Upgrading VERY old passes???

[followme2disney]

My friend has 3 - 3 day magic kingdom world passport tickets from 1987 (paper tickets). Paid $65 each...never been used. Called disney they said they would upgrade them on a day for day exchange toward the ultimate park hopper (7 night, which is what she wants). Will this be a probelm? Is it their normal procedure? Can they do it at the resort or only at guest relations? CM on phone said it would be no problem. I am worried because I am the one that told her they could be upgraded and convinced her not to book package through travel agent because she could save more by doing it independently. ($1300 off the price the travel agent gave her).

Why do I have the need to plan everyone's disney vacations? Are planning my own not enough?

 

[inky dinky doo]

I'm not sure which would be best -- to upgrade the tickets or use them as is. I think you usually are better off using the tickets, because if you trade them in, you're only credited for the amount you paid for them originally (and that is usually much less than what entrance costs today). Is this making any sense? What complicates things is that I'm not sure what a 3-day Magic Kingdom World Passport is. Does it include entrance to all of the parks (like a hopper) or is for use only at the Magic Kingdom?

At any rate, I think you gave your friend good advice. It is usually better to book your own trip than to buy a package. Now, we just have to figure out the best use of her tickets.

If she used her tickets as they are and bought additional tickets to fill in other days, what would be her cost? Would she even need additional tickets? You don't say how many people are going. If she bought the 7-night ultimate park hopper ($365.30 advance purchase adult / $291.81 advance purchase child) and traded in her three tickets for $65 each ($195?), what would be her cost? Figuring it out on paper, should give you the answer. I got my ticket prices at: http://www.wdwig.com/ticketchart.htm

Good luck! You're a good friend to try to help her.

Pat

255 days and counting . . . again!

 

[MELSMICE]

I would have given anyone the same advice - to book al a carte instead of a package.

Also, you are right about the tickets. They can be "traded in" towards the purchase of another ticket. I think the above poster is right, however. I don't remember what a "world passport" is, but if she would get 3 park days out of it she may be better off using that first & buying a 4-day hopper pass in addition.

If I am correct, they would only apply the $65 towards a new ticket. Considering the fact that a 1-day park admission is about $50 she would be better off using the 3-days on the passport first. Hope that makes sense.

My suggestion when she does all this is to go right to the TTC. I always find the CM's to be very knowledgeable & helpful there.

 

[followme2disney]

Thanks everyone for the reassurance.

I agree that if they only put the purchase price toward the new tickets that she would be wise to use them as is. But I think they are only good for MK. I will look at them better tomorrow. They are from 1987 and EPCOT was open then so I don't know. She has 3 tickets and needs 3 tickets...so it works out well. The CM told me on the phone that they would do a day for day exchange. Didn't sound exactly right to me...but I knew you guys would know.

Her travel agent told her that they were not good anymore and if you were staying on Disney property that the only tickets you had available to you were Ultimate Park Hoppers that must be purchased in advance. Lies all lies. Needless to say I royally ticked off one travel agent today.

Thanks all!

 

[MELSMICE]

Originally posted by followme2disney
Her travel agent told her that they were not good anymore and if you were staying on Disney property that the only tickets you had available to you were Ultimate Park Hoppers that must be purchased in advance. Lies all lies. Needless to say I royally ticked off one travel agent today.

Wow - that was a big lie. Anything for a sale I guess.

The real experts (us DISers) know that tickets NEVER expire.

 

[GoldenOldie]

What your friend has is called a 3-Day Worldpassport. Back in those days they came in two different versions at two different prices - Day Guest for offsite visitors and Resort Guest for, you guessed it. It is in fact a park hopper ticket.

If I were her, I would not upgrade it. It's worth more as it is. She can exchange it at any WDW ticket booth or Guest Relations for a current magnetic strip ticket with the same 3 days of park admissions for no additional charge. Wouldn't you just kill today to get hold of a three day park hopper pass for $65? The new ticket will get her admission to all four major parks.

$65. Prices were really great back then. The 5 Day Worldhopper from 1987 was only $98 tax included.

 

[MELSMICE]

Originally posted by GoldenOldie
Prices were really great back then. The 5 Day Worldhopper from 1987 was only $98 tax included.

I bet back in 1987, $98 for theme park admissions seemed like a lot of money - especially considering there were only 3 theme parks. (right - was MGM in existence then? )

 

[InstImpres]

Originally posted by GoldenOldie
Wouldn't you just kill today to get hold of a three day park hopper pass for $65? The new ticket will get her admission to all four major parks.

$65. Prices were really great back then. The 5 Day Worldhopper from 1987 was only $98 tax included. [/B]

Guess we all should have stock piled them back than when we had the chance. That and my DVC, I could afford to go every month!

 

[mkcp91]

Originally posted by MELSMICE
I bet back in 1987, $98 for theme park admissions seemed like a lot of money - especially considering there were only 3 theme parks. (right - was MGM in existence then? )

Disney-MGM Studios officially opened in April 1989. There were only 2 parks in 1987.

 

[DMRick]

we had older tickets and were only allowed to use them for the parks that were open when we bought them. That was fine..we used them for those parks.

 

[GoldenOldie]

Originally posted by DMRick
we had older tickets and were only allowed to use them for the parks that were open when we bought them. That was fine..we used them for those parks.

But when did you use them?

The policy of allowing all old hopper-type passes to use all of the parks regardless of parks in existence when purchased is a fairly recent development (as in the past 4 years). It requires conversion to a magnetic strip ticket as well.

