Upgrading to Annual Pass from FD

[CaryHaven]

Bear with me. I've read lots of threads on this, but most of them are old and don't take into account MB. The newer threads don't accurately represent my situation, so I hope someone can stand to read through all this. I have been wondering whether or not I should go through UT and upgrade or get FD and upgrade. I have tentatively booked FD this November. I had a six day ticket planned because that's what I actually would use in case I decided not to do an AP this year.

1. Will anything be messed up by switching to an AP as far as ADRs or just anything? With all the glitches I read about, especially with MDE/Magic Bands I'm very wary of all my planning being obliterated by a newbie CM upgrading me to an AP.

2. Why do some people say you have to use the ticket first and some say it doesn't matter? It appears if you go through somewhere like UT the first admittance "locks in" the full price of the ticket, if I'm understanding correctly. But if I buy straight from Disney (FD promo), then I don't even need to use the ticket before I upgrade, correct? I'd like to upgrade immediately as I want the discount for the shopping I do pre-parks.

3. Is there somewhere in DTD where I can upgrade my AP or is it only at the parks? Nevermind on this one; I see there is a place in DTD to do this. Yay!

4. If I decide to take up FD again in 2015 while I have an AP, I know I have to purchase additional tickets for that and that I can hold onto them as they don't expire. But can I use them for someone else? Like my little girl who will be turning three in 2015 and will not have an AP with the rest of us? Could I use her sister's tickets (3-9) for her? I know you used to be able to give them away, but I'm not sure how I'd move tickets off one MB to another.

Thanks to anyone who read through this or can answer any of these!

 

[Nezumi Fan]

Bear with me. I've read lots of threads on this, but most of them are old and don't take into account MB. The newer threads don't accurately represent my situation, so I hope someone can stand to read through all this. I have been wondering whether or not I should go through UT and upgrade or get FD and upgrade. I have tentatively booked FD this November. I had a six day ticket planned because that's what I actually would use in case I decided not to do an AP this year.

1. Will anything be messed up by switching to an AP as far as ADRs or just anything? With all the glitches I read about, especially with MDE/Magic Bands I'm very wary of all my planning being obliterated by a newbie CM upgrading me to an AP.

2. Why do some people say you have to use the ticket first and some say it doesn't matter? It appears if you go through somewhere like UT the first admittance "locks in" the full price of the ticket, if I'm understanding correctly. But if I buy straight from Disney (FD promo), then I don't even need to use the ticket before I upgrade, correct? I'd like to upgrade immediately as I want the discount for the shopping I do pre-parks.

3. Is there somewhere in DTD where I can upgrade my AP or is it only at the parks? Nevermind on this one; I see there is a place in DTD to do this. Yay!

4. If I decide to take up FD again in 2015 while I have an AP, I know I have to purchase additional tickets for that and that I can hold onto them as they don't expire. But can I use them for someone else? Like my little girl who will be turning three in 2015 and will not have an AP with the rest of us? Could I use her sister's tickets (3-9) for her? I know you used to be able to give them away, but I'm not sure how I'd move tickets off one MB to another.

Thanks to anyone who read through this or can answer any of these!

Hi Cary,

You know more than I do about this by a long shot, but I have concerns that mirror yours.

I'm going to the parks at the end of this month with my child for Star Wars Weekend. I had been thinking to upgrade our eight-day tickets to APs once we arrived in Florida, before heading into any of the parks.

Then the free dining promotion came up, and I got crazy and jumped into that, booking yet another multi-day visit. I had to buy the day tickets to qualify for the Magic Your Way and FD promotions, obvs.

What are my options?

1) Should I upgrade my May tickets to APs?
2) If not, can I upgrade my December tickets to APs then?
3) Does upgrading to AP jack up my December free dining?

Thoughts, comments, insights and shared experience welcome!

 

[CaryHaven]

Hi Cary,

You know more than I do about this by a long shot, but I have concerns that mirror yours.

I'm going to the parks at the end of this month with my child for Star Wars Weekend. I had been thinking to upgrade our eight-day tickets to APs once we arrived in Florida, before heading into any of the parks.

Then the free dining promotion came up, and I got crazy and jumped into that, booking yet another multi-day visit. I had to buy the day tickets to qualify for the Magic Your Way and FD promotions, obvs.

What are my options?

1) Should I upgrade my May tickets to APs?
2) If not, can I upgrade my December tickets to APs then?
3) Does upgrading to AP jack up my December free dining?

Thoughts, comments, insights and shared experience welcome!

