Gold pass question

[davetteb]

I have a gold pass, bought pre-covid to use during 2020 with several trips planned that year. Never activated it due to the shutdown just prior to our first trip. Activated the pass when I was there in early January. Have a trip booked for April and just realized most of that trip is during the blackout dates. Our spring break week wasn't blacked out last year, which made the annual pass make sense. But apparently, our spring break is this year.

So, what are my options beyond buying separate park admission tickets? I've read somewhere about upgrading to the platinum pass, but not sure if they are doing that right now.

For another interesting wrinkle, I have park reservations for each day of spring break? Will it let you make reservations without a valid park ticket?

Thanks for any advice. Just trying to weigh my options and I've already kicked myself a few times for missing the announcement of the 2021 blackout dates

 

[erionm]

I have a gold pass, bought pre-covid to use during 2020 with several trips planned that year. Never activated it due to the shutdown just prior to our first trip. Activated the pass when I was there in early January. Have a trip booked for April and just realized most of that trip is during the blackout dates. Our spring break week wasn't blacked out last year, which made the annual pass make sense. But apparently, our spring break is this year.

The "Spring Break" block out dates on the Gold Pass are always the week before & after Easter.

So, what are my options beyond buying separate park admission tickets? I've read somewhere about upgrading to the platinum pass, but not sure if they are doing that right now.

Upgrades to the Platinum Pass are still possible.

For another interesting wrinkle, I have park reservations for each day of spring break? Will it let you make reservations without a valid park ticket?

You need to have valid park admission linked to MDE for the dates you want to make Park Reservations for.

 

[Sandisw]

I think that the park reservation system was set up to recognize the pass having valid dates, but not for all the different black out dates for different passes.

I too was able to make reservations that week even with a Gold pass. But, after doing so realized it was blocked out to actually go and now the friend going with me is a different one so we won’t be doing parks.

Unfortunately, I have read a few reports that people have been denied the chance to upgrade the pass, but that doesn’t mean you should not try. It might need to be tried in person though for success.

 

[Moneypenny]

We were in the same spot with having a Gold pass we purchased when we planned to actively avoid the blackout dates but then COVID changed our plans. I was told by mutiple cast members, including a supervisor just last week, that there is absolutely no option to upgrade to Platinum at this time, even in person. It's possible you may have better luck if you show up at a window and plead your case, but we were unwilling to try that.

 

[CarolynFH]

We had BWV reservations for the blocked out week leading up to Christmas, and I was told via email and also read multiple posts on the TPAS AP thread that upgrades to Platinum were not allowed. We were not able to make park pass reservations for that week because we didn’t have tickets valid for that week. I waited a number of months, hoping that would change, but it didn’t so we finally had to buy regular tickets in order to reserve parks along with the rest of our family.

 

[kanerf]

I was able to upgrade my Gold pass last Oct so that I could go during black-out dates in Dec. Just call the AP VIP line.

 

[davetteb]

Thanks everyone for the information. Looks like I'll be making some new plans for Spring Break.
And trying to find time for another trip this year to make use of my pass.