DVC AP or bridge tickets to DVC AP

[luvthatdisney]

Hi guys,

I am planning a trip for next September (2019). We are new direct DVC owners and I have been reading a lot about bridging park tickets to AP's. I am trying to figure out if we need to go ahead and buy regular tickets before the price structure change or just buy the Gold AP's.

Has anyone looked into this and found that it saves money to bridge the tickets to AP's during first visit vs buying the DVC AP's upfront? There will be 3 adults on this trip - no children - our adult child lives with us and has id that shows that. We will be taking 2 trips totaling 10-11 days during the AP year. We have never purchased AP's before.

 

[wdw4rfam]

Buy the gold AP now. It will show in your MDE for discounts on the parks app even though it’s not “activated”. It won’t start the year until you use it the first time, but you will lock in the price by buying it now if there’s a price increase.

 

[FFMickey]

We looked into this and will be traveling the same time as you. We decided to buy the DVC gold pass now and to not worry about any price increases. If you got regular tickets, you'd upgrade to the AP at the current selling price at the time of the upgrade. The last price increase was early this year.

 

[DebbieB]

It's going to be interesting to see what happens to ticket bridging with this change.

 

[Tigger2ntinkerbell]

Buy the gold AP now. It will show in your MDE for discounts on the parks app even though it’s not “activated”. It won’t start the year until you use it the first time, but you will lock in the price by buying it now if there’s a price increase.

I thought you only a 1 year from the date of purchase?. What is the expiration date?.
My husband wants to know if we bought now , is it possible to activate it 2 years from now?

 

[Madame]

I thought you only a 1 year from the date of purchase?. What is the expiration date?.
My husband wants to know if we bought now , is it possible to activate it 2 years from now?

APs have an expiry date of 2030 if not activated. I read in another thread that the date is just a placeholder & APs don’t expire.

 

[wdw4rfam]

I thought you only a 1 year from the date of purchase?. What is the expiration date?.
My husband wants to know if we bought now , is it possible to activate it 2 years from now?

Can’t remeber for sure the length, but it was a long time. They sat in MDE for 8 months before we activated them. So we got the discount online in the parks app and could see all the AP discounts for rooms way before our year even started. Call and ask. My thought is 2 years is fine.

 

[KCMA]

Wow for some reason I did not know about the activation part.. we have plans to go in June 2019 and again December 2019 so we want to get APs as it would be cheaper (even with the Canadian resident discount) ... is there an official date for price increase?

 

[kmc8826]

Wow for some reason I did not know about the activation part.. we have plans to go in June 2019 and again December 2019 so we want to get APs as it would be cheaper (even with the Canadian resident discount) ... is there an official date for price increase?

No one knows when there will be an increase. Just speculation. That’s the reason for the all the uncertainty and angst on this thread.

 

[KCMA]

Thank you! We are somewhat new to DVC and have never purchased a AP before.. when was the last increase? And by about what percentage was the increase

Thank all!

 

[granmanh603]

Feb 2018

 

[Cyberc1978]

Thank you! We are somewhat new to DVC and have never purchased a AP before.. when was the last increase? And by about what percentage was the increase

Thank all!

Oct 16th 2018

 

[granmanh603]

It's going to be interesting to see what happens to ticket bridging with this change.

Has anyone heard anything about upgrading a 6day hopper to DVC Gold AP. Can’t find any info?

 

[BillPA]

up about 8.9% from $559 to $609 for the Gold Pass

 

[granmanh603]

I know that. I have a 6 day hopper ticket I want to know how much it will cost to upgrade? I don’t want to buy it, upgrade it

 

[erionm]

I know that. I have a 6 day hopper ticket I want to know how much it will cost to upgrade? I don’t want to buy it, upgrade it

What it will cost will depend on who you purchased the ticket from and when the ticket was created by Disney.

See Post #6 in the All About TICKETS & Upgrades thread: https://www.disboards.com/threads/all-about-tickets-upgrades.3570721/#post-56958173

 

[supersnoop]

I know that. I have a 6 day hopper ticket I want to know how much it will cost to upgrade? I don’t want to buy it, upgrade it

Tickets aren’t really “bridged” anymore. When the tickets were all the same and the price just went up, they had to deal with the uncertainty of what you paid by crediting you with the then-current gate price of the ticket you were holding. Now, the tickets have changed. They don’t sell your ticket anymore, so there’s no current gate price to bridge to. You get the value of that specific ticket.

 

[mousestruck]

Tickets aren’t really “bridged” anymore. When the tickets were all the same and the price just went up, they had to deal with the uncertainty of what you paid by crediting you with the then-current gate price of the ticket you were holding. Now, the tickets have changed. They don’t sell your ticket anymore, so there’s no current gate price to bridge to. You get the value of that specific ticket.

So if a ticket is purchased from UT, will your ticket be valued at the price you paid UT or the gate price of the ticket on the day when you upgrade? I think this is still an unknown.

 

[MrPTato]

So if a ticket is purchased from UT, will your ticket be valued at the price you paid UT or the gate price of the ticket on the day when you upgrade? I think this is still an unknown.

Based on the price that you paid UT. When we upgraded, they could see what we paid for the ticket.

 

[mousestruck]

Based on the price that you paid UT. When we upgraded, they could see what we paid for the ticket.

If that is the case, there is no longer any benefit/value to purchasing tickets from UT. They have always been able to see the purchase price, but bridged the ticket to preserve the discount. (Well, not every CM knew how to do this, but that was the policy.) I don't know if that policy has changed. No official word yet, I believe.