We're Rookies Again

[Walts843Best]

Hello:

We have plenty of questions so please bear with us.

Our Planned WDW dates are 10/22, 23 & 24 of 2022.

We are celebrating our 40th Wedding Anniversary at WDW.

1) No Expiration/Park Hopper Passes.
My wife and I have about six Admissions left on each of these Cards.
Shoot, we don't even know how many admissions are left on each card.
How can we find this out?
Please Help!
2) What are the Procedures/Policies now?
How does WDW handle these No Expiration/Park Hopper Cards that we purchased long ago?
What do we need to do, in advance, to prepare, so we can use the value of the Cards for Admission?
Please Help!!
3) The Wristband
My wife and I have received a Wristband.
If we can find these Wristbands, again, what can we do to program them to help us plan our stay?
Please Help!
4) The Disney App
Does the Disney App replace the wristband?
5) 10/22/22...Theme Park & Dinner Planning Strategy
8AM....Saturday, 10/22 - Our Flight arrives @ MCO
9:30 AM... leave bags @ Dolphin
10AM.., take Friendship Ships to Hollywood Studios.
11AM...Ride Toy Story Mania
11:30 AM...The Little Mermaid
12 Noon... Where to eat some lunch?
1:00 PM...take Slinky Ride
2:00 PM...return to Dolphin
3:00 PM...check-in
6:30 PM...Eat Dinner at Cinderella's Castle
How should we go about planning this Agenda?
Are there restrictions with this plan?
Can we Park Hop from Hollywood Studios to Magic Kingdom, as the schedule indicates, on this date?
6) Making Dinner Reservations within 60 Days.
We understand that you cannot book Dining Reservations until 60 days before your planned arrival.
Our date of arrival is 10/22/22. I have calculated that we can make Reservations starting on 8/23/22.
What time can we start making a Reservation on 8/23 for 10/22?
Can we make Reservations starting at 12:01 AM on 8/23 or is there a specific time when you can enter the site on 8/23?
Please Help!
7) Reviewing Dining Locations.
Example: I didn't see that there was a Time Period for Breakfast at Steak 71 in the Contemporary Resort.
Where can we find the time that Breakfast is served?
We were planning on going to Breakfast at Steak 71 on Sunday, Oct. 23.
Please Help!
8) We are celebrating our 40th Wedding Anniversary
Does Walt Disney World have an Anniversary Package that you can purchase?
Some sort of Package that allows you to choose from a list of possible components.
Example: Present a card or code and all photos taken during your stay are added to a file.
9) The Halloween Party
Is it worth the price? Cost for the two of us would be $320.00.
10) Thank you!!
Thank you for reading through these questions.
We need lots of Help.

 

[Lar6767]

I dealt with the live passes issue about five years ago and it was a hassle but we were able to use them. In my case I had only two left, with one day each on them, but even though you have more I assume the process will be similar. I was lucky in that, after doing some trip research, I found out that your park tickets needed to be linked to your My Disney account so I called the 407-WDISNEY number a few months prior to our trip to discuss the process because, at the time, I didn't even know that this had to be done because in 2005, when I had visited last, they just punched a hole in them and handed them back to you. At that point I spent a few hours on the phone with Disney Customer Service explaining the type of tickets I had, where I had gotten them and eventually linking them but, from what I remember, at first they didn't think it was possible to do so as soon as you can make sure you have an account and call them to link the tickets because they were at least able to verify that they were legitimate and that they had usable days left on them. Also if they tell you they can't just keep after them, as they sold them and have to stand behind that, but I'm sure you're probably going to get transferred around and may need to have it escalated to a more experienced person or a supervisor though. In addition Customer Service did advise us that we would need to present them at a window when we got to the park. After that was resolved I wasn't expecting to have the same thing happen when we got to EPCOT since they never told us that there would be any other issues using them but I should've figured that when we did the CM in the ticket booth would have no idea what they were or what to do with them which was exactly the case. We tried to explain the situation, to no avail, and, once again, it had to be escalated. They did finally find someone who knew that they had actually sold tickets that didn't expire at one point and he eventually figured out what to do but expect to spend some time at the window being aggravated. They took the tickets, replaced them with the current scannable versions and we were finally able to get in however, after they told us that they never see them anymore and that they were shocked that there were any still around I realized I just should've hung onto them and bought new ones because they are going to give you ones that expire.

 

[Tom_E_D]

Hello:

We have plenty of questions so please bear with us.

Our Planned WDW dates are 10/22, 23 & 24 of 2022.

We are celebrating our 40th Wedding Anniversary at WDW.

