UK/EU Ultimate Tickets

[BoarderPhreak]

Hey gang! Looking for some clarification on these elusive "UK only" tickets. They're actually open to anyone in the UK/IE or EU, even if you're an American citizen as I understand it. You need to have an appropriate address overseas that the tickets (or vouchers?) can be mailed to, however. All good so far.

The question is; do you get paper tickets or vouchers that you need to "redeem" at the ticketing office in Disney Springs or Guest Relations for real tickets, or do you get them in the mail good-to-go? I understand they're sent out a few weeks prior to your trip. I assume you won't be emailed your ticket numbers that can be plugged into MDE for security reasons.

I am a USA citizen, but also EU. So I'm not trying to game the system per se; I just live here. Any insights? Searching online hasn't been the most useful.

 

[BoarderPhreak]

Just to add; that's if you buy from Disney's site in the UK direct.

Obviously, you can also purchase through UK and UK-US based ticket sellers. In their case, they send your actual tickets anywhere, even in the US (within 14 days; and for a fee of course).

The reason I ask, is because buying direct is cheaper - as there's a) no premium on ticket prices and b) no shipping charge to the US via FedEx. $78 in my case, altogether.

 

[Jon81uk]

Having booked in the UK, I got my tickets as a package with the hotel and they were attached to the booking on the MagicBand (or previous trips on the Key to the World card).
If buying without a package I'm not sure what they do, but I would assume it automatically adds to MDE anyway.

 

[BoarderPhreak]

Having booked in the UK, I got my tickets as a package with the hotel and they were attached to the booking on the MagicBand (or previous trips on the Key to the World card).
If buying without a package I'm not sure what they do, but I would assume it automatically adds to MDE anyway.

Yeah, I would think they'd be in MDE or could be tied to it, since you're buying direct. They do require an address overseas, though maybe it's just for billing (my overseas CC has a US address, go figure).

 

[nickys]

We buy ours separately but from the U.K. Disney site (we’re DVC so don’t book a package).

We get emailed the codes, we link them in MDE and we then use our magic bands that we have to collect from the front desk when we arrive (they don’t ship them to is). Last time we completely forgot to collect the actual plastic RFID tickets, but you can do if you want to or don’t have magic bands. But you do that with the email and photo ID, plus proof of address.

I’m at a loss to understand why you’d think they wouldn’t send us codes to link our tickets. “Here, have an Ultimate ticket for 14/21 days - but you can’t actually book any FPs with them ahead of your arrival”. Yeah, but no thanks! We do have to actually link them, and there are two sets of codes. One is just a receipt bar code, the other one they send separately and is what you use to link (it causes no end of problems when you don’t realise this, and the phone line people are used to the calls).

If you buy them through a third party site, I would hope you also get emailed the codes. Or you shouldn’t be buying them from that site IMO.

You do need to have a U.K, Eire or European address, I think. I’ve heard of Australians being able to buy them but that might be through a third party.

 

[BoarderPhreak]

Thanks, that was pretty helpful!

Yeah, of course they would give you the ticket codes... Maybe I wasn't clear; I wasn't sure if it was via email or on the tickets/voucher you're sent in the physical mail that you get them. We have Magicbands already, so good to go there. As for the third-party, they send you physical tickets within 14 days but that's a good point about the codes for MDE.

While I have an address overseas, my billing address is in the US. I can prove that, sure.

 

[nickys]

Thanks, that was pretty helpful!

Yeah, of course they would give you the ticket codes... Maybe I wasn't clear; I wasn't sure if it was via email or on the tickets/voucher you're sent in the physical mail that you get them. We have Magicbands already, so good to go there. As for the third-party, they send you physical tickets within 14 days but that's a good point about the codes for MDE.

While I have an address overseas, my billing address is in the US. I can prove that, sure.

The only thing I can suggest is you try buying them, either direct or through a third party. My concern is whether either will send them to an address that is not the same as the billing address. I have no idea if they would do or not, sorry.

Obviously some sites will allow that, in general (not talking Disney specifically here). But other’s won’t do that. But for example, if you buy one of the Canadian ticket offers, you do need to activate those with proof of a Canadian address. Whether that address has to be the same as the billing address, I don’t know.

 

[nickys]

Update:

I just went onto the U.K. site and tried ordering a ticket.

The billing address must be in the U.K. or Europe (the latter presumably until 31st Oct) in order to purchase.

So it looks like that is what is supposed to happen. Whether third party sites are as stringent I don’t know.

 

[BoarderPhreak]

Update:

I just went onto the U.K. site and tried ordering a ticket.

The billing address must be in the U.K. or Europe (the latter presumably until 31st Oct) in order to purchase.

So it looks like that is what is supposed to happen. Whether third party sites are as stringent I don’t know.

That's what I saw, too. My billing address is in the states, but if I give my EU address the charge won't go through. So it sounds like direct is a bust.

Third-party don't care. Not sure how they do it, but they buy in bulk and send you "ready to use at the gate tickets" in the mail.

