The great AP debate - renew or buy MYW from a reseller & upgrade later?!

[Anal Annie]

OK, so we're changing our traditional travel patterns now that DS is in college. Our current AP's expire July 25th but DH and I are going for a quickie 4 nights for F&W on September 17th so we either need to renew our AP's before July 17th so we can make FP+ reservations at 60 days or we need to order new discounted MYW tix from a reseller (soon) and then upgrade to AP's in September when we go. (We have another family trip booked for January.) We don't know at this point if DS will be with us next summer or not (he's supposed to be doing a co-op so maybe only for a weekend).
Anyway, a good friend of mine here on the DIS (hello Denise! ) sent me a link to some tix place called Park Savers - they currently have a 7-day MYW tix with 3 "free" days so it's only $389 + tax. In the end (barring any more price increases b4 September) it should work out to the same price as the DVC renewals. The only thing this would get us would be less $$ to pay initially and it would change our expiration date from July to September (which would be nice if they continue to start F&W in mid-September).
I know lots of peeps do this w/o issues but we never have & I worry over doing it (as does DH).

So. WWYD?! How many DVC'ers buy MYW tix and upgrade later?! What do you think the odds are of another price increase in August?!

 

[Madame]

OK, so we're changing our traditional travel patterns now that DS is in college. Our current AP's expire July 25th but DH and I are going for a quickie 4 nights for F&W on September 17th so we either need to renew our AP's before July 17th so we can make FP+ reservations at 60 days or we need to order new discounted MYW tix from a reseller (soon) and then upgrade to AP's in September when we go. (We have another family trip booked for January.) We don't know at this point if DS will be with us next summer or not (he's supposed to be doing a co-op so maybe only for a weekend).
Anyway, a good friend of mine here on the DIS (hello Denise! ) sent me a link to some tix place called Park Savers - they currently have a 7-day MYW tix with 3 "free" days so it's only $389 + tax. In the end (barring any more price increases b4 September) it should work out to the same price as the DVC renewals. The only thing this would get us would be less $$ to pay initially and it would change our expiration date from July to September (which would be nice if they continue to start F&W in mid-September).
I know lots of peeps do this w/o issues but we never have & I worry over doing it (as does DH).

So. WWYD?! How many DVC'ers buy MYW tix and upgrade later?! What do you think the odds are of another price increase in August?!

I voted reseller. We bought the 7 day from Park Savers & linked it to MDE. I worry about this type of thing too. Just calculate the exact price difference before hand, check the back of your AP as soon as you get it to male sure the dates are correct & I think it'll be ok. We'll upgrade to a Gold AP at Guest Services (why tempt fate with the ticket window) in Jan 2018

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

We've done the upgrade route for several APs. Just know ahead of time what the difference is between the gate price of the tickets and the AP price. Then if the CM forgets to bridge the price you'll know immediately.

 

[Anal Annie]

We've done the upgrade route for several APs. Just know ahead of time what the difference is between the gate price of the tickets and the AP price. Then if the CM forgets to bridge the price you'll know immediately.

Did you vote in the poll? Right now renew thru DVC is winning.

 

[cvjw]

I no longer do the "buy thru a reseller and upgrade" scenario. The last two times trying to do this has been a nightmare. Multiple cm's, supervisors, getting the tickets back and going to a different guest service location. Only to be told that Disney no longer price bridges. Or you only get credit for what the reseller paid Disney. Or my favorite- Disney will only allow tickets purchased in the last two months to be upgraded. Just not worth it to me anymore. I know you can save a few bucks. But my time and sanity is worth something too.

This has happened the past two years trying to upgrade tickets purchased thru undercover tourist to DVC annual passes. Now we just renew thru member services

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

Did you vote in the poll? Right now renew thru DVC is winning.

No, I didn't! I will now.

