Flex Pass Superthread: Disneyland Resort Introduces New Annual Passport that Combines Value and Flexibility

[Becca1007]

If you use a regular ticket, then upgrade at the ticket booth, can you still enroll in the monthly payments as a CA resident? Or can you only do that ahead of time online?

I did the upgrade through the app and it gave me the option of pay now or set up payment plan.

 

[Southerncal24]

I haven’t had time to look through past posts, but what is the general consensus on the new flex pass versus the other passes? Is it a better deal? The thing that throws me off is the reservations. The blackout dates arent terrible...we don’t like to go during holidays and busy times anyway. I just wish there was an option with this pass with parking.

 

[Mcky36]

If you use a regular ticket, then upgrade at the ticket booth, can you still enroll in the monthly payments as a CA resident? Or can you only do that ahead of time online?

Yes, you can still do the payment plan under this scenario.

 

[mel2014]

We live in Northern California, so I can't speak to how the FlexPass compares against the SoCal-specific passes, but I was thrilled to see this pass introduced and we are planning to become passholders for the first time this November by buying the FlexPass. To me it is a no-brainer compared to the Deluxe pass. My kids are school age, so pretty much the only times we can go are times when the Deluxe Pass is blocked out. The Flex pass at least offers the possibility of being able to go during weekends and summer and from monitoring the big FlexPass thread, so far there haven't been any complete unavailability days, though obviously that could change as more people get the pass. Compared to the cost of parkhoppers, the FlexPass pays for itself if we make two three-day visits in a year. In our case, we are buying a three-day parkhopper to upgrade to the pass, so we still get the Magic Morning for the first visit. I can't imagine the availability will be so low that we won't be able to get reservations for our second visit (which will be in February, when my kids have February 10th off school, which is a good to go day, so we would be guaranteed three days if we can get reservations for the 8th/9th). Anything beyond those two visits I'll consider a bonus.

If you live close enough to visit on the fly, I think this pass would be an even better option.

 

[ardanxela]

There's a superthread on this if you get the time.
https://www.disboards.com/threads/f...and-flexibility.3749065/page-30#post-61017164

 

[aliceindisneyland]

Update to my post (565): I called Monday morning (7am of our first DL day) to buy Flex. Was told APs and MaxPass would be available immediately, super nice CM. She also made reservations for DL for Mon and Tues. As soon as I hung up our APs w/MaxPass appeared on my app, great!
BUT
She called me several hours later when we were on the road to DL to tell me not to panic but my APs disappeared. Yep, they sure did. I was to go to the gate with my old plastic APs and they would immediately give me a hard ticket for the day and my APs would magically reappear Tuesday morning. Swore on her mother we should go to the gate, not the ticket booth, not Guest Services.
We go to the gate and of course it is not cool, but it was so dead the lead sweetly agreed to look up my account where she did indeed see the copious notes and gave us hard tickets for the day.
We could not get AP discount that day, but for us that was not a big deal since we arrived around 6pm and only spent a little money on food that night.
Evidently what happens is when you used to have an AP and "reactivate" it (get a new AP after old one is long expired, not renew back to back) a few of the middle barcode numbers change for a day and mess everything up.
Pain in the butt but it took less than 10 minutes at the gate so not a big deal.
Midnight passes, no APs show up on the app. No APs show up on the app until 7am the day after I bought the APs. But my Tues reservation was not on there.
I call yet again and the CM says she sees my Tues reservation, adds Wed for me. While on hold with her I check my email and have a No Show ding for Monday even though we were there. She assures me I show up as going Monday. I am not sure how to check Flex No Shows.
These are crazy glitches and I thought a big reason for Flex was to lure lapsed Deluxe APs to return so it is not like I am the one person with this problem.
(Not Flex related but similar issue: My mom "reactivated" her lapsed So Cal Select yesterday, got blockout hard ticket for DL since it was her first day but when we crossed to DCA (not blocked for So Cal) the app didn't recognize her hard ticket that was a Parkhopper but did work with her old AP which showed in my app as soon as she bought it. That was a royal pain with MaxPass because sometimes it would let us pick her hard ticket, sometimes her AP, and did not have rhyme or reason between Parks. Since we did not cross to Good To Go DCA the first night I don't know if we would have had the same problem.)

 

[Katiebird]

Sorry you had so much trouble! Sounds like it’s probably easier on the computer system to just buy new APs, rather than reactivating expires ones.

 

[cruisehopeful]

Still confused on how switching from Signature to this pass works. I'm up for renewal right now. If I renew online for this pass, does it change the day after my Signature expires or will it change right away?

 

[longtimedisneylurker]

Still confused on how switching from Signature to this pass works. I'm up for renewal right now. If I renew online for this pass, does it change the day after my Signature expires or will it change right away?

I would be concerned that it will change right away since downgrades to other passes have kicked in immediately upon renewal in recent years.

 

[aliceindisneyland]

Sorry you had so much trouble! Sounds like it’s probably easier on the computer system to just buy new APs, rather than reactivating expires ones.

Thanks! If they were not so inconsistent about whether we should reuse our old APs or not I would have done that.
This is a solvable problem---I hope they solve it before reservation dates get booked up for Christmas time.
Our issues were quickly handled thanks to both Parks being dead, but in December, when reservations are harder to come by, loads more cash is spent on presents and merchandise, and
the lines are long at Guest Services.... On a busy day, scanning your AP at the gate and seeing Reservation Required flash, losing your AP discount all day, and wasting time getting everything fixed would stink.

