Is my math off? Park Hoppers Vs. Annual Passport

[MaleficentRN]

I'm going to DL in December and then next fall for a conference. I have a 4 day PH for December and planned on buying the same next year. By upgrading to an AP in December and also using it next year it looks like I will save about $6/day instead of buying tickets. Plus I get 10% off dining and the shops. Am I right? Am I not figuring in a hidden cost?

 

[Aladora]

I'm going to DL in December and then next fall for a conference. I have a 4 day PH for December and planned on buying the same next year. By upgrading to an AP in December and also using it next year it looks like I will save about $6/day instead of buying tickets. Plus I get 10% off dining and the shops. Am I right? Am I not figuring in a hidden cost?

4 day parkhoppers: $335.00
X2 = $670.00

Deluxe AP: $619.00

Savings = $51.00

As long as your two trips are within 12 months and not on any of the blockout dates then you are better off getting the AP if you are looking at the Deluxe AP. The only thing you will lose is your 1 day MM for each park hopper but if you already have your PH for December, then I would look at using your MM and then upgrading to the AP.

Edited to add numbers for Maxpass.

If you were going to buy Maxpass, that would equal $80.00 for your two 4 day PH but if you get the AP and add on MP then it would be $75.00 for the year.

 

[Nonsuch]

Likely correct. Guests that only visit once a year can often still save with an AP, by planning visits slightly less than a year apart. 2 visits on an AP, then skip a year.

 

[bethwc101]

Doing our passes we calculated we had to do 9 days of Disneyland and then the APs would pay for themselves and that doesn't include the AP discounts.

 

[MaleficentRN]

. The only thing you will lose is your 1 day MM for each park hopper but if you already have your PH for December, then I would look at using your MM and then upgrading to the AP.

Edited to add numbers for Maxpass.

If you were going to buy Maxpass, that would equal $80.00 for your two 4 day PH but if you get the AP and add on MP then it would be $75.00 for the year.

Didn't think about those things. The MM isn't an issue as I am staying at GC in December. Do you know if I can add MP for individual days with an AP? Probably won't use MP next year.

 

[Aladora]

Didn't think about those things. The MM isn't an issue as I am staying at GC in December. Do you know if I can add MP for individual days with an AP? Probably won't use MP next year.

You can absolutely, we did it this past August. You just have to do it each day.

 

[figment_jii]

Don't forget that MaxPass also includes Photopass!
(On a side note, I just noticed that they've dropped the photopass benefit from all new Signature AP purchases after July 19, 2017 - though it looks like those that renew their Signature APs will still get photopass.)

 

[mpadilla89]

As long as your two trips are within 12 months and not on any of the blockout dates then you are better off getting the AP if you are looking at the Deluxe AP. The only thing you will lose is your 1 day MM for each park hopper but if you already have your PH for December, then I would look at using your MM and then upgrading to the AP.

So i might get a 3 or 4 day PH for Dec 2018 and upgrade to a Deluxe for all three of us and We could still use our MM with our family. Do we need to upgrade before using the ticket or anytime in between? Can it be done after?
As long as we go one more time or two shorter trips it should pay for it self?

If making monthly payments can you pay in full whenever you wish? Can you pay with GC?

Sorry for posting on your thread!!

 

[Aladora]

So i might get a 3 or 4 day PH for Dec 2018 and upgrade to a Deluxe for all three of us and We could still use our MM with our family. Do we need to upgrade before using the ticket or anytime in between? Can it be done after?
As long as we go one more time or two shorter trips it should pay for it self?

If making monthly payments can you pay in full whenever you wish? Can you pay with GC?

Sorry for posting on your thread!!

If you want to use your MM then you have to use it before you upgrade. You can upgrade from a ticket to an AP at any point in time up to the end of your last use day.

As for making the AP pay for itself, you will have to do the math. A Deluxe AP is $619 on the Disneyland site, a 3 day PH is $315 so going for two 3 day trips would make it worthwhile, at least at the prices right now. The math changes a bit if you have kids ages 3-9, there is a kids price for PHs but not APs.

I'm Canadian so have never used monthly payments and although I have never used a GC to pay for APs, I am pretty sure you can.

HTH!

 

[figment_jii]

I've used gift cards to purchase an AP at the ticket window (I've not used GCs online). Aside from being potentially time consuming if you have multiple GC, there weren't any issues when I used that payment method.

 

[Niltiac]

So i might get a 3 or 4 day PH for Dec 2018 and upgrade to a Deluxe for all three of us and We could still use our MM with our family. Do we need to upgrade before using the ticket or anytime in between? Can it be done after?
As long as we go one more time or two shorter trips it should pay for it self?

If making monthly payments can you pay in full whenever you wish? Can you pay with GC?

Sorry for posting on your thread!!

As Aladora said, if you want to use the MM you will need wait and upgrade afterwards. I just wanted to throw out another aspect to consider though. While buying tickets and upgrading at the park has the advantage of allowing you to use your MM before upgrading, buying an AP from the start has its advantages too. The main one in my opinion is that if you purchase your AP ahead of time and then the price goes up before your trip, you will not have to pay the new higher price. Whereas if you purchase tickets and then upgrade to an AP when you're there, you'll be paying whatever the current price is when you're there. AP prices seem to go up about once per year to varying degrees, and the closer we get to Star Wars land opening the more I would expect them to increase. Also, you would be able to use AP discounts from day one.

