Curious about survey answers

[WDWDad]

After reading the thread about members survey answers I was not surprised that basically there are two camps, the AP people and the PH people .

I have always been curious about why peole buy AP's or UPH. I am a true Disney fan. But after 15 trips in 13 years if I spent more than 3 to 4 days in the parks in a year I think I would go seriously berserk. What do you people do in the parks? If you are spending all the extra money just so you can go eat in restaurants in the parks aren't you spending extra money on tickets just to spend extra money on food? I have eaten in most of the restaurants in the parks and I believe that most of the best restaurants can be found at the resorts. Of the 10 best restaurants I've ever experienced none were on property, and all those were less than what I would have spent at one of the best Disney restaurants.

It seems to me to make your AP's work that you would have to spend 13-14 days in the park. At that number of days it still costs arounf $30 per day. Wouldn't you feel that at $30 per day per family member that you would have to spend at least 5-6 hrs in the parks to make it pay? So what do you do with that many days a year at WDW theme parks?

 

[goofy4tink]

Well, for us, we are using the AP for the first time this summer. We'll be at WDW for 9 days in August and then 7 days at Thanksgiving time. Next summer we are planning on spending 4 days at WDW before we go to VB for 5 days. So, we'll have 22 possible days in the parks...$19 a day per person. I don't think I can spend that little money elsewhere and have the same return in entertainment. Now, when we go again, we will most likely be using park hopper passes. Besides, we always find something different every trip. It never fails to amaze me.

 

[Coach Rick]

Well for us, we only get there every other year, so we pretty much spend the whole time there in the parks, and it is way more than eating in the parks for us. I love the shows, concerts, and so called street mucicians.

We are currently contemplating (I should say I am) wheter or not I should purchase UPH, or a 6 day PHP this time. I keep going back and fourth on it. We will be there for 7 nights, but need to go in to MK on the evening we get there to see Spectro Magic. It's the last night for the summer that it will be shown, so right there we need to use a ticket.

 

[Patty3]

We go once a year for 7 days at a time. We will buy our AP tickets in August and then go again the next year in May. I do spend time at the parks every time we go and just about every morning I am at one of the parks. At night, I love walking around Epcot and seeing Illuminations or seeing the MK fireworks. Maybe since I only go once a year, that is why I visit the parks every day.

 

[rocketriter]

To each his own (as the farmer said while kissing a cow).

 

[WDWDad]

Do you spend the whole day at the parks? I love watching wishes, I could probably see that almost everynight and not get bored. But we stayed for spectro magic one night and I couldn't help but think what a tired production that is becoming. I was bored after 10 minutes. It was a year since I had seen it last. I enjoy the street performers and am not a commando type parks person. I typically go from attraction to attraction, but am never out to do everything that I can do in a day. I stop to smell the roses. I still can't see what you would do with 7 - 22(?) days in the parks.

Been there,done that to an extreme.

What about everyone else? How many times could you go on It's a small world before you starting digging a hole in the boat just to get out? How many times could you go on the Haunted Mansion before you started begging to be the thousanth ghost?

As a second question if your spending 7 of 7 days at the parks, or 21 out of 22 as the case may be, don't you feel as though you may be missing out on all the other great things about DVC and WDW?

 

[living la vida mickey]

Wdwdad, I'm with you. Tne last three times that my family and I have been to WDW, we didn't go to the parks at all. Granted our DH is 24 and didn't come with us, but we have a blast doing all the other things. We even went miniature golfing in March! I love WDW, but the prices of the tickets are out of sight for what I want to do in the parks. With a decent discount on a UPH, we'd go but an AP is too many days in the parks for us. We love PI and DTD and just enjoying the pools and having fun. OKW is our favorite place to unwind. That doesn't mean we won't hit the parks again, but right now I don't see them as a first priority. Since I'm a teacher and we have to travel at the busy times, the parks are crowded when we can go too. When I finally retire and we can go for the F and W festival or at other times, that may change our perspective too. That's MHO.

 

[Coach Rick]

Originally posted by WDWDad

As a second question if your spending 7 of 7 days at the parks, or 21 out of 22 as the case may be, don't you feel as though you may be missing out on all the other great things about DVC and WDW?

You mean there are other things to do?

 

[tjkraz]

Originally posted by WDWDad
As a second question if your spending 7 of 7 days at the parks, or 21 out of 22 as the case may be, don't you feel as though you may be missing out on all the other great things about DVC and WDW?

To some people, a "day" at the park doesn't necessarily mean arrive at 8am for Early Entry and leave after the E-Ticket Night ends. It could be just for a nice meal or some last minute souvenir shopping.

You said that you spend 3-4 days in the parks per year. Well, that puts you right at the break-even point for an AP. Eight days is typically the point at which an AP pays for itself compared to other ticket media. I don't know your exact travel plans annually, but let's assume it's a week every November. You could buy an AP for a 2004 trip during the 3rd week of November, and still use the same AP for a week-long trip the 2nd week of November 2005.

An AP gives users the freedom to come-and-go without the urgency associated with knowing that you're spending $40-50 for a park hopper day every time you walk through the turnstiles.

 

[living la vida mickey]

An AP gives users the freedom to come-and-go without the urgency associated with knowing that you're spending $40-50 for a park hopper day every time you walk through the turnstiles. [/B][/QUOTE]

Good point. I may need to think about this from this angle. Thanks.

