Really Bizarre Ticket Snaffu!

[Hisgirl]

We just got back from a trip June 22-27. We took our 12 year old Grandson and got him a 4-day ticket via Undercover tourist. We then, later, added a one day ticket for him, bought from WDW, for a one day Magic Kingdom visit as we decided to visit MK on our arrival evening and get 3 rides out of the way.

We also added a resort night at Animal Kingdom on top of our 4-night stay so we got 2 magic bands in the mail.

We have annual passes but grandson had a 4 day magic your way ticket and 1 magic kingdom day ticket.

Friday, we went to MK. He used his band to enter and all was well.

Saturday, we went back to MK and he used his band and all was well.

Sunday, we went to Epcot, he used his band and all was well.

Monday, he went to Hollywood studios, used his band and all was well.

But...on Tuesday when he tried to enter Animal Kingdom, they stopped him and said he didn't have a ticket. Whaaat??

The CM said our 4 day pass was used to go to MK on Friday, MK on Saturday, Epcot on Sunday and Hollywood on Monday and the day he had left was reserved for a magic kingdom day only.

What the heck? How on earth did the algorithm come up with that?

Animal Kingdom resort desk said it didn't matter what band he used (he had 2) that his two tickets were loaded and ready to go.

The entrance CM was actually a bit rude to us as we questioned what had happened. So we went to Guest Relations and a wonderful woman told us we had done nothing wrong, she would fix it, which she did, and she gave us an additional fast pass...which we gave away to a passing family.

Our grandson turned to the CM as we left and said, "thank you so very much!!

What an odd thing to happen. I thought magic bands were tied to resort stays and tickets were loaded onto profiles and it wouldn't matter which band you used. Glad it worked out and glad guest relations was so kind!

 

[SouloTravlr]

We just got back from a trip June 22-27. We took our 12 year old Grandson and got him a 4-day ticket via Undercover tourist. We then, later, added a one day ticket for him, bought from WDW, for a one day Magic Kingdom visit as we decided to visit MK on our arrival evening and get 3 rides out of the way.

We also added a resort night at Animal Kingdom on top of our 4-night stay so we got 2 magic bands in the mail.

We have annual passes but grandson had a 4 day magic your way ticket and 1 magic kingdom day ticket.

Friday, we went to MK. He used his band to enter and all was well.

Saturday, we went back to MK and he used his band and all was well.

Sunday, we went to Epcot, he used his band and all was well.

Monday, he went to Hollywood studios, used his band and all was well.

But...on Tuesday when he tried to enter Animal Kingdom, they stopped him and said he didn't have a ticket. Whaaat??

The CM said our 4 day pass was used to go to MK on Friday, MK on Saturday, Epcot on Sunday and Hollywood on Monday and the day he had left was reserved for a magic kingdom day only.

What the heck? How on earth did the algorithm come up with that?

Animal Kingdom resort desk said it didn't matter what band he used (he had 2) that his two tickets were loaded and ready to go.

The entrance CM was actually a bit rude to us as we questioned what had happened. So we went to Guest Relations and a wonderful woman told us we had done nothing wrong, she would fix it, which she did, and she gave us an additional fast pass...which we gave away to a passing family.

Our grandson turned to the CM as we left and said, "thank you so very much!!

What an odd thing to happen. I thought magic bands were tied to resort stays and tickets were loaded onto profiles and it wouldn't matter which band you used. Glad it worked out and glad guest relations was so kind!

You needed to visit GS and prioritize the tickets. MDE doesn't do it automatically.

 

[Amanda999]

His 4 day ticket was prioritized ahead of the 1 day ticket. Has happened to us several times. I ALWAYS now ask - before entering first park, first day of every trip - for an "iPad' person at the touchstile, to check the priority of our tickets. Every time.

