2Qs: AP Renewal (voucher or not?) and Failed Temp Screening?

#1

  1. So I’ve heard somewhere in Facebookland I think that when renewing an AP, you get the voucher on your MDE and the clock doesn’t start ticking until activated on first park entry. Can anyone confirm this?

  2. DW is nearly onboard with a trip this summer, but the big question she has is what happens if someone fails the temperature screening at park entry. Our son is “hot blooded” and routinely has a temp of 99.5 (ish). She does not want to risk $100000000 to just be turned away at the gate thanks to our lovely son’s reptilian nature.

Once I’m done drooling over Randall’s trip report I’ll try to share my plans with more specific questions. THANKS!

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#2

On question 2, I have never heard of anyone actually being turned away, which leads me to believe that the thermometers are calibrated so high that if you actually tripped the scanner, you would probably know you were sick already. Very few false positives.

In theory, however, if you were turned away, your entire party would have to go back to your hotel until you were cleared by a doctor to return. In practice, as far as I have been able to ascertain, they don’t track who has failed, so you could try back later that day or another day.

#3

I do know that you get more than one chance at the temp screening. They usually let you go to a cooling tent for a bit before you try again.
Normally, I would never suggest this, but if you know already that he runs hot, maybe some tylenol in the morning is worth it.
I also know that if he fails the retest, all of you are going to be barred from entering.

#4

To clarify, there are many reports of people having to go to the tent to cool off and retake their temperature such as this one. But I’ve done a few searches and can’t find an example of someone being completely turned away after the cool off period.

#5

As far as the AP is concerned, I think this is a misconception.

I know of people who renewed, got the renewal certificate / voucher in MDE and were told it would start when activated. But then found that once activated it reset to the renewal date. Which is what should happen, otherwise why have a separate renewal price?

What you could do is renew in order to be able to make park reservations. And if they start selling APs again before your trip you could use the renewal cost against the cost of a new AP, if that would be worth it.

#6

This is a great idea. Thanks! The problem I have is that my AP now expires right in the middle of Spring Break (thanks to the extension), which is not ideal going forward.

#7

Does that mean you have to worry about blackout dates? Or is it just the Spring Break being bad timing?

If you know you’ll get value out of the APs , then I would bite the bullet and renew. Otherwise maybe just get multi-day tickets and upgrade those if APs are available to buy at the time of your trip.

#8

No blackout dates, definitely get value out of the AP from room/food discounts (only 1 AP in my family), I just imagine that renewal date causing possible issues in the future if we take a trip over spring break. This is my first renewal, so I just don’t know anything about the process, or how the backend works in MDE on the actual renewal date.

FYI - I just renewed. :grin::grin::grin::grin::grin:

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#9

Worth knowing that if your AP is due to expire during your planned trip, they would let you renew earlier than usual so you could book FPs.

So if you were to go over spring break, it would be worth asking if you could renew early so you could book parks, FPs or whatever is in place at the time.,

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#10

Interesting that it looks like I can “reassign” the AP. Not interested in doing that, but I wonder if that is really an option. If so, I wonder if that is a workaround to get someone an AP that currently can’t buy one.

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#11

This just happened to us.
Bought our renewal right before the closure and then had multiple cancelled trips, so would not be returning until after our renewal would expire in the next few days; without even actually activating it. I confirmed this with several different CMs, the renewal definitely expires a year from when the previous pass expired regardless of when your first use is.

Instead, once they started selling the renewal/special circumstance APs, they let us use the money spent towards our renewal on new APs (since they were never activated) and we just paid the difference.

#12

That is interesting! I wonder what would happen if you attempted to reassign it.