Yes you get a card immediately. AP goes on MB, you get a “hard” ticke/cardt and then I think you get the discount card mailed to you but you can use the hard ticket/card to get discounts right away. Just make sure you have ID
It’s now May 2015. We are considering buying UT tix and then upgrading to AP. If we are not 100% sure we are going to be able to do this in August, which tix should we get in June (to do FPP)? We are staying 6 nights/6days and already have No Exp WP tix.
Hi Need some more clarification. What are you not 100% sure of doing? Going at all or upgrading? How many days are you planning on being at wdw?
Not 100% about upgrading. Will be there 6 nights/6days.
I would buy the 6 day ticket and you don’t decide whether to upgrade or not till you go through the gate for the first time. That locks in the discount price but you get credit for full face value if you upgrade. If you will be there 6 days anyway there is nothing to lose buying it
How would this work with a ticket that’s a 5-day PH WPM + 2 free days (7-day PH WPM) from Expedia? Cost is $388.73 pp. Do they even do the 3rd party tickets for upgrading anymore? I am going this Oct.(7 day trip) and MAYBE again in Feb 2016 (6-7 day trip), so just trying to figure out how to do this. I won’t even use the WPM option in Oct. anyway, so I know not to use them so I won’t have to pay for PAP, but also don’t want to pay for tickets that can’t even be upgraded.
This ticket is actually a 7-day PH+WPF&M - the whole 5-days plus 2 free days is just a marketing gimmick. WDW will give you credit for the current gate price of a 7-day PH+WPF&M when upgrading to an AP.
OK, So as I have no countdown as of late, I’m filling my Disney itch with number crunching, podcasts, and learnin’ from folks here in the forums and chat.
If I’m understanding this correctly from @brklinck’s helpful help, if I were contemplating a possible ticket to AP upgrade, I should be finding the tickets from Undercover Tourist (or elsewhere) that currently have the bestest savings over gate.
Then, when I upgrade to AP Disney will charge me: (Current AP Price) - (Current Gate Price Value of my Tickets).
Pretty cool. So, I spreadsheeted that up, and surprisingly found that the UT ticket with the best savings vs gate were the 3 day Park Hopper (they give you a free 4th day) at $28.04 savings per adult and $25.74 per child, for a total savings of $109.86 for my 4 person family.
If I had attempted a guess before crunching the numerals, I would have bet buying tickets for a higher number of days would result in more savings, economies of scale and all. So, this is making me second guess my Excel-Fu.
So, SANITY CHECK: Does this look right?
For reference, below is a capture of my Excel sheet, with those maximum savings highlighted in red. Note, a savings is shown by dollar amounts in (parentheses.)
So,Ihavebeengoing back and forth between the UT website and your chart yes, UT says the largest savings is for the 3 or 4 day ( same ticket) park hopper, water fun and more. For your upgrade, there is no need for you to buy that, in reality that does not save you money- does it? If you do go this route, remember you need to use the ticket to lock in your savings before upgrading.
Thanks @PrincipalTinker.
I’m not even looking at the water park option, as If we decide to go the AP route, the extra cost to upgrade to the premium AP could Tip the scales in the wrong direction, value-wise. Plus, the the tickets with WP option only have a maximum $21 savings over gate.
Still find it interesting that the reseller tickets save more money per at fewer days. Now that I’ve thunk on it, I wonder if that is the sweet spot for their sales, so a higher volume of that ticket means they get a better deal themselves and it gets passed on to us(?)
In any case, in this theoretical scenario of looking into upgrading tix to AP, It doesn’t matter how many days I would buy, just the total savings.
I’m liking that using this trick would more than pay for a Tables in Wonderland card, which means even more savings down the road. Gonna sell that when I eventually present my findings to the Chairwoman here. 
Many people but the PH water fun ticket since if you upgrade it without using the water fun or more part, you can upgrade to a regular AP. it’s just when I looked at that savings it does not seem to save money on the AP? It saves how much you would owe- but does it save?
OK, the last time I checked (and I think that this is still valid), the best upgrade option from UT was the 3 Day PH+WPF&M (+ 1 day free) which represented a $39.73 savings off of the WDW gate price. The best overall savings was to buy tickets from OTC using the link in the touringplans.com ticket calculator - that was using a 10-day PH+WPF&M at a $45.58 savings.
I guess the main question is would an AP in and of itself save you money for they days you plan on going to a park for the year you have it. Yes, you would save on the cost of the AP, but is it the best value for what you intend to do?
I wasn’t aware of the TP OTC link, thanks!
This calc is just my figuring how to shave this one corner from the AP price. My larger sheet is crunching the overall “worth it?” theory.
Thinking about trying to do the 2 trips 11 months apart thing to make a single AP work, either for one or all of us.
Question: am I right in assuming if I buy the full PH &WP&M option, an AP upgrade would have to be to premium AP? Or, is it possible to upgrade to standard AP as long as we don’t hit a water park before upgrading?
(I wasn’t even looking at those prices because I didn’t think it was possible.)
You do or have to upgrade to a premium AP if you do not use a waterpark or more entitlement.
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That’s meant to be a “do not have to upgrade…” I’m guessing… If so, that’s great! Adds a nice additional of savings to the process.
Thanks again!
As @PrincipalTinker said, as long as you do not use a WPF&M entitlement you can upgrade to an AP. Use one, and you can only upgrade to a PAP.
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I am so glad you could decipher my 6:00am post!
Is my math right ? Will this save you $157.62 (assuming my math is right and I can read my own handwriting- a long shot in both cases- but thanks- that was fun).
Looks like overall right now the best option is the OTC discounted 10 Day Park Hopper, Water Fun & More tickets - they are discounted from Disney gate price $45.58 for adults and $44.28 for children. Since my son is 12 now, that’s 3 adults, 1 child for a savings of $181.02.
That ain’t chicken feed!
Below is a screen shot of my table…
I’m still working out my dining cost estimates, but I have various scenarios in my spreadsheet for 2 trips on a single AP:
Assuming 7 days in the parks, comparing (Discounted tix and room only discounts) vs (APs and room only discounts) and using the AP upgrade trick plus Tables in Wonderland, looks like a savings of $688 overall if we all get APs, and $660 if we get a single AP and buy discounted tix for others.
I have to clean up my spreadsheet a bit to make sure I don’t have any mistakes… thanks again for your help!
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