APs...Better to upgrade now or later?

This weekend, I booked a trip in May for my mom, myself and my kids. We already have a 9 day trip planned in February. Looking at upgrading to APs.

Can someone tell me the pros/cons for calling to swap our tickets to APs before our trip vs while we’re there in February?

We have no further trips planned…except for MAYBE next December but it’s unlikely. We have DAH tickets purchased for February. If we upgrade before we go could I cancel our DAH tickets and then repurchase with the AP discount?

Thanks in advance for any and all advice on this. My husband thinks my mom and I are crazy!

The date of activation would be the date that you upgrade to AP as opposed to activating the current tickets on the day you get there. So, your use year would start on whatever day you upgrade and the year starts ticking then.

I’m not sure that you can upgrade them to APs unless you do it in person. Others will need to confirm or deny that. The time that I did, it was in person at guest services.

If you do wait, make sure you upgrade on your first day so you can reap all the benefits for the duration of your trip.

Also, wanted to add (because I too am thinking of upgrading our tickets to AP once we arrive in August and wanting to buy DAH tickets with the discount) I believe (and I’m sure the experts will chime in) you can get the discount reimbursed for DAH tickets bought in advance when you upgrade to an AP at guest services in a park or Disney Springs. I think guest services will then give a gift card for the difference on the tickets you paid for the event tickets minus your AP discount.

Hoping an expert clarifies more for us though!!

When you do this does your memory maker immediately activate? I’ve prepurchased it but will likely drop it from my package if I decide to upgrade. I’m nervous about not being able to have it the first couple of days of my trip.

I hope this is true! We have 7 tickets so it’s save me quite a bit.

Have you read @JJT’s opus on the subject? He’s the AP-upgrading expert.

And he updates regularly.

Everything I can tell says that yes, your MM will activate immediately once your ticket becomes an AP. You can also roll the MM cost into your upgrade “bridging”, as I understand it.

Hope this helps… even if it is a lot of reading!

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I can confirm the MM, when we upgraded at GS at MK gate, our MM pictures were there as soon as we took some.

I thought that you could buy AP online and then activate when you got there. You could still make FPP ahead of time but your date of AP didn’t start until first use. Am I wrong?

I think the date switch is new. I believe before it was activated on first date of use but now it’s date of purchase. Which is pretty lame.

You can buy it online. I’ve already made my FPP for February. Any idea how they would handle that? This feels like it’ll require a call to Disney to work everything out. :confused:

I have although my phone never cooperates when I try to work within the sheet. I should probably try and open it on my laptop.