7-for-5 DVC Ticket Question...

kristenrice

NOT just an ambulance driver
Joined
Apr 25, 2006
A few years ago (2016 I think), before Disney decided to put a "use by" date on unused tickets, I bought (2) 5-day park-hopper tickets for my daughters for our upcoming trip in October 2018. I had not paid attention to the DVC ticket promos because they were set to expire before our trip and I figure they were of no use to us. Now, our plans may be changing. Our original plan had us arriving early Sunday morning and departing Friday afternoon, spending 4 1/2 days in the parks. Now, we will probably be arriving late on Friday and departing late the following Friday which will give us the ability to possibly enter the parks up to 7 times. With DVC extending the "7-for-5" offer, I'm wondering...will I be able to "upgrade" our 5-day passes for essentially no charge? Do they still "bridge" the tickets as long as I use them first?

This brings me to my second question...When Disney offered the "13-month AP" deal, did they offer the Platinum AP as well? I ask because I have my Gold 13-month AP voucher which I plan to activate in October. If I can upgrade it to the Platinum AP (or whatever will include the water parks) and still keep the 13-month expiration, I would be interested. We have an 8-day trip planned for October 2019 so I need the 13-month expiration or the pass will expire on our arrival day next year and it will be of no use to me. I am assuming that this won't work, but I thought I'd ask. I don't really need the Platinum pass, but if I can upgrade it and the price is within reason, why not right?

When I bought the 5-day passes for the girls, I also took advantage of a "7-for-5" deal that UnderCoverTourist was running at the time and bought their tickets for 2019. The only reason I have the AP voucher still is because I had planned to activate it THIS year (2017) but I went with my military friend and we used Military Salute tickets ($250 for a 5-day park hopper!) which was a much better deal than activating my pass and trying to get a multi-day ticket for myself in 2019.
 
I bought 5 day tickets from UT that we never used a few years ago. I just had my son use one on our trip last month. I went to guest services and asked to add 2 days plus PH. I did have to pay for the extra two days - only to add the hopper.

I believe that you are correct about activate and upgrading your 13 month AP to Platinum. We also have 2 of those and I am hoping that we can do the same when we go in November 2018.
 
I bought 5 day tickets from UT that we never used a few years ago. I just had my son use one on our trip last month. I went to guest services and asked to add 2 days plus PH. I did have to pay for the extra two days - only to add the hopper.

I'm confused....the DVC deal is "7 days for the price of 5". If you already had 5-day tickets (meaning you already PAID for 5 days) why did you have to pay for another 2 days? If they "bridge" the price, the 7-ticket is currently priced the same as the 5-day tickets that you already had so you should not have owed anything for the additional 2 days, just the amount needed to add the hopper option.

I believe that you are correct about activate and upgrading your 13 month AP to Platinum. We also have 2 of those and I am hoping that we can do the same when we go in November 2018.

The concern I have, though, is if I upgrade to the Platinum Plus, which is currently priced the same as the Gold, will I LOSE the 13-month expiration? That will absolutely be a deal-breaker for me since the ONLY reason I bought that AP in the first place was for the 13-month expiration. I have two trips that are 52 weeks apart.
 
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How did you purchase the original 5-day tickets? "Bridging" doesn't happen if you purchased the tickets directly from Disney to begin with. Also, when they added the expiration, they also raised the price of tickets. Old tickets will be bridged to the gate price from before the addition of the expiration date, so you'll still likely be charged something to upgrade them.

Has your 13-month AP voucher been activated? I'm under the impression that it needed to be activated by now. If not, you may lose the 13th month when it's activated, especially if you upgrade. If it's already activated, then upgrading should keep the same expiration date.
 


The concern I have, though, is if I upgrade to the Platinum Plus, which is currently priced the same as the Gold, will I LOSE the 13-month expiration? That will absolutely be a deal-breaker for me since the ONLY reason I bought that AP in the first place was for the 13-month expiration. I have two trips that are 52 weeks apart.

Typo I meant to say I did NOT have to pay for the extra 2 days. But since I bought the tickets before the change in dating tickets they said they were giving me an exception. Otherwise I would have had to pay the difference between gate price at the time of the change in policy. I am not counting on them doing that again. It was a little confusing for me, and I still have more of those same 5 days tickets I bought a few years ago. So I am going to check in advance what gate price was for them so I know if I want to upgrade them in the future how much I will have to pay.

I understand your concern about the 13 month, all I can suggest is ask at guest services before you upgrade. If they say no then just keep them as gold with the 13 month in place.
 
How did you purchase the original 5-day tickets? "Bridging" doesn't happen if you purchased the tickets directly from Disney to begin with. Also, when they added the expiration, they also raised the price of tickets. Old tickets will be bridged to the gate price from before the addition of the expiration date, so you'll still likely be charged something to upgrade them.

Has your 13-month AP voucher been activated? I'm under the impression that it needed to be activated by now. If not, you may lose the 13th month when it's activated, especially if you upgrade. If it's already activated, then upgrading should keep the same expiration date.

