I'm Confused (like that's something new)

[Travisma 1,317]

Got our December passholder email yesterday, and it said I was eligible to renew our passes.

 

Our current FL resident ones expire 1/31/16.

 

So I thought I would go online and renew them.

 

I selected Silver and they gave me 3 options.

 

Your Annual Pass is eligble for renewal. Annual Passes can be renewed with the monthly payment program or paid in full at the time of purchase. Only passes 60 days or less before expiration or up to 30 days after expiration can be renewed. New passes must be purchased separately. Once renewed, your new pass will expire one year from your anniversary date.

Online renewal and the monthly payment option are only available to Florida residents.

 

 

Florida Resident - Monthly Payments

Cost will be split into 12 monthly payments. First payment will be charged within 2 days. A credit card is required. Discounted for Florida Residents.

 

 

Florida Resident - Pay in Full

One time payment due today for order total. Discounted for Florida Residents.

 

Passes For All Guests

One time payment due today for your order total.

 

So I was going to select the 12 pay plan but here's my dilemma.

 

What is my anniversary date?

 

Does the new pass start after my old one expires (that would be the NORMAL thought), or does it start the day I renew.

 

If I renew now, it looks like I will be making double payments for December and January since I'm currently on the payment plan for my old pass.

 

If they didn't charge within two days of renewal, then I would think that my anniversary date would be when my old pass expires.

 

Or like I said, am I totally confused with the dates.

 

We all know how Disney seems to have loopholes and ambiguous wordings on a lot of things they do.

 

I was just hoping for some good advice so I didn't have to call them with the same questions.

 

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

That is confusing.  I'm not sure the part about being charged for a payment within 2 days of renewal is right.  But, who knows, things change.

 

One of the reasons I've renewed our passes every year since the monthly payment option began is that I didn't have to come up with any extra $$$- I just continued with the monthly payments.  Up to now, there wasn't a big increase.  Our anniversary date has not changed, no matter when the renewal was made.  I know one year,  I renewed like two weeks after the anniversary date.

 

I'm at the renewal time for my oldest daughter's pass (her anniversary date is 12/30), and we have to decide which option we're going to go with.  The new block out days stink, and Disney is going to win, as we will probably go with Platinum passes for this next year.  I'm not going to renew her pass until they get their final payment for it this month.  Then, I'll renew.  In my mind, that should eliminate the chance of a double payment.  I'll be doing that right at the end of this month.  I'll let you know how it goes, and then you'll have time to decide what you want to do before your pass expires next month.

 

TCD

[Travisma 1,317]

That is confusing.  I'm not sure the part about being charged for a payment within 2 days of renewal is right.  But, who knows, things change.

 

One of the reasons I've renewed our passes every year since the monthly payment option began is that I didn't have to come up with any extra $$$- I just continued with the monthly payments.  Up to now, there wasn't a big increase.  Our anniversary date has not changed, no matter when the renewal was made.  I know one year,  I renewed like two weeks after the anniversary date.

 

I'm at the renewal time for my oldest daughter's pass (her anniversary date is 12/30), and we have to decide which option we're going to go with.  The new block out days stink, and Disney is going to win, as we will probably go with Platinum passes for this next year.  I'm not going to renew her pass until they get their final payment for it this month.  Then, I'll renew.  In my mind, that should eliminate the chance of a double payment.  I'll be doing that right at the end of this month.  I'll let you know how it goes, and then you'll have time to decide what you want to do before your pass expires next month.

 

TCD

Thanks.

 

Again Disney confuses more than making it easy to do something.

 

I know that you only get a voucher if you renew on line or over the phone and you still have to go to a ticket window to get the actual pass.

 

Don't know why they don't give you the option of getting them mailed to you, especially if they don't expire for 60 days or so.

 

Looks like the Blackout dates shifted, but they seem to be the same amount for Silver.

 

Gold is where they take you for a ride...

 

We might just wait and go to Disney Springs like last time and renew when the time comes.

 

 

Busch Gardens makes it so much easier.

 

They just keep taking the monthly payments unless we tell them to stop.

 

We've had them for 4? years and they haven't increased our payments yet.  Keeping our fingers crossed

 

3 or 4 times in 2015 they had a deal where passholders got a $10 voucher to use anywhere in the park.  That basically offset our monthly payment.

 

Plus the other months they had food and drink specials, we can get one day tickets for guests for about $50, and we get 10% discount on everything in all the parks (20% at San Antonio where we purchased the passes).

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Again Disney confuses more than making it easy to do something.

 

There's no doubt it's intentional.  They don't want to make it easy for you to think about how much money you're giving them.  That's the secret to their biggest money makers: the Dining Plan and DVC.

 

I always renew in person at the MK ticket windows. I want a live person helping me and confirming what I'm paying and when I'm paying it.  And handing me my new Passholder cards.  I'm not going to trust doing that online.

 

TCD

[Travisma 1,317]

There's no doubt it's intentional.  They don't want to make it easy for you to think about how much money you're giving them.  That's the secret to their biggest money makers: the Dining Plan and DVC.

 

I always renew in person at the MK ticket windows. I want a live person helping me and confirming what I'm paying and when I'm paying it.  And handing me my new Passholder cards.  I'm not going to trust doing that online.

 

TCD

Agreed, the way their online/phone system is set up, all it does is take your $$ quicker and doesn't save you any time.

 

I guess if you were out of state it's a way to keep the pass going until your next visit, but for us "locals" it's not a plus by far.

