Best (cheapest) way to get AP?

[pigletgirl]

We first used our ticket AND upgraded them to an AP on the same day. Is that not common practice when you purchase from a 3rd party and want to bridge to keep the discount? Walked through the turnstile and right back out to the GS ticket counter, upgraded for exact cost I expected.

For what it's worth, UT will inform you the price you are saving over retail when you purchase. It's part of their chart. I found the 6 or so (I forget exact number now) day PH WP&M ticket to be the biggest discount. About $35 or so, per ticket. Since we used the ticket the first time at a park and not a WP we were able to upgrade to the standard pass.

The only drawback to this method is you can only book FP for the number of days on the ticket you buy. In our case we have old Ghost tickets on MDE that work for FP booking even though they don't have admission left on them. So it didn't hurt us to wait to do our upgrade. If we didn't have those the savings is too small to make it worth missing the FP

If you don't mind saying, what was the cost?

 

[MermaidMommy]

We first used our ticket AND upgraded them to an AP on the same day. Is that not common practice when you purchase from a 3rd party and want to bridge to keep the discount? Walked through the turnstile and right back out to the GS ticket counter, upgraded for exact cost I expected.

For what it's worth, UT will inform you the price you are saving over retail when you purchase. It's part of their chart. I found the 6 or so (I forget exact number now) day PH WP&M ticket to be the biggest discount. About $35 or so, per ticket. Since we used the ticket the first time at a park and not a WP we were able to upgrade to the standard pass.

The only drawback to this method is you can only book FP for the number of days on the ticket you buy. In our case we have old Ghost tickets on MDE that work for FP booking even though they don't have admission left on them. So it didn't hurt us to wait to do our upgrade. If we didn't have those the savings is too small to make it worth missing the FP

Yes, that's correct about upgrading -- we do it the same way. Some people, though, will wait to upgrade until the last day of their tickets, thinking that their AP date will start the day they upgrade, so they'd get a few extra days on their AP's. Just wants to let OP know that's not the case, and they'll miss out on potential discounts if they wait.

I'm jealous of your ghost FP's! Let me know if you ever figure out how to replicate that glitch!

 

[Jestocost]

I can buy Disney gift cards at my local BJ's (like a Costco or Sam's club). They are $95.99 for a $100 card. I also use my Disney Visa so every card I buy I get back $.96. I guess I can do that math myself but seeing if anybody else has any experience with this.
thanks everybody, disboards rocks

This is a good option so, assuming your math is correct and you apply the Disney rewards dollars to the ticket upgrade, you will save you close to $35 on your AP.

You might be slightly better off by purchasing whatever ticket has the biggest discount off of gate price (and a full gate price less than the AP), then using those tickets once and applying them to the upgrade. Right now Undercover Tourist has a 4-day hopper with the WPF&M feature for $38.73 less than the full gate price for the same ticket (including taxes), for example, so if you bought that ticket and then upgraded it you'd effectively be saving $38.73 off of the AP price. In this very specific scenario there's one thing you'd have to be careful about, however, and that's NOT to use any of the WPF&M options before the upgrade UNLESS you want to upgrade to a Premium AP. You can upgrade a ticket with the WPF&M option to a regular AP but only if none of the WPF&M options have been used.

 

[AngiTN]

If you don't mind saying, what was the cost?

This is a good option so, assuming your math is correct and you apply the Disney rewards dollars to the ticket upgrade, you will save you close to $35 on your AP.

You might be slightly better off by purchasing whatever ticket has the biggest discount off of gate price (and a full gate price less than the AP), then using those tickets once and applying them to the upgrade. Right now Undercover Tourist has a 4-day hopper with the WPF&M feature for $38.73 less than the full gate price for the same ticket (including taxes), for example, so if you bought that ticket and then upgraded it you'd effectively be saving $38.73 off of the AP price. In this very specific scenario there's one thing you'd have to be careful about, however, and that's NOT to use any of the WPF&M options before the upgrade UNLESS you want to upgrade to a Premium AP. You can upgrade a ticket with the WPF&M option to a regular AP but only if none of the WPF&M options have been used.

That's the one we got, I knew it was about $35 or so.

We paid $381.95 for the UT ticket
We paid an additional $275.83 for the AP upgrade
paying $657.78 for the AP vs. $696.51

 

[hakepb]

And FYI, if you go the gift card route, you can now combine multiple cards at disneygiftcard .com

http://www.disboards.com/threads/combining-gift-cards.3437514/

The Target Red card and Kroger gas points are other ways to save buying Disney gift cards.

Of course, you can only use the gift cards buying from Disney or additional upgrade at Disney (and not any amount spent at UT)

 

[1983DisneyFanatic]

I have an upcoming trip in December that is a package with 5 day park hopper and free dining. Will I be able to upgrade to an annual pass with this once I go through the turnstiles my first day? Does the free dining plan exclude me? Does it make a difference what park I go to that first day(MK being more expensive?) how can I get an idea how much it will cost to upgrade?

 

[AngiTN]

I have an upcoming trip in December that is a package with 5 day park hopper and free dining. Will I be able to upgrade to an annual pass with this once I go through the turnstiles my first day? Does the free dining plan exclude me? Does it make a difference what park I go to that first day(MK being more expensive?) how can I get an idea how much it will cost to upgrade?

