Which ticket to upgrade?

[otterpop]

Here's my situation:

A few days ago I took advantage of the United Vacations ticket offer for 6-day Hopper tickets and now I'm thinking of using them to upgrade to AP's. I told my wife last night what I did and to my surprise...she told me that she had purchased the DVC 25th anniversary 6-day Hopper (with water-parks) tickets earlier in the year as an Xmas gift!!!! Obviously we need to work on our communication skills, but that's for another post!

Obviously, if I use the tickets as they are, it doesn't matter which one I use just as long as it fits our vacation plans.

But here's my dilemma; which ticket should I use to upgrade to the AP and which one should I save for future use? Does it matter? For example, if I plan to use one now to upgrade to an AP and then the other one to renew the AP, which tickets should I use for what?

I'm thinking that one of these two tickets might give me some sort of better upgrade flexibility/financial advantage in the future, but I don't know which one!

Is there any fine-print with the DVC 25th anniversary tickets that would cause problems with my above plan (like maybe they can't be upgraded, etc)?

Thanks for any suggestions!

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

AFAIK the 25th Anniversary ticket will give you a credit of the actual purchase price if you elected to upgrade it. The other hopper will be bridged to gate price. Save the Anniversary and upgrade the other one if you decide to do that.

 

[CMNJ]

Since the DVC tickets were purchased directly from Disney ticketing (not a reseller) they are supposed to only credit you what you paid for them toward an upgraded ticket/pass. If that occurs you would "lose" the discount you received buying the special tickets. The united vacations tickets were purchased from a reseller (united vacations) so Disney doesn't actually know what you paid for them (only what the reseller paid) and historically has given the current gate price toward an upgrade (i.e. Price bridging). I would upgrade the united tickets to the AP for this year and hold onto the DVC ones for a future trip.

 

[suebeelin]

Here's my situation:

A few days ago I took advantage of the United Vacations ticket offer for 6-day Hopper tickets and now I'm thinking of using them to upgrade to AP's. I told my wife last night what I did and to my surprise...she told me that she had purchased the DVC 25th anniversary 6-day Hopper (with water-parks) tickets earlier in the year as an Xmas gift!!!! Obviously we need to work on our communication skills, but that's for another post!

Obviously, if I use the tickets as they are, it doesn't matter which one I use just as long as it fits our vacation plans.

But here's my dilemma; which ticket should I use to upgrade to the AP and which one should I save for future use? Does it matter? For example, if I plan to use one now to upgrade to an AP and then the other one to renew the AP, which tickets should I use for what?

I'm thinking that one of these two tickets might give me some sort of better upgrade flexibility/financial advantage in the future, but I don't know which one!

Is there any fine-print with the DVC 25th anniversary tickets that would cause problems with my above plan (like maybe they can't be upgraded, etc)?

Thanks for any suggestions!

Evan

What United Vacations ticket deal is this? Just curious.

I would upgrade the United Vacations tickets. The DVC 25th Anny tickets have no upside in upgrading. We bought a 9 day DVC 25th anny ticket and are currently debating whether to upgrade it or use our 5 day park hopper purchased last year for the upgrade. For us, our dilemma is whether we will go back to Disney and need/want a 9 day ticket.... but thats another story.

 

[CMNJ]

What United Vacations ticket deal is this? Just curious.

I would upgrade the United Vacations tickets. The DVC 25th Anny tickets have no upside in upgrading. We bought a 9 day DVC 25th anny ticket and are currently debating whether to upgrade it or use our 5 day park hopper purchased last year for the upgrade. For us, our dilemma is whether we will go back to Disney and need/want a 9 day ticket.... but thats another story.

The united vacation ticket deal is dead but it was buy 6 day ticket for the price of 3 days (base ticket or park hopper). So the park hopper version cost $368 with a current gate ticket value of $451 toward an AP upgrade.

 

[Marionnette]

I think that the answer lies in whether the DVC tickets were considered to be purchased directly from Disney Parks. IIRC, if you purchase directly from Disney Parks, then there is no "price bridging" of the ticket to the current gate price. The amount that you paid will be the amount that gets applied. The tickets purchased from United Vacations would get price bridged because they were definitely not purchased from Disney Parks.

