Annual Passes and the "Worth It" Point

[Maureen123]

We are planning a trip this fall and again in late spring 2020. Typically, we only visit once every 18 months or so. But once, a long time ago, we did a similar "twice in one year visit" and it made sense for us to purchase Annual Passes.

So...I was looking into doing that for this year's visits and if I'm doing the math right, we would need to visit the parks about 18-20 days in a year to make it worthwhile. Last time (and this was a long time ago) we only needed to go more than 10 days and the Annual Pass made sense.

Am I missing something here? Or have the Annual Pass prices really skyrocketed?

Thanks!

Edit: To explain why I came up with 18-20 days - I plugged in the exact dates of our vacations (which must be high price times to go) and only counted ticket prices - not the added discounts or perks. My mistake!

 

[gatorlisa]

Annual Passes went up by something like 20-25% this summer. So the "break even" point is different from what it has been in the past. 18-20 days still sounds pretty high though. It really does depend though on how many days you are planning to go for each of your trips and what the start date is for each trip, since ticket prices vary so much now.

 

[Pkltm]

I did the math and at a 5 day pass with hopper and wp for this past September and a 10 day for this coming February it was not worth it unless you take into account the discounts and photopass pics. So we upgraded one of our passes.

 

[disneygirlsng]

My AP paid for itself after a 3 day weekend with 2 park days this past summer. I still have 2 trips to go on this AP, so my savings will be pretty darn good. You really have to look at everything: hotel discounts, merchandise discounts, parking, memory maker, etc.

 

[ClapYourHands]

My AP paid for itself after a 3 day weekend with 2 park days this past summer. I still have 2 trips to go on this AP, so my savings will be pretty darn good. You really have to look at everything: hotel discounts, merchandise discounts, parking, memory maker, etc.

That's true...if you would have purchased all those things anyway. We buy very few souvenirs, don't have a car, have never bought memory maker. Hotel discounts have to be available for your dates when you go to book.

Obviously, some people do save a lot through the "perks" of the AP, but for others, those are just perks, not savings, because they wouldn't have purchased those things to start with.

 

[SaintsManiac]

It’s not as worth it as it used to be, IMO. I doubt I would be able to make the math work again.

 

[gharter]

We tend to go twice a year and time our visits so we get 3 trips out of an AP.

 

[mamapenguin]

It’s just dollars to me: $900 =worth it $1200 =nope
I try for at least 3 trips per year. We did not renew WDW and switched to DLR.

 

[meeshy79]

We were originally planning to take three one week trips in a year and purchase annual passes. Now that the price went up so much (an additional $1200 for our family of four) were just going once for two weeks. Disney’s loss I guess

 

[mamamelody2]

DH and I just went in September with free dining. I'm going back in January with just my youngest son. We are also planning on going with both sons next August. My original plan was for our September trip was to upgrade both my ticket and DH's ticket to APs, but then they raised the prices. It was no longer worth it for DH with just the 2 trips. I upgraded mine only. Even without the January trip it was worth it to get one AP as we do always buy Memory Maker, so that's $350 right there over 2 trips. We also bought lots of souvenirs and the 20% off saved us quite a few bucks.

 

[eeyoreandtink]

They are definitely no longer worth it for us. Back when 2 one week trips would break even or save, we used them. Not now.

 

[Zippa D Doodah]

That's true...if you would have purchased all those things anyway. We buy very few souvenirs, don't have a car, have never bought memory maker. Hotel discounts have to be available for your dates when you go to book.

Obviously, some people do save a lot through the "perks" of the AP, but for others, those are just perks, not savings, because they wouldn't have purchased those things to start with.

We had APs a couple years ago. Did a late summer family vacation, then DD did DCP that following spring, during which my wife and I did a few short 2-3 trips to visit her and take advantage of having a reason to go. We also did a 4 day trip before the passes expired almost 13 months after buying the APs. Having APs pushed me to stay offsite since we would have free parking at the parks but have to pay a fee at the resort. It turns our we loved staying offsite and saving buckets of cash. Little perks like Memory Maker were nice too.

HOWEVER... next year (spring of 2020) our son is doing a DCP and we will not be buying APs. Pretty much because the cost has gone up too high too fast. We will still go down to WDW for a few days during the spring, but we will still stay offsite and use maybe our son's guest passes (if they still do that for CMs) or just buy a day or two's worth of tickets.

Disney is making it awfully easy and inviting to make WDW a peripheral part of a vacation, and not a true destination.

