Tickets Blocked For Entering Two Parks In a Short Timeframe

[msteddom]

My friend and I were staying at the Grand Californian this weekend. The line to get into DCA from the Grand was super short so we decided to go through that way, even though Disneyland was our ultimate destination.

When we got to the Disneyland gates about ten minutes later, our passes were blocked, and had to be unblocked by a lead. He said we got flagged for entering two parks within a short amount of time. I guess they’re looking out for people that are handing their tickets off to other people. It took about 10 minutes to resolve. He also said he does not know the amount of time between entries that triggers the block.

I hadn’t heard of this before, so I thought I’d pass it on so other people don’t experience the minor hassle that I did.

 

[HydroGuy]

Interesting. Back in the day of only paper FPs, I did this all the time without issue. Must be a new thing.

 

[SeaDis]

That is alarming. We almost always take that route (and reverse route) throughout the day on breaks; but not in the morning. I've never been stopped or even had a second look. I've had a few "BONGs" when the scan tickets and always wondered if that was the reason. But again, they just wave us through.

You said you have "passes". Are they AP or Parkhopper tickets?

I have faith if they make a change like this and it leads to a lot of problems, they will correct it before long. But a 10 minute hassle would be pretty annoying. Especially after paying extra for Parkhopping!

 

[msteddom]

I have an AP. It was mentioned that this was a fairly new security measure.

 

[Indiana Scott]

We've run between parks just to get a FP in the past. Wonder when all this changed?

 

[theluckyrabbit]

My friend and I were staying at the Grand Californian this weekend. The line to get into DCA from the Grand was super short so we decided to go through that way, even though Disneyland was our ultimate destination.

When we got to the Disneyland gates about ten minutes later, our passes were blocked, and had to be unblocked by a lead. He said we got flagged for entering two parks within a short amount of time. I guess they’re looking out for people that are handing their tickets off to other people. It took about 10 minutes to resolve. He also said he does not know the amount of time between entries that triggers the block.

I hadn’t heard of this before, so I thought I’d pass it on so other people don’t experience the minor hassle that I did.

Read this recent thread (Can you cut through Mickey and Friends Garage to Tram?), especially posts #13-15 -- this has happened to others, too, but only took a few minutes to be resolved in those cases. Not sure why your case took so much longer.

 

[tarheelalum]

This sounds like it will become a major pain in the rear end if it is not stopped. To verify you are not giving the pass to someone else to use all they have to do is look at the picture that is associated with the pass. I hope the OP complains to guest services about this. Wasting 10 minutes of your time for them to figure it out is not acceptable. It should not be an issue at all.

 

[midnight star]

We've run between parks just to get a FP in the past. Wonder when all this changed?

Over the past few months, I've been hearing on Facebook groups that Disneyland is really cracking down on AP abuse. Started with the resellers. Now, I've consistently heard stories of people who will use their pass for a discount for a wife or husband, but if the debit/credit card doesn't match the name on the AP, your AP could get flagged (even though the passes have the same last name and under the same account). Same if you are eating in a group, the only way to get the AP discount is if the AP pays. You can't split it (I've had this happen, but thankfully all of us in the group had the same level AP so they were able to do it).

 

[theluckyrabbit]

This sounds like it will become a major pain in the rear end if it is not stopped. To verify you are not giving the pass to someone else to use all they have to do is look at the picture that is associated with the pass...

You'd think it would be that simple, but we've had posters here boasting (<insert major eyeroll>) about doing things like this with their twin or other very similar looking sibling/friend. It only takes so many bad apples to make life more difficult for the rest of us.

 

[tarheelalum]

You'd think it would be that simple, but we've had posters here boasting (<insert major eyeroll>) about doing things like this with their twin or other very similar looking sibling/friend. It only takes so many bad apples to make life more difficult for the rest of us.

I see your point but it still does not excuse Disney from doing this. They need to come up with a much better way catching people abusing their system without intruding on their paying guest's experience. Until they come up with a better way of regulating it they should discontinue their blanket approach of flagging everyone within a certain time frame and wasting their time. And if that means letting a few identical twins and look a likes through then so be it. Better that then what it sounds like they are doing now.

