Annual Pass worth the money?

[bethyg]

Hello everyone, new to the DISboards and new to Budget threads. We are true-blue Disney lovers, but only go about every 2 years. We would love to go yearly or 2x/year, but feel it is so expensive. I was wondering if purchasing an Annual Pass for a 5 day trip is worthwhile in the long-run. We prefer to stay on-property, usually a moderate-resort. TIA for your replies!

 

[sugermouse]

On average you need to go for eight days to breakeven on an AP.

 

[InstImpres]

I agree with the OP about the breakeven point. That said, you do not have to have an AP in hand to get an AP rate at the resort. If you find the AP rates are a big savings for you, they only require one person per room to have it and it can be a child's AP for room discounts, food discount and shopping discounts. Sometimes it makes it worth while but I would only buy it if you get an AP rate and can realize the savings right away.

Happy travels
Sandy

 

[cdntourguide]

I used to be a firm believer that AP were not worth the cost. That was went I only went once every couple of years.
since purchasing my first AP, I have found that I can afford to go every year now, and sometimes twice a year. With the cost of getting into the park paid for, and with the great discounts at the resorts.
Getting a AP is certainly expensive but the benefits can be a money saver for you, but only is you go more than eight days and hopefully if you go more than once in that 365 day period.
Plus there are various discounts available to a AP holder, including free parking, 10% discount at World of Disney in DTD, 10% discount at some of the restaurants, 15% discount on merchandise at RF-DTD. so if you are a great believer in buying things, maybe the AP will save you enough money this trip to justify the cost.
Enjoy your trip whichever way you decide.

 

[bethyg]

Thanks for the thoughts and suggestions. I never considered that an AP savings overall could help us go to WDW more often. Can someone share, on average, how much AP discounts are on hotels?

Thanks!

 

[CarolA]

Warning!

APs don't save you money. They cost you money. If you have one, there is always the "cheap airfare, free admission" lets go again trip LOL! They burn a whole in your pocket while you look for ways to go to Florida so they don't go to waste!

 

[DebbieB]

Originally posted by CarolA
Warning!

APs don't save you money. They cost you money. If you have one, there is always the "cheap airfare, free admission" lets go again trip LOL! They burn a whole in your pocket while you look for ways to go to Florida so they don't go to waste!

I've had this happen to me also! They seem to have a hidden voice imbedded in them: "let's go on an extra trip, you don't have to pay admission".

 

[punkin]

Yes. Heed the warnings. If you have an AP in your pocket, you WILL go to WDW more than once per year. You WILL go down for long weekends and you WILL go down "just one more time before it expires"


APs are very expensive things.

I currently have an AP voucher in my dresser drawer calling to me "Activate Me; Activate ME"

and I will give in eventually

 

[Dagny]

Hey there! We have been purchasing Annual Passes since 1998. You can get two years worth of trip by smart planning. For example, our family will go in June in 2004, and then go in May of 2005, thereby getting our two year's worth. You will breakeven on the 8th day, but we manage to get over 30 days per year on our passes. This year, our family went in February, May and will be there in exactly 30 days and 4 hours from now, LOLOL. I think you will enjoy not having to pay for park admission on your second visit (what a savings!). Also, the room discounts for AP holders are great!

Could it promote more frequent trips to WDW? Yes! But I guess I don't think that is a bad thing

 

[FayeW]

Can anyone tell me the cost of the AP & PAP, adult and children's prices? I looked on the disney site but could only find annual pass prices for waterparks, DQ, etc, not the parks.

 

[swilshire]

I don't think we'll ever buy anything but annual passes again. As mentioned above, we started out using them just at the first and last of the year. This time we will be there six weeks total (with the passes running out mid-week the sixth week).

I have a handicapped son and a husband with low tolerance for Disney. Some days we go over and just spend two or three hours, especially if the weather is marginal. If we were using day passes, I would stress out about how much it was costing for so little time. With the annual passes, there is less pressure to see everything commando style.

It really does make for a cheap vacation when you already have the passes. We stay in timeshares, so our lodging cost is low and we also cook in the rooms for several of our meals. I have to feed the kids wherever we are, so the only extra food expense is for dining out. We drive, so there is wear and tear on the van and related expenses, but usually not too bad (except for the time the transmission went out 150 miles from home).

If you can squeeze in at least two trips or one long one, then go for the passes IMHO.

Sheila

 

[poohj80]

Originally posted by FayeW
Can anyone tell me the cost of the AP & PAP, adult and children's prices?

For AP info, check here:
http://www.allearsnet.com/pl/apass.htm


ANNUAL PASSPORT RATES WERE LAST INCREASED
March 2004
Prices including 6.5% tax

Pass Type Guest 10+ Guest 3-9

Annual Pass $403.64 $342.93
Annual Pass Renewal $361.03 $306.72
Premium Annual Pass $531.44 $451.56
Premium Annual Pass renewal $478.20 $406.83

 

[poohj80]

Originally posted by bethyg
Can someone share, on average, how much AP discounts are on hotels?

AP discounts vary for season and resort type and are limited in number. The best discounts are on the deluxe resorts (on the order of 40%). To give you some examples, here are some current AP rates that are available (from www.mousesavers.com):


For check-ins 1/2/05-2/16/05
Discounts will be extremely limited or nonexistent for check-ins 1/14/05-1/16/05, 2/3/05-2/5/05 and 2/10/05-2/12/05.

Some sample rates:

Value Resorts (All Stars and Pop Century) - $49 standard
Moderate Resorts - $79 standard
Animal Kingdom Lodge - $109 standard; $151 savannah view
Wilderness Lodge - $109 standard; $126 woods view
Ft. Wilderness cabin - $144
Contemporary - $151 standard view garden wing
Old Key West - $169 studio
Grand Floridian - $259 garden view

 

[CTillberg]

I agree with the OP about the breakeven point. That said, you do not have to have an AP in hand to get an AP rate at the resort. If you find the AP rates are a big savings for you, they only require one person per room to have it and it can be a child's AP for room discounts, food discount and shopping discounts. Sometimes it makes it worth while but I would only buy it if you get an AP rate and can realize the savings right away.

Is that true that you would only need a child's AP to get a room discount? I would have thought the name on the pass would have to match the one paying for the room. (I remember reading in Deb's info about people not being able to change who is paying for the room, that it had to be the one with the AP, but maybe I didn't read that right.) Also, I thought an AP holder could reserve 3 rooms at the AP rate (I know we just reserved 2 and the other room will not have a person with an AP).

Cathy

 

[Brian Noble]

It seems to me (based on following mousesavers for a while) that most periods with AP discounts also have general public discounts that are not quite as good as the AP rates, but are usually pretty close. So, you might save an extra $5 or $10 a night with an AP rate, but maybe not much more than that.

My conclusion was that a prudent decision should be driven by the per-day break-even cost, comparing an AP to a 7-day PHP (the cheapest non-expiring per-day admission). With that comparison, an adult needs to go nine days or more, and a child ten days or more before APs become less expensive per day than 7-day PHPs.