ANNUAL PASSES : Convince me !

[JanBlessed]

I'm trying to convince DH to look into getting us annual passes. You DISers are great, sooooooo, I'm just going to show him this thread

Why get an annual pass? When did you get it? Do you save, break even, not use it all - year after year? What finally convinced you to get it? How old were your kids/grand kids? How long have you renewed it? How much did you pay? How much do you save? What pass is it? Did you upgrade? Did you have spare cash or save for it or pay monthly? Did you get one for everyone in the (immediate) family? How does it even work - is it like a key card, or a new magic band (not at all familiar w those)? What does it include? Has it proven to be more stressful or more carefree?

Just some questions that will help if answered or any other info that you can add

Thanks in Advance - I hope to get lots of answers !

 

[ali in wonderland]

I'm trying to convince DH to look into getting us annual passes. You DISers are great, sooooooo, I'm just going to show him this thread Why get an annual pass? When did you get it? Do you save, break even, not use it all - year after year? What finally convinced you to get it? How old were your kids/grand kids? How long have you renewed it? How much did you pay? How much do you save? What pass is it? Did you upgrade? Did you have spare cash or save for it or pay monthly? Did you get one for everyone in the (immediate) family? How does it even work - is it like a key card, or a new magic band (not at all familiar w those)? What does it include? Has it proven to be more stressful or more carefree? Just some questions that will help if answered or any other info that you can add Thanks in Advance - I hope to get lots of answers !

We got ours last year in August. We paid the DVC discounted rate, and we purchased standard annual passes for each member of our six person family. We used a combination of DISNEY VISA reward points and cash to pay for them. What made us decide that AP was the way to go was we were heading down for a five night stay connected to a DCL cruise. One day at park, 4 days DCL, 4 days back at parks. We also knew we would be back this summer since we were averaging a trip every 13-15 months. Three of my children needed new park hopper tickets, for last year, and the rest of us would have needed tickets this year. We just decided that for what we were going to lay out purchasing regular PH tickets, we could purchase the APs. We have gone to the parks for 9 days already and later this month we will be heading down for another 9 days. So we were able to spend 18 days in WDW parks for what 5 days of park hopping would have cost us. We also love the free park parking if we rent a car. My favorite part of the AP, is not having that "we don't want to waist a park day" feeling. If we want to hang out at the pool all day, and just go to EPCOT for dinner we can, and it's nothing.

 

[bckwincy]

We love our annual passes! We love WDW, so it works out well for us. If you can use it enough that it financially makes sense, then go for it. We go down to the Orlando area usually more than once a year for extended trips, so we definitely surpass the 10 day mark in a year. I love being able to feel like I can go for just a few hours to the park for dining, a ride or a show and not think that I've wasted a whole day's ticket. My husband often works when we're in Orlando and he can pop in and out with us for a few hours, again with no thought of wasting an entire day's ticket.

If you like the thought of taking a quick impromptu trip to Disney, that is at least one thing that will already be covered. Obviously it is a large investment (I understand that having 5 kids), so it needs to be something everyone feels a certain desire for, but I have never regretted having ours. Plus, there are a lot of discounts for AP holders. I'm sure there is a full list somewhere, but the one's we use the most are the MVMCP and MNSSHP tickets, Tables in Wonderland discount, souvenir discounts for quite a few places, and I'm sure a number of things I am forgetting at the moment.

I'm sure there will be far more comprehensive answers than mine, but my favorite part is really the flexibility of just coming and going and not feeling the need to be park commandos, as that is not really our preferred park style. We like a much more laid back approach to everything. HTH!

 

[wdwgoofydaddy]

I'm trying to convince DH to look into getting us annual passes. You DISers are great, sooooooo, I'm just going to show him this thread

Why get an annual pass? When did you get it? Do you save, break even, not use it all - year after year? What finally convinced you to get it? How old were your kids/grand kids? How long have you renewed it? How much did you pay? How much do you save? What pass is it? Did you upgrade? Did you have spare cash or save for it or pay monthly? Did you get one for everyone in the (immediate) family? How does it even work - is it like a key card, or a new magic band (not at all familiar w those)? What does it include? Has it proven to be more stressful or more carefree?

Just some questions that will help if answered or any other info that you can add

Thanks in Advance - I hope to get lots of answers !

Hey there JanBlessed.. WOW.. Lots of questions... We are pass holders this year for the first time and purchased them for our family of 4. Our kids are 9 & 11 and we travel to Disney very often. We did a lot of pre planning before buying them. We knew we would be visiting WDW a lot this year. S an example, we have already been 3 times and on 2 cruises already. We also have 3 more trips planed for remainder of this calendar year, please another trip planned for March 2015. You will benefit for economies of scale. The cost of an AP is fixed therefore the only way to drive the cost per visit down is to vis often. We were luck this year because we own DVC and they had a promotion for owners. We use to buy the 10-day no expiration which saved us a lot but now with the frequency of visits, the AP saves us even more. This year alone we will visit WDW 6-7 time and within these visits over 17 individual park entries. We paid about $500 per person for that works out to be just about $30 per park entrance.

Here is a post we did a few months back that compared the 10 day expiration to the AP and how we ended up with the AP. The AP also gives you free parking and discounts at the parks. We also got priority tickets for the upcoming Villains Unleashed hard ticket event and a discount off Tables in Wonderland too.

http://www.memoriesofdisney.com/post/2014/04/13/annual-pass-or-10-day-no-expiry

Another post we did about how we are able to save money so we can visit WDW often may be of value to you too.

http://www.memoriesofdisney.com/post/2014/05/06/How-we-are-able-to-visit-Disney-World-so-often

Having an AP has open the door to so many possibilities for us. We got the premium passes for the price of the basic as part of the promotion. It allows us to park hop and it included the water parks and Disney Quest in DTD too.
It has removed stress because we have full freedom to visits any park at anytime as often as we like. The AP is tied to your Magicband, you just tap it upon entry and you are good to go.

