell them you want the AP rate (and if you've heard that there's a specific AP rate like "AP9" use that "name" for the rate), see if it's acceptable, and book it.

Then you can wait to get your AP, or buy the voucher through disneyland.com if your cc will allow it, etc. The vouchers are sent as PDF to your email address, so you can print the voucher, save the email, and save it to your computer too. Make sure the email you have it sent to is accessible on ANY computer...don't send it to your work email address, or outlook, or something that requires your own computer...if you send it to hotmail or gmail, that way if your voucher is lost or left behind, you can go to any computer with a printer and just print it again.

 

[aussietravellers]

Thank you all so much for your replies .

You can even book your rate AND arrange to buy your AP at the desk (and then you'd go to the park to activate it and make it real).

Does this mean that I would just call and book the normal rate and then when we arrive and check in I can get the rate changed there at checkin, but I would have to rush to the park then and get the AP card, or as I had just purchased it from them at checkin they wouldn't worry about that?

So if I make my reservation through Disney (we can't do it online from Australia I do not think, having a play around on the Disneyland website and selecting Australia as the country, it says that we have to contact a travel agent, at which time we would have to prepay the travel agent, but I will try calling Disney and booking over the phone)

So how does booking over the phone work, do we pay a deposit then the balance on check out or do we have to prepay for the accommodation. If I booked over the phone without the AP, but on arrival at Disneyland, went to the park and got it, then went back to the hotel and checked in, would I mention the AP and they would adjust my rate there on the spot? It would probably be better to ask for the rate and have it attached to the booking.

All of our Disney trips, we have prebooked with a travel agent here, so have prepaid for the accommodation before leaving home (with the exception of Disneyland Paris last month, where we booked direct with them, but still had to prepay) so I am a little confused how the booking direct with Disneyland works.

 

[Sherry E]

Bumbershoot - where are you? You seem to be the go-to gal on the DIS! I explained as much as I could in the earlier post.

 

[aussietravellers]

Sherry, I am confusing myself with my questions.
I just had the ot thought of how does the booking system at Disneyland work, pay in full in advance or just a deposit so veered quite a long way off my original question Sorry.

 

[Sherry E]

Sherry, I am confusing myself with my questions.
I just had the ot thought of how does the booking system at Disneyland work, pay in full in advance or just a deposit so veered quite a long way off my original question Sorry.

Oh, it's no problem! I have certainly confused myself with questions on more than one occasion. And I have sought Bumbershoot's help on plenty of occasions! She IS the go-to gal on most topics here! But we are all here to help as much as we can!

If you book through Central Reservations (room only; no package deals with tickets), whether or not you add the AP onto that booking, you are only required to pay the first night's deposit plus 15% tax up front and that's it. You can choose to pay the rest of the balance due before you arrive but you aren't required to pay it until you check in, and then they will charge you the balance due on the room plus 15% tax, as well as the $12 per night Resort Fee plus 15% tax, which includes Internet access, parking, use of the workout facility, etc. If you are able to somehow bypass the DLR website problems with the Australian credit cards and get the AP beforehand, then you don't have to worry about paying for that too when you arrive, but you would still have to get it activated and have your photo taken to use it for any discounts in the parks.

 

[BecBennett]

I've bought tickets off the Disneyland website with my credit card and had no issues...

 

[aussietravellers]

Thanks Sherry I will get organised and work out which hotel we are going to stay at (can't decide between Grand Californian and Disneyland, like both). Just waiting for my Disneyland 2009 books to arrive then we will decide when we are going.

Thanks BecBennet, I haven't actually tried to use my credit card to order the AP, but was planning on trying as I have read of other Aussies doing it online so some must work and others not, but I will give it a go. Did you book your accommodation online, by phone or from an agent at home to get your AP discount on accommodation?