Upgrading to AP - Disney Gift Cards

[BrownHP800]

We are coming "home" this weekend. We have 7 Day Non-Hopper tix and plan on upgrading to an AP (After using them 1 time first to bridge the price). It isn't a problem to pay for the AP Upgrade with Disney Gift Cards is there? I figure I would run over to BJ's and get $1000 worth and save 4-5% and use them to upgrade. My gut says its no problem, can pretty much use the gift cards for everything, just want to be sure.

I will also be sure to take my calculations with me just in case we get a CM that is having trouble with the upgrade price. It should be $797.69 - $404.70 = $392.99 for each of us to upgrade. I know some times they have an issue with bridging the price. (We bought from UT)

Thanks! See you all this weekend!

 

[BrownHP800]

Random thought. Since we are staying off site and will be driving in, do you think they would reimburse the $20 parking after we get the AP? Not a big deal but would be nice

 

[sebastianf561]

Smart thinking! That's exactly what we've been doing and they have no problem. We've learned from experience to open the cards and remove that sticky pakaging stuff before we use them. It makes it easier fr the CM to run each card through the reader and is much quicker! Have fun!

 

[TinkLoverSam]

Random thought. Since we are staying off site and will be driving in, do you think they would reimburse the $20 parking after we get the AP? Not a big deal but would be nice

Yes, bring the receipt

 

[Lesverts]

We are coming "home" this weekend. We have 7 Day Non-Hopper tix and plan on upgrading to an AP (After using them 1 time first to bridge the price). It isn't a problem to pay for the AP Upgrade with Disney Gift Cards is there? I figure I would run over to BJ's and get $1000 worth and save 4-5% and use them to upgrade. My gut says its no problem, can pretty much use the gift cards for everything, just want to be sure.

I will also be sure to take my calculations with me just in case we get a CM that is having trouble with the upgrade price. It should be $797.69 - $404.70 = $392.99 for each of us to upgrade. I know some times they have an issue with bridging the price. (We bought from UT)

Thanks! See you all this weekend!

Just wanted to point out that $404.70 is for an 8 day ticket, its 394.05 for a 7 day ticket that you have. So it is 797.69 - 394.05, so you'd pay 403.64.

 

[ravenclawtrekkie]

Paying with gift cards is fine.

Parking is refundable if you buy an AP, bring the receipt.

Using tickets first has no effect on price bridging - what matters is whether or not the CM knows what they're doing. It's the same procedure on a used or unused ticket.

 

[Lesverts]

Paying with gift cards is fine.

Parking is refundable if you buy an AP, bring the receipt.

Using tickets first has no effect on price bridging - what matters is whether or not the CM knows what they're doing. It's the same procedure on a used or unused ticket.

I am fairly certain this is not true if you have a 'discounted' package ticket combined with a price increase between purchase and trip. I upgraded in that situation and the CM did an override to bridge my ticket because I hadn't used it yet and specifically said I should have used it first before upgrading. I could be completely wrong/CM misinformed but this was my experience.

 

[Accident]

i've heard it both ways.. the guest relation cms that have mentioned how it should work left the impression that they bridge it either way so there is no benefit from using it..

Where there is a huge benefit using it first is outside the gates, guest relations is talking through glass and inside the park it's an air conditioned room you stand in

My only other word of advice and ask when your renewal date is and make sure it's the day your upgrading it. It's almost impossible to fix after you get home to find out they didn't move it to your upgrade day.

 

[Minniekins]

@BrownHP800
You need to use your ticket first to bring it up to current gate price. That's particularly important if you bought discounted tickets, say at UT, Parksavers, or the like, and there has been a price increase since then. So, use the tickets at least one day to bring those tickets up to current gate price. Otherwise, you'd pay the difference between what you paid with the discount and the current gate price and would lose that discount you got from buying thru UT, Parksavers, and the like. I'd rather do this, knowing that it's been advocated by a couple of big tickets experts here on the Dis for a long time. If it's not necessary, it certainly doesn't hurt, and it's too late if you find out it was indeed necessary. They can tell the price you paid and if it does not meet the current price for that ticket. If it has changed, I haven't heard that. And, as the above PP mentioned, if you do it after entering the park Guest Services, you are inside with AC! Maybe @Robo will be able to chime in and knows if things are still done this way or have changed recently.

Also, just a heads up, if you have to buy $1000 in gc's in say $50 or $100's, that would be a lot of cards to have to carry around, and give a CM to process for your tickets. It's a great idea and no problem to use the Disney gc's. I always do this. But now, you can take all your Disney gc's to this address disneygiftcard .com/Manage/MyCards (no space after card), and you can combine them all in to one card, up to $1000 balance on one gc. If you have more than $1000, you'd just combine the rest onto another card. Just take one card, register it and make it the primary card. Then add another card to the account and transfer that balance to the primary card. Then that used card will be empty and can be deleted to make room to add and transfer more cards. I think it only lets you add like 4 gc's, besides the primary one you are transferring to, before you have to start deleting the empty ones you transferred from. This will make it much easier for you to carry around your gc's, safer with less cards to keep track of, and much easier on the CM who is helping you upgrade to the AP! Plus, if you happen to lose the card somehow, you can go into the Disney gift card account and transfer the balance off that card to another card so keep it safe from being used by someone else, or for yourself if you forgot the gift card at home and you need it for your trip.

Hope you have a magical, pixie dusted, trip!

 

[ravenclawtrekkie]

I am fairly certain this is not true if you have a 'discounted' package ticket combined with a price increase between purchase and trip. I upgraded in that situation and the CM did an override to bridge my ticket because I hadn't used it yet and specifically said I should have used it first before upgrading. I could be completely wrong/CM misinformed but this was my experience.

I'm currently employed as a ticketing CM... Price bridging is done exactly the same whether or not a ticket is used and has been for at least a year. Nothing about using the ticket makes it automatic.

Using the ticket first doesn't hurt, but it doesn't help either.

 

[mercydisney]

I'm currently employed as a ticketing CM... Price bridging is done exactly the same whether or not a ticket is used and has been for at least a year. Nothing about using the ticket makes it automatic.

Using the ticket first doesn't hurt, but it doesn't help either.

OT- But I was wondering if you can tell me the diffarence in pricing if I have a 2 day hopper and will be renewing my golden Pass. Last year i was told the difference to upgrade and it was a huge help.

 

[ravenclawtrekkie]

OT- But I was wondering if you can tell me the diffarence in pricing if I have a 2 day hopper and will be renewing my golden Pass. Last year i was told the difference to upgrade and it was a huge help.

Renewing to a Gold pass costs $496.29. A 2-day park hopper ticket is worth $273.71. Looks like a price difference of $222.58. The Gold pass is available to Florida residents and DVC members, so bring either a Florida ID OR a non-Florida ID AND either proof of residency or a current DVC card. Even if you showed these things when you got your original pass, you need them to renew.

Not all CMs know how to use an existing ticket towards a renewal - ticket booth CMs generally aren't trained to do it because it almost never comes up. If you get someone who doesn't know what to do, ask for a coordinator or go to another person. You'll probably have a better chance at finding someone who knows how to do it at Guest Relations than in a ticket booth, but feel free to try your luck. A few folks on here have found ticket booths with CMs who figured it out.

 

[mercydisney]

ravenclawtrekkie, Thank You so much for your quick response.