Has anyone bought the AP pass at Costco with the $50 gift card?

[colbybug]

I know there has been a thread about this but I couldn't find it. Apparently, you can buy an AP pass at Costco for $269. (I believe it is only in California Costco's). But it also includes a $50 gift card. Is the gift card a Costco cash card OR is it a card to spend at Disneyland AND if it is, is it restricted to what you can spend it on?

Here's why I ask.....our plan is to fly in to Long Beach this Sat. We'll have our driver take us to the Fullerton Costco (closest to DL) and we'll buy the passes. (I have called them and they do have them in stock). I thought that someone else posted that they used the gift card to help pay for part of the cost of the AP pass. My confusion is, how do you do that? If you pay Costco for the card, do they let you open it up right there and apply the gift card to the purchase? I hope I am making sense. I am confused. Can anyone shed some light on how the Costco AP pass/gift card works? Many, many thanks!

Kathy

 

[awoltoday]

According to http://www.mousesavers.com/dltickets.html#annual

Costco - Some Southern California Costco stores are selling a Disneyland Deluxe Annual Passport voucher at the regular price ($269), but it comes with a bonus $50 Disneyland Gift Card. The Annual Passport voucher can be exchanged at Disneyland for the actual Annual Pass anytime through 5/31/09. If you wish, you can use the $50 Gift Card at the ticket booth to upgrade the Deluxe Annual Passport to a Deluxe with Parking or a Premium Annual Passport. While the vouchers are only being sold in So Cal at this time, purchase and use of these vouchers is not restricted to So Cal residents. If you want to call your local Costco to see if they are carrying this voucher, the Item # is 295609.

 

[pixiewings71]

These are only available in So Cal Costco's, our Nor Cal Costco's did not have them. The $50 gift card cannot be used towards the purchase of your AP, you will have to pay the full $269 at Costco. Once you have the voucher you go to the ticket booths (no barcodes on the vouchers so you have to go to the ticket booths) to trade them in. If you've had APs within the past 2 years your photo will be in the system, if not you will have to go to the bank inside DL to have your real AP processed. Ours expired in July so we were in the system, we got our APs on the spot and our $50 gift cards too. We were able to use them wherever we wanted inside the parks, we used one on food and other fun stuff.

I hope that helps.

 

[dmked]

Wow, this sounds like a good deal! We were thinking of doing the City Pass, maybe I can convince DH to do this instead!

 

[bumbershoot]

When you read of people using the giftcard for APs, they are upgrading to Premium APs instead of keeping the AP at the Deluxe level.

dmked, you'll have to run the numbers to see if that works for you, depending on what else you wanted to do from the citypass card. The amount that has been given, when upgrading to an AP from the citypass DLR voucher, has been the pre-purchase price of a 3 day hopper. So the value is really DLR heavy. So if you take that value, you'll pay the difference between that nd the AP you want to upgrade to, to get the AP. But you'll still have the other vouchers.

So check out the prices you'll pay, to make sure you're going to get your best value!

 

[kkheburn]

We bought the passes at Costco in SD and I was not aware I had to go to the ticket booth with the card they gave me. I thought it had a bar code. Now I will have to wait in line boo hoo

 

[disneymom2003]

You can also go on you birthday get your free pass and they will take $69 (the value of your free pass) and apply that to your annual pass. My son just did it on Monday. And if you get the premium pass (includes parking) show them the parking ticket for that day and they will deduct that from the price of your pass.

 

[Disney Hot Mama]

I had seen this before but was worried about purchasing them for some reason. Our AP's expire on 2-2-09. We are making a quick trip tomorrow as there is no school...... I was thinking of renweing there but I think this is a better deal....... How hard is it to spend $50.00 at Disneyland over the course of a year... and that price (with the gift card) is much better than my renew online price...
I am thinking if I do this for my family of four I will save 120.00!

 

[Huff]

We just bought the Costco AP's over MLK weekend. Costco gives you a voucher card. You then take the card to a Disneyland ticket booth (go very early to avoid long lines). They give you a $50 Disney gift card, an AP voucher and an admission ticket. Next, you need to enter Disneyland and go to the bank on Main street, get your photo taken and receive your AP.

The $50 gift card is good at any of the Disneyland and California Adventure stores and restaurants as well as many of the Downtown Disney shops. I believe the Disney hotels accept the cards as well. I was told the Downtown Disney ESPN accepts them. Most of the small snack stands in the parks do not accept cards.

