a ticket quandary - what would you do?

[jnrrt]

I'm sure other people have dealt with this so I'm looking for help.

We're going to WDW this fall. We'd planed to buy 10 day premium non-expiring tickets. We'll go into the park 3 or 4 days and then save the rest and the plus options. So this ticket would last us about 3 trips.

Enter the DVC AP discount. Now I'm thinking that we just take next year's trip a week earlier, and get two trips out of it, and can go in whenever we want. We can also get DDE and AP discounts on the hotel rooms on the weekend (we won't stay DVC on Friday and Saturday for now). This pass costs slightly more than 2/3's of the 10 days, but I figure it'll make up for itself in other discounts and be more convenient.

Now enter a really good price on 10 day premiums. This makes the price difference between the two not so much. And the fact that we can get an extra evening in MK doing MNSSHP since we'll be there in Oct. without paying for another huge ticket. And that it should be warm enough to swim a lot and stuff and we'll be with people who don't have AP's and won't go in everyday. Of course, these people (all my family, and heck, I like them!) could also benefit from my AP discount.

And enter the new baby, who will be one at this trip and won't need a ticket until he's three, and I like our tickets to all to line up nicely because I'm, well, weird about such things.

What would you do - AP or 10-day?

 

[lllovell]

Do you eat at the restaurants that have the DDE discount often? that 20% adds up so quickly for us because I love a nice sit down meal every day during our trip at some point to rest, recooperate, rejuvinate and errr running out of "r" words

I also think that the AP discount on rooms is a good buy as well and worth it for the extra expense.

Sooooo, I would buy one AP for all the discounts and one 10 day non-expiring ticket. If you decide to go with APs for you both for next year, then you will end up with them renewing at different times once you use your "left over" days on the hopper (whatever they are called now lol) and for me, that would be a treat for my pocket book!!!

BE WARNED! Once you buy an AP, its almost worse than buying into DVC, because it has been so easy for us to justify extra trips

 

[tamu91]

If you can squeeze two trips within 12 months, AP most definitely. If not, you have to realize at least $200 on AP discounts before AP makes economic sense.

 

[carol1231]

I was in that dilema myself. I still have a few days left on some old Hopper tickets and figured I should use those first. Well then I figured that since I could get two, maybe three trips' use from an AP, I'd buy APs. So I bought the AP's when we went two weeks ago. That is the first time we've had AP's, and it was wonderful. We went into a park and out of a park without considering if we'd gotten our "day's worth" from it. We generally don't go to a park everyday so that we could save a day from our Hopper tickets. Now we don't think like that, we want to go, we go.

So, my opinion - Get the AP's.

 

[wintergreen]

I'm facing exactly the same thing. I have a few days left on old Park Hoppers. Figure I can save those in case grandparents come with us again as a little gift for them. I think that I almost have DH talked into this. My secret little plan is that I may now be able to justify another trip!!!

 

[Beca]

We are buying AP's when we go in a few weeks, as we are going again in May (gulp!..heat!!!), and then again in Dec., and HOPEFULLY again in Feb/March. However, we are going on this first trip with friends who will not have AP's. We feel we are already in a "weird" spot, as we plan on getting our AP's and DDE card right when we check-in, then put the DDE to good use at 1900 Park Fare (20% discount for 6 people on that is big). If it was "just us", we would go into the park just to see fireworks or something, but with them...they will not want to waste a ticket to go in for a few hours...so, we feel that we cannot enter the parks on our first night without them (they are staying with us as our guests...gotta love those OKW 2 bedrooms). I just wanted to mention this "pressure" we are feeling to not use our AP's when they don't have park tickets.



Beca

 

[jnrrt]

We are buying AP's when we go in a few weeks, as we are going again in May (gulp!..heat!!!), and then again in Dec., and HOPEFULLY again in Feb/March. However, we are going on this first trip with friends who will not have AP's. We feel we are already in a "weird" spot, as we plan on getting our AP's and DDE card right when we check-in, then put the DDE to good use at 1900 Park Fare (20% discount for 6 people on that is big). If it was "just us", we would go into the park just to see fireworks or something, but with them...they will not want to waste a ticket to go in for a few hours...so, we feel that we cannot enter the parks on our first night without them (they are staying with us as our guests...gotta love those OKW 2 bedrooms). I just wanted to mention this "pressure" we are feeling to not use our AP's when they don't have park tickets.



Beca

Hi Beca,

I know what you mean - if we were by ourselves, we would really take advantage of the convenience, but if everyone else is on the "make the most of each day" mentality, I don't know if we will be able to do that.

But can't you also use your DDE card for your friends? I would think that perk they would be grateful for!

 

[FreeTime]

I have a similiar AP issue. I want to take my kids this summer, nephew, and grandpa (who wants to drive us), my kids and I will have AP's, nephew won't, he won't have a ticket for everyday and somedays I would like to take my kids to a park for a few hours. I don't think he will understand why he gets let behind (he is 7). So it looks like I will be losing value on our AP's and hanging out at the pool instead.

If you don't have set plans to go back within a year, I would get the 10 day tickets. Then you know that you can use them at any time.

 

[disneyberry]

[SIZE=+0]You could buy one AP. That way you can get the AP discounts and qualify to buy DDE.
Then buy the 10day MYW's for everyone else (I couldn't tell how many people are in your traveling party).

We're personally going to give the 10day MYW's a try whenever we next go down to WDW. We've done the AP route before, and find that it ends up being like "golden handcuffs". We end up going to WDW more often than we can afford, just trying to squeeze in another trip to "get our money's worth". It's actually not worth it 'cause we end up paying more for airfare + food etc.

If you can just get over the mentality of feeling like you "waste" a day by going into the park for only part of a day, then the 10day passes can work too. For us, we figure as long as you go into the parks for about 5 hrs, it's not too bad a value. Plus, ITA about how it sucks that AP holders still have to pay full price for MNSSHP or MVMRP tix.[/SIZE]

 

[lisareniff]

Last trip I got an AP and the rest of the family got the 10 day MYW expiring passes since it was only $10 more then the 7day ones! I got the DDE and the hotel discount along with a mini golf discount. This worked well for us.

One question...
I'm thinking about next year. Can you get an AP rate with an AP that is good at check in but expires during your stay?

 

[3 Hobbits 2 Disney]

We're struggling with whether to get the AP or the PAP. We have always done multiple parks in a day before, particularly Pleasure Island. However, this is our first trip home with our 5 yr old so the only park hopping we foresee is to the water parks. Given that we're going home in Nov 2005 (7 days), and then planning for March (5 days) and May 2006 (5 or 6 days), we know the AP is the bare minimum, particularly for the advantage of the DDE.

The question is: will we get the added $$$ advantage out of the PAP. Does anyone have any thoughts? Buy the AP and upgrade later? Are there any advantages to the PAP beyond the park flexibility that I may be overlooking?

Thanks.

 

[Laurabearz]

I have an AP and the rest of my family have 10 MYW fully loaded tickets. They will get 3 trips spanning 16 months out the 10 day MYW tickets.... My AP only covers 2 trips.... but the DDE card is wonderful.... it paid for itself on our first time....

We all have 2 year AP's for US/IOA that expired in Oct 2006 (only $169) so that helps fill our time while at WDW..... plus we like pool days.