A friend suggested adding Disneyland AP's to our WDW AP's, would it be worth it?

[LovesTimone]

We are thinking about a family trip, next year during April or May... Cast would be DD, SIL, sweet DGS (4), DH and me... DH and I have visited 5 years ago our first trip to Disneyland... so this would be DD and families 1st trip to Disneyland, We are all WDW vets, only DH and I have WDW AP's...

I would like to stay in the bubble...but more than likely it would not be in the budget. needing 2 rooms

In talking with some friends they suggested that we add DL AP's to at least one of our WDW AP's, for room discounts.. as well as dinning discounts, photopass but I have been reading that there are not hardly any photographers around... and discounts on merchandise... Our friends have family in California and visit 2 or 3 times a year, so for them it works out... If we add the passes to both WDW AP's we could plan a trip just DH and I for christmas next year, and DD and Family will be with her in-laws for the holiday.

Anyone with both WDW and DL AP's if you could please shed some light on this I would appreciate it...

 

[theluckyrabbit]

For PhotoPass, if you did decide to purchase MaxPass (currently $10 per person per day), that includes free PP for each day of purchase. Lots of people here buy MP for just one person in the family for the PP alone because $10/day works out to be much less than buying a PP package for a week or more. So that's one thing to consider...
For APs and discounts, do the math on what it would cost you to stay on site, how many TS meals and CS meals you would plan (menus can be found here: Menus), budget for souvenirs, budget for shows/dining packages, etc. Round up! Then calculate what the discount would be for Premier APs. That will give you a rough estimate on how much you could save and whether it would be worth getting at least one pass for this trip or whether you mght want two passes. We do have Premier passholders on this board, so hopefully they'll be chiming in soon with their experience!

 

[gottalovepluto]

... If we add the passes to both WDW AP's we could plan a trip just DH and I for christmas next year, and DD and Family will be with her in-laws for the holiday...

This is actually the part you need to focus on. You will not save enough 10% at a time on restaurants and merch to account for the cost difference (which appears to be $500 at minimum). And you already seem disinclined to purchase PhotoPass so those savings should not be a part of your calculations (PP is free with MaxPass purchase btw). Sometimes the AP room discounts are non-existent or exactly what’s offered to the general public with a couple FPs thrown in.

If you want to do other trips to DL then it could be “worth it” but if you only want those trips if you save enough money on trip one to cover the costs of upgrading I simply do not see how that math works.

 

[Gaugersaurus]

I upgraded my DLR AP to a premier this year for my trip to WDW. The cost of upgrading is ≈$1632 minus whatever you've paid for your current pass. You get 15% off CS & TS meals and 20% of merchandise at DLR plus MaxPass included so a pass for you and DH will save you $20/day if you were planning on purchasing MaxPass. Like a previous poster mentioned, room discounts are usually just the general public discount with a FP and possibly a dining voucher thrown in.

Would a suite be an option instead of 2 rooms? The cost of a 2 bedroom suite is comparable to the cost of 2 rooms at the DLH. Another thing to consider is the construction on that side of DTD; right now I think the safest bet for Disney hotels is GCH.

I would also advise that you do the math based on historical room discounts offered when you are planning on going and see if getting a pass makes sense for your situation.

 

[bumbershoot]

I do the math based on admission costs. I just don’t buy enough, not even food, to start to make a dent in the upgrade to Premier. And we’re dvc for Wdw (I don’t like the grand cal so I don’t stay there) and perfectly happy to stay offsite at DL, so room discounts don’t matter to me.

I have yet to get the Premier to make sense for my trips. And I’ve been trying for years. It really does work best for those who have *multiple* trios to both parks in a 365 day period.

 

[figment_jii]

As others have said, you'll have to look into the math to determine if it's financial worth it to upgrade one of your APs for the Premier AP. The cost of the Premier AP is $1630.32 (including tax on the FL portion of the pass). I also think it depends on which AP you have for WDW and whether the upgrade would increase your perks/discounts in WDW. The Premier AP is essentially the WDW Platinum Plus and the DLR Signature Plus AP combined, so you get all of the benefits of those passes.

When I've had the Premier AP, it was because we had one long WDW trip planned and several short DLR trips planned in a 12-month period. I don't think that it's necessarily going to be cost effective if you only have one trip to DLR planned (unless it's a really long trip), but if you start having more than one trip, it might approach the break even point (but again, it really depends on which WDW AP you're starting with). For DLR, I've found that the dining and shopping discounts do start to add up, so it's worth keeping that in mind (20% at most Disney shops and 15% at most dining locations). You can get some of the discounts if you have a Disney Visa (10% off merchandise with minimum purchase and 10% dining discounts at a handful of locations).

 

[az4boys]

For now if you assume you are just doing the one trip to DL. Compare the cost of whatever tickets you would need for your DL trip to what it would cost you to upgrade your AP's. The difference is the minimum you would need to save on other things (hotel/food/merchandise) in order to make the upgrade worth it. If you are sure you are doing 2 trips then you would need to subtract the cost of tickets for 2 trips. It seems much more likely to be worth it if you have 2 trips.