Sorry, Math is not my best subject! Help?

[bunkkinsmom]

Can someone please explain the best way to upgrade to an AP and why? How does it save money to upgrade on any particular day of your ticket?

TIA!!

 

[mickeymaker2003]

1. If you are doing a package through Disney, your ticket will be full price, so the next item won't apply to you.

2. Buy a new ticket from a discount reseller. Undercover Tourist is frequently recommended and if you sign up for the mousesavers.com newsletter they have a link to save you a little more. Choose the ticket that has the biggest dollar amount savings (doesn't matter which ticket it is). Note Undercover Tourist includes tax in their price and Disney does not when they display prices, so keep that in mind when deciding how much the discount is.

Then use the ticket to enter a major park (Epcot, Hollywood Studios, Magic Kingdom, or Animal Kingdom). After you have used the ticket to enter a park, then go to Guest Services and ask them to upgrade it to an annual pass. They should give you full gate price of your ticket and apply that towards the annual pass and you will pay the difference. If you upgrade before the ticket is used, you will only get the discounted price credited so make sure you use it first.

It doesn't save any money to upgrade on any particular day as long as the ticket has been used once. They will back-date the annual pass to the first date the ticket is used, so upgrading on the first day or last day won't matter. If you have used the ticket to go to Disney Quest or a water park, they will only let you upgrade to the Premium annual pass that includes those, so be aware of that.

 

[vicki_c]

If you have a ticket purchased directly from Disney before a price increase (Disney usually increases prices in August), you should also follow the "use it first" advice to make sure you get the most value applied to your upgrade.

 

[4forWDW]

I don't mean to hijack this thread, OP, but I want to make sure I do this correctly when we go (hopefully) next year.
3 of us will have one day remaining on our 3 tickets. These are from a trip in 2003. So to get the $82 (one day ticket price - adult) credit towards a 10 day ticket, we need to actually use the ticket first, then upgrade it to a 10 day ticket. Is that correct?
If we upgraded before we used it, would we only receive $5 credit - which is the difference between the 9 and 10 day tickets?
TIA
Amy

 

[vicki_c]

4forwdw - you cannot upgrade your partially used tickets from 2003, so none of the above applies to you.

Tickets may only be upgraded within 14 days of first use, whether they are expiring or non-expiring.

For tickets as old as yours (pre-Magic Your Way tickets), you can use up the remaining days as is, but that is all you can do.

From the Ticket Sticky on the Theme Parks board:
Almost all tickets issued prior to 2005 (other than Length of Stay, Bounce Back, or Annual Passes) had no expiration. This includes both the major park entries and the minor park plus options. One exception is the World Hopper; for this ticket all WPF&M entries expired seven days from first use, although the major park entries remained valid.

At the current time any prior passes are valid at all four of the major parks, even if one or more of the parks did not exist when the ticket was issued.

If a prior ticket, unused or partially used, was not on stock with a magnetic stripe, or the magnetic stripe was demagnetized, you can get the tickets replaced at no charge at any park (including water parks or TTC) ticket booth or Guest Relations Office. Note that this cannot be done at Resort Lobby Concierge locations as they do not have full access to the ticketing computer.

No pre-MYW ticket can be modified or upgraded in any manner.

If you have unused pre-MYW tickets you can use the original Disney selling price of one ticket as a credit to the purchase price of any current ticket with a selling price equal to or higher than the value of the old ticket. However, it probably will make more economic sense to use the ticket for entries. This will depend a lot on what the determined dollar value is.

Note that if the ticket was purchased from a discounter/broker the value given is what Disney sold the ticket for to the discounter/broker and not what you paid for it.

If you have a partially used pre-MYW ticket it cannot be upgraded, but the remaining entitlements can be used. If the ticket has become demagnetized, as long as the serial number string is readable a replacement ticket, with the same remaining entitlements, can be issued.

 

[4forWDW]

Thanks for the clarification!

 

[dis-happy]

I don't mean to hijack this thread, OP, but I want to make sure I do this correctly when we go (hopefully) next year.
3 of us will have one day remaining on our 3 tickets. These are from a trip in 2003. So to get the $82 (one day ticket price - adult) credit towards a 10 day ticket, we need to actually use the ticket first, then upgrade it to a 10 day ticket. Is that correct?
If we upgraded before we used it, would we only receive $5 credit - which is the difference between the 9 and 10 day tickets?
TIA
Amy

Wanted to add: don't use your remaining (none-upgradable) 1 day ticket this trip. Save it for another time when a 1 day admission would cost you a fortune. You can also use it at DL for a day's admission if you happen to be there sometime.