 

[QueenDoOver]

Hmm...
I s the admission ticket a hopper? Do you have to give up the admission ticket in order to turn in your AP voucher?

Just thinking it may be possible to actually get double fast passes for the day, by getting your AP right away, and then usuing both the entry media and the AP to get a fastpass.

 

[Bsbllmom]

I am going to buy 3 deluxe passes and use the 3 $50 gift cards towards my premium pass that I will renew at the park.

 

[jenpace]

Hmm...
I s the admission ticket a hopper? Do you have to give up the admission ticket in order to turn in your AP voucher?

No it's just a voucher...it's actually really tiny, postage stamp size.

 

[pixiewings71]

We bought the passes at Costco in SD and I was not aware I had to go to the ticket booth with the card they gave me. I thought it had a bar code. Now I will have to wait in line boo hoo

Yes you will have to wait in line, there is no barcode. We went late at night, it was around 8 I think. The ticket booths on the Harbor side were closed so we had to go to the DTD side to get our new AP's.

We just bought the Costco AP's over MLK weekend. Costco gives you a voucher card. You then take the card to a Disneyland ticket booth (go very early to avoid long lines). They give you a $50 Disney gift card, an AP voucher and an admission ticket. Next, you need to enter Disneyland and go to the bank on Main street, get your photo taken and receive your AP.

The $50 gift card is good at any of the Disneyland and California Adventure stores and restaurants as well as many of the Downtown Disney shops. I believe the Disney hotels accept the cards as well. I was told the Downtown Disney ESPN accepts them. Most of the small snack stands in the parks do not accept cards.

Unless you've had an AP within the past 2 years, if you have then as I said above, they just print your new AP out using your old photo. You won't get an admission ticket and you won't have to go to the bank.

Hmm...
I s the admission ticket a hopper? Do you have to give up the admission ticket in order to turn in your AP voucher?

Just thinking it may be possible to actually get double fast passes for the day, by getting your AP right away, and then usuing both the entry media and the AP to get a fastpass.

Again, if you've had an AP within the last 2 years you will not get an admission ticket. I would imagine that yes, you would be required to give the bank your ticket if you needed one. And yes, I would also imagine that it is a park hopper (for the person who asked that I didn't quote). And I would imagine that it would be like any other "upgrade" you did, you'd have to activate your AP that day or you would invalidate your AP voucher/admission ticket.

 

[Brady's Mom]

We are going the end of May and can go on either Sun. May 24 or Mon. May 25, (Sun. would be better because we can get the ent. rate at HoJo) but Sun. is a blackout day for the Deluxe Pass.

Can I buy the AP's and activate them on a blackout day and be able to go to the parks that same day?

 

[Jazziered]

How long will the Costco tickets be on sale for, does anyone know?

 

[bumbershoot]

Can I buy the AP's and activate them on a blackout day and be able to go to the parks that same day?

Yes. They are sweethearts and do allow that!

 

[pixiewings71]

We are going the end of May and can go on either Sun. May 24 or Mon. May 25, (Sun. would be better because we can get the ent. rate at HoJo) but Sun. is a blackout day for the Deluxe Pass.

Can I buy the AP's and activate them on a blackout day and be able to go to the parks that same day?

Yes, you can activate them on a blackout day and go in that day. And check the HoJo, they just added some Ent Rates for the rest of Mem. Day weekend!!

How long will the Costco tickets be on sale for, does anyone know?

No one knows, until they are gone I would guess.

 

[Brady's Mom]

Just did a silly happy dance for HoJo Ent. rates and activating AP's on a blackout day!

 

[mama2twoluvbugs]

I think what they were saying is that they used the $50 gift card to upgrade to a premium at the park since you can only purchase a deluxe at costco.

 

[durantigger]

Just wanted to share that we used the Costco deluxe APs this weekend. We stopped at Costco in Burbank on Saturday on our way down from the Bay Area. Got the vouchers with no problem. We went to DLR on Sunday, which was a blockout day. We the vouchers & got our passes at the ticket booth (we had previous APs that expired in October), along with our $50 gift cards. We had a slight hiccup when trying to enter DCA and were told it was a blockout day, but when I told the CM we just got the passes that day he said "oh yes, no problem" and let us right in! We also park hopped to DL.

A great deal, definitely worth the short diversion off the freeway on the way down!!