We once spent $2,800 or so on APs at Epcot GS outside park. Of course asked CM to prioritize the APs first (we own many no expire tickets and others). Walked over to the gate right after purchase, got in, fine. Next 3 days at parks fine. Then day 5 said my son had no admission left. The CM didn't put the APs on top priority - even though we had just bought them, asked him to, and he said of course I will. (I.e., our no expire tickets were used for 4 days, despite owning APs. My son only had 4 days on his no expire ticket.) Oh and same thing happened last August: brand new APs, asked at MK GS outside park if first priority, said yes, entered, but I wanted to confirm so asked iPad person. NOPE! She didn't do it for 2 of we 4. Again had to get comp tickets b/c can't undo use of our no expire tickets.

 

[Mome Rath]

Yes, you have to have Dis prioritize your tickets, and then check after entering that it actually worked. If it didn't work, go right to Guest Services. Sorry you had issues! This is becoming more of a problem, I hope they update MDE soon to let guests prioritize their own tickets.

 

[Corwin]

We just got back from a trip June 22-27. We took our 12 year old Grandson and got him a 4-day ticket via Undercover tourist. We then, later, added a one day ticket for him, bought from WDW, for a one day Magic Kingdom visit as we decided to visit MK on our arrival evening and get 3 rides out of the way.

...We have annual passes but grandson had a 4 day magic your way ticket and 1 magic kingdom day ticket.

Out of curiosity, why did you spend ~$137 for an additional 1-day MK ticket, when you could have just spent ~$15 to upgrade your grandson's 4-day MYW ticket to a 5-day MYW ticket?

 

[AngiTN]

His 4 day ticket was prioritized ahead of the 1 day ticket. Has happened to us several times. I ALWAYS now ask - before entering first park, first day of every trip - for an "iPad' person at the touchstile, to check the priority of our tickets. Every time.

We once spent $2,800 or so on APs at Epcot GS outside park. Of course asked CM to prioritize the APs first (we own many no expire tickets and others). Walked over to the gate right after purchase, got in, fine. Next 3 days at parks fine. Then day 5 said my son had no admission left. The CM didn't put the APs on top priority - even though we had just bought them, asked him to, and he said of course I will. (I.e., our no expire tickets were used for 4 days, despite owning APs. My son only had 4 days on his no expire ticket.) Oh and same thing happened last August: brand new APs, asked at MK GS outside park if first priority, said yes, entered, but I wanted to confirm so asked iPad person. NOPE! She didn't do it for 2 of we 4. Again had to get comp tickets b/c can't undo use of our no expire tickets.

We had an issue where tickets were used over an AP. When I went to get it fixed and commented that I can't believe it used a ticket instead of an AP (and I knew better, took full blame for not taking care of it myself, but I digress), can you believe I had the CM tell me, with a straight face, that there are times when a guest wouldn't want their AP to be priority over a ticket? I asked her, just when would that be? and that's when she stumbled and couldn't come up with one

 

[AngiTN]

Out of curiosity, why did you spend ~$137 for an additional 1-day MK ticket, when you could have just spent ~$15 to upgrade your grandson's 4-day MYW ticket to a 5-day MYW ticket?

I've been trying to figure that one out too but figured at this point, it probably didn't make a whole lot of difference. But I was still very curious

 

[Allison]

Actually this is not bizarre or unusual at all. His MDE profile had two tickets and therefore they needed to be prioritized regarding use.

 

[AngiTN]

Yeah, guests with multiple tickets on their accounts is not at all uncommon. I know many people who have several tickets. I'm beginning to think multiple tickets is the norm, single tickets is unusual.
But unfortunately, seeing how they've gone so long not letting guests prioritize for themselves I don't think they'll ever do it.

 

[Liljo22]

I've been trying to figure that one out too but figured at this point, it probably didn't make a whole lot of difference. But I was still very curious

I was wondering the same thing. Upgrading tickets is talked about so much on the board especially how to upgrade third party tickets.

 

[hiroMYhero]

I was wondering the same thing. Upgrading tickets is talked about so much on the board especially how to upgrade third party tickets.

I was wondering why the Guest Relations CM didn’t offer to just add on a one-day upgrade and advise the OP to save the 1-day MK ticket to use towards their future AP renewal. That would have saved the OP a lot of money.

