Disneyland Annual Pass [Which one should I get?!]

[SillySymphonies]

I'm pretty intent on buying a Disneyland annual pass because I plan on going in September, October, November, etc. [Hahaha] basically at least once a month.

So I know I am eligible for the So. Cal passes but I don't know if they give me enough flexibility with dates.

So I was wondering if I should get a So. Cal pass [the $154 one] or one of the more expensive ones?
Thank you for your imput!

peace, love, & Disney

 

[squirrel]

I have heard that many people buy a park hopper first so they can have an EE day. You can have more if you are staying at a DL Hotel. They then exchange the hopper for a Annual Pass, and pay the difference at the gate (this must be done before the hopper expires).

I don't know all the details about the two different annual passes but I do know that the premium one has parking and I think you get an extra 5% off of the shops and restraunts over the other pass.

 

[eduk8r26]

The SoCal AP has Labor Day Saturday and Sunday, every Saturday during September, October, November, as well as Veteran's Day weekend, Thanksgiving Friday, Saturday and Sunday (not Thanksgiving Day) and all Saturdays in December, as well as every day from the 21st on. Don't know about 2008 yet. Deluxe only has Sept. 1 and 2 Nov. 22-24 and Dec. 22-31 blocked out.

 

[bumbershoot]

Have you gone on to disneyland.com, to the tickets area, to check out what sorts of dates you can expect to be blocked out? To enter the So CA annual pass section you simply have to give your zip code, and then you have access to look at prices and dates.

Looks like for '07-'08 (they have april '07 through march '08 on there), for the $154, 220 days, AP those passholders weren't allowed to go at all in July, will only be able to get back in late August, not much of June...half of April, will miss the last half of March, and sundry other holidays and weekends in there.

The one for $124 is only 170 available days. Zoiks! Of course, that's still only the cost of, what, two one-day tickets, or something like that?


Assuming they stick to a similar calendar after the upcoming March, only you can decide if you'd like to be able to go in July or much of August, etc... and if paying OOP for those days would be worth it to you, or if you'd like to go SO often during those blackout times that it makes more sense to get a deluxe AP for $85 more (assuming those blackout dates work for you) or even the premium.

 

[tinkerbelt]

You can always start out with one of the SoCal passes, and then if you find that you have too many blockout dates, you can upgrade at any time. That's what we did, kind of like Annual Pass Layaway.

 

[iheartdisney]

I go about once a month, and I chose the Deluxe AP, even though we live in the SoCal area as well. I figure any day that is blacked out, I'm not gonna want to go for the crowds. You get all the discounts, as well as the ability to go on Sundays.
But I forgot to add the parking onto it! So it is a monthly expense for the $11 fee...oh well!

 

[talie95]

We have the regular So Cal AP's which work out well for us because we don't really want to go during the summer because of the heat and crowds(which is pretty much all blocked out) but we still have Sundays for most of the rest of the year so at least we get one weekend day, and since my daughter has a fall break in Oct and Sat. are the only block out days in Oct. we are able to use it on all our days for that trip. So I guess it just depends on how often you go and when you expect to be going. If you think you'll be going at all in the summer it would probably be better to get one of the other more expensive ones.

 

[KelsiesMommy]

onboth So Cal passes every Staurday is blocked out- so, if you ever want to go on any Sat in the year, you might want to get the Deluxe.

To the previous poster who forgot to add parking... take your paid parking stub to the ticket counter and ask to add it to one of the APs- they will deduct the cost of that day's parking and should "upgrade" your pass to add parking.