 

[cosmicgirl]

That's what I saw, too. My billing address is in the states, but if I give my EU address the charge won't go through. So it sounds like direct is a bust.

Third-party don't care. Not sure how they do it, but they buy in bulk and send you "ready to use at the gate tickets" in the mail.

Did you actually try and it wouldn't go through, or are you assuming that it won't go through? I have yet to encounter a payment on a European card not going through because the billing address didn't match. I use cards from two different EU countries interchangeably and have never had issues mixing and matching the billing addresses. In fact, I've used Disney resort addresses as the billing address on US websites (because they wouldn't allow an international billing address) and the payment still goes through.

I had issues with third-party sellers a couple of years ago for MVMCP tickets. Even if I purchased with all the right credentials to buy at the UK price they were not willing to provide the ticket references to link them in MDE, or even a simple picture of the actual tickets in an e-mail. The only way they would sell them to me was with a hefty shipping fee, which completely negated the savings compared to buying in the US. They all claimed this was because mailing them was the only way to prove my EU residency and Disney wouldn't allow them to sell without that proof. WDTC UK does not sell special event tickets so third party was the only option. After hitting a wall with 7 or so agencies I vented on a UK board and was contacted there by an agency who were willing to do will-call tickets for a more reasonable fee. We picked up the tickets from guest relations in DS where no one cared where we lived or where we had bought them.

 

[nickys]

Did you actually try and it wouldn't go through, or are you assuming that it won't go through? I have yet to encounter a payment on a European card not going through because the billing address didn't match. I use cards from two different EU countries interchangeably and have never had issues mixing and matching the billing addresses. In fact, I've used Disney resort addresses as the billing address on US websites (because they wouldn't allow an international billing address) and the payment still goes through.

I had issues with third-party sellers a couple of years ago for MVMCP tickets. Even if I purchased with all the right credentials to buy at the UK price they were not willing to provide the ticket references to link them in MDE, or even a simple picture of the actual tickets in an e-mail. The only way they would sell them to me was with a hefty shipping fee, which completely negated the savings compared to buying in the US. They all claimed this was because mailing them was the only way to prove my EU residency and Disney wouldn't allow them to sell without that proof. WDTC UK does not sell special event tickets so third party was the only option. After hitting a wall with 7 or so agencies I vented on a UK board and was contacted there by an agency who were willing to do will-call tickets for a more reasonable fee. We picked up the tickets from guest relations in DS where no one cared where we lived or where we had bought them.

When did you try buying tickets to special events?

I can buy them for both parties, After Hours etc tickets from the U.K. website. You just select “Special Events” on the tickets page.

 

[cosmicgirl]

When did you try buying tickets to special events?

I can buy them for both parties, After Hours etc tickets from the U.K. website. You just select “Special Events” on the tickets page.

I should've phrased it better: you can't buy special events tickets at UK prices. It simply redirects you to the US system where you'll pay US prices. However, in 2017 party tickets popped up much cheaper in the UK in July or August. The same ticket cost 30-40% less in pounds than it did in dollars. Even this year you can only buy party tickets in pounds from third parties but unfortunately the prices have gone way up so it isn't necessarily a better deal anymore.

 

[BoarderPhreak]

Did you actually try and it wouldn't go through, or are you assuming that it won't go through? I have yet to encounter a payment on a European card not going through because the billing address didn't match. I use cards from two different EU countries interchangeably and have never had issues mixing and matching the billing addresses. In fact, I've used Disney resort addresses as the billing address on US websites (because they wouldn't allow an international billing address) and the payment still goes through.

I'm assuming; I got as far as putting in the USA address and overseas CC info and hitting checkout... But my über-paranoid overseas CC wasn't yet registered with some new security thing... Waiting for that to go through before I try again. I did notice they asked for the "name on the card" (separately) when putting that info in... So clearly the "billing address" has no link to the CC I'm thinking. But that is where they'll mail stuff I would think?

I mean, I could try an American CC too...

I had issues with third-party sellers a couple of years ago for MVMCP tickets. Even if I purchased with all the right credentials to buy at the UK price they were not willing to provide the ticket references to link them in MDE, or even a simple picture of the actual tickets in an e-mail. The only way they would sell them to me was with a hefty shipping fee, which completely negated the savings compared to buying in the US. They all claimed this was because mailing them was the only way to prove my EU residency and Disney wouldn't allow them to sell without that proof. WDTC UK does not sell special event tickets so third party was the only option. After hitting a wall with 7 or so agencies I vented on a UK board and was contacted there by an agency who were willing to do will-call tickets for a more reasonable fee. We picked up the tickets from guest relations in DS where no one cared where we lived or where we had bought them.

I contacted three of the most common UK sellers; Floridatix and OrlandoAttractionTickets don't mail to the USA; only AmericanAttractions does. There's another one that sells in both the UK/US but I spaced their name. UndercoverTourist doesn't to the Ultimate tickets at all, which makes sense as they're US based.

