Major Problem with new Annual Passes

allknowingeye

Member
Original Poster
There seems to be a major problem with the new annual passes. I bought an Incredipass today. And in My Plans it shows an expiry of Sept.8 2022. An Annual Pass year is not supposed to start until the first use day and expire 366 days after that. There is nothing in the new fine print that says that has changed.

I had a May 2022 Onsite Reservation and the AP covered that to make Park Reservations.

I also had a Dec 2022 Onsite Reservation and when I went to do the Park Reservations it acted like I had no Annual Pass.

This is A MAJOR MISTAKE on Disney's Part. If can't by an annual pass ahead of time then no one (with any brains in their head) is going to be able to book ahead of time which all of us do.

I was planning to use that pass May 22 to May 23.

I am thinking this is a mistake on their part, a huge mistake but if it is not I will never buy an AP again, and will seek a refund on this one, and probably cut one trip a year out of my normal three.
 

Gillyanne

Well-Known Member
Seems that expiration is how long you have to activate it. @MansionButler84 recently upgraded a ticket, and they have 365 days from the original ticket purchase to activate it; that sounds like the same thing that is happening for you.

I upgraded an existing, unused park hopper to the AP. You now get one year to activate an AP. You don’t have until 2030. But if you are upgrading an existing ticket, you get 365 days from the date of the original purchase. I bought my park hopper 2/6/21 so I must activate my pass by 2/5/22 (not an issue). I can’t make park reservations past 2/5/22 until I activate the pass. Just an FYI for anyone upgrading a previously purchased ticket to an AP.
 

allknowingeye

Member
Original Poster
Seems that expiration is how long you have to activate it. @MansionButler84 recently upgraded a ticket, and they have 365 days from the original ticket purchase to activate it; that sounds like the same thing that is happening for you.
Unfortunately the Park Reservation System does not see it that way. I agree that is way it was the old passes. I have a trip booked for May 2022 and it was ok booking those Park Reservations. But when I went to the Park Reservations for a Dec. 2022 booking it acted like I had no Annual Pass. If had gone with the Regular Tickets I was able to book those Park Reservations without an issue.
 

LuvtheGoof

Grill Master
Premium Member
Unfortunately the Park Reservation System does not see it that way. I agree that is way it was the old passes. I have a trip booked for May 2022 and it was ok booking those Park Reservations. But when I went to the Park Reservations for a Dec. 2022 booking it acted like I had no Annual Pass. If had gone with the Regular Tickets I was able to book those Park Reservations without an issue.
Since you haven't activated the pass, you won't be able to make any park reservations after Sept 7, 2022, since the system has it set to expire that date. Once you activate it, it will change to the first use date, and then you'll be able to make the December reservations.
 

CaptainAmerica

Premium Member
Unfortunately the Park Reservation System does not see it that way. I agree that is way it was the old passes. I have a trip booked for May 2022 and it was ok booking those Park Reservations. But when I went to the Park Reservations for a Dec. 2022 booking it acted like I had no Annual Pass. If had gone with the Regular Tickets I was able to book those Park Reservations without an issue.
Mate, I think you're jumping the gun a little bit booking your December 2022 reservations now.
 

ToTBellHop

Well-Known Member
Since you haven't activated the pass, you won't be able to make any park reservations after Sept 7, 2022, since the system has it set to expire that date. Once you activate it, it will change to the first use date, and then you'll be able to make the December reservations.
Yes. They will only let you book park passes for one trip before activating the pass, which makes sense. Once the OP scans into the park in May 2022, they can make park reservations for any dates through May 2023. There is no risk of those passes selling out by May 2022. However, they should call about that expiration date. It needs to be extended (and should be) before it lapses. Best to avoid headaches later.

But, I wouldn’t call today as they are so busy. It can wait until tomorrow or Friday.
 

allknowingeye

Member
Original Poster
Ok everyone here is the answer on this Direct from Disney. The call center is aware the expiration being placed upon the new passes is creating confusion. I discussed this in detail with them and this is what they said:

There has been no change to operation of the Annual Pass Email Vouchers. The clock starts running on the actual annual pass when you go to Guest Services to turn the voucher into your annual pass.

Also if you do not use the Annual Pass Voucher by the expiry date the dollars would flow through to a new Annual Pass.

I expressed to them the problem with Park Reservations System completely in error blocking Park Reservations beyond the expiry date of the new pass and they told me they have been trying to get in touch with other departments to let them know this is creating confusion and consternation.

Bottom line and I asked it 3 times during our conversation to ensure I heard it correctly, there was been no change to actual Annual Pass Expiry rules.

