Multiple Park Media - advance FPs

[ww52]

I raised his question on another thread and received an answer. I'm not posting this because I doubt the answer - just wanted to "bump" it up.

The issue comes from having more than one media for a given person for a trip. In my case, two of our family members have 4 days left on a non-expiring hopper - and since we'll have 5 park days they each bought a one day - one park (non-MK) ticket as well. It's not a physical ticket.

That messed up our advance FP procurement (60 days out) though a CM on the phone was able to take care of it. (We couldn't get FPs for our MK day because apparently the system was applying the one day ticket that day, which was not valid for MK)

OK - so the next thing that occurred to us was entry. We will be going to Epcot on arrival day and therefore we want to be sure the one day ticket is used that day. I'm told we have to go to Guest Services ahead of entry to get their tickets prioritized. OK - not a big deal since we'll be at the relatively empty International Gateway.

Last concern then is the Fast Passes. I'm told that they are tied to a person and not to a specific ticket. I interpret that as "as long as you got in the park - and you have a FastPass for a particular attraction with a particular window - and you get to that attraction within that window - you will be ok"

Again, I am not saying I don't believe that - it's more of "what ELSE can go wrong?" - thinking "what if the FP was procured 60 days out due to the hopper they had, but that hopper wasn't what got them in the park?

Again - I'm told that won't be the case - so this post has two purposes:
to raise these issues in case anyone else is in the same situation and isn't thinking about the ramifications;
and second, to verify I'm interpreting all this correctly.

We'll be at WDW in July, with 8 people total including two children under 5. Sure don't want to spend / waste time trying to use what we've paid for just because the systems Disney programmers wrote didn't think through all the possibilities. We already lost the ability to get high demand FPs at MK in advance as the CM handled the unexpected glitch.

 

[jaceraden]

This issue (or rather lack thereof) has come up many times with people who have multiple media and I don't recall hearing horror stories. Go to GS and prioritize your tickets and then have a great trip!

Edit to add: In fact it was a non issue for me when I had multiple media for my Nov/Dec 2017 trip. I had forgotten about it because it was a non issue - I went to GS at Disney Springs (on Black Friday, of all days!) and had my tickets prioritized. Then I never thought about it again.

 

[ww52]

It's IS an issue if you don't even know to prioritize your tickets. (Whatever that actually entails - I won't even ask because I'll likely get another snarky comment. I'll assume the GS person will know.)

Nothing is an issue if you know ahead of time. The key is KNOWING to go to GS. I'm glad I found out. How many people don't know? (Tough to believe, I'm sure - but not EVERY person who goes to WDW frequents these boards).

We could have used our Magic Bands on our first day, assuming the system was programmed to do a very simple "prioritization" day to day. Not require human intervention on something easily programmed. Only to find out much later in the trip that even though we have a one day ticket and 4 day hopper, the system used up a hopper day when all we did was go to one park.

Trust me - we ALL assumed Disney would figure that out. It never occured to me that they didn't. Again, glad to know that ahead of time, because I could see us on a hot day trying to get into MK, 6 of the 8 of us get in fine - two don't. And we panic wondering what's going on. With two small children.

Programming this is simple - for Disney especially. It's not even "AI"; just simple rules management. (I'm a statistician and a programmer and have much experience in computer systems for decision making.)

Apply the least flexible first, then the next least flexible etc. Don't make the guest decide ahead of time. And potentially each time. Also - save the non-expiring to the end as well.

Two of us have a one day and a 4 day hopper. The rest have a 5 day hopper. We go to Epcot on arrival. It lets us in - understanding there are two potential tickets to use - so it "pends" one of them (probably the hopper). If we go to another park, then it of course moves the "pend" to permanent - used one hopper day. But if not, when we go to a park the next day - It now knows we didn't "hop" yesterday so the program updates the database for us to reflect that, and says "OK - yesterday was NOT a hopper day, so we'll say the one day ticket was used up."

Trivial.

BTW - what if we prioritize to use the one day and later that day change our mind and go to another park? Another stop at GS I guess.

This is 2018; we're applying machine learning at my company. I'm sure Disney is too - at least in terms on how to get more money out of us. Which - to be fair - is exactly what my company is using it for.

It's the same issue for FP's 60 days out. It REQUIRED human intervention and I will bet there is nothing that can be done to prioritize that at before 7:00AM Eastern - as you're trying to get FPs that are difficult at best.