From what it sounds like to me, I think APs would be the way to go for you. How many days is your second trip? I would definitely upgrade them in May as opposed to December. I'm unclear myself (see above post) as to whether you need to use one day or not before upgrading them, but I think you don't have to if you got them with a Disney-originated promo. It won't mess up your free dining in December, because you will still buy the minimum number of tickets to qualify for free dining. I'm not sure if that's two or three day tickets, but I'm sure someone will chime in here. You will save those tickets for future use or to apply to a future AP purchase. Just don't use them at all! Otherwise the clock will start ticking on their expiration. My other question is if they still even issue actual paper tickets to save/give or if we will automatically have to have them put on our MBs. If you will personally be using/saving these for the future, that's not really an issue I don't think. Hope someone else can fill in the rest of the blanks for you!

 

[BuckeyeBama]

Bear with me. I've read lots of threads on this, but most of them are old and don't take into account MB. The newer threads don't accurately represent my situation, so I hope someone can stand to read through all this. I have been wondering whether or not I should go through UT and upgrade or get FD and upgrade. I have tentatively booked FD this November. I had a six day ticket planned because that's what I actually would use in case I decided not to do an AP this year.

1. Will anything be messed up by switching to an AP as far as ADRs or just anything? With all the glitches I read about, especially with MDE/Magic Bands I'm very wary of all my planning being obliterated by a newbie CM upgrading me to an AP.

2. Why do some people say you have to use the ticket first and some say it doesn't matter? It appears if you go through somewhere like UT the first admittance "locks in" the full price of the ticket, if I'm understanding correctly. But if I buy straight from Disney (FD promo), then I don't even need to use the ticket before I upgrade, correct? I'd like to upgrade immediately as I want the discount for the shopping I do pre-parks.

3. Is there somewhere in DTD where I can upgrade my AP or is it only at the parks? Nevermind on this one; I see there is a place in DTD to do this. Yay!

4. If I decide to take up FD again in 2015 while I have an AP, I know I have to purchase additional tickets for that and that I can hold onto them as they don't expire. But can I use them for someone else? Like my little girl who will be turning three in 2015 and will not have an AP with the rest of us? Could I use her sister's tickets (3-9) for her? I know you used to be able to give them away, but I'm not sure how I'd move tickets off one MB to another.

Thanks to anyone who read through this or can answer any of these!

Answers :

1) No - ADRs are connected to MDE accounts, as are tickets, as are magic bands, as are reservations - all separately. A change in any one of these things does not effect the others.

2) You have this straight - UT tickets are discounted so need price bridging, which requires use before bridging. Tickets bought in a FD package are not discounted, so no need to bridge.

4) Yes - I have several tickets associated with members of my family that have not been used and they can be reassigned to anyone (it says so in MDE). When you order the FD package the tickets will be listed in MDE as "Not transferable". That is because, at that time, the FD package is tied to the members of your party that you listed when you booked. The way to fix that is to go to guest services during that trip and have the CM move the tickets to separate media and unlink them from MDE. They will do it right there for you. I had them do this for me last August with our FD tickets (had APs). But you have to wait until you have checked in for that package to move them to separate media. (actually, they might do it 3 days before since you can pick up the tickets at GR 3 days early)

Should you choose to do so, you can give those tickets to someone else, sell them to someone else, use them at a later date - whatever you wish. There is a number on the back of the tickets that the CM will give you that you can use to link them to an MDE account at a later date if you wish.

 

[CaryHaven]

Answers :

1) No - ADRs are connected to MDE accounts, as are tickets, as are magic bands, as are reservations - all separately. A change in any one of these things does not effect the others.

2) You have this straight - UT tickets are discounted so need price bridging, which requires use before bridging. Tickets bought in a FD package are not discounted, so no need to bridge.

4) Yes - I have several tickets associated with members of my family that have not been used and they can be reassigned to anyone (it says so in MDE). When you order the FD package the tickets will be listed in MDE as "Not transferable". That is because, at that time, the FD package is tied to the members of your party that you listed when you booked. The way to fix that is to go to guest services during that trip and have the CM move the tickets to separate media and unlink them from MDE. They will do it right there for you. I had them do this for me last August with our FD tickets (had APs). But you have to wait until you have checked in for that package to move them to separate media. (actually, they might do it 3 days before since you can pick up the tickets at GR 3 days early)

Should you choose to do so, you can give those tickets to someone else, sell them to someone else, use them at a later date - whatever you wish. There is a number on the back of the tickets that the CM will give you that you can use to link them to an MDE account at a later date if you wish.

Thank you! Looking forward to trying the AP :

 

[POOHsie]

...
2. Why do some people say you have to use the ticket first and some say it doesn't matter? It appears if you go through somewhere like UT the first admittance "locks in" the full price of the ticket, if I'm understanding correctly. But if I buy straight from Disney (FD promo), then I don't even need to use the ticket before I upgrade, correct? I'd like to upgrade immediately as I want the discount for the shopping I do pre-parks.
...