 

[theluckyrabbit]

... And if that means letting a few identical twins and look a likes through then so be it. Better that then what it sounds like they are doing now.

I'm guessing that there were far more than "a few" guests abusing the system for Disney to put these measures in place. Probably they are being overly strict now because of the imminent opening of SWGE. Better to let the abusers know ahead of time that they're being watched. But it does make things more difficult for others who aren't gaming the system. With MP now in full swing, I would think there really aren't as many people running quickly between the parks for FPs (certainly not as many as there were before MP) -- so the practice looks "suspicious" rather than normal now. The OP's experience of being delayed for so long seems to be a bit unusual. In the post which I linked above, other posters said they were only delayed by 2 minutes or so. And that it wasn't made out to be a big deal. Also, another poster said that the time it takes to get from the DTD monorail station to the DL front gates has been long enough to not set off an alert at the turnstiles. So 10 minutes between DCA and DL for the OP should have been long enough. Perhaps the rule has been adjusted recently. If this new rule really upsets you, send in a comment to Disney management explaining why you think it is unnecessary.

 

[Kender]

Ugh. I can't find the thread I swear was posted here, but someone brought this up here a few months ago (unless I'm going crazy). It seemed to be fairly new at the time and, as mentioned above, I've also been seeing a few people periodically report running into it.

The initial response I recall the person in that thread getting was that the CM at the gate had no idea why it happened. Another CM eventually gave the answer it was to "prevent fraud" (as mentioned here too). At that time, the window seemed to be around ten-fifteen minutes. Which seems shocking more aren't caught in this because I definitely have hopped in that little of a time frame.

It's definitely new within the last handful of months.

 

[theluckyrabbit]

Ugh. I can't find the thread I swear was posted here, but someone brought this up here a few months ago (unless I'm going crazy)...

Was it the thread I linked above in post #6? (The title has nothing to do with this, but the topic came up in posts #13-15.)

 

[midnight star]

Was it the thread I linked above in post #6? (The title has nothing to do with this, but the topic came up in posts #13-15.)

If that happened to me, I would be terrified! Glad everything for those people worked out...but hopefully Disney can figure out how to catch abuse and not hold up people in the lines.

 

[theluckyrabbit]

If that happened to me, I would be terrified! Glad everything for those people worked out...but hopefully Disney can figure out how to catch abuse and not hold up people in the lines.

I think for the time being, if you've just come from the other park and are going through the turnstiles, tell the CM before the alert goes off. I would just say as I hand over my pass, "Oh, by the way, I just entered DCA/DL a minute ago to get a FP (or whatever the reason), so just a heads up in case your screen goes off," or something like that. At least that way the CM will know that you aren't trying to be deceitful.
And for those who are gaming the system, I hope they get caught so the rest of us can go on with our Disney lives.

 

[msteddom]

If that happened to me, I would be terrified! Glad everything for those people worked out...but hopefully Disney can figure out how to catch abuse and not hold up people in the lines.

Neither the gate CM or the Lead ever gave us the impression that we had done anything wrong.

 

[Kender]

Was it the thread I linked above in post #6? (The title has nothing to do with this, but the topic came up in posts #13-15.)

Nope. Different one that was much older (I still had my pass at the time so it was prior to January 30). Was a whole thread about it.

 

[GoldeneyezCA]

The exact same thing happened to my family of four on Sunday evening. We were staying at the Grand, used the DCA entrance and headed to directly to DL for our dinner reservation at Carnation Cafe. All of us were blocked, and the cast member didn’t seem to know the reason, but her lead did - he asked if we’d just entered DCA. It held us up for about 2 min while we awaited the lead, and the the cast member had to manually correct something on her screen for each of us to enter. Fortunately, there were no lines at the DL gate at the time, or it would have been very time consuming.

 

[tarheelalum]

Neither the gate CM or the Lead ever gave us the impression that we had done anything wrong.

And you should not have been inconvenienced for one second. Please email Disneyland at
guest.services@disneyland.com and let them know to stop hassling their pass holders.

 

[lcp9]

With MP this isn't as big of a problem for us, but I would be super annoyed if this had gone on with paper FP (which lots of people still use.) One of the benefits of DL/DCA is that you can hop back and forth so quickly.