Here is the link to Disney site with more info on the AP

https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/passes/

Hope this helps.

Let us know if you have more questions.

 

[JanBlessed]

Ali in wonderland: I see what you mean about the savings, since you're
" averaging a trip every 13-15 months & Three of your children needed new park hopper tickets, for last year". It def makes sense. I have a 7yr old & 1 yr old now. I'd love 2 -3 short (3-6 days) trips a year - maybe now w 2 kids it will happen for me

 

[JanBlessed]

We love our annual passes! We love WDW, so it works out well for us. If you can use it enough that it financially makes sense, then go for it. We go down to the Orlando area usually more than once a year for extended trips, so we definitely surpass the 10 day mark in a year. I love being able to feel like I can go for just a few hours to the park for dining, a ride or a show and not think that I've wasted a whole day's ticket. My husband often works when we're in Orlando and he can pop in and out with us for a few hours, again with no thought of wasting an entire day's ticket.

If you like the thought of taking a quick impromptu trip to Disney, that is at least one thing that will already be covered. Obviously it is a large investment (I understand that having 5 kids), so it needs to be something everyone feels a certain desire for, but I have never regretted having ours. Plus, there are a lot of discounts for AP holders. I'm sure there is a full list somewhere, but the one's we use the most are the MVMCP and MNSSHP tickets, Tables in Wonderland discount, souvenir discounts for quite a few places, and I'm sure a number of things I am forgetting at the moment.

I'm sure there will be far more comprehensive answers than mine, but my favorite part is really the flexibility of just coming and going and not feeling the need to be park commandos, as that is not really our preferred park style. We like a much more laid back approach to everything. HTH!

I totally get it! I'm guilty of being a "park commando" in the past and yes, an AP would've put me more at ease. I just didn't really know too much about it until reading the DISboards before this trip. I'd loooove more park time - since I'm staying 5 days & only going to MK & a. Water park.

Ali in Wonderland also wrote " and the My favorite part of the AP, is not having that "we don't want to waist a park day" feeling. - ughhhh, I think that my Disney experience would be so much better, especially that DH is very laid back and I just can't when it comes to feeling like Ive 'wasted ' $$$

 

[JanBlessed]

Hey there JanBlessed.. WOW.. Lots of questions... We are pass holders this year for the first time and purchased them for our family of 4. Our kids are 9 & 11 and we travel to Disney very often. We did a lot of pre planning before buying them. We knew we would be visiting WDW a lot this year. S an example, we have already been 3 times and on 2 cruises already. We also have 3 more trips planed for remainder of this calendar year, please another trip planned for March 2015. You will benefit for economies of scale. The cost of an AP is fixed therefore the only way to drive the cost per visit down is to vis often. We were luck this year because we own DVC and they had a promotion for owners. We use to buy the 10-day no expiration which saved us a lot but now with the frequency of visits, the AP saves us even more. This year alone we will visit WDW 6-7 time and within these visits over 17 individual park entries. We paid about $500 per person for that works out to be just about $30 per park entrance.

Here is a post we did a few months back that compared the 10 day expiration to the AP and how we ended up with the AP. The AP also gives you free parking and discounts at the parks. We also got priority tickets for the upcoming Villains Unleashed hard ticket event and a discount off Tables in Wonderland too.

http://www.memoriesofdisney.com/post/2014/04/13/annual-pass-or-10-day-no-expiry

Another post we did about how we are able to save money so we can visit WDW often may be of value to you too.

http://www.memoriesofdisney.com/post/2014/05/06/How-we-are-able-to-visit-Disney-World-so-often

Having an AP has open the door to so many possibilities for us. We got the premium passes for the price of the basic as part of the promotion. It allows us to park hop and it included the water parks and Disney Quest in DTD too.
It has removed stress because we have full freedom to visits any park at anytime as often as we like. The AP is tied to your Magicband, you just tap it upon entry and you are good to go.

Here is the link to Disney site with more info on the AP
.

wow! Sounds like you're REALLY making the most of your passes! I see that the common denominator from the answers so far echoes your comment:
It has removed stress because we have full freedom to visits any park at anytime as often as we like.

 

[JanBlessed]

wdwgoofydaddy I am goin to look at your suggested links/posts. I briefly looked at theAP page, but will take me a while to go through it and look at the diff. Scenarios and pricing, especially that I also qualify for some Florida Resident passes. If I had it myway, I'd be in Orlando and on the cruises as much as you are!

 

[JanBlessed]

wdwgoofydaddy, $30 per park entrance ?!?
I'm on my way!

 

[Dasha Hermosilla]

We got annual passes last year and love them! They expired in April and our next trip is not until December, so we are in a "break" period. We'll get new ones in December and then use them a 2-3 trips over the 12 months and then maybe take a few months off again. You can pay a lower price to "renew" so you had a continual pass, but we just take a break for a period of time and get new AP and it works for us (we are also DVC so we get the discounted passes).

 

[Shann50952]

Ok so we want to book for our April trip and we are planning on purchasing annual passes. Now do we have to pay for the annual passes now when we book for the trip or do we still just pay the $200 deposit....any help would be greatly appreciated...thanks.