PDA

View Full Version : AP Refund vs. Extension Questions: Pros? Cons?



Pages : [1] 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

tea4two
04-15-2020, 07:37 PM
Before we make a final decision on what to do about our APs, I want to make sure that we've thought about all the pros and cons. Has anyone already called about this? What did you decide and why? Just want to make sure we're not overlooking something obvious.

AnotherJenny
04-15-2020, 10:08 PM
Are you on the payment plan or paid in full? The last update I saw was that even if you call the CMs have no information on the delay payment option anyway. If you're paid in full I guess either option would be available. I know some people won't feel comfortable going back right away when they do open, so the refund makes sense. I'm sure some feel they are itching to go back as soon as possible.

At this point I'm not going to assume Disney's current offer will stand if the parks remain closed. The governor is saying he thinks mass gatherings are unlikely to be permitted even in August. He said no gatherings without a vaccine. We have no reason to expect a vaccine by the end of summer right now. The LA Mayor had speculated no mass gatherings until 2021. I know the mayor has no authority over Anaheim, but he is probably right that it won't happen this year. I think that the governor has more reason to set the bar low at first, because so many venues in CA are outside of LA. Plus the mayor will hit his term limit next year and the governor is barely a year into his first term.

currence
04-16-2020, 09:37 AM
I took a break for several years after having a pass for 20+ years and now have a pass again. At this point, I will take a later renewal date. I bought my current pass before the most recent rate increase, so I would rather have that rate for as long as possible then need to buy a new pass sooner.

My parents tend to get a pass every few years, go 2-3 trips during that year, then take a year or two off. At this point, their plan is to take the partial refund.

Berry Princess
04-16-2020, 10:28 AM
The info is up on the DL site on if you want to go with the option to delay and have the expiration date extended you have to call or if you want a partial refund you need to call. I will wait a few days and then call. 3 of our APs are on payment plans and we will do the option to delay and extend. My husband's is paid in full and we are leaving as is so it will extended.

olegc
04-16-2020, 11:22 AM
i paid in full on April 4th - so Im going with the delay. For me - if I take the money back I will spend it - and currence's comment about protection against further price increase is something I had not thought of. And of course - that makes me think the next park price increase might be REALLY big to make up for lost revenue. Wouldnt it be amazing if they simply held prices for more than a year to ensure they had packed parks for a while? Im not necessarily a fan of packed parks - but it would be good for the overall health of the place we love.

olegc
04-16-2020, 11:32 AM
The info is up on the DL site on if you want to go with the option to delay and have the expiration date extended you have to call or if you want a partial refund you need to call. I will wait a few days and then call. 3 of our APs are on payment plans and we will do the option to delay and extend. My husband's is paid in full and we are leaving as is so it will extended.

Sorry to point this out - but I just checked the page on April 16th, 1230pm. It says if you've paid in full you will automatically have your pass expiration date extended for the length of the closure. If you want a partial refund you have to call.

Berry Princess
04-16-2020, 01:14 PM
Sorry to point this out - but I just checked the page on April 16th, 1230pm. It says if you've paid in full you will automatically have your pass expiration date extended for the length of the closure. If you want a partial refund you have to call.

Maybe I should have worded it differently but I did say under it that since we do have the payment plan we will be calling to extend our end dates on the 3 APs. Husband's is fully paid and we won't call on it since we don't want the partial refund. So 2 reasons to call and its what I stated. I just didn't word it exactly as is on the site. Sorry...its one of those mornings.

currence
04-16-2020, 01:27 PM
i paid in full on April 4th - so Im going with the delay. For me - if I take the money back I will spend it - and currence's comment about protection against further price increase is something I had not thought of. And of course - that makes me think the next park price increase might be REALLY big to make up for lost revenue. Wouldnt it be amazing if they simply held prices for more than a year to ensure they had packed parks for a while? Im not necessarily a fan of packed parks - but it would be good for the overall health of the place we love.

To be fair to Disney - the one time (that I am aware of) where they actually LOWERED the cost of an annual pass - was shortly after 9/11. So there is the real possibility that if Disneyland reopens and the crowds don't return, they could do so again. But that also had the distinction of CA Adventure having just opened and not being popular and the option at the time to only get a 1-park pass for Disneyland which they eliminated when they lowered the price for a 2-park pass - and was at a time when there are a lot fewer passholders than are now rumored. So my belief is that they are more likely to simply not raise the prices until attendance stabilizes, then to actually decrease the prices.

