Annual Passes

[eeyoremum]

Hi, I am trying to decide if it would be worth my while to buy season passes or not. I am thinking of booking for free dinning for 7 days. I also want to spend a week down in January 2009.

The question I guess I am asking is what are the room discounts. I am wondering if the discounts are worth the price of the passes. I would have to buy passes for 3 adults (DS14) and one child (DS8, turning 9 in June). I would likely buy the premium pass so I could use the waterparks, I have been promising water park visits which we have yet to do.

Thanks

 

[cdnmickeylover]

Don't buy the annual passes looking for room discounts. While the room discounts are nice they are limited and are not available at all resorts at all times of the year.

We have annual passes and like them for the flexibility they give us. We also visit WDW often.

Only buy annual passes if you will get the value out of them using the park visit days, don't buy them counting on discounts.

If you go for free dining this will be a package deal and you will have to purchase at least one day passes for all members of your party. We have done this in the past and have then upgraded the one day pass to our annual pass renewal.

 

[Saratoga Souris]

If you eat a lot of TS meals and have a family, buying an AP also allows you to buy the DDE . This saves you 20% on almost ALL food a drinks (yes alcohol too) for your whole family. YOu only need 1 AP in your family to purchase. You also get 10% off at WOrld of Disney.
Buying 1 AP per family could actually save you money.

DO your research and the math

 

[tiggerrr]

duplicate post

 

[tiggerrr]

Hi, I am trying to decide if it would be worth my while to buy season passes or not. I am thinking of booking for free dinning for 7 days. I also want to spend a week down in January 2009.

The question I guess I am asking is what are the room discounts. I am wondering if the discounts are worth the price of the passes. I would have to buy passes for 3 adults (DS14) and one child (DS8, turning 9 in June). I would likely buy the premium pass so I could use the waterparks, I have been promising water park visits which we have yet to do.

Thanks

For any one adult, here is the math:

An annual pass costs $477, and Premium Annual Pass costs $616. If you don't count the discount possibilities, you can then identify which situations cost you less than the AP or PAP.

For a single trip within one year, 11 days in the Major Parks is the most you can spend less than an AP(a 10-day and a 1-day Park Hopper expiring pass is $411.09). With a discount ticket broker that could increase to 12 days. If the AP is worth it at that point, the PAP is only worth it if you go to the "minor parks" at least 4 times; PI counts as 0.5 trips. Anything less is better to pay for a daily entry ($139 difference between AP and PAP vs. avg of $38/day at minor parks with AP discount). If you would only go to one type of minor park (eg. water park), you can get an annual pass for around $100. If an AP is not worth it, then the WPF&M option on your tickets is only worth it if you will go to a minor park more than once in your 14 day window ($42 1 day minor park vs. $53 for WPF&M option).

For more than one trip within a year, 10 days in the Major Parks is the most you can spend less than an AP (a 10-day Park Hopper No Expiry is $479 - a discount ticket broker would sell for less). If the AP is worth it at that point, the PAP is worth it if you would go to the minor parks more than 4 times (same analysis as above). If the AP is not worth it, the WPF&M option is worth it if you would go more than once to a minor park.

This is the analysis I've used to determine what ticket to get. I hope it makes sense. It may seem a little confusing, but the basis of it is to see what ticket options cost less than the AP or the PAP and determine which ones meet your needs.

This analysis does not take into account discounts, because as a PP said, you usually only require one person to get the discounts.

 

[cdnmickeylover]

As a PP stated you can get the DDE card as an annual passholder which is good for discounts at TS meals and at the value food courts. If you use the DDE card you'll be automatically charged an 18% gratuity though so the discount isn't that great.

 

[Saratoga Souris]

I guess it depends on how you look at it but since I would be tipping the 18% anyway....(more like 20%) then the discount is still 20%.
If you are a "non tipper" or a "poor tipper", then I guess thinking the dicount isn't good would be accurate....

 

[cdnmickeylover]

I'm not sure why you have assumed that I am a non-tipper or a poor tipper. I was merely trying to point out that in 2008 they changed the rules and if you use your DDE card then Disney automatically adds an 18% gratuity to your bill regardless of your party size. Prior to 2008 a gratuity was not automatically applied to your bill thereby giving you some flexibility in the tip. Is the DDE discount still a discount -- yes -- but -- now you have no flexibility in the tip.

 

[Saratoga Souris]

I didn't mean to suggest that YOU were a poor tipper... only that the discount is still 20% which is a good discount. The only way to look at it being "not that good" (as stated in your post) is if you would normally tip less than 18%.
I work in restaurant. In Canada, I would say 15% is a "standard" suggested tip rate but for Americans it is usually 18-20%.

 

[howboutnow]

If you are a Vacation Club member, you can get the annual passes at a discount.

 

[cslittle999]

We're going through this same calculation. We have a trip planned for October and a longer trip for next August. What we finally settled on is an AP, water park AP and DDE.

A one day pass to the water parks is $41.54 at the gate (about $2 less in advance). A water park annual pass is $106.45. The difference between a AP and a PAP is $139.54. If you're only getting the PAP for the water parks it is cheaper to buy the WP AP. If you think you will only visit the water parks a couple of time it is cheaper to buy single day passes.

The other advantage for the WP AP is that it will let us spread the purchases out. We don't expect to go to the water parks in October so we'll get the AP now and the WP AP next summer.