Am I missing something?? APs vs no exp tickets

[rnorwo1]

It has been awhile since I analyzed ticket prices, but the last time I read all of the threads about the tickets with the most value, the overwhelming consensus seemed to be that the 10 day no-exp is the best value unless you were sure you'd go over 10 days. We usually spend 6 days each trip, but we could live with 5 each if it saved a good bit of money. Well, I just looked on Disney's website and compared the options... just to make the comparison simpler, I'll look at one adult only: A 10 day NE with PH costs $529; this is $63cheaper than buying two sets of 6 day tickets, like we usually do, but it is also two less days. The APs are $399, which saves us $193 when compared to the two sets of 6 days. I would much rather have the flexibility of the NE tickets, because sometimes we may not make it twice in one year, it may be closer to 14 months or so... this year it will actually be 18 months.

So, am I figuring this out right? I chose my major in college based on how many math classes I would NOT have to take , so please correct me if I'm looking at this crazy. Although I am a bit nervous about being locked into the two trips in a year (which for all 5 of us will save $948 compared to just buying the two sets of 6 days), I can live with it for that kind of savings. So how do people figure out that the 10 day NE is a better deal? Have the prices on those just gone up since the last time I read all of those posts, or am I missing something?

The other issue (sorry this is so long!) is that our next trip is May 2011... my kids will be 9, 5, and 2 then. My oldest and youngest will both need different tickets if we go, say, 11 months later because of their changes in age... so if I buy a child's AP for my oldest in May 2011, and nothing for my 2 y.o., will I have to upgrade my then DS10 and just add an entirely new ticket for my then DS3?
Thanks, hope this all makes sense!!

 

[Tara]

It has been awhile since I analyzed ticket prices, but the last time I read all of the threads about the tickets with the most value, the overwhelming consensus seemed to be that the 10 day no-exp is the best value unless you were sure you'd go over 10 days. We usually spend 6 days each trip, but we could live with 5 each if it saved a good bit of money. Well, I just looked on Disney's website and compared the options... just to make the comparison simpler, I'll look at one adult only: A 10 day NE with PH costs $529; this is $63cheaper than buying two sets of 6 day tickets, like we usually do, but it is also two less days. The APs are $399, which saves us $193 when compared to the two sets of 6 days. I would much rather have the flexibility of the NE tickets, because sometimes we may not make it twice in one year, it may be closer to 14 months or so... this year it will actually be 18 months.

So, am I figuring this out right? I chose my major in college based on how many math classes I would NOT have to take , so please correct me if I'm looking at this crazy. Although I am a bit nervous about being locked into the two trips in a year (which for all 5 of us will save $948 compared to just buying the two sets of 6 days), I can live with it for that kind of savings. So how do people figure out that the 10 day NE is a better deal? Have the prices on those just gone up since the last time I read all of those posts, or am I missing something?

The other issue (sorry this is so long!) is that our next trip is May 2011... my kids will be 9, 5, and 2 then. My oldest and youngest will both need different tickets if we go, say, 11 months later because of their changes in age... so if I buy a child's AP for my oldest in May 2011, and nothing for my 2 y.o., will I have to upgrade my then DS10 and just add an entirely new ticket for my then DS3?
Thanks, hope this all makes sense!!

I like the flexibility of APs - even if we're doing a non-park day, the AP lets us have dinner at Epcot. Plus it allows us to buy TIW, which is a great savings. We also buy hoppers from Undercover Tourist and then upgrade those to DVC APs, so we save a nice bit of money on our APs. (especially since we buy hoppers before the August price increase then hold them to upgrade after the increase - we're saving about $125 IIRC on 2 adult/1 child AP.

About kids and ages - if you buy your 9yo a child ticket, my understanding is that the child can use it until it is "done" - so if that's an AP, it would be good for the entire year, not until the child turned 10. For the 2yo though, you'll have to buy a ticket when he turns 3, and it sounds like you understand.

Also, remember with an AP you can plan your trips 50-51 weeks apart so it doesn't quite feel like 2 trips in a year.

 

[cvjw]

We always pay the extra money and get the 10 day non-expiring tickets with the water park option. You get 10 days at a water park for a few dollars more per ticket - I think they are $571 thru mousesavers. We are AP holders right now, but we always bought the non-expiring tickets before we were AP holders. I will say that I like having the AP's better, as you can go to a park for just a few hours, and not worry about "wasting a day" on your non-expiring tickets.

 

[staceymay00]

Based on calculations I've done for my family, the NE tickets are a better deal if you only use a few days per trip. Otherwise buying tickets for each trip, or an AP for multiple trips in a year (especially with the DVC discount) is the way to go. We do not go to the water parks/Disney Quest at this time or get the PH option, though. Including the WP&M and PH features could change the outcome from what works best for our family. You will not have to upgrade to an adult AP if your child is 9 when you activate the AP but turns 10 within the year. You will have to buy a ticket for the youngest child after the third birthday.