Of course, it's Disney, so who knows what they will actually do.

olegc
04-16-2020, 02:29 PM
i paid in full on April 4th - so Im going with the delay. For me - if I take the money back I will spend it - and currence's comment about protection against further price increase is something I had not thought of. And of course - that makes me think the next park price increase might be REALLY big to make up for lost revenue. Wouldn't it be amazing if they simply held prices for more than a year to ensure they had packed parks for a while? I'm not necessarily a fan of packed parks - but it would be good for the overall health of the place we love.

so here was a mildly scary thing.
I logged into my account to look at my AP status - it said Expires May 31, 2020. However, nothing about my renewal. So I was concerned it got lost in the shuffle. I called the number, waited on hold like everyone else, then when I connected with the CM she saw the renewal on April 2nd but did not know why the expiration wasn't different. She placed me on hold again so she could check with a supervisor. After a while she came back to let me know that since I renewed so early to the date of the announcement of closure-based delays in expiration - they didn't process my renewal completely and just moved my expiration. The Cm told me that whenever they reopen (just in case the date gets moved again) my renewal will be applied and I will get the pass extended for whatever amount of time is granted.

There's a small part of me that says "it still could not show up in the system 6 months from now" so I'll have to keep an eye on it.

AnotherJenny
04-16-2020, 06:48 PM
It's possible that Disney will only reopen with an agreement to limit crowds. There's no reason to think they will want to encourage them.

As it is they have plenty of extra avenues of revenue besides regular admission and annual passes. Their after hours events almost always sell out and their add on experiences are quite popular too.

My expiration date has never updated until the day after the pass was set to expire. If your 2020 expiration date hasn't arrived yet, you probably got the same extension everyone who was expiring when the parks are closed got. I don't think it will be an issue.

Shortpix77
04-16-2020, 07:19 PM
so here was a mildly scary thing.
I logged into my account to look at my AP status - it said Expires May 31, 2020. However, nothing about my renewal. So I was concerned it got lost in the shuffle. I called the number, waited on hold like everyone else, then when I connected with the CM she saw the renewal on April 2nd but did not know why the expiration wasn't different. She placed me on hold again so she could check with a supervisor. After a while she came back to let me know that since I renewed so early to the date of the announcement of closure-based delays in expiration - they didn't process my renewal completely and just moved my expiration. The Cm told me that whenever they reopen (just in case the date gets moved again) my renewal will be applied and I will get the pass extended for whatever amount of time is granted.

There's a small part of me that says "it still could not show up in the system 6 months from now" so I'll have to keep an eye on it.

Oh man, document that and keep it. I could totally see that falling through the cracks and being an argument you have to have further down the line...

Berry Princess
04-16-2020, 08:05 PM
Oh man, document that and keep it. I could totally see that falling through the cracks and being an argument you have to have further down the line...

I had actually taken screenshots on my phone of each of our APs to have the dates just in case something happens down the line with this. I can imagine Disney will try to be careful but things can slip through the cracks.

BTW, hope your daughter's birthday week has been a good one. Tell her happy belated birthday for me!

tea4two
04-16-2020, 08:43 PM
Thanks for all the discussion, everyone. We are fully paid and were leaning toward the default option of extending. Never hurts to think things through one more time. I've been reading about nightmare hold times, so if I don't have to call and our passes will be automatically extended, great.

olegc
04-16-2020, 09:06 PM
Thanks for all the discussion, everyone. We are fully paid and were leaning toward the default option of extending. Never hurts to think things through one more time. I've been reading about nightmare hold times, so if I don't have to call and our passes will be automatically extended, great.My hold times were 25 min then another 15 or maybe 20 waiting for the CM to come back.

Sent from my moto z3 using Tapatalk

sjhanksaz
04-17-2020, 08:32 AM
This close down actually worked in our favor because we were not planning any trips between March and probably Sept or Oct. A little bit of a silver lining in this Covid stuff.

Pammer
04-17-2020, 11:32 AM
My Deluxe AP expired in late February and my husband's is due to expire 9/27; I had purchased two new APs in early January (at the older pass prices) that just had to be activated within a year of purchase, then their expiration dates would be a year after activation.

