Magic Key Expenses - Just Venting

[TinkAgainU]

So, I'm one of those people who waited on the phone for SEVEN STINKING HOURS to buy my Magic Key (which I've not used yet)... I played by Disney's posted rules about purchasing it Online that day instead of going to the park to buy it. My vent? I was told a regular ($160) park ticket I purchased could be used towards the Key purchase, but never saw a way to do that online at the time (and honestly, after seven hours I was so exhausted, even getting thru the purchase was a challenge).

I contacted Disney afterwards and was told I needed to have entered the Park with that ticket. and then purchase the Magic Key (you know, the one it took seven hours to get, so no, I did not go into the park with my $160 ticket "just in case" I could buy a Magic Key that day...

Fast forward to today, I called again and asked if I could at least apply that regular $160 ticket (unused) to upgrade my $500 Imagine Magic Key (unused) to a $1,200 Believe Key.

I got the usual run around about how I should have gone into the park that ONE day they started selling Magic Keys again, and taken the chance I could have upgraded from there (risking a $160 ticket going a day I did not intend to go) and how the best fix would be to just not use the Imagine Key (which will expire if I don't activate it within a year of when I purchased it), go to the park, use the $160 ticket and use that towards the $1,200 Believe Key. [so sorry about the seven hours of your life and $500 Imagine Key purchase? um no.]

For today, I hate Disney. Hate. Disney. And it's stinking money grabbing policies.

 

[MyDogTink]

So, I'm one of those people who waited on the phone for SEVEN STINKING HOURS to buy my Magic Key (which I've not used yet)... I played by Disney's posted rules about purchasing it Online that day instead of going to the park to buy it. My vent? I was told a regular ($160) park ticket I purchased could be used towards the Key purchase, but never saw a way to do that online at the time (and honestly, after seven hours I was so exhausted, even getting thru the purchase was a challenge).

I contacted Disney afterwards and was told I needed to have entered the Park with that ticket. and then purchase the Magic Key (you know, the one it took seven hours to get, so no, I did not go into the park with my $160 ticket "just in case" I could buy a Magic Key that day...

Fast forward to today, I called again and asked if I could at least apply that regular $160 ticket (unused) to upgrade my $500 Imagine Magic Key (unused) to a $1,200 Believe Key.

I got the usual run around about how I should have gone into the park that ONE day they started selling Magic Keys again, and taken the chance I could have upgraded from there (risking a $160 ticket going a day I did not intend to go) and how the best fix would be to just not use the Imagine Key (which will expire if I don't activate it within a year of when I purchased it), go to the park, use the $160 ticket and use that towards the $1,200 Believe Key. [so sorry about the seven hours of your life and $500 Imagine Key purchase? um no.]

For today, I hate Disney. Hate. Disney. And it's stinking money grabbing policies.

Sorry. You have the right to hate Disney and the Mickey Maffia tomorrow, too. What was the outcome?

 

[TinkAgainU]

Sorry. You have the right to hate Disney and the Mickey Maffia tomorrow, too. What was the outcome?

Thank you. I think I just needed one person to acknowledge my pain They won't do anything, I'm not upgrading to Believe (which I was buying myself for a big birthday present, and a Disney birthday trip). Will use the Imagine Key when I can in a few months instead and save the $160 ticket to go with friends another time. Oh, and I opened a nice bottle of wine that I was saving, so I guess all is not lost

Again, thank you for making me feel better, that was kind of you.

 

[AstroBlasters]

So, I'm one of those people who waited on the phone for SEVEN STINKING HOURS to buy my Magic Key (which I've not used yet)... I played by Disney's posted rules about purchasing it Online that day instead of going to the park to buy it. My vent? I was told a regular ($160) park ticket I purchased could be used towards the Key purchase, but never saw a way to do that online at the time (and honestly, after seven hours I was so exhausted, even getting thru the purchase was a challenge).

I contacted Disney afterwards and was told I needed to have entered the Park with that ticket. and then purchase the Magic Key (you know, the one it took seven hours to get, so no, I did not go into the park with my $160 ticket "just in case" I could buy a Magic Key that day...

Fast forward to today, I called again and asked if I could at least apply that regular $160 ticket (unused) to upgrade my $500 Imagine Magic Key (unused) to a $1,200 Believe Key.

I got the usual run around about how I should have gone into the park that ONE day they started selling Magic Keys again, and taken the chance I could have upgraded from there (risking a $160 ticket going a day I did not intend to go) and how the best fix would be to just not use the Imagine Key (which will expire if I don't activate it within a year of when I purchased it), go to the park, use the $160 ticket and use that towards the $1,200 Believe Key. [so sorry about the seven hours of your life and $500 Imagine Key purchase? um no.]

