7 day ticket v. Annual pass

cbonebt

Mouseketeer
Joined
Oct 26, 2009
Thinking of buying one annual pass (rest of us get 7 day tickets). With the memory maker, souvenir discount, and 10 percent food discount.. do you think it will be worth it... going mid February
 
Thinking of buying one annual pass (rest of us get 7 day tickets). With the memory maker, souvenir discount, and 10 percent food discount.. do you think it will be worth it... going mid February

Do you have any other trips planned (or likely to be planned) over the following 12-month period?

7 park days is on the low end for what a lot of people say makes APs ‘worth it’.

Small warning, APs can be addicting. Any goal of “saving money” can suddenly turn in to multiple trips per year. Still one of the best decisions we’ve made as a family in terms of our vacation dollars, but saving money has not been one of the results! :rotfl2:
 
Do you have any other trips planned (or likely to be planned) over the following 12-month period?

7 park days is on the low end for what a lot of people say makes APs ‘worth it’.

Small warning, APs can be addicting. Any goal of “saving money” can suddenly turn in to multiple trips per year. Still one of the best decisions we’ve made as a family in terms of our vacation dollars, but saving money has not been one of the results! :rotfl2:
I did the math the other day and it was 13 days for the AP to break even so to speak. This of course does not count any AP discounts and memory maker which may make it more worth it to some.

We considered APs but can’t pull the trigger for the exact reason you posted here! Any chance to save a few hundred in tickets would no doubt be easily eclipsed by flights & resort costs. That and I’m afraid the pressure to get the most out of the AP would lead to us only vacationing at WDW which just isn’t our style!
 
Still working on the math .... we prob wouldn’t come again but the discount on food might be nice..
 


I think parking fees should be considered. Are you staying on site or off? If you didn't have an AP, would you have to pay to park at the parks? If the answer is 'yes' then this can quickly eat into the price of the AP & will increase the value of getting 'one' for the group. Another consideration is Tables in Wonderland, also very dependent on how you plan to eat & pay for meals in a park, at resorts & at Disney springs. Do you get a dining plan or pay out of pocket? Will you all eat together or will you split up? Do you like to sit down & eat full service meals or do you tend to do quick service or even bring in your own food?
 
We did for a seven day trip. We saved an extra 10% on our room only discount and got memory maker so it made sense. We will also be using the discount for DAH Tickets. Remember the dining discount does not work at all restaurants.
 
I upgraded a 6 day ticket to a platinum AP last summer and, after considering the savings from the included memory maker and merchandise/food discounts, I came out slightly ahead on just that trip (clearly my DD and 8 like to shop ). Ultimately, it depends on how much you would save without spending more to make it “worth it”.
 


In the past have gotten the meal plan but seemed like we were always full and now all kids are considered adults.. we do like to shop lol. I’ll have to google what tables in wonderland is
We did for a seven day trip. We saved an extra 10% on our room only discount and got memory maker so it made sense. We will also be using the discount for DAH Tickets. Remember the dining discount does not work at all restaurants.
 
The math says you will probably be within $100 either way. Depends on ...

- number of Table Service meals (more is better for AP - those are primary ones that get discounts)
- souvenir spending (more is better for AP)
- number of park days (more is better for AP)

You've already said 7 day tickets.

You'll save $175 on parking and $169 on Memory Maker + TS savings + souvenir savings. It costs about $450 extra for one person.

I think it'll be a wash financially, but if, for some reason you found yourself back in Orlando within the next year, you'd have a free pass to the park. I'd probably go with one AP.
 
I think it'll be a wash financially, but if, for some reason you found yourself back in Orlando within the next year, you'd have a free pass to the park. I'd probably go with one AP.

Sorry, fam, gotta get our money's worth out of that 1 AP we bought! Have a good week at work and school! I'll buy you some T-shirts and Mickey Rice Krispie treats with my 10% discount! Don't worry, it includes memory maker so you can check out all my ride photos. See ya real soon!

(Be very, very sure you put that one AP in your name, OP.)
 
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We haven’t had APs on our last 2 trips after having them over several years, and it’s disappointing not to get a shopping discount just for being there and smiling.

But I will say the food discounts are quite spotty at best (unless you spend even more for the Tables in Wonserland).

I think your math should really focus on parking (if off site) and memory maker plus some smallish figure on discounts.

Now, if you are looking to stay on site, you may get a great AP rate. But honestly, even those have slowed down to a pretty close match to the regular seasonal discounts.
 
One other discount that some don't always consider is that we have the Shop Parks App on our phones for whenever we are looking at something at WDW and they might not have the size we are looking for. We can see where else they sell the item. You can link your AP through that App as well so whenever we might want to buy something once we are home we still get the discount.

We are on our second AP but got spoiled the first year we had it (or at least on the first trip we had it) because they were still in an anniversery year and a lot of the dinning discounts that are 10% now were 20% during that period. Since it is only two of us and we go 2 to 3 times a year they make sense for us. We are going in May for a week and that will be our third trip on this AP. We renew in June to get the discount and will have to think about whether we renew this year or not.
 
For me it was worth it..... but as many have stated above.... look at what other things you plan to get anyway and can possibly save if you have an AP?! Such as ... are you planning to do After Hours? The savings for AP is $30! Or are you planning a few table service meals? We usually only plan 2 or 3, but the AP saved a nice 20% on each.
Do you usually purchase souvenirs? If you don't and then you let the AP discount persuade you to.... then it's not a real savings. But if you usually spend say $250 each trip on souvenirs, the that's another $50 of potential savings with an AP.
And of course the other 2 big questions.... Memory Maker and parking?

