At what point is an Annual Pass worthwhile?

[thmcdonald1]

I'm going for 5 days with park hoppers in May (18th-22nd). Odds are that I will be going to Walt Disney World at some point in the next year (I've gone almost every October for the past few years).

During my Disneyland trip, we've got reservations to eat at Carthay Circle, Blue Bayou, Napa Rose and Steakhouse 55. So, 10%-20% off the ticket there could go a long way. I also plan to buy a wheelbarrow full of merchandise, so a discount there could be helpful.

I'm trying to decide if I should just take the hit and go ahead and upgrade my two five-day park hoppers to the Premium / Premier Annual Passports.

One note: I have a Disney Visa Rewards Card, so some of the advantages of having the AP for discounts may be superceded by already having discounts with the DVRC.

Any help is appreciated!

 

[YukonMommy]

I think when you figure out the cost you would pay for all the tickets you would be purchasing in a year to go to Disney and if the cost is over or pretty close to a Pass then I say go for it!

 

[figment_jii]

It depends a lot on how long you will be in WDW and whether you're staying onside or not. The price of the premier pass is about $1135 (including tax). The price of a 5-day PH at DLR is $331. The price of a 10-day PH at WDW is about $457. So the price to upgrade to the premier is $347. The merchandise and dining discounts are much better at DLR, but the hotel discounts can be pretty good at WDW.

If you were going to try and make up the discount based just on dining, you would need to spend at least $2,312 at DLR (assuming a 15% discount). For merchandise, it would be $1,734 (assuming a 20% discount) at DLR. At WDW, the merchandise discount is only 10% (same as the Disney Visa, but no minimum) and there are very few dining discounts (only select locations at select times and almost none at any CS location).

In the end, it depends on what your plans are for both trips. Are you staying onsite at WDW? Are you going to the water parks and/or DisneyQuest? Are you making any more trips to DLR during the year? Things like that can all impact whether it makes sense to upgrade to the Premier AP or not.

 

[agamble]

With a Deluxe pass if you go 3 days this year and 3 days next year, the price is worth it. $350 for two 3-day tickets at current prices or $349 for the AP. So an average family who likes to go for a yearly 4 or 5 day trip should consider Deluxe APs. However, you're talking Premier. The Premiers are very expensive. You'd need to consider how many days you're going to WDW for and if/when you'd make a return trip to Disneyland this year. It may not be worth it unless you're going for enough days.

 

[thmcdonald1]

It depends a lot on how long you will be in WDW and whether you're staying onside or not. The price of the premier pass is about $1135 (including tax). The price of a 5-day PH at DLR is $331. The price of a 10-day PH at WDW is about $457. So the price to upgrade to the premier is $347. The merchandise and dining discounts are much better at DLR, but the hotel discounts can be pretty good at WDW.

If you were going to try and make up the discount based just on dining, you would need to spend at least $2,312 at DLR (assuming a 15% discount). For merchandise, it would be $1,734 (assuming a 20% discount) at DLR. At WDW, the merchandise discount is only 10% (same as the Disney Visa, but no minimum) and there are very few dining discounts (only select locations at select times and almost none at any CS location).

In the end, it depends on what your plans are for both trips. Are you staying onsite at WDW? Are you going to the water parks and/or DisneyQuest? Are you making any more trips to DLR during the year? Things like that can all impact whether it makes sense to upgrade to the Premier AP or not.

Thank you for the thought out and in depth response. It's definitely a lot of numbers I'll need to crunch.

I can make the decision AT THE GATE on my first day of my current 5 day PH, right?

 

[DG24]

You have till the last day of your 5 day hopper to make your decision on an ap. You have till that ap runs out to make your decision to upgrade it. In jan I knew I was going to DL a lot this year so I went ahead and bought and ap for me and little one. My original ticket was a three day hopper, I turned that I to a deluxe for her and a premium for me. In April we will go again. My original thought was to upgrade hers to a premium in April, then in aug if we go to WDW upgrade both to a premiere. Well when tickets went up, and family plans changed. We are at this point going DL in April and DL in aug. So instead of upgrading hers to a premium I wet with a two day ticket with her deluxe she will then be able to get in on Saturdays in April. Costing me less than upgrading. Plus since we decided not to go to WDW, at least at this point we saved money there on both of our tickets. So you can always upgrade from a smaller ticket to a larger ticket as time goes by. So if plans may change do what I did and just keep adding only as you need. I figure, if I do decide later to go WDW, yes, I spent an extra $163 that I should not have, but I saved about $500 if we don't go. For me the premium works great because of free parking, $17 a night, but for the little one the deluxe works good except for two Saturday's.

 

[figment_jii]

I can make the decision AT THE GATE on my first day of my current 5 day PH, right?

