Annual pass mistake!

[crisi]

Everyone needs to do two things:

1. Crunch your own numbers - how many park days will you have in a year? Can you do annual trips 51 then 53 weeks apart? Will you need hopping? Will you use AP discounts? Does the DDE card make sense? The numbers can get quite complicated when you start factoring in the DDE discounts and all the different MYW ticket options.

2. Know thyself - do you value being able to head into Epcot "on a lark" for Illuminations or a snack? Do you like the luxury of just going in for two or three hours to catch a few favorites. Will an AP burn a hole in your pocket "forcing" you to take a few extra trips and end up costing you much more than it saves. APs have one nice benefit - which we discovered last Thursday after what will hereafter be referred to as "the laundry incident" - they are easily replaceable - the hoppers weren't (though I did have a copy of the numbers, they weren't immediately accessible so we ended up buying new tickets).

 

[Daitcher]

Hey guys,


I just wanted to post this, especially for the new DVC members. There is a lot of talk on these boards about the annual pass discount for DVC members. I just wanted to warn everyone that for many people the annual pass simply doesn't make sense. The Magic your way tickets seem to be the best deal by far for my family. Using our family of 3 as an example: Annual pass for adults is $314.18, for my 3 year old it would be $267.32. This doesn't give you water park access either for this price. To do the PAP it jumps to $415.35 and $353.58. Our family will have 16 days at WDW this year. Out of those 16 days we will probably do 3 major parks and 1 or 2 water parks. The annual pass just desn't make sense for us. We are going to buy the MYW 10 day Premium ticket with no expiration. This costs $414.29 and $369.56. This gives us 10 major park days and 5 plus features ( for us we'll use them as water park days). This ticket allows park hopping as well. We will be able to use this over probably the next 3 years or so. For our family it makes so much more sense. I guess my advice is to really run the numbers very carefully. The Magic Your Way tickets can be customized to fit your needs and in many cases offers the best deal. AP's do offer other discounts so you really need to factor that into your decision as well. If you use the AP discounts to save on room rates then the AP might make more sense. I know the dining plan is another consideration. We stay in suites when not doing DVC Resorts so the AP does us no good as suites are not discounted. Hope this helps someone out. We were all set to buy the PAP until I really took a good hard look at the numbers and really did an honest asessment of our vacation habits. Good luck and happy travels.

Annual pass works for me but I see for you it might not...BUT go to mousesavers.com they have a link to ticketmania and I think the 10 day pass with no expire 5 water parks is around 360 or less and sign up for their news letter it usually comes on the 15tand you can get a mousesaver discountfor less. I don't know how to send a link but what I want to I will try to email it to you. Carol

Carol,

Thank you very much,

I will look into this before purchasing today.

DAVE

 

[DVCJEN]

We average 2-3 trips (18-21 park days)a year and usually go to a park everyday. AP's are the best choice for us.

 

[thelionqueen]

We went to WDW in Oct. w/the MYW+Free Dining promo. We used the tickets purchased w/package and applied it to Annual Passes. We were debating back and forth whether to do this and am so happy we did!

We spend every day of our vacation in at least 1 park (whether for a meal or for rides). We also go to the water parks at least 2 times per trip. When we went in May w/MYW tickets we paid nearly $1000.00 for 10 day tix. I SO wished we had bought the AP's then, but didn't.

On this trip, we applied the $600.00+ to the annual pass and only paid an additional $300.00 for AP's. We didn't buy the premium's but got the water park annual pass after 2 visits (they applied costs of 2 visits to AP's and it only cost us an additional $65.00 to upgrade).

We were "toying" around with DVC ownership at the time but were not positive we were going to join (didn't hear of the 15% referral until we got home).

Now that we are soon to be owners @ SSR, I couldn't be happier to have the AP. We can go in and out as we please and don't have to worry about wasting a day by only going a few hours. This also is awesome for the Water parks. It was SO HOT when we went, that we could cruise into Typhoon Lagoon for an hour or 2 without any guilt either.

There is an emotional relation to having the pass as other posters have said, it just made sense to to spend 30% more for 100% more days. Just my .02.

 

[erikthewise]

Your general point is a good one. However for most people going on two trips or more than 10 park days on one trip, the DVC AP deal is still a good one. If you are planning to buy a 10-day non-expiring park hopper, it costs virtually the same as a DVC-discounted AP, even without the "extras". So you may as well buy the AP.

One place there is a big difference is that if you go on a single 8-10 day trip, an AP used to pay off even without the DVC discount. Now with the MYW tickets, it generally doesn't, even with the DVC discount. If you want the AP benefits, nearly all of them require only one AP in your party. Of course if you can schedule your annual trips so that two of them lie within a 366-day period, the AP still pays off.

 

[Scotch]

I know I can come and go, and just go into a park for an hour or so without feeling that I am "wasting" a ticket. This is great with a little one. There have been so many times where we would head to a park, and after an hour or so, our dd would say she was tired, or just not feeling well and wanted to return to the room (she gets sick a lot in WDW). Before we had AP's we would get frustrated by the "wastefullness" of this...now, we just go back and "hang out"!!

This is the main reason we bought APs earlier this year. DS is currently 18 months old and having APs meant we didn't feel bad going to the parks just for a ride or two and leave so we don't wear him out. It has been wonderful!

 

[doubletrouble_vb]

This is the reason I bought a PAP this year and will be buying some type of 10 day pass before the end of the year (I have a feeling ticket prices might be going up...don't know why...just seems likely). The PAP has panned out but I didn't need to buy the PAP...an AP would have done just as well...so far I've only gone to Disney Quest and Typhoon Lagoon...and that with a struggle. The next trip I'll make PI and a waterpark if its warm enough (find it hard to believe it will be today!)...so that will just "justify" the "P". The sad thing is that I had old plusses but I forgot about them. Other than that little goof I started out by saving money on an Allstars room at the beginning of the pass and then went on to get the DDE which also save a buck or two.

However...I'm going over to the 10 day pass because it'll be some years before I will go to Disney enough days to warrant an AP...room discount or no discount.