 

[4forWDW]

dis-happy - thanks for the info!
I'll definitely wait until I would use it just for 1 day.
My DB lives in So California and I would love to visit him and go to DL sometime.

 

[bunkkinsmom]

No worries 4! I'm sure I would get to that question at some point!!!

I am weighing my options on my upcoming trip.

* We normally do Y.E.S. tickets, and I know that those can't be upgraded, so if we wait until January 2012 to go and use Y.E.S. tickets, then it's a "moo" point (a cow's opinion, it doesn't matter! ) Sorry, random "Friends" reference.

* We are thinking that if WDW offers Free Dining in the first couple of weeks of December, then we will go that route and stay at Port Orleans (or, if we have good summer, The Boardwalk!) If we do that, we will consider upgrading to be able to take advantage of a possible **adults only** 3 day trip in the spring or fall, and then go again in the beginning of December 2012.

* If we do the Y.E.S. tickets, we always rent points so that we can still use the DDP, because with 3 kids under 10, it saves us $$! If we get a package, it will come with DDP anyway (unless they do the Mod=QSDP, in which case we will upgrade or stay Deluxe.)

Keep in mind that if we do Y.E.S. every year, that's actually cheaper to do 2 8-day tickets than to buy an annual pass, but we have never seen the Christmas Decorations, so that is the motivation!!

Thanks to all of you for your help!!!!

 

[Cheshire Figment]

You might want to look at the Everything About WDW Tickets locked sticky in the TPA&S Forum. Especially the items bolded in the list below.

Post and Contents

1. This Table of Contents
2. Magic Your Way (MYW) Ticket Basics Including Definitions
3. Annual Passes and Water Park Tickets
4. Tickets Available Only to Florida Residents
5. Tickets Not Available to the General Public
6. Upgrading MYW Tickets (Not to Annual Passes)
7. Upgrading Tickets to Annual Passes
8. Dealing With Tickets Issued Prior to 1 January 2005 (Pre-MYW)
9. Children and Adults
10. Special Events
11. Comprehensive MYW Ticket Example
12. Hotel Card (Key To The World (KTTW))
13. Lost Tickets
14. Finger Scans
15. Frequently Asked Ticket Questions.
15A. Hopping Rules
15B. WPF&M With No Expire
15C. No Expire Upgrades
15D. Upgrading an Unused Ticket
15E. Upgrading Special Tickets
15F. Checking on Old Tickets
15G. Renewing Annual Passes
15H. Upgrading a Completely Used Ticket
15I. Getting Park Tickets Before Package Start Date
15J. Upgrading After Departure

Page Two of the Sticky

16. Resident 4 Day Wild 4 Disney Pass
17. 2011/2012 Armed Forces Salute Tickets
18. Prices Effective August 5, 2010
19. "Free" Tickets and Special Promotions
20. Ticket Purchase/Upgrade Locations and Telephones
21. Florida Resident Installment Purchases of Annual Passes

To get there directly, follow the link in my signature.

 

[WeLuvTink!]

1. If you are doing a package through Disney, your ticket will be full price, so the next item won't apply to you.

2. Buy a new ticket from a discount reseller. Undercover Tourist is frequently recommended and if you sign up for the mousesavers.com newsletter they have a link to save you a little more. Choose the ticket that has the biggest dollar amount savings (doesn't matter which ticket it is). Note Undercover Tourist includes tax in their price and Disney does not when they display prices, so keep that in mind when deciding how much the discount is.

Then use the ticket to enter a major park (Epcot, Hollywood Studios, Magic Kingdom, or Animal Kingdom). After you have used the ticket to enter a park, then go to Guest Services and ask them to upgrade it to an annual pass. They should give you full gate price of your ticket and apply that towards the annual pass and you will pay the difference. If you upgrade before the ticket is used, you will only get the discounted price credited so make sure you use it first.

It doesn't save any money to upgrade on any particular day as long as the ticket has been used once. They will back-date the annual pass to the first date the ticket is used, so upgrading on the first day or last day won't matter. If you have used the ticket to go to Disney Quest or a water park, they will only let you upgrade to the Premium annual pass that includes those, so be aware of that.

MickeyMaker2003 is right on. Only thing to add is to make sure you figure out what the gate price of your ticket should be (not the discounted price you paid) and then calculate the difference to upgrade to an AP from that. Have your calculations in hand and make sure the Disney castmember quotes you the correct price. Others have reported some castmember confusion on what the cost to upgrade is and report not getting the full benefit of the above process. We did the above procedure in September 2010 and had NO PROBLEMS doing the upgrade and getting the correct price.