Price bridging to AP for the first time

[ninafeliz]

I've never had an AP before, so I always glossed over the price bridging info. This year we're going to get them for the first time, as we have 4 trips planned so it made sense to get 3 AP for me, my DH, and my DS5. I read through the entire tickets thread by cheshirefigment, but want to make sure I buy the correct tickets from undercover tourist and make sure I understand it correctly.

The thread said to buy the tickest with the greatest discount, as long as they aren't more expensive than the AP. The disney website says the AP is $634, so I assume it will be $672.04 with tax. On undercover tourist (through mousesavers) the ticket with the greatest discount is the 6 day park hopper with water park fun and more and no expiration, which says save $73 over the gate price and is $576.47. Is it ok to buy a ticket with WPFAM and No expiration, and then upgrade to a regular AP? This savings is considerably more than any of the base tickets, the greatest savings there is around $20.

So if I can buy that ticket, then my calculation is that I would owe $95.57 for each AP at the gate after using one day of the tickets at a theme park (I guess slightly more for my DS, if he has a kids ticket but they don't have kids pricing on APs). According to undercover tourist, I shoud be saving $219 on the three APs.

Did I do this correctly, and can I buy the original ticket with all of the extras and upgrade to an AP? Would that ticket be the best to buy, I assumed so since it had the hightest amt saved vs the gate price.

Thanks so much, this is all new to me after so many trips without APs!

 

[Robo]

can I buy the original ticket with all of the extras and upgrade to an AP?

Yes.

Use the UT once to enter one of the four main theme parks (do not use any of the "extras,") BEFORE you do the upgrade.

 

[hakepb]

Is your 1st trip only 6 park days? You will only be able to make 6 days worth of advanced FP+ Reservations if you have a 6 day ticket.

 

[Dan Murphy]

Yes, you have it correct. Just make sure to use the tickets for at least one park entry before upgrading and do not use any WPFAM.

 

[ninafeliz]

Thanks everyone for the quick help! I will use it for one day admission to the MK on out first day in Feb, then bridge it at the guest relations there outside the park. I certainly hope it works, because that day we were planning on going in to the parks mainly for kids haircuts and wouldn't normally use a ticket just for that and maybe a couple of rides.

I hope it works! I know I've read about a few nightmare stories over the years involving bridging and was so glad I didn't have to worry about it.

 

[Dan Murphy]

Inside or outside the park is fine, either work. Just know your numbers you have stated above and if they don't work out with the CM there, ask for a supervisor to help. I did this back in April, worked fine.

Enjoy your new AP's.

 

[hakepb]

Thanks everyone for the quick help! I will use it for one day admission to the MK on out first day in Feb, then bridge it at the guest relations there outside the park. I certainly hope it works, because that day we were planning on going in to the parks mainly for kids haircuts and wouldn't normally use a ticket just for that and maybe a couple of rides.

I hope it works! I know I've read about a few nightmare stories over the years involving bridging and was so glad I didn't have to worry about it.

Remember that price bridging is correct. Ask in advance what the upgrade price will be. If they give you a much higher price, ask about bridging. If you have a rogue CM that won't offer a bridged price, politely decline the upgrade and try GS at another park or DTD.

 

[ninafeliz]

Is your 1st trip only 6 park days? You will only be able to make 6 days worth of advanced FP+ Reservations if you have a 6 day ticket.

I thought you could only make 7 days worth of FP+ a month with an AP anyway? Is that correct?

We also have other tickets linked to our My Disney Experience accounts that are non expiring, so could we make FPs based on those ticket days as well? I was planning on doing that initially, as I haven't bought the UCT tickets yet and our 60 days is soon.

 

[Robo]

I thought you could only make 7 days worth of FP+ a month with an AP anyway?

1. Is that correct?

We also have other tickets linked to our My Disney Experience accounts that are non expiring,

2. so could we make FPs based on those ticket days as well?

I was planning on doing that initially, as I haven't bought the UCT tickets yet and our 60 days is soon.

1. That is only true if you do not have a WDW Resort stay booked.
If you DO have a WDW Resort stay, even with an AP, you can book FP+ for all of the days
of your stay.

2. That is correct.

 

[figment_jii]

I thought you could only make 7 days worth of FP+ a month with an AP anyway? Is that correct?

With an AP you can make 7-days worth of FP+ reservations, but the OP is starting with a 6-day ticket. With that ticket, they can only make reservations for 6-days.

To the OP, as noted by Robo, make sure you upgrade before you use any of the WPFAM, otherwise you have to upgrade to the Premium or Premier AP.

With regards to the upgrade, it shouldn't be too difficult a process. Just make sure you know about how much the upgrade cost should be and make sure you check with the CM that they are bridging the price. I upgrade UT tickets to an AP in October and it took a little bit of time, but it was a fairly smooth process.

 

[Good Morning Dewdrop]

Inside or outside the park is fine, either work. Just know your numbers you have stated above and if they don't work out with the CM there, ask for a supervisor to help. I did this back in April, worked fine.

Enjoy your new AP's.

I agree - but I recommend inside MK at guest relations - there are a bunch of CMs there and it wouldn't be hard to get a supervisor fairly quickly. If you do it in an outside ticket booth it seems like you only have the batch of folks who are out there then they'd have to call for a supervisor. We've done it at inside guest relations all 3 times with no problem. As several posters mentioned - go in there with your 'numbers' so you know what to expect and can easily recognize if you are given the wrong total.

