Annual Pass for Out-of-Stater

[manda_nicole12]

Hi all!

I just got back from a trip to WDW and had an amazing time as usual. While I was there, I met up with a friend from Florida that has an AP. The benefits that come with the AP sound great and worth it for a Florida local.

I was just wondering if any one not from Florida has an AP to WDW? I'm curious to see if it would be worth it for me to get one.

Thanks!

 

[Happyinwonerland]

Generally, if you will go at least 2 times in a year, then it will be worth it. If you go 1x a year then it won't.

 

[SinCityMMAFan]

We live in Las Vegas and we visit WDW at least twice sometimes three times per year when we get AP's so for us it is very worth it. When you take into consideration things like free parking which is now $25 a day if you're not staying on-site, 10% off most sit down restaurants, and 20% off merchandise among other discounts it's well worth the cost. One thing we saved a lot of money on was our hotel stay for this up and coming trip, we are doing a 2 nights on-site at the GF then moving to a condo rental for a week and got a 40% discount rate at the GF. That alone saved us over $400 off the rack rate for those 2 nights. Also something to take into consideration is if you're going only once in a calendar year but for a longer stay have 1 person in the party get the annual pass and everyone will benefit from the discounts.

 

[tjmw2727]

Never lived in FL and have an AP for over 10 years. Just do the math - for me if we are going for enough park days to make it worthwhile on its own then we get one. I treat the resort, dining and merchandise discounts as a bonus.

 

[SaintsManiac]

We are on year 2 of APs. We live in Louisiana. 3 trips per AP year is what we've done/have scheduled.

 

[StageTek]

California here. Got my first AP in September. Planned two trips so it was worth it. Just finished my third with one more to go before it expires.

My advice is the same as others: do the math. It might be worth it for you.

 

[Ydnameht]

I'm on my 3rd AP currently and I live in NY.

 

[DisneyDeb83]

NJ here. Have had annual passes 4 times over the past ten years. Can’t afford it every year. But it doesn’t necessarily save us any money, because we just use it as an excuse to plan a 3rd or 4th trip. Logic is trying to “get our moneys worth “ ends up costing us a bunch more!

 

[annemce118]

I live in Pennsylvania and bought my first annual pass recently. I’m going to keep track of all the savings I get with it. I am planning 3 trips, so I think it will pay for itself.

 

[blue65829]

I’m in NY and just upgraded to an AP for the first time on my last trip. I knew I would be back for at least another 6 days within the year and I should be in Orlando for conferences a couple more times. I wanted to be able to justify tacking on a day or two to the work trips and the AP will help with that math for sure!

 

[SG131]

PA here, got an AP for the first time in December knowing that I had a second long trip plus a one day visit. In this case it has been totally worth it because I would’ve paid the same for tickets plus now I have merch discounts and photopass while I’m there. I did end up adding a short trip because why not I didn’t need tickets and that’s where the problem lies!

 

[Skywise]

Hi all!

I just got back from a trip to WDW and had an amazing time as usual. While I was there, I met up with a friend from Florida that has an AP. The benefits that come with the AP sound great and worth it for a Florida local.

I was just wondering if any one not from Florida has an AP to WDW? I'm curious to see if it would be worth it for me to get one.

Thanks!

I did it for 2 years. You have to factor in how many days you're going to go (and number of trips) for the year plus if you'll be park hopping then crunch some numbers to see if you'll break even. There's some websites that will break it down for you but I think the break even point was 2 trips at around 4 days each). I did about 3 trips at 3 days each and because I flew in I could also squeeze in some time on arrival day and leaving day which wouldn't quite have been as economical if I had bought tickets outright.

The one thing you have to watch out for though is the "oh hey, I already HAVE an AP - so i can just go a few more times and it'll be cheaper!" thoughts!

 

[Disneylover99]

I’m out of country and I have an AP. Lol.
Plenty of international travelers do.

 

[portcityw]

We started doing AP every other year. We will squeeze several trips in there, then take a break for a year. The AP tends to push you to take more trips. LOL

 

[arminnie]

Besides all the things stated above I really enjoy being able to park hop and to pop into a park without feeling like I just spent a day’s admission on an hour visit. I’d probably never buy Photopass but use it with the AP.

I got my first AP when I was living in California and traveled often to Orlando on business.

 

[rteetz]

I am an AP in WI. I average 3 trips a year each a week or shorter.

 

[EdnaMarieMode]

AP holder, live in CT.
We upgraded our tickets to AP last year in August when we added a second visit in September when DH got invited to a conference. We were able to book a cheap flight/ resort reservation later in September and visit again. We now have a trip booked for May.

We factored in memory maker cost as a discount because we would have purchased it. We didn’t factor in dining or merchandise discounts because we don’t tend to buy many souvenirs, and we get a 10% DVC discount on most TS already. When we added up 5 days of park tickets and 4 days of park tickets (we would not have been able to buy 14 days of tickets as they would have expired by our second trip), and deducted memory maker, it was a savings.

Do the math and see how many days you’re likely to go, factor in travel expenses and see if it’s worthwhile.

 

[Wild4Walt]

I live in the Chicago area and a few years back I did an AP back to back. I traveled a lot at the time so I had some miles ( plus at the time the Chicago-Orlando market was pretty low price on average ) so in 2 years I was at WDW 5 times. It was well worth it for me, but I knew I had wanted to get down there as much as possible before I purchased my APs.

 

[DavidNYC]

We'll often plan the major trips 51 weeks apart if we can to get to bigger trips out of it and then we'll try to catch a weekend trip or two when airfares are really low. But the two trips pretty much makes it worth it especially when you take parking and discounts in effect.

 

[cmwade77]

Generally, if you will go at least 2 times in a year, then it will be worth it. If you go 1x a year then it won't.

It depends, we are going in June and are DVC members, it is literally a break even when we include park hopping and memory Maker, add in the additional discounts that APs get that DVC members don't and it becomes worth it with a single visit, but we are going for 12 days.

But we will go at least one or two more times within the year, so it is a no brainer.