 

[RyMickey]

No matter what happens, you'll probably have to take the passes to a guest relations window to get tickets with a magnetic strip (that way you can utilize FastPass as well). Be aware that you probably won't be able to park-hop using these passes, and if you are able to, you'll only be allowed to hop between EPCOT and MK.

We did this last year with some old passes we had. We had the leftover day placed on a magnetic strip ticket and we spent the whole day at the MK. We actually had this done at DD at Guest Relations the night before we went to the park so that we could avoid the lines in the morning. We walked right in without any problems.

Have a great time!

RyMickey

 

[GoldenOldie]

Originally posted by RyMickey
...Be aware that you probably won't be able to park-hop using these passes, and if you are able to, you'll only be allowed to hop between EPCOT and MK...

You give Disney's ATS computer system far too much credit. It is not programmed to restrict those old tickets to only being used in MK & EC. Disney determined long ago that it was not worth the time and expense to program the exclusion of all the old passports that had been sold since 1981 when EC opened. It was more cost effeicient for them to just convert them over to magnetic strip tickets and let the guest use them as they pleased.

The Worldpassports were in fact park hopper tickets. That is why if they have them exchanged to magnetic strip tickets they will be able to park hop to all 4 parks now.

 

[Simba's Mom]

You don't have to convert the passes in order to use Fast Pass, at least you didn't in 2000. That's the year I used the last day of a pass that was from 1987, 6 day for $95! It was the kind that had to be stamped with the date when you entered. At the gate, it did take a minute to find a stamp pad (of course, it was at the opposite end of the row!). Then the CM opened the handicapped-stroller gate and let me in. At the FP machines, I just showed them that my pass didn't go in the machine and the CM there would print me out a FP. Just be careful! Sometimes the CMs like to tease-I had one tell me with a very serious face that since my pass was so old, I couldn't use FP. Fortunately, I'd used it previously (this was in the afternoon) so I knew better. So he laughed, said "I wondered if you'd fall for it", and printed me out a FP. BTW, I'm really glad I used the pass rather than trying to upgrade-it really got some CMs at the front gates at MK and Epcot both talking about the "good old days". I had several CMs come over to see how much that pass had originally cost.

 

[caskar]

I have to share what happened to us last summer when trying to determine how many days we had left on our many old passes.

We checked in at WL and went by boat to MK. I went up to guest services with the old tickets. We have been to WDW every year for the past 15 and we had some tickets we thought had a day or two left. Whey I explain that to the CM he asked me where I bought the tickets. I was taken by suprise by the question and couldn't remember because we had a few from different years and we have bought them at the parks, Disney Store, at the resorts over the years so I couldn't remember which ones were which. He wouldn't tell me if I had any days left unless I could tell him where (town)I bought them. I called my wife and daughters over to help me. He said we may have stolen them so they ask this question to people. I was shocked. We discussed where we may have bought them but he finally said "No, that wasn't even close." He then told me three of them had a day left and one was no good so he kept that one. I can't believe I let him talk to me like that but was totally SHOCKED! Has anyone ever had that happen to them? He NEVER smiled or laughed so I don't think he was kidding. If he was it would have been rude to say we may have stolen them. He really sounded disqusted with us for not knowing where we bought them and was doing us a favor by telling us the days left. ((((

 

[GoldenOldie]

casker:

You have to remember that anyone producing a large number of tickets looking to find out what is still good on them will instantly raise a red flag anywhere at Disney these days.

What you did is exactly what many of the offsite resellers (not the legal ticket wholesalers but the roadside "Got Any Disney Tickets Leftover That You'd Like To Sell" guys) do themselves. They take them to the park and do just what you did. I'm sure the CM was only following Disney's procedure for this kind of occurance.

The key to being able to do this is to only bring two or three to be checked at any one place. The fewer you have, the more likely they will cut you come slack on requiring the historical information of the ticket.

And while all this doesn't excuse his rudeness, he cannot be faulted for not giving out information on the tickets you couldn't identify. At least he asked where you bought them. The CM's in ticket reasearch usually ask where you used them last.

 

[caskar]

I only had FOUR tickets. That doesn't seem to be an exuberant amount of tickets with 4 family members. I usually defend Disney but have to disagree with your rationale for what this CM did to me and my family. Saying I may have bought them off of an off site resaler is one thing, but saying I may have stolen them is accusing me of a crime. "That" is not Disney like nor appropriate for any business to accuse customers of theft. Why would purchasing someone elses multiday pass be illegal? Oh well, one thing for sure I didn't let it ruin my vacation. We had a great time and are going back again this summer and Christmas and next summer - we are going to buy an annual pass this time.

 

[GoldenOldie]

I replied based on what you originally posted. You made it sound like you had a lot more than four tickets:

quote:
I have to share what happened to us last summer when trying to determine how many days we had left on our many old passes.

We checked in at WL and went by boat to MK. I went up to guest services with the old tickets. We have been to WDW every year for the past 15 and we had some tickets we thought had a day or two left...

Sure sounded to me like you had a lot more than four of them. That's what I based my reply on.

To answer your question about why would purchasing someone else's multiday pass be illegal? Because Florida law says it is. You can thank Disney for that one. They lobbied very hard to get it passed and they were successful.

And as I said in my previous post, all of this still doesn't excuse his rudeness towards you. A simple "I'm sorry but I can't check them unless you can identify them" would have sufficed.