Question about 10% food discount with AP....

[bcbmommy]

I've noticed that there's a list of places you can get 10% off if you have an AP, but it says "can be used for up to 3 guests". Does that mean if my family of 6 has a meal somewhere, they will only take 10% off mine and 3 family members?

 

[a742246]

Good Question, If that is what it says then I would imagine they can do that! But I would also imagine they probably would just take 10% off the whole bill (no alcohol) for a family of 6. Sorry I don't have first hand experience on this for you!

 

[joe1946]

You'd have to run the numbers but I wonder whether buying a TiW card might be a better deal for your family

 

[bcbmommy]

You'd have to run the numbers but I wonder whether buying a TiW card might be a better deal for your family

Yes, I'm considering that, as well. If we decide to do that, can we just buy it when I upgrade to an AP?

 

[HopperFan]

Well the book it clearly says "Unless otherwise stated, discount excludes alcoholic beverages, applicable tax, and gratuity, and is valid for the Passholder and up to three (3) Guests." at the very beginning of the Dining section. It does imply that this is across the board at all those accepting unless the individual restaurant says otherwise. It is also repeated in several other locations. Only exception I see to number of folks is HOB "in addition to Passholder and 5 guests".

My guess by reading is Disney restaurants are supposed to stick to it. Non-Disney may give you a break but you wouldn't know until you are there and may not be consistent.

But if a few of you have APs then split the bill up to cover everyone.

This is why we have the TiW because of the WAY more locations we can use it, higher discounts, the inclusion of alcohol and a total of 10 guests.

 

[BrianL]

Maybe I'm wrong, but I would think that since each member of the family would have their own AP then each would get the discount of course. Guest's in this case may refer to non-AP holders. I don't know for sure though.

 

[HopperFan]

Maybe I'm wrong, but I would think that since each member of the family would have their own AP then each would get the discount of course. Guest's in this case may refer to non-AP holders. I don't know for sure though.

If that is the case you are correct, and I wouldn't think the OP would even ask.

It may be that only one of them are buying the AP in order to access room discounts, free photopass, free parking etc.

If that is the case for OP and others, and they plan to use Dining discounts as well, the limited number of guests is something to think about.

 

[bcbmommy]

Maybe I'm wrong, but I would think that since each member of the family would have their own AP then each would get the discount of course. Guest's in this case may refer to non-AP holders. I don't know for sure though.

I'm the only one who is considering getting the pass.

 

[BrianL]

If that is the case you are correct, and I wouldn't think the OP would even ask.

It may be that only one of them are buying the AP in order to access room discounts, free photopass, free parking etc.

If that is the case for OP and others, and they plan to use Dining discounts as well, the limited number of guests is something to think about.

I'm the only one who is considering getting the pass.

Okay. I never thought of that.

 

[Pixie Dust ✨]

Yes, I'm considering that, as well. If we decide to do that, can we just buy it when I upgrade to an AP?

You can! They'll print it for you right there. It's a paper card, not a hard plastic one, so just make sure you have somewhere to keep it safe.

 

[mickeyluv'r]

I've owned AP's, but always paired with TiW, so I can't quite answer your question directly. What I can say is that TiW also has a limit. The current webpage says that the discount applies to a party of up to 10 guests.

In the past, I went to WDW with extended family where our total party was more than the TiW limit.

Some servers DID give us a separate bill for the overage. Some servers took two adults off the bill, which was annoying, because we had children in our group. Maybe they thought a higher bill = a bigger tip for them? Or maybe they just weren't thinking.

Other servers took the kids out of the discount, a few just gave us 20% off the whole bill. Kids' meals only cost about $8.50 at the time, so 20% of a kid meal was only $1.70 of a total bill that was over $200. I'm not saying we expected servers to take 20% off everyone's food, more that I think the servers decided it wasn't worth the effort. I suspect only managers can split bills.(see below!)

I should add, there was another trip where we had a mix of TiW and the DDP, AND a large group for part of the week (some family could only come 3 of 6 days). That experience was HORRIBLE! Please do NOT make the same mistake! The CM's made mistakes on practically every bill! Even when we ignored the small mistakes, getting our TS dining bill- any bill - took a solid 20minutes.

I distinctly recall one disastrous Epcot meal where it took almost a full hour just to get our bill. Horrible customer service! Twenty minutes after requesting the bill, our server told us the (computer) server was down. Fifteen minutes after that, he told us he couldn't find the manager. When the manager finally dropped the bill, her excuse was that she'd been slammed (due to down server) then she ran away.

Worse, this was one of the meals where we were overcharged! I missed Illuminations (though half my family DID run out to see it). We weren't offered any compensation or anything for all the lost time. At that point though, we just wanted to be done.

