AP? TiW? What would you do?

[jackport]

We are about to leave for a 7 night trip to WDW. We are a party of 8, 5 “Disney” adults and 2 kids. We all have 7 day park hopper tickets. Would it make sense for me to upgrade just my ticket to an annual pass? I would like to get the PhotoPass, and I was thinking between that being included in an annual pass and the 10% off restaurants it might make financial sense? Our reservations include 1900 Park Fare, Sci-Fi, Via Napoli, TRex, Be our Guest breakfast. What would you do? Thanks

ETA: it would cost me $300 to upgrade my ticket to an AP

 

[Maus79]

If you include the price of PhotoPass, you're looking at a difference of $143.81. For a party of 8, we spent over $400 on some TS meals. Moreover, you will receive 20% on Disney merchandise. For my family, the savings in souvenirs nearly covered the cost of the annual pass.

 

[amie416]

Something to consider: AP discount is only supposed to be for the pass holder and 3 guests, so you may not get 10% off your total bill. I'm a new AP holder and haven't tested this though, so maybe someone else who is AP can clarify how this is actually put into practice?

You could purchase TiW for an additional $150, which covers up to 10 people in the discount. However, a few of the restaurants (BoG breakfast, TRex) are not covered by that discount so I don't think you'd get much past the break-even point unless you had more TS meals or a healthy consumption of adult beverages. Certain resorts have CS restaurants that are also included in TiW, so maybe there's an edge for TiW if you're staying at Pop, AllStars, AoA, or POFQ.

I could go either way in your situation. I think you would be on the cusp of saving money with the AP benefits, but it would depend on how much you used the discount for merchandise as well. Unless you are staying off-site, then the savings in parking would add into the savings as well.

 

[JZCubed]

We are about to leave for a 7 night trip to WDW. We are a party of 8, 5 “Disney” adults and 2 kids. We all have 7 day park hopper tickets. Would it make sense for me to upgrade just my ticket to an annual pass? I would like to get the PhotoPass, and I was thinking between that being included in an annual pass and the 10% off restaurants it might make financial sense? Our reservations include 1900 Park Fare, Sci-Fi, Via Napoli, TRex, Be our Guest breakfast. What would you do? Thanks

ETA: it would cost me $300 to upgrade my ticket to an AP

When the math is 'close', I typically avoid the add-on.

My reasoning is - if you change one meal to just grabbing a hardy snack, the entire (potential) savings may be lost.

We typically stay a bit longer than 7-days and, like you, we want pictures from PhotoPass. So I have opted for buying 1 annual pass for my family. Given the cost of PhotoPass alone, I think an AP offers you (or me) no savings, but the dining discounts make the math work - even if just 4 people are covered.

Then I scratch my head and put pencil-to-paper to see if Tables in Wonderland makes sense too.

Disney is very good at crunching these types of numbers, and my back-of-envelop calculations suggest that unless your group drinks more than a few adult-beverages and makes these purchases at places that take Table in Wonderland (i.e., two drinks at dinner may get discounted, but two beers at a kiosk will not - if using Tables in Wonderland), you're not likely to save much, if at all.

Remember, you first need to 'break-even' with the Annual Pass purchase above the value of the PhotoPass before you approach a 'break-even' for the cost of Tables in Wonderland too.

Moreover, neither TRex nor Be Our Guest breakfast (dinner is) are included in TiW. In your circumstance, TiW is not likely to offer any savings....unless you consume a fair amount of alcohol in the participating locations.

 

[OKW Lover]

annual pass and the 10% off restaurants it might make financial sense?

The AP discount on restaurants isn't available on any where near the number of restaurants that accept TiW. Also, the AP discount doesn't apply to alcohol but TiW does.

 

[bcrook]

Im no longer buying TiW. That $150.00 cost takes too long to recoup.
I use a combination of AP, Chase and DVC. I find each restaurant very different in enforcing the discounts. Some let more than 4. Stay away from La Hacienda. Those people are nuts when it comes to discounts and food rules.
If you buy the TiW you have to spend $750.00 to break even. If you spend $2000.00 you save $400.00-$150.00 = $250.00. You could have saved almost $200.00 with AP.

I think you’ve got to expect to spend about $2500.00-$3000.00 in a calendar year to make it work. Unless of course a high percentage of the cost is alcohol. That changes it a little.

I get 20% off quite a bit with my DVC so I don’t miss paying for the TiW.

 

[gharter]

Im no longer buying TiW. That $150.00 cost takes too long to recoup.
I use a combination of AP, Chase and DVC. I find each restaurant very different in enforcing the discounts. Some let more than 4. Stay away from La Hacienda. Those people are nuts when it comes to discounts and food rules.
If you buy the TiW you have to spend $750.00 to break even. If you spend $2000.00 you save $400.00-$150.00 = $250.00. You could have saved almost $200.00 with AP.

I think you’ve got to expect to spend about $2500.00-$3000.00 in a calendar year to make it work. Unless of course a high percentage of the cost is alcohol. That changes it a little.

I get 20% off quite a bit with my DVC so I don’t miss paying for the TiW.

Are you getting 20% this year with the DVC card? when I look at the DVC benefits a few restaurants are 20%, but most are 10%.
We still find the TIW card is worth the money, especially with the AP discount back to 10% and DVC at 10%. We find we use the TIW, AP, DVC and Disney Visa cards depending on where we dine. With the discount on alcohol, that helps cover the cost of the TIW card compared to the others. YMMV.

 

[bcrook]

Are you getting 20% this year with the DVC card? when I look at the DVC benefits a few restaurants are 20%, but most are 10%.
We still find the TIW card is worth the money, especially with the AP discount back to 10% and DVC at 10%. We find we use the TIW, AP, DVC and Disney Visa cards depending on where we dine. With the discount on alcohol, that helps cover the cost of the TIW card compared to the others. YMMV.

I tend to take advantage of the DVC 20% options.
I look at how many trips I take in the year. Last year one of my trips was five days during food and wine, and that just doesn’t lend itself to the TiW.
Two years ago, I knew I was taking 8 people to Chef Mickeys. That insane purchase alone almost justified the purchase of a TiW - so I got it. My brother in law chipped in. It was like $500.00. And it was horrible for me, the rest of my family liked the characters.

I think I must like Tokyo Dining, spice road table and tutto gusto so much because of the 20% DVC discount.