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[dazzling]

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[sherilaine]

All anyone can give you here is their opinion as it is hard to know what is worth something to one person compared to another.

We bought APs last spring to be used over an 11 night May 2013 and 9 night 2014 trip and we found it to be very worth it. The savings in hotel paid for 2 of the passes alone over 20 nights.

I would not want to be there for 2 full weeks with a 5 day pass - however, I would definitely warn against going to the park every.single.day you are there as they can be tiring. If you are going to be there 14 days, then I'd make sure to take a few days off and not even go near the parks to refresh yourself.

It is great to be able to go for a few hours if you wish though - rather than trying to cram it all into 5 days. We did enjoy the passes and might do the same thing again if we were to consider two trips inside a year again. However, our next trip we are actually planning on spending 5 days in DLR and then heading to Palm Springs for the rest of our trip to just do NOTHING - Disneyland vacations can be exhausting!!

Have fun!

 

[figment_jii]

I generally agree with sherilaine, it hard to say whether it'll be worth it to you to get the AP.

Assuming you're buying your 5-day PH from Disneyland (there are cheaper options available at times), it's $305. The Deluxe AP is $519, so that's a price difference of $214. The 5-day PH does include access to one Magic Morning (one hour before park opening at DL), which can help with popular rides in Fantasyland and Tomorrowland. The AP does include shopping and restaurant discounts (generally 10%), but you would have to spend a fair amount on food and merchandise to make up the cost difference.

In the end, it depends on whether you plan to go into DL and/or DCA for more than 5 days. I think you can do most everything in 5-days, but having extra days are fun. It means you can take things more leisurely and go slowly. It also means you don't have to feel like you have to do everything on days when the park is crowded. I mention this because the end of your trip falls on a marathon weekend (11/14-16), so the parks will be crowded.

On option would be to purchase the 5-day PH ticket and then use the MM on the first available day (hopefully it'd be your first day). Then upgrade to the AP. You'd then get the MM benefit of the PH, but only lose out on a day or so of the AP discounts.

 

[sherilaine]

On option would be to purchase the 5-day PH ticket and then use the MM on the first available day (hopefully it'd be your first day). Then upgrade to the AP. You'd then get the MM benefit of the PH, but only lose out on a day or so of the AP discounts.

This is a great idea - to buy a 5 day PH and then upgrade to a Deluxe AP after using your MM. We did not do this as I wanted to buy our APs before the price increase came around and with an AP you have so much time the savings of the MM are not that big of a deal - but if you are not sure, then buying the 5 day and upgrading once you know you want more time might make a lot of sense.

I would not buy an AP for the discounts on merchandise and food alone - we got a very good deal on our hotel with the APs and that is what saved us a lot of money - not all hotels have discounts so that is something to consider.

 

[YukonMommy]

Yes, go for the AP! We do this every time we go on vacay to Disney. We stay for 2 weeks each time and found it is worth the money.

On a side note we do spend 13 out of the 14 days in the parks (we take 1 for shopping) and find we do not get bored or tired out. In fact because we have so much time we find we can go with the flow and not hustle. We start in 1 park and pick a way (say to the left) and then browse in every store, go on every ride (numerous times), watch every show and parade (again numerous times). When you have made it leisurely through both parks we found we usually had 3 days out of the 10 left...in which we then picked fave rides and park hopped like mad to squeeze in the faves one last time. We have done this the last 3 times we were there and it was a blast!

Grandma was not exhausted or sore at the end of the day, the kids saw and did it all and as the parents we got to soak it all in and not hurry. To be honest we never did a FP once as we did not see the need.

Each person/family is different. But for us we enjoy vacationing this way. My Mom was a bit scared to come the first time as she thought she would get tired/sore and not be able to keep up but loved "our way" of doing Disney so much she came back with us 2 more times

How ever you choose to spend your time it will be Magical!

 

[zanzibar138]

If it was me, I would definitely upgrade to an AP Not for the discounts on food and merchandise, but for the flexibility of being able to come and go when you want over the course of that 2 weeks.

Instead of doing the parks from open to close for 5 days, having an AP means you can do them at your leisure. Go to the beach one day, then pop in that night to catch F!, or get a few headliners in before heading off for a day of shopping... It makes for a much more relaxing trip

On our last trip, DH wasn't impressed with Universal Studios, and wanted to get back to Disneyland (if you knew my DH you would understand the ). We couldn't anyway because we had tickets with transport included so we had to wait for the bus. But if we'd have been able to leave in our own time, we would have, and would have wanted to head straight into Disneyland to get the magic back

Another option is to use the first couple of days of your 5 day pass (because, let's be honest, you'll probably be at the parks open til close anyway ), then upgrade if you think you'll appreciate more time. If you're going to do it though, I would definitely do it sooner rather than later though, to escape that 'must get the most out of each day' mentality.

 

[Aust]

We stayed 2 weeks at DLR in Sept 2012 and purchased AP's for myself and my husband (the kids had 14 day passes). It paid off for us, mainly because we stayed at PPH and an AP only discount came up which I had applied to our booking. With just food and merchandise discounts, no hotel discount, we would have broken about even. Also I think deluxe AP's were only $379 then so it was a better deal.

I did a spreadsheet with an estimate of meal costs from allears.net and made an estimate of how much we'd spend on merchandise, and worked it out from there. It's pretty easy to see if it's worth your while. And given you'll be spending 2 weeks there (and assuming you don't have access to 10 day passes like we do here in Australia) I'd be doing it just for the access to the parks for your entire trip.