1) No Expiration/Park Hopper Passes.
My wife and I have about six Admissions left on each of these Cards.
Shoot, we don't even know how many admissions are left on each card.
How can we find this out?
Please Help!
2) What are the Procedures/Policies now?
How does WDW handle these No Expiration/Park Hopper Cards that we purchased long ago?
What do we need to do, in advance, to prepare, so we can use the value of the Cards for Admission?
Please Help!!
3) The Wristband
My wife and I have received a Wristband.
If we can find these Wristbands, again, what can we do to program them to help us plan our stay?
Please Help!
4) The Disney App
Does the Disney App replace the wristband?
5) 10/22/22...Theme Park & Dinner Planning Strategy
8AM....Saturday, 10/22 - Our Flight arrives @ MCO
9:30 AM... leave bags @ Dolphin
10AM.., take Friendship Ships to Hollywood Studios.
11AM...Ride Toy Story Mania
11:30 AM...The Little Mermaid
12 Noon... Where to eat some lunch?
1:00 PM...take Slinky Ride
2:00 PM...return to Dolphin
3:00 PM...check-in
6:30 PM...Eat Dinner at Cinderella's Castle
How should we go about planning this Agenda?
Are there restrictions with this plan?
Can we Park Hop from Hollywood Studios to Magic Kingdom, as the schedule indicates, on this date?
6) Making Dinner Reservations within 60 Days.
We understand that you cannot book Dining Reservations until 60 days before your planned arrival.
Our date of arrival is 10/22/22. I have calculated that we can make Reservations starting on 8/23/22.
What time can we start making a Reservation on 8/23 for 10/22?
Can we make Reservations starting at 12:01 AM on 8/23 or is there a specific time when you can enter the site on 8/23?
Please Help!
7) Reviewing Dining Locations.
Example: I didn't see that there was a Time Period for Breakfast at Steak 71 in the Contemporary Resort.
Where can we find the time that Breakfast is served?
We were planning on going to Breakfast at Steak 71 on Sunday, Oct. 23.
Please Help!
8) We are celebrating our 40th Wedding Anniversary
Does Walt Disney World have an Anniversary Package that you can purchase?
Some sort of Package that allows you to choose from a list of possible components.
Example: Present a card or code and all photos taken during your stay are added to a file.
9) The Halloween Party
Is it worth the price? Cost for the two of us would be $320.00.
10) Thank you!!
Thank you for reading through these questions.
We need lots of Help.

Steakhouse 71 has a webpage that can be found here. The hours for October 23 haven't been posted yet, but breakfast is 7:30-11:00 on the preceding Sunday and the few other dates I looked at.

A magicband (wristband) is not programmable and won't help you plan your trip. All it does is identify you as the person who has a certain My Disney Experience account. For the magicband to be useful, you will want to link it to a My Disney Experience (MDE) account that has the information about your tickets, hotel stay, etc. Once you have created your account, the webpage with links for providing all that information can be found here. You can create a My Disney Experience account at the Disneyworld website or on the Disneyworld mobile phone app. The app will be useful on your park days, so I recommend you download it to your phones even if you use the website to set up your account and input your information. Alternatives to magicbands are MagicMobile on the app (I have a magicband and don't use MagicMobile, but at least you now have the name if you want to research it) or a plastic ticket card, which I assume you will be given when you turn in your old no-expiration-date cards. I assume your old cards are the laminated paper ones, not plastic cards with 16 12 digit numbers, and that you will have to exchange them. If you already have plastic cards with 16 12 digit numbers, linking them to your MDE account may be all you need to do.

I don't feel knowledgeable enough to answer your other questions.

 

[StageTek]

I can help with a couple of your questions:

3) The Wristband
My wife and I have received a Wristband.
If we can find these Wristbands, again, what can we do to program them to help us plan our stay?
Please Help!
4) The Disney App
Does the Disney App replace the wristband?

The Magic Band can be linked to your Disney App. It acts as your park ticket (if you want) but does not plan your stay.

5) 10/22/22...Theme Park & Dinner Planning Strategy
8AM....Saturday, 10/22 - Our Flight arrives @ MCO
9:30 AM... leave bags @ Dolphin
10AM.., take Friendship Ships to Hollywood Studios.
11AM...Ride Toy Story Mania
11:30 AM...The Little Mermaid
12 Noon... Where to eat some lunch?
1:00 PM...take Slinky Ride
2:00 PM...return to Dolphin
3:00 PM...check-in
6:30 PM...Eat Dinner at Cinderella's Castle
How should we go about planning this Agenda?
Are there restrictions with this plan?
Can we Park Hop from Hollywood Studios to Magic Kingdom, as the schedule indicates, on this date?

You can park hop after 2PM so this plan works.
Your times are not realistic: Get in line at Toy Story Mania at 11AM - 30 to 40 minute wait then the ride; you will not make it to Little Mermaid at 11:30.
You need to allow more time between attractions and rides.

6) Making Dinner Reservations within 60 Days.
We understand that you cannot book Dining Reservations until 60 days before your planned arrival.
Our date of arrival is 10/22/22. I have calculated that we can make Reservations starting on 8/23/22.
What time can we start making a Reservation on 8/23 for 10/22?
Can we make Reservations starting at 12:01 AM on 8/23 or is there a specific time when you can enter the site on 8/23?
Please Help!

Dining reservations opens at 7AM Florida time.

8) We are celebrating our 40th Wedding Anniversary
Does Walt Disney World have an Anniversary Package that you can purchase?
Some sort of Package that allows you to choose from a list of possible components.
Example: Present a card or code and all photos taken during your stay are added to a file.

Disney does not offer any special wedding anniversary packages.

9) The Halloween Party
Is it worth the price? Cost for the two of us would be $320.00.

Very subjective. But, yes, it's worth the price. If that's the kind of thing you like.

Things are crazy different now, aren't they? When was the last time you were there?

 

[Tom_E_D]

OP,

Adding to my earlier comments, you should probably look up how park reservations, Genie+, and Individual Lightning Lane selections work if you don't already know. Park reservations, in particular. You will need a park reservation for Hollywood Studios to go there as your first park on your arrival day. Unfortunately, you need valid park tickets linked to your My Disney Experience account to make park reservations. That may be a problem with regard to your old no-expiration-date tickets. I'm not sure it will be, but I thought I should put you on notice that it may not be wise to wait until you get to Disney to look into it.

 

[LisaL]

Hi. We had old park hoppers from 1999 and 2003! In 2019, we planned a trip with our son and remembered we had the tickets that never expired. I called Disney and the process was pretty straight forward. They had me email copies of the front and back of the tickets. They research the tickets to confirm they are legit and then once confirmed, they let you know how many days you have left as well as any extras like mini golf and Typhoon Lagoon. It took maybe two weeks at the most to hear back, so it was pretty fast. Hope it works out for you! Happy anniversary!