...
2) You have this straight - UT tickets are discounted so need price bridging, which requires use before bridging. Tickets bought in a FD package are not discounted, so no need to bridge.
...

Tickets bought directly from Disney are defined as tickets purchased online, by mail, or at a Disney theme park ticket booth. These tickets are not qualified for price bridging.

Disney also sells tickets at a discount to Disney Resorts-WDTC (Package tickets), The Disney Store-TDS, and third-party resellers such as AAA, UT and MapleLeaf Tickets. These tickets are qualified for price-bridging.

So, package tickets would need to be price-bridged if they were part of a resort package booked before the last ticket price increase, which was Feb 23, 2014. If these package tickets were upgraded before use in a theme park, and they were sold at the earlier ticket price, the guest would owe for the new upgrade, plus the cost difference between the old and new price of the original ticket.

It's true that these package tickets are fully transferable. You should tell the person receiving the tickets that they should use the tickets first to enter a theme park before doing any upgrade, so that they receive credit for current gate price.

 

[CaryHaven]

Tickets bought directly from Disney are defined as tickets purchased online, by mail, or at a Disney theme park ticket booth. These tickets are not qualified for price bridging.

Disney also sells tickets at a discount to Disney Resorts-WDTC (Package tickets), The Disney Store-TDS, and third-party resellers such as AAA, UT and MapleLeaf Tickets. These tickets are qualified for price-bridging.

So, package tickets would need to be price-bridged if they were part of a resort package booked before the last ticket price increase, which was Feb 23, 2014. If these package tickets were upgraded before use in a theme park, and they were sold at the earlier ticket price, the guest would owe for the new upgrade, plus the cost difference between the old and new price of the original ticket.

It's true that these package tickets are fully transferable. You should tell the person receiving the tickets that they should use the tickets first to enter a theme park before doing any upgrade, so that they receive credit for current gate price.

I didn't realize the package (resort) tickets were different than buying them from a ticket booth. Totally makes sense about any price increase. Excellent advice for the next FD promo (after I have the AP) - thanks.

 

[POOHsie]

 

[Nezumi Fan]

Hi Cary,

We booked a total of ten tickets, but only because we MIGHT have needed them, and once you get past that certain point, it's practically free to add extra days.

(8) days of tickets purchased for May trip (paid to add the "plus" dining plan)
(10) days of tickets purchased for December trip (Free Dining)

It would be IDEAL to be able to convert those May tickets to APs, and then "hang on" to those December tickets. Question:

-- Does the "no expiration" option only apply if you've activated the tickets?

 

[disneymom06]

I have a similar question. We had A FD trip in December. MY niece and nephew didn't need the tickets so I just assigned them to myself and my daughter for a trip in May. Since they were only 2 day tickets, I will need to upgrade them to 4 day tickets for our May trip. I thought that I should use them first but with the new rules does it really matter? Should I just call Disney now and do the upgrade over the phone?

 

[POOHsie]

I have a similar question. We had A FD trip in December. MY niece and nephew didn't need the tickets so I just assigned them to myself and my daughter for a trip in May. Since they were only 2 day tickets, I will need to upgrade them to 4 day tickets for our May trip. I thought that I should use them first but with the new rules does it really matter? Should I just call Disney now and do the upgrade over the phone?

There are no new rules that apply to your package tickets. Your tickets are dated before the Feb 23, 2014 ticket increase, so you need to use them first to price-bridge them or you will have to pay for the price difference on those 2-day tickets, in addition to the upgrade cost.

 

[martinmont]

I have a question, I know with FD, u need to purchase a 2 day ticket at least. We bought a 10 day ticket for our trip in dec with free dining. Now, if I were to upgrade it to Ap when we get there, would we lose the free dining?

 

[Nezumi Fan]

There are no new rules that apply to your package tickets. Your tickets are dated before the Feb 23, 2014 ticket increase, so you need to use them first to price-bridge them or you will have to pay for the price difference on those 2-day tickets, in addition to the upgrade cost.

Hi Poohsie,

I was initially confused by the concept of "price-bridging," but I think now in reading your post that it means adjusting for any price differences in the tickets, yeah?

-- let's say we purchase a one-day admission for $99

-- time passes, and the ticket price increases before we use that $99 ticket

-- when we get around to using that $99 ticket, tickets now cost $110

-- we pay the extra $11 and now we're good

Is that correct?

 

[Nezumi Fan]

I have a question, I know with FD, u need to purchase a 2 day ticket at least. We bought a 10 day ticket for our trip in dec with free dining. Now, if I were to upgrade it to Ap when we get there, would we lose the free dining?

This is exactly our situation. We booked ten days' worth of passes for the three of us in December, in order to take advantage of free dining. We are excited.

As it turns out, we also have a trip this month, end of May, for Star Wars Weekends. I had been planning to convert our eight days' worth of tickets to APs at that time, but am still not 100% sure how that will affect the 10-days' worth we had to purchase to qualify for MYW and the free dining in December.

