Upgrading to Explore Magic Key Q

[KalamityJane]

We have some older DL tickets (5 day PH with LL, I think it's actually Genie+ to give you an idea of how old lol) and I'm thinking of upgrading to the Explore MK when we are there. Should we keep the 5 day tickets as is and then upgrade on the last park day? Just wondering the best way to maximize this. I would prefer to have the LL option if possible. We are going in a few weeks.

Also, since we bought them a while ago through a 3rd party, I honestly do not know how much we paid for them. How do they figure out how much to put towards the MK?

Considerations - we do not eat much or buy many souvenirs in parks, are staying DVC at VGC with kitchen, won't be using parking outside the Grand, are DVC members.

 

[longtimedisneylurker]

Wow. You kept those for a while. I know multi-day tickets can be good for as much as 2 years these days, so I am assuming you know that these tickets will not have expired before you visit. Since they have LL on them already, then I definitely advise that you use the tickets before upgrading. The lightning lane will not stay attached if you upgrade and you would then have to spend additional money adding it day-by-day during your visit. Last time we upgraded a ticket with a fastpass type add-on was quite a while ago, but we received the full amount paid for the ticket including for the add-on applied toward our pass so that was a nice bonus. From my own quite a while ago experiences and the various experiences of others I have read about, Disney will either apply whatever you paid for the tickets originally toward your upgrade or whatever the full retail value was at time of originally purchasing the tickets, probably just depends on however things are coded internally. Also, since when you upgrade your lightning lane entitlement and park reservations will be wiped away, you want to upgrade at the end of your ticket usage but before the park closes on the final day. Everything I have told you is according to things as I and people I know or know of have experienced them but not in recent times, so if changes or updates have been made I could be out of date. I'm sure those with more recent experiences can provide updates and corrections.