Help with AP purchase option

[PMGuernsey]

Were heading to DL in January and had an AP 2 years ago and I got some suggestions on here prior to purchasing that proved to be very helpful.

My thoughts are since we will likely go at least twice for 5 days in a 1 year time period it would be cheaper to buy an AP than pay for tickets and also get the added benefit of discounts. We would buy the flex pass as we try to avoid weekends and holidays anway.

My question is would it be better to buy flex pass for family of 5 before we go or to convert the pass from a 5 day park hopper while we are there? We will also be using max pass which I will purchase with the AP and/or 5 day parkhopper.
If I bought the flex pass today could I make a reservation for the Saturday we are going to be there now 30 days before we go or do I have to go into the park and activate the pass first?

Any suggestions or thoughts here would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Becca1007]

Were heading to DL in January and had an AP 2 years ago and I got some suggestions on here prior to purchasing that proved to be very helpful.

My thoughts are since we will likely go at least twice for 5 days in a 1 year time period it would be cheaper to buy an AP than pay for tickets and also get the added benefit of discounts. We would buy the flex pass as we try to avoid weekends and holidays anway.

My question is would it be better to buy flex pass for family of 5 before we go or to convert the pass from a 5 day park hopper while we are there? We will also be using max pass which I will purchase with the AP and/or 5 day parkhopper.
If I bought the flex pass today could I make a reservation for the Saturday we are going to be there now 30 days before we go or do I have to go into the park and activate the pass first?

Any suggestions or thoughts here would be greatly appreciated.

Buy the hopper so you get a magic morning and then upgrade on your final day. Since Flex is subject to reservations, you won't want to chance not being able to go in the parks on one of your 5 days (you can only reserve 2 days at a time). We don't buy souvenirs until the final day of our trip anyways so that means on the day you upgrade you are able to get your discounts for merchandise.

 

[Geemo]

Were heading to DL in January and had an AP 2 years ago and I got some suggestions on here prior to purchasing that proved to be very helpful.

My thoughts are since we will likely go at least twice for 5 days in a 1 year time period it would be cheaper to buy an AP than pay for tickets and also get the added benefit of discounts. We would buy the flex pass as we try to avoid weekends and holidays anway.

My question is would it be better to buy flex pass for family of 5 before we go or to convert the pass from a 5 day park hopper while we are there? We will also be using max pass which I will purchase with the AP and/or 5 day parkhopper.
If I bought the flex pass today could I make a reservation for the Saturday we are going to be there now 30 days before we go or do I have to go into the park and activate the pass first?

Any suggestions or thoughts here would be greatly appreciated.

I also found out on the day you upgrade you might be able to book a MaxPass FP with both the 5day hopper and your new AP.

In October, I went with a 3Day hopper and upgraded to an AP on my final day.
I scanned into the park using my 3Day hopper and then went out to a ticket booth to go through the upgrade process.

To my SURPRISE when I scanned into the park with my fresh AP, I was able to book a MaxPass for both the 3Day ticket and AP.

It made a nice closing day to my trip, having Double FP's was exciting!!

Geemo

 

[twodogs]

You can buy the FP in the app, and then immediately make the reservations you need, up to 2 days total within the next 30 days (just did this last week for DD’s FP that I purchased from my couch here in Texas!). If only one day of your trip is “Reservations required”, then you will be fine to get into the parks all of the days of your trip, as long as you can see beforehand that the day is available to reserve on the block out calendar for the FP. Do look at the block out calendar for the trip you plan in the future, because FP has ”reservations required” ALL days of summer, NOT just weekends and holidays (as well as all of the Christmas season (Hard block out))

We bought 4 day PH with MP and then upgraded them in October because 3/4 days were reservations required, and we did not want to risk not being able to get into the parks on the 3rd day that we would not have been able to reserve ahead of time. We did not need MM since we stay at the GCH. Then we upgraded on our last day (Reservations were not required on our last day, so no risk at that point).

One caution is that it took almost an hour at 7am on our last day to upgrade the tickets, and all the guests had to physically be at the ticket booth the entire time of the upgrade process (and we had been at the Halloween party the night before, so getting DD up that early was unpleasant...). Ticket booth lines are reportedly better late at night, but when I checked at night, even after 10pm, they were long. No line at 7am, but it built quickly. In any case, it took a really long time, and we were not doing a payment plan or anything complicated (there were 3 of us). With 5 of you, be prepared for a long stint at the ticket booths, and that everyone will need to be present for the process. That may or may not be a good use of your time, depending on your trip.

