Annual Passes and the Not So Frequent Visitor (What am I missing?)

[BikeFan]

We fly out of Philadelphia, and pre Covid flights were usually the same ~$200 pp. A good SouthWest sale would get our flights down to $150. If your park tickets are "FREE" you'll be surprised how quickly you can decide to go. Last year for Osborne lights? We should make sure to see it one last time. My 11 year old wants a Plaza Sundae on his birthday? Let's go!

We fly out of the Washington, DC area, but otherwise, same story. Combined with Magical Express, it made the cost of getting from home to WDW extremely cheap. Having an AP was great for those sorts of spontaneous, extended weekend trips. Sadly, no more AP means no more extended weekend trips.

 

[disney-inspired]

I mentioned this in another thread but I wish the non-expiring park tickets came back.

 

[BroganMc]

Long time DIS board member, long time DVC member, and still wondering if I might be missing something with annual passes. It's just DH, myself and our DS (who is now 20). Pre-covid, we visited WDW once per year (sometimes in Feb, sometimes in May) but the month year would vary between the two. We never purchased annual passes (we live in Michigan) and typically fly down for a week. The annual passes never made sense because we didn't necessarily have the year overlap and visiting often enough. We have two DVC direct contracts (at VB and VGF) and when we stay, in the past we usually buy park hopper passes (we like the parks but don't LOVE them crazy enough to open and close them--we love resort time too).

When DVC/Disney offered the sorcerer's pass (I think that's what it was?), we did buy it and intentionally planned two years in a row to take advantage of it. However, during COVID, we let it lapse and never renewed. And like many folks, we also had some addon-itis last year and purchased another contract (this time VGF resale). I purchased these points because we love to do the RunDisney race weekends--we fly in for a few days, run the races, and fly home. We don't do the theme parks necessarily because that's not the trip's focus.

But I see many posts and it has me wondering if I am simply slow or uneducated and might be missing something by not having the annual passes? Unless we want to visit the parks more than once per year, is there something else that would making having the pass beneficial if it were to go on sale to us again? We have a trip planned for May 2023 for a full week at BLT and we purchased park hoppers with the water park option and while they weren't cheap, I am wondering if buying an AP (had it been available) would have made sense if the next trip was beyond 12 months later...my guess is no?

Are there other similarly situated families like mine who vacation the same way? Or know something I do not know? I can certainly understand the frustration for people who visit multiple times and always want to visit theme parks--that's easy enough to understand. Just curious what others think...

You have to consider the math. If you're going to take two trips and one calendar year that involves more than five park days, then an annual pass is your break-even point. If you're not, you don't need it.

But I do find there are other advantages to having an annual pass. When I'm off site it pays for my parking. Annual pass also gives me a 20% discount on merchandise. I get discounts on meals, sometimes higher than my DVC discount. I have access to special merchandise and events. For instance I was able to ride Tron in the AP preview.

But I think the single best advantage to my having an annual pass, is what I did Sunday a week ago. I spent the whole day at Disney Springs but then as soon as the sun went down I had the spur of the moment idea to hop a bus to Magic Kingdom to see fireworks. By the time I got there, there was only about 3 hours of park-time left before closing. I never would have even considered doing that if I just had day tickets. That's a huge waste of money.

You do find if you have an annual pass you will visit more often. And you probably will do more things. I suggest you try it for a year. Now that you've got more points to play with, see if you like it. If you don't, then no harm no foul.

A friend of mine is not a DVC member but rents. I invited her to extend her stay by staying with me another week. So she bought herself an annual pass. She has to go with the most expensive IncrediPass, but it's been great for her. She fits four trips in a year out of that pass.

 

[BroganMc]

I mentioned this in another thread but I wish the non-expiring park tickets came back.

My brother still has a stack of them. But that shows you how little he goes to Disney parks. He still working his way through about five 10-day passes