I prefer 10 day passes to annual passes

[pinnocchiosdad]

We visit the world about twice a year. We do not do the parks everyday of our stay. We considered AP's. Instead what works for our pocketbook is to by multiple 1 day tickets. We each buy 10 packs. The cost at the gate is $75 (adult). The price per day in the 10 pack is $23.70. We add $20 per ticket for a lifetime no expiration option. That bings the total to $43.75 with lifetime expiration. I think Disney keeps this option quiet because when I mention it to friends, few have heard of it.

 

[Chuck S]

Why would you need the non-expiration option? Aren't one day tickets good forever until they are used?

 

[goofy4tink]

I've never heard of 'packs of one day tickets'. In any case, you can buy an AP for $414 as a DVC owner. And you get to hop.
The current price for one day passes, with non-expire added is about $480. I would much rather pay $414 and be able to hop from park to park. Don't want to hop? Don't have to. Still cheaper to buy an AP.

 

[LIFERBABE]

I believe what the OP is saying is they each purchase the 10 day MYW tix with no expiration option.

We do the same! Only if I have F&W activities planned do I get the AP. Other than that, we all have 10 MYW with fun options. Even if we go in the park for a few hours, we dont sweat it.
We are going on 4 years with the same 10 day tix. We supplement the 10 days with DQ/WP AP's which are around $125 eoy for us.
We plan for the long term with DVC and the 10 day tix/DQWP AP combo allows us to have as much entertainment as we want and still enjoy resort and special activities while at WDW.

Our June trip, we stayed a week in AKV Concierge before our cruise and just relaxed and did what we wanted. We did not hit a park once, but went to the movies, DisneyQuest a few times, T-Rex, hung out at SSR, etc. It was too hot for the parks but we still had a blast.

 

[La2kw]

We visit the world about twice a year. We do not do the parks everyday of our stay. We considered AP's. Instead what works for our pocketbook is to by multiple 1 day tickets. We each buy 10 packs. The cost at the gate is $75 (adult). The price per day in the 10 pack is $23.70. We add $20 per ticket for a lifetime no expiration option. That bings the total to $43.75 with lifetime expiration. I think Disney keeps this option quiet because when I mention it to friends, few have heard of it.

I've never heard of 10 packs of multiple day tickets. Are these available at the gate?

We do the PAP and get two trips out of them by staggering our trip. This year we went in July, next year we will go in June. We don't renew them, but rather restart that cycle again. In 2011 we will go in July and in 2012 in June, etc. We paid $450 this year, for PAP with the 10% discount cards we get from fellow Disboarders. That works out to about $225 per year and includes waterparks (which we love), DQ, and park hopping.

 

[tjkraz]

For our trip pattern and vacation habits, the AP still works best. Some days we may only go into a park for an hour or two, and having an AP makes that much more palatable than burning a day on a MYW pass.

And our typical trip is 6-7 days so a 10-day pass won't even cover two trips. Not thrilled at the prospect of losing access to the parks midway thru our second trip.

I've thought about getting 10-day non-expiring passes so that we can pocket years' worth of waterpark visits. Might do that in 2010 if the planets align. But it's an expensive proposition--over $500 more OOP for our family compared to APs. It's clearly a good value for all of those waterpark visits, but still restrictive and expensive.

 

[silmarg]

we used to do APs as well.

we have since done the 10 day no expire tix

we have one set that are hoppers (and only use on hop days) and another set that are non hoppers.

one of our old sets (which we have used all the "big park" days on) we did the Water Parks option (at $50 for 10 days... its THE BEST deal on any disney ticket). We still have some water park days on those..

So we have lots of tickets to keep track of, but we think it keeps the cost per visit to a minimum.

This tip we will be getting the military 5 day tickets... Now THOSE are a bargain!

 

[lah3hh]

We normally do the 10 day non-expiring MYW tickets but I think the OP has something different up his/her sleeve. Please share more what you mean about 10 one day packs....you have me very curious and wanting to save some $$$ if possible.

 

[Tara]

The new renewal policy (if good for DVC members) might change people's strategies regarding AP vs. 10-day MYW. As it stands now, the 10-day pass is only a better deal if you visit parks for 10 total days and it takes you MORE than 1 year to do so. But with the new 15-month renewal, it might start making more sense to go the AP route.

 

[d-r]

We put 69 days on our AP last year.

 

[vicki_c]

We normally do the 10 day non-expiring MYW tickets but I think the OP has something different up his/her sleeve. Please share more what you mean about 10 one day packs....you have me very curious and wanting to save some $$$ if possible.

