Annual passes. Pros and cons

[chrispeto]

Hi my husband and I are thinking of getting annual passes for our family, we live in Canada
I'm just wondering if any other Canadians have them
What do like about it and what do you not like.
Any information would be appreciated
Thank you
Chris

 

[Aladora]

Hi my husband and I are thinking of getting annual passes for our family, we live in Canada
I'm just wondering if any other Canadians have them
What do like about it and what do you not like.
Any information would be appreciated
Thank you
Chris

We've got Disneyland APs for the second time. I would do the math to see if it is a good idea for you and your family. The numbers will be different for you because we did this just before the Canadian deal came out. (Also, not sure if you are going to DL or WDW)

Here is the math I used in September for Disneyland:
We were planning on at least 2 trips, Sept 2016 and March 2017, at least 4 days each trip.
4 day park hopper: $320 (X2 trips = $640)
Deluxe AP: $599
Savings before food/merchandise discount: $41

For us, the math made sense and we might add a short 3rd trip in August which will make the APs a definite deal for us.

Now that the new Canadian deal is out, the math looks like this:

4 day park hopper: $240 (X2 trips = $480)
Deluxe AP: $599
AP would cost $119 MORE so not a good deal at all and in order to make the AP work for us, we would have to do a 3rd trip of at least 3 days to make it a good deal.

Is this for WDW or DL? How many days are you planning on going for and how many trips?

 

[ABCanada]

Economics, as the PP demonstrated is the main consideration.

We have had APs off and on for 20 years. I think the first DL AP with block out dates was $99 or $129. It was easier to justify. From our perspective other than obvious economics:

Pros:
Reduces planning if the length of your stay exceeds the # of days on your ticket or you do not have park hopper. You go to whatever park you want whenever you want.
Can take advantage of good airfare if they come up for another trip

Cons:
Cost
Cannot take advantage of 'free' dining offers (you can for first trip if you convert tickets to AP after you arrive)
Cost of added trips because you might as well go as you have tickets.

We always timed our trips to get at least two trips even if we were only going once a year. So Jan 20-31 year one, Jan 6-19 year two.

You get good discounts, dining, shopping and room, with the AP especially this year. You can achieve this with just one AP. It might make sense for one of the party to get one if the discounts justify it.

If you are not certain it is likely best to get a regular ticket and if your decide it would make economic sense upgrade it before it expires or when you want to use the discount or other feature (again if it is the discounts you would just need to upgrade one and could upgrade the others later if it made sense)

 

[SaraMc]

For us, it was the math. It was less $ overall the trips that we got them for DH and I. Plus tables in wonderland and the AP discount are helpful. Having memory maker has also been a nice extra that I don't think we would have bought ever on its own.

 

[Disneylover99]

We're on our third AP in four years. Love them!! We try to squeeze in three trips a year when we have them and we do take advantage of free dining with our AP. We just get two day tickets and save them for another time. Win/Win.

We've used our AP for food, merchandise and resort discounts. Plus now memory maker is included. The only con is I'm constantly trying to squeeze in new trips. Maybe that's a pro.

 

[grover]

I managed to squeeze almost 50 days out of my AP. It was so nice not to have a ticket expense & do some last minute trips. We also used the AP discounts. We did not find that we missed the free dining, we had always used it in the past, without being tied to so many ADR's we found our schedule to be so much more relaxed!

 

[chrispeto]

I appreciate all the feedback
I have a few more questions
Did anyone receive magic bands? If so were they mailed to you?
Where do you go to activate your AP?

 

[Reepicheep]

We live in Edmonton ("the land of snow and mosquitos"), and we've been buying annual passes since 2004. We go to Disneyland every summer, and also throw in the occasional Christmas trip as well.

In the past, we've experimented with various strategies including renewing passes before they expire, but in recent years we've settled upon a strategy which involves buying passes every second year. To illustrate:

- our current passes were purchased the first week of August 2016, at the start of our summer vacation
- I just completed purchasing airfares and making hotel bookings for our next major trip in July 2017
- this year, we are also fitting in a five day Christmas trip the first week of January 2017,

We almost always buy Deluxe Passports which have a significant number of blackout dates, so we must take that into account when scheduling vacations. In particular: since our daughters are old enough that we don't like taking them out of school for a week, blackout dates often mean we can't always fit in a Christmas trip. This year, the stars aligned properly and we are going to Disneyland from Jan 3 to 7.

According to our long term plan, we will next purchase passes in August of 2018 and repeat the above process.

EDIT: I just wanted to add that one of my pet peeves is that, despite being Disneyland passholders for many of the past 12 years, I have never received a communication of any sort (snail mail, email, or phone call) from Disneyland regarding our passes. I assume this is because we are Canadian. As I understand it, passholders who live in the USA receive, at a minimum, yearly mailings when their passes are about to expire.

 

[Kellars]

I appreciate all the feedback
I have a few more questions
Did anyone receive magic bands? If so were they mailed to you?
Where do you go to activate your AP?

Disney won't mail Magic Bands to Canada but if you are planning a trip down customize and put your resort address in as your mailing address for them. I was told about 2 weeks ahead of your trip is appropriate. They will be waiting for you upon arrival. We bought at Guest Services in Disney Springs and had them activated there. You can activate at any Theme park as well. Regardless of what CMs tell you insist on getting annual pass cards and bring ID for merchandise discounts.

 

[alc571]

I appreciate all the feedback
I have a few more questions
Did anyone receive magic bands? If so were they mailed to you?
Where do you go to activate your AP?

You won't received magicbands as a Canadian. You can customize them once you activate your annual passes, and have them shipped to the resort of your next stay or to someone you know in the USA. We had ours customized a little over two weeks before our trip in September (after upgrading to APs in June) and they never made it to the resort. It said they shipped and would be waiting for us at All-Star Sports, but they couldn't find them. We went to Guest Services in Disney Springs and were able to get coloured bands and the new AP sliders. They just don't have our names on them. We have activated our APs at the TTC before going to Magic Kingdom, and have upgraded hopper passes to APs inside Magic Kingdom at Guest Services.

When I did the math it made more sense to have APs than buy separate tickets if you were going to use 5-day hoppers more than once in 365 days. We bought APs for a November 2014 trip, and then used them for a September 2015 trip. We ended up doing a last minute June trip as well. We don't renew, however. We let the AP lapse, and then upgrade passes on the next trip. We always go spring and fall, so we do 3 trips on each AP - for example, Nov 2014, June 2015, September 2015. Then we got new passes (upgraded hoppers in June 2016 which were part of our Free Dining package) and will travel June 2016, September 2016 and April 2017.