Spreadsheet: Best Tix to Buy to Maximum Savings on AP Upgrade

That’s a good idea. In excel I would just write a macro and stick in a button for me to press that would add the current best prices to the end of a table.

I haven’t looked at scripting in Google Sheets yet, but could be doable there too. Or, I could just type it every time I update the discount prices table…

I just updated the discount ticket prices in my spreadsheet & see that ParkSavers has one drastic change: a 5 Day PH ticket with 2 free days (so a 7 day PH) that just edges out the UT 7 day tix for the most savings.

Spreadsheet Link

Maximum Savings: Dum-DA-DUMM! THE PREQUEL
UPDATE (20JUL2017): I’ve made some changes to how the sheet looks and updated the cheat sheet image in this post below…

I haven’t looked into adding the DVC and other possible AP discounts yet, nor some other suggestions, like creating the sheet for whispers… Universal Studios, as I’m trying to round up a lot of things at work and home before we head out on our trip.

But, I did take some time to massage a spreadsheet I had started working on earlier and added it to another tab in the Maximum Savings family of products. This tab is called “Is it Worth It For Me To Upgrade to AP?”

If you are planning on taking multiple trips to WDW within a year, you can enter some basic info about them in this sheet and it will calculate how much you might save (or not) by upgrading to AP on your first trip.

Here’s a simple cheat sheet screen capture for it:

It is a work in progress, so don’t sell old cow Betsy to that weird farmer down the road and take a fistful of proceeds to WDW just yet - but I think it is pretty close to done in the world of Estimationeering.

I think it is important to note: use the ticket type you normally would buy on your trip info - if your family are Base tix kind of people and the thought of hopping from park to park makes your Keens catch on fire, don’t use Park Hoppers here or you will get an artificially positive number in the Savings section.

You can go right to this tab in the sheet using this link: https://goo.gl/p3f5yj

Hope you all find it useful!

POSTSCRIPT: There is a spot in this sheet to enter an estimate for how much your hotel will cost on each trip, and the AP discount can be applied to it. But, with all the possibilities for room discounts at WDW, I am not really convinced that hotel discounts should be a big part of this estimate unless you are booking rooms that are only available at a discount for AP holders at times when there are no other non-AP discounts out there.

But, I left you all a space to enter hotel costs if you like and to make that decision for yourselves, dear readers.

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My brain percolated overnight, and I made what I think are some changes to the “Worth It to Upgrade to AP?” sheet that make it a little more easy on the eye. I also updated the cheat sheet image in the post above this one to reflect the changes…

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Thanks!

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Hi Everyone: Just a quick post this time:

After a question from someone about the price the spreadsheet reports as gate price, I have two things to report:

  1. This thread has gotten long so I’m not sure if I made this clear, so wanted to add this addendum for posterity:
    When CMs bridge discount tickets to an AP, they are supposed to use the GATE price - which is what it would cost you walking up and buying your tickets on site. That price is $20 more per ticket than the online price you see at Disney’s site (after tax it is really $21.30 more.)

So, if you try to double check and compare my spreadsheet’s info (as I would do myself!) and see Disney’s ONLINE ticket price doesn’t match, remember you’ll have to add $21.30 to each ticket to get to the GATE price.

  1. Some of the Gate prices in my reference table were incorrect - not sure what I did, but must have used an old gate price reference table or got jittery with pre-trip last minute calculationitis.
    If anyone was using my reference sheet during this period, the difference was about $6 per ticket (depending on ticket type), and would be in your favor if you tried to upgrade with that info.

I have updated the gate ticket prices and double checked them, and also updated all of the 3rd-party vendor prices earlier in the week.

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I’ve added a couple of simpler tables to the AP Bridge Info for Printing sheets that I think may be easier to use when standing at Guest Services.

The main printable sheet has a lot of info and I still think is useful, but I felt it might be better for people to be able to have a simple screen shot of the numbers involved on their phone. I also included a formula for the basic math in case a CM comes up with some wildly different number. (It happens.)

On the sheet there is an option to select whether or not one has already purchased Memory Maker - if selected it takes that amount into account in the upgrade price since the CM should give you a credit for it.

Below are 2 examples of the expected Bridged AP Upgrade cost for someone who entered 3 adults and 1 child in the form and bought (or plan to buy) 7 day Park Hoppers. (Those are the tickets with the highest discount right now.)

One example with the MM option selected, and one without that option selected.

You can click here to go to the spreadsheet and give it a try.

