Everything About WDW Tickets

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Walt Disney World is selling Annual Passes for Florida Residents only on the installment plan as well as immediate payment. These specifically are the Weekday Select, Seasonal, Annual, Epcot After 4:00, and Premium Passes. Not included are Water Parks, Disney Quest, DVC Member Rates, The Premier Pass, and for any person without proof of Florida Residency.

Use of a Credit Card or Debit Card without PIN is required. For various reasons it is much easier to do the purchase online rather than at a window. However, they can be purchased at any WDW Park ticket window (including TTC, water parks and DQ) or any Park (or DTD) Guest Relations Office.

The required minimum down payment is the amount of a one-day, one-park, adult ticket, including tax. This applies even if the AP is for a child. The down payment may be made using cash, a gift card, hotel charge, or any other method currently allowed for ticket purchases. The balance will be paid in 12 equal installments (although the final payment may vary because of rounding). The first of the 12 monthly installments will be processed within one business day of the purchase, the remaining eleven on the same date each month, so payment is always in advance.

Once any level of AP has been purchased on the Monthly Payment Plan, if you wish to upgrade to any higher level of AP other than the DL/WDW Premier Pass you continue the payments on the MPP and pay the difference between the AP you are upgrading from and the AP you are upgrading to. For upgrading to the Disney Premier Passport only you must pay off the contract in full prior to doing the upgrade.

There are some special rules in place for purchase at WDW:

1. There are only three allowable forms of ID for the buyer. These are a Florida Driver's License, a Florida State-issued ID card, or a military ID card with proof that the service member is stationed at a military base on Florida. If multiple passes are being purchased, the other Passholders may have any other acceptable form of Florida Resident documentation.
2. If the Pass is purchased by upgrading any existing pass, the value of the pass upgraded from will be the minimum amount of the down payment.
3. The 14 day upgrade rule will be strictly enforced. Although a Resident 3 day or 4 day pass is valid for six months from date of first use, and may normally be upgraded at any time during the six months, for purposes of the Monthly Payment Plan the 14 day rules also applies to these passes.

Qualifying Annual Passes may be renewed at WDW. For any AP renewal there is no down payment requirement. And as any other renewal of an AP, you may upgrade or downgrade at the renewal price.

A Florida Resident may purchase multiple passes. However, each person for whom a pass is purchased must provide proof of Florida Residency at the time of purchase or pickup. If the purchase is done online, all the demographic information for each Passholder will be entered at the time of purchase and will only need to be verified at the time of pickup. If any Zip Code entered is not a valid Florida Zip Code the transaction will not process. If the location of the ISP is outside of Florida you may not even be able to get to the Monthly Payment Plan screen.

The billing address for the credit or debit card used must be a Florida Address. Each person age 18 or older must provide proof of Florida Residency at the time the actual passes are issued. Any person under age 18 must be accompanied by a person with proof of Florida Residency at the time the actual passes are issued.

As a legally binding contract will be signed, the only way a person may stop the payments is by actually closing the account that is being charged and not providing Disney with a new account number. If any payment is missed, all passes on the contract will immediately be blocked. There are provisions for unblocking the passes; there are separate procedures for the actual purchaser (contract signer) and the Passholders, if different.

If a Pass is blocked due to non-payment, certain payments may be accepted at Guest Relations Offices to unblock the Pass. There is an outside company that actually administers the passes and processes the payments. That company is available Monday thru Fridays, 8:00am to 8:00pm only (except holidays) for resolving problems. Information on how to contact the company is in the copy of the contract, and the phone number will be available at ticket and Guest Relations Offices. Other than accepting a payment to unblock a blocked pass, the ticket windows and Guest Relations Offices are unable to answer any specific questions related to any existing contract.

 

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Price Bridging is a Disney policy which allows Guests to keep a discount when they upgrade a ticket by adding days or options or going to any Annual Pass. There are specific rules related to which tickets may or may not be price bridged.

The basic concept is that an eligible ticket, once it has been used for a Park entry, will have a two step procedure. The first is to bring the price of the ticket to the current Gate price. If the ticket is paper (Tyvek) a new ticket will print out; if the ticket is on RFID media it will only make a change in the system and there will be no physical change to the ticket. There is no cost to the Guest for this first step. The second step is to take the updated ticket (either the new printed ticket or the RFID ticket) and do the upgrade, with the Guest making payment of the upgrade cost only.

