I had called DVC at 8:31 PST this morning with the intent of asking a few questions about ticketing and hopefully having them be able to transfer points from my Disney Visa to use for those tickets. Sharing the info here to save someone the 55 minute wait I had.
Quick details about my trip: 3 people, over 10 years old going for 15 days. Already booked 1bed at BLT.
AP’s are still unavailable. She refused to even tell me if I would be able to upgrade a 10 day ticket to AP at all. Going so far as to advise me NOT to purchase my tickets yet. Advising me, instead, to “wait and see what they end up doing” instead. This after I told her I was only doing this to secure park reservations to avoid being locked out of my choice parks.
DVC will not transfer points from the Visa program for use of tickets. Before this trip, I had only bought AP’s both on day of, at either Guest services or ticketing boots at WDW &DLR. All times the person was able to redeem my points without me having to go through the bank. Today was the first time I was denied that service.
DVC was only discounting AP’s and not any of the day use ticketing packages. And although DVC is adding 2 days onto ticket purchases at this time, it’s only for stays before the end of September. Right before the 50th celebration.
10 day tickets can be used within 14 days of first use, but does not have to be consecutive days, which free us up for going to UOR on the weekends, utilizing their express pass for busier times when high crowds and limited FP’s (if at all) are the most Disney will offer.
Again, I had a 50 minute wait today, and a 60 minute expected wait when I tried yesterday. DVC is getting a ton of calls. I expect it’s everyone who had to push previous vacations combined with people wanting to experience the 50th celebration and new attractions slated to open. If you are planning on doing a trip, I suggest not waiting to the last minute in case things fill up.
So did you end up buying tickets? And if so, did you buy with cash or points?
If you don’t have tickets yet, you may want to book a refundable package somewhere with tickets so you can at least hold your spots until you can buy your tickets, then drop the package.
That would have been the smarter thing to do. I was so agitated after the call having accomplished literally none of my goals of using the points/getting a discount/finding out about the AP that I just hung up, redeemed my points myself and bought 3, 10 day tickets on the WDW site itself.
We only go to WDW every few years (though we wanted to make it yearly) and so the AP wasn’t a HUGE deal, other than if we get tired of UOR we usually head over to whatever Disney parks are offering EMH’s for that evening.
I was thinking they are trying to throttle expectations of people like me trying to make up for lost time/pushed trips/and or the anniversary.
They think they lose money of long term stays so they try to discourage them as much as possible. I was told they expect people to be cooking in their rooms, not using all of the available time in the parks etc. They don’t count of people like me who want to be in the park as much as possible, 7 days a week.
I think you did the right thing. Now you have tickets, can make reservations, can firm up your plans, and IF they resume sales of APs, you can upgrade your tickets later, if it makes sense to do so. You deserve a round of applause for your accomplishments this morning.
(Don’t you think we all deserve a round of applause for the little things now and then? )
Thank you. I was a little panicked after she said I should wait. She even used that “if you say so but I think you’re crazy” tone when I explained I wanted to reserve parks.
I would like to acknowledge my DH in that acceptance of the round of applause. Yesterday he might have said something to the effect of “IF I HAVE TO HEAR ABOUT THOSE GD TICKETS ONE MORE TIME I WILL LOSE MY MIND. I already told you to go ahead and buy them…BUY THEM RIGHT NOW. NO ARGUING. NOW. RIGHT NOW!”
Apparently 3 weeks of agonizing over planning (or lack of options there of) was a bit much for him.
@Bubblez I should have posted yesterday because I was on hold for 50 mins with a similar question and exactly no resolution. I have 2 trips one in May and one in November. I am also a Florida resident though we are quite far and only make 1-2 trips a year. APs still aren’t being sold so I asked if I could purchase 2-10 day flexible tickets because I see no where to do that on the website and otherwise they will expire inbetween and she said they used to have tickets that could be used over a 6 month period but could not find those anymore to sell me and everything she pulled up would expire before my november trip so maybe I should call and see if AAA had discount tickets for sale.
I’m sorry you had a similar experience. It’s frustrating, being so used to them being able to “make magic” only to end up with an hour gone and absolutely no closer to the answers we need.
Above all, I hope AP’s come back. Until then, good luck with AAA. That should have been my next call, but my frustration go the better of me.
Yes, to this! At this point we’ve bought two FL discovery tickets for my DH (redundant: I still have an active AP) and he would go with me more but it’s cost prohibitive. I can go by myself all I want but it’s more fun w/ him… most of the time… he still freaks out with crowds during covid. I’m worried I won’t be allowed to renew my AP which I should be able to do in just 2 weeks. Y’all will hear the howl if they don’t let me renew!!! fair warning
I used that and it suggested flexible date tickets which I don’t think are being sold anymore. I need to go back in I guess and just do my May/Nov dates separately.
The flexible option has not been offered for DVC in years, at least not how you want. There is a flexible option that allows your tickets to be used on any date, but they expire after first use.
With date based tickets, the flexible option allows your tickets to be used for any start date and the tickets remain valid for 14 days after first use.
The post- Covid tickets allowed unused days to be used at any time before the end of September 2021. I don’t think those are being sold any more.
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