Trying to get a straight answer from Disney?

Wow! It’s hard to get a straight answer sometimes. I called Disney to ask if I could activate my 10 day tickets 3 days early before my 4 night stay on property. Here are the answers I received:

CM 1 - No…this is not allowed with your type of package
CM 2 - Yes, no problem just visit your resort to activate your tickets if it’s only 1 day it should be fine
CM 3 - Yes, you can activate your tickets up to 10 days early
CM 4 - Yes, you can but there might be a fee
CM 5 - Yes, you can up to 2 days early complimentary but if it’s 3 or more you will be charged for the higher price difference between what I purchased and what the current price tickets are for those days.

In the end, I modified my tickets back down to 8 days because I am not confident about what the real truth will be when I get there. I am going to show up only 1 day early and hope I will be able to activate my tickets early at no extra charge. It"s funny that when I asked for the policy in writing, no one could direct me to the place where this was stated. Is it just an unofficial Disney policy?

A couple of years ago Disney created “call centers”. Phone calls go to these centers. When you call from a Disney resort room you call goes to the center. When I think of a call center I think of a group of people in the same room. With Disney, sometimes your call goes to a person not on Disney property- but they could be answering the phone in another state.

Were your tickets associated with a package (room and ticket purchased together)? You used to be able to activate tickets early. Now, tickets in a package are date specific and I have not heard of anyone that was able to activate them early. They can only be used on the first day of your package. You can make arrangements to change that date if they are not part of a package.

Ask here or on chat…never call!

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Part of a package. I had 4 day tickets with resort stay and free dining and I called to ask about upgrading to a 10 day ticket even though I would not be on site before or after our resort stay. Maybe I can let everyone know what happens after I try to activate my now 8 day ticket, 1 day early. I do have a plan B if this doesn’t work. I am also aware that we cannot get fpp for the day prior to our resort stay.

I should clarify that I mean I can’t get fpp 30 days in advance. I think I can get them if they are available on the day I activate my ticket if I am allowed.

I am hoping to visit the water park then go see shows only at HS

If you have free dining, you cannot activate that ticket a day early.

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It’s just so weird that no one knows from Disney. Since we are staying close by off property the week before our stay, I’ll just pop over to the resort a few days ahead. I wrote down the dates and names of each CM I spoke with and what they said. We will be able to squeeze in a half a day after our resort stay if necessary.

Do you think we would at least be able to go to the waterpark?

well, to be fair @PrincipalTinker probably has more Disney experience than the people in the call centers.

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Yes, TP friends are so helpful! I remember reading so much on TP before our trip 5 years ago and I showed up at Epcot on December 24th early and a Security person told me I was 2 hours early before park opening and I kindly said that I was sure the park opened in 1 hour. He went back to check with some others and came back and said, “I guess your right!” I was so relieved and thankful that I was a part of TP so that I knew what was going on!

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You purchased park hopper plus tickets? No, you cannot use any part of free dining tickets before the date of your package. Change the tickets to park hoppers and then purchase one day water park tickets. It will cost more, but at least you will go to a water park that day. At the very least, reduce those tickets by another day unless you are using them after your onsite stay.

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Thanks so much, we do have 1 day that is somewhat flexible after. We purchase the 2 day plus 3 free from Universal but we probably won’t do all 5 days.

We could do disney springs and visit resorts that day if we can’t go to the water park.

Do you think the resort would honour the information that was given to me if I had the name of the CM and date I called?

I do not think there is a way to override the system. Maybe they could give you a comp ticket but I would never count on that.

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Thanks. I’ll hope for the best but be prepared for that possibility. :blush:

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The other day I called Disney to inquire about purchasing AP’s. I told her that I did not want to get them "Will Call but rather mailed to us and that the online purchase via the web only offered Will Call. In discussing ticket prices, I told her I wanted AP’s without the water parks or Premium passes not Premium Plus. She stated it would be $900 + for each pass. I said wait a minute, I am on your site and it says base price is $800+. We went round and round and I finally figured out she was including tax. Now I stated what the base price was and the tax separate, but she just didn’t get it. She said she was transferring me to ticket dept. which is what I thought I was talking too. She hung up on me. Finally I contacted Disney Internet help and was able to get what I needed and told also that they no longer mail out AP card but rather you have to pick them up and activate them at your first park and not the resort. Long story short is No Disney CM’s don’t always know what is going on and you must be careful on what you hear.

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I just think it’s crazy to get incorrect info from so many different CMs. Most of them told me I could activate my tickets early and they were looking at my account and saw I had a package. I clearly said I was nervous about showing up at the resort and finding out that I would not be able to do what they said. Do they get commission for upgrading my tickets?

The CMs who thought you could activate them early were forgetting the new date-based tickets changed in terms of validity.

At the time, TAs were told that tickets could not be activated early, and the WDW website states that they are valid from the start date.

If you had stand-alone tickets (separate from a package), you could change the start date in advance by calling.

With a package however, you can only do that by changing the whole package. Since the free dining offer is now closed, there is no way to do that and keep the free dining.

My experience has been that free dining tickets could not be activated early in the last few years. That is why I think it is such a bad answer from those people that answer the phone.