Flex Pass Superthread: Disneyland Resort Introduces New Annual Passport that Combines Value and Flexibility

[kristensideaoffun]

Update on the Flex Pass:

If you want to upgrade a ticket to a Flex Annual Pass, do NOT do so while you are in the park unless you know there are reservations available for that day.

I was still undecided about which pass to purchase when we went to the park today, so I just purchased one-day park hoppers with MaxPass. When I left the park to check out of the hotel, I decided to upgrade to the Flex Pass after talking to the concierge about the different passes. I reentered the park, upgraded through the app, then had to leave the park again when I realized I had left my sunglasses in the hotel room. Ran back to the hotel and went to re-enter the park, only to find out that I couldn’t use the pass unless I made a reservation. In the past when I have upgraded to a pass, I was able to re-enter the park even if that pass was blocked out with this day. This is not the case with this pass. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get the reservation system to work while I was standing at the gate. Stepped to the side, still not working. Now I am freaking out because I left a 12 & 13 year old in the park for what I thought would be 20 minutes and I can’t get back in. I go to the ticket window and they are able to give me my plastic annual passes but aren’t able to make a reservation for me. That’s right, you can’t make a reservation at the ticket window. I was about to go into full-blown panic mode when I restarted the app, tried one last time, and was able to get a reservation to both parks for all of us.

So lesson learned for us. I am going to email guest services to tell them about this, because there was absolutely nothing in the app that warned me this would happen. If I remember correctly, you can upgrade to a SoCal pass from a ticket on a blackout day and you aren’t suddenly banned from re-entering the park. So it didn’t even occur to me that I’d need to go through the reservation system to stay in the park after we upgraded.

 

[RedHotMama]

Update on the Flex Pass:

If you want to upgrade a ticket to a Flex Annual Pass, do NOT do so while you are in the park unless you know there are reservations available for that day.

I was still undecided about which pass to purchase when we went to the park today, so I just purchased one-day park hoppers with MaxPass. When I left the park to check out of the hotel, I decided to upgrade to the Flex Pass after talking to the concierge about the different passes. I reentered the park, upgraded through the app, then had to leave the park again when I realized I had left my sunglasses in the hotel room. Ran back to the hotel and went to re-enter the park, only to find out that I couldn’t use the pass unless I made a reservation. In the past when I have upgraded to a pass, I was able to re-enter the park even if that pass was blocked out with this day. This is not the case with this pass. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get the reservation system to work while I was standing at the gate. Stepped to the side, still not working. Now I am freaking out because I left a 12 & 13 year old in the park for what I thought would be 20 minutes and I can’t get back in. I go to the ticket window and they are able to give me my plastic annual passes but aren’t able to make a reservation for me. That’s right, you can’t make a reservation at the ticket window. I was about to go into full-blown panic mode when I restarted the app, tried one last time, and was able to get a reservation to both parks for all of us.

So lesson learned for us. I am going to email guest services to tell them about this, because there was absolutely nothing in the app that warned me this would happen. If I remember correctly, you can upgrade to a SoCal pass from a ticket on a blackout day and you aren’t suddenly banned from re-entering the park. So it didn’t even occur to me that I’d need to go through the reservation system to stay in the park after we upgraded.

Wow, that would be scary! But I'm glad it ended up working out for you that day. Thanks for the warning!

 

[dina444444]

Update on the Flex Pass:

If you want to upgrade a ticket to a Flex Annual Pass, do NOT do so while you are in the park unless you know there are reservations available for that day.

I was still undecided about which pass to purchase when we went to the park today, so I just purchased one-day park hoppers with MaxPass. When I left the park to check out of the hotel, I decided to upgrade to the Flex Pass after talking to the concierge about the different passes. I reentered the park, upgraded through the app, then had to leave the park again when I realized I had left my sunglasses in the hotel room. Ran back to the hotel and went to re-enter the park, only to find out that I couldn’t use the pass unless I made a reservation. In the past when I have upgraded to a pass, I was able to re-enter the park even if that pass was blocked out with this day. This is not the case with this pass. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get the reservation system to work while I was standing at the gate. Stepped to the side, still not working. Now I am freaking out because I left a 12 & 13 year old in the park for what I thought would be 20 minutes and I can’t get back in. I go to the ticket window and they are able to give me my plastic annual passes but aren’t able to make a reservation for me. That’s right, you can’t make a reservation at the ticket window. I was about to go into full-blown panic mode when I restarted the app, tried one last time, and was able to get a reservation to both parks for all of us.

