Best ticket option in 2021 for three week DVC stay?

[RossK]

Hey all,

I've been racking my brains to decide what is the best option is now that Disney seem to have done away with the 21-day ultimate tickets. We are DVC owners and always stay for three weeks around October time each year. On our last few trips, because of the DVC discount on annual passes, we moved from the 21-Day Ultimate ticket over to APs. This was great, as we timed it to get "two years" usage out of a one year AP (i.e. we went late October 2018, then early October 2019). We did the same for the Tables in Wonderland card. As you can imagine, this quite a decent saving!

For this coming October (2021) I can't decide on the best way forward. Not only are APs not currently for sale (but I would guess they will be by October), Disney has also withdrawn the 21 Day Ultimate tickets which is what we would have fallen back to. Now, there is a good chance these, along with APs, will make a return before our trip. But this has also been complicated by Disney introducing the park reservation system - and you cannot make a reservation without a valid ticket. So even if APs were for sale, they are not a good option, since you will not be able to make a park reservation until the AP has been activated at the gate. So you could end up not being able to get in to the parks at all.

We don't really have any interest in doing 2 weeks Disney and 1 week other parks, as we like the ability to come and go as we please at any time over the three week period. And buying a 14 day and a 7 day (which are basically the same price) seems like an enormous waste...!

I'm thinking the best option right now is to get a single 14-Day Ultimate ticket - book park reservations for the first two weeks of our trip, and then "hope" that Disney allow either the upgrading of the 14 day to a 21 day (if they come back on sale), or that at the start of our holiday, we can "upgrade" the 14 day ticket to annual pass, which I understand was possible to do (the approximate value of the ticket deducted from the AP cost). Though I'm not sure whether anyone has both used an Ultimate ticket to upgrade to the AP, *and* also applied the DVC discount?

Does the DIS brain trust have any thoughts on the best approach for a three week Disney vacation?

 

[pinklotusflower]

At the minute you don't have much choice, if your wanting to buy tickets sooner I would get the 14 day ticket & upgrade to annual pass if they become avaialble. If things go well with the vaccine programme then there is a good chance annual passes will be back.

 

[Woodview]

Try something Different

Buy your 14 day ticket

Rent a car ......... for say 5 days & do a bit of sightseeing away from Disney area


Go on an Airboat trip . Go on a Pontoon Boat trip at Hontoon Landing ( Blue Heron Boat Tours )

See the Real Florida

 

[starry_solo]

Believe park reservations end in September 2021. So maybe APs will be back by then. Or the 21 day ultimate tickets

 

[bubblefactory]

....and when AP's return you 100% can make park reservations with the un-activated voucher on your account. I've done it, it allows a park reservation for every night you have an on site reservation.

 

[lanejudy]

since you will not be able to make a park reservation until the AP has been activated at the gate.

An un-activated AP linked to your MDE can be used to make park reservations, just as it could be used for making FP+ in the past.

Believe park reservations end in September 2021.

No, at the moment park reservations can be made through Jan. 14, 2022. It's been mentioned that the reservation system may be here for the long-term.

OP -- I don't know how easily a UK 14-day ticket can be upgraded to an AP, but that would be my choice. Buy the 14-day ticket, then upgrade to AP or 21-day if either becomes available.

 

[RossK]

Thanks everyone - this was all really useful!

....and when AP's return you 100% can make park reservations with the un-activated voucher on your account. I've done it, it allows a park reservation for every night you have an on site reservation.

That's great to know. I must have mis-read or mis-remembered something, as I'm sure I saw reference to not being able to do this with unactivated APs (or the wording suggested they had to be activated). So this is a good to hear!!

An un-activated AP linked to your MDE can be used to make park reservations, just as it could be used for making FP+ in the past.


No, at the moment park reservations can be made through Jan. 14, 2022. It's been mentioned that the reservation system may be here for the long-term.

OP -- I don't know how easily a UK 14-day ticket can be upgraded to an AP, but that would be my choice. Buy the 14-day ticket, then upgrade to AP or 21-day if either becomes available.

Yes, I had seen the comments made by Josh De'Amaro suggesting they would consider keeping the reservation system longer term. Honestly, I really hope they don't. Much of the spontaneity has already been taken away from Disney vacations. I think we all recognise the system is necessary right now - but knowing you can't just turn up, or make last minute changes to your plans will surely push more business to the other non-Disney parks.

On the conversion of UK tickets to APs - I believe this is (was) relatively straightforward. The only issue used to be that, depending where you went to do this conversion on property, you would get a different "value" applied towards your UK ticket. I believe this was recently fixed, where there is now a set value, but I suspect you are still worse off exchanging the UK ticket for an AP, as opposed to just going straight for the AP. I'm just not sure how much worse off you are. I'm also not sure whether anyone has done this, while also trying to use it against the DVC discounted AP!

The thing is, we've most probably all done that stuff over the years but it's always nice to have a WDW pass that covers your entire trip.

We've been out in the hire car, done fun and interesting stuff offsite but it's always nice to be able to come back to your Disney resort at the end of the day and think "let's go to the MK and see the fireworks and grab a late night snack afterwards" or "let's have a late night drink strolling around World Showcase".

I wouldn't like to think I was going for 3 weeks to WDW and only have a 2 week pass, I like the flexibility to be able to come and go as we please every day.

Yes, exactly this! We've done everything, many times, including off property stuff. But staying on property and not being able to get in to any of the Disney Parks when you please is not something I want to have to think about while on vacation. We love being able to wake up and say "lets to go and sit in the lazy river at Typhoon Lagoon today" or "lets pop over to Epcot and grab a bite from Food & Wine". Plus, we always stay Lake View at the Poly - imagine looking out at the castle every morning, knowing you were not allowed to go in First world problems I know, but then everything Disney is

If we absolutely had to buy a 14-day and a 7-day ticket, we would... But having talked through it "out loud" with you all - it sounds like my thinking of getting a 14-day and looking to (hopefully) exchange for an AP is the best course of action to ensure I can make those all important park reservations. It's anyones guess how busy the anniversary month will be, and what the park capacity will be, so I'd like to get those reservations in the bag sooner rather than later.

 

[disneyholic family]

the falling dollar would make APs less expensive, if only Disney would sell them to us.
.

 

[RossK]

the falling dollar would make APs less expensive, if only Disney would sell them to us.
.

I got quite excited the other day... I actually managed to purchase 2 Gold DVC discount APs via the UK website... I received a confirmation email, followed about 10 minutes later by an 'unable to process your order' email... Grrr!!