Buy AP's or do packages?

[Rhonna]

Hi,

We are thinking of doing two trips next year.

One in May would be a CA coast driving trip with maybe 3 days at DL.

One in Nov. would be just DL, flying and stay for maybe 5-6 days.

Two adults staying on site.

I don't know if we should get PAP's and hope for room only discounts in May and Nov. or if we should just hope for packages both of those months?

Is there such a thing as a room and ticket package (no flights) offered to the general public? We may look into AAA if it's worth it.

It makes it harder that one trip is driving and one is flying. I haven't tried to figure out these kind of logistics before.

Thanks

 

[sonnyjane]

Yes, they do offer room and ticket packages (no flight required), but they are almost ALWAYS more expensive than making a room-only reservation and then buying tickets separately. I typically suggest against getting a package.

It's really simple math. If the savings on the on-site hotel with the AP (10% standard up to 30 or 40% during certain times) and tickets justifies the cost of the PAP, then get the AP Don't forget that as a PAP holder you'll get 15% off of food and at least 10% off of most merchandise (it's currently 20% as part of a special promotion but I can't promise that will be valid during your dates). I find that the food discounts for me alone really add up.

 

[Rhonna]

Yes, they do offer room and ticket packages (no flight required), but they are almost ALWAYS more expensive than making a room-only reservation and then buying tickets separately. I typically suggest against getting a package.

It's really simple math. If the savings on the on-site hotel with the AP (10% standard up to 30 or 40% during certain times) and tickets justifies the cost of the PAP, then get the AP Don't forget that as a PAP holder you'll get 15% off of food and at least 10% off of most merchandise (it's currently 20% as part of a special promotion but I can't promise that will be valid during your dates). I find that the food discounts for me alone really add up.

It would help a lot with food since we do mainly sit down meals (not character) rather than a lot of QS. But I don't know HOW much it would help. I think I remember the PAP use to cover several DTD restaurants too. I know it will help with the parking for our one driving trip.

It use to be rule of thumb that packages worked out better at DL and doing everything separate was better at WDW. Now I don't know how it works for DL. We are definitely hoping for a big room discount on both trips. But this fall they did it for AP holders AND general public, not much incentive for AP holders. So I am still unsure which way is better.

Also, several years ago it worked out to buy an AP for me for the room discount only since it was a really good deal and then we bought a regular park hopper for my sister since we knew we were not going back within 12 months.

Springing for TWO PAP's would be a lot and I'm not sure if it's worth it. I always hated doing the math part. If it was only a 10% room discount it might not be worth it but a 30 - 40% discount might be. But you don't know that far ahead what they are going to do. If we bought PAP's for May and then there was no extra discount for AP holders in Nov. it would feel like we made a mistake.

It's hard to do the math when you don't know the equation. LOL!

Thank you for the reply.

 

[sonnyjane]

I know it will help with the parking for our one driving trip.

On this point, remember that PAP parking does not cover parking at the hotels. You will still have to pay $15 a night if you're staying at an on-site hotel, and in that instance, there is not a parking lot that is closer than the hotels really, so I highly, highly doubt you'd be driving to a Disney parking lot and using the PAP parking perk when you could simply walk to the parks in a shorter amount of time!

It use to be rule of thumb that packages worked out better at DL and doing everything separate was better at WDW. Now I don't know how it works for DL. We are definitely hoping for a big room discount on both trips. But this fall they did it for AP holders AND general public, not much incentive for AP holders. So I am still unsure which way is better.

This is true. Often I get a little irritated with the hotel prices, as they typically end up offering the extreme discounts to the general public as well, however, at least when I stayed on-site, my AP rate during a time that there was a general public discount offered as well was still a little lower.

Also, several years ago it worked out to buy an AP for me for the room discount only since it was a really good deal and then we bought a regular park hopper for my sister since we knew we were not going back within 12 months.

Springing for TWO PAP's would be a lot and I'm not sure if it's worth it. I always hated doing the math part. If it was only a 10% room discount it might not be worth it but a 30 - 40% discount might be. But you don't know that far ahead what they are going to do. If we bought PAP's for May and then there was no extra discount for AP holders in Nov. it would feel like we made a mistake.

Completely understand. I would honestly JUST take into account the price of tickets (roughly what they are now) and see how it compares to two PAP's. Ignore the hotel part since it's such a variable. Also remember that there will likely be a price increase for tickets sometime next summer, so if you based it on today's prices, it would likely be a little more expensive next year, which might increase your savings. And, just figure if you spend $100 a day, you save $15 on food that day. If you go for 8 days, that's $120 in savings. If you spend more than that per day, it's even more savings compared to just buying park-hoppers.