Our plan is a week long trip every 10-12 months plus a shorter trip in between. With the DVC discount, even if we only take two trips 11 months apart we still spend about the same (maybe less) than two sets of MYW tickets and we get to PH. The third trip in between I look at as a bonus "free ticket" trip. We would get APs even for just the two trips, although obviously if something came up and we could not make the second trip we would lose money. Since we are within driving distance to WDW I don't worry about that so much. We can shorten a trip or shift days more easily to get the second trip to work.

 

[princessbride6205]

I believe that the cost of the no expiration option has increased considerably since it was first introduced. I hope someone will chime in to correct me or support with numbers.

We have done APs because our goal is to always be able to take a week in the winter (January lately) and a 4-5 day trip during Food & Wine. We are park people. In the past 5 years we've only been in a resort pool once. And it's been over 10 years since I've been to a water park or Disney Quest. When our DD is older we may do more of those. Non-exp. tickets are a good value if you want to do just a few park days on each trip. You can really stretch those passes, enjoy the resorts and other non-park things Disney has to offer.

We also find value in the Tables in Wonderland card/discount that you can get if you have an AP.

 

[drusba]

Haven't checked math of your ticket issue but as to buying AP when children are on cusp: If child is 9 when AP is first used, you pay the child price and that AP is good for entire year from date of activation even after he turns 10. Obviously for 2 year old you would not buy any park ticket for May 2011 trip and would not purchase any until next trip after child turns three which could be AP or something else. Note in determining what AP to buy you go by date AP will actually be issued -- you can only get them at the parks and Downtown Disney; when you buy before your trip, you are just getting a receipt to get the ticket. Thus, if child is 9 when you actually pick up ticket at Disney it is at child's price and good for entire year from that date of pick-up.

 

[rcchello]

Just did the calculation for MYW and MYW Hopper vs the respective 10 Day Non-expiring (Undercover Tourist Prices) and the Non-Expiring is cheaper if you use 5 days or less per stay.

If you can use the 10 NE pass for 2 or more trips there is a savings (especially considering you might not have to pay a price increase).

If your trips, like ours, are for over 5 days then the regular passes are the better deal.

 

[peabody58]

I've killed enough brain cells crunching the numbers to realize that in the long run for our travel patterns, the AP/TIW is our best approach. We maximize our trips during a 52 wk period (3-4), then taking ~ year off from WDW and doing it all over again. This also works out will with our DVC point availability.

 

[ttepsich]

Can anyone tell me what the current DVC price is to renew our AP's. Ours expired Nov. 28th. I thought I would get some kind of reminder from Disney but I didn't. I too am trying to decide if I want to renew or just go with the 7 day park hoppers I purchased in August. (going for 7-10 days in June on borrowed points eeeekkkk)

Thanks,
Tina

never mind.....found the answer! was just lazy

 

[ldo]

I got mine in 2005 for $353 wiht WP&M and PH. I think the NE pass is good if you think you can get 3 trips out of it, otherwise, not nearly the deal it used to be. But we have found it easy to strech out our passes. We find 3 days in the parks, with a waterpark and/or DQ visit plus pool time and Community Hall more than takes up a full week. We always have things on our list that we don't get to. WDW is so much more than the parks--just at Ft W, we could go for 2 visits and keep busy biking, fishing, campfires, etc.

 

[rnorwo1]

I like the flexibility of APs - even if we're doing a non-park day, the AP lets us have dinner at Epcot. Plus it allows us to buy TIW, which is a great savings. We also buy hoppers from Undercover Tourist and then upgrade those to DVC APs, so we save a nice bit of money on our APs. (especially since we buy hoppers before the August price increase then hold them to upgrade after the increase - we're saving about $125 IIRC on 2 adult/1 child AP.

Which tickets do you buy to upgrade? I've never upgraded and don't really know how this works.

I've killed enough brain cells crunching the numbers to realize that in the long run for our travel patterns, the AP/TIW is our best approach. We maximize our trips during a 52 wk period (3-4), then taking ~ year off from WDW and doing it all over again. This also works out will with our DVC point availability.

Oh, the brain cells and time I have spent on this kind of stuff! I'm downright embarassed of the time I've spent crunching numbers to determine if the dining plan is worth it for us! My DH thinks I'm crazy, because we really do not have to be so frugal with our vacations, but it's kind of fun to me! And every dollar that I save goes to another vacation!

I got mine in 2005 for $353 wiht WP&M and PH. I think the NE pass is good if you think you can get 3 trips out of it, otherwise, not nearly the deal it used to be. But we have found it easy to strech out our passes. We find 3 days in the parks, with a waterpark and/or DQ visit plus pool time and Community Hall more than takes up a full week. We always have things on our list that we don't get to. WDW is so much more than the parks--just at Ft W, we could go for 2 visits and keep busy biking, fishing, campfires, etc.

That's a really good idea, I never thought about it like that. With WP&M, you have 10 days in the parks plus 10 days in the water parks/disney quest, right? So if we go to DQ, that takes one day off of our WP&M days, but doesn't affect the park days? I always feel guilty spending time at the resort because there's so much to do in the parks. But this may be a good way to force ourselves to slow down and enjoy the other things about WDW. During our next trip, we're going to try Universal also, so that may be a way to stretch the days, if that's something we may like to add each trip. But.... if we got the AP, then maybe DH and I can go to F&W for the first time and not feel guilty about leaving the kids! In that case, maybe we can do the May trip, F&W, and then another one during Mardi Gras or the following May (with DS9, he can't miss school, so we're limited to holidays), then we would probably skip a year or two before going back.