It's not a huge deal (though we most definitely missed out on FPs - but stuff happens)- and granted it doesn't likely happen often.

(By the way, the family with the 4-day and 1 day tried to get them combined into one. Disney said it couldn't be done because the 4 day was non-expiring. That part I understood. They were told they could buy the non-expiring option on the 1 day and THEN combine them. Disney isn't stupid when it comes to trying to get you to pay more.)

 

[Allison]

(Whatever that actually entails - I won't even ask because I'll likely get another snarky comment. I'll assume the GS person will know.)

Did you get a snarky comment in another thread? I don't see one here.

 

[ww52]

Call me sensitive - and if so I apologize. Very un-Disney I understand. I took the time to explain something that I thought might benefit others - and it surely would have benefited me - only to see it dismissed as a "non-issue".

It most assuredly would have been an issue (as I then felt the need to explain in long detail) IF we got to our last night, and the two parents of the small children travelling with us - could not get in a park because we're trying to "hop" and they didn't' know to "prioritize" their tickets.

I'm quite happy to have found this out. I assume others would be too. Therefore, I'd hardly call what I'm describing a "non-issue". It's an issue with a simple solution - again, once you KNOW what can happen and what to do about it.

 

[jaceraden]

There was no snark and yes, you are sensitive.

The people you speak of, the ones who don't frequent the boards, are not usually the ones who are buying more than one ticket type at once. But, I like to think that most of us are concerned about where our money is going. If Joe Public decides to have more than one ticket type on his account at once, surely to goodness he is going to pay attention to figure out which ticket he is using?!

And now I am done because I have no interest in drama.

 

[ww52]

No drama intended and I sincerely apologize for creating it.

For those who might find this thread - understand that MDE and Magic Bands make things very different. We're encouraged to link it all up (which certainly makes sense and I can see will be VERY convenient). So it's NOT a matter of Joe Public being aware of what ticket he is using.

He may well HAVE no tickets. That is, they are all hanging on his wrist in the form of the Magic Band. And he's trusting Disney to be smart about which one to use.

Knowing that they are apparently NOT smart about it - that he has to get it prioritized first - is obviously important to know. Because if he didn't know that (and why would he?) it will likely cause an issue eventually during the trip.

And your statement "...not usually the ones who are buying more than one ticket type at once" shows you didn't read the description of the situation.

My son and DIL did NOT buy more than one ticket type at once. They have 4 days left on a non-expiring hopper (from 7 years ago - when they had to cut their trip short due to a family situation - and Disney was kind enough to change their remaining days to non-expiring). So they are naturally using those tickets, yet needed a fifth day.

 

[otten]

Just a heads up, just because you've gone to GS and asked them to prioritize, doesn't mean it was done correctly.

Here's what happened to us. During the original Canadian resident promotion (when the tickets didn't expire until 2030) I purchased to sets of tickets. One set of 4days for myself, my husband, our two daughters and my MIL for a trip in January 2018 and a set of 8days for the kids and myself for a trip planned for 2019. In January we arrived for our trip and went to GS before entry to show our passports and while there, asked to prioritize the 4 day tickets (which we also the oldest set). I assumed all was well. We enjoyed our trip and returned home.

I didn't log in to MDE again until today because there was no reason to. Imagine my shock and dismay when after logging in to link our new resort reservation I discover that while myself and one of my kids has a 8 day ticket as we should, my youngest has a 4 day ticket because her 8 day one was incorrectly used in January. I find it very strange that it only happened to her.

 

[DisneyWishes14]

Just a heads up, just because you've gone to GS and asked them to prioritize, doesn't mean it was done correctly.

Here's what happened to us. During the original Canadian resident promotion (when the tickets didn't expire until 2030) I purchased to sets of tickets. One set of 4days for myself, my husband, our two daughters and my MIL for a trip in January 2018 and a set of 8days for the kids and myself for a trip planned for 2019. In January we arrived for our trip and went to GS before entry to show our passports and while there, asked to prioritize the 4 day tickets (which we also the oldest set). I assumed all was well. We enjoyed our trip and returned home.

I didn't log in to MDE again until today because there was no reason to. Imagine my shock and dismay when after logging in to link our new resort reservation I discover that while myself and one of my kids has a 8 day ticket as we should, my youngest has a 4 day ticket because her 8 day one was incorrectly used in January. I find it very strange that it only happened to her.

