How upgrading to an AP affects the DDP

[bdtracey]

Hey folks!

Here's the situation: DW and I are really trying to set something up for the free dining Sept 1 to 9. The only problem is with our upcoming May trip. We'll be there for 13 full days but bought the 10 day MYW + PH + waterparks so we could get the DDP. If we decide to go in September it would obviously make sense to pick up AP's. This is where our problem begins.

We have no problem buying 1 day base tickets in September in order to get the DDP but how is this going to work for our May trip? I know I can upgrade our 10 day passes but how do we go about getting the DDP? I've heard that if we do this at the end of our trip it'll work but we would like to (somehow, someway) do this at the start of our trip so that we don't have to pick 3 days to stay away from the parks entirely.

Is there any way to do this? Will we have to buy 1 day base tickets for the May trip AND upgrade our tickets to AP's for this to work? Will we be getting charged a penalty because we're essentially down-grading our current package (10 days to 1 day) and then buying AP's?

Thanks in advance!!!!

 

[Ladybugsy]

I'm not quite sure what you're asking, but I'll take a stab at it. If you upgrade APs in May, then you still must buy a 1 day base ticket for you and anyone else in your party. You are then able to use the APs you bought in May, and then I'd just keep the one day tickets to upgrade the next trip. They won't expire. Does this help?

 

[BillSears]

I bought a 7 day park hopper as part of my free DDP offer last September. On the fist day before I even used the 7 day park hopper I went to guest services at EPCOT and upgraded it to an AP.

So you should be able to upgrade your May ticket to an AP on the first day of your trip...of course I've heard of others having problems doing this. So if for some reason the CM says you can't do it you can either try a different CM or check with a manager.

BTW make sure they know you have the DDP. I'm always worried that they'll remove both the admission and the DDP from my room key.

 

[bdtracey]

I'm not quite sure what you're asking, but I'll take a stab at it. If you upgrade APs in May, then you still must buy a 1 day base ticket for you and anyone else in your party. You are then able to use the APs you bought in May, and then I'd just keep the one day tickets to upgrade the next trip. They won't expire. Does this help?

Yes that does help, thanks! Basically what I want to do is get AP's and make the math work so that we're getting the best bang for our buck.

I was kind of hoping that we'd be able to just pay the difference between our passes now and the AP's without having to buy 1 day passes now AND in September.

Do you think they'll charge me a penalty at guest services when I arrive for changing my package?

 

[illiniowl]

I may be missing something but if you have DDP booked for your May trip you've paid for it already since you booked a package (room + tickets) and you're less than 45 days away from your trip. The length of your DDP is based on the number of room nights you've booked. Now that you've paid for everything Disney doesn't care what you do with your tickets - use them, upgrade them, lose them, whatever (just don't transfer them). So go ahead and upgrade them to APs when you get to WDW. (Note - mousesavers says if you want to upgrade a "partially used" MYW + waterpark fun pass to an AP, you must upgrade to a Premium AP. That's USD133 more than a regular AP so keep the total number of water park visits you plan to make in mind when running the numbers. You might want to upgrade to an AP right at the beginning and then buy your water park admissions separately or even get a Water Park AP (USD106) separately if you're not also going to go to DisneyQuest or Pleasure Island.) To get free dining on your Sept. trip, book a package the same way you did for May except just get a 1-day base ticket per person (which you won't need to use). *However* first I'd run the numbers on what you'd spend doing A vs. B:
A: paying rack rate for the room for 8 nights, buying 2 1-day base tickets, and getting free dining
vs.
B: getting an AP discount on your room, buying the DDE at USD65, and getting a 20% discount at a whole host of TS restaurants (some CS too).

 

[bdtracey]

I like the way you think; it's very methodical!

It's kind of a tough situation to explain so thank-you!

The MouseSavers answer makes sense. I tried calling Disney earlier today but they claimed that they couldn't help me out simply because I booked my trip through a travel agent and there are some legality issues there. I'm not exactly sure what they were talking about; I'm going to call again tonight.

Thanks again! I'll let you know what they say!