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Thank you!

I have no reason to use this at all, but I really appreciate the amount of thought you’d STILL putting in to this, and the constant updating of process etc!

I’m sure it’s going to be super helpful to a lot of people for a long time.

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Excellent!

This is awesome. Thank you.

Has anyone successfully bridged the park hoppers sold by Magical Vacations Travel? I asked my agent about this and she indicated that I should be able to upgrade, but other clients have had mixed success depending upon the individual CM at guest services. Sounds like the same issue I could have with any third-party tickets. However, I’m wondering if there’s any weird condition because the tickets, like the rooms, are convention rates. Has anyone attempted it? Were you able to upgrade, to bridge, or neither?

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It is a different issue if they are the discounted MVT tickets. Those are convention tickets. Last year the rules changed and it became possible for you to upgrade a convention ticket at a loss of all savings. Before that you were not allowed to upgrade them. It can be difficult because some CMs do not know how the transaction works. That is why Brandi told a few of us if you think you will upgrade - get a room only or a ticketless package from MVT and buy discounted tickets elsewhere- that is why she is so great (one reason).

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Thank you for that clarification!

Howdy all, I’ve tweaked my free-standing “Is It Worth It For Me To Upgrade to an AP?” spreadsheet so that you can select more AP types, such as AP renewals, Florida resident & DVC member and it will look up those different AP costs now…

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In case it isn’t clear: Just wanted to say that my spreadsheet assumes that even if you are renewing an AP that you would be able to purchase discount reseller tix and bridge them for the renewal.

I know there are CM inconsistencies in many transactions, but others have reported they can apply tickets in hand to AP renewals. I have not heard of any reports that it is different for the FL/DVC APs, so am assuming they all should work the same way.

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Hi there! Trying to navigate this spreadsheet and I’m confusing myself. I am a FL resident and currently the AP I am interested in (platinum) shows a price of $679. I have tickets for a trip Dec 2-9, but they are military tickets. So I have 2, 4 day hopper passes (to give me 8 total days). Each 4 day hopper cost $209. So, I guess I first need to know if Disney will let me convert the military ticket into an AP. And if so, how do I do that once i get there? And would I get the price of just one of my tickets toward the AP ($209) or both tickets ($418)?

Howdy!

After reading your question I just realized when I updated my “Is It Worth it to Upgrade?” sheet to include Florida resident & DVC discounted passes, I only added Gold and Silver and not the FL resident prices for the Platinum and Platinum Plus. I’ve just added them there, then copied them all over to this “Maximum Savings” sheet so they can be selected now.

Note that the $679 price is pre-tax - all of the prices in my sheets include the tax to avoid confusion, since reseller prices on their pages include it, but Disney does not until you add it to a cart.

Regarding the military tickets: My only experience with those has been speaking with my sister about my nephew using them. But, I just learned this info over on the TP chat with help from trampslady63 and brerbeer:

“There are 2 different military discount tickets: the deeply discounted Salute tickets (can’t bridge these) & military discounted MYW tickets. I bridged the MYW type.”

So, if you have MYWAY tickets (With the $209 price it looks like you do), you should be able to bridge those.

However! I do not think they will bridge multiple tickets on a single AP. Perhaps others can chime in if they had different experiences, but I believe I’ve seen people say that CMs will only bridge one ticket per AP.

I just modified the spreadsheet with your numbers in the “AP Info If you’ve already bought tickets” tab.

You should triple check my assumptions, but if they are correct and you can only use the one ticket to bridge, looks like your AP upgrade should cost $249, and you would have saved $265 using the SOG tix. Nice deal!
SOG Upgrade

Thanks for the info! I think the tix I have are the Military Salute tix. In the site they are listed as 4-day Military Promotional Ticket:
https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/special-offers/military-ticket-rates/

Anyone know if that’s the same thing? I guess I will just ask when I get there if not!

From what I understand from reading online you can only purchase the salute tickets on base or other ways, but not online.

I believe The Shades of Green and regular Disney site has the regularly discounted military MYW tickets.

My bet is you have the upgradable tickets, but hopefully someone with military tix experience might chime in.

The link I posted is regarding the tix you can inly buy on base, which are the ones I have. Someone else chimed in on another (original) post I made before someone referred me to this one. She said she believes I can upgrade the Salute ticket but i won’t get a discount, just pay the difference straight up.

Yes, These are the deeply discounted Military Salute Tickets. You can buy 4 or (as of this year) 5 day ones. They are park hoppers.