Understanding Annual Passes

[stratus]

I did a couple of searches but I didn't really get what I was hoping for. There were pieces of info in various threads but I was hoping to pull the info together in one place

Answers below... I will try to summarize the questions and Answers in this thread

Question: Does the year of an Annual Pass start the day you buy it or the day you first use it?
Answer: If you buy it online, it starts the day you activate it at a ticket window or Guest Relations, even if you don't use it that day.

If you buy it in person at a ticket window or Guest Relations, it starts immediately, even if you don't use it that day.

Question: If buying a voucher for an Annual Pass when do I have to activate it by?
Answer: Activation can be done any time in the next 13-15 years depending on Disney Policy

Question: After activation, how long is the Annual Pass Valid until
Answer: If you activate your Annual Pass on April 17, 2016 then your Annual Pass will be useable on April 17, 2017 but not AFTER that date

Question: Are there any restrictions to the FastPass+ system when using Annual Passes?
Answer: Yes, there have been reports that Annual Pass holders are not being permitted to book FP+ reservations for more than the first 7 days of their planned trip. It has also been reported that further FP+ bookings were not allowed until after the first day's Fast Passes have been used

Question: Why do people buy regular tickets and then upgrade to the Annual Pass later? Does this save them money?
Answer: In some cases it can. If you get a good deal on park tickets, you can upgrade them to an Annual Pass up until the last day the tickets can be used. So if you bought a 7 day park hopper for $390 from places like parksavers.com, undercover tourist (or similar site) and the price from Disney was $470, Disney Cast Members at the Guest Services may bridge your ticket, if a CM does not know how to do this ask to speak to a supervisor or more experienced CM. This policy can change at Disney's discretion so it may not be available in the future. What this means is that they will assume your tickets are worth the full price of $470 and subtract this from the full cost of an Annual Pass. If an Annual Pass costs $800, you would need to pay Disney: $800 - $470 = $330. Therefore the total cost of your Annual Pass would be $330 + $390 = $720

Question: Can I eek more days out of an Annual Pass if I wait until the last day of my trip before upgrading?
Answer: No. The Annual Pass has the same activation date as your original tickets.

Question: Does the Annual Pass upgrade strategy work for Military Discounts?
Answer: No, in general the military discounts are special deals and will not be upgraded to Annual Passes

Question: What are the time frames for Annual Pass Renewals
Answer: The renewal window opens 60 days prior to your current passes expiration date and extends through 30 days after.

Question: I will be staying onsite and have MDE, will the voucher be linked to my resort reservation and MDE?
Answer: Your voucher is linked to MDE when you buy it. You can book FP, AP resort discounts, etc from the time you purchase the AP.

Question: Will I get a magic band or will I have to use the annual pass card to get into the parks and the magic band to get into my room?
Answer: You will get a magic band with your resort package. Everything will link through the band including the Annual Pass Voucher (once it is activated)

Question: Will liking my Annual pass and the MDE together cause my Annual Pass to be activated?
Answer: No. Annual passes only become active when done through Guest Services

Question: What is the easiest way to upgrade from discounted tickets to an AP
Answer: Unused tickets seem to be easier for CMs to process and bridge

Question: If I get an annual pass at Disneyworld will I will be able to use it at Disneyland? Can I get a ticket that will work at both parks?
Answer: Yes if you buy the Premier Passport it is used for both California and Florida. However it is quite a bit more expensive

My original questions:

1) After you buy an Annual Pass (AP), how long is valid before you have to activate it?

Example: Assume I am planning a trip for Dec 2017, when is the earliest I can buy an AP so that it starts on the first day of the trip

2) I have heard of people talking about upgrading to an AP after a few days into their trip. What is the advantage to this? Is it a big cost savings overall? I cant quite wrap my head around why you would buy tickets, use part of them and then convert them to AP

3) Regarding the amount of time after buying an AP. If you activated an AP for use June 10th 2016, do you have to make your next vacation before the June 10 2017, or can your next visit start June 10 2017?

 

[Vylette Rose]

I did a couple of searches but I didn't really get what I was hoping for. There were pieces of info in various threads but I was hoping to pull the info together in one place

My questions:

1) After you buy an Annual Pass (AP), how long is valid before you have to activate it?
You have years to activate it, somewhere in the 15 years range.

Example: Assume I am planning a trip for Dec 2017, when is the earliest I can buy an AP so that it starts on the first day of the trip
You can buy it now.