 

[Robo]

I agree - but I recommend inside MK at guest relations -

Which, by the way, is "City Hall" at the head of Main Street USA.

 

[ninafeliz]

Thanks again everyone! Now I think I'm overthinking this, and I got myself a little confused about what I'll owe to upgrade. If I buy the 6 day PH/WPFAM/NE ticket for $576.47 from UCT and use it one day, then they assume it's worth current gate value, correct? I can't look up current gate value for that exact ticket at disneyworld.com, since they don't offer no expiration online anymore, but if it's $73 more than UCT according to what I should save on their site, that would make it $649.47. An AP would be $672.04. So does that mean I'll actualy only owe $22.57 to upgrade? My original $95.57 was assuming disney only credited me the $576.47 that I paid UCT, not the current gate value.

 

[ninafeliz]

Inside or outside the park is fine, either work. Just know your numbers you have stated above and if they don't work out with the CM there, ask for a supervisor to help. I did this back in April, worked fine.

Enjoy your new AP's.

I agree - but I recommend inside MK at guest relations - there are a bunch of CMs there and it wouldn't be hard to get a supervisor fairly quickly. If you do it in an outside ticket booth it seems like you only have the batch of folks who are out there then they'd have to call for a supervisor. We've done it at inside guest relations all 3 times with no problem. As several posters mentioned - go in there with your 'numbers' so you know what to expect and can easily recognize if you are given the wrong total.

Which, by the way, is "City Hall" at the head of Main Street USA.

Thanks, for some reason I completley forgot about doing it inside at City Hall, and only thought about the windows to the right as you enter the park where we've picked up will call MNSSHP tickets before. I will do it inside, it seems like it could be better and would be easier as well!

 

[figment_jii]

I glanced at ticket prices according to MouseSavers.com and the numbers look about right. As long as you use the tickets at least once to enter a park, you should get credit for the full gate value of the ticket (rather than the amount you paid). I only say "should" because Disney's policies about bridging could change at any moment, but that seems unlikely at this point because they've been offering bridging for years.
http://www.mousesavers.com/regular-walt-disney-world-ticket-prices/#baseticket

 

[Robo]

Thanks again everyone! Now I think I'm overthinking this, and I got myself a little confused about what I'll owe to upgrade. If I buy the 6 day PH/WPFAM/NE ticket for $576.47 from UCT and use it one day, then they assume it's worth current gate value, correct? I can't look up current gate value for that exact ticket at disneyworld.com, since they don't offer no expiration online anymore, but if it's $73 more than UCT according to what I should save on their site, that would make it $649.47. An AP would be $672.04. So does that mean I'll actualy only owe $22.57 to upgrade? My original $95.57 was assuming disney only credited me the $576.47 that I paid UCT, not the current gate value.

Disney does not know what YOU paid for the UT tickets.
Disney only knows what UT paid Disney for the tickets ("wholesale")
and, therefore, it would be a very BAD deal for guests to upgrade if Disney only gave
you the amount UT paid wholesale for the tickets. Very bad.

So... the Price Bridge will bring the numbers up to current Disney gate-price
for the purpose of the upgrade transaction.

 

[Dan Murphy]

Thanks again everyone! Now I think I'm overthinking this, and I got myself a little confused about what I'll owe to upgrade. If I buy the 6 day PH/WPFAM/NE ticket for $576.47 from UCT and use it one day, then they assume it's worth current gate value, correct? I can't look up current gate value for that exact ticket at disneyworld.com, since they don't offer no expiration online anymore, but if it's $73 more than UCT according to what I should save on their site, that would make it $649.47. An AP would be $672.04. So does that mean I'll actualy only owe $22.57 to upgrade? My original $95.57 was assuming disney only credited me the $576.47 that I paid UCT, not the current gate value.

http://allears.net/pl/ticketchart.htm#MYW8

http://allears.net/pl/ticketchart.htm#other

$25.56

 

[ninafeliz]

I glanced at ticket prices according to MouseSavers.com and the numbers look about right. As long as you use the tickets at least once to enter a park, you should get credit for the full gate value of the ticket (rather than the amount you paid). I only say "should" because Disney's policies about bridging could change at any moment, but that seems unlikely at this point because they've been offering bridging for years.
http://www.mousesavers.com/regular-walt-disney-world-ticket-prices/#baseticket

Disney does not know what YOU paid for the UT tickets.
Disney only knows what UT paid Disney for the tickets ("wholesale")
and, therefore, it would be a very BAD deal for guests to upgrade if Disney only gave
you the amount UT paid wholesale for the tickets. Very bad.

So... the Price Bridge will bring the numbers up to current Disney gate-price
for the purpose of the upgrade transaction.

http://allears.net/pl/ticketchart.htm#MYW8

http://allears.net/pl/ticketchart.htm#other

$25.56

Great, thanks! I guess I was off by a few dollars, I thought sales tax was 6% instead of 6.5%, but paying $25.56 to upgrade there sounds good. Much better than the $95, which if I had thought about it and done more math I would have realized wasn't much of a deal and definately not worth messing around over If we only saved a few dollars I wouldn't bother with all of this, but saving over $200 seems worth it. I guess I should actually order the UCT tickets before the price changes, it's going to be painful to have that on the same cc bill as Christmas!!

I appreciate all of you taking time to answer my questions, I know you have better things to be doing and I really appreciate it