Ticket Upgrade Question

[tinkman]

DW purchased 7-day park tickets for the two of us at a Disney store last December for a trip we did not have planned yet. Ok, now the trip is planned for 2 weeks in May and what I would like to do is upgrade the tickets with the water park & more option. Not interested in park-hopping, just the WP&M option. Has anyone done this with tickets purchased at a Disney store? Should, or can this be done at a Disney store, or can it be done at guest relations at Disney?

[TinkerbellT421]

You can actually purchase the upgrade at the resort the day you arrive. I believe its the concierge desk, no the check in desk. Tickets purchased at a Disney Store are treated the same way as if you bought them from Disney direct :)

[CleveRocks]

Last December as in a couple months ago, or December 2009?

If you bought them over a year ago, use the tickets at least once before you do the upgrade!

If you upgrade a totally unused ticket and you paid less for the ticket than the current gate price, you'll be charged not only for the upgrade but also for the difference between what you paid and the current price. There was a ticket price increase in August 2010. If you bought yours in '09 you paid less, which means you'll want to use them at least once to enter a park before you go and add the Water Park Fun & More option.

Strange, but true.

[TinkerbellT421]

To add waterparks, fun and more is a flat rate. Doesnt matter how many days are used or left, except there has to be a minimum of two days left I think? I cant remember if its one or two days left on te ticket, but its a flat rate. So you wont save anymore or less if you just upgrade your ticket without using any days.

[TinkerbellT421]

Atleast that is my understanding when reading this:

You can also add the Water Park Fun & More option to any ticket. The cost is a flat rate of $54 ($57.51 with tax). For a 1-Day or 2-Day Base Ticket, that adds 2 admissions to water parks or DisneyQuest. Two adult DisneyQuest admissions purchased separately would normally cost $85.20 with tax. Two adult water park admissions purchased separately would normally cost $95.85 with tax.

Here's the best part: the Water Park Fun & More admissions DO NOT have to be used on the same day as your main theme park admission! They are good for 14 days from the first use of your ticket. (However, it is possible to use up all of your admissions on the same day if you want.)

In other words, you could buy a 2-Day Base Ticket, add the Water Park Fun & More, and use that ticket on up to four different days! For example, you could spend your first day in a major theme park, second day at a water park, third day at DisneyQuest and fourth day at a major theme park. It's a decent deal for $230.04 total with tax.

[Goofy4TheWorld]

To add waterparks, fun and more is a flat rate. Doesn't matther how many days are used or left, except there has to be a minimum of two days left I think? I cant remember if its one or two days left on the ticket, but its a flat rate. So you wont save anymore or less if you just upgrade your ticket without using any days.

What CleveRocks is referring to is a "quirk" in Disney's computer system which decides how much "credit/value" to give you for your origional ticket. If the ticket is totally unused you get the value you actually paid when purchased. If you upgrade a ticket that has been used at least once you get today's value regardless of what you actually paid.

Getting today's price as a credit is always better since ticket prices now are always higher than they used to be.

It's just a quirk of Disney IT.

Edit to add: Taking advantage of this quirk (by using the ticket at least once before upgrading it) could save you $48 per adult ticket if you purchased your tickets in December 2009.
(Dec 2009 cost =$253, 2011 cost=$301

[CleveRocks]

Doesnt matter how many days are used or left, except there has to be a minimum of two days left I think? I cant remember if its one or two days left on te ticket
The above is not true.

Even if your ticket is totally used up, you can still add to it or upgrade it, as long as it's not past 14 days from the first use of the ticket.

There is absolutely no rule or policy that says an exhausted ticket is dead and can't be added to.

[CleveRocks]

So you wont save anymore or less if you just upgrade your ticket without using any days.
Again, thie statement above is incorrect. It's just wrong. I'm not arguing, I'm explaining Disney fact. It's a fact that Goofy4TheWorld knows very well.

Please, we're trying to give advice ... good, solid, known information about how to help someone save money. We KNOW this advice to be 100% accurate. Please, you're going on an assumption based on, I don't know what, but seriously, I'm trying to be a nice guy and help someone save some REAL money, please don't say that my information is wrong when you don't know that to be the case.

In the ticket booth or at the Lobby Concierge desk at the resorts, the cast member who uprades a totally unused ticket has no choice but to charge you not only for the upgrade but also the difference between what you actually paid for the ticket and what the current gate price of that ticket is. But if the ticket has been used at least once within the past 14 days, the perform a process called "bridging" the ticket where they tell the computer system to treat the ticket like a currently-priced ticket.

This advice to use an older ticket (bought at a less expensive price than the current price) first before upgrading ALSO applies to a new ticket purchased at a discount through an authorized reseller. Someone who buys a ticket at a legitimate discount and then goes and upgrades that ticket before using it, that person forfeits the discount the previously enjoyed.