I'll just add a bit. For various reasons I've never upgraded more than one ticket at a time. Either just DH or mine at one time or back when my mother was with us just hers. I've done them at all GS locations outside of the parks except DHS. And years ago did it at DS although I wouldn't bother making a trip over there again, it's just been easier at one of the park locations. On my last AP I upgraded a year ago May at MK from a UCT ticket purchased a few years ago and then in Feb I upgraded that pass to the new Gold AP to have the Photopass. And the previous May we upgraded DHs UCT ticket to an AP at the AK GS. So, since I've never upgraded us at the same time I guess we've kind of done double the number of upgrades I was thinking of.

And we've used older UCT tickets for friends and family and then upgraded either for hoppers or days. So even more upgrades! Lol

 

[clayfolks]

We have done it several times through UCT and most recently did it a year ago May through Expedia because they had an even better deal. We are currently in the same position as the OP. We purchased 2 4 day +3 free day hopper tickets through Expedia again. Our cost was $839. Once the price is bridged on those tickets, we will end up saving about $95. We have found it necessary to know what we should be paying so that any mistakes are caught at the time of upgrade.

 

[supersnoop]

The renewal discount is greater than anything you'd get through a reseller. Will you make use of the extra two months?

 

[NoodlesMom]

I did this just yesterday. I bought all four of our tickets through park savers. We used one day (even though we were told we didn't have to) and upgraded at the guest relations desk at Hollywood studios. Easy peasy. It took about 5-10 minutes for them to get everything switched over and give us our AP cards (for discounts). I think it would be worth it for you to get two F&W trips out of it.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

The renewal discount is greater than anything you'd get through a reseller. Will you make use of the extra two months?

Looks like the additional cost would be approx $10.32/ticket. For gaining 2 months and getting on a different schedule that they are more likely to follow that's a good deal IMO.

 

[Anal Annie]

I think the cost is a wash....unless they increase tix prices again. The poll is currently tied....still undecided....ugggg.

 

[bumbershoot]

I no longer do the "buy thru a reseller and upgrade" scenario. The last two times trying to do this has been a nightmare. Multiple cm's, supervisors, getting the tickets back and going to a different guest service location. Only to be told that Disney no longer price bridges. Or you only get credit for what the reseller paid Disney. Or my favorite- Disney will only allow tickets purchased in the last two months to be upgraded. Just not worth it to me anymore. I know you can save a few bucks. But my time and sanity is worth something too.

This has happened the past two years trying to upgrade tickets purchased thru undercover tourist to DVC annual passes. Now we just renew thru member services

Such a bummer.

The poster ravenclawtrekkie seems to be our new Cheshire_Figment when it comes to ticketing, and she says that things like that don't, or shouldn't happen. (she also says that at least since she was trained, over a year ago, there has been no need to use a ticket before upgrading....that bridging should happen no matter what)

Goes to show that no matter what is in the cmoputer, you can't ever get all CMs to learn it.

 

[Duffjk]

You can do both if you are in your renewal window. I did this over spring break. Bought the best savings tickets through park savers I think it was 7 day hoppers at the time and calculated my cost using them for a renewal took 20 minutes at guest services and I got my renewal discount and the price bridge to gate price. The first price quote she gave me wasn't correct so I pulled up pictures of gate price for my tickets and the price to renew my AP's and asked if she remembered to price bridge to hate value and she smiled and fixed it. Easy and save us about $320.

 

[Anal Annie]

I no longer do the "buy thru a reseller and upgrade" scenario. The last two times trying to do this has been a nightmare. Multiple cm's, supervisors, getting the tickets back and going to a different guest service location. Only to be told that Disney no longer price bridges. Or you only get credit for what the reseller paid Disney. Or my favorite- Disney will only allow tickets purchased in the last two months to be upgraded. Just not worth it to me anymore. I know you can save a few bucks. But my time and sanity is worth something too.

This has happened the past two years trying to upgrade tickets purchased thru undercover tourist to DVC annual passes. Now we just renew thru member services

This is what I'm afraid would happen to me then DH would be ticked. And I'm afraid I wouldn't have "the right backup" to get it fixed.

