Teen using his old kids Hopper Pass

[Trini]

We just made plans to bring our 14 year old nephew with us for a couple days of our trip. He has an old child hopper pass that he used when he was 8. (It has his name written in sharpy on it). Can he upgrade it? He has either 2 or 3 days left on it. It was a Hopper Plus ticket. They think there are 2 of the plus admissions left, too. I would hate to make them pay for a full new ticket if he can use that one in some way. Any ideas?

 

[jessica52877]

I believe he is still able to use it. They will upgrade it to an adult ticket at guest services for free. That is my understanding. I have never personally done this. I also think you have the option of getting money towards a new ticket if you wanted something else but from what I understand that isn't worth the money, you get what you paid pretty much minus the used days.

 

[seashoreCM]

Since he is well over nine he should exchange it at no charge for an adult ticket with the same remaining admissions. (If he were just a little over 9 it is recommended he use his child ticket as-is.)

No matter how old a person is and what kind of ticket he is using it is better to buy a new ticket for the entire vacation (of more than 3 days) rather than buy a new shorter ticket and use up the remains of the old ticket for theme park admission. Old and new ticket plusses (on water park fun and hopper plus tickets) may be used in any order.

Magic Your Way tickets used more than 14 days ago and pre-2005 hopper and hopper plus tickets cannot be upgraded to have more days.

 

[AmberLuvsWDW]

But be aware that the old days will never expire, where as the new ones will (unless you buy that option), so if you are going for more days than what he has left on his ticket, it might be worth it to but a new one and hold on to those other days.....I hope that makes sense.

 

[Trini]

So you are saying that he can use his old kids pass for free? Even though he is now 14? Will they give him a new pass or will he use it at the gate for each park? Wont the cast members look at him funny? Im sorry, I think I am confused.

 

[RoyalCanadian]

So you are saying that he can use his old kids pass for free? Even though he is now 14? Will they give him a new pass or will he use it at the gate for each park? Wont the cast members look at him funny? Im sorry, I think I am confused.

He isn't using it for free -- the price has already been paid. It does not cost anything extra. Reportedly, the CMs are quite accustomed to kids growing up and still using tickets purchased for them while they were still children. Others recommend getting an adult ticket, but apparently your nephew will be able to use his pass as-is without any modification to the ticket -- so long as it has the magnetic stripe.

 

[Seahunt]

I found this on allearsnet.com:

EXCHANGING OLD CHILDREN'S TICKETS

Many people find themselves in the situation of going to WDW with their young children and having unused days left on their tickets when they return home. These tickets are put away, often for many years, until another trip to Disney is planned. But what can you do with these tickets since your then child is now a teenager or even an adult and obviously can't use a child's ticket now?

What you have left will depend on how this transaction is handled. If you have a brand new, completely unused child's ticket that you bought years ago you will only be able to apply a dollar value equal to the price you paid for that ticket towards any new adult ticket that exceeds the price of the old one. This is your only option with an unused child ticket.

But if you have a partially used ticket, you may take that ticket along with your child who is now a teenager or older to a Guest Relations location at the major parks or DTD. If the Guest Relations CM is satisfied that the dates of the original ticket and the current age of your child make sense, you will have the leftover child's admissions exchanged for the identical adult admissions at no further charge to you. The "child" must be with you or you will be unable to do this.

Making sense of the dates means that if you bought and used the child ticket in 1994, then your child in 2004 must now fall in the 13-19 year old range. If you bought and used it in 1984, then the "child" must now be in the 23-29 year old range, etcetera etcetera. If they are not, then Disney reserves the right to offer you nothing more than the dollar value of the unused admissions towards a new adult ticket.

A note on this: if your child is now 11 or 12 years old, you can continue to use the old child's ticket as is and have no problem at the gate. The only time that you may run into a problem is when you have an older teen trying to use it. That is when you should exchange the child's ticket. Don't bother going to Guest Relations for an 11 or 12 year old, just use it as is.

 

[cleo]

When did Disney stop charging the 'difference' when upgrading a child's ticket to an adults? I suppose it could be possible but I would be wary in the extreme about assuming it's going to be upgraded for free.

That said, my experience in doing so was a number of years ago, but they definitely charged the difference between the two. In fact, they also charged the 'new' daily rate rather than the rate we paid the year we bought it, crediting only the amount of the value of the remaning days, using the daily rate we would have paid when the pass was purchased.

 

[GoldenOldie]

No policy change. It's not being upgraded, it's being exchanged. There's a big difference in Disney policy between the two terms. Remember that DisneySpeak is a language of its own and doesn't necessarily follow the King's English rules.

If the ticket was previously used while the person fell in the child category, they can now exchange the partially used child ticket for an adult ticket with exactly the same admission entitlements remaining that the child ticket had. There is no charge for this, never has been.

