Regular Tickets vs Annual Pass

[PurpleKomodo]

Hello. We are planning two trips to WDW right now and I have a question about tickets and annual passes. I have never really considered buying an annual pass, but we are going more often now as my kids are getting older and we bought DVC. So, I am going to give you my scenario and see if people who have already crunched the numbers can save me some math. ;-)

First trip June 11-16, 2020. We are planning on buying 4 day tickets without hoppers for 3 adults and 2 children. One of the adults won't be traveling with us for the next trip.

Second trip June 15-22, 2021. Dates are somewhat flexible, but won't be earlier in June. We will be buying 8 day park hopper tickets for 2 adults and 2 children. We will probably also buy a couple days of park tickets for a nurse for one of my children.

I assume that annual passes cover the date bought for 365 days, so I can't buy an annual pass to cover both trips. But, would it make sense to upgrade a ticket from the 2020 trip to an annual pass to use for 2021? How many days of park tickets does it tip over to be more cost effective to buy at least 1 annual pass and have that for discounts. We are DVC members so we get some discount on APs and around WDW for that as well. Has anyone done this math? Is this a situation where buying an AP makes sense? What about block out dates. We have to travel in the summer due to school and work schedules. Thanks!

 

[fla4fun]

It is my understanding that if you upgrade a used ticket to an AP that the AP is backdated to the first use date of the ticket. So if you use the ticket on the 11th for the first time, your AP is effective the 11th. I could be wrong . . .

If you are updating the unused ticket, check the expiration date. I believe most tickets expire the end of the year, and you would just get the value of the ticket to apply toward the AP. You don’t lose money, but if there was any price spread that you were hoping to take advantage of, you wouldn’t have that.

It can be beneficial to have one AP for parking and other discounts.

 

[Fangorn]

It is my understanding that if you upgrade a used ticket to an AP that the AP is backdated to the first use date of the ticket. So if you use the ticket on the 11th for the first time, your AP is effective the 11th. I could be wrong . . .

You are not wrong. Upgrading a 4-day ticket that is first used on Jun 11, 2020 to an AP, will result in the AP expiring on Jun 11, 2021. That's just the way it works.

Steve

 

[bfost87]

Hello. We are planning two trips to WDW right now and I have a question about tickets and annual passes. I have never really considered buying an annual pass, but we are going more often now as my kids are getting older and we bought DVC. So, I am going to give you my scenario and see if people who have already crunched the numbers can save me some math. ;-)

First trip June 11-16, 2020. We are planning on buying 4 day tickets without hoppers for 3 adults and 2 children. One of the adults won't be traveling with us for the next trip.

Second trip June 15-22, 2021. Dates are somewhat flexible, but won't be earlier in June. We will be buying 8 day park hopper tickets for 2 adults and 2 children. We will probably also buy a couple days of park tickets for a nurse for one of my children.

I assume that annual passes cover the date bought for 365 days, so I can't buy an annual pass to cover both trips. But, would it make sense to upgrade a ticket from the 2020 trip to an annual pass to use for 2021? How many days of park tickets does it tip over to be more cost effective to buy at least 1 annual pass and have that for discounts. We are DVC members so we get some discount on APs and around WDW for that as well. Has anyone done this math? Is this a situation where buying an AP makes sense? What about block out dates. We have to travel in the summer due to school and work schedules. Thanks!

In your situation it would not make sense to purchase APs for the family. First of all, if your dates are fixed, you can't use one anyways, as it is 365 days from the first time you enter a park (even if you upgrade a used park ticket, it would be backdated to June 11th, and would expire June 10th 2021. The second consideration is cost, the cost of 2 adult, and 2 child AP (excluding the third adult as they aren't going both trips), is approx. $4766 USD, and the cost of the tickets you outlined above (2 adult and 2 child 4 day one park tickets, and 2 adult and 2 child 8 day park hopper tickets) is approx. $4320. So, its costing you an extra $450 or so to get the AP.

As for buying one AP for the discounts (which is irrelevant if you are firm on those dates being more than a year apart), it would cost you approx $80 more for one AP to get discounts, etc, instead of buying the tickets. Is $80 extra worth it? For me, yes, because of the discounts and it means I can go back whenever I want, but again, if you can't move your dates, it's a none starter.

 

[Bjkandma]

Don't forget to add the value of memory maker into the cost of an AP, depending on which one you are looking at.

 

[starry_solo]

Unless you make your first trip in 2020 to be later in the month so that an AP purchased in 2020 would be able to cover the 2021 trip, it may not be cost effective to do so. It might be worth it for one person to do it, depending on whether you are staying on property or off (on property, theme park parking is included if you are driving; off-property, you'd need to pay for parking). Memory maker (good for the year the AP is valid) is also a consideration.