By the way I got through to the call centre in 15 minutes, that my friends is a miracle.
 

CntrlFlPete

Well-Known Member
I have no clue how to look at this stuff, anyway, we bought AP's today, when I go to MDE, our tickets show they expire 12/31/2099. I assume I can what to activate or they now sell something w/o expiration where I can lock in this price for 50 years? But why are my tickets different than what you lot are talking about?!?
 

allknowingeye

Member
Original Poster
I have no clue how to look at this stuff, anyway, we bought AP's today, when I go to MDE, our tickets show they expire 12/31/2099. I assume I can what to activate or they now sell something w/o expiration where I can lock in this price for 50 years? But why are my tickets different than what you lot are talking about?!?
Most are seeing Sept. 7 2022. 2099 is what they used to say, and you are lucky if that is what yours say. We are talking Walt Disney World Incredipass , is that what you bought?
 

CntrlFlPete

Well-Known Member
It shouldn't be the code for that could be different. I think someone screwed up the code on the Incredipass.
I was not clear in my thought which was that it made sense that the more expensive pass had an error in its coding than my tickets (from a different tier) were lucky to have til the end of 2099. We are on the same page (once I realized the issue seems to be in the top tier pass--nice how they treat their top tier ;-) )
 

RSoxNo1

Well-Known Member
It appears that if you had a legacy annual pass and 3 reservations already booked, it will allow you to book an additional 5.
 

bellman

New Member
There are two general ways of purchasing an AP. If you purchase over the phone you're getting a certificate that needs to be redeemed within one-year from purchase and that date is what appears on your My Disney Experience account. If you purchase online or in person you're purchasing a virtual AP which still needs to be "activated" when you get to WDW, but when it is activated/used for the first time the expiration date will change from 2099 to one year from first use.
 

LuvtheGoof

Grill Master
Premium Member
There are two general ways of purchasing an AP. If you purchase over the phone you're getting a certificate that needs to be redeemed within one-year from purchase and that date is what appears on your My Disney Experience account. If you purchase online or in person you're purchasing a virtual AP which still needs to be "activated" when you get to WDW, but when it is activated/used for the first time the expiration date will change from 2099 to one year from first use.
The expiration appears different if you assign the pass to a person during the initial purchase. I purchased ours online and our expiration date is one year. My guess is that the 2099 date is for those purchased but not linked, unless the system changed during the day. I was able to purchase mine at 6:30 on 9/8.
 

aaronml

Well-Known Member
It appears that if you had a legacy annual pass and 3 reservations already booked, it will allow you to book an additional 5.
That makes some sense. It appears that for APs, they have switched to the same reservation system that DLR uses.

If I had to guess, I’d say that they are transitioning away from the Park Pass (which was built on the corpse of the FP+ system) system in favor of the brand new park entry reservation system they built / are using at DLR and other parks.

For now it looks like APs are on the new system, but everyone else is on the old Park Pass system. They will probably keep the Park Pass branding around for a while though.
 

donsullivan

Premium Member
There seems to be a major problem with the new annual passes. I bought an Incredipass today. And in My Plans it shows an expiry of Sept.8 2022. An Annual Pass year is not supposed to start until the first use day and expire 366 days after that. There is nothing in the new fine print that says that has changed.

I had a May 2022 Onsite Reservation and the AP covered that to make Park Reservations.

I also had a Dec 2022 Onsite Reservation and when I went to do the Park Reservations it acted like I had no Annual Pass.

This is A MAJOR MISTAKE on Disney's Part. If can't by an annual pass ahead of time then no one (with any brains in their head) is going to be able to book ahead of time which all of us do.

I was planning to use that pass May 22 to May 23.

I am thinking this is a mistake on their part, a huge mistake but if it is not I will never buy an AP again, and will seek a refund on this one, and probably cut one trip a year out of my normal three.
Despite all the drama in this post, how exactly did you expect Disney to know on what date you intended to activate your pass in order to allow reservations more than 12 months after it’s purchase? Until you activate it, the expiration is one year from the purchase date which is 100% reasonable.
 

ToTBellHop

Well-Known Member
Despite all the drama in this post, how exactly did you expect Disney to know on what date you intended to activate your pass in order to allow reservations more than 12 months after it’s purchase? Until you activate it, the expiration is one year from the purchase date which is 100% reasonable.
I agree with this. No one needs to book reservations more than a year out. APs are for a year, so they give you a year. We are lucky they are willing to let us hold on to the vouchers a full year, too, before asking for more money.
 

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