A friend of mine is taking her daughter to Disney for the first time as part of a cheerleading competition in March. She is asking me for advice on the trip. And I am wondering if the 3 day park hopper pass they get can be upgraded to add more days? Currently she has a package booked with tickets on that as well. But I am thinking if she can upgrade that pass it would save her money.
My guess is she is going to the UCA Nationals in the beginning of March? It might depend on the package that UCA offers, but most likely her park hoppers are not upgradeable through normal Disney Channels. Worlds is actually at the end of April and Summit the first week in May. The only reason I mention this is because UCA (UCA) and Worlds (USASF) are put on by different Event Producers (EPs), so their policies may be a bit different. Worlds and Summit are my experiene, so my answers might not pertain completely to the UCA Nationals. However, the Disney packages are usually pretty much all the same between the different EPs. I did look on the UCA website to see if there was any housing info, but it is not up yet.
When we went to Worlds this past April, our tickets through the USASF were heavily discounted, so no opportunity to upgrade through normal channels. But, we could add days on through the USASF. If you purchased an onsite package, the number of days on the park hopper were based on how many days you purchased for the hotel package. For instance, if you purchased a 3 day package at All Star Sports, your athlete received a 3 day park hopper. If you purchased a 4 day package, you got a 4 day park hopper. You could add a day to the 4 day parkhoppers for $30. The main thing to remember is that the EP park hoppers include the daily entrance to WWOS ($40 a day at Worlds) which regular park hoppers through Disney do not include.
Additionally, spectator park hopper passes were available, which also included the WWOS entrance, a huge savings at $40 each day into WWOS. A 3 day was $280, 4 day was $310, and 5 day was $340. Discounted Water Park tickets were also available to add at $45 per day. ticket.
All park hoppers were limited to use during the 3 weeks between Worlds and Summit. You didn't have to use the days consecutively, but they were a use them or lose them during the 3 week time frame.
If they are on a commuter package and going through a
travel agent, then your friend would need to speak to their gym to see if they can upgrade through the TA.
So, to make a long story short, she probably cannot upgrade the tickets through Disney. But she may be able to add days on through the EP. And we have done the math over the years of attending Worlds and Summit. There really is not a cheaper option than getting your park hoppers through the EP mainly due to the WWOS entrance addition. Her best bet is to talk to her gym to see what options for adding park hopper days are available. There has to be a way to do it as we had numerous families that had one kid competing at Worlds and another at Summit, so they just stayed the week in between. So, they would definitely need more than 5 days on their park hoppers.