AP Upgrade Advice Needed (Please)

[okduke]

We've entered single digits for our trip next week. WooHoo!!!

We have 5 day tickets with park hoppers and are considering upgrading them to a Platinum pass. Is there a 'right' way to do this? I've been told there may be a difference based upon when we inquire about the upgrade. Is there a reason to request the upgrade before we enter the parks or is it better to upgrade after we've entered the park for the first time?

I'm not sure if it matters or not, but we did not buy the tickets from WDW. The tickets have been loaded into our MDE account.

Thanks for any insight you might be willing to share.

(and if you can help me calculate the cost, I'd be grateful!)

 

[ELSA711]

We've entered single digits for our trip next week. WooHoo!!!

We have 5 day tickets with park hoppers and are considering upgrading them to a Platinum pass. Is there a 'right' way to do this? I've been told there may be a difference based upon when we inquire about the upgrade. Is there a reason to request the upgrade before we enter the parks or is it better to upgrade after we've entered the park for the first time?

I'm not sure if it matters or not, but we did not buy the tickets from WDW. The tickets have been loaded into our MDE account.

Thanks for any insight you might be willing to share.

(and if you can help me calculate the cost, I'd be grateful!)

We recently did this on our trip Thanksgiving week. Everything went smoothly IMO.

I didn't realize I needed all the magic bands with me so I had to do a split transaction. Oldest DD and I did ours outside MK waiting for rope drop and it went well.
I took the rest of the MBs at Epcot when the family was waiting in line at TT and went to guest relations near Mouse Gears. Again, very seamless transaction. I will say the lady in Epcot didn't know to back date the pass to the first use of the ticket, which I didn't find out until we got back to the room and I checked my account. Hope that doesn't come back to bite me later.

Based on my calculations the adult 5 day hopper is worth 435.59 with tax. Not sure if you have any child tickets in your package

 

[Mama Lo]

I did this last month.

They take the current gate price for the ticket that you have and deduct it off the Platinum Pass price. You just pay the difference.

Do it early on so that you can get the food and merchandise discounts.

All of the adults in our party needed to be present with ID to do the transaction.

Platinum - current value = what you should expect to pay
$797.69 - $435.59 - $362.10

Have a great trip!

 

[mikedoyleblogger]

Just FYI, though you can upgrade all MYW tickets, tickets bought directly from Disney will not be bridged to the current price. Bridging is done on third-party tickets since CMs can't tell how much you originally paid on those tickets, so you get the most recent price credited towards your AP upgrade. But if you're upgrading tickets bought from Disney, if their face price goes up, you'll have to pay that difference when you upgrade to APs because CMs in that case will be able to determine the original price you paid.

Long threads about this over the summer. Some Guest Services CMs refuse to price bridge any tickets. If you're upgrading from discounted third-party tickets, you may need to "shop around" for a GS CM that knows the rules. We had no problem at Epcot's main gate GS window in August.

 

[ELSA711]

I did this last month.

They take the current gate price for the ticket that you have and deduct it off the Platinum Pass price. You just pay the difference.

Do it early on so that you can get the food and merchandise discounts.

All of the adults in our party needed to be present with ID to do the transaction.

Platinum - current value = what you should expect to pay
$797.69 - $435.59 - $362.10

Have a great trip!

When I went to the Epcot Guest Relations desk, they allowed me to do my husbands upgrade with his Magic Band and his drivers license. Again, this is the same agent who did not back date the AP to original ticket use but she did it without my DH present.

 

[mbrittb00]

Just FYI, though you can upgrade all MYW tickets, tickets bought directly from Disney will not be bridged to the current price. Bridging is done on third-party tickets since CMs can't tell how much you originally paid on those tickets, so you get the most recent price credited towards your AP upgrade. But if you're upgrading tickets bought from Disney, if their face price goes up, you'll have to pay that difference when you upgrade to APs because CMs in that case will be able to determine the original price you paid.

Long threads about this over the summer. Some Guest Services CMs refuse to price bridge any tickets. If you're upgrading from discounted third-party tickets, you may need to "shop around" for a GS CM that knows the rules. We had no problem at Epcot's main gate GS window in August.

In the past if you if purchased your tickets from a 3rd party, it was suggested/required for you to use then for a park entry BEFORE upgrading them in order to get the "current price" equivalent. It is still the case, or can you just upgrade them straight away.

Also, I was looking at the All Ears site and noticed a caviet that I wanted to bring up here and ask if anyone had clarification.

"will not allow you to upgrade certain promotional tickets not available to the general public or any partially used ticket purchased prior to the January 2005 introduction of Magic Your Way tickets."

The discounted tickets we would be getting are from the US Army MWR. They are NOT the Military Salute tickets but the common discounted tickets that the Army sales to contractors, etc (about 10% off). They however are NOT available to the general public as you have to be affiliated with the army in some way. Would these tickets be excluded from upgrading?