 

[RobertaMomof2]

I wonder what they do when you dont have the APs anymore? We had APs maybe 4 years ago, and would prefer not to re-instate those (we are going to go from 4 day parkhoppers to Flex Pass when we go during new years). Is this something we can ask, do you know?

ETA: I would prefer not to have to do all that back and forth, if we can avoid it!

 

[Katiebird]

I wonder what they do when you dont have the APs anymore? We had APs maybe 4 years ago, and would prefer not to re-instate those (we are going to go from 4 day parkhoppers to Flex Pass when we go during new years). Is this something we can ask, do you know?

ETA: I would prefer not to have to do all that back and forth, if we can avoid it!

You don’t have to do anything, just upgrade the parkhoppers at the ticket window. I’ve honestly never heard of someone trying to reactivate expired APs before and there doesn’t seem to be any benefit to doing so.

We had APs that expired January 2019, and just bought new APs in July, same account and everything. No issues whatsoever and no mention of the old expired ones.

 

[sgrap]

We had AP's in 2014. Just upgraded from 5-day hoppers to Flex pass without reinstating anything. We were in the system, I think, from our old ones but I don't believe that impacted anything to do with the Flex pass other than some info already being in the computer.

The worst part was waiting in the bloody long line (long in length of time, not that long in # of people) for the ticket booths. We didn't have any problem upgrading, but it took at least 20 minutes actively standing at the ticket booth window for the CM to get it done. I don't know what takes so long. Other people seemed to have similarly long waits at the window (which is why the line took so long, I'm sure). So try to go upgrade them at a slow time. We thought we were, but no!

 

[pharmama]

I wonder what they do when you dont have the APs anymore? We had APs maybe 4 years ago, and would prefer not to re-instate those (we are going to go from 4 day parkhoppers to Flex Pass when we go during new years). Is this something we can ask, do you know?

ETA: I would prefer not to have to do all that back and forth, if we can avoid it!

I don't think you need to worry about this. My DD had an AP about that long ago and I upgraded her 3day PH in the app to a Flex Pass without any concern about her old AP. You still have to go pick up the plastic card at the ticket window but you can do the upgrade itself in the app.

 

[RobertaMomof2]

Thanks so much! I will just plan to do that, upgrade in the APP then go pick up on our way out the last night. Thanks

 

[aliceindisneyland]

You don’t have to do anything, just upgrade the parkhoppers at the ticket window. I’ve honestly never heard of someone trying to reactivate expired APs before and there doesn’t seem to be any benefit to doing so.

We had APs that expired January 2019, and just bought new APs in July, same account and everything. No issues whatsoever and no mention of the old expired ones.

Nobody tries to reactivate old APs, it is just what the phone reps call it when you have had an AP since they keep all your info in the system.

 

[Katiebird]

Nobody tries to reactivate old APs, it is just what the phone reps call it when you have had an AP since they keep all your info in the system.

Really confused now, you’re the one who has been talking about reactivating?

 

[Southerncal24]

We live in Northern California, so I can't speak to how the FlexPass compares against the SoCal-specific passes, but I was thrilled to see this pass introduced and we are planning to become passholders for the first time this November by buying the FlexPass. To me it is a no-brainer compared to the Deluxe pass. My kids are school age, so pretty much the only times we can go are times when the Deluxe Pass is blocked out. The Flex pass at least offers the possibility of being able to go during weekends and summer and from monitoring the big FlexPass thread, so far there haven't been any complete unavailability days, though obviously that could change as more people get the pass. Compared to the cost of parkhoppers, the FlexPass pays for itself if we make two three-day visits in a year. In our case, we are buying a three-day parkhopper to upgrade to the pass, so we still get the Magic Morning for the first visit. I can't imagine the availability will be so low that we won't be able to get reservations for our second visit (which will be in February, when my kids have February 10th off school, which is a good to go day, so we would be guaranteed three days if we can get reservations for the 8th/9th). Anything beyond those two visits I'll consider a bonus.

If you live close enough to visit on the fly, I think this pass would be an even better option.

Thanks you for taking the time to reply. You made some good points. I went yesterday with my son, and read your response On the Toy Story shuttle. I purchased the flex pass at the ticket booth. It really makes the most sense for me at this time.

 

[Skyegirl1999]

Really confused now, you’re the one who has been talking about reactivating?

When you go to buy an AP, if you have an old one in the system, even if it expired years ago, they will usually say you’re reactivating that one. They gave my sister a hard time about not having her 2-years-expired physical AP card with her the last time she bought one, and the CM acted like they did her a big favor by not charging her $20 for the “replacement” AP. Many people have posted similar things over the past few years.

From the experiences on this thread, it looks like there’s a lot of inconsistency with how they’re handling new passes/renewals/“replacement” APs, but the people getting stuck with this “reactivating” nonsense aren’t asking for that; it’s what the CMs are doing when they try to buy the new pass. You can act like you’re buying a brand-new pass and it will still happen.

 

[socaldisneylover]

This is hilarious. A multi-billion $$$$$$$$$$ Company that's making Hundreds of $$$ on the Season Pass, is making a big deal out of having to give out a new card. It's like if a Credit Card company complained about having to issue a new card every 3 years.