So lesson learned for us. I am going to email guest services to tell them about this, because there was absolutely nothing in the app that warned me this would happen. If I remember correctly, you can upgrade to a SoCal pass from a ticket on a blackout day and you aren’t suddenly banned from re-entering the park. So it didn’t even occur to me that I’d need to go through the reservation system to stay in the park after we upgraded.

You can do that upgrade but they give you a blockout ticket when they do.

 

[Rich M]

Update on the Flex Pass:

If you want to upgrade a ticket to a Flex Annual Pass, do NOT do so while you are in the park unless you know there are reservations available for that day.

I was still undecided about which pass to purchase when we went to the park today, so I just purchased one-day park hoppers with MaxPass. When I left the park to check out of the hotel, I decided to upgrade to the Flex Pass after talking to the concierge about the different passes. I reentered the park, upgraded through the app, then had to leave the park again when I realized I had left my sunglasses in the hotel room. Ran back to the hotel and went to re-enter the park, only to find out that I couldn’t use the pass unless I made a reservation. In the past when I have upgraded to a pass, I was able to re-enter the park even if that pass was blocked out with this day. This is not the case with this pass. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get the reservation system to work while I was standing at the gate. Stepped to the side, still not working. Now I am freaking out because I left a 12 & 13 year old in the park for what I thought would be 20 minutes and I can’t get back in. I go to the ticket window and they are able to give me my plastic annual passes but aren’t able to make a reservation for me. That’s right, you can’t make a reservation at the ticket window. I was about to go into full-blown panic mode when I restarted the app, tried one last time, and was able to get a reservation to both parks for all of us.

So lesson learned for us. I am going to email guest services to tell them about this, because there was absolutely nothing in the app that warned me this would happen. If I remember correctly, you can upgrade to a SoCal pass from a ticket on a blackout day and you aren’t suddenly banned from re-entering the park. So it didn’t even occur to me that I’d need to go through the reservation system to stay in the park after we upgraded.

Wow that is crazy. My sister upgraded hers the night before our last day and had all kinds of problems the entire day using it for FP and discounts. They had to give her a 1 day park hopper to use. I waited until we were completely done for the night to upgrade the rest of ours.

 

[kristensideaoffun]

You can do that upgrade but they give you a blockout ticket when they do.

That’s what I thought would happen when I went to the ticket window. Nope! No blockout ticket and the ticket window people cannot make a reservation for you.

Wow that is crazy. My sister upgraded hers the night before our last day and had all kinds of problems the entire day using it for FP and discounts. They had to give her a 1 day park hopper to use. I waited until we were completely done for the night to upgrade the rest of ours.

I suspect my AP didn’t work when we went to Lamplight to eat. I noticed I got a 15% discount and it said “manager” next to it.

 

[Boku41]

One more upgrade question. If I was to buy discounted 5 day tickets through Getaway Today and then upgrade to an annual pass on our last day, would we get credit for only the discounted price or credit for the regular 5 day ticket price?

 

[Ryan120420]

Update on the Flex Pass:

If you want to upgrade a ticket to a Flex Annual Pass, do NOT do so while you are in the park unless you know there are reservations available for that day.

I was still undecided about which pass to purchase when we went to the park today, so I just purchased one-day park hoppers with MaxPass. When I left the park to check out of the hotel, I decided to upgrade to the Flex Pass after talking to the concierge about the different passes. I reentered the park, upgraded through the app, then had to leave the park again when I realized I had left my sunglasses in the hotel room. Ran back to the hotel and went to re-enter the park, only to find out that I couldn’t use the pass unless I made a reservation. In the past when I have upgraded to a pass, I was able to re-enter the park even if that pass was blocked out with this day. This is not the case with this pass. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get the reservation system to work while I was standing at the gate. Stepped to the side, still not working. Now I am freaking out because I left a 12 & 13 year old in the park for what I thought would be 20 minutes and I can’t get back in. I go to the ticket window and they are able to give me my plastic annual passes but aren’t able to make a reservation for me. That’s right, you can’t make a reservation at the ticket window. I was about to go into full-blown panic mode when I restarted the app, tried one last time, and was able to get a reservation to both parks for all of us.

So lesson learned for us. I am going to email guest services to tell them about this, because there was absolutely nothing in the app that warned me this would happen. If I remember correctly, you can upgrade to a SoCal pass from a ticket on a blackout day and you aren’t suddenly banned from re-entering the park. So it didn’t even occur to me that I’d need to go through the reservation system to stay in the park after we upgraded.

I'm surprised that they didn't think of this scenario. I'm even more surprised that none of the CM's were able to look at your ticket's history to over-ride the system and let you in. Pretty bad guest service, not something I would expect from Disney.