For today, I hate Disney. Hate. Disney. And it's stinking money grabbing policies.

You are not alone. It is an infuriating policy.

 

[LKing]

I was told a regular ($160) park ticket I purchased could be used towards the Key purchase, but never saw a way to do that online at the time (and honestly, after seven hours I was so exhausted, even getting thru the purchase was a challenge).

I'm super sorry that you had to go through this. I don't know if this will help at all.

A park ticket, an existing MK, a gift card, cash and credit cards are all considered different forms of payment. If a guest wants to purchase or upgrade a Magic Key with more than one form of payment, the only place they can do it is at the ticket counter in person.

I contacted Disney afterwards and was told I needed to have entered the Park with that ticket. and then purchase the Magic Key (you know, the one it took seven hours to get, so no, I did not go into the park with my $160 ticket "just in case" I could buy a Magic Key that day...

If you just wanted to pay with the unused ticket and a credit card, you could have made a reservation for a park, entered using your $160 ticket and then upgraded your ticket to a MK once you were in the park. This can be done on the app within a matter of minutes. The problem is, if you did that, your MK would have been activated on the day you entered with the $160 ticket and the MK would expire 1 year later.

Fast forward to today, I called again and asked if I could at least apply that regular $160 ticket (unused) to upgrade my $500 Imagine Magic Key (unused) to a $1,200 Believe Key.

If you upgrade, you will pay the the full difference between the Imagine and Believe. It is not pro-rated. The lower tier MK might need to be activated in order to do that (not sure). If you activate it, it will expire one year from that date.

There is a chance that, if you go in person, a manager at a ticket booth might allow you to apply the $160 to the upgrade. Not guaranteed, but it is worth asking. I would argue that you are using three forms of payment, an unused ticket, a lower tier MK and your credit card, to purchase a Believe MK. Definitely ask for a manager.

Will use the Imagine Key when I can in a few months instead and save the $160 ticket to go with friends another time.

That's actually not a bad idea. You can save the $160 ticket and use it on a day when the Imagine Key is blocked out.

 

[brightlined]

I was told a regular ($160) park ticket I purchased could be used towards the Key purchase, but never saw a way to do that online at the time (and honestly, after seven hours I was so exhausted, even getting thru the purchase was a challenge).

I'll gently add - there has never been a way to use an unused regular ticket towards a new Key purchase online. The only way to do that is in person at a ticket booth.

That day, there were so many people trying to buy MKs - the ticket booth line was ridiculous. That's why they were asking people to buy online - it was a mess as it was, and it would have complicated park operations to have that many more people waiting in line there. We had folks here who tried it anyway - they waited for hours, and it sounded miserable.

(There are some honestly good reasons that they don't allow that online. One of them is identity verification - which mostly needs to be done in-person. Since unused tickets aren't tied to a person yet - there's potential for theft. They want to have a person tied to it first before allowing an automated upgrade.)

I agree with LKing - if you're there in the near future - it couldn't hurt to try in person at a ticket booth. Disney likes money - I feel like a manager would recognize that they'll make money by letting you do that.

 

[LKing]

Yep, I was there that day. I was trying to upgrade my Believe to Inspire and, because it was two forms of payment (MK and credit card), I had to do that in person.

It was so incredibly inefficient and slow. A large number of people had So Cal passes that they wanted to upgrade. It wasn't until several hours in that they told people they could make a reservation for that day, go into the park, upgrade and leave. They didn't announce it to the masses, but just told people one by one as you got to the front. It would have been much more efficient to have told people that five hours earlier when they first got in line.

 

[TinkAgainU]

I'll gently add - there has never been a way to use an unused regular ticket towards a new Key purchase online. The only way to do that is in person at a ticket booth.
....

Good info, and I adore how you started with "I'll gently add." Thank you.

 

[twodogs]

@TinkAgainU I completely sympathize with your situation! You have every right to be very frustrated and exhausted by the convoluted ticket upgrade processes at DL. I recently posted about my inability to upgrade expired Military Salute tickets to new Military Salute tickets, and we ended up paying the $1260 to upgrade to regular tickets by phone and lost the military discount.

I understand Disney wanting to prevent fraud, but requiring these transactions to be done in person at ticket booth and requiring park reservations is truly unacceptable to me. Many of their guests live out of the area or out of state or even in another country. How can a company this large not have a way to do these transactions via phone or online? Are out of area guests supposed to fly to Anaheim to do a ticket transaction in person? And then risk not being able to enter a park? If I can do large banking transactions by phone and/or online, Disney can do this. They just want to be somewhat obstructionary (IMO) so that people end up not getting what they understand is the full value of their tickets. It “worked” with me because I became emotionally exhausted from calling and emailing and driving back and forth to the military base, and we just paid for regular tickets. And I think it “worked” on you, and I find that very sad. I am so sorry.