 

[ldo]

I thought the United/SW tickets expired Dec. 2017? Disney told me the 25th anniv. do not expire.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

I thought the United/SW tickets expired Dec. 2017? Disney told me the 25th anniv. do not expire.

The SW and United tickets are just regular MYW tickets with no expiration.

 

[otterpop]

Thanks everyone for you comments and suggestions. I tried to do some "high" level math and it looks like if I were to go with the scenario of upgrading one set of tix to AP's and then using the other set to renew those AP's next year. it looks like using the DVC tix to upgrade and then the United tix to renew would save me a few extra dollars in the long run. The reason being is if the DVC tix are set in there "value", then when tix prices go up again next year, their value will stay the same. But, the United tix value will increase to match the rate of the appropriate ticket. But, if I don't want upgrade the second set of tix, then using the United tix to upgrade to AP's now and using the DVC tix as is in the future, would be the best approach.

On a side note, I was looking at the actual DVC tix (cards) and the info that is listed for them on my MDE and there is nothing indicating that these tix are "special" in any way. I'm guessing that the CM's are able to see the details when they look it up in their system. If not, then it doesn't matter which tix I use as they will both be given the current value for what Disney is selling them for.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

Thanks everyone for you comments and suggestions. I tried to do some "high" level math and it looks like if I were to go with the scenario of upgrading one set of tix to AP's and then using the other set to renew those AP's next year. it looks like using the DVC tix to upgrade and then the United tix to renew would save me a few extra dollars in the long run. The reason being is if the DVC tix are set in there "value", then when tix prices go up again next year, their value will stay the same. But, the United tix value will increase to match the rate of the appropriate ticket. But, if I don't want upgrade the second set of tix, then using the United tix to upgrade to AP's now and using the DVC tix as is in the future, would be the best approach.

On a side note, I was looking at the actual DVC tix (cards) and the info that is listed for them on my MDE and there is nothing indicating that these tix are "special" in any way. I'm guessing that the CM's are able to see the details when they look it up in their system. If not, then it doesn't matter which tix I use as they will both be given the current value for what Disney is selling them for.

Sounds like good analysis!

Regarding the 25th Anniversary tickets I feel like it indicated in the info that you would receive credit for actual price paid. That's meant that unless you got a CM who treated it otherwise you were losing out on the savings even to add a day.

 

[CMNJ]

Sounds like good analysis!

Regarding the 25th Anniversary tickets I feel like it indicated in the info that you would receive credit for actual price paid. That's meant that unless you got a CM who treated you were losing out on the savings even to add a day.

That's what I recall reading as well.

 

[otterpop]

Thanks again for the comments...I'll try and remember to post an update; I'm going in 3 weeks and I'll just tell the CM here are the two types of tickets I have, what are my upgrade options for each one..

 

[Judique]

Thanks again for the comments...I'll try and remember to post an update; I'm going in 3 weeks and I'll just tell the CM here are the two types of tickets I have, what are my upgrade options for each one..

I think you have a good plan. But it may be a wash to wait depending on a price increase, as the AP may increase in price as well as the park hopper.

On a side note I upgraded yesterday and it cost $133.13 for the 13 month DVC AP.

I had a $368 United ticket and it was very easy. I did it before I entered Epcot at International Gateway.

Also used some old gift card money that was discounted from Target, so my final actual cost was under $500.

I will get 3 trips out of this AP as I am going again in early March and then in November 2017.

 

[otterpop]

Thanks for the info. Is there any word out there that Disney will be increasing ticket prices in the next few weeks? We won't be there until the weekend after Thanksgiving, so it's out of my control as to when we do the upgrade. The good thing is if ticket prices go up, so does the value of the United tickets...

Our plan right now is to have an early breakfast at Cape May (have an 8:00 reservation) and then head over to the International Gateway right when it opens to do the upgrade.

 

[otterpop]

Update...was able to upgrade our "United" 6-day Hopper tickets yesterday at the International Gateway with no problems. It ended up being about $535 total to upgrade the 4 tickets to DVC Gold AP's. Overall, by purchasing the 6-day Hopper "United" tickets and then upgrading to AP's, saved us about $330. Thanks again for everyones suggestions. Took about 15 minutes in all...