AP blocked for entering both parks too quickly?

[poptart90]

Wondering if this has happened to anyone else and if you can explain the full reason (if known) to me so we can avoid this happening for our upcoming trip.

We stayed at GCH. After pool in the afternoon, we were running late for a dinner reservation in DL. Decided to enter through DCA, exit DCA, walk across Esplanade and enter DL to make the reservation. We have done this many times, but usually are more leisurely about it. This time we were moving and there was no line to enter DL. When I handed our AP's to the CM, she said we were "blocked from entering"...then she asked if we had just entered DCA. I said yes and explained that we were hotel guest and walked the short way to make a dinner reservation. She called for a Manager. The Manager never showed. We stood off to the side (DH fuming about the $1K Sig Passes and the $1K a night GCH room!) for a little less than 10 minutes. No one else came to help. Finally the other CM at the gate offered to try our passes again. This time we were cleared to enter.

I spotted the Manager walking over as we cleared the turnstile and stopped to ask her why we were blocked. The only thing she said was that it was "for Loss Prevention reasons to ensure AP's weren't being abused"....??? Uh, what??

At that point, DH was barely controlling his "Anger"...picture the DCA Angry Dogs!! LOL So I didn't stop to question her further. Meant to ask at City Hall for a better explanation, but forgot.

Anyway, not to be snarky, but if we drop $1K a pass for the whole family, pay through the nose at the GCH, and are tall & walk fast, plus have a PHOTO attached to our passes like everybody else...HOW can that be an LP issue? Is it because there's a delay in the system to register that we left DCA? Ok, but our passes have our photos attached so no one can use our passes, right? So they are concerned that we would hand our passes to body doubles to enter the other park while we stayed in the first park? If that's the case, wouldn't that potential scenario exist always? Why would 10 minutes later make a difference?

I get that 10 minutes is not a huge issue. And it is rare that there is no line to enter DL. But I would appreciate if anyone else has more info on the specifics of why this scenario exists at all? Thanks!!

(Can't get the bold off this post! LOL I'm really not trying to make some super-duper point with this post!)

 

[ImDMous]

This has been happening for about 6 months I think, you can find posts from when it first started.
It's basically to keep people from entering DCA for instance, then handing their passes to someone outside or one person leaving with all of them and giving them to someone outside the gates to then come in again with.
There is nothing that registers when you leave a park, you don't scan out. The system says you entered a park a few minutes ago. Under normal circumstances, your pass would most likely not be used to enter another park within a few minutes. There have been several situations brought up that made perfect sense, but those don't apply to 99% of AP's so it's not normally an issue. It's really not a big deal, you wait a few minutes for the hold to expire or the manager comes over and you tell him your situation and he clears you.
It doesn't have to be body doubles, plenty of family members look close enough alike to pass in photos. Hey, I've got triplets but 3 passes are expensive, let's just buy one and share. Doesn't even have to be triplets, I've seen plenty of siblings close in age that look identical, put some sunglasses on and style your hair similar and now you and your sister only need one ticket between you.
If they took the man-power to actually program this system, I guarantee it's because people were actually doing that.

 

[BrianL]

Well, they don't know when you left DCA, only when you entered. I think what they are concerned about is that you enter one park and slip your passes to another party to enter the other. Certainly of course the pictures would help, but I doubt a CM would scrutinize too hard if the person looked pretty similar. Again, I think that's pretty rare, but it's also pretty rare that someone would enter both parks that close together (though I'm sure it happens). I don't know what the timing is, but like 10 or 15 minutes seems reasonable. That said, they should warn guests about that, especially for those coming from the Grand Californian, because as you say it's a shortcut (well, kinda, but it's better scenery!). I see this as a non-issue, though the manager could have been more responsive - 10 minutes is too long to wait for that. It should take like 2 at the most to have a manager come and verify and send you on your way.

 

[mom2rtk]

It's ridiculous overkill. Someone on the other thread said they had an identical twin they could likely beat the old system with, but identical twins with APs are so few and far between that they shouldn't design a system just for that. With photos attached, this should not be an issue worthy of hassling guests over. Meanwhile, it has to be somewhat frequent with the parks side by side that you will indeed occasionally have people enter the second park fairly quickly for a very legit reason.

 

[wowsmom]

Meanwhile, it has to be somewhat frequent with the parks side by side that you will indeed occasionally have people enter the second park fairly quickly for a very legit reason.

We've done this many times...we arrive and need the restroom. We go to DCA because the one in the front has 20+ stalls whereas the ones near the front in DL have maybe 5-10 stalls. Once that's taken care of, we decide which park we want to be in and have often popped over to DL instead. I guess we'll need to be more aware of this in the future.

 

[bumbershoot]

So they are concerned that we would hand our passes to body doubles to enter the other park while we stayed in the first park?

Pretty much.

If that's the case, wouldn't that potential scenario exist always? Why would 10 minutes later make a difference?

Pretty much! So the xriminals just walk slower, and the legit people with legit reasons get dinged for it.

You sure that looping through the grand and going through DCA was faster than just going through DTD?

 

[LoriLovesDisneyland]

Pretty much.



Pretty much! So the xriminals just walk slower, and the legit people with legit reasons get dinged for it.

You sure that looping through the grand and going through DCA was faster than just going through DTD?

It depends where you are in the hotel. If your room is near the Napa Rose elevator then the DCA route is faster.

