Any idea when we can buy WDW annual passes?

[Disney and the Dude]

I've had an AP off and on for many years. Florida resident but I'm up in the west end of the panhandle so typically I wouldn't renew if I didn't think I was going to have time to make enough trips down (about 6 1/2 hours.) We have a big trip in October planned that I was going to buy one for then so it wasn't sitting there un-used. Never imagined they would stop selling them temporarily or I would have bought ours during COVID. Ended up buying a 4-day Florida flex ticket and we went down a couple of weekends ago. Hoping they'll start selling them again before the flex expires so I can apply it towards the AP. Have tempted to call and beg them to sell me an AP

Our friends had bought a Flex for their son, and were about to have to buy a second - when they tried begging Ticketing. You might want to give them a call!

 

[Bishoparc]

Our friends had bought a Flex for their son, and were about to have to buy a second - when they tried begging Ticketing. You might want to give them a call!

It's worth a shot, worst they can say is no.

 

[YesterDark]

AP's are way too much money and with three young kids, we'd have to book two decent vacations a year at Disney for it to make sense. Don't have the money or time for that.

 

[Mit88]

AP's are way too much money and with three young kids, we'd have to book two decent vacations a year at Disney for it to make sense. Don't have the money or time for that.

‘If I werent DVC, no chance I’d buy an AP. Not accounting for the discounts, you’d have to do like 15-20 days to make it worthwhile over the longer stay ticketing options. I’m sure there’s an actual set amount of days you’d have to do calculated and talked about on these forums that I’m too lazy to look up. I think I paid $670 last October for my Gold, and unless I get to the 10 days in the parks mark, it technically would have been cheaper for me to just get a 10 day ticket, or two 5s since they expire now

 

[ParrotBill]

It had always been about 10 days to the break even, so any longer and an AP was better. Many of us DVC owners would plan for 3 trips to maximize value, take a break, then repeat.

 

[YesterDark]

‘If I werent DVC, no chance I’d buy an AP. Not accounting for the discounts, you’d have to do like 15-20 days to make it worthwhile over the longer stay ticketing options. I’m sure there’s an actual set amount of days you’d have to do calculated and talked about on these forums that I’m too lazy to look up. I think I paid $670 last October for my Gold, and unless I get to the 10 days in the parks mark, it technically would have been cheaper for me to just get a 10 day ticket, or two 5s since they expire now

I did the math as a non-DVC no-Florida resident. If you are a hopper you break even with essentially a 5/6 ticket trip and a 3/4 ticket trip (if I remember correctly). It's more if you're never a park hopper.

 

[BorderTenny]

Well, this situation just got personal for me. We are new-ish FL residents who hadn't bought AP's for anywhere pre-shutdown, although we eventually plan to get them for all the major parks. Yesterday I found out that my parents are planning on coming down with my 10yo niece Thanksgiving week, and they might do a day or two at a park. If I can't get AP's for DH and myself, Disney has likely lost those day visitor dollars to Universal or Sea World/Busch Gardens.

 

[jenndot]

We just moved to Orlando a few weeks ago and are SO SO SO disappointed that it doesn't seem there is any way to get APs. I've talked to different cast members and asked into trying to upgrade our Flex passes or any other loophole that would get us APs, but it's not possible. We ultimately ended up buying Universal APs (as did several other new families that recently moved here that we talked to). They are definitely missing out on a ton of food revenue from our family (and many others) in addition to the AP costs, and leaving a bad taste in all of our mouths compared to how other parks in the area are courting new AP holders.

 

[KatyWDW]

We let our regular annual passes expire in Nov 2019 since we are new DVC members and wanted to buy the gold annual pass. We purchased our gold passes in March right before our spring break trip....Covid hit and our trip was cancelled. At the time I didn’t know how long this pandemic was going to last so I received a refund with the intention of buying passes right before our November 2020 trip. Needless to say I regret getting the refund....we will now be paying more money for regular tickets than we would with the gold pass. Doesn’t make any sense. Also I will add that when I called ticketing I asked if I should just buy regular tickets and was told to wait until mid-September. Not sure if that was a hint but something tells me it wasn’t lol.

 

[ecope127]

We just moved to Orlando a few weeks ago and are SO SO SO disappointed that it doesn't seem there is any way to get APs. I've talked to different cast members and asked into trying to upgrade our Flex passes or any other loophole that would get us APs, but it's not possible. We ultimately ended up buying Universal APs (as did several other new families that recently moved here that we talked to). They are definitely missing out on a ton of food revenue from our family (and many others) in addition to the AP costs, and leaving a bad taste in all of our mouths compared to how other parks in the area are courting new AP holders.

