Upgrade to Gold AP during black out period?

[tazleiten12]

I have a 10 day park hopper, the last day i will use the ticket is December 25th. Can I upgrade to a gold with DVC discount, or will I need to purchase the Platinum pass because i used the hopper during the black-out period?

 

[ravenclawtrekkie]

You can upgrade to the Gold pass.

 

[Sytrace]

The Gold pass is in blackout period right now until January 2nd or 3rd.

 

[ravenclawtrekkie]

Sounds to me like OP knows that. They can still upgrade to a currently blocked out ticket/pass as long as they've got no intention of using it again until the blockout period is over. I've done it for several people in the last couple of days.

 

[tazleiten12]

Yes you got it. I dont want to upgrade until I go home. So i use it until the 25th, then upgrade later that day. Then i cant use again until the the blackout period is over.

Can I use the last day on the ticket and still upgrade or do i need to save one? I thought someone said as long as i did it the same day as the day I used the ticket, i could still upgrade.

Sounds to me like OP knows that. They can still upgrade to a currently blocked out ticket/pass as long as they've got no intention of using it again until the blockout period is over. I've done it for several people in the last couple of days.

 

[PACVII]

I have a question along the same lines please. We are going in January and origally we purchase three day tickets. However we now plan on three trips for 2016 and are going to get annual pass (we are DVC also). Can I upgrade from three day to annual pass and get a credit on the tickets we have now? Save a few dollars? Can we do this at the resort? Is there a benifit to this or should we just keep the tickets and use at a later date. They already show in the my Disney experance app so I would think the are good until we use them then have that ten day window. Any idea what we should do here?

 

[ravenclawtrekkie]

Yes you got it. I dont want to upgrade until I go home. So i use it until the 25th, then upgrade later that day. Then i cant use again until the the blackout period is over.

Can I use the last day on the ticket and still upgrade or do i need to save one? I thought someone said as long as i did it the same day as the day I used the ticket, i could still upgrade.

You can upgrade until the end of the last day of use on the ticket, yes. If you're leaving a park on that day after ticket booths have closed (they close earlier than the parks do), Guest Relations can do your upgrade. They stay open much later.

Expect your expiration date on your pass to be a year from the ticket's date of first use - you might get a CM who does it the way they're supposed to, or you might get some pixie dust and get a year from your upgrade date, in which case you can be pleasantly surprised.

I have a question along the same lines please. We are going in January and origally we purchase three day tickets. However we now plan on three trips for 2016 and are going to get annual pass (we are DVC also). Can I upgrade from three day to annual pass and get a credit on the tickets we have now? Save a few dollars? Can we do this at the resort? Is there a benifit to this or should we just keep the tickets and use at a later date. They already show in the my Disney experance app so I would think the are good until we use them then have that ten day window. Any idea what we should do here?

You can upgrade your 3-day tickets to a pass once you arrive. You'll pay the difference between a 3-day ticket and the pass that you want to get. I don't think resorts can do it, but don't quote me on that, since I don't work at a resort. Any ticket window or Guest Relations definitely can do it.

You could just purchase a pass now and save the 3-day tickets for another time, but I wouldn't bother unless you want to make more than 3 days worth of FP+ reservations for your initial January trip. YMMV.

 

[DavidNYC]

Sounds to me like OP knows that. They can still upgrade to a currently blocked out ticket/pass as long as they've got no intention of using it again until the blockout period is over. I've done it for several people in the last couple of days.

Is that a general rule you can do that on any upgrade? That you can upgrade to a pass with blackout dates even if you used the pre-upgrade hopper on a blackout date? For example, if you had a 2-day hopper you used on Sunday-Monday, on Monday could you upgrade to a weekday annual pass? I was always under the impression that you could only upgrade to a pass if your usage pre-upgrade would have been allowed on the pass you upgraded to (but have no idea why I thought that - probably just assumed it was so).

 

[Disney_Alli]

I think the only restriction is with water parks. If you have a WPFAM ticket but want an AP that doesn't include them you can't first visit a water park...

 

[ravenclawtrekkie]

Is that a general rule you can do that on any upgrade? That you can upgrade to a pass with blackout dates even if you used the pre-upgrade hopper on a blackout date? For example, if you had a 2-day hopper you used on Sunday-Monday, on Monday could you upgrade to a weekday annual pass? I was always under the impression that you could only upgrade to a pass if your usage pre-upgrade would have been allowed on the pass you upgraded to (but have no idea why I thought that - probably just assumed it was so).

Yep. We recommend end-of-day upgrades on a regular basis to Florida residents who buy one-day tickets during blockout periods. A one-day ticket is a horrible deal, financially, so we like to see people get something more out of it.

Off the top of my head, the only times where usage matters:
- Upgrading a ticket to an annual pass when a Water Park Fun & More entitlement has been used, you have to go to the Platinum Plus pass.
- If you want to upgrade a ticket to an Epcot After 4 annual pass, the usage can only be at Epcot after 4. (I've never done one of these upgrades - I've only ever sold a few of those passes at all - but it's what the documentation says.)

 

[tazleiten12]

Thanks to everyone for their help. I will try this on the 25th!