DVC PAP question - can I upgrade?

[momof2disprincesses]

So right now each person in our family of 4 has regular DVC discounted AP's. We bought them in July, so they expire next July.

We are going to WDW for 2 weeks at Christmas and now possibly at spring break and maybe even June 2013 again.

Can I upgrade the regular AP's I have now to the PAP's so we can enjoy the other perks of a PAP for our upcoming trips? If so, how do I do this?

If not, and you were us, would you then buy the DVC PAP voucher. If I understand this correctly, you have until Dec. 31, 2013 to activate it, right?

If we cannot upgrade our current AP's, I would think of buying the vouchers and then going again in the fall or winter of 2013 and activating them then.

Anyone have advice about this?

 

[cvjw]

We upgraded our current DVC AP's to the new DVC PAP's at DHS in October. It was really simple - we just went to guest services and did the upgrade. It cost us about $15 per ticket to upgrade, and our PAP's still expire at the same time as the regular AP's would have. It allowed us to have the 20% shopping discount and visit the waterparks during our October trip.

 

[Chuck S]

They would not allow me to upgrade my current DVC Regular AP that expires in May when I went to WDW in October. In order to get the special I had to buy a voucher for next time.

Several others have reported the same, having to buy the voucher, on other threads.

 

[bunnybee]

We had DVC "upgrade" annual passes (originally had 7 day park pass and converted to discounted DVC annual pass last March). In early November, We went to the customer service desk at Downtown Disney and asked if we could change to the new one for the remainder (to March 2013) and had no problem at all. Now we have the 20% and water parks!

 

[bigtony777]

It seems you will get many different answers and outcomes to this question. I read that some were not allowed to upgrade, while other were upgraded and even given a refund.

We just upgraded all of our 5 passes, 2 adult and 3 children passes to the premium, that we purchased in June. The cast member said up front that we were not going to get a refund, but that there would be not cost. All 5 were upgraded at no cost so I think we came out ahead as the adults were about $25 cheaper, but the children's premium passes should have cost $25 more each.

Be sure to check early in your visit so in case you are told no, you can keep trying until you get someone that says yes. We upgraded at the international gateway at Epcot.

 

[DisneyMomJen]

We were just able to upgrade our AP's that we purchased in August at DTD Guest Services. They also gave us a gift card of $166 for the price difference of 6 AP's. Good luck! This was something I worried about since they announced the premium ap special.