I hope you contacted Guest Services to have this fixed? I'm not surprised it happened. They have to do the tickets one at a time and sometimes mistakes happen.

We tend to have a bunch of ticket media in our MDE account. I still have non-expires from two tickets and will frequently buy longer, length-of-stay tickets for various reasons. I once went to a ticket window at EP to get my DS's ticket prioritized and then walked over to GS (this was at IG, so we hadn't entered yet) to renew his DAS and discovered at GS that the CM at the ticket window didn't prioritize his tickets (which is the only reason we had stopped at the window). GS took care of it and we were good to go. Whenever I prioritize tickets, I always check, after entering our first park, that they were prioritized as I had requested.

OP, I agree, this could become an issue if a guest doesn't realize that WDW has nothing in the system to try to figure out which ticket to pull from. There was a time, when MDE was first introduced, when we could prioritize tickets ourselves in MDE. Why they took that function away, I'll never know. I went on many trips when they were messing around with the system and not letting people know of the updates. I had a debacle myself about 4 years ago where the wrong ticket was pulled and I had to spend time at GS getting it fixed. It isn't fun.

After you stop at GS to have the tickets prioritized, I do suggest checking the MDE app to make sure the correct ticket was pulled so you can correct any issues sooner rather than later. I will say, on a bright note, I've done this for countless trips over the past 3 years or so with zero issues. And you should have zero issues with using the FP+'s as well - at least I haven't had any.

 

[otten]

I hope you contacted Guest Services to have this fixed? I'm not surprised it happened. They have to do the tickets one at a time and sometimes mistakes happen.

We tend to have a bunch of ticket media in our MDE account. I still have non-expires from two tickets and will frequently buy longer, length-of-stay tickets for various reasons. I once went to a ticket window at EP to get my DS's ticket prioritized and then walked over to GS (this was at IG, so we hadn't entered yet) to renew his DAS and discovered at GS that the CM at the ticket window didn't prioritize his tickets (which is the only reason we had stopped at the window). GS took care of it and we were good to go. Whenever I prioritize tickets, I always check, after entering our first park, that they were prioritized as I had requested.

OP, I agree, this could become an issue if a guest doesn't realize that WDW has nothing in the system to try to figure out which ticket to pull from. There was a time, when MDE was first introduced, when we could prioritize tickets ourselves in MDE. Why they took that function away, I'll never know. I went on many trips when they were messing around with the system and not letting people know of the updates. I had a debacle myself about 4 years ago where the wrong ticket was pulled and I had to spend time at GS getting it fixed. It isn't fun.

After you stop at GS to have the tickets prioritized, I do suggest checking the MDE app to make sure the correct ticket was pulled so you can correct any issues sooner rather than later. I will say, on a bright note, I've done this for countless trips over the past 3 years or so with zero issues. And you should have zero issues with using the FP+'s as well - at least I haven't had any.

I’m trying. I called and spoke with a CM who said she needed to escalate it to a different team and they’d email me but then I got an email from a different cast member saying to call.

 

[runwad]

We have multi ticket media and I created other profiles on our MDE to hold them. After we use the tickets that are in our names, I will then reassign the other tickets from the "created profiles" to our real names. That way I don't have to worry about someone doing their job correctly and prioritizing the right tickets. No thank you, I know I will do it right!

 

[anomamatt]

We have multi ticket media and I created other profiles on our MDE to hold them. After we use the tickets that are in our names, I will then reassign the other tickets from the "created profiles" to our real names. That way I don't have to worry about someone doing their job correctly and prioritizing the right tickets. No thank you, I know I will do it right!

I do this too -- and I highly recommend this strategy. However, the OP cannot utilize this method because their old tickets have been partially used (non-expiring, but partially used) and they cannot be re-assigned.

 

[georgina]

Yep, I have partially used non-expiring tickets on my account also. Then last year I got a 7 day PH and upgraded it to an AP because I had several trips. I'm not sure the OP's suggested method of applying the least flexible ticket first would work in my situation - I wanted to use the AP on these trips, I would not trust Disney IT to figure this out without my intervention. I'm not sure how to check MDE to see if the correct ticket was used, but I always stop by guest services to ask.

We have threads every year about the Halloween and Christmas parties, how someone may get a day of their park ticket used instead of the party ticket if they don't enter through the designated party entrance. What I didn't understand at first was that even if a hard ticket is used, if it is connected to the MDE account, it's just like a magic band in that it could access any ticket on the account.

