cheapest way to buy annual pass (DVC)

[trasor]

Thank you very much.

 

[lenshanem]

So we use ticket one day, next day upgrade it to DVC AP. They deduct how much off? Just one day admission? So it is better to buy base with no hopping or expiration? Please someone walk me thru this!

 

[lenshanem]

OK. Do I have this right?
So we buy UT 6 day base with no expiration for 353.95.
The gate price for this ticket is 414.29 so we save 60.34 per ticket.
Then we upgrade it to the DVC AP, which is 446.24.
Guest Services will have us pay the difference of the 414.29 to the 446.24, so we'd owe them 31.95 for the upgrade.
Now on allears it says you have to use one day of admission for this to work and upgrade within 14 days if the ticket you originally bought was less than what gate is. Otherwise, they give you what the original ticket was actually bought for.
So my question here is, do they deduct the value of the one day admission that you used? If so, that is currently 90.53 I think. So this wouldn't be a savings? If I read mousesavers correctly, they do deduct that day of admission.
If not, a family of four (10+) could potentially save 241.36 on their DVC APs!
Has anyone actually done this?

 

[lenshanem]

Do I have to buy a park hopper with no expiration to mirror the AP? I saw that if you have a ticket with water park options you have to upgrade to the PAP. Does the park hopping and/or no expiration matter with the AP? Thank you!!!

 

[Brandis]

The way I do it is, after we arrive at WDW in the evening, I quickly go to Epcot, enter the park using the ticket, leave right away and go to Guest Relations and do the upgrade.

I do this because I will also buy the Tables in Wonderland card and will need that one already for dinner that evening.

Otherwise, you could just use the ticket the first day and then upgrade in the evening. You can even use several days, doesn't matter, the upgrade just has to be done within 14 days of the first use and the APs start date will always be backdated to the first use of the ticket you upgraded from.

The ticket could contain Waterpark option, as long as you don't use one of those options, you still can upgrade to the regular AP. If you used a Waterpark option, you can only upgrade to Premium AP. Doesn't matter if the ticket has expiration or the No Expiration option, you still will need to upgrade within 14 days of first use.

Get whichever ticket gives you the biggest saving, just make sure that the official gate price for that ticket is below what the AP will cost you.

 

[lenshanem]

Thank you! I can't believe I never knew this!!!

 

[delauzons]

We are leaving Saturday for my daughter's Sweet 16. We have annual passes but I bought girls she is bringing 4 day no hopper passes from UT. Would it be cheaper to upgrade to park hopper in DW? TIA!

 

[mjc2003]

I know this has been covered, but can somebody please enlighten me....I have an 8 day hopper that we just bought through UT BEFORE prices went up. We are going for a 9 day trip in November. We just decided to do a 4-5 day trip end of August, so I would use the 8 day hopper for day one of our August trip and then exchange it for the AP. I got that. My question is, am I being credited for the NEW price of the 8 day hopper as if I bought it from Disney? Or am I being credited the exact amount I paid for the hopper from UT?

 

[Brandis]

If you don't use it, you get the UT price you paid credited. If you use it at least once, the price is brought up to the current Disney gate price, so that's a very good deal.

 

[szymcl]

I did this upgrade in May. I bought UT ticket, I think 8 day hoppers, then used them 2 days, took them to Guest Services in the MK and asked to upgrade to Premium Annual Pass with DVC discount. The cast member was a new college programmer and he first said that would be an additional $95 while I had figured it would be $19. I am always hesitant to argue, so I said OK, but asked to see the figures, thinking I must have figured wrong, or they changed the policy. He sensed my hesitation I think, then went away, refigured, said he had missed a step and voila, $19 later, I had my premium annual passes and saved some money! It's funny, I went to Guest Services inside MK thinking I don't like to talk through windows, but I had to deal with a very tall counter instead! I'm short...it's always something!

 

[Missus Toad]

You all are geniuses, I swear, because this is like trigonometry to me. I'm planning on needing about 11 days of park hopper passes for 2 adults and 2 kids over the coming year. Is it worth it for me to upgrade to a DVC AP? If I got old pricing from UT, what is the sweet spot? New pricing sweet spot? I promise you I've read this thread 'til my eyes crossed and am not being lazy-- I'm just that math impaired. Help? Anyone?

 

[antree]

I did this upgrade in May. I bought UT ticket, I think 8 day hoppers, then used them 2 days, took them to Guest Services in the MK and asked to upgrade to Premium Annual Pass with DVC discount. The cast member was a new college programmer and he first said that would be an additional $95 while I had figured it would be $19. I am always hesitant to argue, so I said OK, but asked to see the figures, thinking I must have figured wrong, or they changed the policy. He sensed my hesitation I think, then went away, refigured, said he had missed a step and voila, $19 later, I had my premium annual passes and saved some money! It's funny, I went to Guest Services inside MK thinking I don't like to talk through windows, but I had to deal with a very tall counter instead! I'm short...it's always something!

szymcl I am now so confused I thought I had it all figured out until I read your post. You bought an 8 day hopper at $286.00, the prices goes to $330.00 for gate price after you use it, the premium annual is $691.00 with discount it's about $591. How did you only owe $19.00? Am I figuring this out wrong? I am doing this in August and now I am soooo confused.

