PDA

View Full Version : FP+ and old tickets



GoldenDreams
10-21-2013, 11:25 PM
Hi All,

We are heading to WDW in November and have ordered our magic bands, but when I went to link our old tickets to them, I was unable to do so. Our tickets are 10-day No Expire that we purchased from the Official Ticket Center link here on Intercot. We bought them in 2010 and they do not have a barcode and do not have the right types of numbers to enter into the MDE website.

I called and spoke with a cast member at the help desk and he said that since there is no barcode, we'd need to wait until we arrive and link the tickets then.

If anyone has some advice, my questions are these:

1) Do you think I should call again and try speaking with a different person? There ARE numbers on the back of the card... just not the right type, apparently.

2) We are anxious about all of the FP+ slots being gone for Veteran's Day weekend. Does anyone know what the availability is for that weekend at the moment?

3) Even though we already have 8 days left on our pass, we are considering buying new ones so that we can book Fast Passes now. Is that crazy?

4) Do you think this issue will be solved once we link the tickets to this set of magic bands, or might this be a problem on our next trip too? Is there any way to exchange the tickets for new ones with bar codes?

Thank you very much for your help!!

Pirate Granny
10-22-2013, 06:59 AM
My ticket was too old to link (non expiring from 2006), has to swap it put for a new ticket once we got there. Daughters from 2008 linked fine.

MickeysBestPal
10-22-2013, 07:05 AM
Hi All,

We are heading to WDW in November and have ordered our magic bands, but when I went to link our old tickets to them, I was unable to do so. Our tickets are 10-day No Expire that we purchased from the Official Ticket Center link here on Intercot. We bought them in 2010 and they do not have a barcode and do not have the right types of numbers to enter into the MDE website.

I called and spoke with a cast member at the help desk and he said that since there is no barcode, we'd need to wait until we arrive and link the tickets then.

If anyone has some advice, my questions are these:

1) Do you think I should call again and try speaking with a different person? There ARE numbers on the back of the card... just not the right type, apparently.

2) We are anxious about all of the FP+ slots being gone for Veteran's Day weekend. Does anyone know what the availability is for that weekend at the moment?

3) Even though we already have 8 days left on our pass, we are considering buying new ones so that we can book Fast Passes now. Is that crazy?

4) Do you think this issue will be solved once we link the tickets to this set of magic bands, or might this be a problem on our next trip too? Is there any way to exchange the tickets for new ones with bar codes?

Thank you very much for your help!!

1) Absolutely, call back (maybe more than once) until you are sure that you've found
a CM who truly knows about older tickets.

2) No way to tell. They've added FP+ to so many attractions (and then limited how many FP+ guests can book) that it's changing the landscape of FP priorities.

3) Get a better answer about your current tickets, first.

4) See answers #1 and #3.

It's a shame that this new system that is ostensibly designed to "enhance guest's WDW experience" is, instead, causing so much anguish and confusion.

Strmchsr
10-22-2013, 08:04 AM
The issue is not that your tickets are old but that they aren't date specific. You have to have date specific tickets to unlock FP+ at the moment. If you could just any ticket number then folks would be making FP+ reservations all the time whether they were in the park or not. I know that sounds silly but people were doing it with ADRs, hence the reason you now have a credit card hold on ADRs. So, you'll need to wait until you check in and activate your tickets unfortunately as there's no way to switch those tickets to date specific.

MickeysBestPal
10-22-2013, 12:42 PM
The issue is not that your tickets are old but that they aren't date specific. You have to have date specific tickets to unlock FP+ at the moment. If you could just any ticket number then folks would be making FP+ reservations all the time whether they were in the park or not. I know that sounds silly but people were doing it with ADRs, hence the reason you now have a credit card hold on ADRs. So, you'll need to wait until you check in and activate your tickets unfortunately as there's no way to switch those tickets to date specific.

Sorry, but that's not the problem.

Even the current ticket media, Magic Your Way tickets, are not "date specific."

And, guests with AP's (good throughout a full year) can link their passes to MDE and book advanced FP+

Strmchsr
10-22-2013, 12:59 PM
Sorry, but that's not the problem.

Even the current ticket media, Magic Your Way tickets, are not "date specific."

And, guests with AP's (good throughout a full year) can link their passes to MDE and book advanced FP+

Yes, they can (i'm an AP holder) but only if you have a room booked. Like I have no current trips booked so with my AP linked I can't do FP+. That's why the "date specific" thing is important. No tickets allow you to book FP+ without being date linked. Not sure how Disney is going to deal with that.

MickeysBestPal
10-22-2013, 01:36 PM
Yes, they can (i'm an AP holder) but only if you have a room booked. Like I have no current trips booked so with my AP linked I can't do FP+. That's why the "date specific" thing is important. No tickets allow you to book FP+ without being date linked. Not sure how Disney is going to deal with that.

But, the OP is already scheduled for a resort stay.
We know that because of the statement that the OP's MagicBands are on order.

The presenting problem is that the CM who was contacted couldn't link the ticket numbers to the OP's MDE account.
My contention is to not just accept the word of only the first Phone CM contacted.

In fact, below are current numbers to reach Disney IT in regard to FP+/MDE problems.
I'd call and at least get a couple more opinions of the tickets in question.

WDW IT Dept.-
(407) 939-3471 or
(407) 939-7849 or
(407) 939-4357 or
(407) 939-7765 (option #2)

GoldenDreams
10-22-2013, 03:47 PM
Thank you, all. Yes, we do have a resort stay booked and had no problem linking that. I will definitely call again. Thank you for that advice.

The first call I made wasn't going well. At one point, when he looked up my info, he had me going on different dates and told me which parks I was going to on which days... none of which was right. I don't know how he got that info, but it was a little scary until he refreshed his screen and saw the correct info. Hopefully, I'll get someone different.

d_m_n_n
10-22-2013, 04:49 PM
I just "chatted" with a Disney CM because I have the same problem. We are using tickets from 2009. She claimed once I get within a 60 day window, I can link the tickets. For some reason, I'm not buying that...especially since you are experiencing the same problem and well within the 60 days. Keep us updated on what you find out!!!

GoldenDreams
10-24-2013, 08:29 PM
I'm sorry to say --- no luck. I've spoken to several people at different phone #'s and no one has been able to help. Sadly, most of them just seem to be using Disney's own website --- which I already know cannot link the tickets. Today we were 40 minutes into the call and I had already explained the # of people who tried to help when I realized that she was just using their website. She was also reading random #'s back to me that I couldn't make any sense of at my end... I think she was trying to fit 6 digits into 3 and stuff like that. I was not happy. I now know that just because they say "I can help you with that", it doesn't mean they can.... even if they put you on hold 5 times and you have hope that they are getting an expert. Oh well... It's a secret ploy to get us to buy whole packages and not use outside vendors such as Official Ticket Center... (an Intercot sponsor.)

Goofy4TheWorld
10-24-2013, 08:46 PM
If you can afford to do it without it being a big burden on your current vacation plans, and especially if your November trip is the week of Thanksgiving, I would strongly consider buying new tickets from Disney now to get your FP+ selections opened up, and then once you get to Disney have the old non-expiring tickets converted to new (MDE linkable) tickets and save those non-expiring tickets for a future trip.