With a ticket bought at full price it doesn't matter If you use the ticket first. That only comes in to play with a ticket bought at discount.

Nor does it matter what park you go too. The price is only different for a 1 day ticket. You have a multi day ticket. It doesn't matter if you use it one day and then upgrade. It's not like it turns in to a single day ticket. It's still a multi day ticket. You pay the difference between an AP and the multi day ticket. Look online to get the cost of your multiday ticket and subtract that from the cost of an AP

 

[Darlynne]

You can upgrade a ticket with the WPF&M option to a regular AP but only if none of the WPF&M options have been used.

Now that my momentary-but-full-body panic has subsided, I'm so glad I found your post. No one, and I mean a boatload of cast members, made this point clear in my many phone calls to ask about exchanging my 4-day WPF&M tickets for a regular annual pass.

I just got off the phone with another Disney CM who verified what you said. My intention on this upcoming trip was to spend our days at the water parks and then go to the theme parks, upgrading to the annual pass before the fourth day. I'll have to get the premium annual pass now or not go to the water parks with my sister, which seems kind of silly. The premium pass is more than I had intended to spend, but Disney will bridge what I paid for the WPF&M tickets to the current gate price, which helps.

Thank you, Jestocost. I'm so grateful to have found this out now instead of at the guest services desk in October.

 

[sunflare]

Now that my momentary-but-full-body panic has subsided, I'm so glad I found your post. No one, and I mean a boatload of cast members, made this point clear in my many phone calls to ask about exchanging my 4-day WPF&M tickets for a regular annual pass.

I just got off the phone with another Disney CM who verified what you said. My intention on this upcoming trip was to spend our days at the water parks and then go to the theme parks, upgrading to the annual pass before the fourth day. I'll have to get the premium annual pass now or not go to the water parks with my sister, which seems kind of silly. The premium pass is more than I had intended to spend, but Disney will bridge what I paid for the WPF&M tickets to the current gate price, which helps.

Make sure you check out the price of a single water park ticket (or even a season pass!) vs the upgrade to the Premium pass. Last time I looked, it was actually cheaper to buy a Deluxe pass and a yearly pass to the waterparks than it was to get a Premium pass.

 

[Robo]

I have an upcoming trip in December that is a package with 5 day park hopper and free dining. Will I be able to upgrade to an annual pass with this once I go through the turnstiles my first day? Does the free dining plan exclude me? Does it make a difference what park I go to that first day(MK being more expensive?) how can I get an idea how much it will cost to upgrade?

I hope you're still reading this thread.

You SHOULD use your WDW Resort Package ticket to enter a theme park (any WDW theme park) before upgrading it.

Resort Package tickets are considered to be "discounted" tickets, as they are sold (internally) between WDW departments at a discount.

 

[1983DisneyFanatic]

I hope you're still reading this thread.

You SHOULD use your WDW Resort Package ticket to enter a theme park (any WDW theme park) before upgrading it.

Resort Package tickets are considered to be "discounted" tickets, as they are sold (internally) between WDW departments at a discount.

Thanks!

 

[Happy_2_B]

I have the touringplans.com upgraded access- and they have a ticket finder program. It searches the main 3rd party vendors- and finds the best price for a given ticket- whether it is a park hopper, or has WPandM option, or is just a single park per day ticket. Right now- the biggest difference between a ticket bought from Disney and a 3rd party ticket is around 50 dollars. If you use this method, the KEY is to find the ticket- regardless of days or type- that has the biggest cost difference between the 3rd party and one bought at Disney. Then when you 'bridge' it to an AP, you 'save' the money on the AP that equals the price differential between the 3rd party ticket and the retail value of buying the same ticket from Disney. I didn't read all the threads- but if it isn't posted yet- DO NOT use the ticket the first time at a WPandM location or this method will not work (you will then have to bridge to a PAP)- it has to be used one of the main theme parks.

There is a way to save even more money, though. It is more time consuming, and involves going through shopping portals to buy discounted gift cards, then using those to buy discounted Disney gift cards (most people use Target for this I think) to pay for an AP through a DVA. I read a post from a woman at touringplans.com, and she seems to know what she is doing. Her average savings on her entire vacation using this method is around 15%- and includes tickets, resorts, and she puts extra money into her DVA with gift cards then pulls it out before she leaves for food.

So...you can save around 7-8% with a simple bridge- which is what lots of people seem to do, or do a little more work and get closer to 12-15% using shopping portals and discounted gift cards. I do something completely different- and save way more in the big picture than the handful of percentage points being discussed here, but it is beyond the scope of your original post- so will not go into it and send the thread spinning off in another direction.

There may be a thread on these boards about the portals and gift cards, but I have never looked- maybe one of the other posters can hook you up with a link.

 

[Darlynne]

Make sure you check out the price of a single water park ticket (or even a season pass!) vs the upgrade to the Premium pass. Last time I looked, it was actually cheaper to buy a Deluxe pass and a yearly pass to the waterparks than it was to get a Premium pass.

I hadn't considered the annual water park pass. The difference between the two methods is about $16 and since I don't golf, the premium pass isn't really necessary. Thanks for the advice.