Do you Purchase DVC APs?

[peabody58]

As part of our retirement plan, DW and I purchased 4 AP vouchers ($446 each ) and 2 sets of 10 day No-Expire PH+WP tickets. We had previously used AP's over a 5 year period. We'll we are now retired and looking forward to expanding our WDW trips as we now are only 6 hrs vs. 18 hrs from WDW. Plan to max out our AP usage once the new lands are built. Figuring we have tickets left for at least 6 - 8 more years. We will be taking a yearly break between AP binges, use our NE WP+ feature to fill in non-theme park visits, and will use our DVC as a launch pad for all the other Orlando area attractions. After that I think we will be done with WDW and will consider selling our DVC interest.

 

[ktmo]

We just became members in December. We have two trips planned this year, so we go Gold APs. I don't know what I will do next year.

 

[pinklotusflower]

I voted no, as we're from the UK & go to Disney for two weeks it's cheaper to get the UK ultimate ticket which is equivalent to the platinum pass.

 

[ludari]

I would if DVC AP included Disneyland. Current there is a small DVC discount (I believe it's $20) if I purchase an AP at Disneyland but the company I work for, which has nothing to do with Disney offers the same discount which I feel is ridiculous.

 

[ColonialMouse]

I'm in the category of trying to go twice in just less than a year. Of course this time we threw in a third trip because, hey, we saved so much not having to buy tickets. Um, yeah....

 

[LindseyJo22]

This is our first year with DVC, but we did upgrade to an annual pass in September - then to a Gold pass in December. The original upgrade was because we had planned a short family trip in January with one park day. The cost of the one day ticket was enough that it was worth it to upgrade our trip tickets to APs since we were also planning on taking a trip in May 2016 and the AP would cover that too. The fact that we decided to take another trip in December definitely made it worth it, and the Gold pass upgrade was wonderful for us since I had planned on buying the Memory Maker in May anyway. So we got the photos from our December, January, and now May trips for a relatively small upgrade price.

I'm not sure what we will do next year - it depends on what the discount is and if I am able to register for the Princess Half like I want to. If we're taking a February trip we will likely renew our Gold pass depending on blackout dates. If we don't take that trip, we probably will just get regular park tickets for our May 2017 family trip.

 

[Sleepy425]

We plan on buying an annual pass every three years. Let's see if we can stick with that plan

 

[Anal Annie]

I wasn't sure what to pick. I ultimately voted for every other year because that's always been our MO in the past (and we planned 2-3 trips on them) and I think we'll eventually be going back to that pattern. HOWEVER, for THIS year we've actually decided to renew our AP's when they expire in July so for the first time ever it will be 2 years in a row. The reasoning behind this year is that DH and I decided to slip in a quick 4-night trip to F&W in Sept. When I priced a 4-day hopper with the latest price increase it was nearly $420 with tax!! We were already also considering another family trip next January so with the AP gold renewal only being $76 more than a 4-day tix it seemed like a no-brainer. This may be the last winter that DS can go with us in January. He's in college now and currently has a pretty long 5-week break but his college is changing their calendar for the following year (2017-18) and his break is going to be more like only 3 weeks so I'm not sure if we'll continue these winter trips or not. He also has to do 2 summer co-ops to graduate so summers are in question for him beyond this year too. And who knows, he may end up in a study abroad semester one day before he's done too. So our patterns overall are changing. As many of you know, I'm too anal retentive for this uncertainty!!

If we were to lose the AP discount perk we would do more banking and take fewer trips and would skip years for sure tho.

 

[tb1972]

We previously purchased the DVC AP's since we try to get two trips out of them. This year, I found myself on business in Orlando twice which allowed me some extra park time. Due to the timing of my business trips, I opted for the platinum pass to avoid the black out dates. The three members of my family got the gold AP's.

 

[JimMIA]

We don't buy them anymore. We formerly bought every year or every other year depending on the timing, but our vacation patterns changed and we stopped. Last one we bought was a Florida seasonal weekday pass and that worked fine for us for that year.

 

[vandy]

Depends if we know ahead of time that we would get our money's worth. Some years we may have gone enough, but some trips were more spur of the moment and not planned that far out. This year we do have three trips planned so we bought the Gold pass.

 

[seelyt2]

We would if we lived closer. We have four airline tickets to purchase and come from the Northeast - it's just too pricey for us to come more than once a year and we only stay for about 7 days so the math doesn't work in our favor. Maybe some day - if the perk doesn't disappear.

 

[lolakat]

We go for long weekends 2-4 times per year and a week long trip every other year or so for us the annual pass is a good deal. Next year is the first year we may only go for 2 long weekends so the cost will be about the same as 2 sets of park hoppers. We will likely still get the annual pass as it give us some flexibility for a spontaneous trip.