Help me decide which month to renew AP

[Tiger926]

I am a teacher, and so I can only travel to Disney at Christmas (late Dec., early Jan.), March Break (2nd week of March) and Summer (July 1 - Aug. 31). We went for the first time last March Break, so our APs have a renewal date of March 12 - which is typically the first day of our break.

My DH and I have been struggling with whether to renew the March date or not. We always travel in July, so this is a constant for us. We would never vacation more than 2x a year at one of these times, so which month would you pick for your AP anniversary date in order to maximize AP usage?

We thought we could get 2 July trips on one AP, but realized that this isn't possible, unless we are doing something wrong, so at this point we are leaning towards renewing March date, but this will be problematic as the date is the first day of break - breaks are usually no earlier than March 10th. We also have to add our DD2 (she'll be 3 in May) for her AP as well, so we are desperately looking for advice on how to determine what is the best month for us.

Thanks in advance, Tiger

 

[Allison]

I just got my first AP. I guess I assumed if you were going to renew, it had to be in the month that your previous pass expired. Is this not the case?

 

[A Mickeyfan]

Allison.. you are somewhat correct. In order to get the discounted rate on the renewal, you must renew it prior to the experation date.

Tiger926...if you want to save the extra money by renewing, I would renew it prior to my experation date. You can now renew online, you do not have to be there in person. You can also renew over the telephone. As far as getting your dd a pass, you can order hers ahead of time or just pick one up when you get to WDW. The only way you will get 2 July's out of it is to let your pass expire, purchase new ones in the middle of July. Then the following year, you can go the begining of July.. That is the only way I can see you doing that. If you usually do 2 trips, you can do March & July.... that's 2. Only thing is, your March break dates will change, but your renewal date will not. If it is worth the extra money, then let them expire & get them new in the middle of July.

 

[philaround]

I thought there was a 30 day grace period to renew with the discount. The renewal date does not change but you have 30 days after expiration to renew. If this is true you will be able to renew your AP until 4/12 since your current AP's expire on 3/12. Your renewed AP's will expire on 3/12/2007 but if you also buy a new AP at the same time it's expiration date will be based on the purchase date.

I don't quite understand your plans. Are you going in March 2006? If yes I would renew the APs for this date. If you are not going until July I would just buy new APs at that time. If you renew for March and don't go until July you will be wasting 1/3 of a year on your AP. If you buy new APs in July you will have your AP available for July and December in 2006 and March and part of July 2007.

 

[Leota]

I think even with the 30 day grace period, your renewal date stays the original date. It's just a grace period to recieve the discounted rate. You used to be able to renew & activate later, but they did away with that around 1999.

 

[Tiger926]

Sorry for the confusion - Our expiry date for our current APs is March 12/06. We currently have no vacations booked as of yet - we are close to finalizing July '06 dates though. No plans for March - I gave you my vacation dates (Dec., March & July/Aug.) in order to assist you in helping me to determine if I should renew our current APs, or wait. Based on your responses though, it seems as if you re-evaluate your APs each and every year based on vacation dates, but we can only go during those 3 holidays, so we thought we could just either renew these APs, or wait until July and buy new ones - but you've helped me realize that renewing these current APs in March isn't a good idea as we will be wasting our AP, plus with this renewal date, we wouldn't get any spring break days out of it, so July does sound like a better option as it will allow for all vacation dates.

I still confused about what day to activate in July though - so what would you suggest? Should we plan a vacation for later July this year, and then next year we will plan our vacation for before these dates so that we can begin to renew our APs each and every year after that? Eg. Our new APs get activated on July 20/06, so subsequent trips will always be before July 20th, allowing us to start renewing APs in July of next year? Am I understanding this correctly?

Being that these are our first APs, we are trying to make things easy, but perhaps renewing in March isn't a good idea as the expiry date is the first day of break, which means that the only way to get 2 vacations out of an AP is to go in summer and xmas - thanks for helping me realize that!

Thanks, Tiger

 

[Leota]

From what you've said about when you go to WDW, I think your best bet is getting AP's at the end of July & doing your trips to coincide with that.

 

[calypso*a*go-go]

It's tough, isn't it? There's really no way to use AP's and travel the same week every year -- you'll always have to move your dates up a week to get two visits out of the same AP. Are you sure you even need AP's? You might be better off getting 10 day MYW w/no expiration. That way, if you entered the parks 5 days or less each visit, you'd difinitely get two trips out of it. Good luck getting everything to work out.

 

[seashoreCM]

What if you never renew your AP but rather buy a new AP when you arrive for your next trip after the previous AP expired?

It's tough deciding only when your vacation plans are not fully crystallized.

Disney hints:
http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/dispass.htm