 

[Liljo22]

I was wondering why the Guest Relations CM didn’t offer to just add on a one-day upgrade and advise the OP to save the 1-day MK ticket to use towards their future AP renewal. That would have saved the OP a lot of money.

Very true.

 

[Alesia]

It doesn't matter what band you use. The problem was that he had 2 seperate tickets linked to his account. Unless you have the tickets prioritized, it will use the first ticket up before it moves on to the next ticket.

In the future, make sure to upgrade the existing ticket rather than buying a new ticket. You spend more than $100 more than you needed to.

 

[bumbershoot]

Animal Kingdom resort desk said it didn't matter what band he used (he had 2) that his two tickets were loaded and ready to go.

Yep, it didn’t matter what band he used. The tickets were loaded on his account and ready to go.

As others have said, they just weren’t prioritized to match what you intended.

I thought magic bands were tied to resort stays

No, not really.

and it wouldn't matter which band you used

It doesn’t.

The band isn’t what caused the problem.



Angi, if someone had a bunch of trips planned out and this visit “today” was a one-off thing and maybe they had a leftover non-hopper, but their other trips were scheduled to all fall inside od an AP year and they wanted to hope for them, that could be a case where ticket was wanted over using but the AP.

It’s orobabit easier for them to fix “using a ticket instead of AP” than to fix the AP that was used too early.

 

[Hisgirl]

Out of curiosity, why did you spend ~$137 for an additional 1-day MK ticket, when you could have just spent ~$15 to upgrade your grandson's 4-day MYW ticket to a 5-day MYW ticket?

It was a last minute thing and I had purchased a 4 day e ticket with UT. We were hurrying around and I didn't know any other way to do it. Are you saying I could have taken my 4 UT ticket and upgraded it at a disney counter for a 5 day? Or are you saying I could contact UT and ask them to upgrade the ticket? I already had Fastpasses (to Flight of passage) and was afraid that even if UT could switch something around, I would have a different ticket number and we would lose our Fast passes. And...edited to add...in all the years of reading on here, I have only read how to upgrade from a UT ticket to an AP, but not just adding a day to a third party ticket. Please do tell.

 

[Mamabun]

Yes you could have upgraded the 4 day UT Ticket to a 5 day at guest services for about $15. We’ve used that option many times with UT tickets. You can upgrade to more days, add park hopper or upgrade to an AP. The only th8ng I’ve ever wanted to do was call and have Disney upgrade us ahead of time for making FP+. I think they will only change tickets bought directly through Disney over the phone.

 

[Alesia]

It was a last minute thing and I had purchased a 4 day e ticket with UT. We were hurrying around and I didn't know any other way to do it. Are you saying I could have taken my 4 UT ticket and upgraded it at a disney counter for a 5 day? Or are you saying I could contact UT and ask them to upgrade the ticket? I already had Fastpasses (to Flight of passage) and was afraid that even if UT could switch something around, I would have a different ticket number and we would lose our Fast passes. And...edited to add...in all the years of reading on here, I have only read how to upgrade from a UT ticket to an AP, but not just adding a day to a third party ticket. Please do tell.

You could have added a day to his ticket at any guest relations location or at your resort concierge for about $15.

 

[Disneylover99]

I was wondering why the Guest Relations CM didn’t offer to just add on a one-day upgrade and advise the OP to save the 1-day MK ticket to use towards their future AP renewal. That would have saved the OP a lot of money.

Are CM's typically trained to offer guests ways to save money? Curious.

 

[AngiTN]

Are CM's typically trained to offer guests ways to save money? Curious.

Yes, in my experience they have been

 

[AngiTN]

Angi, if someone had a bunch of trips planned out and this visit “today” was a one-off thing and maybe they had a leftover non-hopper, but their other trips were scheduled to all fall inside od an AP year and they wanted to hope for them, that could be a case where ticket was wanted over using but the AP.

It’s orobabit easier for them to fix “using a ticket instead of AP” than to fix the AP that was used too early.

Huh?