Deluxe: 10% discount on most food, not that many blocked out dates.
Premium: 15% discount on most food, 10% discount on most merchandise.
no blocked out dates.
Last November was during the AP4 promo, where you could get Paradise Pier for 129, or Paradise Pier concierge room (which means access to the lounge with beer and *maybe* wine in the afternoon, and with food like Uncrustables, and bottles of water, all for the taking) for 169. Also good rates for DLH and even GCH. There's a promo right now that's not as good, so I don't know if that means they will have a promo in Nov for your next trip, but not as good, or if it's just the timing now vs during the fall...but that is what it was last year that time.
Other things...once I had the AP activated (your first use) I had access to the AP part of the
disneyland website, and you also get a quarterly newsletter/magazine. The last one had a $20 off $100 purchase coupon, which was lovely. It also gave a website which gave access to POTC3, as though you were buying it on the release date at Disneyland, which meant that it was the normal price and there's a little matted picture of the Asian ship, with a piece of the sailcloth, and a little pirate coin thing. DH loved it.
As long as supplies last, it seems that each quarter they give an AP dining pin, which means that for every $30 you spend in ONE meal at certain restaurants, you get a "free" pin. We got one in September after treating ourselves and my brother to Blue Bayou (actually got two b/c we spent over $60), but this December they were already out of the then-new pins. So that's hit and miss.
That's all I can think of right now.
Basically, if you plan to go back even once in the year from your first day this trip, it makes sense, most likely. When we upgraded, we had 5 day hoppers, and we knew that we would be there at least one more day inside the year, on our usual visit to my brother. The 5 day plus a 1 day = more than the deluxe AP. It just made good sense for the year's finances (although it was a little painful to upgrade the three tickets all at once), as long as we had the cash to do it with.
