Quick 20 hour solo trip to "fix" my tickets and Fairfield Inn mini review.

[smartlabelprint]

Yikes, you really got gouged on the Uber fare. A flat rate taxi ride would have been $29.

I'm sorry you didn't like Tortilla Joe's. We always have good meals there and we live locally, so have plenty of authentic Mexican options. I always just get the fajitas at TJs, which are very good. I am not a fan of enchiladas anywhere. It's generally a bland dish no matter where you get it.

I love Naples. The atmosphere on the outdoor patio is stellar, but when I'm alone, I hit up Napolini instead, for half the price of Naples, but the same size individual pizza with the same quality of toppings. A personal pepperoni pizza there will set you back $12, but is indistinguishable from the $24 one next door. They also have salads there for about $7. Keep that in mind for your June trip, if you guys get a hankering for pizza.

I think flat rate is $44 now. But that was my first thought reading this.

 

[smartlabelprint]

"Except it is kind of a "biggie" because you need park reservations now. I couldn't just show up in June and exchange the tickets at the start of our trip and realistically expect not to have any problems getting into the parks. You can't make park reservations on expired passes, and Disney (for whatever reason) can't exchange tickets remotely. It can only be done in person at a DLR ticket booth."

Thanks for the great trip report! But..this part has me a little worried. We were in the exact same situation as you, bought the tickets in January 2020 when my DD was 9. She's 11 now. I thought we just show up and they change it at the ticket booth and it won't affect the reservations that I've already made. But am I wrong about that? We're supposed to go in May and now wondering if I need to go and change her ticket early. (We are out of state.)

I’m a $600 flight away and have 3 kids with special needs, I don’t get the luxury of traveling alone.
I purchased new tickets. I’ll go deal with the previously purchased tickets when we get there.

 

[smartlabelprint]

We’ve eaten at tortilla joes taqueria and I was wondering if I was missing something by not having table service. We’ll continue to avoid this restaurant.

 

[UnpokemonMom]

"the food might not be great but you get plenty of it"

Totally funny!

 

[Pluto468]

This I'm not sure on. Were you able to make park reservations on your expired tickets? I didn't think that was possible, if you were I'm not sure how that will interact with needing to get new valid tickets and switch from a child to adult ticket. In your shoes I'd give Disney a call and ask so you know what you'll need to do. According to my notes, you can call Disney at (714) 781-4636 for questions about tickets, email is dlr.guest.information.ticket.sales2@disney.com.

I called the number and spoke to them and it's all fixed now. If it wasn't for your post I would not have known I needed to do change my tickets. Thanks so much!

 

[TinkerTay]

According to their website, SNA to Fairfield is currently $42.50. I haven't seen a $29 flat rate in a long time.

Edited to add: I see the $29 on the fare list now, but I have to wonder if they really honor it. Every report I've seen on these boards is $45.

We took a cab in November 2019, and I literally showed them their own site that said $29.00. The guy that was out coordinating the cabs asked multiple drivers, and they straight up refused. He finally got someone that would do it for like $38.00, I think we paid $45 or 46 with tip. It was pretty frustrating, I’d probably call them and make sure what they’ll charge if we did it again. We got a rental for our week in May, or we probably would cab it again, just because they are ready and waiting, and get you there pretty quickly, but the fact that they would just refuse blew my mind…

 

[Cal-Pie]

We took a cab in November 2019, and I literally showed them their own site that said $29.00. The guy that was out coordinating the cabs asked multiple drivers, and they straight up refused. He finally got someone that would do it for like $38.00, I think we paid $45 or 46 with tip. It was pretty frustrating, I’d probably call them and make sure what they’ll charge if we did it again. We got a rental for our week in May, or we probably would cab it again, just because they are ready and waiting, and get you there pretty quickly, but the fact that they would just refuse blew my mind…

As I suspected, thanks for your first hand account.

 

[DLgal]

We took a cab in November 2019, and I literally showed them their own site that said $29.00. The guy that was out coordinating the cabs asked multiple drivers, and they straight up refused. He finally got someone that would do it for like $38.00, I think we paid $45 or 46 with tip. It was pretty frustrating, I’d probably call them and make sure what they’ll charge if we did it again. We got a rental for our week in May, or we probably would cab it again, just because they are ready and waiting, and get you there pretty quickly, but the fact that they would just refuse blew my mind…

There are about 5 different local cab companies with the word "yellow" in the name.