Since you're not going until December 2018, it's pretty likely that there will be a price increase at some point before then. I believe the vouchers are good for any time in the same calendar year (I would double check this though), so you could purchase your AP's in January 2018 to lock in the price, and not activate them until December.

 

[mpadilla89]

As Aladora said, if you want to use the MM you will need wait and upgrade afterwards. I just wanted to throw out another aspect to consider though. While buying tickets and upgrading at the park has the advantage of allowing you to use your MM before upgrading, buying an AP from the start has its advantages too. The main one in my opinion is that if you purchase your AP ahead of time and then the price goes up before your trip, you will not have to pay the new higher price. Whereas if you purchase tickets and then upgrade to an AP when you're there, you'll be paying whatever the current price is when you're there. AP prices seem to go up about once per year to varying degrees, and the closer we get to Star Wars land opening the more I would expect them to increase. Also, you would be able to use AP discounts from day one.

Since you're not going until December 2018, it's pretty likely that there will be a price increase at some point before then. I believe the vouchers are good for any time in the same calendar year (I would double check this though), so you could purchase your AP's in January 2018 to lock in the price, and not activate them until December.

December 2018 we are going with about 14 ppl for at least 3 days. They will all have MM and i am the planner so it would help if i was there for MM too. Which is another reason we just are not upgrading this year. In order to go with them i would have to pay for the most expensive one.

What do you mean by vouchers? If i did and can do that and buy them in January and activate them on the day we go i could still not use MM right?

 

[Niltiac]

December 2018 we are going with about 14 ppl for at least 3 days. They will all have MM and i am the planner so it would help if i was there for MM too. Which is another reason we just are not upgrading this year. In order to go with them i would have to pay for the most expensive one.

What do you mean by vouchers? If i did and can do that and buy them in January and activate them on the day we go i could still not use MM right?

The vouchers are basically a piece of paper that you trade in for your AP. So if you were to purchase your AP in January, you would receive a voucher and your actual AP year wouldn't start until you trade the voucher for an AP in December. But if it's important for you to have MM, then you should stick with your original plan to start with tickets and upgrade to AP's during the trip.

 

[jewelspirit]

As to paying in full after setting up monthly payments, I have my pass set up for monthly payments and on a couple occasions went up to the ticket booth and simply paid the balance. It was with only a couple months payments left when the registered credit card had been deactivated (one of the store hacks). I paid at that time with a gc with no issues.

So you can pay in full at anytime, but only in person at Disneyland.

 

[agamble]

I'm going to DL in December and then next fall for a conference. I have a 4 day PH for December and planned on buying the same next year. By upgrading to an AP in December and also using it next year it looks like I will save about $6/day instead of buying tickets. Plus I get 10% off dining and the shops. Am I right? Am I not figuring in a hidden cost?

This is why we have APs for the third time in about 6 years. It's cheaper than buying tickets to go for a week every year.

 

[GatorChris]

Likely correct. Guests that only visit once a year can often still save with an AP, by planning visits slightly less than a year apart. 2 visits on an AP, then skip a year.

That's what we've done twice now. Bought APs in Nov 2014 and came back a week earlier in Nov in 2015. Plus, we added in some trips inbetween. Then we did the same time frame for 2016-2017. It's nice because you're not stuck to just 5 days on a single trip. You can go a whole week OR stick to your 5 day plan and still hit a park on the morning of your checkout. For instance, we'll get there next week and stay for 7 days. Then switch over to Great Wolf lodge where we can hit the waterslides all day but go see the DL Christmas fireworks at night. For us, it's the only way to do DL.

 

[WardFam]

I upgraded a 5 day park hopper to an AP last week and they were able to give me tickets to use for magic morning on Tuesday. We were getting maxpass so we didn't want to wait to upgrade so it worked perfectly for us!

 

[smartlabelprint]

We usually get a Deluxe AP. We have 2 blackout dates during our March trip. We’re considering just getting a 5 day and skipping a trip next year.

Any thoughts? Would you get the maxpass if u were me? Probably on 1 ticket. 2 parents 2 kids. For a few days my sib is coming too. But could still ride on the return time.

 

[egritz]

Likely correct. Guests that only visit once a year can often still save with an AP, by planning visits slightly less than a year apart. 2 visits on an AP, then skip a year.

This is what we do - first year in Nov or Dec, then the next year in Oct or Nov - both week long visits...and then we try to sprinkle in a couple shorter trips in-between as well.

I upgraded a 5 day park hopper to an AP last week and they were able to give me tickets to use for magic morning on Tuesday. We were getting maxpass so we didn't want to wait to upgrade so it worked perfectly for us!

That is awesome to hear, if we decide to upgrade our PH to AP this trip I want to do it right away so we can also buy our MP and use them from Day 1, but I don't want to lose our MM, so I was planning to nicely ask if we can get tickets to use on the Tuesday of our trip

 

[az4boys]

Just to warn you, the math on saving money gets a little fuzzy when you decide to go more often because you have an AP...