Can you use park tickets before you check into rooms?

[Wafflestoo]

I have a flight booked to Disney a few days before the free dining begins. I just hate the fact that we will be there a few days and not be eligible for free dining unless we book two separate packages, which saves no money due to high ticket costs. Is there any way to use park tickets before the official start of free dining on August 26? In other words could I stay at the Swan from the 23 to the 26 and then check in for free dining on the 26, but use the park tickets before the 26, if I were to have an 8 day hopper pass? I know that this sounds confusing and I hope you understand what I am asking. Thanks

Meg

 

[CanadianGuy]

Meg:

If the 8 day park hoppers you have are going to be included in your reservation starting on the 26th... then no - my understanding is that you cannot access these tickets until your stay begins.

I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong on that.

Knox

 

[BroadwayGirl]

If your package starts on the 26th, that is when you will be able to get your tickets for the package. This is OFFICIAL Walt Disney Travel Company policy. There will be some who will tell you otherwise, and while special exceptions can probably be done for legitimate reasons, Disney's official policy is that your tickets cannot start before the date your package begins.

 

[kahliasmom]

I believe that Canadian Guy is right. When I went I was in Orlando the night before. I had hoped to go to MGM for EMH the next morning. When I inquired at CRO about getting my tickets in time to go to EMH they said that I couldn't access my tickets until 8am. I was not happy about that and decided to go over to my resort that night before and ask them. The security guard let me in when I told him that I had a reservation for the next day but I had a question to ask. They told me at registration that my reservation would be available at 7am. That would give me enough time to get to EMH but CRO did not tell me this. I ended up taking in the Bob Jackson show at POR and between food, drink and gift shop dropped $120 that night before I was officially a guest at the resort.

 

[Wafflestoo]

Thank you for your answers. Oh well, just thought that I would ask. If you are doing a split stay between the Swan and the WL, then you really do need two packages... that's if you want to take advantage of the free dining at the WL. Thanks again for all of your replies.

Meg

 

[square pond]

I have a flight booked to Disney a few days before the free dining begins. I just hate the fact that we will be there a few days and not be eligible for free dining unless we book two separate packages, which saves no money due to high ticket costs. Is there any way to use park tickets before the official start of free dining on August 26? In other words could I stay at the Swan from the 23 to the 26 and then check in for free dining on the 26, but use the park tickets before the 26, if I were to have an 8 day hopper pass? I know that this sounds confusing and I hope you understand what I am asking. Thanks

Meg

I found this on another site last year....(I booked a package with Disney that includes multiday MYW tickets but I will be there several days before my check in date, staying offsite. Is there anyway I can use those tickets before I arrive at the Disney resort?)

(Yes there is. In the past, package tickets were tied solely to your check in date and could only be encoded onto your resort ID. Not so now. Your MYW tickets can be obtained up to 5 days prior to your check in date at Guest Relations or up to 3 days prior at your resort's Lobby Concierge. You must have continuing reservations (example: a seven day trip with a three day reservation not on the package followed immediately by a four day reservation on the package AT THE SAME RESORT ONLY) to do this. You will only be able to receive paper tickets when doing this and they cannot be transferred to your resort ID at any time.

But a word of warning on this: the procedure to do this is not widely known by all CMs and does entail a little extra effort on their part. It's very time consuming and complicated to do. Don't be surprised if you are told no. Ask the CM to check with their supervisor if they say they cannot do it. Currently, this is a case of some CMs can and will do it while others can't/won't.)

I realize this does not fit your situation exactley, but based on this info on our last trip we stayed at orange lake before checking into wilderness lodge with a package. We purchased 10 day tickets and recieved them 5 days ahead of time at Epcot Guest Services with out any trouble. I don't know if it will work for everyone but that was our experiance.

 

[Wafflestoo]

Your MYW tickets can be obtained up to 5 days prior to your check in date at Guest Relations or up to 3 days prior at your resort's Lobby Concierge.

WOW... this is big news. How do I contact Guest Relations directly to verify this? Where is Guest Relations found?I would love to do this!!!!! Thanks for your post.

