Upgrade to AP after use

tzolkin · Jul 27, 2016

Just wondering if we can upgrade our tickets to APs after we have begun our trip. (I believe at Disney you can just pay the difference to upgrade before your 14 days expire).

I booked a 5 night trip for December. I would just buy the Power Pass, but the blockout period starts right in the middle of our trip. This is our first time at Universal, so I don't want to spend the extra $500+ for the regular APs until after we are there and know for sure we will use them again within the year.

macraven · Jul 27, 2016

If you upgraded to one preferred AP, you would not have to be concerned about block out dates in December or any time period you do your trip

tzolkin · Jul 27, 2016

macraven said:
If you upgraded to one preferred AP, you would not have to be concerned about block out dates in December or any time period you do your trip

Yes, but the preferred AP is $100 more than the 4 day ticket (x5 people). So if for some reason we didn't like Universal enough or decided we couldn't do a second trip within the year, the APs would be a waste of $500.

I'm thinking if we get there, love it, and absolutely want to do another trip within the year, I would go ahead and upgrade to the preferred APs since $500 would be significantly cheaper than purchasing new multi-day tickets for a future trip.

macraven · Jul 27, 2016

I understand what you are saying
I keep my preferred AP renewed yearly since 2003

I figure at the price park tickets are, 3 days in the park for me would be more than the renewal cost for my AP

My fall trips are always long stays

You could upgrade a power pass to the preferred if you make the decision for repeating the darkside

bumbershoot · Jul 27, 2016

When you're deciding if you like it enough to come back, be sure to think about how your future trips would be. If you would be staying offsite and commuting, Preferred and Premium include themepark parking, but PowerPass does NOT.

Now that question is moot if you're staying onsite, because you pay hotel parking no matter what (if you have a car, of course).

That issue has bitten my cousins, big time, because they upgraded to Power Pass on a payment plan, so to upgrade they first have to pay off the whole year and THEN upgrade it, and they never seem to be able to do it. So every time they go, and it's relatively often since they live in FL, they have to pay for parking.

I do think that people have said that you can upgrade to Power even if your trip did have blockouts.

johde · Jul 27, 2016

Yes, you can upgrade your ticket to a power pass on a blackout day. The only caveat is once you upgrade, you can leave and reenter or park hop. You're stuck in that park for the rest of the day. In the OP case though they have a 5 night trip and only the last day is a blackout day so I don't think that's going to be a problem. Unless they take a day off in the middle of their stay, their ticket will be done before the blackout days begin.

If I was in the OP position, I would upgrade 1 ticket to a premium A/P at the beginning of the trip to get the 10% off food, drinks and merchandise during their trip. On their 4th day in the park, decide if they want to upgrade the rest of their tickets to Power Passes or Premium Passes. You'll need to upgrade before the end of the day of your 4th admission. I don't think you can upgrade a ticket where all of the days have been used even if you're still in the 14 days.

tzolkin · Jul 27, 2016

johde said:
Yes, you can upgrade your ticket to a power pass on a blackout day. The only caveat is once you upgrade, you can leave and reenter or park hop. You're stuck in that park for the rest of the day. In the OP case though they have a 5 night trip and only the last day is a blackout day so I don't think that's going to be a problem. Unless they take a day off in the middle of their stay, their ticket will be done before the blackout days begin.

If I was in the OP position, I would upgrade 1 ticket to a premium A/P at the beginning of the trip to get the 10% off food, drinks and merchandise during their trip. On their 4th day in the park, decide if they want to upgrade the rest of their tickets to Power Passes or Premium Passes. You'll need to upgrade before the end of the day of your 4th admission. I don't think you can upgrade a ticket where all of the days have been used even if you're still in the 14 days.

Thanks for all of this info.

I was assuming we could really only upgrade to the Premium due to the blockout days.
We were planning to arrive 12/18, do 4 park days 19-22 (two blackout days), and then leave on the 23rd.

To do what you suggest with a power pass upgrade, we could arrive early morning on the 18th (stay nearby the night before) and go to the parks the 18-21 (start of the blockout period). We would wind up with a day with no tickets at the end of our trip, but I suppose we could use that for relaxing and dining. (A pool day would be great, but I can't expect that with unpredictable December weather.)

bumbershoot · Jul 27, 2016

Preferred AP is the middle ground, by the way. No need to go all the way up to the top unless you want those perks.

