Question About my AP Upgrade...

SOCALMouseMommy

DIS Veteran
Joined
Apr 5, 2017
Messages
5,538
I recently upgraded my AP to Signature. I'm planning on going tomorrow. Do I have to "do" anything to activate it or is it automatically activated? I plan to use the included parking at Mickey & Friends tomorrow, but it just occurred to me that I might have to do something special.
 
You're past your original expiration date for the lower tier pass you had before and the Sig is now your pass officially, yeah?

If so, then nothing you need to do. It should work automatically as a Sig now complete with parking :). Just hand the pass to the parking attendant. It is so easy to get spoiled with this perk...

If you leave and come back (or choose to switch lots), you'll just hand the parking pass they give you plus your pass to the attendant when you return. Just a heads up so you have your pass at the ready.
 
You're past your original expiration date for the lower tier pass you had before and the Sig is now your pass officially, yeah?

If so, then nothing you need to do. It should work automatically as a Sig now complete with parking :). Just hand the pass to the parking attendant. It is so easy to get spoiled with this perk...

If you leave and come back (or choose to switch lots), you'll just hand the parking pass they give you plus your pass to the attendant when you return. Just a heads up so you have your pass at the ready.

My old AP expired yesterday so it sounds like I'm good to go! Thanks setting my mind at ease. I've never gone in and out, but I might in the future. It's good to know that tip and it makes sense so they can keep people from abusing the parking privileges.
 
My old AP expired yesterday so it sounds like I'm good to go! Thanks setting my mind at ease. I've never gone in and out, but I might in the future. It's good to know that tip and it makes sense so they can keep people from abusing the parking privileges.

No worries :). Enjoy the new parking perk you have!

And yeah, a friend got shocked by that one day a few years ago and she's been a passholder a lot longer than me. Guess she just never left and came back before?

It does make sense, though. But definitely not something I thought of until it happened to my friend. And I'm all for making everything as efficient and easy as possible on the CMs.
 

Just one thing I noticed about upgrading is that sometimes the discounts don't update. I noticed at some stores I would get the higher discounts on food/merch but at other stores I wouldn't so at first watch that closely.
 
You can go online quickly to check your AP account to see what level is listed. The app should show this, too. Both should show your AP as Signature. If for some reason your old level is still showing, then I would give the AP hotline a quick call before you get to the parks to find out what's going on. Worse case scenario, if you end up paying for parking through a mix up, just save the parking receipt and ask Guest Services to refund the money later.
 
Just one thing I noticed about upgrading is that sometimes the discounts don't update. I noticed at some stores I would get the higher discounts on food/merch but at other stores I wouldn't so at first watch that closely.

This is good to know! I'll be sure to check.
 
You can go online quickly to check your AP account to see what level is listed. The app should show this, too. Both should show your AP as Signature. If for some reason your old level is still showing, then I would give the AP hotline a quick call before you get to the parks to find out what's going on. Worse case scenario, if you end up paying for parking through a mix up, just save the parking receipt and ask Guest Services to refund the money later.

It says Signature on the app so hopefully we're good to go!
 
Just one thing I noticed about upgrading is that sometimes the discounts don't update. I noticed at some stores I would get the higher discounts on food/merch but at other stores I wouldn't so at first watch that closely.

Actually, this reminds and I wanted to add on to this: definitely keep an eye on discounts.

I've never had below the 20% merch/15% food discount (always had a Premium or a Sig+) and I still keep an eye on it because there was one trip where (and this only happened at Pacific Wharf Cafe) my Sig+, my mom's, and my friend's Sig showed up with a 10% food discount instead of 15%. The manager CM on duty told me at first it was because "the card didn't register and they were doing me a favor putting in a random discount". Then the story changed to "it was a recent change to 15% from 10% and the system was slow".

Didn't appreciate the lie in the latter excuse. And the former I wondered why they didn't tell me there was an issue so I could get my card fixed if there was a problem.

