How does an AP Gold Pass get converted to the new AP Structure

[CarolynFH]

This is a bit disconcerting...I renewed my Gold AP just before Disney announced the new AP structure (for once, got lucky w/timing)....it was way early for my normal renewal window (my AP expires in early December), but I had a Jan 2022 trip booked (which they checked) and needed to do park reservations, so they let me renew...I was at WDW in August and tried to activate my renewed Gold pass while I was there...was told it was too early to activate; that I couldn't activate until a month (or maybe it was 3 months?) prior to expiration of my current Gold AP....so, were any of the people trying to activate for more than 1-3 months from now successful w/activating? More to the point, assuming I can't activate now til I get there in January (at which point my old pass will have expired), will it now be a Sorceror's Pass? And if so, are the only two adverse impacts black-out dates over T-giving and losing "free" Photo Pass? Thanks for any info you can share...

Even if they do activate it as a Sorcerer pass, you won’t lose anything because they’ll give you the PhotoPass add on at no additional cost. So the only difference will be that you’ll be blocked out at Thanksgiving 2022 instead of Easter 2022.

 

[ScubaCat]

Even if they do activate it as a Sorcerer pass, you won’t lose anything because they’ll give you the PhotoPass add on at no additional cost. So the only difference will be that you’ll be blocked out at Thanksgiving 2022 instead of Easter 2022.

I suspect they'll also give you complimentary park hoppers for those days this year if you already had a trip scheduled during that time.

 

[Littlelulu01]

I have 3 gold renewal passes. One has an odd expiration of 2099 and two are exp 2030. If I remember, expiration dates don’t technically mean anything other than not activated yet. Our last visit was December 2019 and the old passes expired Early 2020. The gold renewal passes should have expired almost a year ago but they were never activated due to pandemic… our first trip back is next month. I was able to make park reservations with the renewal gold pass certificates. Anyone know what I’ll get upon activation? I was thinking that technically I have 3 long time expired renewal certificates and will need to pay the difference for new sorcerer passes. I was hoping for an even exchange to sorcerer pass with a forgiving of the absent year.

 

[CarolynFH]

I have 3 gold renewal passes. One has an odd expiration of 2099 and two are exp 2030. If I remember, expiration dates don’t technically mean anything other than not activated yet. Our last visit was December 2019 and the old passes expired Early 2020. The gold renewal passes should have expired almost a year ago but they were never activated due to pandemic… our first trip back is next month. I was able to make park reservations with the renewal gold pass certificates. Anyone know what I’ll get upon activation? I was thinking that technically I have 3 long time expired renewal certificates and will need to pay the difference for new sorcerer passes. I was hoping for an even exchange to sorcerer pass with a forgiving of the absent year.

Vouchers for Gold APs are being activated as Sorcerer APs with the PhotoPass add-on included at no additional cost. So that’s most likely want you’ll get, although I haven’t seen any reports of renewal vouchers being activated late like yours. So best wishes for a good outcome!

 

[Sandisw]

I have 3 gold renewal passes. One has an odd expiration of 2099 and two are exp 2030. If I remember, expiration dates don’t technically mean anything other than not activated yet. Our last visit was December 2019 and the old passes expired Early 2020. The gold renewal passes should have expired almost a year ago but they were never activated due to pandemic… our first trip back is next month. I was able to make park reservations with the renewal gold pass certificates. Anyone know what I’ll get upon activation? I was thinking that technically I have 3 long time expired renewal certificates and will need to pay the difference for new sorcerer passes. I was hoping for an even exchange to sorcerer pass with a forgiving of the absent year.

Most likely they will require you to pay the difference becuase you paid less for them as a renewal.

But, I am hoping you get pixie dust!

 

[elgerber]

I have 3 gold renewal passes. One has an odd expiration of 2099 and two are exp 2030. If I remember, expiration dates don’t technically mean anything other than not activated yet. Our last visit was December 2019 and the old passes expired Early 2020. The gold renewal passes should have expired almost a year ago but they were never activated due to pandemic… our first trip back is next month. I was able to make park reservations with the renewal gold pass certificates. Anyone know what I’ll get upon activation? I was thinking that technically I have 3 long time expired renewal certificates and will need to pay the difference for new sorcerer passes. I was hoping for an even exchange to sorcerer pass with a forgiving of the absent year.

My situation is a bit different, but I will tell you what we did last week.
I had two gold renewals, for me and dd. They were set to expire in January, they had not yet been used/activated. I had called and asked, if I could pay the difference between a renewal and a new pass and start my pass as a brand new Sorcerer pass. They said yes, but it needed to be done in person. I was not real confident in that.
We went to HS guest services upon arrival, and I asked the same things. She said something about expiration on 10/24, I pointed out she was looking at our Boo Bash tickets.
She said she could do it, and started working on both our passes. I asked her to activate dd's first, because I didn't want to pay the difference for hers. She did hers, then mine, and told me they would be both expire one year from the day we enter the gate. She didn't charge me anything, but she was already done. I didn't believe what she told me, but after we went into the park, our expiration dates for our Sorcerers passes, with the free photopass, was indeed 10/16/22. I have checked a couple of times since, to make sure it didn't change LOL, and it didn't. I was beyond thrilled, and I still can't believe she did it. I was gladly willing to pay the difference. I believe we got a major dose of pixie dust, so I wouldn't count on it working that way for you, especially since your date has come and gone, but this is what happened to us.

 

[JETSDAD]

My situation is a bit different, but I will tell you what we did last week.
I had two gold renewals, for me and dd. They were set to expire in January, they had not yet been used/activated. I had called and asked, if I could pay the difference between a renewal and a new pass and start my pass as a brand new Sorcerer pass. They said yes, but it needed to be done in person. I was not real confident in that.
We went to HS guest services upon arrival, and I asked the same things. She said something about expiration on 10/24, I pointed out she was looking at our Boo Bash tickets.
She said she could do it, and started working on both our passes. I asked her to activate dd's first, because I didn't want to pay the difference for hers. She did hers, then mine, and told me they would be both expire one year from the day we enter the gate. She didn't charge me anything, but she was already done. I didn't believe what she told me, but after we went into the park, our expiration dates for our Sorcerers passes, with the free photopass, was indeed 10/16/22. I have checked a couple of times since, to make sure it didn't change LOL, and it didn't. I was beyond thrilled, and I still can't believe she did it. I was gladly willing to pay the difference. I believe we got a major dose of pixie dust, so I wouldn't count on it working that way for you, especially since your date has come and gone, but this is what happened to us.

That's what they're doing with renewals that hadn't been activated. We had renewed our Gold AP's Dec 2019 and never had a chance to activate them. We finally got back in Sept 2021 and they activated them as Sorcerer with photopass starting that day.