 

[gottalovepluto]

The entire thing is ridiculous. They have the photo system, this is unnecessary. But I bet someone in management had this idea as their baby to deal with a specific set of twins and they think they are a genius. Reality check: there aren’t enough identical twins & triplets with APs out there to keep ticking off APs for this.

 

[Malcon10t]

The entire thing is ridiculous. They have the photo system, this is unnecessary. But I bet someone in management had this idea as their baby to deal with a specific set of twins and they think they are a genius. Reality check: there aren’t enough identical twins & triplets with APs out there to keep ticking off APs for this.

The issue is often first thing in the morning, CMs at the front gate are hurried, and often don't look closely at the pictures. I know this because I have accidentally scanned in as my daughter. We do not look like each other and she is 30 years younger. I found out when she called me by my daughter's name. And my Max Pass wouldn't work.

So, this is one way to stop the cheating (which does happen.) And it isn't just passing the pass off, many have the passes on their phones and look similar.

 

[mom2rtk]

The issue is often first thing in the morning, CMs at the front gate are hurried, and often don't look closely at the pictures. I know this because I have accidentally scanned in as my daughter. We do not look like each other and she is 30 years younger. I found out when she called me by my daughter's name. And my Max Pass wouldn't work.

So, this is one way to stop the cheating (which does happen.) And it isn't just passing the pass off, many have the passes on their phones and look similar.

The way to fix it is to make sure their employees check photos more closely. Not delay and frustrate honest customers.

 

[theluckyrabbit]

The way to fix it is to make sure their employees check photos more closely. Not delay and frustrate honest customers.

But isn't this always the case? The honest customers have to pay the price for the however many (and obviously there are more than enough) dishonest people? This is why we don't have multi-day tickets beyond 5 days anymore -- because of all the idiots who were selling/renting each day of the tickets -- even to the point of dancing with signs in front of the parks or harassing exiting guests in the esplanade to ask if they were going to use the remaining days/time left on their ticket. If people would just be honest with their tickets and APs and stop trying to game the system in the first place, this just wouldn't be an issue.

 

[poptart90]

You sure that looping through the grand and going through DCA was faster than just going through DTD?

It depends where you are in the hotel. If your room is near the Napa Rose elevator then the DCA route is faster.

Yep, we were off the Napa Rose elevator. Literally 3 minutes to the DCA entrance from our hotel room, so for us it was WAY faster to always enter into DCA and then head to DL.

 

[poptart90]

But isn't this always the case? The honest customers have to pay the price for the however many (and obviously there are more than enough) dishonest people? This is why we don't have multi-day tickets beyond 5 days anymore -- because of all the idiots who were selling/renting each day of the tickets -- even to the point of dancing with signs in front of the parks or harassing exiting guests in the esplanade to ask if they were going to use the remaining days/time left on their ticket. If people would just be honest with their tickets and APs and stop trying to game the system in the first place, this just wouldn't be an issue.

Is that why they did away with more than 5 days???o..m..g...I never knew that! But I remembered our first trip paying for extra days...much much cheaper than our AP nowadays

 

[theluckyrabbit]

Is that why they did away with more than 5 days???o..m..g...I never knew that! But I remembered our first trip paying for extra days...much much cheaper than our AP nowadays

There were offices on Harbor and one at the gas station on Ball and Disneyland Dr. where you could rent tickets by the day. It was so stupid to do this right under Disney's nose. And it went on for a long time. We used to get accosted by teenagers in the esplanade -- "Hey, are you going to use the rest of your ticket?!" "Why, yes! I am going to use all of my ticket. And, yes, I do happen to have change. And, no, you can't have any!"

 

[poptart90]

Thanks for everyone’s input and comments! I had no idea it was really happening (the underhanded Pass, uh, pass!) and I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. Now that we know something like this can happen, we’ll plan accordingly in the future.

 

[theluckyrabbit]

Thanks for everyone’s input and comments! I had no idea it was really happening (the underhanded Pass, uh, pass!) and I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. Now that we know something like this can happen, we’ll plan accordingly in the future.

I think this is the older thread that noted when this started happening: Tickets Blocked For Entering Two Parks In a Short Timeframe.

 

[poptart90]

I think this is the older thread that noted when this started happening: Tickets Blocked For Entering Two Parks In a Short Timeframe.

Thank you!!

 

[midnight star]

There were offices on Harbor and one at the gas station on Ball and Disneyland Dr. where you could rent tickets by the day. It was so stupid to do this right under Disney's nose. And it went on for a long time. We used to get accosted by teenagers in the esplanade -- "Hey, are you going to use the rest of your ticket?!" "Why, yes! I am going to use all of my ticket. And, yes, I do happen to have change. And, no, you can't have any!"

Whatt?! When was this? I feel like I've never seen or heard of this happening. Not shocked though. I understand Disneyland is very expensive, but I would never think to heckle people for their tickets

 

[theluckyrabbit]

Whatt?! When was this? I feel like I've never seen or heard of this happening...

It was a while ago... when Disney stopped selling any tickets longer than 5 days. So glad that they cleared out the scavengers -- it was so annoying!

 

[julesann]

I'll be there in a few months with my db who has an AP. We'll be staying at GCH and we often walk to DL via DCA rather than going through DTD. Does anyone know how much time needs to elapse between entering both parks to not get your AP blocked?