I bought the 5-day tickets from UnderCoverTourist back in early 2016, before the price hike.

The 13-month AP voucher has not been activated and I have an e-mail from Disney Ticketing that confirms that the 13-month expiration date will remain in effect until it is activated.
 
I had 13 month gold ap certificates that I upgraded to the new dvc platinum pass certificates by calling Disney ticketing. The new platinum pass certificates are not for 13 months, only the normal 12. I just did the upgrade a few months ago.

As with anything Disney, your experience with Disney ticketing could vary wildly from mine. Just letting you know my experience!
 


I had 13 month gold ap certificates that I upgraded to the new dvc platinum pass certificates by calling Disney ticketing. The new platinum pass certificates are not for 13 months, only the normal 12. I just did the upgrade a few months ago.

As with anything Disney, your experience with Disney ticketing could vary wildly from mine. Just letting you know my experience!
You could get the Platinum Plus pass for 13 months if you renewed a current pass before October 1st, or if you upgrade a current 13-month pass. I thought you had to activate you pass by 10/1 in order to get the 13 months, so I’m not sure what will happen if someone still has a 13-month certificate that hasn’t been activated yet.
 
You could get the Platinum Plus pass for 13 months if you renewed a current pass before October 1st, or if you upgrade a current 13-month pass. I thought you had to activate you pass by 10/1 in order to get the 13 months, so I’m not sure what will happen if someone still has a 13-month certificate that hasn’t been activated yet.

I thought the same. I bought 4 of the 13 month APs. My husband and I are currently using 2 of them. We decided not to use the other two on our kids since they aren't able to go twice this year. So now I have 2 sitting in my MDE accounts. I asked at guest services and was given two different answers. One said they will be good for 13 months whenever you activate them and another CM said they will only be good for 12. So, when I do I use them I won't be counting on the 13 months in my plans.
 
I thought the same. I bought 4 of the 13 month APs. My husband and I are currently using 2 of them. We decided not to use the other two on our kids since they aren't able to go twice this year. So now I have 2 sitting in my MDE accounts. I asked at guest services and was given two different answers. One said they will be good for 13 months whenever you activate them and another CM said they will only be good for 12. So, when I do I use them I won't be counting on the 13 months in my plans.

This was the e-mail I received last year when I asked them about an "activation deadline".

"Dear Kristen,

Thank you for contacting the Walt Disney World® Resort. Thank you so much for joining the Annual Passholder family!

I did a lot of research for the answer and even called the ticket services. Since this is a brand new annual pass you can activate the new Gold pass any time between now and December of 2030 and you will get the 13 month promotion Gold pass that you paid for. So yes you can activate the Gold Annual pass certificate in fall of 2018 and get the full 13 months that you paid for.

We hope this information helps with the planning of all the upcoming magical vacations!

If you have questions or need further assistance, feel free to contact us.

Sincerely,

Janelle Gillette
eCommerce Sales and Service Team"

You can bet that I will be taking this printout with me when I go to activate my pass next fall. Our next two trips happen to be October 19-26, 2018 and October 19-26, 2019 so the 13-month expiration date was imperative for the purchase of that pass. Otherwise, it was just an overpriced 7-day ticket.
 
This was the e-mail I received last year when I asked them about an "activation deadline".

"Dear Kristen,

Thank you for contacting the Walt Disney World® Resort. Thank you so much for joining the Annual Passholder family!

I did a lot of research for the answer and even called the ticket services. Since this is a brand new annual pass you can activate the new Gold pass any time between now and December of 2030 and you will get the 13 month promotion Gold pass that you paid for. So yes you can activate the Gold Annual pass certificate in fall of 2018 and get the full 13 months that you paid for.

We hope this information helps with the planning of all the upcoming magical vacations!

If you have questions or need further assistance, feel free to contact us.

Sincerely,

Janelle Gillette
eCommerce Sales and Service Team"

You can bet that I will be taking this printout with me when I go to activate my pass next fall. Our next two trips happen to be October 19-26, 2018 and October 19-26, 2019 so the 13-month expiration date was imperative for the purchase of that pass. Otherwise, it was just an overpriced 7-day ticket.
That's great that you have that email!!! I look forward to hearing how it works out for you. We are going this March and it will be our third trip with our 13 month AP's ( first time ever getting 3 trips out of one AP). I plan to let them expire and then use the other two when we go back in November.
 
You could get the Platinum Plus pass for 13 months if you renewed a current pass before October 1st, or if you upgrade a current 13-month pass. I thought you had to activate you pass by 10/1 in order to get the 13 months, so I’m not sure what will happen if someone still has a 13-month certificate that hasn’t been activated yet.

My 13 month ap was an unactivated dvc gold certificate that I upgraded to a dvc Platinum AP certificate that is only for 12 months.

The 13 month gold ap certificate was not a renewal, it was purchased new. When I purchased it, the expiration date was entered into mde as 4/2018. Since we would not be visiting until 5/2018, I opted to upgrade it to save myself the hassle of it expiring.

It cost me like $10 to upgrade from gold to platinum, but I did lose the extra month. That does not matter to us.
 

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