I have not seen an issue like that in a couple years, but definitely watch you get the correct discount. It's just a quick glance at the receipt. Plus it's fun to see what it's being called that day, lol! I've had a few that were labeled a C33 related discount.
 
Actually, this reminds and I wanted to add on to this: definitely keep an eye on discounts.

I've never had below the 20% merch/15% food discount (always had a Premium or a Sig+) and I still keep an eye on it because there was one trip where (and this only happened at Pacific Wharf Cafe) my Sig+, my mom's, and my friend's Sig showed up with a 10% food discount instead of 15%. The manager CM on duty told me at first it was because "the card didn't register and they were doing me a favor putting in a random discount". Then the story changed to "it was a recent change to 15% from 10% and the system was slow".

Didn't appreciate the lie in the latter excuse. And the former I wondered why they didn't tell me there was an issue so I could get my card fixed if there was a problem.

I have not seen an issue like that in a couple years, but definitely watch you get the correct discount. It's just a quick glance at the receipt. Plus it's fun to see what it's being called that day, lol! I've had a few that were labeled a C33 related discount.

I was always told a different story as well. They acted liked like they were doing me a favor when they gave me the discount that came with the pass.
 
And yeah, a friend got shocked by that one day a few years ago and she's been a passholder a lot longer than me. Guess she just never left and came back before?
It's actually fairly recent that you have to show your pass along with your ticket to re-enter parking - I want to say it started last year? Maybe two years ago? I have a circle of acquaintances who used to "pass off" their parking passes to each other since one group routinely went in the morning with their kids and the other group routinely went after work.* The afternoon crew didn't have free parking, so they'd coordinate days in advance and it was a whole thing. Anyway, there was actually a published change to the procedure and they thought they had to stop re-using the passes and some of the afternoon APs didn't renew over it... so it was something that stood out to me when it changed, and I didn't really know this group of people until a couple of years ago.

* I'm not necessarily condoning this, although I'll admit that even as a serious rule-follower, it didn't really bother me... I think you can make a case that the parking pass entitles you to a "spot" for the day (or you could at that point)... I actually think you could still do it since in my experience, they don't re-scan the AP, you just show it to them? I'm not entirely sure what the point was for Disney in that case, but whatever. They're entitled to close whatever loopholes they want.
 
It's actually fairly recent that you have to show your pass along with your ticket to re-enter parking - I want to say it started last year? Maybe two years ago? I have a circle of acquaintances who used to "pass off" their parking passes to each other since one group routinely went in the morning with their kids and the other group routinely went after work.* The afternoon crew didn't have free parking, so they'd coordinate days in advance and it was a whole thing. Anyway, there was actually a published change to the procedure and they thought they had to stop re-using the passes and some of the afternoon APs didn't renew over it... so it was something that stood out to me when it changed, and I didn't really know this group of people until a couple of years ago.

* I'm not necessarily condoning this, although I'll admit that even as a serious rule-follower, it didn't really bother me... I think you can make a case that the parking pass entitles you to a "spot" for the day (or you could at that point)... I actually think you could still do it since in my experience, they don't re-scan the AP, you just show it to them? I'm not entirely sure what the point was for Disney in that case, but whatever. They're entitled to close whatever loopholes they want.

It was at least three years (almost) ago then that it changed because the event I mentioned that happened with my friend was Tink 2015 weekend.

They rescan my pass with it so it must be a YMMV? Since I was only relayed the story of "you need to show your pass" event my friend had nearly three years ago, I don't know if they rescanned her pass or not. I just know they always rescan mine when I go back in.
 
It's actually fairly recent that you have to show your pass along with your ticket to re-enter parking - I want to say it started last year? Maybe two years ago? I have a circle of acquaintances who used to "pass off" their parking passes to each other since one group routinely went in the morning with their kids and the other group routinely went after work.* The afternoon crew didn't have free parking, so they'd coordinate days in advance and it was a whole thing. Anyway, there was actually a published change to the procedure and they thought they had to stop re-using the passes and some of the afternoon APs didn't renew over it... so it was something that stood out to me when it changed, and I didn't really know this group of people until a couple of years ago.

