Annual Pass

[iluvdisneywrld]

I know there are lots of posts about this, but I really do not see anyone talking about the free food? If you get an annual pass, you can not get the free food right?

Basically, I am wondering is it worth it to get the annual pass if you want the dining plan? The dining plan for adults is close to 50/night? I have three over 10 so it would be expensive to add that on.

Also, one more questions, we have a trip planned with the dining free, if we upgrade our tickets to an annual pass would they take away our dining? I called and she said we would have to pay for the remaining meals if we upgraded?

Another question... I know I just dont want to keep bothering, I mean posting over and over.... why do people only get one annual pass, everyone will need tickets to get back in right? Isn't it cheaper to just get an annual pass for everyone?

Thanks in advance to all you pros out there. This was never a thought before reading this board, but if the annual pass will save $$$ I am all about it!

 

[Dacky619]

With the free dining offers, I believe you now have to buy a minimum 2 day ticket. I think those people with APs (that want free dining) buy that 2 day ticket, save it, and then trade it in towards the cost of a renewal. If you upgraded your ticket to an AP, that should be fine as well. I think the CM you spoke to was incorrect. Others will hopefully verify this.


But you can't use an AP discount towards a room and get free dining or anything like that.

 

[iluvdisneywrld]

So I'm confused. You get the AP discount on the room, then buy a 2 day ticket and get free dining attached to the 2 day ticket? Does that mean you would get the free dining for all the days you are there.

 

[Dacky619]

So I'm confused. You get the AP discount on the room, then buy a 2 day ticket and get free dining attached to the 2 day ticket? Does that mean you would get the free dining for all the days you are there.

No, you can't get the discount on the room. Disney doesn't let you double dip discounts like that. To get the free dining, you must pay the rack rate of the room plus buy the minimum ticket for each member of your party. Some people who already have the AP pay those rack rates and buy the ticket, then use their AP for the trip, saving the 2 day ticket for a future use. As long as they don't use that ticket to enter a park, they can save it for whenever. Sorry if my first post confused you.

 

[iluvdisneywrld]

Ok, so you are booking a room only rate, then you purchase a 2 day pass to get the free dining. Then save your 2 day pass and use it toward your next annual pass when you go back. Is that right? Is it really a savings to have an AP? Why do people only buy one instead of one for everybody in the party? Is it not that much of a discount for everyone?

 

[WDWboy]

lots of great discounts with an AP... room discounts, tables in wonderland card (which is awsome 20% off food and beverages including alcoholic beverages)

http://www.wdwinfo.com/discounts/discounts-ap.htm

oh and people only buy 1 annual pass sometimes because you only need 1 adult Ap per room to take advantage of the Ap room discounts, while not gauranteed thoughout the year they are significant 40% or so .

 

[bumbershoot]

Ok, so you are booking a room only rate, then you purchase a 2 day pass to get the free dining. Then save your 2 day pass and use it toward your next annual pass when you go back. Is that right? Is it really a savings to have an AP? Why do people only buy one instead of one for everybody in the party? Is it not that much of a discount for everyone?

No.

I have an AP. Let's say that I see a free dining promo that would work for me.

I buy the free dining package (clicking through the proper link on wdw.com or using the proper code when on the phone) and I get the minimum ticket that I need to get. Used to just be a one day ticket. Recentyl it's been a 2 day ticket.

When I get to checkin, I either have them remove the 2 day ticket (I had to buy those tickets for everyone on my package) from the keycard of the people in my party with APs, so that I don't accidentally use that ticket for entry. Tuck that ticket away for use in the future.

So now my keycard has the dining plan on it. I use my AP for entry and my keycard for dining.

Down the road, when it's time to get a new AP, I use that old 2 day ticket that I tucked away safely to upgrade from, for my new AP.


AP holders can get their own version of a package, where it includes room and dining. But they do NOT get *free* dining when doing that.

 

[lionmouse]

Are AP holders still getting a 10%/20% discount on all merchandise purchases? I got 20% off in October with a premium AP- hoping they are still doing that for March trip!

 

[mb168]

It doesn't take much to warrant an AP, "free dining" and rack rate rooms aren't much of a benefit not to have an AP if you're going close to 10 days in a year, less if you take advantage of the discounts on rooms and food, get the Tables in Wonderland card for 20% off food AND alcohol best discount in Disney. The AP renewals are then cheaper too so the savings is more in following years.

Never pay rack rates for rooms.

 

[DanG07]

My family just had the free dining package upgraded to AP's for everyone the week before Christmas. This is how you do it:

1) Purchase the free dining package for all with regular WDW passes. We did eight day passes as we were staying for seven nights at POR.

2) Check in and receive your keycards which have your room key, 8-day passes/tickets to the parks, and the dining credits on them.

3) Use your key cards to enter one of the parks before attempting to do any upgrades to AP's.

