Free Dining and Annual Passes

[catrax]

I've spent some serious time reading through old posts about free dining and Annual Passes, but I need someone more familiar with all of this to be my math tutor! Here's the deal:

Trip 1: We're going 8/19 - 8/29 with free dining. 10 day park hopper. There are 5 of us, but my DD is only 2 in August, so no tickets for her.

Trip 2: We're going 12/11 - 12/18 with free dining. 7 day park hopper. My DD will be 3 by then.

Trip 3: We're going 8/19/12 - 8/27/12 (hopefully) free dining. 9 day park hopper.

So, give or take some variation on the ticket costs, this is what I've calculated:

Trip 1: $346/adult, $327/child = total of $1,346
Trip 2: $322/adult, $303/child = total of $1,553
Trip 3: $338/adult, $319/child = total of $1,633

Here's where I get extra confused and don't understand the rules, so I need help. Question: If I upgrade my tickets to AP on 8/28/2010, will they be valid through 8/27/2011 or will they only be good through 8/18/2012 because I first used that set of tickets on 8/19/2011? If the answer to this is "Listen, crazy, you can't beat the system like that because Mickey has a business degree. Tickets are only good until 8/18/2012" then this is how I add it up:

AP cost is $2,124
Add 2 day pass to keep FD on trip 2: $801 ($168/adult, $155/child)
Upgrade DD3 to 8 day pass for trip 2: $101
Total ticket cost (with AP) for both trips: $3,026
No AP - Combined trips (1&2 only) cost: $2,909

Conclusion - Not worth it since I don't save...unless those other posters know what they are talking about and APs start on the date that you upgrade...

Is my thinking flawed? HELP!!!

 

[snykymom]

Yes, APs are back-dated to the date you upgrade.

However, you may want to consider not doing FD on your second trip - AP rates just came out for those dates and you may be able to get a decent deal. Then you can buy the Tables in Wonderland card for all your trips (20% off most table service restaurants and resort lounges, no limitations on what you can/need to purchase, includes adult beverages) and use that instead of the FD (and with the FD on your first trip). The TiW is also generally valid for 13 months, so it would cover your third trip even if the AP doesn't.

And if you push your third trip back a bit, you could still push it into your AP dates.

 

[SB in KY]

Your math is excellent...but here are a couple of thoughts to ponder.... if you upgraded to AP's on trip one then you could save the $800+ worth of tickets that you had to buy to get the FD during trip 2 and apply that toward tickets for trip 3...i.e., if you got FD on trip 3 you could buy everyone a 2 day pass to get the FD and then use the $800 you had remaining from the tickets from trip 2 to upgrade everyones ticket to 9 day hopper passes at no extra cost....so you ticket expense for trip 3 would only be $800 not $1600+... You would spend an extra $120 for trips 1 and 2 by using AP's but you would then save about $800 for tickets on trip 3.

The 2 day passes you would buy on trip 2 will not expire until 2 weeks after they are first activated and the cost of the tickets can be applied to any future tickets you want to purchase.

Also in the event that FD was not available for trip 3 you could use an AP discount for the room.