Can all resorts upgrade park tickets?

[lark]

There seems to be some conflicting info on this on these boards and elsewhere on the internet.

If you have never-expire admission tickets (e.g., old park hoppers) and you want to use the dollar value toward the purchase of new MYW tickets, can you do this at GS at any resort? Or must you go to one of the parks or DTD? The majority view seems to be that you can do it at any resort, but there are other things that suggest only the parks or DTD. If anyone has actually done it at a resort, I guess it would answer the question. Thanks.

 

[Cmbar]

I would love to know the answer to this too!! We have old Hoppers and would like to trade their value in for our MYW upgrade when we arrive. (we are planning on buying a few extra days and making them non expiring).

 

[Chip 'n Dale Express]

The old Park Hopper tickets cannot be upgraded or turned into MYW tickets once they have been used. Neither a resort, or Guest Services can do this.

Even if it were possible, it would not be a good value.

 

[lark]

The old Park Hopper tickets cannot be upgraded or turned into MYW tickets. Neither a resort, or Guest Services can do this.

Even if it were possible, it would not be a good value.

Unless we're using different terminology, I'm entirely certain that you're incorrect about this.

Old unused park hoppers can be assigned a dollar value and then used toward the purchase of new MYW tickets. If the park hopper is entirely unused, you get the cost toward any MYW ticket you want of equal or greater value. If it is partially used, disney will calculate the remaining value. You can use it toward a MYW ticket, but there are some limitations -- for example, if it had park hopping, you must upgrade to a MYW with park hopping, and if it had a used plus, you must use it for a MYW with the plus features.

As for whether it would be a good value, it could very well be an excellent value. Suppose you are going to WDW for a long trip, and you need 10 days of park hopping. You have unused 5 day park hoppers from a previous trip, for which you paid $220.

So, what do you do? Well, you could use your old 5 day hoppers and then buy a new 5-day MYW ticket with park hopping. That would cost you an additional $243. Or, you could use the value of your old hopper to buy a 10-day MYW ticket with park hopping. The cost of that ticket is $260, so it would cost you an additional $40, for a savings of $203.

 

[Chip 'n Dale Express]

I apologize, I forgot one key element in my statement. Once one of the old park hopper tickets that you are referring to has been used, it can no longer be traded in for a newer Magic Your Way ticket.

Only an unused ticket can be upgraded to MYW, but it must have the same features. (ie: Park Hopping and don't forget it needs the No Expiration as well). Furthermore, you end up losing any savings discounts that you might have gotten when you first purchased the ticket, as it becomes a full price ticket. Because of this, there are some times when it's not always the best value.

 

[lark]

I apologize, I forgot one key element in my statement. Once one of the old park hopper tickets that you are referring to has been used, it can no longer be traded in for a newer Magic Your Way ticket.

For what it's worth, I think the rule is actually a little different. Suppose you have an 5-day park hopper, but you used 1 day. You can still use that old park hopper toward the purchase of a new MYW ticket. You get 4/5ths the cost of the park hopper toward the new MYW ticket.

Where you might be getting confused is on the details of the rules. You may end up losing the "plus" features on your old park hopper if it was a park hopper plus. That is because, in calculating the trade-in value of your park hopper, you don't get any credit for the pluses -- you just get credit for the park days. So, if you have a 5-day park hopper plus, and you used one park day but none of the pluses, you still only get 4/5ths of the cost of the ticket.

The other wrinkle is that if you have used your park hopper, you are slightly limited in what you can trade it in for. If the park hopper had a plus AND YOU USED ONE then you have to trade it in for a MYW with pluses. Also, if you used a park day AND YOU HOPPED then you must trade it in for a MYW with hopping.

If the park hopper is completely unused, you can get the full dollar value for any MYW ticket -- whatever the features. It's only the used ones that are restricted. The only restriction is that the new ticket must be the same or greater value. In other words, you can't get a MYW ticket and a partial refund.