Thank you for the reply.

 

[3Minnies1Mickey]

Are you going over thanksgiving to warrant a PAP over a Deluxe?

 

[Rhonna]

Are you going over thanksgiving to warrant a PAP over a Deluxe?

Not going over Thanksgiving. I just didn't bother looking up the black out dates for May and Nov. I guess I need to find the page that shows the different benefits, blackout dates and costs between the PAP and Deluxe and see if the Deluxe would work for us.

Also, I thought the PAP covered parking at the hotels, which sonnyjane says is not so.

 

[Rhonna]

Thank you. I didn't realize that about the parking. And I think we may have notes on what we spent on food on our last trip to DL, I'll see if I can find them. Then I can try the formula you mentioned and see how much we would save. If the AP food discount would just cover the parking fee (lol) or be a larger discount that would make it worthwhile.

 

[Rhonna]

Yes, they do offer room and ticket packages (no flight required), but they are almost ALWAYS more expensive than making a room-only reservation and then buying tickets separately. I typically suggest against getting a package.

Our second trip (Nov) would include flights. Are packages w/flights, hotel and tickets good?

I understood your post to mean room and ticket only pkgs. are not a great deal.

Thanks for all the info!

 

[3Minnies1Mickey]

Our second trip (Nov) would include flights. Are packages w/flights, hotel and tickets good?

I understood your post to mean room and ticket only pkgs. are not a great deal.

Thanks for all the info!

Not usually.

 

[Rhonna]

Not usually.

Thank you! I'll look into the deluxe AP's and go from there.

 

[skiingfast]

Are you going over thanksgiving to warrant a PAP over a Deluxe?

Not going over Thanksgiving. I just didn't bother looking up the black out dates for May and Nov. I guess I need to find the page that shows the different benefits, blackout dates and costs between the PAP and Deluxe and see if the Deluxe would work for us.

Here is the page with blockouts below, currently a blockout day ticket costs $59.
http://disneyland.disney.go.com/passes/blockout-dates/

I'd say you should at least get delux $379 because with a 3 day and 5 or 6 day and the price increase which is almost sure to come about $450 in tickets. But whoever pays the bills should get a Premium $499 to get the higher disounts on Food and Merchandise.

If you spend about $75 a day on merchandise and dining over 9 days, that would be $675 . If you assume you will save 7.5%, this is with 10% extra on merch and 5% extra on food. You will save $50 and have paid for the difference between tickets and a PAP. Of course you will need to spend about $1600 more to justify the difference in a PAP and DAP, which is closer to $175 a day.

 

[Rhonna]

Here is the page with blockouts below, currently a blockout day ticket costs $59.
http://disneyland.disney.go.com/passes/blockout-dates/

I'd say you should at least get delux $379 because with a 3 day and 5 or 6 day and the price increase which is almost sure to come about $450 in tickets. But whoever pays the bills should get a Premium $499 to get the higher disounts on Food and Merchandise.

If you spend about $75 a day on merchandise and dining over 9 days, that would be $675 . If you assume you will save 7.5%, this is with 10% extra on merch and 5% extra on food. You will save $50 and have paid for the difference between tickets and a PAP. Of course you will need to spend about $1600 more to justify the difference in a PAP and DAP, which is closer to $175 a day.

Thanks. Now I'm trying to figure out PAP or DAP or one of each. Okay. Here goes:

If there will be a price increase, I don't know when that usually happens. Would we have to commit and buy them NOW? I don't think we can do that yet. We may have to accept the price increase, depending on when it happens.

I don't even know anymore how getting an AP works. I remember you could get a voucher at a local disney store, show the voucher at resort check-in for the room discount and then go to guest relations in the park to activate the AP. How does it work now?

Can we buy AP's at current prices and activate them upon arrival? If there are room discounts do you have to possess an ACTIVATED AP to get the discount - or just tell them you will show or buy AP at/after check-in?

When you wrote: "You will save $50 and have paid for the difference between tickets and a PAP." Did you mean a DAP?

And when you said spending about $1600 more to justify the diff. between DAP and PAP - you mean just on food and merch, right? - Not the resort room.

We don't intend to spend much on merchandise, food will be the bigger bill for us.

Has anyone seen this sentence: "Merchandise discounts will expire May 31, 2012." It's here on the AP info. pages: http://disneyland.disney.go.com/passes/discounts/

Does that mean there will be no merchandise discounts with any AP's after May of next year? I can't see any other way of interpreting it?