Help!

 

[hansel1]

You all are geniuses, I swear, because this is like trigonometry to me. I'm planning on needing about 11 days of park hopper passes for 2 adults and 2 kids over the coming year. Is it worth it for me to upgrade to a DVC AP? If I got old pricing from UT, what is the sweet spot? New pricing sweet spot? I promise you I've read this thread 'til my eyes crossed and am not being lazy-- I'm just that math impaired. Help? Anyone?

I think just you could do the 6 day ph no expiration and then upgrade to dvc ap after first use and that would be your best bet. If you need 11 days that would cost you $496.29 in myw ph tickets (10 days for 368.49 and 1 day for 127.80) the dvc ap is just $446.24. If you do the UT upgrade you will probably save around $20 on the ap.

 

[mybabesuz]

I tried to do this in May. What a nightmare!

I bought 6 day PH Passes from UCT.
We used them the first day at MK.
The next day we upgraded to our DVC APs at MK.
They would only give us credit for what the ticket was purchased for.
We argued and argued and argued and got nowhere.
WE ended up getting $50 LESS than we actually paid for them.

The next day we went to the desk at AKV with all our receipts.
We argued for another 45 minutes, got the manager involved and
finally managed to atleast get what we paid UCT back.

I have no idea what went wrong with the whole transaction.
We used the ticket the first day and upgraded at MK the next day.
I don't know how some people do it with no problem and others report having issues.
We would never try to do it again.
The small amount of money we would have saved was not worth it.

So please just beware if you are planning to do this.
It doesn't always go smoothly and I'm not the only one that has had problems.

 

[lenshanem]

I tried to do this in May. What a nightmare!

I bought 6 day PH Passes from UCT.
We used them the first day at MK.
The next day we upgraded to our DVC APs at MK.
They would only give us credit for what the ticket was purchased for.
We argued and argued and argued and got nowhere.
WE ended up getting $50 LESS than we actually paid for them.

The next day we went to the desk at AKV with all our receipts.
We argued for another 45 minutes, got the manager involved and
finally managed to atleast get what we paid UCT back.

I have no idea what went wrong with the whole transaction.
We used the ticket the first day and upgraded at MK the next day.
I don't know how some people do it with no problem and others report having issues.
We would never try to do it again.
The small amount of money we would have saved was not worth it.

So please just beware if you are planning to do this.
It doesn't always go smoothly and I'm not the only one that has had problems.

Well, this is disappointing to read as I have already bought tickets from UT. I'm gonna be in trouble with DH! I told him I researched this and it was a real deal. I'm confused on your post, though. You said they would only give you credit back from what you paid for the tickets, then a couple sentences later you said you got $50 less than what you paid thru UT.

I'm assuming I'll have no problems upgrading to the DVC AP, but worst case I'll only get credit back on what I paid for the original tickets at UT, not gate price. But, I sure don't want to lose money on the exchange. Anyone?

Do you think it makes a difference where you go to do this? Were you at the outside windows at the front of the MK? The earlier poster said they went inside the park at Guest Services.

 

[lenshanem]

OK, I'm guessing they tried to give you what UT paid for them and not what you actually paid.

 

[bgraham34]

So If I have a park pass that is 5 dollars more than the DVC Annual pass can I still upgrade? I don't care if I lose 5 bucks or not.

 

[VBSunGoddess]

This past April I upgraded tickets that I got through my employer that were cheaper than UT at guest services at Animal Kingdom & only had to pay the difference between the AP & what the Current Disney price Of my tickets was

 

[bumbershoot]

If you run into problems, don't bother arguing. Don't waste your time! You might jot down the names of the CMs, but just take your tickets back and leave. Go to another area later and start again.

The POLICY is that they are to "bridge" the price. This is written policy, as Cheshire_Figment has said (he's a ticketing CM with permission to use their info in educating us), and that's the policy passed down when someone had MASSIVE problems last January while working to upgrade. It's policy.

If they are such bad employees that they don't know policy and can't look it up, don't waste your time. Find the CMs who know policy and will do it, and then give the manager there the names and locations of the other CMs so they can be educated.


Just a few weeks before the person I made mention of had her problems at AK guest services, I had a most excellent time upgrading at the same location. The ONLY thing that slowed down the transaction was that my brain was frozen and sludgy (thank goodness I had all the numbers written down so I could just read my numbers when she gave me her calculation for upgrading) and there was a woman who had lost her son at park closing and was trying to hold it together while CMs helped her.

I even asked the CM who helped me, as she started the calculations, "are you still doing that bridging thing?" and she smiled and said "oh yes".

 

[lenshanem]

Thanks everyone for the encouraging posts.
Curious if anyone else has upgraded recently, like within the last couple of months?