 

[bumbershoot]

How many people don't know? (Tough to believe, I'm sure - but not EVERY person who goes to WDW frequents these boards).

That's why they have employees there to help people who end up with issues.

BTW - what if we prioritize to use the one day and later that day change our mind and go to another park? Another stop at GS I guess.

OK, wait, no. You're talking about them "pending" a ticket then changing it from a base to a hopper if you hop. NO. They aren't going to do that. Unless you (not YOU...but just the generic "you") lie and tell them that you meant to use the hopper that day and their system did it wrong, no.

I took the time to explain something that I thought might benefit others - and it surely would have benefited me - only to see it dismissed as a "non-issue".

Doesn't it benefit you to be told what to do (go to GS and have them prioritize it) and that it's not going to be an issue? When many of us read panicked threads we want to cut to the chase quickly. No, this is a non issue. No, they don't "pend" tickets. Just quick and short and with an answer.

I'm 100% sure the previous poster didn't mean to dismiss it. I'm sure they were answering you to *help* you.

Knowing that they are apparently NOT smart about it - that he has to get it prioritized first - is obviously important to know. Because if he didn't know that (and why would he?) it will likely cause an issue eventually during the trip.

And they would fix it.

I do have to say, though, that I would expect someone who had a non-expiring ticket AND used it correctly in the past would be smarter than your average bear, and might understand that they would need to somehow tell the system HOW to use those tickets.

Because from what I've heard, one of the reasons they did away with those tickets was because sooooo many people had NO clue how to use them. So someone who used it correctly is automatically on the smart list.

I didn't log in to MDE again until today because there was no reason to. Imagine my shock and dismay when after logging in to link our new resort reservation I discover that while myself and one of my kids has a 8 day ticket as we should, my youngest has a 4 day ticket because her 8 day one was incorrectly used in January. I find it very strange that it only happened to her.

They'll fix it.

 

[ww52]

Understand I'm NOT criticizing Disney and certainly not criticizing the wonderful CMs throughout their system. I certainly know they will fix ANY problem.

All I'm saying - and what some people seem to understand - is that it CAN be an issue, especially if you make the reasonable assumption that the very intelligent system programmers staff figured out this when doing the whole MDE thing.

And if you DON'T know about that, then it certainly can be an issue when, with a large party, one or two members are denied admission because they didn't know to prioritize and now have to go to GS. Sure - "they'll fix it" but that takes some amount of time. As one poster said, it isn't fun. I'm sure it isn't, especially ona hot July day (when we will be there).

Knowing ahead of time will help us - but I'm sure not everyone does. And I found it out accidentally on another thread about my fast pass + issue 60 days out.

"I do have to say, though, that I would expect someone who had a non-expiring ticket AND used it correctly in the past would be smarter than your average bear, and might understand that they would need to somehow tell the system HOW to use those tickets."

Sorry - I don't get this at all. Our last trip - several years ago - two family members had to cut the trip short unexpectedly due to a family situation and Disney was kind enough to convert the unused days to "non-expiring". They weren't/aren't being "smart" or "not-smart". They have four days left and need one more day, and a single day park ticket works best. But now we have MDE and Magic bands - not physical tickets. That's a huge difference. I guess you're saying we have to be smart enough to realize Disney isn't smart in how it handles tickets prioritization. It's a manual process, period. And they'd be better off, in this case using physical tickets.

I love Disney - not putting them down. But it seems this is something they could have handled better. At the VERY least - they could add a message in MDE that says "I see one or more people have multiple media assigned - be aware if you intend to use more than one in a given trip, you'll have to go to GS to get them prioritized"

I GET it - Disney simply did not program it this way.

And I still don't know what, if anything, could have been done ahead of time to avoid the FP+ issue we encountered.

 

[anomamatt]

I love Disney - not putting them down. But it seems this is something they could have handled better. At the VERY least - they could add a message in MDE that says "I see one or more people have multiple media assigned - be aware if you intend to use more than one in a given trip, you'll have to go to GS to get them prioritized"

I GET it - Disney simply did not program it this way.

And I still don't know what, if anything, could have been done ahead of time to avoid the FP+ issue we encountered.

