Canadian Annual Passholders!

[CanDisFan]

hey everyone! So I’m new to the disboards so maybe this has already been asked! So I’m in the process of planning my Disney vacation for 2019 and I’m thinking about grabbing a couple annual passes for me and my girlfriend instead of getting the tickets through the package. Do you think it’s worth it to do the AP? Will I get my moneys worth from a 7 day vacation with it? Also, I’m thinking about maybe going twice next year, if the price is right of course, so take that into consideration! Thanks guys!

 

[tinkerone]

hey everyone! So I’m new to the disboards so maybe this has already been asked! So I’m in the process of planning my Disney vacation for 2019 and I’m thinking about grabbing a couple annual passes for me and my girlfriend instead of getting the tickets through the package. Do you think it’s worth it to do the AP? Will I get my moneys worth from a 7 day vacation with it? Also, I’m thinking about maybe going twice next year, if the price is right of course, so take that into consideration! Thanks guys!

I like to have it for several reasons. One is that I get the photo pass free with it. It will pick up the pictures of anyone who is attached to your MDE so I was able to get the photos of even my brother and sister when we went together last fall. The photos are available for pass holders for an entire year so no rush to download them. Another advantage is the discounts on my purchases which also includes food in many cases. They often offer room only discounts for pass holders which saves $$. It works for me and well worth the money especially if you think you are going more than once. If your not sure you could always just purchase one for you and not your girlfriend, you would still get all the advantages since you will be together but it will save a few dollars in case you don't go back.
Hope this helps a bit.

 

[CanDisFan]

Do you think the discounts on food would make it cheaper then getting the Disney dinning plan for a week?

 

[Sue M]

No, IMO an AP isn’t worth it for a 7 day trip. If you are going twice, 7 days each trip add up the cost of two 7 day park hoppers vs cost of AP.
I went 2x this past year, did a 10 day and a 14 day trip so it was worth it. I’m thinking of going again this year for 14 days but don’t think renewing AP worth it so I’ll prob get the Canadian 10 day hopper plus ticket.

As for dining plan, we haven’t gotten it in a few years. We found we did better without it. It depends how you eat. We prefer water with meals, not pop drinkers. Always end up with left over snack credits at end of the trip and just buy a bunch of Mickey rice crispies to take home, don’t necessarily want dessert right after dinner, and may prefer to get dessert elsewhere also my daughter and I often share a dessert. It’s a lot of extra food we don’t really want, but the cost is built into the dining plan. We find for us it’s cheaper to pay out of pocket and eat when and what we want. I buy a Disney Gift card designated for our dining at beginning of trip and just use that to pay for our meals.
Our first time off the dining plan I put the exact cost of the DDP on a gift card and found by the end of our trip we had around $100 left on the card. And we ate what we wanted.
You’d have to think about your dining habits and decide if you want all the components of the DDP to determine if it works for you.

 

[CanDisFan]

Hmmm interesting! So you can put $1000 plus dollars on a gift card?

 

[tinkerone]

Do you think the discounts on food would make it cheaper then getting the Disney dinning plan for a week?

Annual passes give you 20% off dinning at most places so I would think it would be cheaper than the DDP. We never get DDP unless its free and even then we cost it out.
As you can see from the above poster and myself, having a Annual Pass is subjective. I purchased one last year because I went twice. First time was with hubby, son and granddaughter. I knew I wanted the photo pass and it is included with the AP. That saved me $170 US just there and the photos we had done were priceless to me. Then we used my AP to get the discounts on dinning, had to have saved several hundred there. You could pay for both of your dinning bills and just show your AP to get the discount.
Then the purchase of all the souvies and the odd t-shirt/hoodie saved us another couple hundred. Keep in mind that the person with the AP is the only one who is supposed to get the discounts for purchases but as long as I paid, no one knew it wasn't for me.
I then went back a few months later and was able to do the exact same thing with the Memory Maker pictures and the discounts. We saved a lot of $$ there as well. Just remember to always show your card and ask if discounts are offered every where you go.
My point in all this is not to only account for the park entries. Take into account the fact that you will save money with the discounts and the Memory Maker and I would bet you will see that the cost is worth it. As I mentioned above, if your undecided maybe only one of you get the AP (which is what I did) and go from there.
Only you are going to know if an AP is right for you but make sure you have all the information.

 

[mab2012]

Canadian Resident 7-day Park Hopper no Memory Maker: $439.85
Canadian Resident 7-day Park Hopper w/ Memory Maker: $608.85
Platinum AP: $904.19

Dining discounts at most table service restaurants are 10%, not including alcohol, and not all restaurants participate. Usually no discount at counter service locations. If you think you're going to spend several thousand dollars in merchandise or at restaurants, and assuming you'd buy Memory Maker anyway, you *might* break even on one AP on a single trip. There is no world in which it makes financial sense to have two APs for a single 7-day trip. If you're planning two long-ish trips, the equation changes. Then you probably do break even on ticket prices, or very nearly, and anything you save on discounts or memory maker is a bonus. So IMO what it comes down to is how certain you are about that second trip. Would you rather take the risk of overpaying for a single trip, or spending more than you might have across two trips combined?

