Annual Passports A Must For DVCers

[rinkwide]

I seem to be reading posts that suggest more than a few DVC members are holding off on buying annual passports until there's some sort of discount. This may not be wise. Discount or not, I would say that every DVC family that spends a week "at home" once a year (and goes to the parks daily) should consider buying APs. The basic concept: buy your passes on your first visit, let's say week 25, and then come back next year and use them for week 24. In such instances you can realize per day park visit costs of around $30 a day.

Sure, there are exceptions to this strategy's effectiveness. Creative and attentive use of the ParkHopper Plus passes can rival the per day value without expiration. Unfortunately they limit your day-to-day touring options significantly and I personally find them a big hassle to deal with.

Anyway, I just want to make sure all DVC owners are aware that regular priced APs can be a tremendous value even if you only go once a year.

 

[Autumngirl]

My DH And I also get Annual Passes... We also just got one for my 12 y.o. neice who has been seriously bitten by the Disney bug. We had her with us in December....and she's coming back with us in Oct. Now we are kicking ourselves... if we had just paid for the AP THEN (and it would have paid for itself-10 day trip), she'd practically be going free this time!

 

[laceemouse]

I see your point, but the PHPs work best for us. We don't do the parks every day. We visit family in the area, shop, relax at the resort, do Sea World, ect. Also, we have 4 kids and 2 of them are adults by Disney standards, 6 APs would cost us a mint. We bought our 7 day PHPs at the DS last December when we were able to get double points using our Disney Visa (now we have mega Disney bucks to spend!) We plan on making our passes last for 3 trips. We would buy APs if we got a good deal on them. Right now it is not our best option. If we did have APs we may go into a park just to eat and see/do one thing so Disney would probably get more money out of us!

 

[laceemouse]

Hey Rink, what happened to Hammer? My kids loved him!!!! Lacee

 

[rinkwide]

Originally posted by laceemouse
...what happened to Hammer?

Just another case of the man keeping us down.

 

[tjkraz]

Originally posted by laceemouse
We bought our 7 day PHPs at the DS last December when we were able to get double points using our Disney Visa (now we have mega Disney bucks to spend!) We plan on making our passes last for 3 trips. We would buy APs if we got a good deal on them.

Don't know if you're aware of this or not but you should also be able to buy APs at The Disney Store as well. They will sell you a voucher which is activated upon arrival at WDW. The pass begins the day you activate.

rinkwide: I agree that APs should definitely be given consideration by DVC member. Interestingly enough, DVC claims that only about 12% of members are AP holders. Nobody seems to know exactly where they get these figures--whether it's via cross-referencing of databases or simple surveys of members.

Back when the Member Homecoming event was announced last December, the pricing scheme included 3-Day hopper passes as part of the cost. Intially DVC indicated that they would not offer special pricing for AP holders. They withstood about 2 weeks worth of complaints before offering a whopping $50 discount for current AP holders.

If DVC really has any faith in that 12% figure, you would think AP discounts would be something bearing serious consideration on DVC's part. Seems like there are a lot of members doing what laceemouse describes--squeezing multiple trips out of a set of Hoppers rather than paying a premium price for APs. My guess is that's a lot easier to do after you've been a member for a handful of years.

 

[spiceycat]

if DVC got a good discount on the AP - I would buy one - I kept a SW and US/IOA annual pass - but they are priced much better.

In our visit of 5 days - we go to WDW parks maybe one or two days at the most. - Okay that is traveling with my mother - my niece different story.

I have been a member since 93 and those free tickets we got was a good reason to go to the parks.....

I love SW - animals are always different. of course that should make AK a favorite of mind - and for some reason it is not.....

you also have a great selection of outlet malls in the Orlando area....

 

[JessetheCowgirl]

Love our AP's !!!!

 

[DisnutDave]

We get an AP every other year. For instance, this year we are going in December for 7 days, April(2005) for 5 days and most likely November(2005) for about 6 days. That's 18 visits on one AP, that really brings down the cost per day! After that, our next trip home probably won't be until December of 2006, at which time we will purchase our APs and start our 3 trip use cycle.

We love the flexability our APs afford us. Sometimes we use them to go to the parks for EMH and ride a few rides, other times for dinner and illuminations and sometimes we spend an entire day at the parks. The nice thing is that we don't feel as though we have to spend the whole day there.

With all that being said it's only DH and I which makes the purchase of an AP more affordable. We also love to travel so since this is a priority for us we put a little money aside every week towards our vacation fund, which helps in the purchases of APs.

If APs are within your budget and you can strategically plan your visits they really are a great way to do the parks.

