Help me convince DH renewing AP is better!!!

[PMDR59]

Always was a NE ticket option family prior to DVC. Still have a park day left and some WP options on my MYW tickets bought waaaaayyyyy back in 04. (and of course paid kid prices for 2 of us)

Today (since 08) we are DVC members. We bought the DVC AP (still with 2 at kids rates) last August because we knew we were going in August (had to use those developer points before they expired) and December, (had to finally see Disney decorated for Christmas !!!) And of course we threw in another week at Disney in February because we had the points (enough for a studio,) and had the AP's , well you all know how that goes,,,,,,

Well after 3 trips to the world in 6 months... DH and my kids were getting a little Disney'd out (how dare they) We didnt have any set plans to go back to WDW. We are doing Vero and DCL in a few weeks. Now we get to my dilemma regarding tickets......

My 2 DS will both be over the 9 kid age limit for our next trip in April so we will be forking over the money at 4 Adult prices Our April trip will be with friends and we will be spending 2 days at Universal while we are in Fl so I am really only looking at 4-5 WDW days. With NO idea on when we will be back in WDW. We are planning on booking another DCL cruise for the Dream while we are on the wonder for Labor Day weekend next year and if we realllly like Vero we will do that before the cruise again.
SOOOO...
I just priced 10 day MYW tickets with PH/NE option and for 4 its was $2116 !!!!
To renew our DVC AP's it will cost me $1416 (possibly less cause 1 of my DS is still 9 until Sept and since the renewl would be effective this month I am thinking I can still get the kids price , but not sure on that)
Also from what I understand this will give us a 15 month AP since I've been reading that the passes are being renewed with an addl 3 months on them.

DH doesnt want to renew because he feels that we wont get any use out of them other than the April trip...even suggested getting a normal 5 day pass which still runs $948... $1164 if you add the hopper...and thats with them expiring. Then you lose $$$ if you dont happen to go to the park all 5 days.

I look at it that we can always throw in another trip whenever between now and Nov of 2011 if we renew. DH is set to retire in early 11 and with him being Mr Mom for a little while that will free up a TON of my vacation time that I burn when the kids are off or home sick etc etc (we spread it out between both our vacation time, but still burn alot for school holidays, luckily the boys are not sick much)

So my fellow Disney Freaks...are you all on the same page as I am????? Got any suggestions on getting him to see the BIG picture instead of being so narrowminded and looking at only the 1 trip planned in April??

 

[Robo-Daddy 3000]

Can't help you. We've gotten APs twice now and have not renewed them each time. I've let mine expire and just purchased new ones when I needed them.

 

[Anal Annie]

Not sure if I'm following ALL THAT but it sounds like you won't be using them until next April?! I wouldn't RENEW this far out but MIGHT buy NEW AP's in April provided I knew I'd be either A) staying at least 10 nights on them for that trip or B) was planning a 2nd or 3rd trip within the next 12 months. We usually try to get 3 trips off of our AP's (only 1 DS but he's a "Disney Adult"). We usually then "sit out" for 9-12 months before going again after our 3rd trip. So I would't do the renewal unless I had another trip planned within 3-4 months after the renewal date. It is silly to let them sit unused...the discount between new and renew isn't THAT much IMO. We have considered the NE hoppers but agree about the cost...it is SCARY!!

As a matter of fact, the cost of the NE park tix are one reason we planned to go to HHI this summer instead of to FL. We have a DCL / Europe trip planned for NEXT August and so I doubt we'd be able to slip in another trip to FL mid-year - so I know we wouldn't get the good out of AP's...but the cost of the NE hoppers was a real turn-off. Plus we will be soaked at DLP for their silly length of stay tix.... Sometimes you just can't win & you have to suck it up and pay the piper.

 

[DenLo]

It might cost less money to buy the APs but unless you go to WDW more than 7 or 8 days, I don't see how it will save you money in the end. If you don't go until 14 months from the renewal date (or after your next trip), you'll still have to buy new tickets or an AP.

NE passes are expensive, but as you well know they are good forever.

Perhaps you should ask Chester Figment on the Theme Park Boards. Here's a link to his thread, Everything About WDW Tickets: http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1452684

 

[BeesKnees]

Can't help you either. Gave up APs a few years ago. Yes the 10 day are more expensive up front but we only go to the parks about 2 times per trip now so we get 5 trips out of them typically which spans 2.5 years so it is cheaper.

Honestly, it looks like you have pushed them a little too hard. Some people can handle loads of disney and some can't. That is one of the dangers of APs you try to milk too much value out of them and suddenly you get burnt out.

Most likely your kids are not going to be happy with too many trips to WDW where they spend more time at the pool and other entertainment than in the parks. We don't have children so we graduated out of park mode about year 4 and really haven't looked back. The big question is how long before your kids reset and are ready for park mode again? I have to think that by April they will be rested and ready but who knows?