If the child ticket is an unused ticket, then it must be turned in for dollar credit towards a new adult ticket. You will get the price you paid for the old ticket subtracted from the gate price of the new ticket and will then pay the difference.

Now it is entirely possible that in the past a CM charged you for the difference on a previously used ticket or because you asked to have it upgraded. Things like that do happen. We all know that Guest Relations CMs don't always apply the same procedural methods as another GR CM does. But the CM was incorrect to have charged you and unfortunately you weren't aware of it.

 

[cleo]

We had a child's ticket (used by DS). When he became an 'adult' we had to pay the difference between a child's ticket and an adult's ticket and it was pro-rated daily to find the difference in price from the year we purchased it to the current daily admission. I remember it well because I was horrified.

Perhaps we got a CM who didn't know what the heck was going on. Imagine that! (Don't freak out on me...most CM's are exceptional. Sadly, some aren't.)

 

[GoldenOldie]

...Perhaps we got a CM who didn't know what the heck was going on. Imagine that!

The odds of that are very high. Consistency is not a hallmark of Disney, especially concerning ticketing issues.

Had I been in your situation and knew as you did that it wasn't right, I would have asked the CM to check with their supervisor. If that supervisor agreed with the CM, I would have had him stop the transaction, taken my old tickets back and gone to a different Guest Relations and had it done there. Unfortunately, the general public doesn't know enough to do this because they don't have the information. It's something that none of the WDW guidebooks covers.

 

[Trini]

It may be obvious, but.,....

Where is the Guest Relations person at the parks? If its inside the park how would I exchange his ticket? I mean, I would have to get him inside the park somehow.

Also
They think there are 2 days left on the old pass. He will be with us for 4 days total. Will they let me pay for the additional 2 adult days and add it into one pass? Or will I have to buy him a pass for the 2 extra days seperately?

 

[Simba's Mom]

So you are saying that he can use his old kids pass for free? Even though he is now 14? Will they give him a new pass or will he use it at the gate for each park? Wont the cast members look at him funny? Im sorry, I think I am confused.

I kind of expected funny looks, when DS used his child's pass from when we went in 1987. When we went in 2003, he was 20 yo. We just went to the front gate, no exchange. But if I remember, everyone didn't need finger scans in 2003, and he didn't want to use FP. I was surprised no one looked twice or said anything even though at 5'9", shaving, 20 yo, he definitely wasn't a child.

 

[Robo]

Where is the Guest Relations person at the parks? If its inside the park how would I exchange his ticket? I mean, I would have to get him inside the park somehow.

Guest Relations windows are outside the gates at all parks.

They are open well before the gates open every morning.

There are also 2 non-park Guest Relations offices: DTD and West Side.

If your "former child" needs two more days of tickets, you will have to buy a new 2-day adult ticket for the other two days admission.

 

[seashoreCM]

We had a child's ticket (used by DS). When he became an 'adult' we had to pay the difference between a child's ticket and an adult's ticket and it was pro-rated daily to find the difference in price from the year we purchased it to the current daily admission. I remember it well because I was horrified.

Perhaps we got a CM who didn't know what the heck was going on. Imagine that! : (Don't freak out on me...most CM's are exceptional. Sadly, some aren't.)

If all you did was get the ticket re-issued with the same remaining admissions and you still have the spent re-issued ticket and all receipts, please read this off topic comment between the lines:

If you buy a Mickey Ears headpiece and the cashier rung up you $20. (hypothetical price) and after you get home you discover the regular price was really $10. (hypothetical price) for that item as described on the receipt, does Disney owe you $10. back that you could claim on your next visit?

There exists exactly one correct price to charge for any given transaction. That is to say if three different CM's charge three different prices, then at least two of those CM's made mistakes. The same is true of taxes. Periodically surveys have been done where the same tax information was submitted to several tax preparers and many different tax liabilities have been computed.

They think there are 2 days left on the old pass. He will be with us for 4 days total. Will they let me pay for the additional 2 adult days and add it into one pass? Or will I have to buy him a pass for the 2 extra days seperately?

Only if the old pass was of 2005 or later vintage can its remaining 2 days be traded up towards a new 4 day pass giving you everything on one card. The exchange rate is terrible because among other things you must buy non-expiration on your new pass which is a waste if the new pass is completely consumed in one sitting. You can ask the dollar value of the old pass before choosing between free re-issue to adult admission versus trade up towards a new longer pass. Assuming you are dead set against buying more days for the future with non-expiration, you pay the regular rate (about $130. for a 2 day non-hopper) for a new pass on a different card and the value realized out of the old pass used separately (correctly no further dharges) is about $60. for day 3 and $10. for day 4 compared with a brand new 4 day adult pass.

Should the numbers quoted you not sound right, take back the old pass unchanged and seek a second opinion.

 

[GoldenOldie]

The two tickets (former child one being exchanged for adult) and a new purchase of two days cannot be combined onto a single ticket. You will get two tickets when doing that transaction.