Our SoCal AP with MaxPass expires on 12/20/19 and we're thinking about switching over to the Flex AP. I have a question about the day that we switch over to the Flex AP. So with the other AP if we renew in person, the park usually gives us a day pass to enter the park even if we renew on a blackout date for the SoCal AP. With the Flex AP, since there are Black Out dates, No Reservations Available Dates, Reservations Required Dates, and Good To Go dates, that throws a little more into the mix.
So here's our scenario. Our SoCal Passes expire on 12/20/19. If we let them expire and then decide to purchase the Disney Flax AP when we plan to go, should we do it over the phone or in person? The dates that we would go would be Jan 10-13, 2020.The 10th and 13th are Good To Go dates but the 11th and 12th require reservations. Now let's say we go to the park and purchase the Disney Flex AP on Friday, Jan 10th. No problem since it's a Good To Go but aren't we rolling the dice with being able to enter on the 11th and 12th since we require a reservation and can only make a reservation once we have the Disney Flex AP? Is there any tips and tricks that I don't know about to help us "guarantee" entrance on the Saturday and Sunday. Please keep in mind that we would also have to purchase hotel rooms so that's another factor to consider. I don't want to upgrade to Disney Flex AP on Jan 10th, book hotels rooms for the weekend through Monday only to find out that Saturday and Sunday are booked.
Is there any benefit to instead of letting our current AP expire, we renew them on 12/20/19 but update them to the Disney Flex AP at that time? It seems that if I do this, I have a couple of weeks ahead of our schedule to then book Jan 11th and Jan 12th to "guarantee" our entrance but then the sucky thing is we'll have renewed our passes early and won't really be "using" it until Jan 10th. I would prefer to begin an AP 1 year period on the date that we first plan to use it to maximize our 1 year period with the pass.