The only way I can think of to justify it is not to look at it in a yearly sense but how much value you get over a larger span of time. You have just been 3 times in 6 months. If you look at it only as this year's expense you have done great. If you look at it over 3 years with continued AP purchasing those 3 trips plus future trips may even out to a savings but a milder one.

My only other suggestion is that if your family and you are not on the same page buy yourself the AP, find a friend, and go to disney without them.

 

[UConnJack]

Yeah, sorry, I think your DH is right (we usually are....)

 

[Sammie]

Yeah, sorry, I think your DH is right (we usually are....)

And yes PMDR59 we are on the same page with you. I have debated and debated the pros and cons of AP versus the multi day nonexpiring pass. Mainly our schedule is such now we can't always get our two trips in during the 365 days for the AP.

When you figure it out, please let me know so I can stop.

 

[pyrxtc]

Even if you renew your kids AP now, you would have to use it before they turned 10 to keep it valid for them. You cannot buy it now and not use it until April unless you pay then to upgrade it to an adult pass, which is kind of pointless.

I'd go with the 10 day WP&M/NE pass. Park hoppers if you'll use them but we don't. Even then, you'll have to buy them adult passes unless they can use at least one day on them before they turn 10. So before or after you hit DCL you'll have to spend at least one day at the parks to use the tickets.

I had a similar dilemma a couple years ago about whether or not to renew. We found the 10 day tickets to be much better. We had YES tickets for the kids and also had bought 10 day WP&M/NE passes for all. I had them all use 1 day on the 10 day so that after my oldest DS turned 10 in 2011, we could use them until they were gone. You get 20 park visits out of it and it never expires. If it gets lots and we don't find it for 5 yrs, we could still have water park tickets on it.

 

[DisneyMama27]

Dear OP, I was where you are a few months ago. Our PAPs expired last fall, and we let them go. We had renewed them years in a row, but this time we didn't have another trip until summer, so we would be better off buying new APs then, which would then cover 2011's summer trip. We also had some NE old passes that we had nearly forgotten about, which also had WP passes on them.

Fast forward to this summer, when I am expecting us to buy new PAPs. DH had done some math on his own, and some thinking (which he was sure had been "talking"...men! ) and decided just to buy 10-day base tickets. BASE TICKETS?!?! I freaked out, of course, because in my mind base tickets are for newbies, one-timers, not People Who Love Disney And Want to Spend Every Minute Here!! After I got off my snobby high-horse, he explained...

Although we were there 12 nights, he was thinking it would be nice to spend a couple of days at the resort (and they don't sell a 12-day pass)...and we could always upgrade to the PAP if we wanted to. We were there with lots of family and he was thinking we probably would not do lots of park-hopping this time...BUT we could always upgrade to the PAP if we wanted to. He upgraded the kids' tickets to the WP&M and we used our old NE passes to go to BB and TL, so that prob was solved. The kicker for him was realizing that with his new job, the week that we went this summer was probably the BEST week for him to go next summer as well (he was previously self-employed and we could go whenever we wanted), so APs would not stretch quite far enough. PLUS, we are doing DCL this fall (one night at VWL, but no parks) so we didn't need to spend the money. That doesn't mean we won't buy PAPs or PHs again, but if you do the math, sometimes it just doesn't add up. I had to agree, and appreciate my DH's logic - plus, it gave us the extra $$ to buy some fun things we wanted to get!

I am thinking in your position, you will have APs again in your future, but maybe it's not necessary now. Our rule of thumb in past years was, if we were going to be at WDW at least 12 days during the year (and many times it was way more than that), it was worth it. We usually stay 12-14 days at a time, so it has been, since we have gotten two or more long stays out of it. If we are only going to be there 8-10 days/year, the AP isn't worth it.

Good Luck!!

BTW, we also cancelled the DP this year, kept our ADRs, and saved money! But that's for another thread!

 

[PMDR59]

Thanks all for your replies. I have decided against renewing. I havent tossed out the idea of new AP's in April yet though, but have decided to wait to do anything. He still wants to just get MYW PH for the 4 days in April (we still have a day on our old NE tickets)
Decisions, Decisions......and I cant help but to plan sooooooo far in advance and am married to a more of the spur of the momemt kind of guy!!!!!

 

[dianeschlicht]

Can't help you. We've gotten APs twice now and have not renewed them each time. I've let mine expire and just purchased new ones when I needed them.

That's what we do as well. If our next trip is more than a month after the APs expire, we let them expire and buy new vouchers to activate on our next trip. Why let time burn down on the AP when you aren't going to be on a trip for awhile?

 

[Luv4Disney]

Luckily DH just takes my word on these things since I'm an accountant and deal with the money and bills, lol.