Converting to AP - no park rez, mess up plans?

[DisneyParkLover]

We are going to Disney with a resort reservation and date based tickets in October. We are considering upgrading to AP during that trip, but trying to decide WHEN. We would love to do it early in the trip and have access to dining and merch discounts during our trip. However, last time we did this, it caused a ton of problems because this cancelled out the park reservations we had made for the rest of our trip and there were no park reservations for AP for the rest of our trip. Guest services fixed it, but it was stressful and a pain.

This trip we don’t have to make park reservations with our date based tickets, so worried that we might run into the same problem. We would be getting highest pass level, so not worried about block out dates. Just worried there may not be park pass reservation availability and it might mess up our plans/LLMP/etc.

Any ideas/suggestions?

 

[OKW Lover]

If you have an AP AND a resort stay you have more freedom for your park reservation. As you say, Guest Services can fix any "lost" park reservations for you. I'd make a list (screen shot?) of them before you go.

 

[kwdw]

Can you upgrade now? I’m not sure, but I don’t think the date on the AP would start until your first use.

 

[summerlvr]

I upgraded my date based ticket to an AP in July and had the same concerns I went to Guest Services at Disney Springs to do the upgrade and I had them check reservation availability first (this was over July 4th). They told me reservations were available for all parks/days I wanted, so they did the upgrade and made my park reservations for me.

 

[gottalovepluto]

If you know you want APs upgrade now and book your park reservations. That’s what I had some family do and it was so much easier than upgrading there. If you call Disney they can apply the value of your ticket to your new AP. I was doing it for 3 people and they were even able to do it all in one transaction. After they were able to make park reservations. The AP start date will be the first day you use it to enter a park.

Definitely don’t give up all the AP discounts over this. Park reservations for APs are much easier to come by than in the past, only time reservations aren’t available anymore seems to be popular holidays and attraction opening dates- and even then you could reserve another park and hop. Currently every park is available every day on the calendar.