Help me calculate which AP to get

[hodad]

DLR and WDW veterans (but not pros) here. It looks like there's a 99% chance our family is moving from the East Coast to LA this summer. Since DLR is on the way to the grandparents' house, we'll probably get annual passes to cover the several visits we make each year.

But which ones to get? We are two adults and one child, who is in school. Does it make sense to get three Southern California Annual Passports so we can visit on Sundays after visiting Grandma and Grandpa over the weekend?

Does it make sense for one of us to get a Signature passport to cover parking, photopass, and any additional savings of which I am yet not aware?

 

[cruisehopeful]

You need to think about when you would want to visit DL. After you know which days you'd want to visit, look at the blockout schedule. I have signature, one of my adult daughter's has southern California and the other has Deluxe. There are times when I need to buy a ticket for them because they are blocked when we are going. I originally bought the southern California Select. When I visited during the summer, I upgraded it to Signature. To me, Signature is worth it because of the days that I visit. Parking helps, but the cost difference between Deluxe and Signature is large enough that I wouldn't buy one only for parking.

Additional benefits of Signature is that you get bigger discounts. I recently bought a Dooney and Bourke and got 20% off because of my Signature AP. I only used photopass once, so I can't tell you if it's worth it or not. You get a bigger discount on food, too. It may be worth it for one of you to have Signature, but is the person who needs to buy everything. They won't let you pass your AP to a family member to get the discount.

We originally bought APs thinking we would visit when we weren't blocked. Turns out, we often want to visit during blocked days. Signature AP is worth it because of that. We have often started to make plans to visit DL and looked at the dates and found out that there was a block.

 

[Nevada Jen]

Start with Southern Cal APs. You can always upgrade. It probably depends how old you child is and if you and your wife work year round. But if you are just thinking you will go on Sundays and not in the summer, that pass is probably fine.

 

[hodad]

Thanks for the advice, everyone! How do monthly payments work if we choose to upgrade later in the year? Do our monthly payments get prorated to cover the previous months?

 

[gary1955]

Thanks for the advice, everyone! How do monthly payments work if we choose to upgrade later in the year? Do our monthly payments get prorated to cover the previous months?

if you change your pass, they will take you off of the monthly payment so you would need pay the remaining balance plus the upgrade amount.

 

[hodad]

if you change your pass, they will take you off of the monthly payment so you would need pay the remaining balance plus the upgrade amount.

Thanks. The following year, if we choose to renew our passes, could we return to the monthly payment plan?

 

[SMD]

if you change your pass, they will take you off of the monthly payment so you would need pay the remaining balance plus the upgrade amount.

No, you can keep your monthly payments per the contract, but you have to pay the full difference to upgrade.

Thanks. The following year, if we choose to renew our passes, could we return to the monthly payment plan?

Yes. You have to renew and choose your payment option, it's not automatic. When you renew you don't have to put down the initial payment, you can just get the payment plan, though it goes up a little per month even if the pass price doesn't increase because there is no initial payment due.

 

[gary1955]

No, you can keep your monthly payments per the contract, but you have to pay the full difference to upgrade.

ok, that is a change in policy when I did it a few years back.

 

[Skyegirl1999]

Thanks. The following year, if we choose to renew our passes, could we return to the monthly payment plan?

Just to be clear, if you upgrade during the year, there is no prorating. My pass is up in June. If I upgraded now, I'd pay a full year's difference, not just three months' worth. So I'd think before you buy!

 

[SMD]

If you're going for the first time over the summer you could start with a regular ticket, go to the park for up to 5 days, then upgrade to a So Cal AP which would normally be blocked during the summer. Parking is $20 per day. If you think you're only going to go on Sundays when the So Cal AP is blocked, there's about 30-35 of them. So you'd have to park 20 times before you break even. Signature also has an additional 10% on merchandise and 5% on food over the So Cal, but you'd have to buy and eat a lot to make up $380. It also depends how much the PP benefit is worth it to you. Some people stop at lots of photo ops, some people don't.

 

[hodad]

Thanks for the help! I've discovered mousemonthly.com, which also has useful advice, as far as I can tell.

Can I do the following?
Buy a 4 day Park Hopper from aRes for $320.
Use the first 3 days on August 8-10, 2017.
Return for a final day on August 20 and upgrade to the So Cal AP with monthly financing, which should cost ($469-$335)/12= around $12/mo.
Use the AP on August 21, the first non-blackout day of the month.
Renew by August 20, 2018.

 

[hodad]

Or even better, I could get the aRes combo of 3 day park-hopper tickets at DLR and a 1 day ticket at Universal Studios Hollywood for $400, then upgrade the Disneyland ticket to a So Cal AP ($469-$315), with resulting $12.83 monthly payments. I also learned that I would have until a year after the day my tickets were first used to renew the AP, which in this case would be by August 7, 2018.

Sorry for thinking out loud, but I thought I'd share my research.