Walt Disney World Ticket Operations sells all tickets. There are three categories of tickets which may be sold and are described below. These are full-price, discounted, and deeply discounted.

1. Full price tickets (Also called Gate Price)

These are sold only at WDW ticketing locations. They are sold at all Park ticket windows and Guest Relations Offices/Windows. This includes the Theme Parks, Water Parks, TTC, and DTD. They are sold online and by phone, but only as a ticket purchase and not as part of a package. If purchased at a Disney Resort Lobby Concierge, and not as part of a package, they are full price. Likewise they may be purchased at a Disney operated gift shop in one of the Downtown Disney Resorts or the Swolphin.

These tickets will not be price-bridged. If they are upgraded during the current pricing period they do not need bridging. However, if there is a general price increase after they are purchased their value will remain the original purchase price for upgrade purposes.

2. Discounted Tickets

These tickets are sold at discounted (wholesale) prices by Ticket Operations to authorized resellers. This may seem strange, but The Disney Store buys the tickets at wholesale so they are considered discounted even though they sell them at full retail. Similarly tickets sold by the Walt Disney Travel Company as part of a WDW package which includes room are discounted tickets. (Note that WDTC will not tell a Guest what the different costs are when you purchase a package.) Other organizations include, as examples, AAA, Undercover Tourist, Maple Leaf Tickets, Official Ticket Center, Tickets at Work, etc. These organizations may set the prices for the tickets they sell at any amount.

These tickets are all eligible to be price-bridged. Note that what you paid for the ticket does not matter. And they must be used at least once prior to doing any upgrade.

3. Deeply Discounted Tickets

These are normally special tickets that cannot be purchased at a ticket window but require an advance purchase. They tend to be sold through Group Sales. Generally it includes the Y.E.S. program, bands, sport teams and conventions. If a ticket has a "not valid before" date on it, or a "not valid after" date (or both) it falls into this category. Other indications are the ticket says YOUTH, SPORT, YES, After 2:00 or After 4:00 on the ticket.

Normally these tickets cannot be upgraded. If there is an exception to policy made and days or options are added these tickets will not be price-bridged and the starting point is actually the price Ticket Operations sold the tickets for (not necessarily the price paid by the end purchaser).

Certain special tickets, such as the Armed Forces Salute or restricted Resident tickets (such as this year's Discover Disney) can receive certain upgrades normally, but because of the very deep discount will not be price bridged to an equivalent "tourist" ticket.

4. Free Tickets

There are three types of "free"; Marketing Hype, Promotional, or Complimentary

There is no such thing as a "free" day on any multi-day ticket. Many authorized resellers, as well as WDTC, will sometimes offer free days. This is strictly Marketing Hype! It does not matter if it is a four day ticket plus three free, a five day ticket plus two free days, or a six day ticket plus one free day. These are all seven day tickets. As said above, resellers can set any prices they want. As far as Ticket Operations is concerned these are regular discounted tickets and may be price-bridged.

Sometimes WDTC will run a promotion such as Kids Play Free. Again, they are buying the tickets from Ticket Operations and are adjusting something such as the room rate to sell rooms. Other promotional examples were the "Free on Your Birthday" a few years ago. Promotional tickets can be price-bridged.

Complimentary Tickets are actually free. They may have one of the following on them: CP, COMP, or COMPLIMENTARY. These tickets may be donated to non-profit organizations for their fund raising purposes. They are also used for Guest Recovery when Disney has caused problem, or for unusual circumstances. An example of the latter is when the Iceland volcano disrupted trans-Atlantic air traffic for several days and people had to stay over and their tickets had expired. Since they are actually free tickets, their value is zero and they cannot be price-bridged.

5. Important Points For Any Upgrade

The price that you paid for a ticket does not matter. Go to Post 18-A in this thread and look up the Gate Value of the ticket up are upgrading to. Look up the Gate Value of the ticket you are upgrading from. Take the difference between the two prices. Multiply the difference by 1.065, which adds in the Sales Tax. If the ticket you are upgrading from is already at Gate Price or is
eligible for price-bridging, the amount you should be charged is known to you. If the difference is more than a few cents ask the person assisting you to recheck their work (even show your calculations).