First time Annual Pass purchase and Park Reservations Question

[Angeliki19]

Hi,

I have never had an AP before, but was planning on getting one next year for our October 2021 trip. The plan is for only me to get one- I will not be buying one for my kids. I have some questions on timing and strategy of this. My understanding is that you can buy an AP, link it to MDE, use it for discounts and FP's (in the "old days"), but it will not start "counting down" until you activate it in person when you get to WDW.

With the new system and Park Reservations, I am confused. If I buy myself the AP say in January, and buy my kids tickets through UT, link everything in MDE, will I be good to go for making Park Reservations? I guess I am feeling pressure to make the reservations ASAP, but I obviously don't want my AP to be active months before I would even use it.

Thanks!

 

[frannn]

Once new APs become available again, you should be able to purchase a certificate, link it to MDE, and make sure 3 days of park reservations. If you have an onsite resort reservation, you should be able to make park reservations for the length of stay. Providing you purchase a certificate, you should be able to activate it upon arrival.

 

[lanejudy]

I guess I am feeling pressure to make the reservations ASAP

Since APs aren’t yet available and no info on when they will be, you could purchase regular tickets and then upgrade to AP once you arrive. That will allow you to plan park reservations without waiting.

But if you do wait, the AP will not “activate” until you first use it to enter a park.

 

[Angeliki19]

Since APs aren’t yet available and no info on when they will be, you could purchase regular tickets and then upgrade to AP once you arrive. That will allow you to plan park reservations without waiting.

But if you do wait, the AP will not “activate” until you first use it to enter a park.

If I want to book a room with an AP discount though, I won't be able to do that right? I am confused because I thought I read that as long as you go activate it before you check in, you are fine, but then I saw on another blog the other day what looked like rates that were only visible on the Disney site if your account had an AP tied to it?

 

[lanejudy]

You need to call to book an AP discount before you have an active AP. As long as you upgrade to an AP at the start of your visit you should be fine.

 

[frannn]

You won't be able to view AP rates on the WDW website unless you are logged in with a voucher attached to your profile. You can, however, book over the phone with an AP discount and show proof at check-in (unless that has changed post Covid).

 

[lovethattink]

Just a heads up on the park reservation system. Dh, ds, and myself, have AP. Ds’s friend went with us, but is no longer an AP and had a day ticket. The park reservation system kept giving an error. Finally figured it out. I had to make 2 separate park reservations. AP on one and other ticket on the other.

The other thing I ran in to, was that our AP had every park available. The ticket didn’t have Hollywood studios available the day we were going. So I had to change plans. And I booked day ticket to MK on one reservation, then did the other 3 together for MK. In MDE, it showed the 2 separate reservations.

 

[Rockbro]

Just a heads up on the park reservation system. Dh, ds, and myself, have AP. Ds’s friend went with us, but is no longer an AP and had a day ticket. The park reservation system kept giving an error. Finally figured it out. I had to make 2 separate park reservations. AP on one and other ticket on the other.

The other thing I ran in to, was that our AP had every park available. The ticket didn’t have Hollywood studios available the day we were going. So I had to change plans. And I booked day ticket to MK on one reservation, then did the other 3 together for MK. In MDE, it showed the 2 separate reservations.

To piggyback on this, regular ticket holders currently have more park reservation privileges than AP's. This may cause some problems for you.

 

[soniam]

Just a heads up on the park reservation system. Dh, ds, and myself, have AP. Ds’s friend went with us, but is no longer an AP and had a day ticket. The park reservation system kept giving an error. Finally figured it out. I had to make 2 separate park reservations. AP on one and other ticket on the other.

The other thing I ran in to, was that our AP had every park available. The ticket didn’t have Hollywood studios available the day we were going. So I had to change plans. And I booked day ticket to MK on one reservation, then did the other 3 together for MK. In MDE, it showed the 2 separate reservations.