 

[Dancind]

We just broke down and started a new cycle, after letting them expire a year ago. We were planning to just use park hoppers for our Aug. trip, because we didn't plan on going again for a while. But then we read the e-mail about the DL 50th anniversary happenings at the World, and decided we would go back early next summer. Since then, we have added a 6 day trip for F&W, and three days after our cruise in Dec. I am a little peeved about one thing, that e-mail from Disney said that Expedition Everest would be one of the new attractions for next summer, and everything else says 2006.

 

[offtheice]

Originally posted by rinkwide
I seem to be reading posts that suggest more than a few DVC members are holding off on buying annual passports until there's some sort of discount. This may not be wise. Discount or not, I would say that every DVC family that spends a week "at home" once a year (and goes to the parks daily) should consider buying APs. The basic concept: buy your passes on your first visit, let's say week 25, and then come back next year and use them for week 24. In such instances you can realize per day park visit costs of around $30 a day.

Sure, there are exceptions to this strategy's effectiveness. Creative and attentive use of the ParkHopper Plus passes can rival the per day value without expiration. Unfortunately they limit your day-to-day touring options significantly and I personally find them a big hassle to deal with.

Anyway, I just want to make sure all DVC owners are aware that regular priced APs can be a tremendous value even if you only go once a year.

APs are great if you know you are going every yr . With so many things in life that happen, to me they arent worth it. Only are they worth it if some type of major discount comes with it.

 

[DebbieB]

I've had AP's since 1998. I usually get 20 to 25 days of each one. I time my trips to get maximum use. For example, last year I bought them the second week of May, we went in October, December and then the first week of May right before they expired. I don't renew, I'll buy new ones next time (December, maybe October I can't wait ).

 

[off to neverland]

Diana,

What email are you talking about from Disney? I'm a brand new member, so I missed it...........

Rae

 

[off to neverland]

We'll be doing the same thing as Dave - buying a pass every other year. Our plan is to buy the passes when we go this May and use our 2004 points then. We'll return the following December and use our 2005 points. And then we'll take a year off and start the whole thing again, unless I talk my husband into buying more points!

 

[RXMAN]

Since we have joined DVC three years ago, we have been buying APs and getting two one week trips out of them. All I can say is that it works for us. I have 4 children of which 3 are triplets (DS,DS, DD) 8 years old and DD who is almost 6.

I figured that the PH would really cream me if we wanted to go to the parks everyday. That is usually our plan, unless the weather is terrible. So far, after 4 trips, this has not been the case.

The other advantage for us, is that I like to plan at least one meal (lunch or dinner) in the parks. There is no way that I could do this on a PH. I would be too cheap to go if the weather was bad to burn a ticket for a meal.

The only downside is to plan ahead of time to pay out the 2+ grand for a party of 6. The Disney reward dollars came in handy, but it is still a crunch.

Anyway, next year I'm covered and after that, we can't wait to upgrade to PAP when the kids are old enough to hit the water parks hard.

I can totally relate that for empty nesters, this is probably a waste, but for those of us are in prime kid ages, AP rules!!!

 

[Cora]

We did APs once. What we have found is that since we have DVC we are more lax in going to the parks since we are there frequently. We would prefer a discount on hoppers, maybe a after 4p ticket for Epcot. My .02

 

[calypso*a*go-go]

I agree w/Cora. It would be great if Disney created an AP that was a reasonably-priced way for people to enter the parks in the evenings (4pm or 5pm) to enjoy dinner and maybe a parade, fireworks, etc. I have been surprised continually by the number of DVC owners that don't even enter the parks for the rides/attractions but enjoy gourmet dining and an evening excursion.

 

[DrTomorrow]

rinkwide, thanks for the reminder - the "multiple trips on in one AP-Year" idea has been around for a while. Somewhere (I'm too lazy to look right now ) there's an analysis of how many days you need to squeeze out of an AP - and a PAP - to make it worthwhile. And as others have said, over time, the desire to go to a WDW Park every day can wane a bit; since as a DVCer, you'll be back next year (and the year after that, .... ), Park Hoppers with days that don't expire can be a good alternate solution.

The folks you mentioned, IIRC, were just going to wait as long as possible before buying them, to make sure that they didn't miss any new DVC AP discount

 

[timC]

Well.... we average 12 nights per year at WDW, and still find that hopper+ passes work better than APs. We don't go to the parks every day... and we average 2 water park days per year... In fact this year, I went for a 5day+ hopper. That will do us for the entire year! The overall cost for us is lower by staying with hopper passes.

 

[Cora]

The breakeven point for an AP is 7 days...