This is NOT the fun part of planning for me.

(oh, and May 2012 AP blackout dates are up but Nov. 2012 are not yet. So we have to wait and see how that might affect us.)

 

[Rhonna]

I'd say you should at least get delux $379 because with a 3 day and 5 or 6 day and the price increase which is almost sure to come about $450 in tickets.

Is there info. that a deluxe will go up from the current $379 to $450? How soon? That's a big jump. Or did you mean that buying parkhoppers would add up to about $450? Thanks.

 

[Eeee-va]

In the past, Disneyland has announced the price increases in some form...if you visit the DISboards daily, you should see when the price increases are coming. Usually they're announced a few days before they actually happen, if I recall correctly. I think you can then buy your APs and redeem them at the gate....though you may have to be careful to make sure they don't back-date your AP to your date of purchase. (Though realistically, if you bought in early December or later and you were for SURE only going in May and November, it wouldn't really matter if they dated your AP wrong, aside from just not being fair.)

Has anyone seen this sentence: "Merchandise discounts will expire May 31, 2012." It's here on the AP info. pages: http://disneyland.disney.go.com/passes/discounts/

Does that mean there will be no merchandise discounts with any AP's after May of next year? I can't see any other way of interpreting it?

Hard to say. The merchandise discount was supposed to absolutely expire as early as December 2010 (or maybe earlier) but Disney keeps extending it. So I don't think you can count on it as a certainty. I'd be maybe mildly surprised if it was discontinued, but it's not a given that it will continue, especially since Carsland is coming and will presumably draw a lot more visitors.

 

[Rhonna]

In the past, Disneyland has announced the price increases in some form...if you visit the DISboards daily, you should see when the price increases are coming. Usually they're announced a few days before they actually happen, if I recall correctly. I think you can then buy your APs and redeem them at the gate....though you may have to be careful to make sure they don't back-date your AP to your date of purchase. (Though realistically, if you bought in early December or later and you were for SURE only going in May and November, it wouldn't really matter if they dated your AP wrong, aside from just not being fair.)



Hard to say. The merchandise discount was supposed to absolutely expire as early as December 2010 (or maybe earlier) but Disney keeps extending it. So I don't think you can count on it as a certainty. I'd be maybe mildly surprised if it was discontinued, but it's not a given that it will continue, especially since Carsland is coming and will presumably draw a lot more visitors.

Where do you buy an AP ahead of your trip?

Thanks for the background on the merch. and AP's.

 

[3Minnies1Mickey]

You can buy APs online on Disney's website.

Merchandise discount has always been for PAPs. For the other APs it started for the 2009 holiday season and keeps getting extended. It was recently extended from Jan 2012 to May.

 

[skiingfast]

Is there info. that a deluxe will go up from the current $379 to $450? How soon? That's a big jump. Or did you mean that buying parkhoppers would add up to about $450? Thanks.

What I meant is that when ticket prices go up, which they probably will, your tickets, a 3day PH + a 5 or 6day PH will cost about $450 total.

Hard to say. The merchandise discount was supposed to absolutely expire as early as December 2010 (or maybe earlier) but Disney keeps extending it. So I don't think you can count on it as a certainty. I'd be maybe mildly surprised if it was discontinued, but it's not a given that it will continue, especially since Carsland is coming and will presumably draw a lot more visitors.

I'd say it has about a 10% chance of ending. Also IIRC PAP had a 10% disount and the other APs had no discount for Merchandise. So now it's a sort of bonus 10%.

Where do you buy an AP ahead of your trip?

You can buy them on disneyland.com and take the voucher to the park with you. But I agree with Eeee-va keep and eye open for an announcement of ticket and AP price increases. The internet will know a few days before it happens.

 

[Rhonna]

What I meant is that when ticket prices go up, which they probably will, your tickets, a 3day PH + a 5 or 6day PH will cost about $450 total.

You can buy them on disneyland.com and take the voucher to the park with you.

Thanks for the clarification on the PH...

Do you know if they activate the AP's at the time you buy them online or when you get to the park?

 

[Rhonna]

You can buy APs online on Disney's website.

Merchandise discount has always been for PAPs. For the other APs it started for the 2009 holiday season and keeps getting extended. It was recently extended from Jan 2012 to May.

Thanks!

 

[skiingfast]

Thanks for the clarification on the PH...

Do you know if they activate the AP's at the time you buy them online or when you get to the park?

When you go to the park.