My experience with the Costco tickets

[StitchandPooh'sMom]

Just an FYI to check your tickets before you leave the window:

I bought tickets from Costco last July. As we all know, they don't sell them anymore. I called the ticketing number Phamton posted for me (thanks! ) the beginning of this year and was told the tickets would still be good and I could apply the value to an AP (I was advised to bring my receipt).

Fast forward to Saturday, July 24th:

We went to the ticketing window at the Studios. I upgraded to a preferred AP but was given credit for 79.99 instead of the 89.99 I had paid. Not a deal breaker, but not what I expected. I had brought my Costco receipt, but the ticket was in the Universal system at 79.99. No big deal.

Everyone else in my family got a 2-park, 3-month pass. Great! Except that when we went to the turnstiles, their tickets wouldn't work. The TM said the tickets were expired and I needed to go to guest services. I looked on the tickets that I had just been given (on July 24) and they expired on March 31, 2010! Why the ticketing TM had tickets that expired in March at his window is anyone's guess. So off we went to guest services, and after close to an hour in both lines, we were the proud owners of one preferred AP and three Power Passes that had been backdated so they would expire on October 24th. They worked, we were happy, all was good. They did offer us some express passes since we had trouble with the tickets, but we were staying at PBH and didn't need them.

The moral of the story: if you are in possession of the old Costco tickets, they will be honored, but check the back of the tickets before you leave the window to make sure your new tickets don't expire four months before you got them.

 

[phamton]

I looked on the tickets that I had just been given (on July 24) and they expired on March 31, 2010! Why the ticketing TM had tickets that expired in March at his window is anyone's guess.

When the passes are scanned into the computer, it prints off the expiration of those passes. It isn't that the TM printed the expiration. It is done automatically by the computer when it reads the passes. It sounds like the Cosco tickets you had purchased were supposed to expire on March 31st. The TM should have noticed that before giving you your passes though. But mistakes sometimes happen. I'm glad they fixed it but losing an hour I'm sure wasn't fun for you or your family.

 

[StitchandPooh'sMom]

When the passes are scanned into the computer, it prints off the expiration of those passes. It isn't that the TM printed the expiration. It is done automatically by the computer when it reads the passes. It sounds like the Cosco tickets you had purchased were supposed to expire on March 31st. The TM should have noticed that before giving you your passes though. But mistakes sometimes happen. I'm glad they fixed it but losing an hour I'm sure wasn't fun for you or your family.

That makes more sense. I thought the TM had tickets that expired March 31 at his window and activated them for us. The Costco tickets didn't have any expiration dates printed on them, but there might have been an expiration embedded in the bar code somehow.

Fortunately, we were staying onsite and had planned to visit the Studios that day since I knew we needed to exchange the Costco vouchers for tickets. It was no fun waiting in the heat for an hour (the kids and the husband were getting a bit impatient ), but we were still able to do everything. The Studios were dead that day, which was strange.

 

[MinnieGirl33]

So off we went to guest services, and after close to an hour in both lines, we were the proud owners of one preferred AP and three Power Passes that had been backdated so they would expire on October 24th. They worked, we were happy, all was good.

You were able to get Power Passes without being a FL resident?

 

[StitchandPooh'sMom]

You were able to get Power Passes without being a FL resident?

It was very strange. I paid to upgrade to a preferred AP. The rest of my family got Power Passes that were backdated 9 months (so they would expire in three months like the Costco tickets I bought). I guess it was the most comparable ticket media that they have currently. We didn't purchase power passes, and they are not good for 12 months like my AP is. They are good for three months.

We are not FL residents, and they did ask for our address and ID when they issued them.