I have another question about upgrading -- we are thinking about going for Veteran's Day weekend or the Saturday, Sunday, Monday before Thanksgiving. We would buy 3-day hoppers and get Maxpass and would consider upgrading those tickets to this new annual pass. If I understand the regular upgrade rules correctly:
(1) If we bought the tickets through Disney with Maxpass, the full value, including the Maxpass cost, would be credit toward the upgrade;
(2) If we buy through a 3rd party and buy MaxPass daily, the Maxpass amount wouldn't be credited and we may or may not get credit for the current gate price vs. the discounted price we paid through the third party.
(3) Since those weekends are "by reservation" times with the FlexPass, I assume we would need to wait until after entering the park on the 3rd day to upgrade. If we enter the park before upgrading, and upgrade mid-day, will we be able to re-enter the parks even if there are no "reservations" available that day? I'd like to realize at least some of the 10% dining and merchandise discount on that first trip.
An adult 3-day hopper with Maxpass is $400 (or $324 is the cheapest I see through a third-party+ $45 for daily MaxPass), so as long as we could visit for another 3 days in the course of the year, it seems like this would pencil out for us.
We're in Northern California and have lots of banked Southwest reward points, so it would be easy enough for us to make SW flight reservations and then cancel if it turns out we can't get reservations or, in a worst case scenario, we can drive for a weekend. My kids are school age though, we makes it hard to go midweek.