There's also the new ticket pricing model to consider. No one quite knows what that's going to mean for prices yet, but it's a safe bet that they'll go up for peak periods at least. If you're buying tickets now (whether AP or regular tickets), it shouldn't matter for your first trip, but it might impact the cost of any potential second trip if you do choose not to buy the AP.

As for DDP, for most people it's more expensive than paying out of pocket anyway, so any discounts just make the DDP an even worse financial value.

Hmmm interesting! So you can put $1000 plus dollars on a gift card?

Max $1000 on a single gift card. You can, of course, buy multiple gift cards.

 

[Donald - my hero]

I agree with those who are in the no to an AP camp for this trip when it's only "possible" that you might do a second trip within the year. I don't think you'll save enough to make it worth your while. No one else seems to have mentioned that for a 7 day trip you won't be wanting or needing 7 days in the parks because you need to take into account your travel days. Even if your flight is on the ground at 10 (that's when the earliest flight from Toronto tends to land, might be a tad off there) you won't get to your hotel until closer to noon by the time you get your stuff gathered, hop on the bus and actually check in. You'll need to check in to get your Magic Bands activated and if you buy Canadian tickets (the best way to go if you don't get an AP) you'll need to show your ID before you can actually use them. On your return day the bus will pick you up 4 hours before your flight if you're flying internationally and that really doesn't leave enough time to hit a park. SO now you're down to a 5 day ticket - you could push it to a 6 if you arrive there on a day when one of the parks is open past midnight and you're up for a long day - and then the extra $$ to get the AP is much higher. I don't think the discounts you'll get with the AP will be enough to cover the difference in price between the 2 options. We were there for 3 weeks, our 4 adults kids joined us in the middle for one week and we decided to get 1 AP for me. Even though it was the 40th anniversary and that meant more discounts on dining, I used the card to get everyone the discount on souvenirs, we got the photopass (that i thought would be great but they only let me get 3 family pictures!!) we only ended up coming out about $50 ahead.

I agree that getting a gift card or 2 for your meals & other expenses can be helpful in managing your spending AND you can even buy those in Canada and avoid the foreign transaction fee on your credit card. You'll pay in CDN funds and when you use it they will use the previous business day's exchange rate.

Whatever you decide, have a blast and enjoy the planning!!!

 

[mab2012]

I agree with those who are in the no to an AP camp for this trip when it's only "possible" that you might do a second trip within the year. I don't think you'll save enough to make it worth your while. No one else seems to have mentioned that for a 7 day trip you won't be wanting or needing 7 days in the parks because you need to take into account your travel days.

Yup, I was assuming that OP wanted 7 actual park days, but I agree that if travel time eats into those days, the value is even worse.

This is where non-financial considerations start coming into play though. For the kind of person who would be tempted to buy base tickets or cut a day or two from a multi-day ticket because "it's not worth it" to go to the parks on a travel day, an AP can allow the freedom to spend just a few hours in the parks without feeling like you've wasted a day. It's not logical, because you're still financially better off to just buy the longer multi-day ticket and potentially leave days unused, but some people prefer to just pay one unreasonably high price and forget about the accounting. Thus the continuing popularity of the DDP.

 

[Sue M]

Yes, you can buy $1000 gift card, or what we now do is buy a lesser amount then reload as we need. If you’re unsure when your next trip is you don’t want to be stuck with a balance on GC.

 

[KNovacovschi]

Are you planning on staying onsite or offsite? That is also something to take into consideration. We go once a year and it isn't worth it for us normally but on our trip last week I upgraded my tickets only. I had the CDN discount tickets from the first time they had the promo and had purchased MM but were staying offsite. I also have a may trip planNed for myself and would've gotten 6 day base tickets, which is what I had for our recent trip. It only cost me $450 to upgrade but we also saved because parking would've been $175. We usually stay onsite so don't pay for parking. There also is no discount on QS in the parks. In all honesty unless you are 100% certain you will be going back I wouldn't upgrade and if you do then maybe just one pass.

 

[DizzyDis]

Agree with all the above. I got an AP as I planned a second trip for myself. I went with AP for the 2 trips, and the perks for me were the photopass, free parking, and I saved a bit on food and souvenirs, but not as much as I expected. Hope you have a great trip either way!!

 

[Princess KP]

You can always upgrade your tickets to an AP when you are there next year. That will give you more time to decide if you you will make a second trip. Just remember to upgrade before you use up all your days.