I share your frustration and the feeling that you have spend countless hours talking to people at Disney who either can’t/won’t help you or give you different information at different times/different CMs. I’m very sorry that you are getting the run around, and that your issue isn’t being solved by Disney. I hope you have great trips, no matter how you get your tickets or MK!

 

[TinkAgainU]

For everyone who supported me thru my Magic Key and Birthday Reservations rant, thank you.

I was just able to buy the newest 3-day park ticket (I know, I Still spent more money) that happens to work for my big August Birthday trip!! Can't hurt to end on a happy note

 

[LKing]

For everyone who supported me thru my Magic Key and Birthday Reservations rant, thank you.

I was just able to buy the newest 3-day park ticket (I know, I Still spent more money) that happens to work for my big August Birthday trip!! Can't hurt to end on a happy note

That's great! Were you able to apply the $160 towards it?

 

[TinkAgainU]

No, since I'm not local enough to buy any tickets at the walk up windows. But this saves the big trip at least, and while there I'll go in person to try to sort out the (not yet Activated) Magic Key credit one last time

 

[gardenrooms]

Were the wait times always that long, or did you buy your Magic Key right when sales reopened? Sorry about the run around you got! Enjoy your trips and don't let this negative side of Disney spoil them!

I have trouble with these kinds of things, so when our Inspire passes were expiring (last Sunday) I asked my kids to help me renew (theirs too), but they didn't see the urgency and shined me on- and now we're out of luck. (Or at least I am, because I paid for all the 5-day park hoppers for an upcoming trip - I'm spoiled, want those hoppers, but I may opt for 1-park tickets for our Oogie Boogie Bash trip in Sept, since I expect to be buying all the tickets again...).

The only thing I am glad about is no blockout days to worry about because I really want to go the week after New Years, but even Inspire keys were blocked out till 1/6. Oh well.

 

[LKing]

Were the wait times always that long, or did you buy your Magic Key right when sales reopened? Sorry about the run around you got! Enjoy your trips and don't let this negative side of Disney spoil them!

I think she might have been referring to January 10, 2024.

In person, the lines wrapped around the back (the DCA side) and then to the front of the ticket booths. They used one ticket booth with no more than six windows open at any given time. You can see where the cast member was located, maybe 30 min from the end of a 7 hour queue. He was telling guests with with So Cal, or other tickets, to make a reservation to go into the park and upgrade from there. Why he wasn't at the beginning of the queue is beyond me.

 

[gardenrooms]

Oh my goodness, what a mess! Thanks for the clarification.

 

[TinkAgainU]

When the keys came back on sale a few months later - there was virtually no wait. You could buy any of the keys online with a click a couple weeks ago. Currently they are "not available" again (most of us are absolutely convinced this is simply Disney's typical FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) sales tactic they've used on everything from Kids VHS/DVD movie sales to magic keys - for years). Sadly, FOMO seems to work well for Disney so it allows pretty substantial price increases whenever they play that game.

Although I'm happy to report a few of us went to Knott's while blocked this week, their Annual Pass has zero block out dates, costs $145 PER YEAR and frankly, has many of the same food, ambiance, and ride benefits. We easily parked, had a great breakfast at Mrs. Knotts Kitchen and Rope Dropped at 10am (vs needing to be at Disney at 7am for Rope Drop). Disney DOES have competiton if you keep an open mind. Not saying we won't be back (we will) but the $tress of Disney is worth exploring other options.

 

[StarlitNight05]

When the keys came back on sale a few months later - there was virtually no wait. You could buy any of the keys online with a click a couple weeks ago. Currently they are "not available" again (most of us are absolutely convinced this is simply Disney's typical FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) sales tactic they've used on everything from Kids VHS/DVD movie sales to magic keys - for years). Sadly, FOMO seems to work well for Disney so it allows pretty substantial price increases whenever they play that game.

Ah yes, the Disney Vault technique! It is quite effective.

 

[sophy1996]

Although I'm happy to report a few of us went to Knott's while blocked this week, their Annual Pass has zero block out dates, costs $145 PER YEAR and frankly, has many of the same food, ambiance, and ride benefits. We easily parked, had a great breakfast at Mrs. Knotts Kitchen and Rope Dropped at 10am (vs needing to be at Disney at 7am for Rope Drop). Disney DOES have competiton if you keep an open mind. Not saying we won't be back (we will) but the $tress of Disney is worth exploring other options.

We got Knotts annual passes for $99 late last fall that let us in for the rest of 2023 and all of 2024. It’s not Disney, but we’ve enjoyed our visits there anyway.