We originally were going to go in May and I was going to activate my pass then, followed by a second trip in September right before James' pass expired, and then a third trip in December for my 60th birthday & also to activate his pass. I subsequently canceled the May trip and hope the September & December trips can happen as planned; however, I'm tempted to cancel James' current pass and then just activate both passes whenever we are able to resume visits, which may or may not happen this year. I also had thought about what currence stated about the rate on James' AP being less than what I paid for the new passes in January which are waiting to be activated.

I have a couple of questions before I decide:

If you elect to cancel a pass and get a prorated refund, do they cancel back to a March 15th effective date (first date of closure)?
I assume the two unactivated passes will be extended accordingly as well?

I'm not sure if anyone here knows the answers; I may just need to call to get more information before I decide.

emgm
04-17-2020, 11:38 AM
Does anyone know what hours Disney has cast members answering the phone calls? I seem to remember it was 8-5 Pacific time, but I may be wrong. Trying to pick a good time to call about our annual passes.

emgm
04-17-2020, 12:36 PM
I have a couple of questions before I decide:

If you elect to cancel a pass and get a prorated refund, do they cancel back to a March 15th effective date (first date of closure)?


I'm not sure if anyone here knows the answers; I may just need to call to get more information before I decide.

When I called today (hold time 1 hour) the CM said the prorated refund starts March 15th. And just for example sake, let's say they reopen on June 15. If you had a pass that expires in December, then your refund would be 3 months, and the pass would still be active and would expire in December. They aren't crediting anyone with the refund amount yet, that will happen after they announce their re-open date, so calling now just puts in the system that you want the partial refund instead of the expiration.

Pammer
04-18-2020, 04:55 PM
When I called today (hold time 1 hour) the CM said the prorated refund starts March 15th. And just for example sake, let's say they reopen on June 15. If you had a pass that expires in December, then your refund would be 3 months, and the pass would still be active and would expire in December. They aren't crediting anyone with the refund amount yet, that will happen after they announce their re-open date, so calling now just puts in the system that you want the partial refund instead of the expiration.Thank you!!!

sjhanksaz
05-06-2020, 02:09 PM
Kind of sounds like they are going to open at lower capacity numbers. I wonder how that will impact our AP?

What if you can't get in half the time, do you still lose that time on your pass?

currence
05-06-2020, 02:32 PM
Six Flags Magic Mountain has announced that they are going to a reservation-only model when they reopen, that at least on the surface sounds a lot like the Flex-pass. As a family with both a Flex pass and Signature pass, I will be annoyed if the passes have the same eligibility restrictions (i.e. everyone must have a reservation) but significantly different price points.

I've been checking the Flex-pass reservations calendar periodically. A few days ago, I could have made reservations for June 1-3. Today, everything through 6/5 is blocked out. Of note, June 1-3 are "good to go" days at DCA. I don't know if they have reached Flex Pass capacity for those days, or if they have decided to not make reservations available at this time.

If they announce procedures that make getting into Disneyland becomes as hard as getting a return time for ROR, I may re-think extending my pass expiration date and take a partial refund until things are sorted out a bit better.

olegc
05-06-2020, 05:21 PM
This was my concern - how does Disney play the math game with paid for fees. I renews in April before the second lockout was announced but it's not clear if they will do customized extension dates based on value paid (sig vs flex) when they go to the reservation process for all (which has been strongly indicated but not officially announced). If they pick a date, and your pass expiration goes by date regardless of amount paid, that would be bad...

Sent from my moto z3 using Tapatalk

Promo-Man
05-06-2020, 06:42 PM
It will be interesting on how they handle Premier Passes if they do not open both Florida and California Parks at the same time

jsuperk
05-17-2020, 05:37 PM
Disney usually does annual pass holders reasonably. I've had a annual pass since the late 80's and granted this has never happened but they usually do them right.

olegc
05-17-2020, 07:15 PM
There's been some speculation as to a change in the landscape of entrance media. Since everything with be reservation based to get in the concept of multi day tickets might not fit if u can't get successive days reservation.

And for broader passes - like Sign and Sign Plus will there be extensions or partial refunds if everything essentially is a Flex pass for the time being? Hmmm

Sent from my moto z3 using Tapatalk