2) I have heard of people talking about upgrading to an AP after a few days into their trip. What is the advantage to this? Is it a big cost savings overall? I cant quite wrap my head around why you would buy tickets, use part of them and then convert them to AP
Never understood this myself, so I will let someone else answer.

3) Regarding the amount of time after buying an AP. If you activated an AP for use June 10th 2016, do you have to make your next vacation before the June 10 2017, or can your next visit start June 10 2017?
The AP is good for one year (actually 366 days) from date of activation. So if you activated it on June 10 2016, they are useable though the end of day June 10 2017.

Thanks in advance

 

[mrsR123]

I
2) I have heard of people talking about upgrading to an AP after a few days into their trip. What is the advantage to this? Is it a big cost savings overall? I cant quite wrap my head around why you would buy tickets, use part of them and then convert them to AP

Thanks in advance

Some people buy a discounted multi-day pass in order to save some money. They then use the ticket at least once before upgrading to the AP. They maintain the savings on the original pass but then get to have an AP.

 

[5onadime]

Is the ap activated with first use? Or when you physically take possession of it?

 

[MaryLovesPoohBear]

Is the ap activated with first use? Or when you physically take possession of it?

It depends on what you mean by "take possession."

I took possession of my certificate a few months ago. I won't activate my pass until I go to Disney. And at that time, when I actually go to Disney and activate it, that is when the countdown starts.

 

[loves to dive]

Is the ap activated with first use? Or when you physically take possession of it?

You have to physically go to either GS or a ticket window to activate it, your clock starts to tick from that moment, doesn't matter if you go into a park or not.

 

[5onadime]

I was planning on picking up our annual pass on the 29th to use first thing on the 30th. So it would be "done" a year later on the 29th? How early can you pick it up in the morning if I wait till the 30th?

 

[Floridaglen]

Be aware of the FP+ ruling with AP's. Our daughter bought an AP thinking she would be able to pre book all her FP+ at 30 days out (she was staying in Orlando for 21 days). After making her first 7 days of FP+ she was unable to make anymore until she had actually used her first days passes. So for the remaining 14 days of her vacation she could only make them 7 days in advance.

 

[china mom]

I'll take question #3. There are several reasons. One has already been mentioned. Also, if you want to take advantage of a promotion like free dining, you have to buy a package. That would require at least a two day ticket but NOT an AP.

Another reason could be because you are initially not sure what your plans are. I took my 83 year old mother on test run and when it turned out she liked WDW, I upgraded her to an AP.

 

[hakepb]

Is the ap activated with first use? Or when you physically take possession of it?

In the days before MDE and FP+ ... You could only buy an AP in person at WDW. At purchase, the AP's life began.

Anything you bought online or over the phone was just an AP voucher. Ticketing /Will Call could then exchange that voucher for the actual AP and start the AP's life.

Now ... The AP voucher can be added to your MDE account to make FP+
(I believe) You still need to activate the AP as all adult AP's need to be tied to an actual human with a government-issued photo ID...and the AP starts when activated.

Now, you may not get a physical AP. You should get a physical AP discount card...but theme park entry is tied to your MDE account and your old Magic Band(s) or ticket card now unlocks the AP theme park entry.

AP holders do get the option of ordering an additional Magic Band, but those are mailed later.

 

[stratus]

Some people buy a discounted multi-day pass in order to save some money. They then use the ticket at least once before upgrading to the AP. They maintain the savings on the original pass but then get to have an AP.

This still doesn't make a lot of sense to me. So assume your cost for an AP is $800. You then go and get a discounted ticket package say 4 days for $250. If you use the ticket for a day or 2, such that there is half the value gone, your AP is $800 - $125 = $675. I still can't wrap my brain around how this works out to be cheaper then just buying the AP for $800 because total cost for tickets + upgrade would be $250 + $675 = $925... how does that math add up?

 

[china mom]

#3: your last day of park entry would be June 11the following year.. The AP is good for 366 days.

If your trip started on June 10, you would have to renew your AP or buy new tickets to get in after June 11 the next year

 

[hakepb]

This still doesn't make a lot of sense to me. So assume your cost for an AP is $800. You then go and get a discounted ticket package say 4 days for $250. If you use the ticket for a day or 2, such that there is half the value gone, your AP is $800 - $125 = $675. I still can't wrap my brain around how this works out to be cheaper then just buying the AP for $800 because total cost for tickets + upgrade would be $250 + $675 = $925... how does that math add up?

