Annual Pass part of your budget?

[disneycrazed139]

I'm wondering how many, if any people, who frequent this board buy an Annual Pass and think that it makes financial sense to do so. I thought I was going to, but now am not sure if I can justify it.

Do you buy an AP? Considered it? Think there are MUCH better ways? Could never afford it?

 

[shelleybell]

I bought a PAP that we will activate on our trip 06-11 to 06-20. After taking a 11 day trip in 2002, and a 9 day trip in 2003, I was thinking that odds were pretty good that we would use it for at least 2 trips. I did have to really save to get them. I had second, third, and fourth thoughts before actually getting them, but I am sure the gamble will pay off. For 1, we will be spending 5 days at WL, which there is no way I could have afforded without the AP. When I first started lurking these boards, I was thinking"how do these people do it" now I know. My DS is about to be 11 and he still wants to be seen with me, so I will take him all I can while I still can.

shelleybell & scar11

 

[DisKim]

I bought AP's for the first time this year. We are taking a trip in July and have an awesome rate at POFQ. The intitial purchase seemed quite expensive, but we're going down in October for a week over Halloween and the costs should be minimal because we already have the passes. I think the point at which you break even with the park hopper is about 8 days. I would say to do it if you are staying for more than 8 days or plan on taking more than one trip in a one year period.

 

[sweet maxine]

The AP wasn't originally part of the budget for our trip, and I ended up just getting the one for me. I needed an extra pass, since my husband decided to join us for a few days. I am letting him use the 7d PHP I had bought for myself, and for about $100 more bought the AP. It has brought us some wonderful room discounts, and I am thinking about upgrading my grandson's 7 day ticket to the AP. I calculated we had saved $1150 off the cabin rate over the course of 10 days with the AP. Looking at it from that perspective, we could buy 2 AP's for the savings and still be ahead. Of course it helps if you can convince hubby to make another trip to extend the savings.

shelleybell, we are traveling the same dates as you are. My 16 y/o twins still want to be seen with me, so I must be lucky. Let's hope they never change.

 

[tmli]

I'm getting one this year for the first time. Have thought about it other years but it didn't seem to be good value for me.

This year I am going for 14 days in Sept and have a return trip planned for Jan'05. Also my ds has always begged to have his b-day in WDW so we will probably return in June'05.

 

[DisneyMomx7]

I'm getting them for our family for the 1st time this year. We have two trips scheduled within the one year mark, one for 6 nights and the other for 12 nights so it definitely made sense for our family. Of course the room discount was just icing on the cake!

 

[mad4themouse]

Guilty here, too, I'm afraid.

With a 5-night stay and $85/night off the cost of our room, the AP paid for itself on this trip alone. I would not have purchased it otherwise. DH and the kids will have PHPs to cover their admission.

I also got a Preferred Annual Pass for Universal for the same reason. The rack rate for the room at Portofino Bay was $80/night more than what I'm paying with the APH rate! The Universal PAP more than paid for itself with just the 3 nights we'll be there. DH and the kids have the "5-days for the price of 2 " passes.

Then there are also the merchandise and dining discounts that the APs offer. Plus free parking. And naturally, there's the incentive to return within a year.

 

[candykisses]

We're getting APs for our family of four. We budget for them just like any other part of our trip. We find APs work the best for us.

We're going for 15 days in Aug and again for 15 days next July. We like to go to the parks everyday. So, the cost of the passes averaged over 2 trips is quite a savings.

And the AP room rate was an added benefit when we booked this year.

 

[bobcat]

I second the benefits listed. If you know your vacation habits and that you will be able to take two trips within the years time (or more once you realize you can go back because "we already have the passes" LOL) APs make a lot of sense. It is a little crunch on the budget the first year but the freedom makes up for it. If we want to just go to a park for a few hours we can and don't feel like we are wasting money. Our vacations are much more relaxed now.

 

[dzneelvr]

For an 11 day 10 night stay, the AP is a money saver for our family of 4. Also, with the % discounts you can get with meals, merchandise, and the like, we will save even more money than by purchasing sets of PHP. Our new habit is that whenever a check comes--we make sure they know we have an AP so we can get the discount.
It's the closest thing to the old Disney Club membership I can find.

 

[sugermouse]

Suggest that you review all of the AP benefits before making a decision. There are a lot of postings indicating that it takes eight days to breakeven. The reality is that you can break even on a significantly shorter trip based upon how much you can save on your room, meals etc using the AP discounts.

 

[diznee25]

I'm wondering how many, if any people, who frequent this board buy an Annual Pass and think that it makes financial sense to do so.

We purchased annual passes for our last trip and will continue to do so for future trips. Why? The annual passes paid for themselves. We saved so much money! Here's how:

Wilderness Lodge Woods view: RACK RATE 8 nights: $1944
ANNUAL PASS DISCOUNT $1100

Caribbean Beach Resort King bed: RACK RATE 5 nights: $822
ANNUAL PASS DISCOUNT: $520

(Above totals include tax. Please note these are "rough numbers. Our trip was 5 months ago, so I can't remember the exact costs, but it's pretty close.)

Total hotel savings for our two week trip: $1146
2 adult annual passes cost $750, so we more than got good use out of our APs!! Plus we went to the parks for 12 days.



Here's an Annual Pass Resort Discount Caculator. I recommend looking at this link before swearing off Annual Passes. Yes, they are expensive, but in certain situations they can save you a lot of money to be worthwhile.

http://www.mousesavers.com/annualpass.html

 

[TINKTWINS]

We are an AP family and proud of it!!

It is a little tough come your renewel month but the savings are surly worth it, we just renewed our third year. Its nice when you go but already have your passes paid up, it kinda feels free. Ive gotten some great rates with it.

 

[frannn]

We usually stay 10 nights, so the passes are worthwhile even if we used them for just one trip (which we have). I never renew the old ones, because we usually only go to WDW once a year, so the small savings Disney gives you to renew would be eaten up by the number of months the pass remain unused. I will benefit from the merchandise discount at DTD, and probably a bit from the dining discounts, and am crossing my fingers for a resort discount!

 

[patsal]

I budget for PAP's, I know that is money I have to save up so I can purchse them. I set aside a certain amount from each paycheck and even after the PAP's are paid for I continue to deposit that amount. When the time comes to pay for them the money is there. i got the "extra" money from the amount i save since DS no longer needs daycare and DD just goes for a half hour in the AM and 1 hour after school. Believe it or not the savings is $650 per month--kind of hard to believe that not needing daycare is enough to vacation in style each year! I can hardly wait to "add on" DVC points when daycare is completely unnecessary!

 

[Bete]

resort discounts. We've been able to afford a nicer place because of it. You do have to make sure you get the resort discount; there is a limit on the number of rooms, etc. that get the rate. In other words, you need to plan for it. Second, to get what I feel is the best benefit you need to plan at least multiple trips or a very long, single trip to benefit from ticket prices. We tend to take at least two if not three trips in the year zone of the pass.

We take advantage of the discount at the World of Disney. Also, you get a small discount for lunches at certain restaurants (helps towards paying tips). The tour discounts are pretty good but you need to be a diehard fan to do those tours which I am.

Finally, keep in mind that you only have to buy one AP pass to get many of the discounts. Your whole family does not need to do it. We prefer all APs because of our multiple trips there. I always make sure it works out to our favor.

The next year we skip Disney and then the following year we do it again. I think the best way is to figure the math. Do it with all members getting APs and with one getting APs. If you don't take multiple trips or one long trip the single AP can still be worth it for the discounts if you plan right.