 

[living la vida mickey]

Sorry, I guess I didn't quite get the quote thing right. i was quoting tjKraz.

 

[jarestel]

For us, an AP is just a pre-paid park admission for a year. Buy it once and don't think about it again until next year. It's more for convenience than economics, but since our last year's AP got us in for 20+ days, I'm sure we saved a few bucks in there somewhere.

 

[lenshanem]

Let's see...

We bought an AP for the first time this year.

June trip - Used it 7 out of our 9 days there.

Next week - Plan to use it 5 days out of our 9 days there. (Doing Sea World, too.)

February - Plan to use it 3 days out of 4 days there.

April - Possibly use it 6 days out of 8 days there.

Wow, so I'll get 21 days out of it. (Not everyone is going on each of these trips.)
Talk about burnout! Our plan was to max our AP by going in June, then in April for next spring break and a couple extra trips got thrown in for good measure.

After this we're taking a break. I'm sure it will kill me. We'll try to do VB, HH, maybe the cruise in 2006. Then we'll probably start up again with another AP.

I have been trying to plan lots of different things each trip to keep it fun. New meals, tours, etc. We also have for the first time this last trip took it easier. Very relaxed, not stressed if we couldn't do it all. Didn't set the alarm clock, went back to swim, etc.

 

[WDWLVR]

We usually go to a park every day we are there but that doesn't mean we spend the entire day at the park. We usually we get up and have breakfast in the villa, then hit our park of choice (we usually opt for a park that is not doing early entry). Around noon or so we head back to the villa to relax or do something else (mini-golf, shopping off site, etc.). Later in the evening we'll either have a meal at one of the resorts or in the parks and then head back to the parks for Wishes, Illuminations, etc.

We usually go once a year so there always seems to be something new to see and of course we have our old favorites. We also try and do something new and diferent every visit - like the Segway tour we did in May.

For those who like to just relax by the pool, play golf, or whatever - great! Do what is best for your vacation plans but when we go to Disney we like to visit the parks.

 

[mrsR123]

I'm part of the "come and go as you please" camp, too. DH and I are staying at BWV sans kiddies in about a week on rented points. Then, next June, we'll all go home for the first time for two weeks on our own points and probably won't go back until 2007 (gasp).

So, although DH and I are only planning one day in Epcot for this trip, I'm seriously considering buying APs so we can hop elsewhere or pop in to ride RnR or something. Plus, it'll be two fewer APs to buy next June.

 

[dianeschlicht]

We have been DVC members since 1997, and have purchased APs all that time. We usually go 2-3 times on one AP and then wait at least 365 days before going again. That way it is like getting 2 years of trips on each AP, but we only buy them every other year. We own DVC because we love to vacation at WDW. That being said, I would not bother to own DVC if I didn't love going to the parks whenever I wanted to on a trip. We rarely do anything else in the area except to sometimes go to the space coast for a day and sometimes go to visit friends in Sanford.

We really enjoy the Disney mystique, and sometimes will just pop over to a park to do one specific thing or visit a favorite restaurant. I can't imagine staying at DVC and not being able to pop into a park whenever I feel like it. That is why APs make sense for us. We usually get 20-40 days on each one. That makes our perday investment pretty low.

 

[OneMoreTry]

I have not used AP, but if they were less $$ I would use them. We only spend a few hours a day in parks as it is and would probably spend less except we feel we need to get our money's worth from the PH. If we had AP we would spend less time per day, but go for shorter visits -- like eat at a World Showcase restaurant or go just for a parade -- like the one at AK we've not seen yet -- or just one show. We would have more freedom to come and go.

Then we would also schedule 2 trips 11 mos apart so we could use the passes twice.

 

[Mickmse2002]

We have annual passes and normally schedule vacations to get around 23 days use from them. We are casual park goers, we hit the attractions we really enjoy and if it gets too crowded we leave. We spend a lot of time at the pools and DTD. We like the convenience of them and they fit our vaction style to a "T". I would like them even more if I could get them for 25% less.

 

[MomsGoneGoofy]

Members since 1992 and visit WDW every year. We usually get the PAP. We also enjoy the water parks, there I can sit, relax (ignore the chair hogs) and read my book while the kids enjoy themselves in the wave pool, on the slides, etc. Then we might go to one of the parks later in the evening to do a few things. While staying at BCV we would enjoy the pool during the day and walk over to Epcot for Illuminations at night. If there is a rainy day we go to DQ. We don't feel we have to go to a park everyday but it's nice knowing we could just pop in one if we wanted to. We've done mini-golf (many times), movies, pool hopping, the sports complex, and resort activities. We are in the group that use the pass for two years. Since we go for a minimum of two weeks each summer we could get 28+ days use. And there are discount perks associated with the AP that DVC doesn't offer (saved quite a few $$ on souvenirs).

 

[Granny]

Originally posted by rocketriter
To each his own (as the farmer said while kissing a cow).

rocketriter....some times you just plain scare me!

But anyone who quotes Yogi Berra in their avatar obviously understands the important things in life.

As for the OP, we have used both AP and PH. I think AP is important for us if we are staying at BWV or BCV, since it is literally a short walk to two parks and we'd think nothing of popping in to grab a FastPass or visit an attraction or two and leave.

On the other hand, we sometimes use PH if we know we will be doing a lot of off-site visiting during a vacation.

All types of tickets, including UPH, make complete sense for different occasions.