 

[CaryHaven]

Hi Cary,

We booked a total of ten tickets, but only because we MIGHT have needed them, and once you get past that certain point, it's practically free to add extra days.

(8) days of tickets purchased for May trip (paid to add the "plus" dining plan)
(10) days of tickets purchased for December trip (Free Dining)

It would be IDEAL to be able to convert those May tickets to APs, and then "hang on" to those December tickets. Question:

-- Does the "no expiration" option only apply if you've activated the tickets?

When you go in December, from what I understand, you'll "hang on" to those tickets without using them ANY because you'll be using your AP instead. According to what I was told earlier in this post, guest services can remove those tickets from your MDE and put them somewhere else for you. Whether it's a card or paper tickets or what, I'm not sure, but as long as you don't use the first day of that 10 day pass, they're essentially good forever. There used to be another type option that could be added on called "no expiration". You paid extra for it and even if you used some of it, the rest of the days never expired. I think they're phasing those out though, and those aren't what I'm referring to above. If you used the first day of that 10 day ticket, you'd have to use the rest of it within the next 14 days. As discussed above, you would be able to keep your FD on both trips this way.

 

[CaryHaven]

I have a question, I know with FD, u need to purchase a 2 day ticket at least. We bought a 10 day ticket for our trip in dec with free dining. Now, if I were to upgrade it to Ap when we get there, would we lose the free dining?

Nope, you will keep the free dining. Disney wants you to come more and spend more money. They'd rather give you free dining and sell you a pass then free dining and sell you 10 days.

 

[Nezumi Fan]

When you go in December, from what I understand, you'll "hang on" to those tickets without using them ANY because you'll be using your AP instead. According to what I was told earlier in this post, guest services can remove those tickets from your MDE and put them somewhere else for you. Whether it's a card or paper tickets or what, I'm not sure, but as long as you don't use the first day of that 10 day pass, they're essentially good forever. There used to be another type option that could be added on called "no expiration". You paid extra for it and even if you used some of it, the rest of the days never expired. I think they're phasing those out though, and those aren't what I'm referring to above. If you used the first day of that 10 day ticket, you'd have to use the rest of it within the next 14 days. As discussed above, you would be able to keep your FD on both trips this way.

...Oh, I think I see. If we don't use the ten-day tickets, they are not "activated," and are essentially still "good." If we chose to use one, for whatever reason, but not all of the ten days, we could purchase that "no expiration" option and the "life" of however many of ten days' worth we did not use could be extended. The key to avoid paying that extra money for the "no expiration" option, which I understand is not cheap, is to NOT use any of the "ten days" December tickets, but to use our acquired-in-May annual passes instead.

 

[Nezumi Fan]

Nope, you will keep the free dining. Disney wants you to come more and spend more money. They'd rather give you free dining and sell you a pass then free dining and sell you 10 days.

This makes complete sense. Thank you, Cary. I always say, Follow the money! Whenever unsure of someone's motives, always ask: Cui bono? Who benefits, and why? Disney definitely benefits from letting us "have" the value of those ten days because they know, without a doubt, that we will be back to use them...meaning, more money spent on food, character experiences, souvenirs, et cetera, et cetera.

It's the raison d'etre for annual passes in general, I think! Better the park "eat" the cost, so long as they know guests will be back and back (and back, and back) to spend more in the park. Let the guests think they are "saving" money on park admissions, right?

 

[CaryHaven]

...Oh, I think I see. If we don't use the ten-day tickets, they are not "activated," and are essentially still "good." If we chose to use one, for whatever reason, but not all of the ten days, we could purchase that "no expiration" option and the "life" of however many of ten days' worth we did not use could be extended. The key to avoid paying that extra money for the "no expiration" option, which I understand is not cheap, is to NOT use any of the "ten days" December tickets, but to use our acquired-in-May annual passes instead.

The bold is correct. As far as adding the no expiration option, I'm not even sure if Disney has that option anymore. They used to, and I think certain ticket retailers still offer that option, but I wouldn't bank on it. I'd just hang on to them for later in their whole and complete stage. Definitely use that AP.

 

[CaryHaven]

This makes complete sense. Thank you, Cary. I always say, Follow the money! Whenever unsure of someone's motives, always ask: Cui bono? Who benefits, and why? Disney definitely benefits from letting us "have" the value of those ten days because they know, without a doubt, that we will be back to use them...meaning, more money spent on food, character experiences, souvenirs, et cetera, et cetera.

It's the raison d'etre for annual passes in general, I think! Better the park "eat" the cost, so long as they know guests will be back and back (and back, and back) to spend more in the park. Let the guests think they are "saving" money on park admissions, right?

lol Yup.