[Katman1356...Jason 1,140]

Anniversary date carries from one pass to the next when renewing. So it should continue from where the last one runs out.

As far as the two day I have been noticing Disney has been processing charges in batch files more lately. The check to be sure the money's available and it gets logged to a file that goes to the banks on particular days of the week. They probably added that 2 day wording to cut down on the why hasn't my card been charged? Am I good calls

[swimmarz 72]

I dont have a voucher for my AP?!?!? I never got an email with one 

I called and did it over the phone months ago and it shows up in MDE.

Friday/ Saturday trying to get them should be a fun time no?

[Travisma 1,317]

I dont have a voucher for my AP?!?!? I never got an email with one 

I called and did it over the phone months ago and it shows up in MDE.

Friday/ Saturday trying to get them should be a fun time no?

You're a braver man than I am.

 

Good luck!

 

Might want to try Disney Springs first thing in the morning.

 

Ticket window was down by Disney Quest last year, not sure if it's still there.

 

That was the last time we visited it.

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Mark-

 

I thought I'd share my recent experience so you can decide how you want to handle renewing your passes.

 

As I mentioned earlier, my oldest daughter's pass was set to expire on 12/30/15.  We were at the MK on 12/19/15, and had some time between FP+ reservations, so I went to guest services to check on this.  We went to City Hall.  All the service windows were open, and the line moved quickly.  I always figured that they put the best CM's in there, but after my experience, I'm not so sure about that.

 

Our CM was very friendly.  But, she didn't seem to know much about the procedure for renewing passes.  She had to read a lot of stuff on her computer screen, and didn't seem to know about the new names for the passes (Platinum, Gold, Silver).  I knew what we wanted, so I told her that I simply wanted to renew this one pass at the Platinum level.  It took her a long time and a lot of typing to do that.  Then she asked for my credit card, and told me that she would be charging $500 and something to it.  No, I said, I wanted to just continue with the monthly payments on the pass.  That confused her, and required more typing.  She was very friendly and nice through all of this, but it seemed to take a lot longer than it should have.  It also required two visits to the back room.  Finally, she got the monthly payment thing figured out, and told me that there would be no charge today, and that the next payment would be charged to my card on the same date as it had been.  That was always on the 30th of each month.  She then told us we were all set.  I asked if we were supposed to get a new plastic card for my daughter to use for discounts and such. The CM had to go to the back room a third time to check, and came back with a new-style passholder card for my daughter.

 

Fast forward to today, and I checked my credit card statement on-line, and see that my increased monthly payment for my daughter's card was charged to the card on December 20- the day after I renewed her pass.  I guess they'll be hitting my card ten days earlier now.  No big deal, but not how I thought it was going to go, and I think that thing about them charging your card within two days that you asked about above appears to be true.  And, that if you renew early, you could get hit with two payments in the same month.  Not cool.

 

And, I don't recommend City Hall for pass renewals.  They can do them there, but the CM's there seem to be trained to handle other issues and not pass renewals.

 

TCD

[mouseketab.....Carol 1,261]

Mark-

 

I thought I'd share my recent experience so you can decide how you want to handle renewing your passes.

 

As I mentioned earlier, my oldest daughter's pass was set to expire on 12/30/15.  We were at the MK on 12/19/15, and had some time between FP+ reservations, so I went to guest services to check on this.  We went to City Hall.  All the service windows were open, and the line moved quickly.  I always figured that they put the best CM's in there, but after my experience, I'm not so sure about that.

 

Our CM was very friendly.  But, she didn't seem to know much about the procedure for renewing passes.  She had to read a lot of stuff on her computer screen, and didn't seem to know about the new names for the passes (Platinum, Gold, Silver).  I knew what we wanted, so I told her that I simply wanted to renew this one pass at the Platinum level.  It took her a long time and a lot of typing to do that.  Then she asked for my credit card, and told me that she would be charging $500 and something to it.  No, I said, I wanted to just continue with the monthly payments on the pass.  That confused her, and required more typing.  She was very friendly and nice through all of this, but it seemed to take a lot longer than it should have.  It also required two visits to the back room.  Finally, she got the monthly payment thing figured out, and told me that there would be no charge today, and that the next payment would be charged to my card on the same date as it had been.  That was always on the 30th of each month.  She then told us we were all set.  I asked if we were supposed to get a new plastic card for my daughter to use for discounts and such. The CM had to go to the back room a third time to check, and came back with a new-style passholder card for my daughter.

 

Fast forward to today, and I checked my credit card statement on-line, and see that my increased monthly payment for my daughter's card was charged to the card on December 20- the day after I renewed her pass.  I guess they'll be hitting my card ten days earlier now.  No big deal, but not how I thought it was going to go, and I think that thing about them charging your card within two days that you asked about above appears to be true.  And, that if you renew early, you could get hit with two payments in the same month.  Not cool.

 

And, I don't recommend City Hall for pass renewals.  They can do them there, but the CM's there seem to be trained to handle other issues and not pass renewals.

 

TCD

I have NEVER found guest relations inside the parks to be very good with tickets. The outside ticket windows or TTC are the best.

[Travisma 1,317]

We got our passes last year at Downtown Disney near Disney Quest. Line wasn't too bad and once we got to the window it went pretty quick. Thinking of doing it there again since all they do there is ticket sales

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

I have NEVER found guest relations inside the parks to be very good with tickets. The outside ticket windows or TTC are the best.

 

That makes sense- that's all those CM's do- sell tickets.

 

I've had good luck with the Guest Services windows right outside the MK entrance, but the line can be long to be helped there.

 

TCD