I understand what everyone is saying. My dad is still concerned and upset. Here are his thoughts he wanted me to post:
So, here is the situation as I see it. I have been renewing annual passes for 10+ years. These renewals were sold to me as being good for a year for entry to the park and the clock did not start ticking on that year until the pass was activated and I had 10 years to activate the pass. This is not just in theory but in practice.
Example: I have renewed an expiring AP in February and then did not activate
said renewal until September when I went back to Disney World. The clock on that pass did not start ticking until September.
The 2030 expiration date was clearly posted on the MDE all this time.
Someone was trying to say that the clock starts ticking when you renewed the pass. Then what is the 2030 expiration date for?
Why would an annual pass that does NOT start when activated have an expiration ten years away?
How do you tell someone your pass can not be activated when it has 2030 expiration date.
Furthermore I was not trying to beat inflation by not activating my pass or some crazy thing. I am extremely high risk for covid and have not felt comfortable going back to WDW until now.
To top it off no-one said anything to me that my passes were not gonna work. I made all my park reservations without issue.
Am I angry over this? You bet I am.
Am I gonna consult a lawyer over this? Idk I am not gonna spend thousands to recoup hundreds. I will certainly weigh my options.
If your dad’s passes have never started a new clock until months after expiration, then he was never renewing, but rather simply buying a new AP to start at a later date and he would have paid full price for them.
An actual renewal is when you pay to have your pass continue for another year with no break in time…and why they give you a discount on these.
The 2030 date on vouchers were there simply because renewals and new passes can start at different times and thus they had just a generic date on them until they were they were activated.
Renewals can done 60 days before but the actual use is still is based on the individual ticket as to actual dates
When they changed from Gold to Sorcerer, they changed the vouchers to-be good for one year, and now, they don’t even issue the vouchers when renewing.,.it is an actual pass with the real dates.
What I might suggest then is your dad goes back to see what he paid for the voucher when bought in Feb 2020.
If he was charged for a brand new AP, then he should have been allowed to activate his voucher with no additional charge,
If what he paid was a reduced renewal rate, then he only paid for a pass that was good for actual use for the year after his last pass expired.
From what occurred, it sounds like he was given the renewal voucher which means, after the year, it’s not worth anything but it’s value toward a new pass, which is where he benefited from the 2030 expiration because that is what allowed him to get a new AP, paying the difference, when sales are suspended.
l have a renewal voucher for my current pass, which ends in March 2023, but that voucher expires May 18th, 2023.
If I don’t use it by then to extend my current pass until March 2024, that voucher expires, and all I am left with is the value and would not even be able to turn it into a pass, like your dad did, if APs are not for sale.
