Florida AP holders

[yulilin3]

Like pp said I think it depends whet in fla.
I live 20 minutes away and come to wdw area twice a week. We rarely do all day things, maybe come for a couple attractions, a parade or fireworks.

 

[CAS239]

We live about 2.5 hours away and go about once every month and a half. So nice not having to pay for parking and we always stay offsite so we save a lot of money there.

Also just recently got Busch Gardens/Sea World AP. And will likely be getting a Universal Studios AP.

 

[randumb0]

I live about 20 minutes away and it varies. Sometimes I go months without going because I begin not to appreciate it as much until F&W

 

[Amw1064]

We have had actual passes for about 13 years. We live about an hour and a half way. When my daughter was younger we went up for lots of day trips but now that she is oldr we do more overnighters. We get burned out on the parks and usually only go for a few hours at a time and enjoy the resorts. (Have DVC) I am embarrassed to say though that we have been on or will be going to 6 trips this summer. We usually pool in the day and head to parks 5-10/11pm.

 

[glassslippergirl]

Several years ago (2009-2011), we had APs with no blackout dates, which made sense for us as we are both teachers, and blackout dates usually coincide with our school vacations. We live 2.5 hours away and went often-- pretty much every time we had a holiday weekend, every few weeks in the summer, and multiple times over winter break. I also kept a close watch on special events and scheduled trips around inclusive experiences we enjoyed, like SWW based on the celebrity guests, F&W based on the band playing, special pass holder experiences, etc. those events were definitely the most memorable. We felt like we got our money's worth from the passes and didn't mind paying for food and souvenirs as our pass holder discount at the time was 20%. It was hotel costs that made us stop. Even though we stayed offsite at very affordable hotels, the cost of so many nights added up. Add to that the fact that the cost of APs has gone up so, so much in the past few years (and the value has gone down-- what I paid for 365 days of park admission plus water parks and Disney Quest with 20% merchandise and dining discount would get me only a silver pass now with a lot of blackout dates), we find more value in the 4-day FL resident tickets. Blackouts don't bother me so much when I'm only trying to maximize 4 days (and they lifted both spring and summer blackouts this year), we save massive amounts on hotels, and, unlike most WDW tickets, they expire 6 months after first use, giving us at least two, sometimes three, long WDW weekends. OP, if I were you, I'd start with these tickets to test the waters, then maybe move on to passes.

 

[evilqueenmindy]

I live 90 min away, the rest of my group is about an hour from the parks. We all have silver passes, so we skip the summer, but the rest of the year, we probably do 1-2 day trips a month, 2-3 weekend trips during the year, and one big trip in Feb.
I don't really find park burnout, because we do different things at each visit, and don't always stay all day, sometimes we go for just an afternoon, sometimes we go after dinner and stay till close, sometimes we visit resorts.

 

[margot31]

Thanks everyone....this is really helped me. We don't need to worry about school since my kids will be 2 and not even 1 when we move. We will be living in jax so its about a 3.5 hour car ride for us. Summer time isn't a huge deal if we want to really go we can always get military tickets. But I don't see us going during that time cause we will have beach vacation in there with my family.

 

[GATORinaZ28]

I live just outside of Pensacola. If I drive (at night), it takes me 6.5 hours to get there. I have a Silver Pass and only go once per year, but maybe twice if things workout.

 

[GATORinaZ28]

We live near Pensacola. As far away from Disney as you can possibly get in Florida except maybe the Keys. This our first year with Premium Plus Passes. We will do a total of five trips trips with two being in Fort Wilderness. The others in a cheaper hotel in Kissimee. I'm on the fence if I'm going to renew or skip a year or two to let all the construction get done.

Pensacola to Orlando 5 times in a year...that's alot of road tripping.

 

[Lulubelle17]

We are military and live in Jax, it's about a 2.5 hour drive from where we live. We are looking at passes as well and this thread is very useful! I am planning on getting the FL resident Silver pass. Our spring break next year is in March, so it's not on block out period. We're going in October for MNSSHP (although that's an extra ticket), Thanksgiving, and probably a few more times in spring. Totally worth it for us!

 

[lucas]

We have the FL resident Silver passes.

We live in Boca Raton (between West Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale) and are 200 miles south of WDW. We go for long weekends on basically all the major holidays and usually stay at POP Century. It is nice with the passes, if we arrive late, we can still run into one of the parks for a short time. For our Labor Day trip, we'll arrive around 6:00 pm and will go to Epcot for dinner and have fast passes to Soarin'.

 

[jade1]

We know 3 families now in Orlando (so a bit different of course) that go at least once a week. Only the 3rd or 4th year down there though, so not sick of things yet. They also go to US/IOA about once a month, its just closes too early and no night shows and they like to visit after work.

I think the renewal (nothing down) for the full year no blackouts (they have a lot of company at XMAS etc) is about $44 a month-about dinner and a movie.

FP+ is the best thing they have gotten they say, because they can go at night after work and get a nice evening in. Maybe the parade/CTM/Wishes, but now they have the 3 mountains or whatever as well. They will even reserve Soarin or TT and do EPCOT dinner and Illuminations. Much more worth the effort and parking is included.

 

[UCFGrad01]

I'm about 30 min away from the parks and have a Silver pass. It's way too hot and busy for me during the summer anyway

I take probably 2-3 long trips (friends come to town, about a week each time) to the parks a year. I also use it every couple weeks, I usually meet up with friends on a Friday night after work when the parks are open later (she has weekday passes).

I like it because I don't feel like I have to have incredibly long days or go commando style. I don't feel like it's a waste to just go over for dinner in a park, or a few attractions, or maybe there's a good concert at Eat to the Beat that night, etc. Parking is included with the passes now, and I live close enough to just come home for the night. So my only real expense is if I have a meal there.

 

[NH-to-FL]

Last winter was our first snowbird stay in Florida about 15-20 minutes from the parks. After an initial 2-3 visits per week we seemed to settle into a once per week visit. We were rotating through the parks, typically arriving before RD and staying until midday. Sometimes getting a QS lunch before leaving.

We splurged for the no blackout version of AP as we wanted the freedom to go whenever we wanted. For instance, we did visit once during Christmas week. We are also headed down in mid August for a short visit to meet up with some friends who are vacationing in the World.

 

[DVC-Don]

Between mid October and early May when I'm in residence there, I average one or two days a week at some part of WDW. I live 30 minutes away and have a Silver AP.

 

[2Tiggies]

Depends on how close you live. We live and hour if I4 behaves and go about once a month. But after 2 years and we are not planning to renew for a few years after these expire. At least thats how it is right now, we will see. But we most likely get Busch Gardens APs in the mean time. My hubby is burnt out on Disney, but me and girls are not. Heck we may do the weekday pass for me and the girls as they are super cheap and even if you only go Friday evenings, its worth it to me. Just have not figured out what our "plans" are after September. I know I not getting full silver passes again for all 4 of us.

This is becoming our experience, too. The I4 issue is a pain in the butt when it's backed up (which is pretty much all the time). We are about 20 miles north of Orlando and we have found that we have visited less and less often over the past few months because it's just become more hassle than it's worth by the end of a full work and school week. We will renew our AP's again, but may look at more restrictive options than the silver unless we start visiting more frequently. I was showing my husband a few weeks ago that the number of visits we've made on our passes since the last renewal make the passes work out more expensive than what we'd pay for single entry one day tickets! Of course now that we know that we will probably make more effort.

The reality when you live here (I used to travel to WDW before so I'm used to doing it very differently) is that
1. You don't tend to spend as much time at the park/s on any given day
2. Because they are always there, there's less of a pull to them, once the initial novelty of close proximity has worn off a bit
3. Probably the reason I initially overlooked the most, is that we are not on vacation here now. So there are dogs to care for, work, school, kid's friends and social things going on and general life can get in the way. When we came on vacation we were totally focused on Disney

One thing we have not accounted for in evaluating the value of our FL AP's is the PhotoPass that comes with it. To be fair, we use it a lot whenever we visit so that is additional value I didn't consider.

 

[mich1073]

Also when you have an AP, your mind frame changes when you are at the parks. I completely forgot about that until my BIL who just got passes told me. Now I know you are always so cool about missing whatever at the park, like we were hungry and wanted to sit down at a decent/reasonable place to eat... We were at Epcot and we walking by the rear entrance, I asked if they ever been to the Boardwalk and they were like no. So side trip to eat dinner on the boardwalk and then bused over to MK for the fireworks. You feel much more free to come and go at the parks.

You also just do not feel the need to have to cram in everything. Long wait and no FP, you get it next time. Sometimes its a day of Hall of Presidents and Country Bear Jamboree with whatever FPs you have, but its still a good day. The mind set changes as you see that you can come back anytime.

 

[2Tiggies]

You also just do not feel the need to have to cram in everything. Long wait and no FP, you get it next time. Sometimes its a day of Hall of Presidents and Country Bear Jamboree with whatever FPs you have, but its still a good day. The mind set changes as you see that you can come back anytime.

So true. My husband has lived here all his life so he grew up with WDW on his doorstep. We used to come here for vacations and crammed our days to the brim. A few weeks ago he wanted to go check out the new Soarin ride so we cruised over to Epcot, did the one ride and as we headed for the exit immediately afterwards to go elsewhere for lunch, DD looked at him like he was crazy Like, are you SERIOUS? One ride and we leave? Really? We've found some middle ground in between the extremes of this example and the rope drop to park closing extremes, but yes, there is definitely not that pressure to do everything.

Also, since we used to always stay on-site, it was easy to sneak back to the pool for a break and then head back to the parks. I4 makes that a far less attractive option to us now!

 

[Maistre Gracey]

So true. My husband has lived here all his life so he grew up with WDW on his doorstep. We used to come here for vacations and crammed our days to the brim. A few weeks ago he wanted to go check out the new Soarin ride so we cruised over to Epcot, did the one ride and as we headed for the exit immediately afterwards to go elsewhere for lunch, DD looked at him like he was crazy Like, are you SERIOUS? One ride and we leave? Really? We've found some middle ground in between the extremes of this example and the rope drop to park closing extremes, but yes, there is definitely not that pressure to do everything.

Also, since we used to always stay on-site, it was easy to sneak back to the pool for a break and then head back to the parks. I4 makes that a far less attractive option to us now!

Heck, we have gone into AK just for drinks at Dawa bar.... More than once.

MG

 

[DrivenByDisney]

We live in Dr. Phillips which is less than 5 miles from Disney property and can be in a park in less than 15 minutes from our front door. We go to the parks at least twice a week. More during Food & Wine and/or Flower & Garden. We go to Disney Springs I'd say 2 or 3 times a week as well. So we probably spend a good 150+ days in the park or on property somewhere in a year.

We resort hop a lot as well. Pools, restaurants, bars, etc. That's a lot of fun! We definitely get our money's worth out of passes and Tables in Wonderland. That thing pays for itself for us just in free valet parking in about month. Free valet at all the resorts is a very nice perk! We use it so much at The Boardwalk all the valets see us driving up and already have our name on the card ready to go

The AP probably saves us a good $2,000 a year just in the free parking at the parks as well. And that number is just on 100 days, which we go more than that so that number is most likely higher.

We actually moved to the Orlando area just to spend more time at Disney. Grew tired of paying o much to get here before we lived here. Much cheaper to just move here