Help with AP upgrade options please

[Silyoldbear]

Help! We have a 5 day hopper and will be heading down in March. We would like to upgrade to an AP while there. We are trying to figure out the best time to upgrade to get the best deal. We arrive on a Saturday and both Saturday and Sunday are blocked for the Deluxe. The following Friday is also blocked. We are planning to go in the park Sunday and Friday (as well as other days). We would like to take advantage of the AP discounts as well as our early entry and admission on Friday. We also want to add the MaxPass to our APs. Any thoughts on the best way to go about all of that? If we upgrade on the Sunday, we would lose our early entry and our ability to enter the park on Friday. However, we could take advantage of the discounts. If we wait to upgrade until Friday, we get our early entry, but we don’t get to take advantage of the discounts and then we are paying daily for the MaxPass. Am I missing the perfect solution somewhere?

 

[MonocularVision]

We just upgraded to APs in December from multi day park hoppers. We were facing many of the same decisions as you. But because all 3 days we wanted to go we’re blocked, we didn’t have much choice and we ended up upgrading the last day. A few thoughts on the whole thing

• Most people say you can upgrade on your last day and still get into the park that day, even if your AP is blocked. It seems like this is true: however different CMs will tell you different things so take it as a YMMV. To be safe we decided to 1) upgrade on the last night, in case we had issues getting into the park and 2) buying 4 day hoppers so if the ticket booths were closed or anything else went wrong we could come back the next morning and still upgrade.
• When we upgraded on the last night, we got the most incredible CM ever. She did somethings that I don’t think I have ever heard other people getting. She 1) refunded us all 3 days of our MaxPass upon showing her our email receipts. She also 2) said she could get us in the next day if we wanted (we didn’t do it because we were driving home). Even refunding our MaxPass was a hassle because I used an AMEX gift card which can’t be refunded. With her lead’s help she refunded it back to another credit card. I was amazed!
• So my recommendation is playing it safe and making sure you plan to upgrade the last day. And on that day try going to a ticket booth and asking if they can get you a waiver for the day. Again, it is not “official” policy but it seems everyone has been able to do it. Waiting for the night might be dangerous because of you miss it, you could be really screwed.
• Most seem to have no problems getting their last day of MaxPass credited if adding that to your AP but don’t necessarily plan on getting all the days. It doesn’t hurt though to ask and make sure to put the charges on a normal CC that can be credited.
• If you don’t care that much about Friday, then go ahead and upgrade earlier for the AP discounts and possibly saving money in MaxPass.

Hope that helps!

 

[az4boys]

I don't think you can do everything you want. You need to decide how important Friday is.

Can you use your early entry on Saturday to eliminate that part of the equation?

 

[Silyoldbear]

I don't think you can do everything you want. You need to decide how important Friday is.

Can you use your early entry on Saturday to eliminate that part of the equation?

Unfortunately, no. We arrive Saturday evening.

 

[Silyoldbear]

We just upgraded to APs in December from multi day park hoppers. We were facing many of the same decisions as you. But because all 3 days we wanted to go we’re blocked, we didn’t have much choice and we ended up upgrading the last day. A few thoughts on the whole thing

• Most people say you can upgrade on your last day and still get into the park that day, even if your AP is blocked. It seems like this is true: however different CMs will tell you different things so take it as a YMMV. To be safe we decided to 1) upgrade on the last night, in case we had issues getting into the park and 2) buying 4 day hoppers so if the ticket booths were closed or anything else went wrong we could come back the next morning and still upgrade.
• When we upgraded on the last night, we got the most incredible CM ever. She did somethings that I don’t think I have ever heard other people getting. She 1) refunded us all 3 days of our MaxPass upon showing her our email receipts. She also 2) said she could get us in the next day if we wanted (we didn’t do it because we were driving home). Even refunding our MaxPass was a hassle because I used an AMEX gift card which can’t be refunded. With her lead’s help she refunded it back to another credit card. I was amazed!
• So my recommendation is playing it safe and making sure you plan to upgrade the last day. And on that day try going to a ticket booth and asking if they can get you a waiver for the day. Again, it is not “official” policy but it seems everyone has been able to do it. Waiting for the night might be dangerous because of you miss it, you could be really screwed.
• Most seem to have no problems getting their last day of MaxPass credited if adding that to your AP but don’t necessarily plan on getting all the days. It doesn’t hurt though to ask and make sure to put the charges on a normal CC that can be credited.
• If you don’t care that much about Friday, then go ahead and upgrade earlier for the AP discounts and possibly saving money in MaxPass.