I don't think so - the prices that the OP quoted are about exactly the price for a 10 day MYW non-expiring ticket. That may be a better deal for them than the APs, but it's not any kind of secret savings.

Using current prices from Mousesavers (not the new prices) - A 10 day ticket is $252, adding NE is $213 = $465 divided by 10, gives you $46.50 / day. The OP's price is a little lower, most likely because they purchased those tickets when the price was a bit lower.

It all depends on how often you go as to what would be the best deal. We used our APs for about 21 days last year, so each day only cost us around $20 and we got to hop too (oh, we only paid $399 because we have DVC APs)! Plus were able to save a lot of $$ with the TiW Card.

 

[TINKERIFIC]

Can someone expand on the OPs 10 day pack? Is this the same as the 10 day non expiry?

The 10 day non expiry makes sense for us. We will not visit WDW more than once in a years time to make the AP worth it. On our June 2010, we only plan on 4 park days, that leaves us 6 for another time.

 

[goofy4tink]

The new renewal policy (if good for DVC members) might change people's strategies regarding AP vs. 10-day MYW. As it stands now, the 10-day pass is only a better deal if you visit parks for 10 total days and it takes you MORE than 1 year to do so. But with the new 15-month renewal, it might start making more sense to go the AP route.

I still say it's cheaper to get the DVC AP...even without the new promo. The OP is saying that it costs him $437 for 10 days of parks..one park per day, and that's at yesterday's prices, not tomorrow's. If they do indeed go twice a year, but don't go to the parks each day, then sure, I guess it would work out to be cheaper. But, I can't imagine going twice a year and not spending at least 10 days in the parks...at least one park per day. I head to WDW several times a year and spend about 15 days there, sometimes closer to 20 total. If you truly don't want to park hop, and are not going to be in the parks for more than 10 days a year, then sure, I guess it works.
Dear God....I really hope that renewal promo is for us DVC AP holders as well as others.

 

[goofy4tink]

Can someone expand on the OPs 10 day pack? Is this the same as the 10 day non expiry?

The 10 day non expiry makes sense for us. We will not visit WDW more than once in a years time to make the AP worth it. On our June 2010, we only plan on 4 park days, that leaves us 6 for another time.

Yes, basically, that's what the OP is talking about. My dh does it that way as well. But, he doesn't travel to WDW nearly as often as I do. He will just be finishing up his 10 day, non-expire. hopper pass in two weeks. He has used it for about 2+ years now...a few days at a time.

 

[Brian Noble]

It all comes down to how many visits per year you take, and how many days per visit, and the right answer might be different for different people. But, the OP's measure of per-day cost is the right way to compare.

In general:
* If you take infrequent, short trips (4 park days or less), the 10-day with no-expiration often makes sense.
* If you take infrequent, long trips (6 park days or more), the expiring tickets usually work out best.
* If you take two or more trips totalling 10 or more days per year, the AP usually makes sense.

For a DVCer, the number of days/year for break-even on an AP is lower, because of the AP discount.

 

[silmarg]

a plus for the AP is the availability for the tables in wonderland card. that can be a big savings.

 

[hakepb]

In my experience, DVC points and an AP are an amazing combination.
1) While on an AP, you can decide, on the fly during a scheduled "non-park day", to go into a park to eat dinner, and not worry about "wasting" a MYW park day
2) halfway between AP trips, you realize, "I got points (I can borrow, if needed) and I got passes, we can go on a WDW long weekend for "only" the cost of cheap airfare and food!!"
For this year's trip, we went back to MYW, it did save us $ bu it just was not the same. I almost feel AP=deluxe and MYW = Value. (Yes, Value is very enjoyable and saves money, but there can be more..)

 

[mandjblum]

Just bought AP's. My head hurt reading post and using excel to figure out the best way to go (been researching for weeks). Had to get it done before the increase starts tomorrow. Not sure if it is the right way, we'll see. Leave Saturday for our stay at BLT and then Vero.

 

[Brian Noble]

In my experience, DVC points and an AP are an amazing combination.

Right this second, I have three different annual/season passes to three different park operators. They can save you right into the poor house!

 

[jade1]

We like going to a park on arrival day, and departure day, as well as every day (or at least the evening) we are there. So since we would burn off 8 days the first week, we would only have 2 days left for our second week a year later-plus we often work another trip in as well. And hopping is way too important as well to us.