Decisions, Decisions

[disney junky]

My annual passes expire this month. I was going to renew. Then the prices jumped, and I decided not to renew. After seeing all of the changes, I thought, what the heck. Renew and plan trips. However, I don't want to find myself in a position where something I'm expecting to be open is delayed. Now I'm rethinking it. I can still get a substantial discount by buying the vouchers for a later time and make sure all of the changes will be completed. Additionally, we are out of points till June of 2020, though that doesn't matter a ton. We can rent points or pay cash for rooms.

All these new and exciting rides and areas are so appealing.

How are others thinking ?

 

[Sandisw]

Well, I am now retired so I know I will make good use out of my AP. However, I didn't renew in August because I am not going till October. Even though renewing would have been cheaper, by starting a new one in October, I will be able to travel on it next year for my end of August trip (this year, I was there at the beginning of August).

If you buy the new vouchers, yes, you can save them (you can't get vouchers at the renewal price for later). Of course, if you renew, then you will be forced to make a few WDW trips...so if it were me, I would probably do that!!! LOL

 

[CarolMN]

Tough call, for sure! We bought AP vouchers just before the price increase and won't activate until December, so our decision won't have to be again for at least a year.

We don't renew, due to our travel schedules. Instead we buy new, try to get 2-3 trips out of our APS over the year, and then buy new again to activate just before our next sequence begins.

 

[disney junky]

I'm retired too. DW isn't yet, but she does have over 6 weeks vacation a year, so the time isn't the issue. Not having points is part of the problem, but I don't want to force trips to use the AP's. At our age, we like to relax at WDW too. I'm fine with not renewing. I'm of the mindset as well that once we activate the new vouchers, that next 12 months, we'll be making plenty of trips to get our use out of them.

 

[Marionnette]

My annual passes expire this month. I was going to renew. Then the prices jumped, and I decided not to renew. After seeing all of the changes, I thought, what the heck. Renew and plan trips. However, I don't want to find myself in a position where something I'm expecting to be open is delayed. Now I'm rethinking it. I can still get a substantial discount by buying the vouchers for a later time and make sure all of the changes will be completed. Additionally, we are out of points till June of 2020, though that doesn't matter a ton. We can rent points or pay cash for rooms.

All these new and exciting rides and areas are so appealing.

How are others thinking ?

Our APs expire October 1. We aren’t renewing and have no plans to go to Disney until mid- to late-October, 2020. We will decide at that point whether to buy APs again or just use regular passes for that visit. All the new and exciting attractions will still be there. I can wait.

 

[Ms.Minnie]

Tough call, for sure! We bought AP vouchers just before the price increase and won't activate until December, so our decision won't have to be again for at least a year.

We don't renew, due to our travel schedules. Instead we buy new, try to get 2-3 trips out of our APS over the year, and then buy new again to activate just before our next sequence begins.

This is what we do and it has works very well for us. Maybe if we lived closer we would renew but we are too far away to make that work for us. We always get at least two trips our of our AP and sometimes three. Now that we are both retired we definitely get our monies worth out of annual passes.

 

[Simba's Mom]

Well, I'll let you know! After 17 years of being an AP holder, I didn't renew this year and my upcoming trip will be my first without an AP since 2002.
What's ironic is that I can still remember that the main reason I got an AP was that I really wanted to be able to go to the AP holders' preview of the Osborne Lights (and this was back when they were where the Lights, Motor, Action! show later went). I also wanted to try out the brand new Beach Club Villas. But now they don't have any perks (OK, BCV wasn't an AP perk but the preview of the OL was), and the APs are so expensive, especially for those of us who live out of state, I decided to go without it. We'll see how it feels when I'm there.

 

[Deb & Bill]

Our APs expire a couple of days after our Sept/Oct trip. We have a couple of Waterpark APs sitting in our "bank". We're going to try to apply them to a Weekday FL Resident pass. We don't usually hit the parks on the weekend, the summer or holidays. They should work our fine for us.

 

[bobbiwoz]

We’re retired, live in NJ, and as long as we can travel I expect to have an AP, and we do renew. It’s been awhile, but DVC and the AP’s were in our hand when we went on a three night trip to say farewell to the Great Movie Ride and Universe of Energy. There have been other spur of the moment trips, but that’s the one we bought tee shirts from!

However, we all know how we like to travel and plan. Perhaps buying the voucher is a good idea.

 

[cw62803]

I love the gold AP. We plan to renew ours for the next several years. The question is when will we renew them, and the answer takes some simple math. I subtract the cost of a new pass from the cost of a renewed pass, which currently is about $100 per year. Then I figure out the monthly cost of pass - which if you buy a new pass is about $58 per year. If we plan to go to WDW within 2 months or so of our passes' expiration dates, I renew them. If we don't plan to go for 3 months or more, I let the passes expire and buy new ones for our next trip. (And like most others, try to plan for at least two trips on one pass.)

 

[Maistre Gracey]

We are not sure what to do. I was going to renew and downgrade to Epcot after 4, but my sister and her family are arriving the day after my silver expires. They will be in Epcot, but we wouldn’t be able to enter until 4 o’clock.
If we upgrade to silver, we will have a lot of blackout days. That’s the nice thing about Epcot after 4.... no blackout days.

 

[Deb & Bill]

We are not sure what to do. I was going to renew and downgrade to Epcot after 4, but my sister and her family are arriving the day after my silver expires. They will be in Epcot, but we wouldn’t be able to enter until 4 o’clock.
If we upgrade to silver, we will have a lot of blackout days. That’s the nice thing about Epcot after 4.... no blackout days.

How did your house survive the hurricane?

 

[Maistre Gracey]

How did your house survive the hurricane?

Unscathed!!! Thanks for asking....

 

[Deb & Bill]

Unscathed!!! Thanks for asking....

That's great. I know you are happy about that.

 

[gharter]

We renewed our passes this year before the increase.
For us, each year we look at how many days we plan to be there and then see if the AP or regular tickets are cheaper. Depending on the year, the answer changes.