For those who bought Direct in the last 4 years, which benefits were worthwhile?

[HyperspaceMountainPilot]

Yep renewal is 899. I feel that extra discount is gonna end up making me a perpetual AP holder.

I don’t think you come out ahead if you’re saving $180 (about 15%) but then not using the pass for 4+ months (33% of the year). I do know some families that try to cluster 2-3 trips in a 365 day window and then take 9-11mo off, which makes a lot of sense to me.

Does anybody know if I can convert a 4 day ticket to a sorcerer’s pass on day 4 paying cash (assuming all 4 days are valid for sorcerers pass dates)— I know I can do it in advance, but don’t want to deal with park reservations if I don’t have to.

 

[atthebeachclub]

I do know some families that try to cluster 2-3 trips in a 365 day window and then take 9-11mo off, which makes a lot of sense to me.

This is what we’ve done this year. It works extra well when combined with a Southwest Companion Pass (I hope they never get rid of these).

 

[VGCgroupie]

I don’t think you come out ahead if you’re saving $180 (about 15%) but then not using the pass for 4+ months (33% of the year). I do know some families that try to cluster 2-3 trips in a 365 day window and then take 9-11mo off, which makes a lot of sense to me.

Does anybody know if I can convert a 4 day ticket to a sorcerer’s pass on day 4 paying cash (assuming all 4 days are valid for sorcerers pass dates)— I know I can do it in advance, but don’t want to deal with park reservations if I don’t have to.

899 would likely end up being worth it for us then we would pay cash for my son since they seem to offer kids deals more than adults.

 

[VGCgroupie]

899 would likely end up being worth it for us then we would pay cash for my son since they seem to offer kids deals more than adults.

Wait nevermind he turned 10 this year

 

[tx911]

Wait nevermind he turned 10 this year

About time for him to be moving out and starting a family, right?

 

[Jayunit09]

My wife wanted the points right away to take a trip that fall (2022)

We decided on direct for that reason and also so we can stay at any future resorts that are built as well as the 2042 resorts when that goes down.

Moonlight magic was an added bonus that just happened to be while we were there. Animal Kingdom at night was glorious and they did an amazing job overall.

 

[Tatebeck]

I don’t think you come out ahead if you’re saving $180 (about 15%) but then not using the pass for 4+ months (33% of the year). I do know some families that try to cluster 2-3 trips in a 365 day window and then take 9-11mo off, which makes a lot of sense to me.

Does anybody know if I can convert a 4 day ticket to a sorcerer’s pass on day 4 paying cash (assuming all 4 days are valid for sorcerers pass dates)— I know I can do it in advance, but don’t want to deal with park reservations if I don’t have to.

We thought about waiting to renew since we were going to be a more than 15% of the year before our next visit after they expired, but we like to go around the same times every year multiple times since we have so many points, so we would only be able to really use that gap once. So we would pay 15% more one year to have the pass expire later but still probably buy the pass every year. So we just renewed to save the 15% since we will need it every year.

You should be able to convert tickets to passes once you are there, but you may want to do it on day 3 or on the morning of day 4 before you redeem the last ticket day. Once it is fully redeemed and has no value they may not let you anymore. Once you get the pass the member helping you can make reservation(s) for you for the rest of the trip so you won't have to worry about it until the next trip. That is what we did when we first got our passes upgraded/converted from regular tickets

 

[CarolynFH]

Does anybody know if I can convert a 4 day ticket to a sorcerer’s pass on day 4 paying cash (assuming all 4 days are valid for sorcerers pass dates)— I know I can do it in advance, but don’t want to deal with park reservations if I don’t have to.

Yes, you can upgrade at any time no later than COB on the day you use the last entitlement, day 4 in your case. The start date for the AP will be the first day you used the ticket.

 

[Girlstar30]

Yes, you can upgrade at any time no later than COB on the day you use the last entitlement, day 4 in your case. The start date for the AP will be the first day you used the ticket.

They do this for Disneyland too if anyone is wondering

 

[HyperspaceMountainPilot]

Yes, you can upgrade at any time no later than COB on the day you use the last entitlement, day 4 in your case. The start date for the AP will be the first day you used the ticket.

Thank you. I’m not sure what day we will try to get to MK for starlight and not sure when the special reservation rule ends, so I’d rather not mess around with it…our last day is a Monday and probably starting at Epcot— I think we can just go to the ticket window outside IG to convert, unless we have to call MS because it’s a sorcerers pass.

 

[MicheyMouse]

If you had an Incredipass before you qualified for Member Benefits, do you get the renewal rate if you want to change to a Sorcerors Pass?

 

[tx911]

If you had an Incredipass before you qualified for Member Benefits, do you get the renewal rate if you want to change to a Sorcerors Pass?

Yes

 

[kgou]

I thought I was firmly in the camp of "an AP doesn't make sense for our family" to now ....thinking about how the military ticket pricing has changed, and with our plans to travel over Thanksgiving when most of our park days aren't blocked out for APs plus tentative plans for a late May 2026 trip to celebrate the end of the school year ...the numbers are much closer than they were before. I may start a thread about what I should do

But to answer the question originally posed in this thread, I didn't think we'd ever be direct members until the VGF sale happened. Really, the primary benefit of direct for our family is the ability to have nonrestricted points. The merchandise discounts, special events, and the APs (until now) haven't been significant benefits for our family.

 

[radiodome21]

1. Another for Sorcerer Pass. The price of what I paid for for 4 day adult park hopper tickets for our NYE trip was almost the cost of our 4 sorcerer’s pass that I picked up in April. We’re now getting into runDisney too, and having the Sorcerer Pass means it’ll get used too without having to buy tickets.

2. The only lounge I’ve ever been in so far was WDL when it first opened. It was a nice reprieve from the heat.

3. Discounts are nice and have been helpful when buying late night park hours at HS in July as well as Mickey’s Halloween party when we’re there in October. Plus I just signed out for an Owner’s Locker this morning in anticipation of a 6 night trip we have coming up in a month and I think this will come in handy, especially with a rubDisney race coming up in October.

4. Buying process is a lot easier and faster and allows me to use all credit cards. This was used on on a combination of travel and airline credit cards that allowed me to redeem miles for international plane tickets that otherwise would’ve set me back over thousands of dollars.