Is The Annual Pass Worth It????

[jennandsg]

I live in California, so I won't be going to DW more than once this year. I heard that it might be worth it to buy an annual pass for one person to get discounts. We were planning on buying the ultimate park hopper pass for the 6 days we would be there. I think the annual pass is about $100 more. I called the Disney Reservation line and they said they were not offering any discount for annual pass holders for the nights we were staying. (June 19-June26) I thought they always offered discounts??? Was she lying?? Anyone have any advice on if I should get it or not. What other discounts do they offer....

Thanks All,
Jenn

 

[Kismetdreams]

First question...Are you a custom Disney Wedding? If you are, then you receive AP vouchers as a gift from FTW when your contract comes back. If you are an intimate, you do not receive APs.

Once you have your vouchers, you simply turn them in at WDW and you get your APs, which are good for one year. That said, AP rates are not out yet for those dates. The latest AP rates out right now are thru 4/17/04. They should release AP rates for the summer sometime in the spring, if they offer them, but that are not always offered.

Some good info about AP rates and APs in general are:

Mousesavers.com

Allearsnet.com Annual Pass Info

Allearsnet.com AP Breakeven Analysis

There is also some more info on the mousesavers website about other discounts.

HTH

 

[jennandsg]

I'm not getting married there...just honeymooning

 

[marn913]

As Kismetdreams said, Ap rates aren't out for that time period yet. I would book your reservation now and the day that the AP rates are released just call and have the rate adjusted (note, that this is for room only reservations, not packages). Mousesavers.com is an excellent site - they give a lot of info about rates and Mary used to post past AP hotel rates for the last year or two- so you may want to check it out to see if the AP is worth it. The general rule of thumb is that the pass pays for itself if you are spending more than 7 days at the parks in a year (it pays for itself even faster if you include hotel discounts!) I don't recall the rate we had for our honeymoon, which we split between AKL and the Poly - but we saved A LOT of money. We also made a trip last Jan and stayed at the All Star Music resort for $55/night. I'd keep on top of the Dis to see when rates are coming out - they usually will have a flurry of posts on the resort and budget borard right before the rates are released (and I've found that this info is usually right on the money!)

Hope this helps.
Marne
06-16-03
WP/LS

 

[louisaho]

really?
i will get AP for free? i just bought one....

 

[louisaho]

can i refund that? and that is a voucher, so i wll have 2 voucher... what can i do with that?

 

[louisaho]

is this a premium ap? or just normal one?

 

[Kismetdreams]

Louis,

I am pretty sure the APs from FTW are for standard APs, but I am not sure as I have not cashed mine in and they don't really say.

Also, I'm not sure about the FTW ones, but vouchers you purchase from Disney do not expire, only the passes, once they are created.

So, you could use the wedding ones and keep the ones you purchased and use another year.

HTH

 

[Fantasia Sam]

The wedding passes are just standard and not premium but I when I exchanged my voucher I upgraded the pass to a Premium and paid the difference.

Like Kristen says the wedding ones are said to expire so just keep your one and use the wedding one first.

You can try and get the other one refunded when you actually get to Disney - go to a Guest Relations desk and ask explaining that you bought the passes before you realised that you got one from DFTW. They may take a "special" decision and refund. They have done this for me before on other passes.

I've saved a lot of money on AP room rates in the past and am keeping my fingers crossed that there will be more dates released soon but I have to admit they were pretty late coming out for May last year.