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Disneylanding
06-25-2008, 08:17 AM
Can someone please explain to me what it means to upgrade from an entry ticket to an annual pass? I am SO lost. Lay-Men's-Terms. Ha.

I am headed down to Disneyland with my husband and my 3 kids next month. I was wondering how do I go about getting a annual pass? We were going to get 2 adult- 3 day hoppers and 1 - child 3 day hopper when we got there at the hotel. Would it just be cheaper to get the hopper then upgrade to a pass? Or just buy the pass outright? Or does it come out even? Would we get the hopper when we get to the hotel and turn around and upgrade to the pass when we get to the ticket window at the park? Or do we get the 3 day at the hotel then go the 2 days in the park then the last day upgrade to the pass? I was wondering how much more would I have to pay if I bought the 3 day hopper and then upgrade it to a deluxe pass? Also, I notice they have discounts for deluxe passes that are $359 for AAA holders. Is that if you only have AAA insurance? Does that qualify if you have only road side assistance?

Any infrmation for a 'newbie' would help out so much! Thank you!

Thanks for the help! Sorry for the confusion and blabbering.

MammaSilva
06-25-2008, 09:03 AM
Ok, first of all you can probably save a little off the hopper if you preordered online and did the print at home option...that way you save time when you get to the hotel.

IF you are staying on property then your room charge slip allows you to use the Magical Morning early entry, if you're off property, the advantage to buy the hopper is they come with one Magical Morning early entry, use that THEN upgrade to the annual pass.

Be forewarned, there is no discount on childrens passes so all of your AP's will cost the same and they will credit you with exactly what you paid for each of your hoppers towards the upgrade. After you have used your Magical morning entry you can go to the AP processing center on Main Street, turn in the hoppers, pay the difference and have your pictures taken. You'll walk out with your passes in hand.

As for the AAA, I only have the roadside assistance card and I get the AAA discounts where ever they are offered by showing my card.

Hope this helps a bit.

AVP
06-25-2008, 09:12 AM
How or if you upgrade really depends on the type of annual pass you plan to buy. If your ultimate goal is to wind up with a Premium Annual Pass, then there's no point in buying and upgrading a park hopper - just buy the pass and be done with it.

In almost every instance (yes, I know of the few exceptions, but they do not apply to most visitors), you will only get the face value of the park hopper ticket as credit toward your upgrade, so purchasing a discounted park hopper isn't going to save you any money when you upgrade as you'll still need to pay the full face value for the pass you want. If you bought the $99 3-day "Summer Fun Pass" that is being offered to SoCal residents right now you'd only get $99 toward the value of your upgrade, not the normal $189/$159 value of the 3-day Park Hopper.

The advantage to buying and then upgrading a park hopper really lies only in being able to visit the park when you would otherwise be blocked out. You said you were coming next month and you mentioned that you were looking at the Deluxe pass. Deluxe passes are blocked out July 4 - 6 and then every Saturday. If you were planning your visit during that time, you would not be able to use a Deluxe pass without paying for a blockout day ticket. In that case, you could buy a park hopper ticket, could use those admissions on days you would otherwise be blocked out, and then upgrade to a Deluxe pass by paying the difference.

As some people have mentioned in other threads, if you qualify for the Summer Fun Pass you can use it to visit the park on three days you would otherwise be blocked out on during a 45-day window, then upgrade it. That trick works really well for locals who visit the park one day at a time.

You also receive admission to the park on the day you buy your pass, regardless of whether you are blocked out that day or not, so if your trip STARTED on a Saturday you could buy the Deluxe passes that day, visit the park on Saturday and then you'd have your pass to use for the rest of the year.

In your case, if you're planning to buy a Deluxe pass anyway, if your first day in the park is going to be a Saturday AND you won't be coming back to Disneyland on a blockout day within 45 days, then just buy the Deluxe pass - you can even buy them online.

IF you're planning to buy a Deluxe pass, but your first day in the park is NOT going to be a Saturday, then you can buy whatever 3-day hopper you want (you can also order them online), use it on this trip and upgrade on your last day.

Did I make it more confusing?

AVP

EeyoreGirl
06-25-2008, 12:05 PM
One advantage to getting your APs the day you arrive is you can take advantage of the 10% food discount at many restaurants in the parks.

If you get Hopper tickets and wait to the last day to upgrade them, your AP start date will be the first day you entered the park on you Hopper instead of the day you are upgrading. Just mentioning it cause we were a little confused the first time we upgraded.

Katlovett
06-26-2008, 11:40 AM
AVP, are you trying to tell them not to upgrade their parkhopper to a deluxe annual pass until they are past the deluxe pass blackout days when they would need to use their parkhopper for entry?

Katprint

AVP
06-26-2008, 01:47 PM
AVP, are you trying to tell them not to upgrade their parkhopper to a deluxe annual pass until they are past the deluxe pass blackout days when they would need to use their parkhopper for entry?

