How upgrading to APs worked for us....

[BridgetR3]

We were at Disney the week of Thanksgiving and began using our Magic Your Way tickets on the 24th. However, on our last day the 30th we upgraded to Annual Passes. Our annual passes expire on November 30th of 2016 and we have been able to download all of the pictures DIsney photographers took of us during our trip. We meant to upgrade long before our last day but it was never convenient. However, it worked out great for us!

 

[Dan Murphy]

That's great, enjoy the year ahead!!

 

[ilovedisneymm]

Interesting. I thought when you upgraded from day tickets to annual passes, the first day used on the park tickets would be your annual pass expiration date. This is what we were told when inquiring a few years ago.

Example: We go each January and do 10 day tickets. Let's say we start our first day on January 10, then decide to upgrade to APs on January 20th (paying the difference between the AP cost minus our 10 day hopper). According to Disney CM our AP expiration date would be January 10 but with your experience that would mean January 20.

Interesting indeed! Would love to hear others AP upgrade experiences.

 

[Disneylover99]

Interesting. I thought when you upgraded from day tickets to annual passes, the first day used on the park tickets would be your annual pass expiration date. This is what we were told when inquiring a few years ago.

Example: We go each January and do 10 day tickets. Let's say we start our first day on January 10, then decide to upgrade to APs on January 20th (paying the difference between the AP cost minus our 10 day hopper). According to Disney CM our AP expiration date would be January 10 but with your experience that would mean January 20.

Interesting indeed! Would love to hear others AP upgrade experiences.

We've upgraded our ten day tickets to annual passes on three separate occasions. Each time, the start date on our AP has been listed as the date we upgraded, not the day we first used our ten day tickets. I also know it's not supposed to work that way, but I guess we've been lucky three times.

 

[BridgetR3]

Interesting. I thought when you upgraded from day tickets to annual passes, the first day used on the park tickets would be your annual pass expiration date. This is what we were told when inquiring a few years ago.

Example: We go each January and do 10 day tickets. Let's say we start our first day on January 10, then decide to upgrade to APs on January 20th (paying the difference between the AP cost minus our 10 day hopper). According to Disney CM our AP expiration date would be January 10 but with your experience that would mean January 20.

Interesting indeed! Would love to hear others AP upgrade experiences.

When we upgraded a few years ago it did work that way but not this time. The last time we upgraded from MYW tickets was before magic bands and it did use our first park day from our cards. Maybe it has changed now that we have magic bands?

 

[supersnoop]

Interesting. I thought when you upgraded from day tickets to annual passes, the first day used on the park tickets would be your annual pass expiration date. This is what we were told when inquiring a few years ago.

That's how it is supposed to work, but the CM has to manually update the date. If they are lazy or do t know any better, they may leave the date as the date of the upgrade instead of the date of first use.

Consider it a little extra pixie dust if it happens to you. It's not supposed to work that way, but it's a nice little bonus.

There have been times when the CM used the purchase date on the original ticket which could cause you to lose a bunch of days, but that's relatively easy to get fixed.

 

[Good Morning Dewdrop]

normally it works so that the upgrade is from the first day the ticket was used. But (as I understand it) it is done by hand by the CM - so sometimes people luck out when the CM has just done the upgrade to the date of the upgrade rather than the first date used. We've never gotten that lucky !

 

[ilovedisneymm]

Well, we come in Janaury and that is the only month that works for an extended vacation for our family. In order to upgrade to AP, it would have to have it expire at the end of our trip and not the first day use. It would be a huge waste for it to revert back to first day. What do you mean "easy to get fixed"?

That's how it is supposed to work, but the CM has to manually update the date. If they are lazy or do t know any better, they may leave the date as the date of the upgrade instead of the date of first use.

Consider it a little extra pixie dust if it happens to you. It's not supposed to work that way, but it's a nice little bonus.

There have been times when the CM used the purchase date on the original ticket which could cause you to lose a bunch of days, but that's relatively easy to get fixed.

 

[BridgetR3]

I think they mean that if the CM used the PURCHASE date (the date you purchased your tickets) it's easy to prove that you did not use them until the first day of your vacation and the date is changed from the purchase day to the start of your park days.

 

[supersnoop]

Well, we come in Janaury and that is the only month that works for an extended vacation for our family. In order to upgrade to AP, it would have to have it expire at the end of our trip and not the first day use. It would be a huge waste for it to revert back to first day. What do you mean "easy to get fixed"?

I think they mean that if the CM used the PURCHASE date (the date you purchased your tickets) it's easy to prove that you did not use them until the first day of your vacation and the date is changed from the purchase day to the start of your park days.

Correct. First day of use is the correct date. It looks like a few people have experienced a mistake. Don't count on it happening and don't try to argue if it doesn't work out in your favor.

 

[BridgetR3]

Correct. First day of use is the correct date. It looks like a few people have experienced a mistake. Don't count on it happening and don't try to argue if it doesn't work out in your favor.

Not counting on it or arguing for it....just sharing our bit of pixie dust and knowing we got "lucky".

 

[Accident]

Interesting. I thought when you upgraded from day tickets to annual passes, the first day used on the park tickets would be your annual pass expiration date. This is what we were told when inquiring a few years ago.

