Annual pass - how many days makes it worth it?

[dddisrunner]

In addition to the complicated mathematical formula you're building, there's also a psychological aspect as well.

We found that on years when we had non-expiring MYW tickets, we'd ask ourselves, "is it worth it to go to the Magic Kingdom for 4 hours today, or should we save a day for the next trip?" With the annual pass, there isn't any question. If you want to run over to the Magic Kingdom and ride Splash Mountain one last time, you can do it. Likewise for doing a non-park day, but wanting to have dinner at Epcot.

There's value in that flexibility that doesn't necessarily show up in the bottom line.

This is SO true! We usually buy hoppers and I always stressed to hop the majority of the days of our trip. This year we will be taking our first DVC trip in June for 15 days and having the annual pass during the busy summer months will be great...takes the pressure off "to get your monies worth"

 

[rutgers1]

Are these price increases getting on anyone's nerves? Ticket prices have gone up like 30% in recent years according to a book that I read, and now the TIW card jumps up $15 in one year? I think that is a 20% increase if my math is correct. In one year????? What country are they living in that says that the economic conditions warrant a 20% increase?

 

[rutgers1]

The touringplans.com site has a calculator that helps you figure out which ticket option is your best bet. I have no idea if it is accurate, but it looked interesting:
http://www.touringplans.com/tp2/UG2_index.php?PageID=18

 

[allshookup]

In addition to the complicated mathematical formula you're building, there's also a psychological aspect as well.

We found that on years when we had non-expiring MYW tickets, we'd ask ourselves, "is it worth it to go to the Magic Kingdom for 4 hours today, or should we save a day for the next trip?" With the annual pass, there isn't any question. If you want to run over to the Magic Kingdom and ride Splash Mountain one last time, you can do it. Likewise for doing a non-park day, but wanting to have dinner at Epcot.

There's value in that flexibility that doesn't necessarily show up in the bottom line.

You've hit the nail on the head with this post! It's hard to explain the psychological aspect, until you've had an AP, but you did a great job!

Like a PP mentioned, even if we were only going 7 full days, we would still probably buy the APs, because we get the TIW card which saves us 20% on dinner & drinks every night, and the freedom to come & go without worrying that we've wasted a day's admission.

If we were going for 7 full days & buying park tickets instead of an AP, we would purchase the 10 day non-expiring for the best value & use 5 one trip & 5 the next. However, we too would be thinking, we've used a park admission to go to MK today, so we better make a day of it, or today we're going to stay by the pool so we can't waste a day's admission just to go to Epcot for dinner. When we have the APs, we usually just hit the parks later in the afternoon & stay late into the evening & we do that every night of our trip.

 

[granmanh603]

Are these price increases getting on anyone's nerves? Ticket prices have gone up like 30% in recent years according to a book that I read, and now the TIW card jumps up $15 in one year? I think that is a 20% increase if my math is correct. In one year????? What country are they living in that says that the economic conditions warrant a 20% increase?

Yeah me too. AP prices(and tickets)have gone up 4 times in 3 years, food at the parks either increased or got way smaller in portion and the choices are more limited too. I did not know about the price increase for the TIW or I would have thought 2 about it since there are only 2 of us that use it. I think they are looking out for the vacation people not the regulars that come anyway and the vacation people just buy the package and don't know about the price changes. When you spend as much time there as we do you notice all these little changes and it was very annoying on our last trip in March.

 

[paulh]

MYW 10-Day Park Hopper ~~ Price $537 ~~ Price/Day $53.70
w/ Water Parks n More
& No Expiration


DVC Premium AP ~~ Price $474 ~~ Price/Day $47.40 (10 visits)


r.

With a MYW 10-Day Park Hopper w/ Water Parks n More & No Expiration you get 20 days in total 10 park days and 10 waterpark days (or pluses)that would make for $23.70 per day.have always found these the best option as they last us about 3 years or 3 visits,and we tend to stay 14 nights each visit.and do 3 park days +3 waterpark days.pool and shoping the rest
Paulh

 

[jamstew]

With a MYW 10-Day Park Hopper w/ Water Parks n More & No Expiration you get 20 days in total 10 park days and 10 waterpark days (or pluses)that would make for $23.70 per day.have always found these the best option as they last us about 3 years or 3 visits,and we tend to stay 14 nights each visit.and do 3 park days +3 waterpark days.pool and shoping the rest
Paulh

I'm also using that option for my adult children and their little ones because it adds so much flexibility to their trips, not to mention easily getting almost 3 full trips out of it. I would make a distinction for those not familiar with the WPM, however. It's admissions, not days; i.e., if you go to a WP in the morning and leave, you can't go back without using a second admission. I didn't know this before reading it on the DIS, and I thought it was pretty important information to have.

 

[BirdsOfPreyDave]

I would make a distinction for those not familiar with the WPM, however. It's admissions, not days; i.e., if you go to a WP in the morning and leave, you can't go back without using a second admission.

One small correction to this...

You can leave a water park and return to the same water park on the same day without being charged a second admission. However, if you visit multiple WPF&M options on the same day, you'll be charged an admission to each.

For example:

Visit Blizzard Beach in the morning, go back to the room for lunch, then return to Blizzard Beach for the remainder of the afternoon. This will use a single WPF&M admission.

Example 2:

Visit Blizzard Beach in the morning, go back to the room for lunch, then visit Typhoon Lagoon for a few hours. On the way back to the room, stop at Disney Quest for a few games. This will use 3 WPF&M admissions.

The previous two examples work the same whether you have park hopping on your ticket or not. WPF&M options are not impacted by the park hopper option.