 

[GaSleepingBeautyFan]

My last calculations about is it worth it was 14 days staying. I've been easily going over that with us having to be near Orlando or in Orlando for things and we just add a day or two for Disney since I've got an AP.

I will be doing the calculation thing again when my AP expires at the end of Feb. 2020. I have a feeling for me it will be worth it.

On this AP I've got 3 5 1/2 day trips scheduled with it (2 have already happened - one had to be shortened by a day because of hurricane dorian), 3 one day trips and now my husband had me add a 3 day trip because he hopes we can see Isabella Rosselini in the Candlelight Processional.

I had a hard time finding rooms for that trip but did find 2 of the nights available using my AP discount. We still aren't sure if we'll be able to make that trip but I wanted to have everything booked.

 

[DSLRuser]

I did not renew my AP's this June. We decided we were taking a year off since we went to WDW 3x last year.

Well, because we love WDW, we are taking a 3 night adults only trip in November for Food and Wine. 3 day park hoppers were $421 a ticket. more then half way to the AP renewal cost.

Could have, should have, would have.

 

[Maureen123]

DH and I just went in September with free dining. I'm going back in January with just my youngest son. We are also planning on going with both sons next August. My original plan was for our September trip was to upgrade both my ticket and DH's ticket to APs, but then they raised the prices. It was no longer worth it for DH with just the 2 trips. I upgraded mine only. Even without the January trip it was worth it to get one AP as we do always buy Memory Maker, so that's $350 right there over 2 trips. We also bought lots of souvenirs and the 20% off saved us quite a few bucks.

Oooo. That's a great idea. I never thought to get one just for myself - seemed selfish. But these savings ideas are great. Thanks!

 

[wdw&sonny]

No way is it 18-20 days, unless you based that on one trip with no PH.

Depends on how you split your trips, time of year, PH, on site or off etc. BUT,

Break even is about at two trips of 4 days in the "slow season"...based on this math:
Platinum AP is $1119 (today).
Four day ticket with PH is $545 (in October).
Two trips at that price is $990.
Difference of $129.
Add in dining and merchandise discounts, and you're probably close to even.

If you stay off site, the free parking with AP is significant.
If you don't PH, then the AP is less advantageous.

For us, we get three trips of 4 days out of each AP by spacing them just under the year mark.
YMMV.

 

[Gentry2004]

We are planning a trip this fall and again in late spring 2020. Typically, we only visit once every 18 months or so. But once, a long time ago, we did a similar "twice in one year visit" and it made sense for us to purchase Annual Passes.

So...I was looking into doing that for this year's visits and if I'm doing the math right, we would need to visit the parks about 18-20 days in a year to make it worthwhile. Last time (and this was a long time ago) we only needed to go more than 10 days and the Annual Pass made sense.

Am I missing something here? Or have the Annual Pass prices really skyrocketed?

Thanks!

IMO the "worth it" point has changed significantly with the price increase. We bought our last out of state AP's in December of 2017 and they were $729+ tax. Easily recoup-able in 2 long trips, even without parkhopper. Not true any longer. It sadly means we probably won't do AP's again any time soon. But that was a glorious year!

 

[AquaDame]

I don't think so.. its just a lot. Even with it being the renewal cost instead of full price for us it will be cheaper for us to just buy tickets next year. We're looking at seven guaranteed days in the parks currently instead of the ten or so it would take to break even (our dates this year in early October says $522 for five days of park hopping). I know if we use the AP discount on a room it would be less days needed (we also don't buy much merchandise, use PhotoPass or hit the right hours for AP discounts on food limited as they are) but honestly since its a maybe with those discounts we'd be better off staying offsite and truly saving a good amount of money. I know that is a nonstarter for many though!

 

[Undavolt]

We have Gold APs through DVC. When they announced the latest price increase I checked to see if it is going to be worth it for us next year. The renewal cost is $594 each, there are two of us. As a minimum we do two 5 day trips. The cost to renew is $1188. The cost for four 5 day theme park tickets with PH is about $2100. This does not take into account future theme park ticket increases. As long as we continue to make our two trips we will be buying APs.

 

[scrump]

I am debating this very point, so glad I found this thread. I'm planning 2 trips in Feb 2020 and Dec 2020 of 6 days each. I'm short about $85 of the breakeven point, so I would have to make up the difference through any dining or merchandise discounts, and not sure I would make it. I'd have to check which restaurants are are included/excluded. If only I had a third trip planned, it would make it a no-brainer lol.