Annual Pass??

[Ashlee Moll]

Questions regarding the annual passes.

1.) My husband and I are contemplating going for food and wine fest, 4-5 days. If we purchased annual pass in November does the annual pass expire November 2020? Or are they run on a calendar year only?

2.) We would plan a 2020 trip - week long - with our kids. I am debating on buying the annual pass for my husband and I. I believe it would save us some money on tickets and the memory maker and I always purchase it when we visit.


Thoughts from annual pass members???

 

[EdnaMarieMode]

AP expires on the day after one year from first use (so I got my AP on 8/17, used it for the first time on 8/18, and the expiration date is 8/19 if that helps).

If you always purchase MM, then that's a $179 savings because it's included. The merchandise and dining discounts do add up. Park tickets are not always offered at a discount, there are periods during the year where they have been offered and if I remember correctly the last period was over the summer and it was a limit of 2 day's worth of park hopper tickets per passholder.

 

[siren0119]

So the break-even point for AP's is around 11 park days. If you think you would use more than 11 park days in a year, then it is definitely a savings! When we looked at the cost we didn't really factor in the dining discounts (They're 10% and not at all restaurants, so you'd need to spend $1000 to realized just $100 savings - when a pass costs $850 that's not enough to sway us). Memory maker was a bit of a factor, but even then we avoided using the "perks" to evaluate the value because those could be changed/taken away at any time.

 

[kniquy]

1.) My husband and I are contemplating going for food and wine fest, 4-5 days. If we purchased annual pass in November does the annual pass expire November 2020? Or are they run on a calendar year only?

2.) We would plan a 2020 trip - week long - with our kids. I am debating on buying the annual pass for my husband and I. I believe it would save us some money on tickets and the memory maker and I always purchase it when we visit.

The AP would expire the same date in 2020, so if you activate it on 11/15/2019 then it would expire on 11/14/2019 (maybe on the 15th but not positive).

An AP generally will save you money if you are doing stays of about 10 days. For example i got an AP because i had a 3 day conference i was attending and then the following year i was going for 7 days. When i looked at the numbers it made sense for me to get the AP.

As long as you are careful of your dates and are positive you will return within the year then the AP does make sense. Especially when you look at all the dining, shopping discounts and potential room discounts.

The memory maker is a great benefit too.

You can run the numbers but i think you will make out better with getting the AP.

 

[Anchored]

AP'S make a lot of sense if you plan to stay off-site as well. Free parking at $25/day adds up FAST
Dining discounts are minimal, but merchandise 20% off is great. Also, passholder discount rates for rooms add up too if you aren't planning to stay off site
Memory Maker for both trips would save you a bundle.

 

[rdaky]

We got Annual Passes for the first time last year. I did a lot of math and for us it made sense. We are doing 3 trips in the year. 2 onsite and 1 offsite, all between 7-10 days. The dining discounts seem to be a small bonus and quick service isn't even included, along with merchandise (because even with a 20% discount, that's still buying more stuff) But even if we were only going on 2 trips, it would have still saved us money. Actually, when I did the math, even one trip would have saved us because by the time I added the memory maker and the significant annual pass discount, it more than broke even. And I agree, staying off site and not paying for parking adds up, too.

I would definitely recommend adding up your costs of both trips plus the memory maker. And then if you're staying onsite include any room discount that you could get. Staying off property include free parking. And then see where you are vs the cost of the pass.