[TinkerbellT421]

You can also add the Water Park Fun & More option to any ticket. The cost is a flat rate of $54 ($57.51 with tax). For a 1-Day or 2-Day Base Ticket, that adds 2 admissions to water parks or DisneyQuest. Two adult DisneyQuest admissions purchased separately would normally cost $85.20 with tax. Two adult water park admissions purchased separately would normally cost $95.85 with tax.
I was trying to actually figure out what this statement says when I read aboout upgrading to WPF&M after reading your statement. I was confused because what you were saying wasn't making sense to me, after reading ^^that information. SO I was actually trying to understand.



Please, we're trying to give advice ... good, solid, known information about how to help someone save money. We KNOW this advice to be 100% accurate. Please, you're going on an assumption based on, I don't know what, but seriously, I'm trying to be a nice guy and help someone save some REAL money, please don't say that my information is wrong when you don't know that to be the case. Please do not attack me, I am not the only one on this board to have ever misunderstood what someone else was trying to say. So on this note, I will take this as being unwelcome. Have a nice day.

[CleveRocks]

I wasn't trying to attack you, and I apologize if it comes off that way to you. I was assuming that my politeness in using the word "please" would convey that idea.

The LAST thing I'd want to do is to make anyone feel unwelcome. But at the same time, I also want to make sure that people coming here for information get that information.

[TinkerbellT421]

Well thank you for the apology and Im sorry if I took it out of context of what you meant. I was really trying to understand my confusion of what I have read prior about upgrading tickets because I had seen elsewhere the information that I posted. And really would like to know if that information is incorrect, because I would rather know the truth if what I had previously learned or understood was wrong. :blush: Thats why I left question marks, lol. I was trying to figure out what you were saying versus what I was understand when reading from another site. I was confused, it happens a lot :blush: So based on what I posted and what you are trying to say, could you explain as to what exactly you mean, for my own education and if we are looking to do it in the future. What you mean with the diffrence between using a ticket first versus upgrading before using a ticket?

[CleveRocks]

Well thank you for the apology and Im sorry if I took it out of context of what you meant. I was really trying to understand my confusion of what I have read prior about upgrading tickets because I had seen elsewhere the information that I posted. And really would like to know if that information is incorrect, because I would rather know the truth if what I had previously learned or understood was wrong. :blush: Thats why I left question marks, lol. I was trying to figure out what you were saying versus what I was understand when reading from another site. I was confused, it happens a lot :blush: So based on what I posted and what you are trying to say, could you explain as to what exactly you mean, for my own education and if we are looking to do it in the future. What you mean with the diffrence between using a ticket first versus upgrading before using a ticket?

What I'm about to write has nothing to do with common sense, so please don't try to apply common sense to the situation. Like many things with Disney, common sense does not apply. We just have to learn Disney's rules and procedures and accept those facts, even if they make little or no sense.

When you upgrade a ticket, it is treated differently if it is a totally unused ticket versus a ticket that has been used at least once to enter a Disney entrance turnstile.

If a ticket has never been used, the cast member doing the upgrade can see how much you paid for the ticket (it's coded in the magnetic stripe). If the amount you paid for the ticket is the same as the current price for that ticket, then the only thing you'll be charged is for the upgrade you're doing.

But if you paid LESS for that ticket than it is currently worth at the gate price, then you will have to pay for the upgrade itself AND for the difference in price between what you roginally paid and what the current price for that ticket is.

So let's just pretend that you buy a ticket today for $200. And after you buy it you decide you want to add the Water Park Fun & More option. You have not used the ticket yet, you just bought it earlier today. You go to a ticket booth and say you want to upgrade to Water Park Fun & More. You will be charged $54, which is the price of the WPF&M upgrade.

Now, let's pretend you bought your ticket 2 years ago at your local Disney store but you never went to Disney World like you thought you would; let's say you paid $160 for that ticket. You fly to Disney World today and you want to add the Water Park Fun & More option to that ticket. Before you go into any park (that is, before you use that ticket), you go to a ticket booth and say you want to upgrade to Water Park Fun & More. You will be charged the $54 for the WPF&M option, AND you will also be charged another $40, the difference between the $160 you originally paid for the ticket and the $200 current gate price of the ticket. So in total, upgrading this ticket to WPF&M costs you $54 + $40 = $94.

BUT ...
If you take that 2 year old unused ticket and enjoy the day in Magic Kingdom, and then afterwards you go to a ticket booth to do the WPF&M upgrade, you will be charged ONLY the $54 for the upgrade. Because the ticket has been used at least once, you will NOT have to pay the $40 difference between the price you paid for the ticket and the current $200 value of the ticket. This is accomplished by the cast member when he/she performs a computerized process called "bridging" the ticket.

This is is easiest explanation I can give. Like I said, it makes no sense in terms of logic or common sense, but yet it is 100% Disney truth.

I hope this helps!:mickey:

[TinkerbellT421]

:blush: Now I get it!! Thank you :) That helped a bunch trying to understand what you were saying! Good to know! Thanks for the info :mickey: Like you said, not that it makes any "common sense" at all, cause it really doesn't in terms of logic, thats probably why I couldn't understand it before. But now I understand what you were saying on how the process works. Thats actually good to know, cause we get our park tickets alot at discount prices, and one of these times want to go back to the waterparks. I think Intercot should post what you just posted here under info central :mickey: