DVC Annual Pass strategy

[STA]

Hello fellow DVC'ers,

I typically go to WDW 3-4x a year for about a week each stay. Clearly the DVC Annual pass makes sense for me, with annual renewals. Since there have been a flurry of pass price increases recently and there is no end in sight, is there a good strategy anyone could recommend to keep those increases more manageable.

Is is possible to buy a bunch of annual passes (full, not renewal) and not assign/activate them until I'm ready to use them. I was thinking to buy like 5-10 now and renew annually. Once the future renewal price exceeds the old annual price, that is when I start using the cache of passes.

I'd love to hear if anyone has done this, are there issues with this strategy I am not seeing? Thanks in advance for your help!

 

[disneynutz]

Disney makes all of their decisions based on the numbers and you should too! If the best deal is to buy AP's certificates now then do it. We have 10 years plus in AP's, and tickets bought a couple of years ago.

In our case we have slowed down our WDW visits from 3 times per year to 1 or 2. We also don't go into the parks as much anymore.

Bill

 

[Maistre Gracey]

10 years of AP's for a family is quite an investment...

MG

 

[STA]

Thanks for the quick reply Bill!

MG - it's just me so far, so it should be manageable!

 

[disneynutz]

10 years of AP's for a family is quite an investment...

MG

Not all AP, we have non-expiration hoppers and one theme parks tickets in the mix also. We decide what type of vacation a year ahead of time, 2 visits, heavy on the parks or non AP, minimal park visits. Last year we only had 1, 10 night stay, we went into Epcot for 4 hours, that was it for our park time.

Bill

 

[Maistre Gracey]

Not all AP, we have non-expiration hoppers and one theme parks tickets in the mix also. We decide what type of vacation a year ahead of time, 2 visits, heavy on the parks or non AP, minimal park visits. Last year we only had 1, 10 night stay, we went into Epcot for 4 hours, that was it for our park time.

Bill

Yeah, it's too bad that don't offer the no expiry tickets anymore. It truly added a nice option in the mix. Come to think of it probably too nice... That's why they got rid of it.

 

[Anal Annie]

I guess if you have the disposable income to maintain both new and renewal passes for that long in the end it would be cheaper - if you want to tie up that much money for that long to eventually break even. There's also always the chance that they could change the structure of the new tier thing so that eventually your passes would have to be redeemed for something other than what they were when you bought them?!

Our only strategy in the past has been to buy new ones every other year and to plan 3 trips the year that we have them while sitting out the year in-between. Now with the new tiering structure we've decided to go ahead & renew this summer to the gold passes as the renewal price is so much cheaper than letting them expire.

 

[Dean]

Hello fellow DVC'ers,

I typically go to WDW 3-4x a year for about a week each stay. Clearly the DVC Annual pass makes sense for me, with annual renewals. Since there have been a flurry of pass price increases recently and there is no end in sight, is there a good strategy anyone could recommend to keep those increases more manageable.

Is is possible to buy a bunch of annual passes (full, not renewal) and not assign/activate them until I'm ready to use them. I was thinking to buy like 5-10 now and renew annually. Once the future renewal price exceeds the old annual price, that is when I start using the cache of passes.

I'd love to hear if anyone has done this, are there issues with this strategy I am not seeing? Thanks in advance for your help!

I've invested in seasonal passes both new and renewal vouchers, 7 & 10 day non expiring tickets and 4 day special tickets with park hopping and water park options. Then when a given trip comes along we look to see which works best and whether there are any specials that'll work for us. We've FL residents so there often are. Our next trip none of the tickets we have will either work (blackout dates) or not a good choice. We bought DVC special tickets to use our next trip then we will upgrade those the last day to Gold passes.

 

[bigtony777]

I wouldn't purchase more than a couple of passes because I wouldn't want to tie up the money. If you are truly looking at it as an investment question, you need to take the time value of money into the equation. If you didn't spend the money on the tickets, could you use the money on something else that could equal or surpass the increase rate of the pass?

We used to get annual passes every year, but have changed to a strategy of getting annual passes every other year or so and plan on at least 3 trips during that year.

 

[gmboy95]

I wouldn't purchase more than a couple of passes because I wouldn't want to tie up the money. If you are truly looking at it as an investment question, you need to take the time value of money into the equation. If you didn't spend the money on the tickets, could you use the money on something else that could equal or surpass the increase rate of the pass?

We used to get annual passes every year, but have changed to a strategy of getting annual passes every other year or so and plan on at least 3 trips during that year.

I echo this advice....it is really a poor investment strategy, as what may seem like a value right now would lock you in, and chances are there will be something that will come along in your travels that will be of much greater value for the money....I would take the money and stash it into a CD and let it make some money for ya

 

[STA]

Thanks for the comments!

One thing when people say it's not a good "investment" and to rather place cash in a CD, while that is all well and good..."locking in price" is the DVC Mantra so why is this tactic unfavorable for tickets yet desirable for rooms?

 

[bigtony777]

Thanks for the comments!

One thing when people say it's not a good "investment" and to rather place cash in a CD, while that is all well and good..."locking in price" is the DVC Mantra so why is this tactic unfavorable for tickets yet desirable for rooms?

I would hope that people would take the same approach with buying DVC. There are threads that get into this discuss on a very deep level and don't think we need to go there. Let's say you had a loan with a 4% interest rate. I would say it would be better to use your extra cash to pay that down than to buy multiple years of passes. You would come out about the same and would put you in a better financial situation.

 

[gmboy95]

Thanks for the comments!

One thing when people say it's not a good "investment" and to rather place cash in a CD, while that is all well and good..."locking in price" is the DVC Mantra so why is this tactic unfavorable for tickets yet desirable for rooms?

well...DVC is a terrible investment as it has a sunset date!!....i bought it for set price vacations and accommodations that i like....anyone telling you DVC is a good investment is drinking spiked kool aid......that being said, Its just more of a math problem, you don't want to purchase those advance AP passes and then have something come your way a few months later that would be a much greater value....if you have the money in a CD it would give you flexibility

 

[CarolMN]

....(snip).........We used to get annual passes every year, but have changed to a strategy of getting annual passes every other year or so and plan on at least 3 trips during that year.

This is what we do, too. We get an AP just before our early December trip, then use it the next year for F&G and F&W. But it seems like a long time between the F&W trip and the following year's early December trip, LOL! Our contract works well with this schedule, too.

 

[Maistre Gracey]

well...DVC is a terrible investment as it has a sunset date!!....i bought it for set price vacations and accommodations that i like....anyone telling you DVC is a good investment is drinking spiked kool aid......that being said, Its just more of a math problem, you don't want to purchase those advance AP passes and then have something come your way a few months later that would be a much greater value....if you have the money in a CD it would give you flexibility

If DVC is such a terrible investment, why do you own it? Good investments don't need to yield a profit "at the end". If you will spend well more on deluxe hotel rooms than you will spend on DVC, than it is indeed a good investment. If you're looking to sell it in 50 years for more than you bought it for, while never using it over that 60 years, than yes it's a terrible investment.

MG