 

[nickys]

I'm assuming; I got as far as putting in the USA address and overseas CC info and hitting checkout... But my über-paranoid overseas CC wasn't yet registered with some new security thing... Waiting for that to go through before I try again. I did notice they asked for the "name on the card" (separately) when putting that info in... So clearly the "billing address" has no link to the CC I'm thinking. But that is where they'll mail stuff I would think?

I mean, I could try an American CC too...

.

I’m not understanding. When I get to this page, the only options on the drop down menu for the country are all the European countries. It won’t let me override it.

How did you get past that with a US billing address?

 

[BoarderPhreak]

I’m not understanding. When I get to this page, the only options on the drop down menu for the country are all the European countries. It won’t let me override it.

How did you get past that with a US billing address?

Well, I did enter the US address, but selected "Germany" as the country (the origin of the overseas CC and where I have a passport). No idea how WDWCo would handle this dichotomy. As I mentioned, I can put my German address in but it's not the *billing* address of the CC and I can't "prove" that address as it's not in my name.

I'm thinking it's easier just to go third-party at this point and eat the extra $78.

 

[cosmicgirl]

I'm assuming; I got as far as putting in the USA address and overseas CC info and hitting checkout... But my über-paranoid overseas CC wasn't yet registered with some new security thing... Waiting for that to go through before I try again. I did notice they asked for the "name on the card" (separately) when putting that info in... So clearly the "billing address" has no link to the CC I'm thinking. But that is where they'll mail stuff I would think?

I mean, I could try an American CC too...


I contacted three of the most common UK sellers; Floridatix and OrlandoAttractionTickets don't mail to the USA; only AmericanAttractions does. There's another one that sells in both the UK/US but I spaced their name. UndercoverTourist doesn't to the Ultimate tickets at all, which makes sense as they're US based.

If I were you I'd try the German card with the German address. If you use a US card they can tell it's not European by some of the digits (first ones, I think?). Typically with the security thing you'll put in your billing address, or in your case the German address, then card details including name of the card holder, and then you'll get forwarded to a page managed by the card issuer to do the security bit. If you pass the security bit it should go through without checking the address.

To my knowledge WDTC UK don't mail anything outside of the UK and Ireland so that's not a problem. The travel documents for guests from other countries are supposed to be held at the resort, but ours always get lost somehow.

AmericanAttractions were the ones who did the will-call for us. I think you mean OrlandoAttractions that sells in both the UK and US, but they refused to sell UK tickets to mainland EU. Attraction Tickets Direct might also be an option, but if they'll allow it I think they'll only be willing to ship. Imo WDTC UK is your best bet. If it doesnt't go through online you could call them and ask. Like @nickys I recall people from Australia being able to book in the UK, as they were told the only requirement is that you don't live in the US or Canada.

 

[cosmicgirl]

PS: Expedia UK also sell the ultimates but they charge more.
PS2: use disneyholidays.co.uk, not .ie as prices are currently cheaper in GBP than in EUR, even with 3% currency transaction fees.

 

[BoarderPhreak]

I'll try the German address and German CC once the latter is sorted for online use (eyeroll) as I can get physical mail should it arrive there. As for the three UK based sellers, here are the three responses I got:

OrlandoAttractionTickets: "We do not ship to the US I'm afraid."

AmericanAttractions: "You will be able to purchase tickets from our site, although we are a UK company...We can delivery to an address in the US."

FloridaTix: "Im afraid we only post to mainland UK."

...I do recall hitting several other UK sellers online and seeing options to post overseas, so that's far from a complete list.

 

[cosmicgirl]

I'll try the German address and German CC once the latter is sorted for online use (eyeroll) as I can get physical mail should it arrive there. As for the three UK based sellers, here are the three responses I got:

OrlandoAttractionTickets: "We do not ship to the US I'm afraid."

AmericanAttractions: "You will be able to purchase tickets from our site, although we are a UK company...We can delivery to an address in the US."

FloridaTix: "Im afraid we only post to mainland UK."

...I do recall hitting several other UK sellers online and seeing options to post overseas, so that's far from a complete list.

Don't eyeroll the security thing! It's what allows the generous use of billing addresses .

 

[BoarderPhreak]

Just to keep y'all posted... I took the "easier route" of going through a third-party; in this case, American Attractions in the UK. I bought the appropriate Ultimate Tickets for the fam when the GBP was at its bottom of 1.20 to the USD. So essentially, instead of spending $1,976.66 for 9-Day Park Hoppers (through Orlando Fun Tickets) and before Memory Maker... I ended up spending $1,446.01 for 14-Day Park Hoppers, with water parks, one round of mini-golf/day AND Memory Maker included. I'd say that's a pretty big win.

I'll be getting the tickets within 14 days via FedEx, but won't have my numbers for linking with MDE until then. But that's still plenty of time for FastPass+ rezzies when they open up.

Stay tuned...