AP upgrade with complications

I will try to make this as brief as possible but I am looking for advice on the best way to approach upgrading to AP’s when we are in WDW next week. Based on how we booked the trip, I am not sure how to approach the upgrade.

Dec 5th and 6th - 1 night stay at Poly with 2 day park hopper tickets for 2 adults (me and DH; paid full price through Disney directly)
Dec 6th - 12th - 5 day Military Park Hopper for 2 adults (will also be joined by remaining family who are military and our first park day on these tickets will be Dec 7th)

I want to buy Memory Maker and would like to have it available for our first two park days on the 5th and 6th. We intially planned on using the Military discount for MM since it doesn’t require the 3 day advance purchase. We were going to purchase when SIL is with us on the night of the Dec 6th if we go that route (Cost is $98). But, now that DH and I are going a few days early, that puts a wrinkle in things.

The cost of the 5 day Military park hopper was approx $250; the cost of the regular 2 day park hooper wasn’t too much cheaper so, out of pocket is comparable. But, if the bridge in price will be based on the actual cost of a ticket, bridging from the Military ticket will be far better (since the full price 5 day park hopper is a little less than double what we paid with the discount). If we do that, then I have to wait until our first park day using the military ticket (dec 7th) to upgrade to the AP, right? So what do I do about pics from Photo Pass that we have on the 5th and 6th?

If I upgrade to AP on the 5th, using the 2 day park hopper as the bridge, it solves my MM porblem but I think we will pay significantly more for the AP upgrade.

This is all based on the assumption that they will use the full price 5 day park hopper price and not the out of pocket military discount price we actually paid. If they only give us credit for what we paid, then I don’t think it is a big deal to upgrade with the 2 day tickets.

If we upgrade on the 7th, and have photos that were taken on the 5th and 6th, will we get access to those? Or, if I buy the MM on the 5th for the full price, will I get a credit of any kind when I do buy the AP a few days later?

Help - adding the “extra” stay has complicated things more than I realized it would :frowning:

They will not bridge a Military Salute ticket at the same value as a standard gate ticket. You will get Military Salute value for your bridge, not “current standard gate price” as you would with a ticket from a discounter like Undercover Tourist.

That said, you can certainly apply the cost/value of your ticket to an AP… you just won’t get the value jump.

Thank you, while that means we will pay more, it does simply things!

Do you know for sure how upgrading a military ticket to an AP works and if they “bridge” to its current value? I’d be trying to upgrade that one probably and then use whatever you paid for 2 day park hoppers as “payment” for part of the difference.

Sounds like you’ll essentially just pay full price for the AP which isn’t really affected by the 2 day park hoppers. Just lots more complicated that it had to be. Sorry.