It should be if you upgrade a used ticket in-app to the Flex Pass or upgrade in-person you should get an automatic reservation to both parks that same day.

I guess its growing pains with this new pass. I'm sure it will be fixed as I'm sure they want people to upgrade their daily tickets to this pass. Telling a guest you can upgrade but you may not be able to re-enter the parks would be a huge deterrent.

 

[socaldisneylover]

One more upgrade question. If I was to buy discounted 5 day tickets through Getaway Today and then upgrade to an annual pass on our last day, would we get credit for only the discounted price or credit for the regular 5 day ticket price?

Only what you paid, the discounted price.

 

[kristensideaoffun]

I'm surprised that they didn't think of this scenario. I'm even more surprised that none of the CM's were able to look at your ticket's history to over-ride the system and let you in. Pretty bad guest service, not something I would expect from Disney.

It should be if you upgrade a used ticket in-app to the Flex Pass or upgrade in-person you should get an automatic reservation to both parks that same day.

I guess its growing pains with this new pass. I'm sure it will be fixed as I'm sure they want people to upgrade their daily tickets to this pass. Telling a guest you can upgrade but you may not be able to re-enter the parks would be a huge deterrent.

I completely agree. I am a super mellow person and it takes a lot of things piling on all at once to make me upset. Receiving a panicked phone call from my daughter who had to borrow a stranger’s phone because I was 15 minutes late (didn’t actually get to them until 45 mins after we were supposed to meet, that’s just when they decided to borrow a phone) to meet them because I am never late was really upsetting. I had to go from the front gate to one ticket window (the AP system was down there) to another ticket window, where I was told that all I could do was pick up our passes.

I hope all of this is fixed. At the very least, three things need to happen if they aren’t going to allow Flex passes to have blockout tickets:
1. We should be able to make reservations at the ticket windows in case the app or website is down. It was maddening to be met with a shoulder shrug and absolutely no empathy from 3 separate cast members for a very serious issue of being unable to get into the park and back to the children I left in the park. They’ve just gotten to the age where they are self-sufficient and okay on their own, but they don’t want to be on their own the whole time we are here!
2. When you go to upgrade in the app, it should recognize that you have used your ticket in the park that day and a window should pop up that says something like, “Are you sure you want to upgrade now? If you upgrade now, you will be unable to re-enter the park if you leave without a reservation.”
3. Fix the discounts. My pass hasn’t worked for discounts at all today. A manager has had to be called over every time. You’d think they would be more prepared for this before rolling out a new pass.

We definitely were not the only ones with the re-entry issue. We hopped over to Disneyland and two separate parties in front of us tried to get in but were turned away because they needed a reservation. They had also upgraded to the flex while in CA.

 

[midnight star]

I completely agree. I am a super mellow person and it takes a lot of things piling on all at once to make me upset. Receiving a panicked phone call from my daughter who had to borrow a stranger’s phone because I was 15 minutes late (didn’t actually get to them until 45 mins after we were supposed to meet, that’s just when they decided to borrow a phone) to meet them because I am never late was really upsetting. I had to go from the front gate to one ticket window (the AP system was down there) to another ticket window, where I was told that all I could do was pick up our passes.

I hope all of this is fixed. At the very least, three things need to happen if they aren’t going to allow Flex passes to have blockout tickets:
1. We should be able to make reservations at the ticket windows in case the app or website is down. It was maddening to be met with a shoulder shrug and absolutely no empathy from 3 separate cast members for a very serious issue of being unable to get into the park and back to the children I left in the park. They’ve just gotten to the age where they are self-sufficient and okay on their own, but they don’t want to be on their own the whole time we are here!
2. When you go to upgrade in the app, it should recognize that you have used your ticket in the park that day and a window should pop up that says something like, “Are you sure you want to upgrade now? If you upgrade now, you will be unable to re-enter the park if you leave without a reservation.”
3. Fix the discounts. My pass hasn’t worked for discounts at all today. A manager has had to be called over every time. You’d think they would be more prepared for this before rolling out a new pass.

We definitely were not the only ones with the re-entry issue. We hopped over to Disneyland and two separate parties in front of us tried to get in but were turned away because they needed a reservation. They had also upgraded to the flex while in CA.

For this situation, I would definitely send an email to guest relations to say what happened. That way they are aware of this, and let them know the issue with the CM's, and the inconsistent upgrade issue.

 

[Jperiod]

Only what you paid, the discounted price.

When I've don't this in the past, I received the gate price.

 

[az4boys]

Only what you paid, the discounted price.

