FP+ with off-site stay

[Haybritt]

My family will be going to Florida this summer for a week and a half. Our first week will be spent at a timeshare we own. But, we couldn't go to the Orlando area without going to Disney. So, we are spending our last 4 days staying on Disney property. When we booked that stay, thru Disney, we added a 6 day Hopper Pass because it was just a few dollars more than a 4 day. We decided that we would use the extra 2 days to visit Disney parks while staying at the timeshare. We have already booked our FP+ reservations for the 4 on-site days (60 days out). However, I am being told that I can not book any FP+ reservations (30 days out) for our first 2 days to visit because those days proceed our hotel stay. I am told there is no problem using our tickets those day, but just no FP+ reservations allowed for us. Has anyone else had that problem or know a way around that issue?

 

[Rob562]

My family will be going to Florida this summer for a week and a half. Our first week will be spent at a timeshare we own. But, we couldn't go to the Orlando area without going to Disney. So, we are spending our last 4 days staying on Disney property. When we booked that stay, thru Disney, we added a 6 day Hopper Pass because it was just a few dollars more than a 4 day. We decided that we would use the extra 2 days to visit Disney parks while staying at the timeshare. We have already booked our FP+ reservations for the 4 on-site days (60 days out). However, I am being told that I can not book any FP+ reservations (30 days out) for our first 2 days to visit because those days proceed our hotel stay. I am told there is no problem using our tickets those day, but just no FP+ reservations allowed for us. Has anyone else had that problem or know a way around that issue?

Unfortunately you're out of luck. You *may* not even be able to use FP+ on those days before your package, but more on that in a moment...

When you book a package that includes park tickets, the way it's set up is that those tickets aren't meant to be used until the day your package starts. But you *can* get your tickets issued/activated earlier than your package start date by visiting a Guest Relations window outside one of the parks. There's a limit to how many days before checkin, but I don't know that number (I want to say I've head 3 or 4 days before)

Unfortunately because this process is an exception to how the system is set up to normally work, there's no way to book FP+ before your ticket is (upposed to be) valid.

There was a recent thread where another poster on here was told by Disney that they could pick up their tickets, and they were indeed able to stop at Guest Relations the day before checkin, get the ticket activated and use it that day.

Now the one hangup is that they said they weren't able to use FP+ at all that day, but I find that very surprising. At the very least I'd expect you could go to a kiosk in the park to book them, or have a CM at the kiosk override something in the system, since it *is* a valid ticket. (That aspect needs more people chiming in on their experiences before I'll file it away in my mental notebook one way or the other)

The only way to ensure that you can use a ticket before your Disney hotel checkin *and* book FP+ for those days is to buy the ticket separately from your hotel reservation.

-Rob