Do AP's and DVC go hand in hand?

[InstImpres]

I am amazed (and oh, so jealous) of all the people with multiple DIS trip countdown's in their signature.

Even though I convince myself the room is paid, by the time I add air fare, park passes, character meals, snacks and souvenirs (o.k., so this is probably the killer expense,) that the admission make it almost impossible to go multiple times. Any advise, because if it were up to me I would endure the crazy looks from friends and family and be there on several school vacations, not just one.

Thanks
Sandy

 

[DebbieB]

We go twice a year and get 3 trips out of our AP's by scheduling a trip right before they expire. For example, mid-May, early-December, early-May. Even if you go once a year it would still be worth it, you could get 2 trips out of 1 AP.

 

[ScottOKW2K]

There was a poll in this group some months back where dvc members voted as to what type of park pass they purchased. If I remember correctly, greater than 95% stated that they had some type of annual pass (regular,premium, or florida). It really only takes about one or two normal lenght trips to make the AP the best value ticket that Disney offers.

As far as the other expenses that you listed. Well, we tend to drive down now - it's about 12 hours driving time for us, and by the time you calculate the total amount of time you spend flying down (portal to portal) there wasn't a huge difference. Also, after you have been a few times the number of character breakfasts, souveriers, etc that you buy tends to drop off.

In addition, many of those that purchase AP's use the "skip-year" technique - get two (or more) trips out of one AP and then wait six months to a year to purchase another to start the cycle again. In our case, I got 5 trips out of my last AP, totaling over 30 days in the parks. This made my daily admission about $12~$13 !

So , consider the points : One drives down (no airfare $), stay on points (no lodging $) , and your admission is an AP (no additional ticket $ for extra trips). Also, since all dvc accommodations above a studio in size have a full kitchen you can usually cut your meal budget in half by having breakfast in the room before you leave in the morning, and some of the dinners there in the evening.

As far as the souveniers, thought - we're still working on that

!

 

[EROS]

We're only able to afford ONE visit/year. We use the Park Hoppers because we generally visit the parks only 5-6 days/year ......

 

[kem330]

We only visit once a year- too many other places to go to as well! So we buy 5 day hoppers and sometimes have a day leftover. It all depends on your budget and vacation time. Buying an AP would cut down on your park cost, but as you say its the airfare and food (unless you really like to cook on vacation) that can still cost quite a bit. And do you have enough points to visit multiple times?

 

[chip1]

We purchased an AP for our 12/02 trip and are going back in April and again in late Nov, just before the 12/8 expiration of our AP's. I learn an amazing amount of information from reading this board; it is exactly the reason we went with the AP's this time around. The break even is about 8 days and we will get about 22 days use out of the AP.

We are not big on eating in the room; a quick b'fast may be the exception, but with that said, we only did that two times in Dec. It was nice, however, having a box of doughnuts and pop-tarts for the morning when we were slow moving. My husband and I can wait for a late b'fast, but my son wants to eat before that.

We fly from Chicago and I watch the fares daily and book as soon as I see what I think is good. I just booked Easter on Spirit Air, the 3 of us are flying for just under $500 ($165/p).

Use your creativity, maybe sign up for some reward sites that pay in restaurant cards or web certificates. I have not done this yet, but I have read that there are ways to turn web certs into DD.

GOOD LUCK!

 

[WDWguruDH]

As stated above, the break even is about 8 days (a day or two shift depending on the pass). Anything over 8 days and the expense per day in the park starts to decline.
Almost every airfare website will allow you to put in a preferred trip, for us SLC to Orlando or Tampa, and then send you an e-mail when the fares drop. This helps us keep the airfare portion down as well.

 

[RoutemanDan]

Originally posted by EROS
We're only able to afford ONE visit/year. We use the Park Hoppers because we generally visit the parks only 5-6 days/year ......

Wouldn't a Length of stay pass with the DVC discount come out cheaper?

 

[CarolMN]

Not if you buy 7 Day PHP tickets and save the unused days for the next trip. That's what we plan to do - I think our days of multiple trips in one year are over for awhile. I will miss the 10% off lunch discount the AP gives at the EPCOT restaurants, though.

Our trip is usually for 7 nights. That means we'd have to get the 6 Day/5 night UPH ticket (assuming we were allowed to drop day of arrival and day of departure). With the 10% discount, that's $288.95 ($312.05 times 90%).

7 Day PHP tickets (Paramount) are $301 plus shipping ($15 per order) and include a character breakfast. For $12 more each, we get at least one day (usually 2, and maybe more, depending on the weather) of major park admission for our next trip. I like to think that the $15 shipping charge is actually the cost of "breakfast for 2". (If there were more in our party, that breakfast gets really, really cheap, LOL).

If we bought the UPH tickets, we'd feel obligated to go to the parks all 6 days of each trip, rain or shine and we would miss out on the "cheap" breakfast. FWIW, we hardly ever visit the waterparks or DQ and don't go to PI more than once or twice on the same trip.

For us, the 7 Day PHP is a better value. That said, I know there are situations for which the UPH is the better deal. One really needs to evaluate each situation based on his/her own touring plans.

