Anyone ever regretted getting APs?

[jenniferyawn]

Hi, all! We are planning an October trip because that's when we gave our week off from school. Our trips have always been in Oct or Feb for that reason. I do want to see the parks at Christmas! I'm considering gettin APs this year. There's me, DH, DD14, DS15, and DS1. I've researched and obsessed over spending the extra $ for APs. I would hate to not use them or feel obligated to go back just to use them and wind up spending way too much. But I would love to be able to spend a night or two at Christmas or Star Wars weekend. Has anyone ever regretted getting APs? Or were you very glad you made the decision to get them? Please share and tell why. Thank you for your insight!

 

[MrsDuck]

I think that it really just boils down to math!

DH and I are FL residents and DVC owners. For us, it's totally worth it. For your family, I think a little leg work with doing the math of potential trips would be necessary to really gauge if buying the AP is a good value.

 

[thisismyusername]

I've never regretted it since we usually go a few times a year, but I will admit that it MAKES you want to go back. We definitely have planned more trips than we would have normally if we didn't have the APs since the cost of tickets is so steep.

For our family, I have our APs scattered throughout the year to make the cost a little more bearable. My kids' APs I actually just renewed this morning (they expire in March); mine expires in June, and my husband's expires in September.

 

[FLchick415]

I'm a FL resident & I've had mine for a year, and I definitely don't regret it at all. Especially with the way ticket prices keep creeping up.

 

[patster734]

Typically, we go once a year, usually in October for the F&W. Last year, we originally decided to skip the F&W in favor of visiting early December for the Christmas festivities. However, as it was our 15 wedding anniversary in October, we booked a last minute trip to celebrate. Doing the math, with the October trip, the December trip, and this year's October trip, it was cheaper to invest in in an annual pass than buying a multi-day ticket three times. Although I may have regretted buy it initially because of the cost, it is nice not having to worry about buying tickets for the planned trips. Also, to get the most out of our ticket, we book an additional trip for next month to visit during the F&G festival at EPCOT.

 

[robinb]

Hi, all! We are planning an October trip because that's when we gave our week off from school. Our trips have always been in Oct or Feb for that reason. I do want to see the parks at Christmas! I'm considering gettin APs this year. There's me, DH, DD14, DS15, and DS1. I've researched and obsessed over spending the extra $ for APs. I would hate to not use them or feel obligated to go back just to use them and wind up spending way too much. But I would love to be able to spend a night or two at Christmas or Star Wars weekend. Has anyone ever regretted getting APs? Or were you very glad you made the decision to get them? Please share and tell why. Thank you for your insight!

You'll have to do the math. Is the October week off always the SAME week, or does it vary? Could you get 2 October trips out of your AP? If so, it's a no-brainer.

It'a about $270 more for an AP than for a 7-day PH. If you really want to do on another short trip, it would be cheaper to get that AP than a 3-4 day pass. Plus, you will be eligible for AP discounts on resorts, restaurants and merchandise.

 

[disnut8]

We live in Georgia so go frequently and haven't really regretted the annual passes for the same reason you are thinking you will regret it. We can go for a quick trip and not have a problem. We can also park hop and not be concerned (we call ourselves free roaming vapors). If we go for a quick trip, we just stay offsite (we drive down so have our own vehicle) and get free parking at the parks. Even if we just spend one day in the parks, it's enough to get away from real life and that makes it all worthwhile.

 

[dayvewc]

Absolutely the other option. I had an annual pass last year, due to a change in jobs I wound up with a couple of extra vacation opportunities and decided that would be my Year of Disney. (yes, my family laughed at me for the designation).

What I regret, though, is not renewing. I would have been able to stay a couple of days longer last summer when the pass ended, I decided not to go for a quick trip in January because the cost of the ticket put the trip out of reach financially, and since I let the pass lapse I am not now able to get the reduced rate renewal. I plan to get another AP when I go back this summer, and renew every year.

In my calculations (and I get a discount on the pass as a DVC member) the renewal rate is approximately the same cost as 5 day park-hoppers, after paying for parking. So even if I only go once a year, at that point it is the same price AND I get the associated discounts (most of which are useless since the DVC has the same).

Now, your mileage may vary, but it works for me, and I wish I'd looked into it better before I let mine expire.

 

[MakiraMarlena]

The only real reason to get APs is if you are going to use them for park admission enough within a year to "make back" what you spent on the AP. Are you going to do that even without planning superfluous trips?

I've had an AP for 14 years now.

 

[Brian Noble]

Has anyone ever regretted getting APs? Or were you very glad you made the decision to get them? Please share and tell why. Thank you for your insight!

I've bought APs twice now. I only buy them when I know, for sure, that I'm going to have enough trips to justify the cost based on admission alone. I generally don't include "extra" trips after that.

 

[Gracie09]

only because now we have added a third trip to wdw because we had the tickets and airline points.

 

[DebbieB]

Be careful. They tend to call out "take me, take me, you don't have to pay for tickets"!

 

[Disneylover99]

I always do the math, and think should we? Shouldn't we? When I finally buy them, I'm so happy. So no regrets for me!

 

[WillAustin]

Didn't regret getting them, but it made us travel to WDW 3 unexpected times during that year.

 

[Flamingeaux]

Nope. Once we got ours all we wanted to do was to use them as much as possible. The hard thing is we live in LA and we couldn't afford to fly. It was fun when we made four trips on one set of APs.

 

[Mousemommy1]

We have had AP's since 2012 and never regret them. We use them for two 11-day trips in a year. Well worth it!!

 

[JennyDrake]

Be careful. They tend to call out "take me, take me, you don't have to pay for tickets"!

YES! YES! YES!

As PPer mentioned, it also frees you up to park hop and not feel pressure to cram as much into a vacation as you can. I've had one for I think 10 years. NO regrets.

 

[DexLabDeeDee]

I don't own an AP and I never have. I think I would love to sometime in the future but we just don't visit enough for it to be worth it.

My thoughts were when I was reading the responses is that it may come down to where you like to usually stay? Is it off-site or on-site or do you own DVC, etc? If you like to take advantage of some of the discounts through Disney, sometimes you have to make it a package with tickets which may negate the savings if you have an AP. However, maybe buying APs would make it cheaper than the discount anyway! Just something I wanted to bring up.

 

[MakiraMarlena]

it doesn't really matter where you stay, or what discounts you can get, so long as you have plans to enter WDW theme parks enough to make the pass worthwhile. The discounts could be taken away at any time.

 

[jenniferyawn]

Thank you everyone for your input! We live in GA and would be driving. We have always stayed on Disney property but I was just looking at some duties in Kissimmee today that look pretty nice....agh! Can't decide on anything!