Hope that helps!

Thank you for your detailed response. I’m so happy you found a wonderful CM who was able to credit you your MaxPass fees. That is wonderful.

 

[Nevada Jen]

Buy non park hoppers. Use ticket saturday but don't hop. Use your early entry Sunday with tickets. Pick up a paper fast pass at park opening then buy an ap at full price and add max pass. Use your third day ticket the blocked Friday. Make sure that will work when you upgrade by asking first services. You won't be able to go the blocked Friday either but that should about break you even and your ap discount can be used every day except the first night.

 

[Skyegirl1999]

Buy non park hoppers. Use ticket saturday but don't hop. Use your early entry Sunday with tickets. Pick up a paper fast pass at park opening then buy an ap at full price and add max pass. Use your third day ticket the blocked Friday. Make sure that will work when you upgrade by asking first services. You won't be able to go the blocked Friday either but that should about break you even and your ap discount can be used every day except the first night.

I’m not sure I’m entirely following your strategy here, but for the record, entry on Sunday is only for hotel guests.

 

[smartlabelprint]

We have a similar issue in March. We are coming 20-22 Tuesday-Thursday. 23 Friday we have other plans. 24-25 Sat and Sun are both blocked. So, we can’t upgarde until Sunday. We will also be in the park 26th Monday. We have 5 day hoppers. I was hoping to have our AP’s so we could go 19th Monday night when our flight arrives. And Friday. But we wiggled our plans to make it work.

 

[az4boys]

Buy non park hoppers. Use ticket saturday but don't hop. Use your early entry Sunday with tickets. Pick up a paper fast pass at park opening then buy an ap at full price and add max pass. Use your third day ticket the blocked Friday. Make sure that will work when you upgrade by asking first services. You won't be able to go the blocked Friday either but that should about break you even and your ap discount can be used every day except the first night.

How would buying non park hoppers help? Are you saying that they should buy both a full price AP and 3 day non park hoppers? That seems like the most expensive option.

 

[10SE]

How would buying non park hoppers help? Are you saying that they should buy both a full price AP and 3 day non park hoppers? That seems like the most expensive option.

That doesn't make sense to me either. It would be cheaper to just upgrade to Signature. A three day non-hopper is $270 direct from Disney, and the difference between Deluxe and Signature is $230 (plus you get the other perks like free parking and better discounts)

 

[tzeitel]

Why are you upgrading to AP? Are you going to bet there longer than the 5 days or are you planning a separate trip?

We are going in May for 7 park days, we bought 5 day hoppers. DD and I will go back in Oct so we are getting APs. DH is not going in Oct so we will buy him an extra 2 day ticket which comes out cheaper (saving $86 on non-hopper or $43 if we get hopper) than upgrading his ticket to an AP. We will upgrade on a Sat so we can go in that day but we lose the early entry - although last year when we upgraded our tickets they gave us paper tickets to get in one early morning. On the next Saturday (blocked day) we are planning on doing something off property. To us the discount is a bigger deal than one early morning.

Basically there are only two real options

• Upgrade on Sunday - then you can get the discount and add MP to tickets but miss Friday.
• Upgrade at end of your stay - go every day but miss the dining/merch discount and have to add MP every day. You might be able to get credit for the MP you already bought but it does say on the Disney site that it is not allowed.

You have to figure out what is the best plan for your family - the discount and the lower MP price or going in on Friday and the one early entry day.
Also, if you haven't bought your tickets yet, check out LMTclub for better prices. A 5 day hopper is $300, on the DLR site it is $350. You can upgrade the LMTclub tickets and they bridge the prices, so you pay $269 to upgrade to an AP.

 

[Niltiac]

This completely depends on the dynamics of your group, but if one adult in your group is not into commando-style touring, you could have just that person upgrade their AP on Sunday so you can use it for discounts all week. That person would get to sleep in on Friday while everyone else uses MM. Then I would probably make Friday a half day in the parks and meet the person who slept in for lunch in DtD, and do something else the rest of the day (unless they want to do something solo while you spend the rest of the day in the parks). Clearly this is not an ideal solution.

The value of the discounts really depends on how much you're into souvenirs. If you decide to upgrade to AP's on Friday, I would suggest taking note of anything you want to purchase throughout the week, and then make Friday afternoon (after upgrading) a shopping day. You would just miss out on food discounts throughout the week. If you keep your email receipts from MaxPass, you might be able to get a refund when you upgrade (reports have varied on this, it probably depends what CM you get).

