Annual passes

[Wackdawg]

How many days or visits would you say annual passes become the better option as opposed to buying regular park tickets?

 

[glassslippergirl]

I think the conventional wisdom is more than 10 days. For those who travel far for their annual trip, if you can squeeze two trips in -- a week at the start and a week at the end-- you will save ticket money with AP. Remember that it's about more than just the price of base tickets. APs have perqs like park hopping, free parking (if you stay off site), ability to buy TiW, special events if you can get to one, merchandise discounts, etc.

 

[Mome Rath]

Right, it's actually hard to form a hard and fast rule as different families (and even individuals) do Disney differently. My fam always does park hoppers, never does water parks, the do long trips with half days, so we figure up the savings differently than someone who never uses hoppers, and who loves the water parks, does really short trips and doesn't like to go to the park half days. There are also some savings with AP's so it depends on how much you'd use those as well. The last time I figured it for my family, it did hit the break even point at 10 days after everything was factored in.

 

[tobikaye]

I have a set trip in January for 7 park days. I was thinking about a trip in the fall to take my sister for a few days so started looking at AP. The ticket cost for the second trip would put the total ticket cost above an AP. So, I plan to upgrade to an AP. I have already switched to an AP room discount and with the free photopass, I have already saved the difference of the upgrade.

 

[Wackdawg]

I was thinking of a week trip and perhaps a weekend trip or two. With the discounts that come with it I was figuring it better then paying the base tix. Time to crunch numbers.

 

[loves to dive]

I always advise people to just factor in actual costs and don't count on any discounts. So if you factor in the cost of park hoppers, parking if you aren't staying on site and memory maker or whatever it's called if you always get it, and compare that to the AP. Simple math.

 

[Dr. Seeker]

My wife and I have found it is easiest for us to just do the annual pass. We try to go down several times a year for long weekends. The extra perks such as discounts really are an added plus as well. It all depends on how you travel, but I would agree that roughly 10 park days can make the pass worth it.

 

[Accident]

It depends on how many different tickets you need to get. 1 10 day trip is a huge loss of money, but 2 5 day tickets it's cheaper to get an annual pass.

What I recommend you do, build a cart on disney's website for what your tickets look like for all the trips you know you'll be taking in the next year (or 13 months if your going to buy the passes before jan). Did that come out more money than getting annual passes?

Other factors that it makes a big different to add to the cost you got in the cart.
1: would you buy memory maker for the trips? add in the cost of memory maker for each trip you would get it, you get free photopass downloads with an AP and don't need memory maker.
2: do you stay offsite? add in the cost of parking ($20 per day at a park) to the cost of the tickets.
3: do you add park hopping? don't forget to add that option in your cart when your getting the real ticket price.
4: tickets go up yearly, it will be a small amoutn more than your cart came out to be after a year of trips.

Now there are other factors like will the AP discount on food save you money (if you pay out of pocket with no discount, it's maybe. If you get the meal plan again it's maybe but leaning on probably). If you spend another $150 to get the tables in wonderland card, would that save you money vs the meal plan (probably), it also includes alcohol if you partake in them while at WDW. Also factor in the quick services with these discounts, many overlook that places like saratoga springs, values and some moderates like pofq do not have table service so their quick service is discounted with tables in wonderland. also the current 45th year ap discounts includes some counter services as well.

and last, what's your merchandise spending look like? there's a really good discount on merch right now for the AP.. If you dont buy merch but you get bottles of water or soda from the vendors, you can get an ap discount on them if you go into any gift shop that has a fridge of them. no a huge savings but it all adds up.

Rooms I wouldn't factor into the cost of the ap. you might get luck but honestly, most of them are too last minute and odd rooms I don't want that it's not worth switching from a great other discount.

 

[mountdew1]

As PP's have said, it really varies. It's usually about 10 days over two trips, just due to how tickets are front loaded. But staying offsite for a 10 day trip and paying for parking and buying Memory Maker would cost you about $300, so doing an AP for that trip (maybe not for everyone) might save you money. Don't consider lodging discounts as those a) are never guaranteed and b) are usually only 5% better than a Disney Visa or general public deal.

 

[china mom]

Ditto to everything Accident said. I have attached a breakdown of ticket prices by day for one long stay and another for two shorter trips

 

[Keishag]

I'm curious about this too, but my question is, does it make sense for just one of us to get the annual pass for the discounts? Our upcoming trip is 9 nights and we'd love to squeeze in another short weekend trip next fall but that ones not guaranteed. So I was thinking of just getting one annual pass and do the rest as 9 day park hoppers.

 

[china mom]

If you stay off property and pay for parking factor in a $20 per day savings with an annual pass. If you eat at any of the 45 listed restaurants you can factor in $20% savings with an Annual Pass. If You plan on buying a lot of souvenirs, and AP might be a savings

But, don't do it for the room discounts. I have not found any rhyme or reason for when they are released or what dates they cover and I used to be able to snag them once in a while but not for the past couple of years. plus, they are usually only about 5-10% below what you find for regular discounts.

 

[stinkpickle]

We're going to try upgrading to APs next week. I like the idea of being able to take short weekend trips (if I manage to catch cheap airfare) and not having to pay such a big chunk for two day tickets.

 

[china mom]

We're going to try upgrading to APs next week. I like the idea of being able to take short weekend trips (if I manage to catch cheap airfare) and not having to pay such a big chunk for two day tickets.

That's the only bad thing about AP's. You get addicted to going and try to get your money's worth so you end up taking these short little trips and, thereby, spending more than you would have if you didn't have passes...but, totally worth it.

 

[bellebud]

last time I went, the AP discount on my room was a bit more than the AP cost, so it was a no brainer for me to get it. otherwise I haven't had one in a long time, but I do love having it.

 

[bryanb]

That's the only bad thing about AP's. You get addicted to going and try to get your money's worth so you end up taking these short little trips and, thereby, spending more than you would have if you didn't have passes...but, totally worth it.

This. Absolutely true. I got an annual pass last year, after estimating that I was going to pay that much in admissions tickets on planned trips. And then I ended up taking another trip and spending an extra thousand dollars in airfare, hotel, and more because -- hey -- it was "free."

Now, I'm thinking about doing it again next year!

Also -- and this really isn't a logical part of the value calculation -- there's something incredibly fun about carrying an annual pass in my wallet. Even though WDW is thousands of miles away from my home, having this card with the ability to enter the parks is like carrying a piece of the magic. That's totally crazy and illogical. But it's a nice side benefit.

 

[StuckInKS]

For us it's two trips. Two trips of eight 10-day non-PH tix cost $6650, while eight APs cost us about $6400. We don't usually purchase the PH, but with the AP that becomes a freebie, and we have the freedom of going more than 10 days per trip.

Of course, the $250 savings on tickets has actually cost us thousands more, as someone else mentioned. We just got back from a 2-week "mid-year" trip which we would not have went on had we not upgraded to APs on our May trip. Our trips are also becoming longer (2-3 weeks each), which means more money on hotel/food.

 

[wench]

I bought APs for DLR in 2015. We were planning 8 days over the 60th & I was hoping to do another week in April 2016. Once I had those APs, 2 trips turned into 6. Best year ever! I was pretty lucky booking VGC with my DVC points for a few of the stays. And my Disney Visa rewards points paid for a good portion of the airfare. I'm a very enthusiastic supporter of buying an AP & then cramming in as many little trips as you can!