Can we do this? GAD and AP

mommy2g

Earning My Ears
Joined
Jan 17, 2007
We are going in May, currently booked at Pop May 23rd-May 31st.

All 4 of us have GAD vouchers that I originally just planned on exchanging for fastpasses . We want the dining plan so I had to add tickets to our package. But then I read somewhere that if you have an AP you can get a package with dining without tickets. So first of all is that correct?

If it is, do all of us need AP? or could I just get an AP for my youngest (still a child so cheaper) by upgrading her GAD ticket and then upgrade the other 3 GAD tickets to the 9 days we want.

Finally, could someone help me figure out what AP discounts are avaiblable for our dates at Pop and Caribbean Beach.
 
We are going in May, currently booked at Pop May 23rd-May 31st.

All 4 of us have GAD vouchers that I originally just planned on exchanging for fastpasses . We want the dining plan so I had to add tickets to our package. But then I read somewhere that if you have an AP you can get a package with dining without tickets. So first of all is that correct?

If it is, do all of us need AP? or could I just get an AP for my youngest (still a child so cheaper) by upgrading her GAD ticket and then upgrade the other 3 GAD tickets to the 9 days we want.

Finally, could someone help me figure out what AP discounts are avaiblable for our dates at Pop and Caribbean Beach.

I think that you would be able to switch to an AP rate for your dates provided there is still availability at the AP rate. You can get the dining plan added to an AP rate making it a AP package with dining. Also, only one of you would need the AP, but I do believe that it would have to be the adult that the room is registered under.

You could then use your GAD vouchers and upgrade 1 to an adult AP and the others to the MYW tickets. You will need the AP to show the frontdesk at check-in, but some people have reported that they were able to bring it back to the frontdesk by the end of the first day if they didn't have it in hand at check-in.

We are doing something similar for our upcoming trip, but we are all getting AP. If you go to the disney website and price out a rack rate room only res for both POP and CBR then subtract the discount (40%) you should get an idea of what the room portion of the package would be. Then add the price of the dining plan. Hope that helps.
 
I was considering doing something similar: We're renting points and staying in a 2 bedroom at BWV (I'll waitlist for BLT) in early December. I was planning to use my GAD to get an annual pass and then buy a tables in wonderland card to get 20% off food AND drinks at the restaurants. (Do I have to have an annual pass to buy TIW, or does it just mean that it costs me $75 instead of $100?) I'm thinking of going this route instead of doing the dining plan because when we went in April 2009, we ended up with a lot of extra CS meals. And when I looked at my receipts in preparation for this trip, I realized that even though we received $1280 in food, we paid $800 for DP, plus $350 for exta TS restaurants, meaning that the true savings was only $130. I think with the TIW I'll have more flexibility. Also, this trip it'll be me, my husband, our 3 kids (7,5 and 2) and my mother, who is a very light eater. My mom's the kind of eater who will share and entree and then still leave some behind. I thought with the TIW discount, we could get some apps instead of dinners and save some money. We do prefer TS to CS for sure! It's a nice way to regroup!
 


If you are looking for the cheapest way to do it, then just use the general public discount for Pop, buy one day tickets for all, and add the dining plan. When you get there, upgrade your tickets to 9 day passes using your GAD voucher. Total for this would be $2,458.90 and includes the money for the ticket upgrade.

If you are going back before the years end, then the AP discount with Pop rm, dining plan, 1 adult AP using GAD voucher, and 2 adult tickets using GAD vouchers, and 1 child ticket using GAD voucher would be $2625.81

There is also availability at Caribbean Beach, it is $347.80 more for the second scenaro, and $328.16 for the first scenaro
 
We are going in May, currently booked at Pop May 23rd-May 31st.

All 4 of us have GAD vouchers that I originally just planned on exchanging for fastpasses . We want the dining plan so I had to add tickets to our package. But then I read somewhere that if you have an AP you can get a package with dining without tickets. So first of all is that correct?

If it is, do all of us need AP? or could I just get an AP for my youngest (still a child so cheaper) by upgrading her GAD ticket and then upgrade the other 3 GAD tickets to the 9 days we want.

Finally, could someone help me figure out what AP discounts are avaiblable for our dates at Pop and Caribbean Beach.

Yes, you can book a ticketless package called a passholder + dine package. However, in order to get an AP room discount you must have one ADULT passholder in the room. A child AP will not be valid.

For your dates, a standard room at Pop Century will be $587 total for the 9 nights. Caribbean Beach will be $938 for a standard room. Water view and pirate water view are available for more $.

Let me know if you have any more questions... I am an AP holder and we book the AP dining packages frequently. :goodvibes
 
I was considering doing something similar: We're renting points and staying in a 2 bedroom at BWV (I'll waitlist for BLT) in early December. I was planning to use my GAD to get an annual pass and then buy a tables in wonderland card to get 20% off food AND drinks at the restaurants. (Do I have to have an annual pass to buy TIW, or does it just mean that it costs me $75 instead of $100?) I'm thinking of going this route instead of doing the dining plan because when we went in April 2009, we ended up with a lot of extra CS meals. And when I looked at my receipts in preparation for this trip, I realized that even though we received $1280 in food, we paid $800 for DP, plus $350 for exta TS restaurants, meaning that the true savings was only $130. I think with the TIW I'll have more flexibility. Also, this trip it'll be me, my husband, our 3 kids (7,5 and 2) and my mother, who is a very light eater. My mom's the kind of eater who will share and entree and then still leave some behind. I thought with the TIW discount, we could get some apps instead of dinners and save some money. We do prefer TS to CS for sure! It's a nice way to regroup!

You have to be an AP holder to buy the TIW card. If you know you will be doing TS meals and typically order adult beverages with your meals, the TIW works out to be a good deal for most people.
 


If you are looking for the cheapest way to do it, then just use the general public discount for Pop, buy one day tickets for all, and add the dining plan. When you get there, upgrade your tickets to 9 day passes using your GAD voucher. Total for this would be $2,458.90 and includes the money for the ticket upgrade.

I am not sure what you mean by upgrading the tickets with the GAD voucher. Do you mean I upgrade the one day ticket from the package or the one day GAD ticket. Or can i combine those?
 
I am not sure what you mean by upgrading the tickets with the GAD voucher. Do you mean I upgrade the one day ticket from the package or the one day GAD ticket. Or can i combine those?

You cannot combine the tickets to upgrade. The only way to do this is to use the GAD voucher to upgrade to 9 day tickets and save the one day tickets from the package for a later visit.

If you want the dining plan the only way is either this scenario and have the one day tickets left over, or your original plan of one person getting the AP and booking an AP ticketless package with dining. Of course your third option would be to use the GP discount for a room only res, use the GAD vouchers to upgrade to 9 day tickets, and NOT get the dining plan.

I think it's a matter of crunching all the numbers to see what will work best for you.
 
You cannot combine the tickets to upgrade. The only way to do this is to use the GAD voucher to upgrade to 9 day tickets and save the one day tickets from the package for a later visit.

Sorry, I thought you could combine them if neither ticket had not been used. Oh well. In that case, I would go with the AP rate, add dining, and get everyone else a 9 day pass using the GAD vouchers.
 
You cannot combine the tickets to upgrade. The only way to do this is to use the GAD voucher to upgrade to 9 day tickets and save the one day tickets from the package for a later visit.

Sorry, I thought you could combine them if neither ticket had not been used. Oh well. In that case, I would go with the AP rate, add dining, and get everyone else a 9 day pass using the GAD vouchers.

I think that that would be your best bet. :thumbsup2
 

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