Anyway, while I'm sure these details are boring the pants off nearly everyone, this was as good an excuse as any to bump this back to the top, to see if anyone knows the answer to the question: Can you do these trade in transactions at the resorts, or only at the parks?

 

[Chip 'n Dale Express]

As someone who deals with ticketing issues every day, I can assure you, once a park hopper ticket has been used, we are not allowed to upgrade it to a MYW ticket. It's been discussed to great lengths where I work.


Regardless, to answer the original question, YES, you can do it at a resort provided that you are staying there.

 

[Cmbar]

Not the original poster but did ask the question if I could trade in the old park hopper for a value.

So Tyler (I trust you since I know WHERE you work!! ) Can I do this?

Take a five day CHILD hopper with only 1 day left on it and bring it to my Guest Services at CBR and ask for a dollar value (1/5th maybe?) and take that value and pay for a Upgrade to a NON EXPIRING option on my CHILDS ticket? We are on a package plan with tickets currently set up to be a seven day hopper with pluses (because Disney gave us this as part of their Jan-Mar promo). I want to add on a NON-expiring option (once at the resort with old tickets in hand)since we will only use four of the current hoppers in the package and I would like to return some other time with a three day hopper with all the pluses left over on that.

I have two of these left over child tickets (1 day each). I would use one for one child upgrade to non expiring and one for the other child upgrade to non expiring. (I believe I can't just take in a bunch of left over hoppers and get value to put down on some new MYW tickets) I hope my question is clear.

 

[Chip 'n Dale Express]

You can always upgrade a Magic Your Way ticket as long as you are within 14 days of first use. Once you have passed that 14 day mark, that ticket can no longer be upgraded, regardless of non-expiration options. The upgrades must be paid for in cash (cash, credit card, travellers check, etc) at time of upgrade. You cannot use an older partially used ticket for payment. My suggestion would be to use the child's ticket, and then when you upgrade the MYW tickets to no expire, you'll have an extra day on it. That's the best way that I can think of for your situation.

 

[Cmbar]

Thanks Tyler. Ok here's another question. If I did what you suggested and had both kids use the left over ticket first then could I have them be just a six day ticket for the two kids and then have the adult tickets be a seven day? That way we all would only be left with Three extra days. In other words if we are all on the package do I have to have the exact same number of park days for each person. Or could two people have a six day hopper and two people have a seven day hopper. I am trying to make sure we end up with the same although this probably isnt the best value since it doesn't cost that much difference between a six and seven day hopper. But I believe the non expiring option breaks somewhere around there and become more expensive to add to a seven day than six day.

 

[lark]

As someone who deals with ticketing issues every day, I can assure you, once a park hopper ticket has been used, we are not allowed to upgrade it to a MYW ticket. It's been discussed to great lengths where I work.

Since I don't have any first hand experience, I'll defer to you, since it sounds like you know what you're talking about.

Interestingly, though, what you're saying is inconsistent with the conventional wisdom posted in many places, like mousesavers and allearsnet, and even with what many have posted on the DIS boards, usually on the theme park board. Here's the link to the allears faq on the subject -- the offending portion is about 3/4 of the way down. http://allearsnet.com/pl/ticket.htm

I guess someone should correct this. It's a rather significant discrepancy. It could, for example, make a pretty big difference to me. It hasn't made sense for me to consider the MYW packages, since I already have old hoppers that I want to trade in. But if I can't get their dollar value, as I was assuming I could, I might as well just keep saving them and then get the discount on a MYW package.

 

[Letsbgoofy]

Cmbar,

You have to have all the tickets for the same number of days when you book the package, but you can upgrade them however you want. I did this in August. I already had a 10 day hopper, so I booked the package with one day tickets and upgraded only my son's ticket at the ASMU.

I wish you could book the package with different tickets. I am going with my husband in August 2006 and I only need 1 day, he will need 6.

Tyler,
If I am wrong about this, please correct me!