You could still just upgrade on the 22nd, no need for a no-park day. I think we're just getting confused about how many days you have on tickets, etc. So just use the tickets until the 22nd, enter the park, and upgrade to Power Pass then if that is what works for you.

BUT I feel a little confused, because of your wording.

tzolkin said:
So if for some reason we didn't like Universal enough or decided we couldn't do a second trip within the year, the APs would be a waste of $500.

I'm thinking if we get there, love it, and absolutely want to do another trip within the year, I would go ahead and upgrade to the preferred APs since $500 would be significantly cheaper than purchasing new multi-day tickets for a future trip.

If you were going to upgrade to Preferred if you were going to do another trip, then why talk about Power Pass?

I'd just use the tickets, and on your last day have made the decision of "will we go again, and when?". Look at the blockout dates for Power Pass, see if future trips will fall inside the allowed dates. If so, and if you'll be onsite-only, go for Power. If your dates will be blocked, and you might need the themepark parking, go for Preferred.

tzolkin · Jul 27, 2016

bumbershoot said:
Preferred AP is the middle ground, by the way. No need to go all the way up to the top unless you want those perks.

You could still just upgrade on the 22nd, no need for a no-park day. I think we're just getting confused about how many days you have on tickets, etc. So just use the tickets until the 22nd, enter the park, and upgrade to Power Pass then if that is what works for you.

BUT I feel a little confused, because of your wording.

If you were going to upgrade to Preferred if you were going to do another trip, then why talk about Power Pass?

I'd just use the tickets, and on your last day have made the decision of "will we go again, and when?". Look at the blockout dates for Power Pass, see if future trips will fall inside the allowed dates. If so, and if you'll be onsite-only, go for Power. If your dates will be blocked, and you might need the themepark parking, go for Preferred.

I apologize if my wording was confusing. I assumed I would be required to get the Preferred APs since some of our days fell during the blockout period. I mentioned the Power Pass in a "too bad we can't just get those instead of the preferred" context. I don't need/want the preferred, I just assumed that was my only option due to my trip dates.

It never occurred to me that I had the option of upgrading to the Power Pass until I read jhode's comment about waiting until the last day on my ticket and then remaining in that park.

And yes, you're completely correct. If they would let me upgrade on the 21st (a blockout day), they should also let me upgrade on the 22nd. That makes sense to me now. I have no experience with Universal or APs, and just started considering this today so I suppose I just wasn't thinking clearly through all the details. Thanks!

johde · Jul 27, 2016

Just remember on the 22nd to wait and upgrade when you are either done for the day or at least in the final park for the day. I did this myself a couple of years ago on the other end of Christmas. My first day in the park was the last day of the Christmas blackout period. I was also getting the A/P photo connect package and needed an A/P that first day to activate the package and get my Christmas pictures. So, I flew in to Orlando, went to IOA saw the Grinch Show and had my picture taken with the Grinch. Hopped over to USF, upgraded to the Power Pass, got my photo connect package activated, and enjoyed the rest of my evening at USF.

Cuchman · Jul 30, 2016

You can actually upgrade after the fact as well. We upgraded our 3 day P-to-P tix from August 2015 to power passes in Feb of 2016 - after they had been used. Our APs just dated back to our first park day on the 3 day tix.
Just another possibility for you.

avic77 · Jul 30, 2016

Can i piggyback some questions?
Just one member of the group needs Preferred AP to get free parking, correct? Also if we all got the Power pass but i saw that we would be staying off site and needed the parking could I upgrade one ticket to the Preferred at that point?

macraven · Jul 30, 2016

Upgrading to the preferred AP would give free garage parking the second time you are there

You would need to park the car to go to guest services to upgrade the power to preferred AP
Once that AP is activated. Free garage parking then

Upgrade to AP after use

tzolkin

DIS Veteran

macraven

Proud Redhead

tzolkin

DIS Veteran

macraven

Proud Redhead

bumbershoot

DIS Veteran

johde

DIS Veteran

tzolkin

DIS Veteran

bumbershoot

DIS Veteran

tzolkin

DIS Veteran

johde

DIS Veteran

Cuchman

Mouseketeer

avic77

Fish out of water

macraven

Proud Redhead

Share this page

DIS NEWS & UPDATES

New DISboards Threads

Latest posts