Has anyone recently upgraded AP for DVC discount?

[Patpat15]

I recently purchased two AP's (in October) for my wife and myself, prior to the availability of the DVC discount on AP's.

Now it seems some people have been able to upgrade to PAP's and getting the small refund, and some people have been unable to get it, with member services stating that they cannot upgrade.

Has anyone recently done this, because it seems they stopped doing it at some point.

We really would love to upgrade and use the water parks during our two stays in the next four months and not have to pay for the upgraded regular price for the AP's.

 

[idratherbeinwdw]

I don't know about anyone not being able to upgrade, they may have been misinformed or got a CM that was unaware.

I got my APs in Sept and when I was there in January I had no trouble going to guest services (i went to MGM but you can do it at any of the parks) to upgrade. I got back about $5 per pass. Just bring your pass(es) and photo ID, it takes about five minutes. What a bonus it was to be able to do this, I have never had a PAP before!

 

[LeftCoaster]

I upgraded my AP to a PAP at the end of February. A friend of mine upgraded hers about a week later. Neither of us had any problems with the upgrade.

 

[Patpat15]

Where did you and your friend do the upgrade and when does your AP expire?

 

[akghutton]

My DH upgraded his AP, which we activated in October 2004, to a PAP this January at Guest Services in the Pleasure Island/ Downtown Disney area. He had no problems and did receive the $5.00 refund. My DS and I plan on upgrading ours in August, so that we can try out the new water coaster at Typhoon Lagoon

 

[Mickey_Maniac]

If you upgrade an AP to a PAP, what happens when you go to renew? Do you have to renew as a PAP? Or could you step back down to an AP?

 

[LindaBabe]

Apparently depends on how many times you have used the AP before you decide to upgrade. They wanted to charge me $180. WITH the discount!

 

[mickeysgal]

Apparently depends on how many times you have used the AP before you decide to upgrade. They wanted to charge me $180. WITH the discount!

What does this mean? We bought regular annuals in Oct. Used them in Oct (4 days), Nov (4 days), and Dec (approx 7-10 days). We haven't been back since. We're going in April and had hoped to upgrade to a PAP. Are you saying that they'll tally the number of days I've used it so far and judge what rate to charge me to upgrade? Please tell me I've misunderstood your post...

 

[emememem]

Depends on whether you have an informed CM or not. We had a hard time at Epcot, the CM had no idea what we were talking about and wanted to charge us to upgrade even with the DVC discount.We told him never mind and waited until we went to DTD later on during our vacation. Had no problem there....even got 5.00 back for each card upgraded!

 

[LeftCoaster]

Where did you and your friend do the upgrade and when does your AP expire?

I did my upgrade at the guest services window at MK and my friend did her upgrade at guest services at MGM. The expiration date is still the original expiration date.

 

[LeftCoaster]

Apparently depends on how many times you have used the AP before you decide to upgrade. They wanted to charge me $180. WITH the discount!

I think you had a misinformed cast member. I had a good 14 days or so worth of usage on my AP before the upgrade.

 

[Mandabella]

Oy....I hope I get an informed CM when I upgrade my AP to a PAP in May!

We used our Ap for 9 days in Dec, and have two more trips planned....May/June and Oct/Nov. I'm hoping to use a PAP for the next two trips.

 

[3DisneyNUTS]

We purchased our APs in Nov and we were there in Feb and we got $5 back. We went to the guest services at DTD and they were completely knowledgeable. One woman was there who upgraded at one of the parks and got $80 back (they gave here the discount on the Ap not she did not have to upgrade to the PAP) So they sort of back rated her pass. The people who I guess showed up the day I was there were argueing with the CM because they wanted the $80 back on their APs too. The CM explained that the CM that helped their friend the day before made a mistake and she was not about to repeat it and get in trouble herself. So they agreed and were not given any $$ back but got a free upgrade. I was following them and upgraded and got the $5 on each pass back.

The lesson learned here? Be appreciative when a Cast member is even upgrading the pass for free because yelling at them for not breaking the rules gets you nothing. The lost their $5 for being jerks LOL.

 

[dvcssr1]

Dh and I just did an upgrade on March 10th. Ours expire on May 13th. Have used our original for 2 previous trips, with a total of at least 20 days. We did ours at guest services at Epcot. CM said we could not do it because it required a refund we said we knew of a few people who did do it, so he called someone and was told to do it but not give a refund just an even exchange. Which was no big deal for me. It would have been nice but not a biggie.
BTW I did not mention reading it on the boards just that I knew someone who was able to do it. My suggestion is if the CM says it can't be done ask them to call and make sure.

 

[bjakmom]

Here's a link to another thread about upgrading - I posted my experience and it's quite long ! http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=766694

If they tell you that it can't be done, or that you have to pay for the used days that they will deduct, ask to speak to a supervisor - I didn't take 'no' for an answer - I kept telling them that I knew it could be done because my 'friend' had just done it the week before - a DIS friend, of course ! After 3 visits to Guest Services and several phone calls, one delightful young CM hung in there with me and finally got someone to talk him through it over the phone - it seems to be somehow complicated for them if they haven't actually done it before - but they cannot do it for some members and not for others !

 

[dvc_john]

I upgraded January 2 at EPCOT guest services. It may have been the first one they did there, as they weren't sure how to do it. It took quite awhile, and involved 3 or 4 people before they were done. They were very friendly and apologetic about how long it took, and gave me a fast pass to Test Track for waiting. In the end it cost me about $15. But this was upgrading an AP that was RENEWED in November, not a new AP.

 

[Patpat15]

where did you get the upgrade done?

 

[ILoveMyDVC]

We were unable to upgrade at the Magic Kingdom guest services in January. A supervisor came over and said we could not upgrade - only purchase a new PAP pass at the discounted rate minus the prorated value of the current AP. It would have cost several hundreds of dollars to upgrade our 4 passes and they would be valid for a year from the date of the upgrade. We declined to upgrade but had to make two trips back to GS because all of our passes were 'de-activated" from having been scanned and were not able to be read by the fastpass readers.

 

[BEACHCLUBVILLAS]

I upgraded at EPCOT International Gateway entrance and the CM said the only way to do it was a renewal and it was too early to renew. We had a long conversation because I had emailed MS first to make sure it was doable. I asked him to check with a supervisor. I purchased my AP in Oct and I was upgrading to a PAP. He went thru the motions but it showed a refund and he said they never give refunds. I didn't care about the refund, just wanted to switch to PAP. It took a while and he called a supervisor but in the end, he upgraded it to a PAP, and supervisor said no refund. I was ok with it. The whole situation was obviously new to him. Somehow in all the fanagling in the computer, my expiration date was extended a week. Too bad I can't take advantage of it!

 

[CarolA]

Just an FYI... I have always felt the DTD CMs were amoung the best at Guest Services. If I was doing this I would try there first.