Meg

 

[WeNeedKetchup]

I have a flight booked to Disney a few days before the free dining begins. I just hate the fact that we will be there a few days and not be eligible for free dining unless we book two separate packages, which saves no money due to high ticket costs. Is there any way to use park tickets before the official start of free dining on August 26? In other words could I stay at the Swan from the 23 to the 26 and then check in for free dining on the 26, but use the park tickets before the 26, if I were to have an 8 day hopper pass? I know that this sounds confusing and I hope you understand what I am asking. Thanks

Meg

In November '05, we stayed at V@WL for 5 days and then at AKL for 3 days. I booked the 8 day hopper with my AKL reservation so we could get free dining while at AKL. I had to stop at Guest Relations at MK to pick up my paper tickets for the first five days then I was able to get the tickets added to my room key when we checked into AKL 5 days later. I plan on doing the exact same thing this November when we will be staying at BCV for the first 5 days then moving to the Poly for 4-5 days. You definitely shouldn't have a problem doing what you are trying to do - although as a previous poster stated, some CMs may tell you it can't be done. I do remember being told it couldn't be done by someone over the phone at some point. Good luck!

 

[CarolA]

I think the fact that both of the posters who got the "exception" were staying at a DISNEY resort prior to the start of thier package is a KEY point. The OP is staying at the Swan.

I also think the offical policy is that they will not give you the tickets in advance. There may be CM's who know how to bend the rules, but just because you saw it on the DIS does NOT make it anything close to policy. One of the problems with the interent is that if someone does get an exception word spreads. I think that this has resulted in Disney clamping down on some exceptions. (Refunds of special event tickets comes to minds. Used to be you could get them if there was a crisis, now it's much harder. Wonder if that's because the internet spread the word that "illness" etc could be used for refunds.... then folks who just changed thier mind abused the kindness....)

 

[square pond]

WOW... this is big news. How do I contact Guest Relations directly to verify this? Where is Guest Relations found?I would love to do this!!!!! Thanks for your post.

Meg

Wafflestoo, The biggest problem you are going to find is that evryone you talk to will say this can't be done. I recieved the same response from AAA, Dreams Unlimited and even emailing Disney directly. But as you can see this is not the case. However, I have read posts from people on this board that report being refused after requesting thier tickets ahead of time. I don't know what their circumstances were though. One more thing to note is we did not have to go to our Resort to get our tickets and it was at least five days before we checked in, it could have possibley been 6 or 7. The Reservation just needs to be visable to Guest Relations in the system. We were told by Guest Relations that up until 7 days before you arrive your reservation will show room only in their system and then your package info and room assignment will be visable, so more than 7 days ahead they will not be able to give you tickets. I don't know if this is different depending on who you book through?? We were booked with AAA. Who by the way were extremely unknowledgable about all of this and even REFUSED at one point to sell us tickets longer than our stay because they insisted this could not be done and we would be wasting our money! My husband actually had to call a supervisor to make them add the tickets to our package! Live and Learn...It's Dreams Unlimited from now on. The AAA discount did not make up for all the headaches we had with AAA!

 

[square pond]

I think the fact that both of the posters who got the "exception" were staying at a DISNEY resort prior to the start of thier package is a KEY point. The OP is staying at the Swan.

I also think the offical policy is that they will not give you the tickets in advance. There may be CM's who know how to bend the rules, but just because you saw it on the DIS does NOT make it anything close to policy. One of the problems with the interent is that if someone does get an exception word spreads. I think that this has resulted in Disney clamping down on some exceptions. (Refunds of special event tickets comes to minds. Used to be you could get them if there was a crisis, now it's much harder. Wonder if that's because the internet spread the word that "illness" etc could be used for refunds.... then folks who just changed thier mind abused the kindness....)

Just a note...We were staying off property prior to our stay. At Orange Lake Resort. This had no effect on our ability to pick up our tickets.

 

[Wafflestoo]

Thanks Square Pond. I would like to stay at the Swan for 4 days before the free dining begins and then check into the WL for the last 4 days of our stay and receive the free dining for those last 4 days. We were hoping to get an 8 day hopper tickets with the WL deal and use them while at the Swan the previous 4 days. Seems like that is a can do. I still will get someone to verify this before making all of these plans. I need to talk to customer relations to get this OK'd

Thanks everyone.

Meg

 

[nixieh]

Please let us know how you get on when you contact Guest Relations. I have exactly the same problem as I booked a package starting 12th Aug which is when the free dining for UK residents starts, our package includes a 14 day ticket. Unfortunately we already had flights booked for 9th Aug so are staying at Pop for the first 3 days and then moving to POR on the 12th for our package and I would love to get our tickets before the 12th. When I posted the same question here last Autumn everyone said that it was not possible to get the package tickets early and I got a standard reply from Disney to say it wasn't possible.

Good luck with it all.

Nicola