I noticed that on the EU and UK websites, it allows you to go all the way to purchase a FL Resident AP. Does anyone think this would work? Would Disney honor the AP even if they're technically not selling them anymore?

 

[randumb0]

I noticed that on the EU and UK websites, it allows you to go all the way to purchase a FL Resident AP. Does anyone think this would work? Would Disney honor the AP even if they're technically not selling them anymore?

When you click to pay it will error

 

[Bishoparc]

We just moved to Orlando a few weeks ago and are SO SO SO disappointed that it doesn't seem there is any way to get APs. I've talked to different cast members and asked into trying to upgrade our Flex passes or any other loophole that would get us APs, but it's not possible. We ultimately ended up buying Universal APs (as did several other new families that recently moved here that we talked to). They are definitely missing out on a ton of food revenue from our family (and many others) in addition to the AP costs, and leaving a bad taste in all of our mouths compared to how other parks in the area are courting new AP holders.

Yeah, my wife sat on the phone for 4 1/2 hours one night trying to make something happen. Numerous cast members told her it was possible but every time she would get transferred to the wrong place and never got anywhere with it. She gave it her all though, I was proud of her for trying.

was told to wait until mid-September. Not sure if that was a hint but something tells me it wasn’t lol

I sureeeeee hope so. We've got our big trip coming up in October I was planning on buying an AP for, had I known they were going to stop selling them I would've bought one during COVID but my mom passed away in March right when all this started going down so an AP was the last thing on my mind.

 

[KatyWDW]

Yeah, my wife sat on the phone for 4 1/2 hours one night trying to make something happen. Numerous cast members told her it was possible but every time she would get transferred to the wrong place and never got anywhere with it. She gave it her all though, I was proud of her for trying.


I sureeeeee hope so. We've got our big trip coming up in October I was planning on buying an AP for, had I known they were going to stop selling them I would've bought one during COVID but my mom passed away in March right when all this started going down so an AP was the last thing on my mind.

Fingers crossed we can all get APs soon! I’m so sorry for your loss!

 

[dumbo33]

It appears that having an AP now is a disadvantage. We renewed ours in December and now have a hard time getting into a park. It seems that if you buy a park ticket or have to be in a resort to get in. All that money down the drain. Very frustrating!!

 

[rteetz]

It appears that having an AP now is a disadvantage. We renewed ours in December and now have a hard time getting into a park. It seems that if you buy a park ticket or have to be in a resort to get in. All that money down the drain. Very frustrating!!

Its fine if you want to go on a week day.

 

[skeeter31]

It appears that having an AP now is a disadvantage. We renewed ours in December and now have a hard time getting into a park. It seems that if you buy a park ticket or have to be in a resort to get in. All that money down the drain. Very frustrating!!

Well, you have to look at it the other way. If you live nearby, and you have an AP, you can either go very frequently and utilize your 3 days on a rotating basis, visiting all the parks. Or you can utilize the AP and FL resident discounts to get a room for a night or 2 here and there to get into the other bucket if you can’t get say, HS, on a certain day. But, if you didn’t have the AP, you’d be paying extra for a day ticket each time you wanted to book a resort visit.

I know most are saying that APs have lost their value right now, and I do see the point. But I love having mine. We live close enough that we go often (at least 1-2 times a month). We’re also DVC so we stay over for a good portion of those visits. Even without park hopping, having the ticket on hand and not having to blow money on daily tickets for our visits is more than worth it. I’m glad they are allowing people to renew their APs right now (we just did it, so we’re good through 10/2/21).

 

[randumb0]

As a local this makes me feel validated in cancelling my AP. I am not. Planner and visit the parks on a whim. I will be back when things improve

 

[skeeter31]

As a local this makes me feel validated in cancelling my AP. I am not. Planner and visit the parks on a whim. I will be back when things improve

Just keep in mind, the park reservation portion is here to stay for the foreseeable future, even post-pandemic. Now, it shouldn’t be an issue to get same day reservations at all parks once there isn’t a limit on attendance, but you’d still have to do some planning for every visit.

 

[randumb0]

Just keep in mind, the park reservation portion is here to stay for the foreseeable future, even post-pandemic. Now, it shouldn’t be an issue to get same day reservations at all parks once there isn’t a limit on attendance, but you’d still have to do some planning for every visit.

They will need to change it because how will you park hop?

 

[skeeter31]

They will need to change it because how will you park hop?

It’s been debated in the large thread here. Either you’ll make multiple reservations for the same day ahead of time, or once you check into or out of a park with your magicband, it’ll register that you can book another, like how fastpasses work now.