I think it depends on where you buy your discounted tickets. We bought from LMTClub and received credit for the gate price when we upgraded to AP's, not the discounted price that we paid. (Effectively saved $44 on each AP.) I've heard some other discount tickets are only credited at the amount actually paid. I'm not sure about Getaway Today.

 

[baozi]

I guess it is a little bit confusing as to what the "gate price" means. If it means the regular (non promotional) 5-day ticket, then I guess it is no (I did this a couple weeks ago, it immediately showed the promotional price when scanned); but if it means the discount provided by whatever third party (i.e. price bridging), then it works, the one I did was also from Getaway.

I think it depends on where you buy your discounted tickets. We bought from LMTClub and received credit for the gate price when we upgraded to AP's, not the discounted price that we paid. (Effectively saved $44 on each AP.) I've heard some other discount tickets are only credited at the amount actually paid. I'm not sure about Getaway Today.

 

[theluckyrabbit]

I completely agree. I am a super mellow person and it takes a lot of things piling on all at once to make me upset. Receiving a panicked phone call from my daughter who had to borrow a stranger’s phone because I was 15 minutes late...

Just a safety note: if any kind of emergency happens again, you can go to City Hall or Chamber of Commerce (depending on which park you are in) to ask a CM to make a call for you. I've had to do this in the past when my phone died.

 

[cruisehopeful]

My husband has Deluxe and is blocked during most of the summer, but I noticed that if he had the new pass, he could technically go a couple days per month on basically any day. I am wondering if I should see if he can "downgrade."

I was thinking of upgrading him to Signature (which is what I have), but he will probably only go one or 2 more times before our passes expire in September. For the way we visit, it looks like the new pass is a better deal for us both if it's easy to get last minute reservations. We normally decide we are going to visit a day before we go or sometimes the day we are going.

 

[socaldisneylover]

My husband has Deluxe and is blocked during most of the summer, but I noticed that if he had the new pass, he could technically go a couple days per month on basically any day. I am wondering if I should see if he can "downgrade."

I was thinking of upgrading him to Signature (which is what I have), but he will probably only go one or 2 more times before our passes expire in September. For the way we visit, it looks like the new pass is a better deal for us both if it's easy to get last minute reservations. We normally decide we are going to visit a day before we go or sometimes the day we are going.

Do not assume that all the days showing as open now, will remain so. As more people get the pass, and we get into heart of the summer, some days will inevitably become unavailable. You will still be able to have 2 reservations at any time, so with planning, and "flex"ibility, you could get more use out of it, but don't think you'll necessarily be able to go very Saturday & Sunday during August, though it looks open right now. Your day before strategy may work for less popular dates, but don't expect a Saturday in August to be available the day, or even a week or two before. Again, as they sell more passes, more start making reservations, and we get into July, August, and even September, things will change.

 

[Vysecity]

I "downgraded" my son to the Flex. He still has 392 days remaining as of today. Was able to take him all Memorial weekend which I couldnt have done with the deluxe. Plus taking him on our Star Wars weekend June 22 and 23. I'm loving this pass right now. Unfortunately my wife was renewed month before flex was announced. Going to have to upgrade her to Signature

 

[Kkb0517]

We have two trips planned to Disneyland over the next year and the new annual pass flex seems like it might save us a few dollars. Does anyone know if you can make reservations with it before you activate the pass/first time you use it in the parks?

 

[MrLincoln]

Just thought I would pass along my experience getting the Flex Pass. I couldn't print the confirmation email, but a ticket booth CM was still able to scan the QR codes for DW and I off my phone. They look just like regular APs.

Be sure to request your pass to be updated to date of first use, though. I was persistent with the CM about that. Otherwise your passes print out good ONLY from your date of purchase. So you have to renew by the day before that date next year.

With the card, we have already been able to ride HM and the monorail and get dinner at Earl of Sandwich (NOTE: The restaurant does NOT need to scan your AP and will give you 15, not 10, percent off your order!).

What the flex AP will not give you, we have found out so far, is discounts on souvenir sippers or popcorn buckets. We now have Dumbo attached to Casey Jr., but at full price. You can find the Dumbo sipper at the cart in front of the Casey Junior ride, but you need to go down to the cart in front of Edelweiss Snacks to get the Casey Jr bucket. Each is $17.66.

Anyone else feel free to ask if you have questions. Hitting up Space Mtn. this morning. Loving it!

 

[MrLincoln]

Yes, two for either/both parks. We are talking about it in this thread:

https://www.disboards.com/threads/n...-that-combines-value-and-flexibility.3749065/