One DD was not with us on that trip but will be going in January. I debated buying her a ticket and upgrading it or getting her a FP from the beginning. Since the rest of us will be using a FP, her having a park ticket and not needing reservations didn’t matter as she would not be going in alone if we could not get a reservation on day 3 of the trip. It is a short trip (2.5 park days), and a holiday weekend (MLK) so I didn’t want to fight the crowds at GS to upgrade her ticket over $28. We did try to upgrade our tickets in the app in October, but it would not apply the cost of the tickets to the AP (even though it said it would), so we could not do that (and even then, you need to go to GS to get the plastic card to get the discounts anyway).

You can do the math on the AP merchandise and food discounts that you would miss if you did a ticket and then upgraded, but it doesn’t really add up for just a few days, at least it didn’t for us. So that didn’t factor into my decision. I guess it depends on how much you plan to spend...

We did buy our tickets from UCT, and they gave us the full gate value of our tickets plus MP as a credit for the FP. So we saved about $28 per person there (easiest to upgrade a ticket that you originally bought with MP if you want that value applied to FP at upgrade; other vendors such as LMTC do not offer their tickets with MP).

If getting the reservations for the day you need are not an issue, then the deciding factors for me would be:
1) are you saving a significant amount by upgrading 5 tickets from UCT (for example; and it is not guaranteed that they will give you full gate value for the UCT ticket; you may only get credit for the amount you paid UCT for the tickets)
2) are you ALL willing to spend time at GS doing the upgrades on the last day.

 

[twodogs]

Buy the hopper so you get a magic morning and then upgrade on your final day. Since Flex is subject to reservations, you won't want to chance not being able to go in the parks on one of your 5 days (you can only reserve 2 days at a time). We don't buy souvenirs until the final day of our trip anyways so that means on the day you upgrade you are able to get your discounts for merchandise.

But it sounds like only 1 of the 5 days of their trip is “reservations required” so that may not be a risk for this trip.

 

[twodogs]

I also found out on the day you upgrade you might be able to book a MaxPass FP with both the 5day hopper and your new AP.

In October, I went with a 3Day hopper and upgraded to an AP on my final day.
I scanned into the park using my 3Day hopper and then went out to a ticket booth to go through the upgrade process.

To my SURPRISE when I scanned into the park with my fresh AP, I was able to book a MaxPass for both the 3Day ticket and AP.

It made a nice closing day to my trip, having Double FP's was exciting!!

Geemo

They took our paper tickets when we upgraded to the FP, so how did you use both tickets for Fast passes (ie what did you scan at the FP scanner when using the FP from your regular park ticket? Your digital park ticket?)? Would have loved that to happen to us!!

 

[queso2992]

You can buy the FP in the app, and then immediately make the reservations you need, up to 2 days total within the next 30 days (just did this last week for DD’s FP that I purchased from my couch here in Texas!). If only one day of your trip is “Reservations required”, then you will be fine to get into the parks all of the days of your trip, as long as you can see beforehand that the day is available to reserve on the block out calendar for the FP. Do look at the block out calendar for the trip you plan in the future, because FP has ”reservations required” ALL days of summer, NOT just weekends and holidays (as well as all of the Christmas season (Hard block out))

We bought 4 day PH with MP and then upgraded them in October because 3/4 days were reservations required, and we did not want to risk not being able to get into the parks on the 3rd day that we would not have been able to reserve ahead of time. We did not need MM since we stay at the GCH. Then we upgraded on our last day (Reservations were not required on our last day, so no risk at that point).

One caution is that it took almost an hour at 7am on our last day to upgrade the tickets, and all the guests had to physically be at the ticket booth the entire time of the upgrade process (and we had been at the Halloween party the night before, so getting DD up that early was unpleasant...). Ticket booth lines are reportedly better late at night, but when I checked at night, even after 10pm, they were long. No line at 7am, but it built quickly. In any case, it took a really long time, and we were not doing a payment plan or anything complicated (there were 3 of us). With 5 of you, be prepared for a long stint at the ticket booths, and that everyone will need to be present for the process. That may or may not be a good use of your time, depending on your trip.

