Calling experienced AP holders, have question!

[Castillo Mom]

Ok, here's the deal. I've run into a couple of financial setbacks and have to figure out a way to get the best resort rate possible so that I don't have to downgrade to a value resort. Not that I would totally mind staying at say, ASMO but I really have my heart set on CBR. Anyway, I've noticed you AP holders many times get great discounts. Right now I have room only reservations and had planned on getting UPH passes for all of us. I was looking at some info on Mousesavers that said if you leave off one person from your reservation, you can purchase an AP for them and thus apply the discount when it comes out and the rest of your group can have UPH passes; all you have to do is add the AP passholder to the reservation at check-in. My question is, does it matter who in the group the passholder is? For instance, the reservation is under my name. I could take my husband or one of the kids off of our reservations, buy them an AP and get the discount. Does the AP have to be for me in order to get a resort discount?

 

[MJames41]

I don't believe that would work. I think what Mousesavers was talking about did not include the UPH's. It can be worth it though (getting the AP).

Personally, I don't usually use UPH's, not that energetic.

 

[CarolA]

If you did not buy a package then yes, you can do that. Just get UPH for the guests without the AP. As to who gets it, that is a matter of debate. Some people have reported getting AP discounts with kids APs, but... since you are suppose to be 18 to book the room I am not 100% sure that is "legal"

However, before you race off and buy the AP make sure the discounts will be offered. So far there are only discounts until 8/23. The other thing that Mary has pointed out is that due to the success of the FTP and the closing of part of of Port Orleans there may not be as many moderate discounts.

 

[freediverdude]

I think you might be able to do that. However I think the reservation might have to be in the name of the passholder if I remember right. At least it would make it much easier if it were in the name of the passholder. So what I would do, is make another reservation, asking for the passholder rate, and giving the name of the person you're buying the pass for as the name on the reservation. You can still leave everyone on the new reservation. Then cancel the old one. The only downside to this way would be, if I remember right, in order to get the advance discount on the UPHs, everyone in the party must get them, so you would have to wait and buy UPHs for the rest of you at check in at full price. So, I don't know if this would end up saving you enough money or not. You would probably save about 50 bucks a night on the hotel, but you would be losing some money on the full price UPHs. So i guess you would have to add up how many days you were staying, versus how many days on the UPHs and people getting them and what the discount would be, and see if it really saves you. And, unless you bought a premium annual pass for the passholder person, that person would not be able to accompany you to the water parks, DisneyQuest, or Pleasure Island with a regular annual pass, without paying extra. Hope I didn't just confuse you more LOL.

 

[Castillo Mom]

Hmmm......Guess I'll be in the "wait and see" mode for a while. Oh well, the point is I'm not having to cancel our trip altogether, I just have to figure out of I'll still be able to afford CBR. Hopefully some good codes will come out, AP or otherwise. Crossing my fingers!

 

[disneychrista]

You can book a room with an AP before you even have the AP in hand. Keep a look out both here and mousesavers for AP discounts and if you are able to get a room with a significate discount (meaning the discount is the same or more then the cost difference between whatever pass you would have gotten and the AP).

 

[ScottOKW2K]

Two points to make on this thread:

1. As far as an advance purchase discount on the UPH passes, I'm not sure that this would be the way to go. If you purchase them in advance, in conjunction with your room reservation, you pay for all the days of your stay including your arrival and departure dates. Depending upon what time of day that you arrive/leave, this may have you paying for days that you won't use. Many purchase their UPH passes when they check in at the resort and often the CM's allow one to drop the arrival and/or departure dates, significantly reducing the cost of the media.

2. You don't have to have the AP at the time of making the reservation, only at the time of check-in. You may not even be asked for it, but if I was booking a room with an AP rate, I would have an AP with me. Even if you don't have it at that time, you could purchase later the same day, and present it to the front desk shortly aferward the to verify that you qualify for the discount.

P.S. The only tickets we have ever purchased are AP's. They can be somewhat addictive. Also, one poster mentioned needing to have Premium AP's for the water park - we did a combination of regular AP's and water park AP's. Less than the cost of a PAP, and you can stagger your purchase dates. We actually bought our water park ap's near the very end of our last regular ap's, and did several water park only disney trips the next year. Not a bad deal on admission, considering a water park ap is only about $100.

 

[Castillo Mom]

Originally posted by ScottOKW2K
Two points to make on this thread:

1. As far as an advance purchase discount on the UPH passes, I'm not sure that this would be the way to go. If you purchase them in advance, in conjunction with your room reservation, you pay for all the days of your stay including your arrival and departure dates. Depending upon what time of day that you arrive/leave, this may have you paying for days that you won't use. Many purchase their UPH passes when they check in at the resort and often the CM's allow one to drop the arrival and/or departure dates, significantly reducing the cost of the media.

2. You don't have to have the AP at the time of making the reservation, only at the time of check-in. You may not even be asked for it, but if I was booking a room with an AP rate, I would have an AP with me. Even if you don't have it at that time, you could purchase later the same day, and present it to the front desk shortly aferward the to verify that you qualify for the discount.

P.S. The only tickets we have ever purchased are AP's. They can be somewhat addictive. Also, one poster mentioned needing to have Premium AP's for the water park - we did a combination of regular AP's and water park AP's. Less than the cost of a PAP, and you can stagger your purchase dates. We actually bought our water park ap's near the very end of our last regular ap's, and did several water park only disney trips the next year. Not a bad deal on admission, considering a water park ap is only about $100.

Thanks to these boards, I learned about the dilemma with arrival/departure times and UPH passes. So what we're planning is to stay at a hotel near MCO and early the next morning head to whatever WDW resort we finally decide to stay at (hopefully CBR ). As for departure time, we're driving to Miami to visit for four days so we plan on doing a park and leaving WDW in the early evening.

I didn't know you could book at the AP rate without actually having the pass yet. Somehow I figured they'd have it in their system if you were really an AP holder. Thanks for that info, it's another thing for me to consider.