Annual Passes?

[Disneylover1970]

How many buy Annual Passes? How many park days do you do a year? What other benefits are there with the AP?

 

[Ben E N]

Disney world ones I like. About 13 days or more per year make it worth it.
Benefits - come and go any day of the year, for any length of trip you want. 2 weeks in the summer, plus a couple of long weekends? No problem.
Free parking.
Free photo pass for you, family, and friends with just one pass
Dining, merchandise, and hotel discounts. They vary, though.
Park hopper included.

 

[richmo]

I'm usually on a Disney AP. I think I usually get about 15-18 park days in per AP.

The main solo trip I do just about every year are the bookends for each AP...I've never renewed an AP. It goes kinda like this:
Year 1: mid-late March - start AP, solo trip (avg 6 nights), summer or fall often a family trip (3-7 nights)
Year 2: early-mid March (before AP ends) another solo trip (avg 6 nights)
Year 3: mid-late March - start new AP...and so on

On solo trips, I always stay offsite to save some $, so the biggest benefit for me is the $22/day savings on parking. That benefit adds up fast. Merchandise discounts are nice and it was nice to have the passholder discount on several of the QS dining locations last year (much of that has gone away). Just saving on the parking usually "pays off" the AP for me vs. buying park hoppers.

 

[Disneylover1970]

Thank you, I should have mentioned Annual Pass for WDW.

I'm usually on a Disney AP. I think I usually get about 15-18 park days in per AP.

The main solo trip I do just about every year are the bookends for each AP...I've never renewed an AP. It goes kinda like this:
Year 1: mid-late March - start AP, solo trip (avg 6 nights), summer or fall often a family trip (3-7 nights)
Year 2: early-mid March (before AP ends) another solo trip (avg 6 nights)
Year 3: mid-late March - start new AP...and so on

On solo trips, I always stay offsite to save some $, so the biggest benefit for me is the $22/day savings on parking. That benefit adds up fast. Merchandise discounts are nice and it was nice to have the passholder discount on several of the QS dining locations last year (much of that has gone away). Just saving on the parking usually "pays off" the AP for me vs. buying park hoppers.

richmo, thank you. I forgot about the parking. Where do you usually stay offsite? Because a couple places had shuttles, but I guess you would still need a car. Just trying to figure out cost of staying offsite, cost of car? I think with AP it’s a good deal, because parking at the parks is about $40?

 

[JoJoGirl]

With my last AP, I netted 16 park days over three trips, all onsite. Adding up the discounts I received on meals, merchandise and resorts (five nights booked on AP discounts) plus what length-of-stay stay hoppers would have cost, the price of the AP was recouped halfway through my second trip.

I’m planning a similar strategy with my next AP: Trips in December ‘18 (Christmas) February ‘19 (respite from Ohio winter) and October-November ‘19 (Food & Wine Festival), again for a total of 16 park days. I don’t rely on the discounts, but they are definitely the icing on the cake.

 

[Disneylover1970]

With my last AP, I netted 16 park days over three trips, all onsite. Adding up the discounts I received on meals, merchandise and resorts (five nights booked on AP discounts) plus what length-of-stay stay hoppers would have cost, the price of the AP was recouped halfway through my second trip.

I’m planning a similar strategy with my next AP: Trips in December ‘18 (Christmas) February ‘19 (respite from Ohio winter) and October-November ‘19 (Food & Wine Festival), again for a total of 16 park days. I don’t rely on the discounts, but they are definitely the icing on the cake.

JoJoGirl, I guess I didn’t realize there were that many other discounts besides the parking? Do you get a meal plan? We’ve been getting the Quick Service and always have a bunch of snacks left. Plus we usually makes some dining reservations(a breakfast and dinner)

 

[JoJoGirl]

JoJoGirl, I guess I didn’t realize there were that many other discounts besides the parking? Do you get a meal plan? We’ve been getting the Quick Service and always have a bunch of snacks left. Plus we usually makes some dining reservations(a breakfast and dinner)

You can read about all the current AP discounts here: http://www.wdwinfo.com/discounts/discounts-ap.htm

The 10% merchandise discount is nice - and it includes food items purchased at Disney merchandise locations. We get lucky with the dining discounts at about 50-75% of the places we like to eat. And it only takes one AP for our entire party of 3-4 to get the 10% discount.

AP Resort discounts are nice but spotty — they are offered late, and only on Disney’s surplus room inventory. But I have used them several times to upgrade from a moderate to a deluxe like AKL at a very reasonable cost.

The only time I’ve ever used the dining plan was during a “free dining” promo, during a trip when I didn’t have an AP. It was OK, but I missed the flexibility of being off-plan. The year I had DDP, I had SO many snack credits left over! I used them on rice krispy treats for everyone back home. At least it was popular with my relatives!

 

[Disneylover1970]

You can read about all the current AP discounts here: http://www.wdwinfo.com/discounts/discounts-ap.htm

The 10% merchandise discount is nice - and it includes food items purchased at Disney merchandise locations. We get lucky with the dining discounts at about 50-75% of the places we like to eat. And it only takes one AP for our entire party of 3-4 to get the 10% discount.

AP Resort discounts are nice but spotty — they are offered late, and only on Disney’s surplus room inventory. But I have used them several times to upgrade from a moderate to a deluxe like AKL at a very reasonable cost.

The only time I’ve ever used the dining plan was during a “free dining” promo, during a trip when I didn’t have an AP. It was OK, but I missed the flexibility of being off-plan. The year I had DDP, I had SO many snack credits left over! I used them on rice krispy treats for everyone back home. At least it was popular with my relatives!

I like the idea with the Quick Service or dining plan that everything is paid for up front. I believe there is a savings by purchase of a dining plan, but we’re starting to each 3 meals out of the plan, so we’re probably getting less out of it.

 

[richmo]

...richmo, thank you. I forgot about the parking. Where do you usually stay offsite? Because a couple places had shuttles, but I guess you would still need a car. Just trying to figure out cost of staying offsite, cost of car? I think with AP it’s a good deal, because parking at the parks is about $40?

Yes, parking is a biggie. Parking just went up to $22 a day. If you stay offsite and don't want to rent a car, I'd strongly recommend staying at one of the Hotel Plaza Blvd hotels. They have a bus loop that takes them to the parks on a regular basis. If you stay anywhere else (Bonnet Creek might be an exception), I'd *strongly* recommend renting a car (or perhaps try Uber or Lyft). Yes, many of the offsite properties will say they have shuttles, and they do, but schedules are very restrictive, capacity isn't guaranteed and reliability is questionable. Lately I've been staying at a SpringHill Suites just off property near the Western Way WDW entrance.