One DD was not with us on that trip but will be going in January. I debated buying her a ticket and upgrading it or getting her a FP from the beginning. Since the rest of us will be using a FP, her having a park ticket and not needing reservations didn’t matter as she would not be going in alone if we could not get a reservation on day 3 of the trip. It is a short trip (2.5 park days), and a holiday weekend (MLK) so I didn’t want to fight the crowds at GS to upgrade her ticket over $28. We did try to upgrade our tickets in the app in October, but it would not apply the cost of the tickets to the AP (even though it said it would), so we could not do that (and even then, you need to go to GS to get the plastic card to get the discounts anyway).

You can do the math on the AP merchandise and food discounts that you would miss if you did a ticket and then upgraded, but it doesn’t really add up for just a few days, at least it didn’t for us. So that didn’t factor into my decision. I guess it depends on how much you plan to spend...

We did buy our tickets from UCT, and they gave us the full gate value of our tickets plus MP as a credit for the FP. So we saved about $28 per person there (easiest to upgrade a ticket that you originally bought with MP if you want that value applied to FP at upgrade; other vendors such as LMTC do not offer their tickets with MP).

If getting the reservations for the day you need are not an issue, then the deciding factors for me would be:
1) are you saving a significant amount by upgrading 5 tickets from UCT (for example; and it is not guaranteed that they will give you full gate value for the UCT ticket; you may only get credit for the amount you paid UCT for the tickets)
2) are you ALL willing to spend time at GS doing the upgrades on the last day.

Since you did exactly what I’m potentially doing (I’m even in Texas too!), does the FP activate immediately if you buy it and make reservations for 30 days out or will it activate on your first park day?

I’m trying to decide if I should go ahead and buy my FP and ensure I have reservations or wait longer so it will be active longer.

 

[starry_solo]

Since you did exactly what I’m potentially doing (I’m even in Texas too!), does the FP activate immediately if you buy it and make reservations for 30 days out or will it activate on your first park day?

I’m trying to decide if I should go ahead and buy my FP and ensure I have reservations or wait longer so it will be active longer.

It is supposed to be the date you first enter the parks....but there have been reports of it activating upon purchase. So, you'll need to visit guest services / ticket booths for them to fix it.

 

[Geemo]

They took our paper tickets when we upgraded to the FP, so how did you use both tickets for Fast passes (ie what did you scan at the FP scanner when using the FP from your regular park ticket? Your digital park ticket?)? Would have loved that to happen to us!!

I was booking FP's through MaxPass on the APP.
Since I had scanned through the gate using my paper ticket, it made it active for booking FP's with MaxPAss.
Then when I upgraded and scanned in with my new AP, both showed up in the APP to book FP's for the day.

 

[twodogs]

Since you did exactly what I’m potentially doing (I’m even in Texas too!), does the FP activate immediately if you buy it and make reservations for 30 days out or will it activate on your first park day?

I’m trying to decide if I should go ahead and buy my FP and ensure I have reservations or wait longer so it will be active longer.

My DD’s shows an expiration 365 days from when I bought it (she hasn’t used it yet). But some reported it changed to 365 days from first use, after it is first used. Others had to visit GS to get it corrected.

As soon as I bought it in the app, I was able to make a reservation right away.

I would buy it now and it should still be good from 365 from first use; you just might have to go to GS to get the expiration date fixed at a later time.

 

[MonocularVision]

When we upgraded our tickets from GAT in the app the expiration day ended up being 365 days in the future from when we bought them, not our first day of using them. We got it fixed at the ticket booth.

 

[Mark_E]

Hope you don't mind me jumping on your thread with a question or two of my own.

I'm planning to go for 4 days in January (27-30, all dates are "Green" on Flex)
Another trip would be for 5 days in late August/Early September. It looks like for my days I would only need to reserve one or two days and would know these dates well in advance.
Any other visits would be spread around the year and likely only for one or two days at a time. I'd know most of these about a 2-3 weeks in advance. How likely am I to be able to get reservations as the dates get closer? As I said, it would only be for 1-2 days at a time (work trips).

No brainer to get the Flex rather than the Deluxe, it just seems "too good to be true" with it being $200 cheaper, especially with my circumstances.

Edit to add: I've found the Flex Pass Superthread - very helpful and definitely the pass for me!