 

[bcbmommy]

I've owned AP's, but always paired with TiW, so I can't quite answer your question directly. What I can say is that TiW also has a limit. The current webpage says that the discount applies to a party of up to 10 guests.

I think in the past the limit was 6, but I'm not 100% on that. I am positive that in the past I went to WDW with extended family, where our total party was more than the TiW limit.

Some servers DID give us a separate bill. Some servers took two adults off the bill, which was annoying, because we had children in our group. Maybe they thought a higher bill = a bigger tip for them? Or maybe they just weren't thinking.

Other servers took the kids out of the discount, a few just gave us 20% off the whole bill. Kids' meals only cost about $8.50 at the time, so 20% of a kid meal was only $1.70 of a total bill that was over $200.

I should add, there was another trip where we had a mix of TiW and the DDP, AND a large group for part of the week (some family could only come 3 of 6 days). That experience was HORRIBLE! Please do NOT make the same mistake! The CM's made mistakes on practically every bill! Even when we ignored the small mistakes, getting our TS dining bill- any bill - took a solid 20minutes.

Oh my...that does sound like it could get confusing!

Let me ask you....are there any drawbacks to getting an AP? This is such a last minute decision for me, and I'm trying to research as much as I can. From what I'm reading, there are no blackout dates, correct? So for this trip, it would basically be the same as my PH tickets?

 

[MakiraMarlena]

Yes. Up to 3 means up to 3. If you have a party of six and only one AP you can apply the discount to four meals (one of which is for the AP holder). If you have kids in your party ordering kids meals, take the discount on the adult meals.

I usually suggest getting an AP only if you are going to use it for park entrance enough to make up the cost of the AP (include the free parking perk if you will be staying offsite). Don't get it just for discounts. The discounts are not worth that much and can go away at any time.

Remember there are some restaurants that don't take TIW. None of the Landrys restaurants do. Teppan Edo, Boathouse, Skippers Cantina, La Hacienda de San Angel are other holdouts.

A platinum AP has no blackout dates and includes park hopping.

 

[mickeyluv'r]

The only AP drawback I've ever had was when I tried to convert discount tickets (bought through AAA or Undercover Tourist) to an AP.

In one case the case the CM thought I had stolen my ticket! That put a damper on my day! I managed to get my ticket back, then I went to a completely different GS location. The second CM asked if I could prove the ticket was rightfully mine, and that is when I remembered that I had taken a picture of the UT 'receipt'. (Always do this! so you have a copy of the ticket ID numbers!) The UT receipt isn't much. They basically just glue the tickets to a paper that doesn't say much, and seal it in plastic.

The second time, I bought our tickets through AAA. I only dared to try because essentially we had to cancel/split part of our trip at the last minute. In that case, it just took a very long time. The CM didn't know how to do the transaction.

I almost forgot...we also didn't realize until I attempted to book the second trip that she'd completely messed up the expiration date -by almost a full year! Luckily that was easy to fix. That's to the DIS a super poster called Cheshire Figment, I quickly found the correct number to call. (R.I.P Cheshire Figment!)

Last, though this wasn't really a problem for us, Magicbands were introduced halfway through our AP's. I'm not sure what happened on WDW's end, but we were sent multiple bands for the same set of AP's.

 

[mickeyluv'r]

A platinum AP has no blackout dates and includes park hopping.

Right, all my AP's predate the new tiered AP's. I haven't read the current round of rules.

Hopping was a big plus of AP's.

We also took full advantage of being able to book 3 FP every day of our trip. Back in the dark ages of pre-MYW tickets, we never did half days, but we also pulled more than 3FP every day.


IMO, the newer 3FP per day limit+ an AP means you really ought to go to a park every day, even if you only have time to use a single Test Track FP that day!

In my case, back in the dark ages...I DID buy a single AP for the discounts! Just one AP+ the AP room discount at a deluxe resort+ TiW, I was able to cover the cost of both, when we had 9+people in our group.

 

[bcbmommy]

Yes. Up to 3 means up to 3. If you have a party of six and only one AP you can apply the discount to four meals (one of which is for the AP holder). If you have kids in your party ordering kids meals, take the discount on the adult meals.

I usually suggest getting an AP only if you are going to use it for park entrance enough to make up the cost of the AP (include the free parking perk if you will be staying offsite). Don't get it just for discounts. The discounts are not worth that much and can go away at any time.

Remember there are some restaurants that don't take TIW. None of the Landrys restaurants do. Teppan Edo, Boathouse, Skippers Cantina, La Hacienda de San Angel are other holdouts.

A platinum AP has no blackout dates and includes park hopping.