Thanks for all the ideas and feedback!!!!

 

[deerislemaine]

I like the flexibility of APs - even if we're doing a non-park day, the AP lets us have dinner at Epcot. Plus it allows us to buy TIW, which is a great savings. We also buy hoppers from Undercover Tourist and then upgrade those to DVC APs, so we save a nice bit of money on our APs. (especially since we buy hoppers before the August price increase then hold them to upgrade after the increase - we're saving about $125 IIRC on 2 adult/1 child AP.

Could you explain the purchase of park hoppers and then upgrade using DVC? We just closed on DVC resale points on Nov 29th, so we're new to the DVC option. We're thinking of doing two longer trips 51 weeks apart and one short trip in between. We thus want the AP, but I don't understand how you saved more than the DVC discount with the upgrade.

Thanks!

 

[silmarg]

I believe that the cost of the no expiration option has increased considerably since it was first introduced. I hope someone will chime in to correct me or support with numbers.

When Disney made the switch to this current "pay for no expiration" the cost for that option was $50 no matter if you were buying a 2 day or a 10 day. Back then 10day NE were a very very good deal. And adding the WPF&M for another $50 for 10 entries made it even better.

You need to run the numbers each time you have to buy tickets to see which way makes more sense.

For a while we had 2 sets of 10 day NE tix. One were hopping, one were not. And one person in the party (usually me) might have an AP instead - to get TIW benefits.

That said, I have so many 1 day passes from the trips we took where you had to have at least a one day ticket in the package... so I use those as "store credit" against future ticket purchases - now that we are DVC we wont be getting those one day passes any longer. But I think I may still have one day child passes when the kids are in college!

 

[Flossbolna]

Could you explain the purchase of park hoppers and then upgrade using DVC? We just closed on DVC resale points on Nov 29th, so we're new to the DVC option. We're thinking of doing two longer trips 51 weeks apart and one short trip in between. We thus want the AP, but I don't understand how you saved more than the DVC discount with the upgrade.

Thanks!

Checkout Post # 7 in this thread: http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1452684 This thread answers all possible ticket questions!

 

[deerislemaine]

Checkout Post # 7 in this thread: http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1452684 This thread answers all possible ticket questions!

Thanks!

 

[Tara]

Could you explain the purchase of park hoppers and then upgrade using DVC? We just closed on DVC resale points on Nov 29th, so we're new to the DVC option. We're thinking of doing two longer trips 51 weeks apart and one short trip in between. We thus want the AP, but I don't understand how you saved more than the DVC discount with the upgrade.

Thanks!

We buy tickets from Undercover Tourist usually in July before the traditional August price increase. Because of Disney's ticket policies, an unused ticket automatically takes on the current gate value once you use it. So that means if you buy before the price increase, your ticket is actually worth more than you paid for it after the price increase.

On top of that, the UT price is lower than the Disney gate price, so your ticket is automatically worth more than you paid *once you use it.*

In 2009 we bought UT hoppers in July then used them in November one time, then took them to Guest Services to upgrade them to APs. We saved the difference between the UT July 2009 price and the Disney August 2009 post-increase price, or about $125 for 2 adults and 1 child.

 

[sweetdana]

I want to add my love of AP.

Here is why, there is 10% -20% off nearly everything you but. From dinner at Capts Grill to drinks at ESPN. There is also room only discounts. Add on a day due to saving 50$ a person airfare, you can get a room at FQ for 124$ or Pop for 70$.

Think of discounts from a sov. cake mix at the bakery shop in MK, to ice cream in DTD. Add in time and stress.. Having the hopping ability, for last minute.. let's go to MK for fireworks, or Teppon Epo for dinner. OR my super fav, getting to DHS and the part is MADDDDDD busy, and taking the boat over to Epcot instead of being stuck at the businest park. All this adds up. I bet every day on an average I have saved no less than 10$ per day easy with using AP discounts. I think I saves like 30$ alone at the Lego store, and 20$ off a pair of earrings I bought. I also saved like 60 - 80$ on a tour I am doing in Dec.

Barring 1 trip per 52 weeks, less than 6 days, I would highly reccommend APS. I think there is way more value that the front end shows. Add renewals are cheaper too.. You can also plan accordingly maybe squish in a 3rd trip and then skip 9 months, and start over.

 

[Maistre Gracey]

The AP makes it possible to get the TIW card, which for us covers the entire cost of 2 APs. Essentially we pay full price for dinner and get APs for free. The flexibility of APs can't be beat.

MG

 

[silmarg]

Free parking w an AP also...

 

[rnorwo1]

Thanks everyone. I think we are definitely going to do APs for the next year. We may have to skip a year or so after that, but that'll be fine... it'll make us even more excited when we get to go again.