Need Advice/What can I do with these tickets?

[d-ko]

Background: Myself (34) and DH (34), Florida residents living 20 minutes away. Since we need a scooter and don't have one, we enjoy the trip more by staying on-site. And let's face, it's just more fun staying on site. There's no transit cost (barely) so that's a win for us.

Booked a package for 3 nights in mid December to celebrate our 15th wedding anniversary.

3 nights at Beach Club
1 day park pass
counter service meal plan

will make a dining reservation for Le Cellier for us anniversary dinner (will pay out of pocket)

Planning on buying 2 tickets to MVMCP

Also have 2 birthday tickets we got by showing up on our respective birthdays (well, I will in a few weeks).

Currently have Epcot after 4 passes that expire in August. (deciding on whether to renew these or get annual passes) Can I use my birthday ticket to renew an existing pass?

NOW - I didn't think I could, but is there a better way I can make the best use of what we have? We can't combine the 1 day package pass AND the birthday tickets to upgrade to annual passes?

If I cancel the reservation and book just the 3 nights and buy annual passes, can I add the dining plan in? Then I still have to spend the extra $120 on MVMCP (which we really want to do again this year - I got sick there last year and didn't really get to enjoy it)

We also rent 1 scooter from buena vista rentals - does anyone know someone with better prices? I paid $45 a day a few days ago.

I've paid off 3/4 of my trip already - socking away $10 - $20 a week or so has been working quite well, without feeling any financial pinch. I started saving Jan 1, 2009. Our trip is Dec 15 - 18, 2009

Thank you!!!


Photo of me on Monday in Epcot!

 

[CleveRocks]

I can answer some of the ticket questions.

Unfortunately for you, you can never combine two or more tickets to upgrade to a better ticket. A single ticket can be upgraded, but you can't take the value of 2 tickets and apply that value to one ticket.

Sorry.

 

[mousefan1972]

I can answer one of the questions: if you have AP's, you can add the dining plan without having to buy a ticket. It is called the passholder + dine package, and you can add the quick service, basic, or deluxe plan to your room reservation. It then becomes a package (and subject to all the package rules, etc) but you do NOT need to purchase any tickets. Good luck!

 

[MissM]

You CAN use your birthday ticket to put towards an Annual Pass renewal. My BIL's birthday is during the Seasonal AP blackout. And the rules say that you can upgrade a free birthday ticket towards renewal.

Can I upgrade my free birthday ticket to another ticket type?

A: Yes, the free birthday ticket may be upgraded to another ticket type on your birthday. However the celebrant is responsible for the incremental cost and the new ticket may only be used by the celebrant. The 1-day Magic Your Way ticket good for 12 months (an option for certain passholders and multi-day ticket holders) may not be upgraded.

What if I'm a Seasonal Passholder and my birthday falls on a day my Pass is blocked out?

A: If your birthday falls on a day that your Pass is blocked out, you will be able to receive the free birthday ticket for admission to one theme park on your birthday. You can upgrade the ticket or use the ticket to renew or upgrade your Pass. If you upgrade the ticket or your Pass you are responsible for the incremental cost and the upgraded ticket or Pass still may only be used by you.
​

It's only ONE ticket per upgrade though. i.e. you could use your birthday ticket to upgrade to your renewal and your husband could use his birthday ticket to upgrade to an annual or other but not two birthday tickets for one upgrade. Make sense?

 

[Monty]

OK, I think I can get this right:

You will have a birthday ticket each?
The one-day tickets are on the reservation in order to make it a "package" to qualify for dining plan?

You can change your reservation to a room-only and add Dining Plan as an AP holder [this would require having the AP at check-in I think]. You can use the birthday tickets toward your APs. I don't think the EPCOT after 4 tickets qualify for the AP holders' dining plan, but a PM to JPVonDrake would certainly get you an answer on that.

Here's his post announcing the AP plan:

"All dining plans are sold only as part of a Magic Your Way Package or Passholder Dine Package and cannot be sold separately by the Disney Reservation Center. As such the prices of individual package components within a vacation package cannot be quoted separately.

For active Annual Passholders, Premium Passholders and Florida Resident Seasonal Passholders the Following Packages are also now available:

Passholder Quick Service Dine Package

Passholder Plus Dine Package

Passholder Plus Deluxe Dine Package

The components are the same as the above without the Magic Your Way Theme Park Ticket component included."

So, three things you need to know are:

- Whether you can book the Passholders' Dine Package before you actually have the AP, so long as you get the AP before checking in, [I think the answer is yes]
- Whether the EPCOT after 4 counts as an AP for the Passholders' Dine Package and,
- Whether you can use the Birthday tickets toward renewal of the EPCOT after 4

If you can renew the after 4 tickets with the birthday tickets, then you have to decide if you want them or a full AP. If you can't, then you can use them towards APs and let the After 4 tickets expire. If the After 4 tickets are considered Passholder tickets for the Passholders' Dine Package, then you can decide which tickets suit you better and still get the dining. If not, then you'll either have to go the route of buying APs or staying with what you've currently got to get dining.

Confused yet? :lookaroun

 

[Rob562]

If I read the OPs post correctly, the birthday tickets they'll have on their trip are the alternate "good for 12 months" tickets that you get because you already have admission for your birthday. Those tickets cannot be upgraded in any way. They're strictly 1-day/1-park tickets.

You can always go to WDW on your actual birthday and upgrade the ticket you get that day into an Annual Pass, but the AP's start date would be that day.

I guess it all boils down to how much they want the Dining Plan.

-Rob

 

[d-ko]

Yeah, now we realize we can't upgrade the birthday tickets we got.

What we decided to do is stick with the magic your way package with a 1-day ticket, then go to epcot and upgrade then to another epcot after 4 pass (at $120+ a ticket, the difference won't be much). Our current passes expire at the end of August so no big deal.

We'll use our free birthday ticket to go to Disney's Hollywood Studios to see Osbourne Lights Spectacle or Fiasco or whatever it's called. We've never experienced it.

Everytime I go to Animal Kingdom I get pooped on .. my hair, my FACE, my clothes .. somewhere .. anywhere .. the birds love me! So we'll pass on that this time.

After reading what everyone said, we decided that going to the MK for us, once a year, is enough so we will enjoy the dining plan just on that particular trip, enjoy our Beach Club splurge and go to Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party and then enjoy a full year of Epcot.

We use Epcot like it's a mall anyway! "I want to see fireworks today", "OK, let's go to Epcot" "I need a new coffee mug, let's go to Japan, Epcot" lol

Thank you all for helping us decide what to do!

 

[seashoreCM]

As I read it, one of you hasn't gotten your birthday ticket yet. If you already have your annual pass or other multi-day pass not blocked out (blacked out) for your birthday, you can choose a different gift besides free admission, for example a gift card worth about $75. at Disney owned/operated gift shops, which value is the cost of a 1 day ticket.