There's always a lot of confusion (myself included) around this. this is interesting but I wouldn't have waited since the savings from the AP discount during the trip would be greater than upgrading a few days later.

 

[ravenclawtrekkie]

Upgrades from MYW tickets to APs can be a little messy on the CM's end because we can do it through 2 'levels' in our ticketing software.

Level 5 has straight APs, which will expire on the original ticket's date of issue. If a guest bought their tickets months before their trip, this is going to be a big error, because their AP will show that early expiration date. (I did this once and had to ask a coordinator how to fix it - thankfully I noticed before I sent the guest away with their AP! The fix is really easy though.*)
Level 96 has "upgrade" APs, which allow the CM to manually input the expiration date. The default expiration date on 96 is a year from the AP's date of issue (AKA the upgrade date), and a lot of CMs just leave it that way, but we actually are supposed to change that to the date of first use on the ticket.

*The fix is just to re-upgrade the new AP on 96 (it's a zero dollar transaction at that point) and change the expiration date to the correct one.

 

[scrapquitler]

We've upgraded our ten day tickets to annual passes on three separate occasions. Each time, the start date on our AP has been listed as the date we upgraded, not the day we first used our ten day tickets. I also know it's not supposed to work that way, but I guess we've been lucky three times.

We had six day tickets and upgraded to APs on the third day back in April. Our APs expire one year from the day we upgraded. I know that's not how it is supposed to happen, so I'm just counting it as a bit of Pixie Dust sprinkled my way...

 

[TwinPrincessMermaids]

Upgrades from MYW tickets to APs can be a little messy on the CM's end because we can do it through 2 'levels' in our ticketing software.

Level 5 has straight APs, which will expire on the original ticket's date of issue. If a guest bought their tickets months before their trip, this is going to be a big error, because their AP will show that early expiration date. (I did this once and had to ask a coordinator how to fix it - thankfully I noticed before I sent the guest away with their AP! The fix is really easy though.*)
Level 96 has "upgrade" APs, which allow the CM to manually input the expiration date. The default expiration date on 96 is a year from the AP's date of issue (AKA the upgrade date), and a lot of CMs just leave it that way, but we actually are supposed to change that to the date of first use on the ticket.

*The fix is just to re-upgrade the new AP on 96 (it's a zero dollar transaction at that point) and change the expiration date to the correct one.

Should not the upgrade always retroact to the first date of use for the ticket? (As in the beginning of use for the 10 day pass?) That was always the case for others we have upgraded. (A friend upgraded her 2 day to a pass and it was the first day that she used the ticket.) What about upgrading on DISCO?

 

[ravenclawtrekkie]

Should not the upgrade always retroact to the first date of use for the ticket? (As in the beginning of use for the 10 day pass?) That was always the case for others we have upgraded. (A friend upgraded her 2 day to a pass and it was the first day that she used the ticket.) What about upgrading on DISCO?

My last transaction of my shift today was upgrading 4 tickets from 7 days to passes. The first use was 12/02 - the default expiration date that came up when I upgraded them was today.

All I do in DISCO is straight sales, so I don't think in DISCO terms. Doesn't it just open a WinCAS window for half the stuff under Utilities anyway?

 

[TwinPrincessMermaids]

My last transaction of my shift today was upgrading 4 tickets from 7 days to passes. The first use was 12/02 - the default expiration date that came up when I upgraded them was today.

All I do in DISCO is straight sales, so I don't think in DISCO terms. Doesn't it just open a WinCAS window for half the stuff under Utilities anyway?

So did you retroact the date then on 96? That's really how it should be, right?
I need to do more upgs in Disco, it seems like it would be easier, but I automatically think UPG button in Win. I need to think outside the box!

 

[TwinPrincessMermaids]

I would check, OP, to ensure what your actual date is. Occasionally, after you leave the window, the CM might be able to make that adjustment and correct the date. (That also happened to me once for a renewal and I wanted to make sure the date would be correct for them - in their case so they didn't lose time since they renewed early.) It can be done. You just may want to double check it to be sure...

I also want to add to any out there that are confused (as was a guest this week) to think that if you buy a renewal cert in Sept and activate it in Dec, even though your anniversary is Sept, please remember...your anniversary is STILL Sept... so you don't get a new anniversary date for your renewal...a renewal is a renewal for your anniversary date. A new pass would be a new date, but not at the renewal cert savings... sigh... no, their pass was not good for 12 months plus 3 months...sadly if you wait 3 months to activate your renewal certificate, you just lose 3 months (speaking of planning that way intentionally, not if you can't get back until then.) And also, considering that you have 30 days to renew after your date, does not mean that you can visit the park for two Christmases (they thought 12/5 would be new anniversary date and include xmas 2015 and 2016...)...your pass is still only active for a year...not a year plus 30 days (within your 'renewal' time frame. You can renew...but when your pass is up, you can't access the park with it...)

Sigh...

 

[Accident]

thanks for taking the time to explain these things, very helpful.

 

[jo-jo]

Wow ,if I had know there was even a slight chance of getting extra days, I would have waited to upgrade our tickets. I upgraded on our first day and then noticed a few days later, they had dated it from purchase date. Two months prior.