Confused about Upgrading to Annual Pass

[GabbyMitch]

Hi Everyone. I'm new to this and have some questions.

I have a 10 day park hopper and I might want to upgrade it to an annual pass. If I use some of the days of admission before I upgrade it, will the full price of 10 days plus park hopping be applied to the purchase price of the AP, or will I only get a credit in the amount of the days I have left?

Once I upgrade, will I start using the annual pass immediately or will I still have to use my room key?

If I have the dining plan, will I still be able to use the remaining credits even though I have upgraded the tickets? Will I just use my room key to redeem those like usual?

What if free dining comes out? Can I still upgrade to the annual pass during my trip, or will this not be allowed?

Would I be better off just buying another 2 or 3 day ticket instead of upgrading to the annual pass?

Sorry for all of the questions. I am kind of new to this and so confused. Thank you in advance for any help you can offer.

Gabby

[Tinkerfreak]

First of all Welcome Gabby!!!:welcome:
Second I don't have any answers for you because I am wondering the same thing. Im sure someone will be able to explain this to us.

[Fangorn]

I have a 10 day park hopper and I might want to upgrade it to an annual pass. If I use some of the days of admission before I upgrade it, will the full price of 10 days plus park hopping be applied to the purchase price of the AP, or will I only get a credit in the amount of the days I have left?

You will get credit for the original purchase price of the 10 day ticket. However, the begin date of your Annual Pass will be the date you first used your 10 day ticket. Example: you arrive on 2/1 and use the 10 day ticket on 2/1, 2/2 and 2/4. On 2/5 you decide to upgrade to an Annual Pass. The AP will be valid from 2/1/09 thru 2/1/10. (yes, through 2/1/10, not 1/31/10))


Once I upgrade, will I start using the annual pass immediately or will I still have to use my room key?

You will then have both your AP and your room key. The 10 day pass will have been removed from your room key. You will need to use your AP for entry to the parks.


If I have the dining plan, will I still be able to use the remaining credits even though I have upgraded the tickets? Will I just use my room key to redeem those like usual?

Yes, you will still have all of your dining credits. These will still be connected to your room key.


What if free dining comes out? Can I still upgrade to the annual pass during my trip, or will this not be allowed?

You can still upgrade even with the free dining offer.


Would I be better off just buying another 2 or 3 day ticket instead of upgrading to the annual pass?

The cost for a 10-day park hopper, plus a 2-day park hopper is 517.10. The cost of an Annual Pass is 499.49. At just that level, the AP is more cost-effective. If you add in the AP discounts, free parking and the being able to go back anytime within the next year, it can be a pretty substantial savings.


We typically go in September and take advantage of the free dining. We buy a 1-day base ticket with the package. After we check-in, we go to Guest Relations at DTD and upgrade that 1-day ticket to an Annual Pass. We then use the AP on 2 or 3 other trips during the next year (we have a son who lives in Orlando), We’ve never had a problem doing the upgrade. My advice though, from some stories I’ve heard, is to always do ticket upgrades at Guest Relations, not at the hotel desk. Of course, you can’t upgrade to AP at the hotel anyway, so that’s not an issue here.

Steve
:mickey:

[wdwnomad]

I've heard from other posters and from my own perosnal experience that upgrading park tickets to annual pass when you have the dining plan on the room key can cause a problem.

I will tell you my experiences doing this past September. Doing some research people suggested getting your park ticket removed from your room key at the concierge desk at your hotel. This is because sometimes at Guest Services when doing the upgrade they somehow void out the entire card. This causes you to lose your dining credits. Getting the ticket off the room key onto a separate card will prevent this. One day I did this for my ticket no problems. The ticket was taken off and put on a separate card. Upgrade done no problems. The next day my sister went to do her card. Concierge desk said it was impossible to do what we are asking. Said it physically can't be done. Even after saying you did it yesterday for me didn't do anything. I figured ok I will just try back another time with another CM. We went to Epcot and my sister went into Guest Relations to ask them about it. They said they knew the about the problem with the dining plan credits and knew the way to avoid it from happening. They did the upgrade and the room card with the dining plan stayed in tack. Then next day my sister decided she should have upgraded the kids' tickets too. At the MK when she did the upgrade for the tickets they wiped out the cards and we lost access to the dining plan on those cards. We still had two cards with the dining plan so it wasn't a big deal.

So my lessons learned were definetly try to have the tickets and room key separated. This makes it much more easier. Another thing was to try to get a feel of the CM doing the transactions. If they seem unsure then don't try and press it because they might end up messing things up. Just try back and get someone else. The other thing is know your upgrade price before doing the upgrade. My sister got some weird prices when doing hers.