Upgrades and Tickets and Typhoons, Oh My!

[Weather_Lady]

Here's a question for the ticket experts: have I got this straight?

I bought 6-day MYW tickets from Undercover Tourist for our upcoming trip, saving about $100 off of the gate price.
We've now decided we'd like to visit Typhooon Lagoon the day BEFORE we check in for our Disney vacation.

Our options are to purchase 1-day TL tickets at the gate (I've been told by WDW in an e-mail that you can't link them to MDE even if you purchase them online, so I might as well wait - I recognize, however, that what that e-mail said conflicts with what the Disney website says, which is yet another thing that makes me doubt that any of the answers I've found or been given are correct), OR to upgrade our 6-day MYW tickets to 7-day Parkhopper Plus tickets at the gate (I've been told by WDW that the only way to upgrade authorized-reseller tickets is to do it in person - I'm pretty sure that, at least, is true).

My understanding is:
1 - If we purchase TL tickets at the gate, we'll pay the gate price of about $260.
2 - If we upgrade our 6-day MYW tickets to 7-day Parkhopper Plus tickets at the gate, we'll pay the difference between what we paid to Undercover Tourist for the MYW tickets, and the gate price of 7-day Parkhopper Plus tickets, which today would be $575 (meaning we'll lose the discount we got by purchasing tickets from UT, and will get in return the $260 value of our waterpark visit, plus $315 worth of parkhopping, roughly the cost to upgrade to parkhopper in the first place, so in order to get fair value out of the upgrade, we'd either need to plan to use the Parkhopper Plus in other ways, e.g., for mini-golf admissions, and/or do a lot of hopping).

*Note: I am aware (or at least, WDW has represented through a recent Mom's Panel answer I found through Google) that once we have already used our 6-day MYW tickets for at least one park admission, then it would be possible to upgrade our tickets without losing the UT discount -- we would then pay the difference between gate price of a MYW ticket and gate price of a parkhopper. I have no idea why using the ticket for a day makes any difference, but I'm taking the Mom at face value (which I know is never a good idea as they're usually spitballing, but it's the only answer to this question that I could find). In any event, that wouldn't work for us, as we're visiting the waterpark before making use of our 6-day MYW ticket, and much of the purpose for upgrading to Parkhopper Plus would be to use it for waterpark admission.

This is all crazily complicated, but I think I've got it straight. Anybody mind weighing in and letting me know if I've got it right or not? Is it true that there's just no way to upgrade our 6-day MYW tickets, prior to their first use, without losing what we saved by buying through UT? If that's the case, it looks like we may be far better off foregoing all upgrades, buying one-day TL tickets and keeping our 6-day MYW tickets as they are, as there's just no way we could otherwise squeeze full-price value out of a hopper upgrade (we'd only hop once or twice).

 

[anchorman314]

I believe everything you've laid out is correct. But why would you need to replace a 6-day MYW with a 7-day PH+? Couldn't you just replace it with a 6-day PH+? That being said, unless you plan to make use of the other Plus options, it would appear you are far better off with the 6-day MYW and 1-day TL tickets.

For what it's worth, I'd double-check the TL tickets on Disney's website. There's a "Blockout Dates" ticket that is less expensive, and the only blockout dates are May 27 - August 27. That could shave $20-$30 off your total.

The only scenario I can think of that would allow you to upgrade the tickets would be if you went to any park on the TL day just to go through the turnstiles. Then you'd be able to upgrade from a 6-day MYW to a 7-day PH+ (now the extra day is necessary because you've used 1 day) without losing your UT discount. However, that's still a difference of around $110-$120 per ticket. So now you're looking at about $60 per ticket as the difference between 1-park + TL tickets and PH+ tickets.

I hope that all made sense.

 

[Weather_Lady]

I believe everything you've laid out is correct. But why would you need to replace a 6-day MYW with a 7-day PH+? Couldn't you just replace it with a 6-day PH+?

