The Disney website states that if you renew your AP online before your expiration date, you will receive a special discount. Does anyone know what this special discount is?
When you renew your pass, rather than letting it expire and buying another one later, you save about $40.00. The cost of the new pass is $441.98 with tax and the renewal is $399.38 with tax.
But you also need to think in terms of the year itself. For instance, we bought an AP last year and arrived at WDW on May 20th so our passes will expire May 21 of this year. Now we're probably not going to be able to go again until maybe December of 2006 so I'm thinking our best option would be to wait to buy another pass in December so that it will be valid until December of 2007. This way we don't lose 5 months. I may not have explained this very well.
I'm just saying think about your future trips when purchasing an AP, it might be to your advantage to not renew and pay the extra $40.00 per pass.