I'm not trying to be a smart alec, but in all honesty you are going to need to prepare yourself for MDE and how truly awful the system is (especially lately, as time goes on it seems to get worse and worse with each "magical enhancement"). I say this as someone who loves FP+ (and WDW) and I know how to use MDE very well by spending a ton of time using it. But the bottom line is that you should prepare yourself... MDE is just awful, constant glitching and things never work the way one would think they should. I was in the parks probably 30 days last year and we had 3 days where MDE didn't work (at all -- one of the days I resorted to screenshots to prove I had a FP+ and no one else was let into the queue without "proof"). That isn't guaranteed 10% downtime, but the point is that MDE is awful and unreliable.

I just wanted to point this out because you are expecting WDW to be on their game when it comes to MDE and they are nowhere close. If there is ANYTHING at all that you wonder about (like will it be smart enough to use the right ticket), the answer will almost always be "nope". This said, the CMs in guest services are great and will fix whatever goes wrong. And when you have multiple ticket types and legacy tickets, something WILL go wrong.

 

[ww52]

we had 3 days where MDE didn't work

OK - yet another thing to go wrong - but "they''ll fix it".

How? MDE is down, we try to use our fast passes; what do we do? We need to take screen shots of our FPs? How is that proof? We could have swapped then a few times since the screen shot.

 

[anomamatt]

OK - yet another thing to go wrong - but "they''ll fix it".

How? MDE is down, we try to use our fast passes; what do we do? We need to take screen shots of our FPs? How is that proof? We could have swapped then a few times since the screen shot.

These were individual days on separate trips. Two of the days when MDE was down, we could not see our plans, but could use them at the tapstiles. People who didn't know their plans didn't know where to go, but I always have printouts of my touring plans as a backup and we were fine (minus not being able to get additional FPs on those days). The 3rd day the tapstiles AND the tablets (and all of MDE) was down throughout all of Magic Kingdom for a few hours. They were not letting anyone into the queues without proof we had FPs. And yes, luckily I read on here about taking screenshots, so I did that before our trip and it saved us. No one else was even in the FP queues. If everything is functioning normally, they don't accept screenshots and I have no idea if it's official policy to accept them when the tapstiles stop working, but they did accept them as proof and let us ride via FP.

 

[kagmypts]

Just a heads up, just because you've gone to GS and asked them to prioritize, doesn't mean it was done correctly.

Snipped by me.

We had a similar situation. We still have non-expiring tickets in our account. However, before using those tickets, we thought it would be best to buy APs since we had five trips planned in one calendar year. My husband and I bought our APs at the same time and in the same transaction. We asked the CM to prioritize our APs. Mine worked just fine. However, we did not realize until four months later that my husband's non-expiring ticket has been decremented instead of his AP. We only found out when we were trying to book FPs for our next vacation. The system kept saying that my husband did not have enough entitlements to book his FP.

Disney (mostly) took care of the problem. They gave us back two "non-expiring" days. I put "non-expiring" in quotes because Disney had done away with the NE option between the time of using the ticket and us visiting GR. The best that they could do was give us tickets that expire in 2030. However, it took well over an hour to get the issue resolved... even with a copy of the email communication with GR prior to our arrival in Orlando.

To make matters more confusing, we both used our APs at each of the turnstiles to gain entrance. It was only after the fact that we learned that Disney does not decrement the physical card used for admittance to the park. The card merely acts as a link to MDE. It was a huge hassle, but ultimately, it was resolved.

OP, mistakes happen, but they will make it right. Just ask that your tickets are prioritized in the manner you intend to use them.

As for your FP question, FPs are tied to an account and not a particular ticket. You should be fine there.

ETA - My husband now has 6 tickets assigned to him - his AP, his original non-expiring ticket, 2 "non-expiring" days/tickets from the wrong ticket being prioritized, and 2 additional non-expiring tickets from a race being canceled. It's a hot mess.

 

[ww52]

kagmypts - you win for the "most complex situation that Disney got right"!

Luckily, our situation is really straightforward. Two people have a one-day / one park ticket we will use at Epcot late PM / Evening after we get in and settled. We'll be at the Dolphin so will enter at the very peaceful IG (where I assume GS is relatively empty as well). Once we tell them the one day is to be used first for them, and we enter, we should be able to instantly check that it was done right. The rest of the people have hoppers to cover the whole trip - and these two people have hoppers to cover the remaining days after that first one.

Thanks for your response!