Undercover Tourist question

[eliza61nyc]

Anyone ever use them to get tickets? They are having a black Friday sale, adult tickets at child ticket prices.

Here's my question,
1. My trip isn't until 9/23. Have you purchased tickets this far out? Lol I admit my family is notoriously last minute.
2. Can you still upgrade tickets to park hoppers upon arrival?

TIA

 

[Sans Souci]

I have been using them for years without issue. You can buy the tickets in advance, you just need to select the date you first want to visit a park, then it gives you a range of dates you can visit based on the amount of days purchased.

ETA: I've never tried to upgrade tickets after I've purchased them, but my gut says Disney isn't going to turn down your money if you want to upgrade to hoppers.

 

[anchorman314]

We've also had great success with UT. If you know your dates, I'd say go for it. We've never added the hopper once we arrived, but we did add a day to a hopper ticket. From past experience, if you do try to add a day or hopper to an "in-use" ticket, be sure to mention you purchased them from UT. On our last trip this past May, they quoted us a price to add a day. When I mentioned I thought it would be a bit less, they asked where we purchased them. Once I said UT, they did something in the computer and ended up charging us a price much closer to what we were expecting.

 

[wutisgood]

We've also had great success with UT. If you know your dates, I'd say go for it. We've never added the hopper once we arrived, but we did add a day to a hopper ticket. From past experience, if you do try to add a day or hopper to an "in-use" ticket, be sure to mention you purchased them from UT. On our last trip this past May, they quoted us a price to add a day. When I mentioned I thought it would be a bit less, they asked where we purchased them. Once I said UT, they did something in the computer and ended up charging us a price much closer to what we were expecting.

I thought Disney knows where you purchase from now and actually penalizes people for having discount tickets. At least a few years ago I remember people would buy discount tickets to upgrade at the park and because Disney priced upgrades from current list price it was a deal. I heard later that Disney was now basing the upgrade costs on original purchase price to compared to current list price.

 

[nickys]

I thought Disney knows where you purchase from now and actually penalizes people for having discount tickets. At least a few years ago I remember people would buy discount tickets to upgrade at the park and because Disney priced upgrades from current list price it was a deal. I heard later that Disney was now basing the upgrade costs on original purchase price to compared to current list price.

I don’t think they would have any way to know what you paid, would they? As far as I know it would be based on the value of the tickets.

Paging @Rob562 for comment.

 

[Weather_Lady]

I don’t think they would have any way to know what you paid, would they? As far as I know it would be based on the value of the tickets.

Paging @Rob562 for comment.

I think they do. When we upgraded UT-purchased tickets years ago at WDW, the CM had to first "price bridge" them, meaning she virtually converted their purchase value (which she could tell simply by scanning them) to the present gate price in the computer system, before upgrading them, so we could keep the benefit of the initial discount price. Somehow, the system "knows" which tickets (which all have an assigned, unique number, like a serial number) were sold directly to guests at full price, and which ones were not.

Rumors seem to conflict about whether price-bridging is still done, and it may depend on whether the CM you're working with knows how to do it properly and is willing to undertake that extra step. Do ask them specifically to "price-bridge" your tickets before upgrading them, and if they don't appear to understand the term, get someone else who does.

There may be another option too: if you haven't used or linked your tickets to MDE yet, UT will let you return and exchange them for the upgraded tickets you want, at their discounted price. At least, that was their policy a few years ago. However, if you already linked them to MDE, that remedy is no longer available.

 

[Rob562]

@Weather_Lady pretty much covered what I know of upgrades pretty well. (My direct knowledge/experience with this is at least 4 years old, so things *might* have changed, but I don't recall reading anything different.)

Back then the key was to use a discount ticket to get into a park *before* you try to upgrade it. That locks the ticket in such a way that the CM is forced to "bridge" the ticket so its value is the same as the current gate price, essentially retaining the discount from UCT.

Now I believe there are some ways you can upgrade a ticket directly within MDE, though I don't know what rules that follows. But it wouldn't hurt to try that route first (both before and after your first park entry), see what price it gives you before going to Guest Services.

-Rob