At what point do AP's pay for themselves?

[ssatterly]

I am thing of either a 10 night or 14 night trip in a couple of years and was thinking of getting AP's... Any help will do. Thanks Susie

 

[WDWAurora]

I'd always heard 8 days, but keep in mind, unless you're staying on grounds to figure in the cost of parking for all those days, we save a bundle on that alone!

 

[Skylarr29]

Well I think after about 8 or 9 park days the pass pays for itself (approx.) Plus you have the option to hop to other parks as often as you want. Sometimes the discount rate for hotels rooms
(Especially for longer stays) can make up for the price alone. It also gives discounts on other things like tours , mini golf, restaurants, and shopping. We live in fla but we buy them and take a vaca in sept and then the year after we just take our vaca a week or 2 earlier befor ethe pass expires. So we usually go for about 20-25 days within that year. Hope I helped a little.

 

[Skylarr29]

Oh and don't forget if you buy the pass vouchers at a local disney store you can exchange them at anytime in the future at disney. Example start buying now to avoid price increases of the tickets over the next year or 2.We have 2 sets now so when ours expire we have them in a few years.

 

[ssatterly]

So you can buy the vouchers now and they don't have a expiration date untill they are activated? I could buy them now and save them untill 2006?

 

[seashoreCM]

Excluding package promotions that come and go (such as Fairy Tale) and also excluding the perks like resort discounts and parking, the Premium Annual Pass breaks even on about the fourteenth Disney day for a single trip or the eleventh day if you take two or more trips in a year. The exact point depends on what other kinds of passes you are considering and what park touring strategy you use.

Disney hints:
http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/disney.htm

 

[ceejay13]

We have bought APs for the last several years. We average two trips a year to WDW for a total of about 15 or 16 days. I think it is a little over $50/day for a day pass so you can start to look at that way. Also, you do get discounts on rooms etc. so that is also a plus. I would think at 7 or 8 days I would consider an AP. We are DVC members and don't need the room discounts but love the freedom it gives us to just go to a park for a few hours and not feel we have to spend every waking hour there to get our money's worth.

 

[Micca]

Another nice aspect of the AP is park access when you only have a partial day (like on arrival or departure day). Also helpful when you want to go to a park restaurant or shop We found the APs to be a great stress reliever.

 

[n2mm]

It pays for itself in 8 day to the parks. My hubby is a CM so we don't need any of the other perks it offers. It's well worth the money if you visit more than 8 days per year.

 

[goofy4tink]

Well, as of Thanksgiving, we will have used ours for a total of 15 days, so that comes out to about $27 per day. That's the standard AP, not the premium one tho. We have old park hopper pluses with a plus and one park visit left!

 

[4greatboys]

I can tell you one big downside to Ap's is your always thinking about how to get in 1 more trip before it expires, lol. We have been pretty lucky so far and gotten AP discounts on our rooms and at many Epcot resturants and few others you get a 10% discount at lunch time, plus the free parking.

 

[EsmeraldaX]

http://www.allearsnet.com/pl/breakeven.php

This link has a breakdown of when they become a better choice.

IMO, the resort discounts alone are worth it.

 

[homeschooler]

I agree about trying to get another trip in before it expires.

We buy tickets and go in February. Then we plan to go the next January. That gives us the second trip without buying tickets. I always tell the kids on the off year, going is in question and we all save and try to get tickets. Usually I will buy one or two at a time hoping to have all by trip time. We always seem to manage. The second year is a, we are going if we have to sleep in the car.

 

[jann1033]

this is pretty funny but between what we saved on hotels for the coming trip and last trip we spent a grand total of $4.41 each per day's vist to get in the parks ( we will have gone 16 days in the two trips) it would have been less but i only took off the differences in the amounts for rates we could have gotten in other ways vs AP rates...if I had taken it off rack rates it would have been like disney paid us each $29 per day to go to the parks

 

[Disney Doll]

DH figured it out once and when you are there more than 8 days in a 365 day period, the AP becomes the best deal.

 

[ssatterly]

WOW thanks Guys!!! I think I will be getting Ap's!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[hawkrn]

can someone tell me how much it would be to renew my AP? It expires in December and I heard there was a renewal discount. Thanks

 

[iwannabeminnie]

Okay, this could get really tricky. Help me figure this out. We would like to go in 2005 and take our two nieces. Then we have a trip planned in 2006 with my sister and her family. The past two years we have booked the 4+3 and the 5+2 and netted huge savings, plus we love the Ultimate Park Hoppers. We usually do Pleasure Island at least 2 times during a visit and Disney Quest 2 or 3 times. We also enjoy the water parks. Considering we would have to buy tickets for those venues (unless we went PAP) would we save enough money on the 2 trips (2005 and 2006) with maybe a room discount or are we better off hoping for another 4+3 or 5+2? (I'm so confused )

 

[ScottNBecky]

I would say that if you can plan it in 2005 to go say July for a week, and then in 2006 in June for a week, you would get 2 trips out of your AP. Yeah you would then have to purchase DIsneyQuest, or PI tickets, but add up the cost of those tickets (keep in mind you get a small AP discounton PI and Disney Quest etc.. too).

ANytime you can get at least 2 trips out of an AP its well worth it. My family (4 of us) buy an AP each and then buy one day Typhoon Lagoon tickets as extras. I think we save like $20 total on the TL tickets b/c of the AP. PAP doesnt seem worth it for us, b/c we mainly go to the parks not the other places, but this year we have gotten (17 days already out of our AP and will get 5 more over XMas. It expires in May so maybe a Spring Break trip too for 5 days LOL! Hope that helped.

 

[FatCow]

Yup! It's 8 days. Anything more than that can be considered "free entry".

We'll be there for the full 9 days for our future trip in December. On top of that, we got the AP discount for the hotel room. For 20 nights, we saved another US$200 plus tax.

... and we're planning to go again for 6 nights in September 2005.