If you download the actual Ride Yellow app and hail a ride through it, you will get the $29 rate.

All the other cab companies have their own flat rates. Why would they honor a competitors?

 

[Geemo]

There are about 5 different local cab companies with the word "yellow" in the name.

If you download the actual Ride Yellow app and hail a ride through it, you will get the $29 rate.

All the other cab companies have their own flat rates. Why would they honor a competitors?

I use a Flat Rate Taxi end of January and it was $45. SNA to Desert Inn & Suites

Good to know about the app to lock in $29 Thanks

 

[sirccchar]

does anyones physical ticket say "not refundable, not upgradable, no cash value" on the back of their paper ticket also? or is it just mine? i want to make sure i can exchange these tickets coming from nor cal, unless everyone else tickets doesn't say those words on their ticket.

 

[CyndiLouWho]

I see this is kind of old, but this was me a couple months ago. Also live near Chicago, trying to exchange expired tickets. I had 2 -5 day hoppers purchased thru Citibank with points. The 3rd ticket I had purchased thru UCT. Citibank said can't help, call Disney. First CM said Citibank had to contact them to reissue tix since they were effectively my travel agent. UCT said they had nothing to do with it, call Disney. 2nd CM said it could only be done in person at DLR ticket booth.
Long story short, I eventually found a CM who said I needed to purchase a new ticket, then send proof/copy of original ticket from UCT and Disney would issue a refund check or gift card.
Citibank was more complicated but eventually found someone in customer service to call DLR, get the original tix numbers (which disappeared from my account when they expired)) then purchase new ones and send them the old expired numbers to get refunded.
Painful process but thankfully didn't require a flight. And it did take about 10 days after I snail mailed the old ticket to get an email with a Disney GC refund but it worked.

 

[Malcon10t]

does anyones physical ticket say "not refundable, not upgradable, no cash value" on the back of their paper ticket also? or is it just mine? i want to make sure i can exchange these tickets coming from nor cal, unless everyone else tickets doesn't say those words on their ticket.

It sounds like you have complementary tickets, which are not upgradeable or refundable. These are quite different than Disney's regular tickets.

 

[bettymae1121]

I see this is kind of old, but this was me a couple months ago. Also live near Chicago, trying to exchange expired tickets. I had 2 -5 day hoppers purchased thru Citibank with points. The 3rd ticket I had purchased thru UCT. Citibank said can't help, call Disney. First CM said Citibank had to contact them to reissue tix since they were effectively my travel agent. UCT said they had nothing to do with it, call Disney. 2nd CM said it could only be done in person at DLR ticket booth.
Long story short, I eventually found a CM who said I needed to purchase a new ticket, then send proof/copy of original ticket from UCT and Disney would issue a refund check or gift card.
Citibank was more complicated but eventually found someone in customer service to call DLR, get the original tix numbers (which disappeared from my account when they expired)) then purchase new ones and send them the old expired numbers to get refunded.
Painful process but thankfully didn't require a flight. And it did take about 10 days after I snail mailed the old ticket to get an email with a Disney GC refund but it worked.

I'm glad you got it worked out "remotely", for lack of a better term. You'd have thought that during the shut down Disney would have thought this through a bit more and made it easier for non-local guests to be able to exchange expired park tix. I mean it's great they extended the expiration dates but they had to know there were going to be a not insignificant number of people that would need to travel after that.

All in all I'm still happy I made the trip. Spending hours on the phone trying to find someone willing/able to help would have driven me nuts, and I have made myself a nervous wreck if I made reservations on the expired tickets on the hope it would all work out once we showed up in person on vacation. This way it's done and I can stress about normal things, like getting dining and desert party reservations, lol!

 

[CyndiLouWho]

I'm glad you got it worked out "remotely", for lack of a better term. You'd have thought that during the shut down Disney would have thought this through a bit more and made it easier for non-local guests to be able to exchange expired park tix. I mean it's great they extended the expiration dates but they had to know there were going to be a not insignificant number of people that would need to travel after that.

All in all I'm still happy I made the trip. Spending hours on the phone trying to find someone willing/able to help would have driven me nuts, and I have made myself a nervous wreck if I made reservations on the expired tickets on the hope it would all work out once we showed up in person on vacation. This way it's done and I can stress about normal things, like getting dining and desert party reservations, lol!

IKR? Our trip is 43 days away!
I thought it ridiculous that in 2022, I was told there was literally 1 place on the planet to fix this.