DL AP shipping costs

[albianne]

If I buy the AP's at the gates will they charge the same price as online? I just tried to purchase online and can not believe that they want me to pay $20.00 for shipping when I am buying $807.00 worth of tickets from them, it's kind of like adding insult to injury IMO. They say it will be shipped by international courier (even though there is plenty of lead-time for regular post) Any Canadians out there have to pay more when they arrive for customs clearance or taxes etc.
I had a bad experience once when I purchased a doll for my dd from the U.S., had done it many times with no problem then I get one moron seller who ships courier rather than regular US postal service, I ended up paying $35.00 to a clearing house because it had to "clear customs" plus taxes and GST made for one heck of an expensive doll , so I am a little bit leary of anyone who tells me they are going to ship something to me via courier.
What exactly is the advantage of buying the passes online if I have to activate them when I get there anyway, should I just wait and purchase when we arrive?

 

[atakaratemom]

If you don't want to buy them online, but want to get them ahead of time, you may be able to purchase them at a Disney Store if there is one in your area. I purchased our APs at our local Disney Store and they were actually less expensive then the online prices. It was nice to be able to have them in hand before we went to DL because it saved us having to stand in line to purchase them there.

 

[samkj]

I would try calling. Maybe they can waive the shipping fee?

 

[disneychrista]

as far as I know there is no advantage to purchasing them in advance, just buy them when you get there.

 

[epcotfan]

If I buy the AP's at the gates will they charge the same price as online? I just tried to purchase online and can not believe that they want me to pay $20.00 for shipping when I am buying $807.00 worth of tickets from them, it's kind of like adding insult to injury IMO. They say it will be shipped by international courier (even though there is plenty of lead-time for regular post) Any Canadians out there have to pay more when they arrive for customs clearance or taxes etc.
I had a bad experience once when I purchased a doll for my dd from the U.S., had done it many times with no problem then I get one moron seller who ships courier rather than regular US postal service, I ended up paying $35.00 to a clearing house because it had to "clear customs" plus taxes and GST made for one heck of an expensive doll , so I am a little bit leary of anyone who tells me they are going to ship something to me via courier.
What exactly is the advantage of buying the passes online if I have to activate them when I get there anyway, should I just wait and purchase when we arrive?

I was wondering the same thing since I am Canadian too. I worry about courier brokerage charges and duty. Would they charge duty on tickets you can only use outside the country, or would it simply be considered documents? It isn't really merchandise. The only reason I considered ordering them in advance was in case we may be eligible for AP discounts.

 

[disneychrista]

Why would you want to buy them and have them sent to you? There is no discount (that I am aware of) so why not just purchase them when you get there?

 

[Beth8266]

Why would you want to buy them and have them sent to you? There is no discount (that I am aware of) so why not just purchase them when you get there?

TIME!! My bil spent 45 minutes in line last week waiting to get his pic taken!

 

[Califgirl]

TIME!! My bil spent 45 minutes in line last week waiting to get his pic taken!

Regardless of how you buy your AP, you still have to stand in line to get your picture taken at Disneyland itself. When you prepurchase an AP, they just send you a paper ticket and you have to redeem that and have your picture taken at the Main St. Bank. So, prepurchasing them will not save you anytime in the AP picture line. It might save you some time in the ticket line outside the parks, where you purchase your ticket media to get into the parks.

 

[albianne]

Yup, that's what I was trying to avoid, basically trying to eliminate one of the lines. You never really know how busy they will be and every little bit of time saving helps. I did take the advice of checking with my closest disney store in Calgary and went in, they took my name and the number and type of passes I needed and said they would order them for me and they might take 2-4 weeks (crazy or what!) but they did not ask for any money up front and basically told me that if they don't arrive in time then to buy them at the gate.
One thing though, the cost of the tickets in Canadian ordered from your local store in our case worked out to be $28.00 more than online before shipping charges are added, which is approx to the charge for the international courier from disney direct. The only reason I can see ordering local is to avoid any charges at customs (still don't know if there is any, but don't want to get burned) and also would be able to eliminate one potentially long line at the gates when we get there.

 

[clyde]

I purchased my annual pass via disney online. I didn't like the $20 charge for shipping, but they did not offer the "pick up window" option.(it was there, but greyed out).

The only reason I purchase an AP online was to ensure my family could get tickets to the Halloween Party, at the time not knowing they would open up other dates.

I had no problems with customs. This doesn't mean that will always be the case, as I had no problems via ebay before, and then had the RANDOM inspection and had to pay additional costs on whatever the item was. Good luck on your decision.

 

[robinb]

I just looked at APs on the Disney website and Pick-up (or was it "will-call") was available for me for free. But ... I'm from the US and my trip is next week. Perhaps you can put in next week's date just to see if it's available and then plan on buying them closer to your trip. Of course, you may risk having AP rates go up, even though the last price increase was last month).