I hit this for onsite November 2021. I have an activated AP that will renew August 2021. My husband and son have unactivated APs. It wouldn't let me make park reservations beyond my AP renewal date. I had to buy tickets for me. Since we are all staying onsite, I presume we came out of the onsite bucket. However, I still had to make mine separate from DH and DS. The error message was weird, and it took a while to figure out what it complaining about.

To piggyback on this, regular ticket holders currently have more park reservation privileges than AP's. This may cause some problems for you.

If you are staying onsite, then it would be the same bucket, but I don't think @lovethattink and all people in her party were. I wonder who has the largest bucket; I have assumed it was onsite.

 

[Angeliki19]

You won't be able to view AP rates on the WDW website unless you are logged in with a voucher attached to your profile. You can, however, book over the phone with an AP discount and show proof at check-in (unless that has changed post Covid).

I hit this for onsite November 2021. I have an activated AP that will renew August 2021. My husband and son have unactivated APs. It wouldn't let me make park reservations beyond my AP renewal date. I had to buy tickets for me. Since we are all staying onsite, I presume we came out of the onsite bucket. However, I still had to make mine separate from DH and DS. The error message was weird, and it took a while to figure out what it complaining about.



If you are staying onsite, then it would be the same bucket, but I don't think @lovethattink and all people in her party were. I wonder who has the largest bucket; I have assumed it was onsite.

Wow ok, thanks for the info. So to get this straight.. people are having issues booking park reservations with AP’s, even with resort stays. And I CAN book an AP discount, without even a voucher, over the phone?

Assuming that is all correct, seems like a better strategy for me then would be to buy all our tickets from UT, call to book the room with AP discount (assuming there is one for next fall), and then the first day we get there, BEFORE checking in, upgrade mine to an AP?

Is there any chance that my park reservations would get messed up by upgrading, due to the different buckets? I was so excited to buy my first AP but as always with Disney, this is turning out to be way more complicated than I imagined haha!

 

[skeeter31]

Wow ok, thanks for the info. So to get this straight.. people are having issues booking park reservations with AP’s, even with resort stays. And I CAN book an AP discount, without even a voucher, over the phone?

Assuming that is all correct, seems like a better strategy for me then would be to buy all our tickets from UT, call to book the room with AP discount (assuming there is one for next fall), and then the first day we get there, BEFORE checking in, upgrade mine to an AP?

Is there any chance that my park reservations would get messed up by upgrading, due to the different buckets? I was so excited to buy my first AP but as always with Disney, this is turning out to be way more complicated than I imagined haha!

No. If you have a resort reservation, with or without an AP, you’re in the resort bucket, so you usually have more availability for park reservations.
And no, you can’t book an AP discount room without an AP or at least an AP voucher. What the OP was stating is that you have to call to get the discount when you only have a voucher (the online booking will only recognize when you have an activated AP). If you don’t have an AP or a voucher, you’re not eligible for an AP discount at all. They won’t let you book an AP discount only because you tell them you’re going to upgrade to an AP, especially when it’s unknown when they’ll even start selling APs again.

 

[disneygirlsng]

No. If you have a resort reservation, with or without an AP, you’re in the resort bucket, so you usually have more availability for park reservations.
And no, you can’t book an AP discount room without an AP or at least an AP voucher. What the OP was stating is that you have to call to get the discount when you only have a voucher (the online booking will only recognize when you have an activated AP). If you don’t have an AP or a voucher, you’re not eligible for an AP discount at all. They won’t let you book an AP discount only because you tell them you’re going to upgrade to an AP, especially when it’s unknown when they’ll even start selling APs again.

Is that new? I booked two resort stays with AP discounts last year online with just the AP voucher.

 

[skeeter31]

Is that new? I booked two resort stays with AP discounts last year online with just the AP voucher.

Not sure about the online thing, I was just going by the OP stating that. I was more answering that you can’t get an AP discount without at least having a voucher n

 

[lanejudy]

In the past, one could book an AP discount over the phone and upgrade regular tickets to an AP once onsite. If the ticket upgrade did not occur, supposedly the room rate reverted to rack rate.