 

[edk35]

We have upgraded a few time using UT and never had an issue and they were always price bridged. I bought Park Savers last night and plan to upgrade them in Oct. when we go.

 

[Lsdolphin]

For those purchasing the special deal through Parksavers 7-day park hopper tix for the price of 5 days be aware that these tix have an expiration date of 12/18!

 

[keishashadow]

Such a bummer.

The poster ravenclawtrekkie seems to be our new Cheshire_Figment when it comes to ticketing, and she says that things like that don't, or shouldn't happen. (she also says that at least since she was trained, over a year ago, there has been no need to use a ticket before upgrading....that bridging should happen no matter what)

Goes to show that no matter what is in the cmoputer, you can't ever get all CMs to learn it.

I've always had that faint 'what if' in the back of my head when bridging a ticket...

Disney will probably never eliminate it as it's rather entrenched

&

Although it varies, the increases in MYW tix prices and APs has been in same ballpark (although last year's Oct seemed out of norm IMO)

But, what if? Lol

OP - we have often done #2 version in your poll, but this time around went ahead & just bought new AP vouchers. I used CC for rewards/grocery store GC for double fuel perks and am happy enough.

However, first I've heard of that company - Park Savers. Need an extra day for family in August, had used old MYW tix I keep in MDE expressly to make FPs but would like to retain them. Do you need a special link for these tickets?

 

[jekjones1558]

For those purchasing the special deal through Parksavers 7-day park hopper tix for the price of 5 days be aware that these tix have an expiration date of 12/18!

It has been reported that, although that expiration is listed, it does not apply.

I've always had that faint 'what if' in the back of my head when bridging a ticket...

Disney will probably never eliminate it as it's rather entrenched

&

Although it varies, the increases in MYW tix prices and APs has been in same ballpark (although last year's Oct seemed out of norm IMO)

But, what if? Lol

OP - we have often done #2 version in your poll, but this time around went ahead & just bought new AP vouchers. I used CC for rewards/grocery store GC for double fuel perks and am happy enough.

However, first I've heard of that company - Park Savers. Need an extra day for family in August, had used old MYW tix I keep in MDE expressly to make FPs but would like to retain them. Do you need a special link for these tickets?

No special link needed. I just bought a couple of the 7 day and will upgrade to Gold AP in October. https://parksavers.com

 

[Anal Annie]

Since I read on here last night that they had restocked them I went ahead & ordered 3 of them. I'm a little nervous about it but I wouldn't be Anal Annie if I wasn't would I?!

Our current AP's expire July 25th but I needed to do SOMETHING this week one way or the other so that I can have access to book FP+ by the 17th for when DH & I go to F&W in Sept. (I am NOT waiting in line for hours upon hours for Frozen - it's FP+ or it's a no-go!) This will now allow us to have Sept. renewals should Disney continue to start F&W early enough in Sept. (of course now they could push it back again and the 17th won't be early enough so in that case our July renewal would have been better). Probably no real way to win on that one as the 17th is already on the F&W cusp. The big advantage for us with these is that we have a 6 n / 7 d family trip again in January so DS can use this then - and we can decide by then if we want to upgrade him to an AP at that time (not sure if he'll be able to join us next summer or not). It will also allow us to plan our summer vacation next summer ANYTIME and we won't be tied to having to finish before July 25th. Of course I'm second guessing the decision. Probably should have just renewed the 2 of us and bought one of these for DS.

 

[keishashadow]

Ok found the website.

Notice the tickets expire December

It has been reported that, although that expiration is listed, it does not apply.


No special link needed. I just bought a couple of the 7 day and will upgrade to Gold AP in October. https://parksavers.com

Yes, just caught the expiry date of 12/31/18. You would fall within that if you upgrade in October.

Wondering though if you would not use until closer to expiry date on tix, say 10/18. Would they still bridge them to an AP?

Just hope these aren't 'special' group tix like the USSSA ones that can't be upgraded.

Have there been confirmed reports posted on DIS as to ability to upgrade them?