Weird Ticket Question

[wareagle57]

My family is going on a "last minute" trip in December to see the Osborne Lights one last time. Because of this, none of us have tickets yet and our window opens up Friday.

I am already planning to go back within the next year so I was just going to buy an AP, and was going to do so by buying discounted Target Giftcards and then using them to buy Disney giftcards online and stacking my Red Card 5% discount on top of the giftcards. But that means I would have to wait for them to be delivered and there is no way they would get here before our window opens up Thursday at midnight. I would really like to use this technique because it will save me about 80 dollars.

One thought I had was to just buy an extra day on my ticket, and either use that to enter the park on our arrival day, or possibly make a quick weekend trip before December and upgrade to an AP. I would only get the 5% discount on the tickets I originally bought, but I could then get the full 12ish% on the upgrade amount.

If I chose to do a trip BEFORE our trip, how would I get into the park since our magic bands won't ship until a couple weeks before our stay?

Can anyone come up with a better solution to this problem?

 

[supersnoop]

I think you left out some details, or I just don't follow your situation.

One thought I had was to just buy an extra day on my ticket

What ticket? Most tickets expire after 14 days from first use. Where did this ticket that you'd upgrade come from, and how does it help anything?

If I chose to do a trip BEFORE our trip, how would I get into the park since our magic bands won't ship until a couple weeks before our stay?

How are you planning to get into the park with whatever ticket you've previously mentioned? Do you have old magic bands or a ticket in card form?

 

[hakepb]

You can use Disney Gift cards to buy park tickets now (if you burly straight from Disney you get your ticket number to use on MDE right then)
And then use more gift cards to upgrade to an AP after you arrive.

Or are we dealing with a package?

And you an use https://www.disneygiftcard.com to transfer multiple cards onto one, larger card

 

[wareagle57]

You can use Disney Gift cards to buy park tickets now (if you burly straight from Disney you get your ticket number to use on MDE right then)
And then use more gift cards to upgrade to an AP after you arrive.

Or are we dealing with a package?

And you an use https://www.disneygiftcard.com to transfer multiple cards onto one, larger card

My issue is that Target does not allow you to stack your red card saving in the store, you have to purchase them on-line.

 

[hakepb]

My issue is that Target does not allow you to stack your red card saving in the store, you have to purchase them on-line.

Ahh
Then I guess about all you can do on a short timeframe is buying slightly discounted gift cards in a store to purchase base (non-hopper) tickets for your length of stay (to make FP+) and then bridge to AP with better discounted gift cards during your trip.

 

[lovesdumbo]

You could purchase discounted tickets from a broker like undercover tourist. Link those to MDE then use Disney giftcards to pay for upgrade to AP. Just use the ticket to enter a park before you do the upgrade to AP.

 

[wareagle57]

You could purchase discounted tickets from a broker like undercover tourist. Link those to MDE then use Disney giftcards to pay for upgrade to AP. Just use the ticket to enter a park before you do the upgrade to AP.

I forgot the reason to use one day was advice for if you bought from UCT. Does that mean if I buy from Disney I can make the upgrade in DTD or at the TTC or any ticket office BEFORE using a day's admission?

 

[bumbershoot]

My issue is that Target does not allow you to stack your red card saving in the store, you have to purchase them on-line.

Oh I get it now. You're buying them with Target GCs but "showing" your redcard to get that discount. Even though you aren't paying with the redcard. I see.

Does that mean if I buy from Disney I can make the upgrade in DTD or at the TTC or any ticket office BEFORE using a day's admission?

If you buy directly from Disney (not another seller, and not even Disney's travel company buying them as part of a package), you won't be getting any sort of discount when you upgrade. So it doesn't matter at all when you upgrade (before use or after using once).

Using it before upgrading is to lock in the price you paid for it, so you can be "bridged" to the current gate price and upgrade from that. But buying from Disney, well, not only are you buy NOW, likely before prices are raised again so there's nothing to bridge it from, but also buying a standalone (not from a package) ticket directly from Disney doesn't allow for bridging anyway.


Since you're really into the discounts, buy a ticket at UCT that's cheaper than Disney is selling them for, use it to enter a park, then upgrade from there (making sure the CM understands the concept of "bridging"...if they don't know what they are doing, end the transaction and walk away and try again later) using your discounted and discounted GCs.