Slow Entry for 1st Time use of Costo pass

[curlyj]

If this hasn't been mentioned on the boards yet, when we were there 1 1/2 weeks ago, a line could take really long if there were a group in front of you that had the Costco 4-day park hoppers.

No names are listed on them, and even though we hand printed our names on in advance, the CM still had to type our names into the computer and issue us a new ticket with our names printed on by the machine. It took a bit of time for the CM to confirm the spelling, etc.

Then after that other times entering the park were smooth sailing.

So if you have a costco 4-day park hopper, be prepared for this.

 

[dizzymomx4]

Thank you for the heads up! We are heading to the parks tomorrow so good to know

 

[junmatno]

If this hasn't been mentioned on the boards yet, when we were there 1 1/2 weeks ago, a line could take really long if there were a group in front of you that had the Costco 4-day park hoppers.

No names are listed on them, and even though we hand printed our names on in advance, the CM still had to type our names into the computer and issue us a new ticket with our names printed on by the machine. It took a bit of time for the CM to confirm the spelling, etc.

Then after that other times entering the park were smooth sailing.

So if you have a costco 4-day park hopper, be prepared for this.

Since this has to be done, maybe a good TIP would be to take a nice stroll the night before your first day and go to the little huts where they sell tickets to trade in these "tickets" and get the real ones that you will use.

We always get a voucher from GAT, and do it this way to save time in the first morning.

 

[kaci]

Since this has to be done, maybe a good TIP would be to take a nice stroll the night before your first day and go to the little huts where they sell tickets to trade in these "tickets" and get the real ones that you will use.

We always get a voucher from GAT, and do it this way to save time in the first morning.

Excellent! Our first evening has been dedicated to exploring Downtown Disney, we'll definitely make a stop to get our tickets exchanged.

 

[coaches24]

Excellent! Our first evening has been dedicated to exploring Downtown Disney, we'll definitely make a stop to get our tickets exchanged.

sounds like a good idea for us as well. We are doing the same thing. Driving up on Jan one and will walk around DTD that evening so we can just stop by the ticket booth and get this done then.

 

[mathmom32]

Since this has to be done, maybe a good TIP would be to take a nice stroll the night before your first day and go to the little huts where they sell tickets to trade in these "tickets" and get the real ones that you will use.

We always get a voucher from GAT, and do it this way to save time in the first morning.

The tickets from Costco ARE real tickets. We purchased our tickets from Costco, but upgraded them for AP's before entering the parks. We were there last week, and honestly it was slow entry for ANYONE with more than a 3 day park hopper. Which then made it slow entry for everyone first thing in the morning. They were asking for ID from everyone with the longer PH's, and I saw a TON of people with their park hopper and their ID hanging from their lanyards. (No WAY would I hang my ID like that for everyone to see!)

 

[Geemo]

Good to know! We'll check with a ticket booth the evening we arrive.
I want our morning entry to the park to be a smooth one. Which in turn makes it smoother for those behind us.

Thanks
Geemo

 

[sara123]

We will do the same! We've actually gone to the booth the night before other times. This time for some reason I wasn't thinking about doing that this time with the Costco tickets. Will do though, glad it was brought up.

 

[mydisneymoney]

Can you actually trade your voucher in the night before for a ticket? I had heard you cannot because it will activate your ticket for that day. I would love to hear from someone who has went the night before and was able to switch the voucher to a ticket.

 

[Zbugz]

Can you actually trade your voucher in the night before for a ticket? I had heard you cannot because it will activate your ticket for that day. I would love to hear from someone who has went the night before and was able to switch the voucher to a ticket.

Wondering this, too

 

[Blue32]

Can you actually trade your voucher in the night before for a ticket? I had heard you cannot because it will activate your ticket for that day. I would love to hear from someone who has went the night before and was able to switch the voucher to a ticket.

I could be wrong but exchanging at the booth will not activate your ticket. It is only activated when you pass through the turnstiles.

 

[DollBabyKG]

We had the same experience. It did take a while, but I was grateful we didn't have to stand in special lines. However, the gentleman who did our tickets the first day couldn't get my son's to print, so he had us just write his name on it, no big deal. However, the next day, it wouldn't work. Turns out he printed my son's ticket from mine, or vice versa. The second day we entered, we had to wait for a supervisor to sort it all out, which took about 30 minutes. She ended up having to print my son 3 separate tickets, one for each subsequent day. It was kind of a pain, but she was so sweet about it, and gave us passes to both DCA and DL to get to the front of the line on one ride in each. It definitely seems like they didn't have all of the kinks worked out, but on the whole, 30 min out of 4 days was really no big deal. Every other time we went into the parks, we just had our ID's out with our tickets and it was no slower than regular entry. Overall it really wasn't a problem, and I was happy to do it!

 

[DisneyMomma81]

Can you actually trade your voucher in the night before for a ticket? I had heard you cannot because it will activate your ticket for that day. I would love to hear from someone who has went the night before and was able to switch the voucher to a ticket.

Wondering this, too

We've exchanged PH vouchers the day before our 1st park days several times *usually go through ARES or GAT for PHs* most recently was last month ~ GAT vouchers.

I could be wrong but exchanging at the booth will not activate your ticket. It is only activated when you pass through the turnstiles.

Correct.

 

[sirvin12]

I thought the plastic Costco tickets were the tickets? They used to be. Did you have to exchange the plastic ones?

Shannon

 

[profa]

When I went in the summer I had purchased tickets through the entertainment book website (BTW, the best prices I found after much research at that time). I went the night before with ID to get our tickets. They had the voucher there and then gave me tickets w/ everyone's names. You do this at a booth BEFORE the ticket line entry. So no your ticket isn't activated.
It's nice to get it out of the way because we didn't want to waste any minutes on our EEM.

 

[vbecky]

Anyone know how late the ticket booths are open? we get in about 9:30 on a Sunday night but if the tickets now all have names printed on them I would so like to do this night before?

 

[Disneyluvr2]

Anyone know how late the ticket booths are open? we get in about 9:30 on a Sunday night but if the tickets now all have names printed on them I would so like to do this night before?

I went to one of the ticket booths at about 10:30 or 11:00 at night, when I first arrived, to get my annual pass so I wouldn't have to do it the next morning when it was busy. It was nice...not one person in line! That was in August. I'm sure they're probably open as long as the park is open.

 

[StoneSword]

I believe this new hasstle is due to people who were "renting" these types of tickets out. The tickets are meant to be non-transferable, but people were bending the rules. In an effort to crack down on it, they instituted the new policy. You aren't crazy if you feel this is a change.

 

[scrapshappen]

What about the plastic "tickets" that come with the packages from Disney? Do they have to be exchanged at the Gate? We are arriving mid day, so I don't think it really matters, but it would be nice to know.

 

[pixleyyy]

I want to know about the plastic tickets too. We have a Costco package that came to us from WDTC. It has plastic tickets just like we normally use when we go to Disney. I just assumed those were good, valid tickets that we could use at the gates. Is that not the case?