You can upgrade your DLR tickets at any point while they still have days remaining and are valid. So you can upgrade on the 5th day of use if you'd like.

 

[SMD]

If you can squeeze another DLR trip out of it 51 weeks later, then that would be a reason to go DLR premium. Also, if you can add a 6th day by going on arrival or departure day. A 5 day PH this year and another next year would be about $700, so not far off the current price of premium. The cost of your WDW tickets would have to be $400 or more to approach break even for a premier on 2 DLR trips and 1 WDW trip. But again, if you normally do 7 days in WDW with 4 park days, having a premier AP would allow you to do 4 full park days but 2 extra dinners in a park. But as PP said, the break even on merchandise and food discounts is usually pretty high.

 

[pmaurer74]

waaaaiiitt.. if you have an annual pass you can get into WDW and DLR?

 

[figment_jii]

Although, with WDW, if you are staying onsite, the hotels discounts for AP holders can be pretty substantial. They haven't announced any fall AP discounts this year, but last year, select rooms were between 20 and 35% off. So if you're staying onsite (and a deluxe, especially) the room discount can be fairly substantial. Mousesavers has been tracking the discounts and release dates for several years:
http://www.mousesavers.com/historical-information-on-walt-disney-world-resort-discounts/

waaaaiiitt.. if you have an annual pass you can get into WDW and DLR?

Only the Premier Annual Pass ($1,135) is valid for admission at WDW and DLR.

 

[pmaurer74]

Although, with WDW, if you are staying onsite, the hotels discounts for AP holders can be pretty substantial. They haven't announced any fall AP discounts this year, but last year, select rooms were between 20 and 35% off. So if you're staying onsite (and a deluxe, especially) the room discount can be fairly substantial. Mousesavers has been tracking the discounts and release dates for several years:
http://www.mousesavers.com/historical-information-on-walt-disney-world-resort-discounts/


Only the Premier Annual Pass ($1,135) is valid for admission at WDW and DLR.

bummer it would take 4 trips to make it worthwhile... I might be able to do 3 but not 4

 

[Nicolette11785]

Maybe only upgrade one of your passes to premier for the discounts and then the other pass just keep as a hopper. Also, you can wait until the last day to upgrade but then you would have no discounts for the first part of your trip.

 

[Pucka1378]

We did the math on the premier AP and the math did not work out for us. We were already getting a discount on the room from a summer sale. There were not that many discounts available like they have DLR for AP holders. Although if you get the Premier AP you can get a tables in wonderland card the cost is $100 but you get 20% off at many of the restaurants at WDW.

We currently have the deluxe AP for DLR. I am off to go check to see if getting the Premeir AP for just one of us makes sense.

 

[Pucka1378]

I just redid the math and I think we are going Premier... Just figured out after I consider the cost of my AP plus the park hopper cost it is a difference of $150 per person.... I just need to confirm if we upgrade to the Premier does my AP restart from that day to the following year or is it only good until my current DLR AP expires. If my year does not restart then it is not worth it.

 

[Pucka1378]

Found the answer

"Yes. You may upgrade your Passport type at any time during your Annual Passport year—subject to Passport availability. The expiration date of your current Annual Passport will not change and your upgraded Passport will have the same expiration date as your original Passport."

 

[whoever]

In admission alone, I think 11 days at 5-day rates makes it break even. On lesser duration stays, that break even point goes down. THat's before you factor in the discounted merch/dining.

 

[bumbershoot]

To me there is such a difference in "at what point is a DL or WDW AP worth it" vs "at what point is a Premier AP worth it".

I can't make the Premier work for us. I'm not sure it ever will because we have the DVC AP option available, and upgrading all the way to Premier is just not necessary. We have managed 4 years of WDW trips without setting foot in a waterpark (even the year of the amazing deal on Premium WDW APs when we had access) so we just don't need the Premium APs there. And we haven't needed the Premium APs at DL, either.

If we didn't have access to the DVC WDW AP I would need a year where we needed the Premiums, or where we had *at least* two trips to each coast.

It's all a math game.

For the WDW discounts, look here: http://allears.net/pl/disc_dining.pdf The AP itself isn't anywhere near as good with food discounts as it is at DL. But if you're dining at the places and times where the AP gets you a discount, you might not even need to get the TIW. (and maybe vice versa...we've had trips both ways!)

 

[ludari]

For me my AP cost is justified based on when I break even based on my park visits.

 

[ten6mom]

Not sure if anyone mentioned this but there is no AP discount at Napa Rose, just fyi

 

[whoever]

Not sure if anyone mentioned this but there is no AP discount at Napa Rose, just fyi

As my $430 bill attested to the last time I ate there, sadly no, no discount.