Like someone else already posted.... you have to be careful not to let the AP cause you to "spend more" just to get "savings" because.... is it really a savings?!

For us it was a great savings! ..... but I will add.... it's usually 2 trips for us... one 7 day and one 5 day trip.
 
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First, let me explain myself. We were Disney people, living on Long Island. We became the typical NY AP holders. Odd year trip in August, even year trip in July. One AP, two week long trips, two different summers.

Disney had set up a mock DVC at the Roosevelt Field Mall. After some investigating, we bought into DVC. Did not change our plans much.

Then, a job change brought us to Charlotte NC. Disney was now just an 8 hour drive. Our annual trip changed into 4-6 trips per year. I swear my wife had us move to the south side of Charlotte just to be that much closer to WDW.

Anyway, we continued being a family of AP holders (the DVC discount played heavily here), TiW and of course Disney Visa holders.

Whenever we went to Disney, I would do two things. First, anyplace we spend any money, I would fan out the DVC, AP, TiW and Disney Visa cards and ask if any of these got us a better cost. And I would do it every time,. You start to learn things, like s a soda bought on the street there would be no discount, but one bought in the Emporium or any other ”Shop”, you would receive a discount.

The other thing I would do is save every single receipt and create a spreadsheet when I got home. I would list every charge from when we left home, gas, food, hotel, merchandise, parking, tolls, etc. I would put each of them in the spreadsheet, with all of the columns being a separate discount (not just the Disney discounts, but any coupons, any $50 gas cards for $40 from Publix, any Hilton Discount I may get via work or otherwise). Yes, I know, I have a problem.

But that would at least in the end let me know exactly what we were doing, and if it was worth it. Several years ago, I would say the TiW was the biggest value, especially when we would go multiple times a year. The AP used to have a 20% merchandise discount, and I believe the Premium Plus Pass still does. That “Free Parking” was a $25 a day savings.

My personal opinion is that the AP would probably be worth it for one person in the group. As was mentioned previously, for a 7 day trip, that is $175 in parking savings alone. But I would strongly suggest if you do get the AP, keep track of all your spending, and spreadsheet it out when you get home. You will then know if you did come out ahead, and if so by how much.
 
This is actually a very good idea, involved but probably worth it for at least one trip. As I said in my earlier post we have AP's for both my wife and I. Since we average three trips a year on our AP's I have simply compared the cost of two AP's to the cost of buying 7 day park hoppers three times a year. Those economics work because the break even is about 13 days worth of tickets. The Photopass, the discounts, etc. are just icing on the cake. Of course if we go less then other factors come into effect. Till that time I like the AP's. The added benifits have included a free early morning in Toy Story Land where we got to ride Slinky Dog 7 times so for us the decision has been easy. For a single AP on one trip the numbers are a little more confusing.
 
For me personally, having an AP absolutely changes my spending habits. At the time, I didn't think that it would. But then when I went again on another trip without discounts, I found that I suddenly didn't need as much merchandise and could forgo a certain restaurant. It's not that I think I was spending foolishly, but I used the discounts to partial justification to buy the AP. And then I used the AP discounts to partially justify buying stuff... thereby double-counting the benefit of having the discount.

A friend does the same thing. He would never pay full price for Memory Maker, but he counts the value of it in the AP (which I think overstates how much it's actually worth to him).

Also, keep in mind that the 10% food discount is only at a limited number of places, and that theme park parking is already included in your resort rate if you're staying onsite.

Edit: that said, it might still work for a one-trip visit. Just depends on a realistic assessment of spending habits, and not pressure to make the pass "pay off."
 
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So I did the math for my trip. Summary below.

Group of 6 adults 3 kids 1 infant

4 TS including CRT (possibly 5 or 6 TS) plus memory maker.

If we upgrade 1 to AP and get a TIW card for an additional $150 we are only $52 short of break even. This is with just the 4 meals counted, so before any other discount or meals.

However the large group helps ALOT with the savings.

Now I’m planing another short trip and going to upgrade DH too. But I’m not factoring that in for saving, also may do a spring break trip in 2020 instead of Nov to use AP one more time then take a break till Nov 2021:lmao:
 
We are heading down in March and thinking of doing APs for a 7 day trip.
Since we are staying off-site, want to do Memory Maker and planning 2 weekend trips down in the fall, it should be a good value for us.
For those shorter trips, 3 day tickets were over $100 per day.
 
So I did the math for my trip. Summary below.

Group of 6 adults 3 kids 1 infant

4 TS including CRT (possibly 5 or 6 TS) plus memory maker.

If we upgrade 1 to AP and get a TIW card for an additional $150 we are only $52 short of break even. This is with just the 4 meals counted, so before any other discount or meals.

However the large group helps ALOT with the savings.

Now I’m planing another short trip and going to upgrade DH too. But I’m not factoring that in for saving, also may do a spring break trip in 2020 instead of Nov to use AP one more time then take a break till Nov 2021:lmao:
We are five adults but not guaranteeing I’m doing all the table service... I can’t see adding the $150 too for us... I originally thought the ten percent off was pretty much across the board but the more I research the less restaurants it is... payment due today so I gotta decide
 

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