I keep hearing people say not to get it for the resort discounts, but what if what you save enough with the resort discount on this one trip to break even with the AP? If my math is right, the 7-day PH I bought from Parksavers will bridge to an AP for around $330. If I apply the AP discount to my resort stay, it saves me $250 there. I'm planning on buying MM, so that's another $150. So if I'm right, it should save me close to $70.

 

[bcbmommy]

The only AP drawback I've ever had was when I tried to convert discount tickets (bought through AAA or Undercover Tourist) to an AP.

In one case the case the CM thought I had stolen my ticket! That put a damper on my day! I managed to get my ticket back, then I went to a completely different GS location. The second CM asked if I could prove the ticket was rightfully mine, and that is when I remembered that I had taken a picture of the UT 'receipt'. (Always do this! so you have a copy of the ticket ID numbers!) The UT receipt isn't much. They basically just glue the tickets to a paper that doesn't say much, and seal it in plastic.

The second time, I bought our tickets through AAA. I only dared to try because essentially we had to cancel/split part of our trip at the last minute. In that case, it just took a very long time. The CM didn't know how to do the transaction.

I almost forgot...we also didn't realize until I attempted to book the second trip that she'd completely messed up the expiration date -by almost a full year! Luckily that was easy to fix. That's to the DIS a super poster called Cheshire Figment, I quickly found the correct number to call. (R.I.P Cheshire Figment!)

Last, though this wasn't really a problem for us, Magicbands were introduced halfway through our AP's. I'm not sure what happened on WDW's end, but we were sent multiple bands for the same set of AP's.

Yikes! Well, this makes me pause a bit. I definitely don't need the headache of spending hours convincing someone that my ticket is really my ticket!

 

[mickeyluv'r]

We never had any problems using our AP once we had it.

The trouble I had was just in buying my AP, and only because I converted pre-bought hoppers into AP's.

In short, I was able get a small discount off my AP (Disney doesn't offer any). I bought a regular hopper ticket at UT's discounted price, then converted it to an AP at WDW's GS, so that my total price was less than the full price of a AP.

The first transaction would have been faster, if I had been willing to pay full price.

I should add, UT buys their WDW tickets at the WHOLESALE price, which is slightly less than they charge their retail customers. It is only a problem if you do what I did- and try to add days to a UT ticket.


If you buy a five day adult base through UT, it is $323 w/tax. The WDW website now charges $362 w/tax. A platinum pass (again WDW website) is $797.69.

So your UT ticket might be worth $362, or maybe $323, or maybe the wholesale price UT paid.

Further, at one point there was a rash of ticket scammers on ebay. HArd to explain super simply, but basically ticket prices are front loaded. Days 1-3 cost more than days 4-10. Scammers sold their used tickets to other scammers who would bring the used tickets back to WDW so they could add days at the reduced price. That's what I was accused of doing , except that MY ticket was still (nearly) fully loaded when I brought it to GS. And I am NOT a scammer!

I hope that makes sense. I've been to WDW a great many times. Here's my take- the BEST Guest Services staff is the CM's at the MK! If you have any ticket issues, I suggest going there. If you run into any issues, don't be afraid to ask for a manager. Tickets are now very complicated! Also, if you know you want an AP- buy one directly from WDW.

 

[bumbershoot]

mickeyluv'r...you have definitely had some big, and unique, problems!

Hearing of CMs having such problems is NOT the norm. As for one location being better, it can't be extrapolated like that. YOU had good experience at MK, but others have had opposite experiences. One month apart I had a *perfect* experience upgrading from UT to DVC AP at AK guest services, and another Dis'er had a truly lousy experience at the same location. That one got Undercover Tourist involved to help them unravel everything! (she was going from UT to DVC AP *renewal*, is the one difference)

I personally would not worry about those problems showing up again. If they do, the CM can be reminded to either read through their info on how to bridge tickets, or just get a supervisor (and remind them, too). Or just take the pass and walk away and try elsewhere.

I keep hearing people say not to get it for the resort discounts, but what if what you save enough with the resort discount on this one trip to break even with the AP?

The concept is to not get an AP for the possibility of future discounts. If you, currently, have or know of an AP discount that will be of that much use NOW, then do it.

 

[DisMommyTX]

Last summer we upgraded our UndercoverTourist 10-day park hopper tickets to annual passes. We had no problems bridging however we had to wait until the second half of our trip to upgrade to AP. This is because the 10 day tickets could reserve 10 days of FP+, but the annual passes can only reserve a maximum of 7 days of FP at a time.

On our most recent trip, only I upgraded from the old annual pass to the new annual pass. The expiration date did not change, but this allowed me to get free PhotoPass downloads (perk on the new tiered passes) for everyone in my family on this and all future trips until the pass expires. I also have TiW, so I cannot speak to the AP dining discount, but I have not found any drawbacks. Unless you count all of the extra trips we are taking because the AP'S are burning a whole in our pockets.