When you upgrade to an AP with a used ticket, the CM should "bridge" the price of the discounted MYW to full gate price before upgrading.
If you bought 4 discounted days for $250, but the gate price was $270, WDW will give you a $270 credit from those MYW tickets, even though you already used 2 days.

On average, the upgrade only saves $20-$30/ AP
It's not life changing, but helps pay for another meal or souviner. Plus it spreads out payments (but MWY months before trip, and upgrade at trip start)

 

[stratus]

When you upgrade to an AP with a used ticket, the CM should "bridge" the price of the discounted MYW to full gate price before upgrading.
If you bought 4 discounted days for $250, but the gate price was $270, WDW will give you a $270 credit from those MYW tickets, even though you already used 2 days.

On average, the upgrade only saves $20-$30/ AP
It's not life changing, but helps pay for another meal or souviner. Plus it spreads out payments (but MWY months before trip, and upgrade at trip start)

So what you are saying is that it works out less about how many days are left but how much the full cost was. So if the AP was $800 and the full 4 days was $250 and the CM bridged the cost, your actual out of pocket = $800 - (retail cost - cost of discounted ticket). Regardless of how many days you end up using on the tickets

 

[Dave006]

This still doesn't make a lot of sense to me. So assume your cost for an AP is $800. You then go and get a discounted ticket package say 4 days for $250. If you use the ticket for a day or 2, such that there is half the value gone, your AP is $800 - $125 = $675. I still can't wrap my brain around how this works out to be cheaper then just buying the AP for $800 because total cost for tickets + upgrade would be $250 + $675 = $925... how does that math add up?

You are only counting half of the discounted ticket package. The full value is applicable after the initial use of the ticket so you would get more then the $250 value of the discounted ticket. So buy the discounted tickets for your planning and then after the first use, you can upgrade to an AP.

Disney really wants your money so there is no penalty to having used part of your discounted ticket package.

Dave

 

[wishicouldgomoreofte]

No one knows how long Disney will keep bridging, but it is a money saver when you buy from a Disney authorized ticket seller. I buy from Undercover Tourist. I bought a 5 day park hopper for $367.00 before prices went up, so that price is no longer available. WDW cost for same ticket is $435.59, so I saved $68.59. If I want to upgrade to a 7 day park hopper, I pay $31.95 extra, for a total of $398.95. WDW charges $467.54 for the 7 day park hopper, so I still save $68.59. If I want to upgrade to an AP, WDW (currently, no one knows how soon WDW will stop bridging) gives me $435.59 credit toward the cost of a new AP. So I still save $68.59.

http://www.disboards.com/threads/everything-about-wdw-tickets.1452684/
This is an old thread, but the advice is good and true. Cheshire Figment used to work in ticketing or guest relations, and explained all of this to us. He has gone to be with God, and is sorely missed.

 

[Dave006]

So what you are saying is that it works out less about how many days are left but how much the full cost was. So if the AP was $800 and the full 4 days was $250 and the CM bridged the cost, your actual out of pocket = $800 - (retail cost - cost of discounted ticket). Regardless of how many days you end up using on the tickets

Correct as long as you have not completely used your discount ticket, you can upgrade at any time to the AP.

Dave

 

[hakepb]

So what you are saying is that it works out less about how many days are left but how much the full cost was. So if the AP was $800 and the full 4 days was $250 and the CM bridged the cost, your actual out of pocket = $800 - (retail cost - cost of discounted ticket). Regardless of how many days you end up using on the tickets

The upgrade cost in this fictional example would be $800-$270 (current retail price) = $530

But you paid $530+$250= $780 for the AP

 

[stratus]

thanks for clearing that up!

These forums are fantastic!

 

[DVC4US]

Be aware of the FP+ ruling with AP's. Our daughter bought an AP thinking she would be able to pre book all her FP+ at 30 days out (she was staying in Orlando for 21 days). After making her first 7 days of FP+ she was unable to make anymore until she had actually used her first days passes. So for the remaining 14 days of her vacation she could only make them 7 days in advance.

This is only if you are staying off-site. All AP holders staying on-site can book for the length of stay. I am currently holding FPs 10 days in June and 5 days in Aug. Both trips I am staying on-site.