AP, TIW and lots of number crunching

[alott27]

I will be in Disney at the end of January 2013. There are 5 adults, 2 Disney-adult kids, and an infant (no cost for now!). We have a 2 BDR villa at WVL booked at rack rate right now. I am getting ready to purchase tickets and cannot decide if I should just go for the PH tickets I have always used or purchase PH for all but one and make that one an AP. I would do this maybe to take advantage of TIW. The Dining Plan does not work for us right now (of course, if it were free, I would take it) because we do not want the desserts and would rather share meals. In the past we have had all kinds of extra credits. We do several character meals, so this is where I think the TIW card would help.

I am hoping for some sort of discount on the room, but am close to budget without one. Has anyone out there ever played with the numbers like this? I figured to break even, I would need to make up about $350 in room savings/ food savings. This is for the two families going.

 

[mydisneyobsession]

There are so many variables, that it would be hard to know for sure without working the numbers.

I did this on our last trip - calculated possible discounts on the resort and figured out where we'd be eating, what we'd be ordering, etc. I figured out that I'd probably at least break even and would come out ahead easily if I managed to make a second trip on the AP and TIW card.

I decided to do it, and then ended up not getting any room discount because we needed to change our dates slightly to a Holiday week. We moved our reservation to the Swan to avoid the Disney Holiday upcharge. Then I never got to make the second trip.

We saved money on our meals, but not enough to cover the increased cost of the AP, so it turned out to be a bad gamble in my case.

 

[jillmc40]

I was just trying to figure this out...We just went in April for 10 days, staying off property. We then decided we would go next february for 9 days (off property again - we have a timeshare). We decided to get AP's...I then decided it would be fun to have a girls only trip (me and dd5) in October to do the Halloween party and celebrate her birthday a little early. So I crunched some serious numbers...The AP's would save us on parking (14.00 a day), 10% at giftshops, and we bought the TIW card. I felt it saved us a TON! We like to eat TS. I had 14 TS ADR's and with the exception of Easter day and Teppan Edo it was accepted everywhere. PLUS, free valet parking at the resorts if you eat there. But then I started to think...For our October trip, we are staying at the GF. I thought about getting the Deluxe ddp, since we like to sit and eat. I went through all the menus, figured out what I would order if I went there and it came out cheaper to not do the dining plan and just pay cash with the TIW. By about 40.00...Not huge, but probably more since I will probably not order an app and dessert at every meal. I don't think dd and I would eat 4 snacks a day either. I figured if I had the regular ddp I would still be paying oop for some meals, then you have to decide which is the better deal, etc...I can't deal, I will just buy food when I am hungry and not fret! I definitely think the TIW is worth it, and I am hoping the AP will get me a good discount at GF. I certainly saved more than 75.00 on all the dining we did, and I still have 2 more trips to go! Next year is like a freebie as far as I am concerned

Hope that helps a bit....

 

[ncmom2four]

I wouldn't do anything yet. I'd wait and see what packages come out for next year before buying tickets separately. You just never know what will come out...

 

[clanmcculloch]

When I did the math on upgrading one person from a MYW hopper ticket to an AP plus purchase of TiW, I figured I needed to spend around $1200 in dining to make it worthwhile just in dining. If you can get a room discount then there's less you have to spend on dining for it to be profitable.

Here's how I came up with that number.
$552.74 Annual Pass
$368.50 10 day MYW hopper ($309.92 + $58.58 per mousesavers)
======
$184.24 cost to upgrade ticket
$ 75.00 cost of TiW
======
$259.24 cost to upgrade and purchase TiW

If I would have to spend $350 in dining to cover the $75 cost of TiW then I would have to spend $1209.79 to cover $259.24 (259.24*350/75).

I would look into renting DVC points for your resort stay since you want a DVC resort. You should be able to knock quite a bit off your price by doing this. With the discounts that have been available this year, I can't imagine a resort discount, even an AP rate, that would be cheaper than renting points. This is a totally separate decision from the ticket upgrade decision.

 

[alott27]

Thanks so much for the help. I looked into renting points but am afraid of the possibility of cancelling. You never know what might happen when you have three kids. I figured if I broke even that would be okay. Tickets normally go up about the time they release next year's packages and such.

 

[plutolovr]

Just remember if you buy your tickets now and a free dining offer does come out for your trip dates you will be required to buy everyone in your party a 2-day ticket with the package. Just something to think about.