KatprintExcept that you have to upgrade on or before the last day the parkhopper is valid or you lose the value of the parkhopper. If they are visiting in July the Deluxe pass blockout dates are only an issue if they are visiting the 4-6th, or over (but not starting on) a Saturday. If they were visiting July 13-15th, there are no blockout dates in there and thus no reason not to just buy the Deluxe pass outright.

It would be really helpful to know the exact dates the OP is planning to travel and visit the parks. Since I've never upgraded a parkhopper in my life, maybe Autopia Guy would have a better suggestion.

AVP

Darkbeer
06-26-2008, 01:56 PM
There is a reason to go from a ParkHopper to a Annual Pass as an upgrade, even if there is no blockout dates during the visit, and that is to get the Magic Morning Entry. Then right after you take advantage of the Early Entry, then upgrade to the AP to get the discounts.

Disneylanding
06-28-2008, 09:17 AM
Thank you MammaSilva, AVP, EeyoreGirl, Katlovett, and Darkbeer for your replies. Great information for me. I appreciate it!

Autopia Guy
06-28-2008, 11:34 AM
Did you get all the answers you were after?

Just a few things I wanna add/elaborate on...

For the AAA discount you mentioned, you MUST buy that through AAA. Currently, there are no discount at the booths.

Also, as mentioned, if you are getting passes and are not staying over a Saturday (or you are STARTING on a Saturday; first date of use on a new pass is always good to get you into the park if it is blocked or not), it would make a little more money sense to just buy the pass outright unless that one chance of Magic Morning is something that you really want to do. So, if you are going to go the upgrade route, just be sure you remember to do it, otherwise the value of the tickets will be lost. If you have had passes with in the last 2 years, just stop by one of the booths to pay and get the new cards, otherwise, just go into the Bank of Main Street and take care of paying and taking your photo in one shot.

So, any more questions, feel free to PM me or reply to this topic.

gtpinoy
07-01-2008, 10:50 AM
Let me throw a curveball...

The $99 3-day "Summer Fun Pass" is blocked for entry on July 4th.

If I bought the Southern California Annual Pass on July 4th, I would gain entry for that date. If someone "purchased" the $99 3-Day "Summer Fun Pass" as a gift, not knowing I already have a annual pass, could I use the "Summer Fun Pass" for 3 visits during the Summer and then upgrade my Southern California Annual Pass on the 3rd Day to a Deluxe?

Does that make sense?

Darkbeer
07-01-2008, 12:38 PM
Let me throw a curveball...

The $99 3-day "Summer Fun Pass" is blocked for entry on July 4th.

If I bought the Southern California Annual Pass on July 4th, I would gain entry for that date. If someone "purchased" the $99 3-Day "Summer Fun Pass" as a gift, not knowing I already have a annual pass, could I use the "Summer Fun Pass" for 3 visits during the Summer and then upgrade my Southern California Annual Pass on the 3rd Day to a Deluxe?

Does that make sense?

Yes, it make sense...

But the answer is clearly NO!

A ParkHopper (or a Summer Fun Pass) can be applied to a purchase of a NEW Annual Pass, not to upgrade it.

So for someone who had a SoCal AP that expired in May (or earlier), then they can use the Summer Fun Pass to get a NEW AP, same with a renewal. Since their is NO discount for renewing an SoCal AP, if the AP expires in July, a guest could buy a Summer Fun Pass and on the third day, upgrade to a NEW SoCal AP.

But since in your plan you are buying a SoCal AP on 7/4, you couldn't use any type of ParkHopper or ticket (other than a Blockout ticket with your name on it) to apply to upgrading to a higher level AP.

gtpinoy
07-01-2008, 01:46 PM
Yes, it make sense...

But the answer is clearly NO!

A ParkHopper (or a Summer Fun Pass) can be applied to a purchase of a NEW Annual Pass, not to upgrade it.

So for someone who had a SoCal AP that expired in May (or earlier), then they can use the Summer Fun Pass to get a NEW AP, same with a renewal. Since their is NO discount for renewing an SoCal AP, if the AP expires in July, a guest could buy a Summer Fun Pass and on the third day, upgrade to a NEW SoCal AP.

But since in your plan you are buying a SoCal AP on 7/4, you couldn't use any type of ParkHopper or ticket (other than a Blockout ticket with your name on it) to apply to upgrading to a higher level AP.

Wishful thinking on my part I guess! Thanks for the prompt response!! :D

Autopia Guy
07-02-2008, 09:17 AM
Yes, Darkbeer got it all basically.

However, the only way you could get value out of the summer fun pass on a blockout day would be to use the $99 credit towards your pass. (Which, now that I go back a read DBs post in a little more detail, he did say)

So, you say you are buying a SoCal ($169) on July 4th. If you have this gift of a $99 ticket, you can apply that value and go towards the Deluxe ($259) and actually spend $9 less total overall than you were planning to and come out with the next level of Annual Pass. Make sense? Oh, the fun tricks you can do...