Flex Pass Superthread: Disneyland Resort Introduces New Annual Passport that Combines Value and Flexibility

[Pamela M]

Good to hear about the aRes Tickets being able to upgrade using the app and getting full price applied to AP. I'll be doing this in April.

 

[twodogs]

Good to hear about the aRes Tickets being able to upgrade using the app and getting full price applied to AP. I'll be doing this in April.

This has NOT worked via the app for some people, including me in October. It would not apply the cost of my ticket to the upgrade. I just did the upgrade at GS on our last day, but it took almost an hour at 7am to do it (there was no one in line, so that was actual time with me and a CM doing 3 ticket to FP upgrades). OP on this board went ahead and upgraded in the app and didn’t notice it wasn’t applying the credit for his ticket, and it took many phone calls and a lot of time to finally get it worked out. So be very careful doing it in the app. Also you will still need to go to GS at some point to pick up your plastic passes to use for discounts.

 

[twodogs]

Anyone surprised opening weekend of Rise or Resistance is still available? Its MLK weekend too.

I am surprised too. We will be there that weekend, and I have Saturday and Sunday reserved. Hoping Monday will still be open to reserve on Saturday after we check into the parks.

 

[MonocularVision]

This has NOT worked via the app for some people, including me in October. It would not apply the cost of my ticket to the upgrade. I just did the upgrade at GS on our last day, but it took almost an hour at 7am to do it (there was no one in line, so that was actual time with me and a CM doing 3 ticket to FP upgrades). OP on this board went ahead and upgraded in the app and didn’t notice it wasn’t applying the credit for his ticket, and it took many phone calls and a lot of time to finally get it worked out. So be very careful doing it in the app. Also you will still need to go to GS at some point to pick up your plastic passes to use for discounts.

I mentioned this in a previous post but when I chose the Upgrade option from the main app screen, I saw it wasn’t applying the ticket cost. When I did it from the individual ticket screen it worked. I think that may be the difference.

That said: it is an extremely misleading interface.

 

[twodogs]

I mentioned this in a previous post but when I chose the Upgrade option from the main app screen, I saw it wasn’t applying the ticket cost. When I did it from the individual ticket screen it worked. I think that may be the difference.

That said: it is an extremely misleading interface.

I tried it both ways several times, and it would not apply the cost of our tickets. So I just wanted OP to be aware of this glitch, as another OP had a really hard time getting it fixed when they upgraded in the app and didn’t notice that they were not getting credit for their ticket. As with all Disney IT, YMMV!

 

[Pamela M]

This has NOT worked via the app for some people, including me in October. It would not apply the cost of my ticket to the upgrade. I just did the upgrade at GS on our last day, but it took almost an hour at 7am to do it (there was no one in line, so that was actual time with me and a CM doing 3 ticket to FP upgrades). OP on this board went ahead and upgraded in the app and didn’t notice it wasn’t applying the credit for his ticket, and it took many phone calls and a lot of time to finally get it worked out. So be very careful doing it in the app. Also you will still need to go to GS at some point to pick up your plastic passes to use for discounts.

Thanks- my plan is to get the ares tickets with max pass and if there is still reservation availability for my last 2 days I’ll upgrade mid trip. I’ll probably just go directly to the GS to get it all taken care of. If not I’ll wait until my last day to do it.

 

[julieheyer]

Thanks- my plan is to get the ares tickets with max pass and if there is still reservation availability for my last 2 days I’ll upgrade mid trip. I’ll probably just go directly to the GS to get it all taken care of. If not I’ll wait until my last day to do it.

That’s probably a wise choice! I did it NYE at 10pm in the app on my phone. We upgraded No problem (Had to do it individually from the tickets in the app, not the main screen) but I messed up in scanning our tickets into the app initially and my daughter had my name as well. They will straighten it out at the ticket booth when we get our cards. We bought through Ares with maxpass and got full credit. We are excited to come back and use them!

 

[TangerineZoe]

Say you wanted to mimic a 2-day park hopper on reservation only days, with a Flex Pass, would you need separate reservations into both parks for each day?

 

[Katiebird]

Say you wanted to mimic a 2-day park hopper on reservation only days, with a Flex Pass, would you need separate reservations into both parks for each day?

You would need a both-parks reservation for day 1 (counts as 1 reservation) and then the same for day 2.

each day counts as a reservation, not each park.

