DVC AP from tickets

[mistysue]

I'm sorry I'm even posting, I keep finding *almost* the straight answer to this.

I have a 7 day ticket. When we go on our trip I want to convert it to the Sorcerer pass which I can only get because we have DVC (direct). I know I can't just go on the website and buy the AP because DVC has to confirm status or whatever.
So will the ticket window in/outside the park be able to handle this without a big drama? Or are there going to need to be phone calls and a whole big mess?

I'm debating just not upgrading until the end of our trip so we don't have to do park reservations incase we want to change our plans one day. I can't believe they make onsite APs do that still.

 

[Shellyred8]

I would go with the option you are talking about where you don't upgrade until the end of your trip so you don't have to make park reservations. Just make sure you do it by the last day of your 7-day ticket. There might be good-to-go days while you are there so you wouldn't have to worry about making park reservations on those days, but if you don't get the AP until the end of your trip, then you won't have to worry about fussing around with that.

Yes, you do have to go to Guest Relations to do the upgrade. You can even do the upgrade at the GR at Disney Springs. We did our upgrade at Disney Springs the last time we had to do this and it went really smooth. No line and the CM that helped us was awesome.

 

[TinkAgainU]

Disney rules can be inflexible. I'd probably do it the second to the last day in case someone in the party was unavailable to go to a park the last day (I'm not sure if you have to activate in a park the actual day you are upgrading if you had already activated an xday ticket the day before ... but just in case). I've had them be very inflexible even when the issue was one Disney clearly created. They can be way more I.R.S.-like than M.I.C.K.E.Y.-like sometimes.

 

[3 DD love princesses]

I would upgrade by your 6th day incase there is a problem. We have upgraded in the past no problems but always left one extra day in case. I have found going mid day/afternoon has been shorter lines vs morning. Plus then we didn’t waste lower crowd time in the parks to upgrade.

 

[Tatebeck]

Yes they can handle that at the booth outside the parks. We did that last year for our passes. They will require your ID to do it though.

You can do it anytime during your trip, but I would just make sure not to do it the last day since they may not let you do it once the tickets are "fully redeemed"

If you are worried about doing it earlier in your trip because of park reservations, the cast member can quickly go in and make park reservations for you after upgrading your ticket. We had them do that for us as well.

 

[Sandisw]

Easy to do. I did it in August.

 

[mistysue]

Yes they can handle that at the booth outside the parks. We did that last year for our passes. They will require your ID to do it though.

You can do it anytime during your trip, but I would just make sure not to do it the last day since they may not let you do it once the tickets are "fully redeemed"

If you are worried about doing it earlier in your trip because of park reservations, the cast member can quickly go in and make park reservations for you after upgrading your ticket. We had them do that for us as well.

That's good to know they will pull up park reservations too. Such a weird hassle, and one of those little things that causes anxiety even when it's unlikely to become an issue.

 

[Tatebeck]

That's good to know they will pull up park reservations too. Such a weird hassle, and one of those little things that causes anxiety even when it's unlikely to become an issue.

Yep, it was very easy. We did it on our second to last day, told them that we were planning on going to Epcot the next day, asked if we had to make a park reservation now that we have passes instead of tickets, and they went ahead and did it for us in a just a few seconds

 

[Judique]

I'm sorry I'm even posting, I keep finding *almost* the straight answer to this.

I have a 7 day ticket. When we go on our trip I want to convert it to the Sorcerer pass which I can only get because we have DVC (direct). I know I can't just go on the website and buy the AP because DVC has to confirm status or whatever.https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/passholder-program/passholder-benefits-and-discounts/merchandise-discounts/
So will the ticket window in/outside the park be able to handle this without a big drama? Or are there going to need to be phone calls and a whole big mess?

I'm debating just not upgrading until the end of our trip so we don't have to do park reservations incase we want to change our plans one day. I can't believe they make onsite APs do that still.

Is it a date based ticket? If not you may need to do reservations anyway.

I would do it on the first day because of the possible merchandize discounts. Your AP would be backdated to the first day whichever day you do it.

https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/p...benefits-and-discounts/merchandise-discounts/

Many of the stores give 20%. I was very happy about this when I was buying a $60 hoodie for a friend in DHS.

 

[TexasJedi]

Is there an advantage to buying regular tickets and converting them to a pass as a DVC member vs. buying an AP outright beforehand?

I presume when you do the upgrade, you pay the difference between how much you paid for your tickets and the cost of the Sorcerer Pass, or is there some sort of discount incentive on doing a conversion?

 

[CarolynFH]

Is there an advantage to buying regular tickets and converting them to a pass as a DVC member vs. buying an AP outright beforehand?

I presume when you do the upgrade, you pay the difference between how much you paid for your tickets and the cost of the Sorcerer Pass, or is there some sort of discount incentive on doing a conversion?

If you buy the tickets from an authorized reseller and then upgrade to an AP, the value you’re given for the tickets should be what they would have cost if purchased online from Disney the day you bought them. So you’d preserve the discount you received by buying from a reseller. If you bought the tickets directly from Disney and upgrade to an AP, there’s no discount or other advantage.

 

[Tatebeck]

Is there an advantage to buying regular tickets and converting them to a pass as a DVC member vs. buying an AP outright beforehand?

I presume when you do the upgrade, you pay the difference between how much you paid for your tickets and the cost of the Sorcerer Pass, or is there some sort of discount incentive on doing a conversion?

When we did it, it was from a vacation package purchased from costcotravel.com So I believe we got full face value of the tickets towards the passes even though we got them at a "discounted" rate due to the package.

 

[mistysue]

Is it a date based ticket? If not you may need to do reservations anyway.

I would do it on the first day because of the possible merchandize discounts. Your AP would be backdated to the first day whichever day you do it.

https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/p...benefits-and-discounts/merchandise-discounts/

Many of the stores give 20%. I was very happy about this when I was buying a $60 hoodie for a friend in DHS.

It's date based and we're staying on-site, so no park reservations needed if we keep it as a non-AP.

We get the DVC discount, which is usually the same as AP. Really I just don't want to be committed to where we want to go. The moment we become AP, we have to declare where we're going and either pop into that park first or hope where we want to switch to doesn't "sell out".
It's going to be fairly busy toward the end of our trip, and I really don't want to get up Saturday, decide we want to go to MK and not be able to get in until we go to another park (especially staying at the Poly, that would suck)

 

[eticketplease]

If you are worried about doing it earlier in your trip because of park reservations, the cast member can quickly go in and make park reservations for you after upgrading your ticket. We had them do that for us as well.

Thanks I did not know they would do that!!

 

[CarolynFH]

It's date based and we're staying on-site, so no park reservations needed if we keep it as a non-AP.

We get the DVC discount, which is usually the same as AP. Really I just don't want to be committed to where we want to go. The moment we become AP, we have to declare where we're going and either pop into that park first or hope where we want to switch to doesn't "sell out".
It's going to be fairly busy toward the end of our trip, and I really don't want to get up Saturday, decide we want to go to MK and not be able to get in until we go to another park (especially staying at the Poly, that would suck)

You can upgrade as late as park closing on the day you use the last entry on the ticket - but the next day is too late! So if you’re worried about needing park reservations, wait until you enter a park on your last park day, then go to GR to upgrade. No matter when you upgrade, the start date of your AP year will be the first day you used that ticket for entry to a park, not the day you upgrade.