4) Go to the guest relations office in the park (we did it at Epcot). Ask the CM to upgrade all of your passes to AP's. The CM should automatically take the passes off of your keycards, giving you full credit for whatever the rack rate of the passes are, and then you will pay the difference to make them AP's. E.g. Our 8-day passes were worth $268.38. We only paid $263.06 to upgrade them to AP's.

5) Now you have AP's while your keycards retain the room entry and dining credits. This way, you do not have any unused 2-day passes waiting to be upgraded at a later date. You also get to use the AP discounts right away.

I hope this helps. Feel free to ask me any questions.

 

[FlightlessDuck]

4) Go to the guest relations office in the park (we did it at Epcot). Ask the CM to upgrade all of your passes to AP's. The CM should automatically take the passes off of your keycards, giving you full credit for whatever the rack rate of the passes are, and then you will pay the difference to make them AP's. E.g. Our 8-day passes were worth $268.38. We only paid $263.06 to upgrade them to AP's.

You lose the credit for one day, since you already used them to get in the park, right?

And it seems to me that getting APs only make sense if you plan to either stay longer than 10 days or if you plan on returning again before the AP expires in 12 months.

 

[Mamu]

May will be our 3rd trip in 14 months. Our first trip we stay off site at Westgate with friends for a week. Our second trip we stayed at Sugarloaf Lodge for 8 days.We took the discount and saved over $3000. We are returning in May for 7 days and we taking the discount again. Right now we have a GP discount for 35% off , savings come to almost $2000. Were still hoping for an AP rate. Also with AP you get 10% off purchases, you get discounts off hard ticket events, you get a discount at T-Rex and Rainforest Cafe which does not take the FD vouchers, and discounts off many other restaurants and activities.

I know there are many who would rather do FD. We find the discounts pay for our food. Plus we don't have to plan our park day because our AP are hoppers. A total of 21 park days with one AP. When we renewed we got the 15 month deal. There are reasons why people choose to not take the FD and choose AP.

 

[kaligal]

There is no such thing as a free lunch.

The "free" dining is not free.

They jack up hotel cost and then tell you the food is free.

Sit down and do the adding and subtracting. You'll probably find that you can do it cheaper when it isn't "free." I know I do.

You can save a lot of $ on hotel rates with the AP and you don't have to pay parking fees when entering the parks. This is why people prefer them to "free" dining and why loads of people buy just one to get the basic discounts.

 

[mb168]

There is no such thing as a free lunch.

The "free" dining is not free.

They jack up hotel cost and then tell you the food is free.

Sit down and do the adding and subtracting. You'll probably find that you can do it cheaper when it isn't "free." I know I do.

You can save a lot of $ on hotel rates with the AP and you don't have to pay parking fees when entering the parks. This is why people prefer them to "free" dining and why loads of people buy just one to get the basic discounts.

DVC--->AP at DVC discount(almost good as Florida Res)---->Tables in Wonderland (20% discount on food AND alcohol)

Our per trip cost now is very cheap and we go 5-7 times/year

 

[vicki_c]

You lose the credit for one day, since you already used them to get in the park, right?

And it seems to me that getting APs only make sense if you plan to either stay longer than 10 days or if you plan on returning again before the AP expires in 12 months.

No you don't not lose anything because you used the tickets for a day or multiple days. The only thing that happens is that the start of your AP will be the day you first used the ticket that you are upgrading from.

 

[pattibehan]

We bought AP's last year. My DH is diabetic and our two sons are very picky, so the "free" dining plan had no appeal to us..going to Disney for the third time in February on the same AP did !! We have used a total of 28 park days on one 530 dollar ticket, when we renew, we will pay about 480 per ticket. We are able to go to WDW more often with the AP because the park ticket was always the most expensive item on our trips. Until Disney does a better job with diabetic options, we will opt for more trips on our AP.

 

[FlightlessDuck]

They jack up hotel cost and then tell you the food is free.

Do they actually increase the hotel cost versus normal retail price, or do you mean that you don't get the discount like you do during certain times of the year when you book "room only"? I've never gone during free dining, but I don't see how they could get away with raising hotel prices compared to the busy season. You'd think somebody would notice.

 

[vicki_c]

Do they actually increase the hotel cost versus normal retail price, or do you mean that you don't get the discount like you do during certain times of the year when you book "room only"? I've never gone during free dining, but I don't see how they could get away with raising hotel prices compared to the busy season. You'd think somebody would notice.

They don't raise the room prices, it is just rack rate (which are the published rates for the rooms). It's just not getting any discount on the room portion. Many people never pay rack rate.

 

[CR Resort Fan 4 Life]

Are AP holders still getting a 10%/20% discount on all merchandise purchases? I got 20% off in October with a premium AP- hoping they are still doing that for March trip!

They were still doing this in December 2010.

 

[iluvdisneywrld]

Thanks for all the help on this. I guess I didnt realize that it was that much cheaper without the food. We have never done a trip that didnt have free dining, but this sounds like a better deal.