AP for single trip to save money?

has anyone brought upgraded to an AP and how did it work for you?? There is a £100 difference between a AP and a 14 day pass.... Which would easily be covered by the savings on parking costs... Let alone merchandising and possibly reductions on certain dining places and Alamo car hire... There is the vague possibility of returning in 2017 but it's not certain! Any AP holders feel like sharing any thoughts? Last 3 trips have been onsite with passes so this is a new experience lol....

We buy annual passes to save of we stay for more than 10 nights. With the discounts 10 nights is worth it.

We were really lucky we bought the DVC PAP in 2013 and got 3 trips out of it even though only 1 was planned when we bought. Be careful as you will want a second trip to make use of the pass.

Minniesgal said:

We buy annual passes to save of we stay for more than 10 nights. With the discounts 10 nights is worth it.

We were really lucky we bought the DVC PAP in 2013 and got 3 trips out of it even though only 1 was planned when we bought. Be careful as you will want a second trip to make use of the pass.

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The. Return may be due to purchase of DVc tho that's on hold at the mo.. Please don't encourage me pmsl... Hubby isn't convinced!!

first of all, you talk about upgrading.

this can't be done until you're in WDW. So this merely writes off any saving on accomodation or car hire (you'll probably be better off booking the Brits guide rate with alamo)

you will have a Ultimate Ticket, which means that if you use any waterpark, disneyquest (2015 tickets) or minigolf, you'll have to upgrade to a PAP which is nearly £100 more than the regular AP
if you don't use the waterpark option you can get a regular AP, but you'd have to pay for waterparks or minigolf

it pays for itself if you stay offsite, as 14 days worth of parking is roughly £160

note that not all places will give you the same quote for the upgrade. Read the various threads about upgrading to AP on this forum, and see that it's not just a matter of calculating the difference in price between the Ultimate in GBP and the AP in USD, it's more complicated than that, and depends on how the CM does the calculation.

it's totally worth it if you upgrade only one ticket AND stay offsite (parking charges)
if you stay onsite, then it's debatable, since to break even you'd need to spend roughly £1500 on merchandise

If you are going to be eating and drinking on site, the AP also makes you eligible for Tables in Wonderland. I haven't done the calculations, but even though we stayed onsite, I'm pretty sure the AP upgrade saved enough on merchandise and dining to be worth it for one of us.
And, yes, it does make you plan extra trips. I think it also made my DH blow the souvenir budget as he ended up buying himself sunglasses and me a D&B purse-justifying that he "saved" so much. LOL

We are staying off site so the parking costs are a major issue in budgeting wether to get an AP... And yes would only upgrade 1... I don't do water parks but do go lounge with the kids so the PAP would be the way to go...
As for dining onsite I would do some TS meals, but unsure wether the TiW card would be viable as it would involve spending more than 500$ to be worth it.... Having calculated that's bfast at TH, dinner at ohanas and dinner at BOG my kids fav.s but not sure if I can justify OOP expenses if that makes sense. Still v much in planning stages so just wanted to get some thoughts and feedback....

scojos said:

We are staying off site so the parking costs are a major issue in budgeting wether to get an AP... And yes would only upgrade 1... I don't do water parks but do go lounge with the kids so the PAP would be the way to go...
As for dining onsite I would do some TS meals, but unsure wether the TiW card would be viable as it would involve spending more than 500$ to be worth it.... Having calculated that's bfast at TH, dinner at ohanas and dinner at BOG my kids fav.s but not sure if I can justify OOP expenses if that makes sense. Still v much in planning stages so just wanted to get some thoughts and feedback....

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We stay for 4 weeks and start our holiday with 10 days or so onsite with the free DDP. We stay offsite for the remainder and so upgrade every year from a 21 Day ultimate. It usually costs $130 - $150 per pass if my memory serves me right. I usually work out how much my Ultimate would have cost in $s, how much an AP costs and then that gives me a figure I'm happy to pay. This year I reckoned $130- $140. We had a bit of a bargain at GS at HS earlier this month. CM offered us $535+ as a trade in for our ultimates and with our renewal APs costing $590 we only paid just over $108 to upgrade both APs. Obviously if we had been buying an AP for the first time it would have been more. Don't know what the CM was doing this year! I've upgraded at GS at DTD in the past as well. Think wayneg has had a good deal at HS as well. I usually buy a TIW card as well but didn't bother this year and my last one expired at then end of August 2014. TIW cards usually last more than a year for some reason so we generally manage at least two holidays.

Mrs TT