It is possible that in the current situation of no APs available to the general public, they may refuse to book an AP rate without an AP or voucher already.

@Angeliki19 I suggest you book the best rate you can find now, and then watch for better discounts - whether general public or AP - and also keep an eye on the AP situation. Room reservations can often be adjusted when a discount comes out.

 

[lovethattink]

I hit this for onsite November 2021. I have an activated AP that will renew August 2021. My husband and son have unactivated APs. It wouldn't let me make park reservations beyond my AP renewal date. I had to buy tickets for me. Since we are all staying onsite, I presume we came out of the onsite bucket. However, I still had to make mine separate from DH and DS. The error message was weird, and it took a while to figure out what it complaining about.



If you are staying onsite, then it would be the same bucket, but I don't think @lovethattink and all people in her party were. I wonder who has the largest bucket; I have assumed it was onsite.

Me, dh and ds had AP. Friend had a comp pass from when we filmed a UK tv show at MK.

 

[fla4fun]

Wow ok, thanks for the info. So to get this straight.. people are having issues booking park reservations with AP’s, even with resort stays. And I CAN book an AP discount, without even a voucher, over the phone?

Assuming that is all correct, seems like a better strategy for me then would be to buy all our tickets from UT, call to book the room with AP discount (assuming there is one for next fall), and then the first day we get there, BEFORE checking in, upgrade mine to an AP?

Is there any chance that my park reservations would get messed up by upgrading, due to the different buckets? I was so excited to buy my first AP but as always with Disney, this is turning out to be way more complicated than I imagined haha!

Well, I will share my experience. I have a platinum AP that would have expired in late December prior to the shutdown, and my sister and BIL have silver AP that would have expired in September. We all opted to take the extension. I have two trips booked, in December and January, and I always put one or the other of their names on the reservation as the second adult. I had no issues booking park passes for the two trips other than the person who was not on the hotel reservation had to be booked separately (They only come for the weekend, so having limited AP park reservations was not a problem in our scenario). Otherwise, we are all booked for the same park on the same day. I would recommend booking park passes as soon as you can if you will have to book from different pools of availability, as a precaution.

I also booked a short trip for the 50th. My AP has a May expiration after all the extensions. Fortunately, I had received a renewal voucher purchased at AAA before the closures as a gift, and was able to link that to my account so I could book the park passes for that trip. If I hadn’t, I would have gone the “buy a ticket and upgrade” route because it was important to me to book the Oct 1st MK park reservation ASAP. I wasn’t sure it would let me link the renewal voucher so far ahead of the actual expiration, but I was glad it did. Usually I link it a week or so before my FP date for any affected trip, or about 70 days out.

I have not really heard of a lot of AP issues booking park passes after the first month or so when there were some availability issues. I have even heard of people booking same day with an AP, which is nice as far as spontaneity is concerned.

 

[Angeliki19]

In the past, one could book an AP discount over the phone and upgrade regular tickets to an AP once onsite. If the ticket upgrade did not occur, supposedly the room rate reverted to rack rate.

It is possible that in the current situation of no APs available to the general public, they may refuse to book an AP rate without an AP or voucher already.

@Angeliki19 I suggest you book the best rate you can find now, and then watch for better discounts - whether general public or AP - and also keep an eye on the AP situation. Room reservations can often be adjusted when a discount comes out.

Thank you.. this is all so confusing. One more question- do you recommend I buy all of our tickets now, and CAN I even upgrade a ticket purchased from Undercover Tourist to an AP assuming they become available again?

 

[lanejudy]

CAN I even upgrade a ticket purchased from Undercover Tourist to an AP assuming they become available again?

Yes, UT is an authorized re-seller and they sell exactly the same tickets as if you purchase directly from WDW. UT tickets can be upgraded to AP or days added or other features added (hopping, water parks, etc.).

If you want to make park reservations, you will need tickets to do so. Right now, it looks like there is plenty of availability for next October. You could wait and keep an eye on that parks reservation calendar then buy tickets when you see availability start to wane.