 

[gskywalker]

We upgraded our tickets when we went two weeks ago. I am pretty sure we are going to think we may have gone over board by the time August comes around but our plans are as follows to get the use out of our Annual Passes:

Sept 21-Oct 1 Free Dining
Dec 22-Jan 1 Offsite
March 10-17 Offsite
May 30-June 8 Free Dining Bounceback
Aug 24-Sept 3 Free Dining Bounceback

Then we will have two sets of 4 day park hoppers for 6 people to use somehow in the future.

 

[Disneylover99]

We upgraded our tickets when we went two weeks ago. I am pretty sure we are going to think we may have gone over board by the time August comes around but our plans are as follows to get the use out of our Annual Passes:

Sept 21-Oct 1 Free Dining
Dec 22-Jan 1 Offsite
March 10-17 Offsite
May 30-June 8 Free Dining Bounceback
Aug 24-Sept 3 Free Dining Bounceback

Then we will have two sets of 4 day park hoppers for 6 people to use somehow in the future.

I'm not sure if you're aware of the new ticket rules beginning Oct. 15th, but make sure if you are going to make any changes to your fd bounceback reservations, you do it before the 15th. Package tickets will be changing and will be set to expire on the final day of your resort stay, even if you don't use the tickets. It's my understanding that you can pay an additional fee per ticket to keep them valid til the end of the year, but I'm not sure what the fee will be.

I also have an AP and a fd bounceback that I wanted to save the tickets on, but I'm not sure if it will be worth it now. Maybe you already know all of this, I just wanted to give you a heads up.

 

[gskywalker]

I'm not sure if you're aware of the new ticket rules beginning Oct. 15th, but make sure if you are going to make any changes to your fd bounceback reservations, you do it before the 15th. Package tickets will be changing and will be set to expire on the final day of your resort stay, even if you don't use the tickets. It's my understanding that you can pay an additional fee per ticket to keep them valid til the end of the year, but I'm not sure what the fee will be.

I also have an AP and a fd bounceback that I wanted to save the tickets on, but I'm not sure if it will be worth it now. Maybe you already know all of this, I just wanted to give you a heads up.

Thanks for letting me know. Everything I read is exactly that which makes sense and that is that tickets purchased before Oct 16 will not be affected. Our one in May is already set, flights booked. The other one won't be set by then, so we will have to see if anything is affected by that change. I would imagine at worst that the tickets would expire, not the value. They have had expiry dates before but the value hasn't expired. I am hoping to use the value towards a trip in the future, perhaps tickets, etc. depending on what they allow(the best would be able to use the whole value towards a bounceback trip for Sept 2020). EDIT: I just watched the video and in the fine print along the bottom it says that "a wholly unused ticket value can be used towards a purchase of a new ticket".

 

[Disneylover99]

Everything I read is exactly that which makes sense and that is that tickets purchased before Oct 16 will not be affected.

Me too. But what makes me crazy is that the expiry date on my package tickets on the app. already lists the expiration date as my resort check out date.

EDIT: I just watched the video and in the fine print along the bottom it says that "a wholly unused ticket value can be used towards a purchase of a new ticket".

I''m hoping there is not an additional ticket fee added to this.

 

[kiford]

We're planning to get APs for our trip in December (7 days). We plan to go at least one more time before they would expire and it essentially works out about even for us even if we only do those two trips (but we're trying to arrange an additional 3-4 short ones). The longer you stay, the cheaper they are per day but if you do short trips, the average daily cost goes up. So while an AP is about the price of two 7-day park hopper passes with no photopass ($952 versus $926), if for example you do a 7-day and a 4-day, it's not that much less than two 7-day passes ($869 versus $926). This makes APs financially attractive if you do some shorter trips. When I factor in the food and merchandise, I definitely get my value out of it. We never buy the photopass package but it's a nice bonus; if you usually do purchase this, it's a definite savings. For one 7-day trip, an AP is about double the price ($463 versus $952) which would make it difficult to get financial return on it; we eat a lot at nice restaurants but I don't think we'd be able to come up with $489 in discounts.

We're going between Christmas and New Year's this year which I know is insanely busy (we usually do early December). If it gets too busy, I will go back to the resort. I feel much better about doing that knowing that I'm not "wasting" a pass for the day. For the future trips we're planning, we may get to WDW later in the day than we normally would go so again I feel OK going to a park at 6 pm for dinner without feeling that I'm wasting a day pass. It also allows us not to have to figure out how many days of passes we will need for shorter trips. We can go and decide to skip a day if we want, see our friends who live in Florida, go to Universal if we want to and not have to commit to - and pay for- a certain number of days of passes in advance.

 

[cabmom]

How much are annual passes? Thanks...

 

[gskywalker]

How much are annual passes? Thanks...

$894