 

[GatorChris]

One option would be to keep the 5 day pass to DL and then get the Southern California CityPass. Yes, this would cost you more than an AP, but CityPASS gets you 3 more days at DL, plus a day at Universal and a day at SeaWorld in San Diego. After 5 days at DL, you may want a break. These other parks would give you a good break before you return to DL for an extra 3 days.

If I had two weeks, there's no way I'd spend it all at DL. With just two parks, it would get dull at about day 6 or 7. It's not like WDW where you could do that indefinitely. Whoa, that last part sounds like a great idea. I gotta figure out how to do that.

 

[awinangie]

If it were me, I absolutely would go the annual pass route.

In fact, I did!

I planned a trip for just my daughter and me. I wanted at least 3 days with just the two of us. My close friend who lives nearby wanted 3 days with us. So, I went for the annual pass route and scheduled another long-planned trip in the same year with the family of one of the kiddos who was in the orphanage with my daughter. Biggest bang for the buck, IMO.

So, we went in February... Six full days and two nearly full days at the beginning and end. I knew it would be perfect for me. I could relax and just experience things at whatever pace we wanted. Wasn't completely sure about my daughter, would she be the same way??? She did need a break day about half way through. We spent the morning in character greeting lines and had dinner with friends, but the rest of the day was spent lounging in our hotel. This perked her up immeasurably and by the end of the trip she didn't want to leave.

Not everyone is like this. The City Pass option sounds neat. But I just have no interest in going anywhere else.

Sadly, our plans with the other family fell through, but we'll be going for 5 days this summer with one of her other cribmates on our way to the annual orphanage reunion in Wisconsin.

If only I could manage another trip before our passes expire.

 

[Susie63]

We had free 5 day hoppers and upgraded to deluxe AP's in January of 2013. Our first trip was 11 days and we planned a return visit in January 2014 for 12 days. However, my 50th birthday was in September, and the first Halloween party was on my birthday.... so we flew back for 6 days from Canada.
We are not interested in going to any other parks and we are not beach people.... so we were very happy to toodle around the parks everyday.
I like to be able to sail on the Rivers of America at various times of the day. Same with the train and the monorail.... and the shopping
I have seen every show, browsed through every store, done every venue and rode every ride... with the exception of BTMRR. It has always been down when we have gone.
It is also nice to be able to get the perfect seat early for fireworks or a parade.... and not worry about cutting into your precious time with a 5day ph.
Grab a Starbucks and sit back and people watch...I love it... and I meet people from all over the world.
Beware the...... we already have AP's.... let's go back before they expire trap. Disneyland is very addictive

 

[Ljbadfan]

Someone might be able to answer this, but if you get a 5 day ticket and you use one day of it, and then you decide to get an annual pass, don't they only credit for 4 days towards the annual pass since the person used one day. I would get the annual pass. We live in Washington state and got a premium annual pass and used it 18 days in 2013, so having the pass is a good way to go. Durning my 18 days with getting the discounts we saved over $300 off food and merchandise.

 

[SMD]

Someone might be able to answer this, but if you get a 5 day ticket and you use one day of it, and then you decide to get an annual pass, don't they only credit for 4 days towards the annual pass since the person used one day. I would get the annual pass. We live in Washington state and got a premium annual pass and used it 18 days in 2013, so having the pass is a good way to go. Durning my 18 days with getting the discounts we saved over $300 off food and merchandise.

They credit what you paid, whether you upgrade on the first day or the fifth. But the expiration date of the pass will be one year from the date of first use. So unless you're upgrading to a deluxe and need to avoid a blockout date mid-trip, or you want to use the magic morning, then upgrade, there's no real reason to wait until the last day.

One option would be to keep the 5 day pass to DL and then get the Southern California CityPass. Yes, this would cost you more than an AP, but CityPASS gets you 3 more days at DL, plus a day at Universal and a day at SeaWorld in San Diego. After 5 days at DL, you may want a break. These other parks would give you a good break before you return to DL for an extra 3 days.

If I had two weeks, there's no way I'd spend it all at DL. With just two parks, it would get dull at about day 6 or 7. It's not like WDW where you could do that indefinitely. Whoa, that last part sounds like a great idea. I gotta figure out how to do that.

You don't have to use a 5 day hopper on consecutive days anyway. If you really want to do other parks, a better option might be to buy the CityPass, upgrade that hopper to 5 days, then supplement with a 1 park per day ticket for 1-2 days. You could use the PH on Monday, 1 park ticket Tuesday, PH Wednesday, Universal Thursday, PH Friday, 1 park ticket Saturday.

 

[bbeagle]

If I had two weeks, there's no way I'd spend it all at DL. With just two parks, it would get dull at about day 6 or 7. It's not like WDW where you could do that indefinitely.

It all varies depending on the person. We went for 8 days in February with 10 people. We spent Day 1 just in Downtown Disney, Days 2-7 at the parks with a break day in-between, and Day 8 just at the Hotels.

My wife, me and my daughter could have spent another 8 days there - we enjoyed it so much, and we didn't see nearly everything we wanted to. We actually felt 'rushed' with only 5 days in the park.

The grandparents were ready to leave by day 3, and the other couple with 2 kids thought 8 days was perfect, but already want to go back and make it 2 weeks next time.

Because of the way shows are scheduled (like Mickey's Magical Map), they're not everyday. We scheduled it in one day at 12:30, then Aladdin afterwards. With a dinner somewhere at night. Well, when we got there at 12:30, it was cancelled. So, we ended up having to choose whether to see Magical Map or Aladdin - we couldn't see both. Situations like that are alleviated with more days.