Annual Passes? Park Hopper?

[LauraEadon]

What do you guys do for park tickets? I am a new DVC Member and haven't book yet with points.

Are there packages? Do you have to buy park hopper tickets as normal? Do you get annual passes if you're only going once a year?

What's the best way to go about this?

Also, is there a discount on getting annual passes if you bought hopper tickets once before in the year? (An upgrade or something)? Or is it only possible at the time of purchase. We didn't know we'd be members before our last trip

 

[thepops]

there is a whole thread out there by (I think ) CheshireFigment that deals with tickets, but here's what I remember.....

Being DVC you don't need to buy a package to get tickets.

Annual passes hit their breakeven point at about 8 days.

If you already have hopper tickets (and still have days available on them) you will get the gate cost of the ticket applied to the cost of the annual pass when you do the upgrade. (and then the DVC $100 discount off that). Do your own math before hand so that you know the CM did it correctly.

To get the most out of the annual pass with yearly trips, schedule the second year's trip about a week before the current year's one. This way you'll fall inside the 365 days and get both off of one pass.

If you have more questiosn, feel free to ask!

 

[szymcl]

What do you guys do for park tickets? I am a new DVC Member and haven't book yet with points.

Are there packages? Do you have to buy park hopper tickets as normal? Do you get annual passes if you're only going once a year?

What's the best way to go about this?

Also, is there a discount on getting annual passes if you bought hopper tickets once before in the year? (An upgrade or something)? Or is it only possible at the time of purchase. We didn't know we'd be members before our last trip

I love just buying an annual pass, then not worrying about days etc. I'm not sure it is always the best value, but the ease of not thinking about "Wasting a day" is worth it to me. Usually I get at least 11 days out of it.

 

[Corinne]

We always buy AP's. We always get 2 trips, sometimes 3 if we are lucky, before having to renew. The DVC renewal price saves you even more $$.

 

[Chuck S]

Any ticket upgrade would have to have been done within 14 days of first use of the hoppers, even if they have the non-expiration option.

 

[disneynutz]

We buy based on what we plan to do. Undercover Tourist has the best price on tickets using the Mousesaver discount. AP's through DVC.

Bill

 

[Mystery Fan]

We buy based on what we plan to do. Undercover Tourist has the best price on tickets using the Mousesaver discount. AP's through DVC.

Bill

We have three trips planned in the next 365 days starting in June, since there are five of us, we purchased six day hoopers from undercover tourist with the mousesaver discount and plan to upgrade to DVC AP after first use. It will save us $29/ticket or $145. The six day hopper had the biggest discount.
That ain't chump change.

 

[Anal Annie]

What do you guys do for park tickets? I am a new DVC Member and haven't book yet with points.

Are there packages? Do you have to buy park hopper tickets as normal? Do you get annual passes if you're only going once a year?

What's the best way to go about this?

Also, is there a discount on getting annual passes if you bought hopper tickets once before in the year? (An upgrade or something)? Or is it only possible at the time of purchase. We didn't know we'd be members before our last trip

We buy AP's with the member discount and try to plan 2 or 3 trips within a year on them. We just got new AP's in March on our spring break trip and got 6 days out of them. Then we're going back in August for another week. I also figure we break even after about 8 park days of using them. They also come with some additional store & dining discounts and they let you buy the TIW card for $75 rather than $100 (DVC price). We MAY plan a 3rd trip for next years spring break on them as well because our spring break would fall a week earlier. That would be super nice to squeeze in the 3rd trip. But not sure just yet as we'd really like to plan for Hawaii in the summer which would be at least 10 days...with the price of airfare these days we don't plan as many short trips to FL so we probably wouldn't go for less than 6 days again...not sure if we can plan 6 days AND 10 days.............but if we can, we will!!! In the days of cheap air it was wonderful to be able to plan a long 4-day weekend. If we could only find cheap air again......

 

[ccigliano]

Like another post mentioned, we buy annual passes every other year and end up going at least annually and always squeeze in an extra trip or 2 or 3 when we have the passes. We buy our annual pass the second week of December and then go back the following year the first week of December or right after Thanksgiving. Then we usually go in the spring for week and maybe even a September trip. We then let the passes expire in December and don't by another one until the second week of the following December. I also buy the tickets from UT with the highest discount, walk into the MK to activate it and then walk out and upgrade to the DVC annual pass at the ticket booth. That way you save a little more. It was $35 per ticket the last time we did it.

 

[dsneygirl]

We buy Annual Passes. We've done at least 2 tips, sometimes even 3 or 4 out of each AP and get about 7-20 park days out of it.

 

[bnk1120]

I did not buy AP's when i first became a DVC member. Bought an AP for the first time last July because I knew I was going in July, September and February. It also helped me justify another trip this July before it expires ("well we have AP's, it would be stupid NOT to use them again" ). It will be cheaper to renew than buy hoppers because we will go to the parks at least 10 times in 2013 too.

 

[kphamousbr]

We purchased annual passes in 2011 and took two trips last year . It was very good for us . We just renewed our passes and plan to come back this May and December. See you all at the World .

 

[arthur06]

We got AP's for the first time on December 2010 and went then, April 11, and Sept 11. We let our AP's expire and are going to DLR in November. When we go back to WDW we will get an AP again, and plan 3 trips within the 12 months.

Having DVC and AP's is a dangerous combo.

 

[BirdsOfPreyDave]

We've done annual passes since purchasing into DVC. We purchase our passes on a year when our summer trip is in August, then use them again the next year when our trip is in July. In the past few years, though, we've been finding that more and more we're able to find a few opportunities during the year to get an extra use or two out of our passes. We've starting making some Easter and Halloween trips, and just spent a week during Spring Break.