 

[illiniowl]

I don't want to give faulty advice because I don't know the specifics of your package and the terms your travel agent quoted you. Just 2 pieces of general advice:
1. If you booked through a travel agent, call them and ask them the questions - you're their customer and they should be glad to help you.
2. As for upgrading your MYW passes, I think your travel agent might advise you not to do this now (before you get to WDW) - that probably would be considered "changing" your package and might involve change fees and could jeopardize your entitlement to be on the DDP. Instead, my guess is you will be advised to do nothing for now, check in at POFQ when you arrive, have DDP (and your 13-day MYWs if you do not want to carry them separately) put on your KTTWs, then go to Guest Services and tell them you have some MYWs you want to upgrade (remembering BillSears' advice above to make sure they don't accidentally erase DDP from KTTWs in the process). AFAIK that's not "changing" your package, that's fulfilling the terms of your package and then taking Disney up on their standing offer (to everyone) to upgrade MYWs (under various terms and conditions).

Good luck and let us know how it goes!

 

[dolly-dawne]

I always think its funny when people talk about the savings with the disney dining card. I am a an AP holder as well as a DDE card holder. I always look at the 20% as the tip on my TS. Perhaps we are just gererous tippers but my dh worked for many years in the food indusrty and thinks for good service
18-20% is what you should tip. If you are a large group the DDP is a better savings than the AP rate and the DDE card.This has at least been my experience.

 

[bdtracey]

I bought a 7 day park hopper as part of my free DDP offer last September. On the fist day before I even used the 7 day park hopper I went to guest services at EPCOT and upgraded it to an AP.

So you should be able to upgrade your May ticket to an AP on the first day of your trip...of course I've heard of others having problems doing this. So if for some reason the CM says you can't do it you can either try a different CM or check with a manager.

BTW make sure they know you have the DDP. I'm always worried that they'll remove both the admission and the DDP from my room key.

Good to know about the possible DDP erasing! Thanks Bill!

 

[mrzrich]

1. Book Free Dining for September with 1 day base tickets now

2. Upgrade your May tickets to AP at some point during the May trip.

The ticket you get in September will not expire until you activate it. You can put it away for another trip, or use it toward the purchase of next year's AP.

 

[disney1990]

I always think its funny when people talk about the savings with the disney dining card. I am a an AP holder as well as a DDE card holder. I always look at the 20% as the tip on my TS. Perhaps we are just gererous tippers but my dh worked for many years in the food indusrty and thinks for good service
18-20% is what you should tip. If you are a large group the DDP is a better savings than the AP rate and the DDE card.This has at least been my experience.

The problem is that it can mostly be used for table service. I don't want to have sit down meals 3 times a day. The DDP seems to work better for us.

 

[illiniowl]

Yes, now that I did a quick and dirty experiment with the numbers, you'd probably need to be saving well over $100 (probably more like $125) per night with the AP room discount to break even by using DDE vs. paying rack rate and getting free DDP. You'd only have a chance at saving that much per night if you were planning on staying in a deluxe or DVC resort in the first place, and according to mousesavers the current AP discount on a deluxe/DVC is "only" $101 per night anyway. The above is assuming 2 adults, eating 1 TS meal per day for which the pre-discount tax and tip would be $100 combined for the 2 of you and eating $40 in combined CS and snacks per day. It might be a closer call if you were going to have to pay for DDP. So yes, if you're going to do that Sept. trip, do it the way mrzrich suggests!

 

[arizonacolbys]

Hi! Just wanted to share my experience - hubby & I went down last year during the Free Dining promotion & just purchased 1 day MYW tickets that we exchanged for AP's at the MK gate before using them at all & had no problems doing this. We paid rack rate for the rooms, but had free dining & were able to eat at a few restaurants we might not have spent the money on.

We returned in January, got an AP rate & purchased a DDE card which came in handy at the sit downs & for some half yards at the Rose & Crown.

We now have ressies for Sept at POP, paying rack rate for the Free Dining Plan. We will be getting 1 Day MYW tickets that we'll save for the next trip. I think the Free Dining Plan is definitely a better deal than using the DDE card, simply because you'll be getting snacks & counter service meals that you can't get discounted with the DDE. It also depends on where you're planning to stay during the DDP promotion - we're just staying at POP, so the difference in rack rate & the AP rate on our room is less than what we'd pay for food daily, so it's a great deal for us. However, if you're staying deluxe, you could easily save more on your room with a good AP rate than what you'd save on the Free DDP.