Just to clarify -- we think parkhoppers would be nice to have, but we don't really need them, and would never get the full value ($300+) out of them if we paid full price. We're only considering the Parkhopper Plus upgrade because it would cover the cost of our extra (7th) day's worth of waterpark admission ($260) and a probable round of mini-golf at Fantasia Gardens ($60), and if we only had to pay the difference between the gate cost of our current tickets and 7-day parkhoppers ($460), would also give us the ability to parkhop at half-price, compared with what the parkhopper upgrade would typically cost by itself. In short, parkhopper for $250-$300+, as a standalone upgrade or as part of a Parkhopper Plus upgrade, is not worth it to us. If we could get it "thrown in" as part of a Parkhopper Plus upgrade for an extra $140 over what we'd pay anyway for a waterpark and mini-golf, then it would become a much more attractive proposition... which is why I was trying to figure out if that was a viable option.

Your question did make me wonder, though: have I been looking at the PH+ entitlements incorrectly? Are the waterpark visits not linked the the length-of-ticket, such that we could visit a waterpark on day 1, and start using the 6-day PH+ tickets for admission at one of the four main parks on day 2, and for 6 more days thereafter? Our 6-day MYW tickets were meant to cover 6 days, starting on a Tuesday. Our waterpark visit would be on Monday, which is why I thought that if we upgraded to cover that day, we'd need 7-day tickets... Sheesh! This is what I get for assuming...

 

[anchorman314]

Your question did make me wonder, though: have I been looking at the PH+ entitlements incorrectly? Are the waterpark visits not linked the the length-of-ticket, such that we could visit a waterpark on day 1, and start using the 6-day PH+ tickets for admission at one of the four main parks on day 2, and for 6 more days thereafter? Our 6-day MYW tickets were meant to cover 6 days, starting on a Tuesday. Our waterpark visit would be on Monday, which is why I thought that if we upgraded to cover that day, we'd need 7-day tickets... Sheesh! This is what I get for assuming...

To be honest, I didn't even realize that either. But I believe you're correct. From Disney's website:

Park Hopper Plus Option
With this option, you enjoy same-day admission to all 4 of our theme parks—Magic Kingdom park, Epcot, Disney’s Animal Kingdom park and Disney’s Hollywood Studios—on each day of your ticket.

Plus, you get a certain number of visits to other Walt Disney World fun based on the length of your ticket. For example, a 4-day ticket allows 4 visits and a 5-day ticket allows 5 visits. (The only exception to this is that a 1-day ticket allows 2 visits). For each visit, you can choose one of the following:

• Disney’s Blizzard Beach Water Park
• Disney’s Typhoon Lagoon Water Park
• ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex
• Disney's Oak Trail Golf Course
• Disney's Fantasia Gardens Miniature Golf Course
  Play one round of miniature golf (prior to 4:00 PM) at a fun course inspired by the Disney classic film Fantasia, OR
• Disney's Winter Summerland Miniature Golf Course
  Treat yourself to one round of miniature golf (prior to 4:00 PM) at either of 2 Santa Claus-themed courses.

However, you'll still run into the upgrade problem because you can't upgrade before entering a park.

 

[Rob562]

The info that both of you have posted is for the most part correct. But to help clear everything up, I figured I'd help boil it all down to bottom-line options:

1) Keep your 6-day tickets as-is, buy separate 1-day water-park tickets. Added price: the cost of the water park tickets.

2) Upgrade your 6-day tickets at the water park to 6-day Plus tickets. You *might* (a very slim might) get a CM at the ticket window who will give you gate price credit for the ticket, but it's unlikely. The downside is that you may actually lose *more* than just the discount, since you may only be credited with what the ticket reseller paid Disney for the ticket since Disney has no way of knowing what the ticket rseller's profit margin is nor what you paid the reseller for that ticket. (I only know of that anecdotally, I have no proof, but it's logical)
Added price: The price difference between what the reseller paid (which may be printed on the ticket), and the price of the 6-day Plus ticket.

3) On your water park Monday morning, go to a *theme park* first, enter the park, go to Guest Services, upgrade your tickets to a 7-day Plus ticket (since you used an admission day entering the park and would still need 6 additional days beyond that day).
Added price: the difference between current gate price of the 6-day ticket and the current price of the 7-day Plus ticket (plus the added trouble of having to go to and enter a theme park first thing in the morning before your water park visit) though you could go back to a theme park that night after the water park and also still have 5 "options" left.

I think after you work out the prices, you'll probably find that Option 1 is your cheapest option.

And to answer the other question, yes, if the tickets had initially been bought as 6-day Plus tickets, you could use them for a water park on Monday, then have 6 full theme park days for Tuesday and beyond, plus 5 more "options" like mini golf or another water park visit.

-Rob