 

[smercerdiemont]

Hello I am trying to plan a last minute whirlwind trip for my daughter's 5th bday. It would be from Jan. 19th- 23rd. I had planned on purchasing Disney Flex passes for us, but just realized that two of the days we wanted to go would be block out days (19th, 20th). How would I find out if there are still reservations open for those days to go to Disneyland/ CA? Or is it better to just purchase tickets for those days and then change them them to annual passes? Right now for 1 park/two day tickets with Max Pass it is $1,260.00. How much of that is applied to our Annual passes? Is it the total of annual pass price minus ticket prices with Max Pass? The total of the Disney Flex pass is $3,495.00. Thank you so much for reading this!

 

[starry_solo]

Hello I am trying to plan a last minute whirlwind trip for my daughter's 5th bday. It would be from Jan. 19th- 23rd. I had planned on purchasing Disney Flex passes for us, but just realized that two of the days we wanted to go would be block out days (19th, 20th). How would I find out if there are still reservations open for those days to go to Disneyland/ CA? Or is it better to just purchase tickets for those days and then change them them to annual passes? Right now for 1 park/two day tickets with Max Pass it is $1,260.00. How much of that is applied to our Annual passes? Is it the total of annual pass price minus ticket prices with Max Pass? The total of the Disney Flex pass is $3,495.00. Thank you so much for reading this!

You should get the entire amount applied to the APs, if you purchased the Max Pass directly with the tickets (not a day by day add-on). Flex Pass doesn't include Max Pass so you'll need to account for that too.

 

[CastAStone]

Buy tickets. Then upgrade while you are in the park to the Flex AP. The tickets can be upgraded to APs while you are there. They are worth absolutely nothing the next day so you HAVE to be willing to upgrade while there.

You can do it at guest services or a lot of people get upgrade offers in the Disneyland app while they are there and you can do it on your phone.

 

[smercerdiemont]

Thank you both so much!

 

[twodogs]

You can see if there are reservations available for Flex Pass any time (even if you don’t have a flex pass). Go to the app, scroll down to “annual pass holders” and click it. Click “Disney Flex Passport”, then on the next screen, click “both parks” or whichever park you want to book. The calendar displays and you can see if reservations are required for any days, and if they are required, if they are all booked up or not. Currently reservations are required for both of your days, but are AVAILABLE for both of your days. So if you buy the FP on the app, you can then immediately book those days and lock them in (as of right now of course).

We did a ticket upgrade to FP in the parks for most of our family in October because we had a 3 day trip and all 3 days required reservations and we did not want to risk not being able to make it in for the third day. It took a very long time on our last day at GS to do the upgrade.

I bought my other DD a FP on the app a few weeks ago. Immediately was able to book her reservations for our upcoming trip.

If you only have a 2 day trip, buying a ticket and then upgrading has no real advantage that I can think of AS LONG AS the reservations are available when you buy the FP in the app and you book them immediately (and your trip only has 2 or less reservations-required days, which it sounds like it does). You won’t get MM with a 2 day ticket, so that is not an advantage. To me, if you are willing to buy the FP and do the reservation right away, you can save time at GS (you may still have to go to GS to adjust the expiration date on your FP from one year from purchase date to one year from first use, but some have adjusted automatically upon first use; in this case, your time at GS will still most certainly be much shorter than if you are there trying to upgrade tickets to FP for multiple people).

 

[twodogs]

One advantage of buying a ticket and then upgrading is that if you buy the ticket at a discount (LMTC or UCT, for example), you may save a few bucks if the price applied to your upgrade is the full gate price, not the mildly discounted price you paid. There is no promise that they will apply the full gate price, however, many here (myself included) have been bridged at the full gate price, not the discounted price we paid (so we saved $28 per person this way; yours would be less because the discount on a 2 day ticket is less than a 4 day ticket like we had).

 

[twodogs]

Last point, if you buy one park per day as you propose, you can’t hop. If you start with FP and book for both parks (currently available), you can hop.

 

[smercerdiemont]

Thank you! I really appreciate you taking the time to reply with so much detailed information

 

[MonocularVision]

One other factor: if you have the APs for your trip, you will get a 10% discount on most everything in the park. If you wait to upgrade, you will not.

 

[bethwc101]

One other factor: if you have the APs for your trip, you will get a 10% discount on most everything in the park. If you wait to upgrade, you will not.

That is definitely something I have to consider. i went and booked our costco package with 3 day hoppers just to lock in ticket prices even though our trip isn't until Aug.
I will likely be upgrading to the flex pass on our first day so we can take advantage of my AP discount. BUT, if i got to upgrade, and my day 2 and 3 dates are booked for the flex pass, then i might have to hold off upgrading. Which would be a serious bummer. But that's the risk I decided to take. I just hope it pays off and day 2 and 3 are still available on day 1.

 

[twodogs]

You will lose your MM if you haven’t used it yet when you upgrade, FYI.