 

[Skyegirl1999]

That person would get to sleep in on Friday while everyone else uses MM.

MM is only Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday.

 

[starshine514]

Well, I think it all boils down to - how much is Friday admission worth to you? Are you willing to forgo it (or shift around some activities from earlier in the week to Friday so that you don't need to go in on Friday)? If so, upgrade on Sunday. Otherwise, you're stuck upgrading on Friday and may lose any $ you've spent on MaxPass earlier in the week.

 

[longtimedisneylurker]

If I am intrepreting correctly, you want the following:

• annual passes
• one-use early entry, not staying onsite
• use of AP discounts throughout stay
• use of MaxPass throughout visit at a cost no greater than the add-on cost of MaxPass to APs
• entrance on two blockout days for the Deluxe AP (first and last days of the trip)

Yeah, you can't have all of these things at once. Here are your realistic options and what you get and give up with each one:

Signature APs instead of Deluxe. Maximum effectiveness of this would be to upgrade before park entry on the Sunday and add MaxPass to the AP at that time. You pay for MaxPass only once and don't have to deal with paying on a daily basis each morning you enter the park. You might be able to enter the park first and upgrade later in the day and get your daily MaxPass cost applied to the cost of your upgrade since you are adding MaxPass to the AP. I never assume such would be guaranteed because I don't believe it is offered in writing anywhere, but CMs have been known to offer this. You have immediate access to discounts. You will not be blocked out during any part of your stay. Should you decide you want to enter the park for any part of whichever your "Day 6" was going to be, you have the option. You lose the early entry.

Deluxe APs, upgrade on Sunday. You will receive a blockout exception for the day you upgrade so will be able to enter the parks throughout the day Sunday. You will have access to discounts and not risk paying extra for daily use MaxPass in addition to annual pass add-on option. You lose your early entry. You also lose access to the parks on Friday and have to choose either to skip that day or pay for single day tickets.

Deluxe APs, upgrade on Friday. You will receive a blockout exception for the day you upgrade so will be able to enter the parks throughout the day Friday. You will have had the opportunity to use the early entry on the Tuesday or Thursday before the upgrade takes place. You will have access to AP discounts on Friday from whatever point in time you upgrade; major merchandise shopping can be deferred to this day. The con is that you will have paid for MaxPass for the previous four days of the trip, and there is no guarantee that will be applied to your upgrade. There have been reports though of CMs crediting multiple days of Maxpass use in such a circumstance, but it is not something to be counted upon.

I would suggest you crunch the numbers for each of these options and look over the blockout calendars for the rest of the year when making the final decision. If you are not going to visit the parks again on any other dates that are blocked out for deluxe APs, then your best bet may simply be to upgrade as early in the day on Friday as possible and hope you are fortunate enough to be credited for your previous 4 days of MaxPass use. Since your AP will be backdated to your first day of park entry regardless of when you upgrade or which AP you upgrade to, it does seem fair for Disney to do this and as I mentioned there are reports of it happening, but since it is not offered anywhere in writing it is not part of policy and therefore not something to be expected or guaranteed.

If I was the one making the decision for myself and I could afford it, I would simply choose the signature APs from the beginning and not worry about the calendar for the rest of the year (I wouldn't plan to go during the blocked out Christmas/New Year's time) and also wouldn't worry about losing one early entry.

 

[pharmama]

I just wanted to add that I was also credited for more than one day of MaxPass purchase when I upgraded. Granted, in my case it was only 2 days but, as PP mentioned, since your AP expiration will be set based on the FIRST day your tickets were used, I think you could make a pretty strong argument to get credited for all the days.

 

[Niltiac]

MM is only Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday.

Ah you're right. I should have said, they'll sleep on on whatever day you use MM, as well as on Friday.

 

[Silyoldbear]

Thank you! I appreciate everyone’s thoughts.

We are upgrading to APs this time because we are planning to make 3 maybe 4 trips to DL over the next year. Super excited about that!!! None of our other trips will involve blackout days as we already looked over the calendar a lot

I think we are going to chat with the CMs when we arrive. Maybe they have another suggestion that we haven’t all thought of. We are doing character meals as well as Fantasmic and WOC dining packages this trip, so the AP food discount would be nice. At this point, I’m leaning towards upgrading on Sunday and seeing what I can do about early entry. Early entry is important to us.

Thanks again for all the suggestions.

 

[Cactus girl]

If you have 1 person upgrade earlier in the week to get the AP discount, that person can still get in, usually, for early entry. Our family often has 1 person with an AP and the rest with regular tickets. They have always let me in with everyone else in my party.