[nancyk]

We intend on going to the the guest services at the park entrance to upgrade our Passes (we will do this the first day we go). My question is : Will they require me to upgrade to the same "type" of pass? That is, our current passes are park hoppers "plus more", which are considered "premium passes" according to the info I've found. Will I be required to buy the "premium annual pass" or can we chose to get the basic annual pass?

[DisneyTeacher]

You should have no problems getting a regular AP.

[nancyk]

Thanks, now can you tell me: can we still "park hop" with the regular AP?

[DisneyTeacher]

Originally Posted by nancyk

Thanks, now can you tell me: can we still "park hop" with the regular AP?

You sure can!!

[nancyk]

Thanks again!!

[KarenT]

You can upgrade to any AP. But for some reason, not all CM's know this. I tried to upgrade my 7 day Park hopper to an AP at EPCOT, two things went wrong.
1. The CM said I could not do it.
2. My ticket was coming up as a 1 day PH on the system.
Thank goodness for receipts! But they could not get it to work as a 7 day PH, so the gave my a complimentary pass to EPCOT for the day.
We went back to the resort and I had the front desk check my ticket. YES it was a 7 day PH and yes I could apply it toward an AP, but I had to do it at a park.
So the next day we went to AK and......no problems.

So ask for a manager if any problems!

[Ready2Go]

I just upgraded to APs at DL and I was able to do it on the last day of our trip. They told me it was the same at WDW, but I had bought my APs for WDW outright so I don't know for sure. The info below seems to say you can do the same at WDW.

From : WDW Ticket FAQ

UPGRADING is the act of applying the entire original purchase price towards the new MYW ticket or AP/PAP.

Disney allows you to UPGRADE most park tickets to a longer Magic Your Way ticket, an Annual Pass (AP), a Premium Annual Pass (PAP) or a Season Pass for Florida Residents (SP) prior to using or within 14 days from first use for MYW tickets. They will take the entire price of the ticket you started using and deduct it from the cost of the new ticket. Disney will not allow you to upgrade certain promotional tickets not available to the general public or any partially used ticket purchased prior to the January 2005 introduction of Magic Your Way tickets.

You can upgrade your MYW ticket to an AP/PAP/SP. You will receive full purchase price on the original ticket and you will pay only the difference in price to the AP/PAP/SP. The starting date of an AP/PAP will be back dated to the date you first used any admission off the old ticket. This transaction must be done within 14 days of first use of the MYW ticket.

Special upgrade policies apply on:

1) Disney's 3 Day Play and 4 Day Play passes for Florida residents. Disney will allow these passes to be upgraded to a Seasonal or Annual Pass any time during the six month from firsy use use window. But Disney will back date the Seasonal or Annual Pass to the date you first used the 3 Days Play ticket which may have been several months ago.

2) Upgrading an Annual Pass to a Premium Annual Pass (or a Florida Seasonal to a Florida Annual or Florida Premium Annual Pass). This can be done at any time simply by paying the price difference between the two passes. There is no prorating of prices done. Your new PAP will keep the same expiration date as your old AP had regardless of when you do the transaction.

If you purchased your MYW tickets from a non-Disney source such as AAA or a Florida ticket wholesaler, you can upgrade them and you will only be charged the price difference between the gate price of your old ticket and the gate price of the new one as long as the ticket has been used and you do the upgrade within the 14 day from first use window. Disney will absorb the difference between what you have paid for the ticket and the current gate price. If you upgrade a completely unused MYW ticket that was purchased at a discount, you may lose the discount when you upgrade.

According to a Disney ticketing CM, when doing an upgrade from any discounted ticket, the CM will first make an internal "intermediate" ticket at the current gate price and do an internal charge between what the system says was charged for that ticket and the current gate price. Then they will upgrade the intermediate ticket to whatever you are upgrading to it (adding days, park hopper, WPF&M, or NE, or any combination) and you will only be charged the difference between the fee based on the current gate price of the intermediate and the gate price new ticket.

As an example, the 2006 gate price for a five day adult base, including tax is $219.39. If you wanted to upgrade to WPF&M, the CM would create the intermediate ticket with a value of $219.39, charge the difference between what you paid to the non-Disney source and the intermediate ticket to the internal voucher and then upgrade the intermediate ticket to WPF&M and charge you $53.25, which is the $50 plus tax for the upgrade.

Disney gives its Guest Relations CMs some latitude to make exceptions to ticket upgrading policy. Things like "sprinkling some pixie dust" and "one time only exceptions" are not unheard of. It never hurts to ask for what you want and let the CM tell you whether or not it can be done. Keep in mind that just because you heard of it being done for one person does not mean that it will be done for you.

The ticket will be credited with the gate price amount, not just the purchase price amount for the purposes of doing the upgrade. When you upgrade these tickets, you will only pay the price difference between the value of the remaining park admissions on the old ticket and the price of the new ticket. You will not be charged for any other price difference. Important note: Problems seem to occur with this often when tickets purchased in advance from a non-Disney source are involved. Guest Relations is much more consistent in doing this transaction correctly than a resort's Lobby Concierge is.

You will only be allowed to apply one old ticket to each new one you get. You cannot take five old tickets each with a day on them and apply them all to one new MYW ticket/AP/PAP. If you were getting 5 new tickets then you could use all five of the old ones by applying one to each. This is the one rule that Disney seems to be very inflexible on.

If the old ticket was used in more than one park on any one day, you will be required to purchase the new ticket with the Park Hopper add on. If the old ticket was used at a water park, PI, WWoS, or DQ, you will be required to purchase the new ticket with the Water Park Fun & More add on or in the case of upgrading to an AP, you will be required to purchase a PAP. If the old ticket was unused, then you will be allowed to purchase any MYW ticket you choose so long as the cost of the new ticket exceeds that of the old one.

[nancyk]

Wow, thanks for the info! Much appreciated.

[nancyk]

I went to the disney website & when I put in that I am from Canada, there is no option to buy a theme park AP. There are options to buy AP's for water parks or disneyquest. Is this most likely a glitch in the website, or are non-residents of the U.S. not allowed to buy theme park AP's?