 

[DeeP]

If you are planning to go to WDW at least 2x in a 12 month period and are planning to visit the parks for 8+ days during these trips, an Annual Pass is a real money saver. I have been buying APs for years and for us they are a no brainer, we definitely get our money's worth. 2002 was my banner year for AP use so far though, 60+ days of park admission from one AP! I love it!

 

[DaisyDebbie]

I have never bought an AP. Never been to WDW twice within 12 months yet. I usually buy park hoppers. Last trip I bought the Length of Stay(I think they are UHP's now) and it worked out cheaper than the park hoppers. I knew I wasn't going to have any left over days.

 

[lsutigger2]

When we were at BCV in Oct 02, we got AP's for the first time. We were there for 8 days. DH wants to get good use out of them so it was a simple matter of planning another trip for May and use them again for 6 days! Room is paid for (kind of!) and no park admission cost, so

Off we go!!

Got to work on that souveniers, or not!

 

[Minybear]

This is what we are doing. This is our first trip puchasing AP's. We normally do 1 trip to WDW a year due to the airline tickets are a very expensive to get to WDW. We are going this January/03 and then we are going back in December/03. This is within the year. This means that my park tickets are already paid for our December trip. This is an expense I don't have to worry about saving for.

 

[Granny]

In answer to the thread question, for us AP's and DVC do not go hand in hand.

We used an AP this past year because we spent 14 nights at WDW. But for the next years, we will go the PH route because we like to go to Sea World, Busch Gardens and other locations while we're in Orlando. And the new renewal policy for AP's didn't fit us very well either.

But for many, AP is the best financial move.

 

[Cruelladeville]

For us the AP is the best value, since we go at Christmas, spring, and summer, before finishing up the next Christmas. If I had the regular park hopper ticket, I would have been so upset when it just poured rain during the Christmas holiday for two days. Instead, once it started raining and we could tell it wasn't going to stop, we just walked back to BC and made coffee. We knew that we had 364 more days to use the ticket, so it was OK that it rained and was COLD! As for prices, we usually go cheaply by alternating airfare and driving, depending upon when we can get cheap airfare. We usually eat breakfast in the room, snacks, and an occasional lunch, saving most of our food budget for dinner. There are no character meals--our kids are grown--and no souveniers unless we have saved especially for them before we left home. We NEVER resort to the credit cards, except in an emergency.

 

[ronw]

We have typically been the 7 day PHP customer, saving unused days or "plusses" for future trips. This (last) year though, our spring break trip didn't work out so we got an annual pass and took several smaller trips. A 4-day weekend in March (VWL) and a 5-day October (BCV) and a 7-day New Year's week stay (BWV). Since we had the pass, when the local airline had a sale in August we took a 4-day trip on short notice (OKW). So, we managed to hit all the WDW DVC resorts this year! I think the annual pass was worth it for us this year, but as a matter of course we will probably go back to park hoppers. I do know with the crowds at New Years I felt much better having the annual pass rather than having to "burn " a hopper day. I know for us DVC went a long way to eliminating park commando days and the annual pass helps in that regard too - I don't feel bad about half-days in the parks.

 

[InstImpres]

It appears based on all the great feed back the 7 day with 4 pluses from Paramount is going to be my best deal. We never really use the plus features. (My daughter is too young). Excuse my ignorance but are they right on my passes or are they separate so I can give them away or sell them? Do they expire if all 7 days are used and they are the only thing left?

Thanks again

 

[CarolMN]

Originally posted by InstImpres
It appears based on all the great feed back the 7 day with 4 pluses from Paramount is going to be my best deal. We never really use the plus features. (My daughter is too young). Excuse my ignorance but are they right on my passes or are they separate so I can give them away or sell them? Do they expire if all 7 days are used and they are the only thing left?

Thanks again

The plus options are encoded onto the PHP pass. They do not expire and may be used at any time. You do not have to go to a major park on the same day you use a plus option.

 

[doubletrouble_vb]

Your daughter may be too young now but hang on to your "little park passes" and use them in another year. When you do start using them you can elect to get a 5 day hopper with no plus.

...actually...I'm not sure what "too young" means. The water parks have areas dedicated to small children. I've seen plenty of them in there and its a good place to spend a day instead of in one of the big parks. It's a great way to wind down and relax. I have friends whose kids are 4, 2.75 and 1.5...they go into the water park without a problem (although miss 1.5 usually gets left with the grandparents).

 

[ClarabelleCow]

We usually visit once every 12-18 months, and add Vero in too. In November I bought 7 day PHP passes, used 3 days and have the rest left for the next trip. After that , unless I know for sure I will be going down more than once in a year, I will just do UPH passes. Even if it costs a little more, I like the fact that you can just come and go and no big deal. I feel with the PHP's if I stay in the resort all day and just want to go to Epcot for dinner, I'm wasting an entire day for dinner!!! Maybe its all in my head, but if we do the UPH passes, I fell more free to just come and go as I please, and would usually not do anything one day? Guess its all a mind game!!