* I'm not necessarily condoning this, although I'll admit that even as a serious rule-follower, it didn't really bother me... I think you can make a case that the parking pass entitles you to a "spot" for the day (or you could at that point)... I actually think you could still do it since in my experience, they don't re-scan the AP, you just show it to them? I'm not entirely sure what the point was for Disney in that case, but whatever. They're entitled to close whatever loopholes they want.

My experience has been that they do rescan it, to see the photo on their screen. That person has to be in the car. I only noticed because last time I did my mother in law pulled out her pass to use and he ducked his head so he could see her in he passenger seat after scanning it, plus looking at my parking receipt from the morning entry.
 
My experience has been that they do rescan it, to see the photo on their screen. That person has to be in the car. I only noticed because last time I did my mother in law pulled out her pass to use and he ducked his head so he could see her in he passenger seat after scanning it, plus looking at my parking receipt from the morning entry.
Good to know! I think I’ve only re-entered once or twice, and I don’t recall them rescanning mine, but I know CMs don’t all follow procedure exactly the same way... my 3-year-old used to be the one with parking on her pass, and sometimes they’d make a point to “look” for her (have me roll down the back window to see her, etc.) and sometimes they didn’t even glance at the picture when we entered.
 
It was at least three years (almost) ago then that it changed because the event I mentioned that happened with my friend was Tink 2015 weekend.

They rescan my pass with it so it must be a YMMV? Since I was only relayed the story of "you need to show your pass" event my friend had nearly three years ago, I don't know if they rescanned her pass or not. I just know they always rescan mine when I go back in.
Well, that's quite weird because it was a playdate/mommy meetup group that I joined in spring of 2016. They did two "Disney playdates" per month, and they coordinated the dates with this group of people who worked with the one mom's husband. It was this whole thing how she collected everyone's parking passes so she could give them to her husband, and then they couldn't do it anymore. Maybe they didn't enforce it at Toy Story yet? Or maybe they were arguing their way in because it wasn't in print? (That was the big issue, they published that you had to show your AP). No idea. It's not something that affects me; I was just originally trying to point out why your friend would have been surprised at having to show her pass. :confused3

Scanning the pass to verify that it's the right AP makes way more sense, though.
 
Well, that's quite weird because it was a playdate/mommy meetup group that I joined in spring of 2016. They did two "Disney playdates" per month, and they coordinated the dates with this group of people who worked with the one mom's husband. It was this whole thing how she collected everyone's parking passes so she could give them to her husband, and then they couldn't do it anymore. Maybe they didn't enforce it at Toy Story yet? Or maybe they were arguing their way in because it wasn't in print? (That was the big issue, they published that you had to show your AP). No idea. It's not something that affects me; I was just originally trying to point out why your friend would have been surprised at having to show her pass. :confused3

Scanning the pass to verify that it's the right AP makes way more sense, though.

Not doubting. We all know Disney does weird things with enforcement and different answers. With my friend, she actually didn't normally come back to the parks. It was a situation where I'd begged her to come stay with me since it was my first race morning and I wanted guidance from a veteran. Normally she'd just have changed on site and not moved her car. But since she was stating with me at a hotel nearby? No brainer.

Probably the last time she ever did leave and come back was when the Timon lot was still an accessible thing for general parking lol. She lives just far enough away now that it's crazy to go home and then back.

But this was a "started in M&F" (race mornings force us to park here) and a transfer to TS (after a clean up back at the hotel). Could easily have just been one of those situations where it depended on the CM and it wasn't until it was in writing that anyone really paid attention on all fronts. The crazy answers (I think I'm at 5 different explanations now? Most all from the same day) I've gotten recently about FP/MP protocol when a ride goes down certainly support this.

All very interesting. Appreciate hearing your experience! I mean, it's kind of sad to have it reinforced how different experiences were, but still interesting! And just more pieces of a puzzle :)
 


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