Talk to me about being an out-of-state passholder

[amilli12]

Without actually doing the calculation it looks like you are just close to a break even. If you are able to plan the following fall trip so it falls within the annual pass window you would really be ahead though. I am in roughly the same part of the country as you and have passes but I got them right before the increase last summer. We have more than got our moneys worth from them. Many of the trips we drive and stay offsite so the savings on parking adds up fast. I never bought memory maker before so it wasn't truly a savings but I do enjoy having it.

Thank you for your response! I can definitely plan our next fall trip within the year's window, so I'm thinking I should go for it!

 

[Chris75]

Thank you for your response! I can definitely plan our next fall trip within the year's window, so I'm thinking I should go for it!

Out of curiosity I looked up the cheapest 10 day PH in the fall is $606 pre tax so that would even be a slight savings for your kids if you fit 2 trips in and if they are over 10 (or just slightly more if they only need a child ticket). It is a lot of money upfront but it does insulate you from any price changes in the meantime and if you are able to add in an extra trip then it becomes a pretty good value.

 

[amilli12]

Out of curiosity I looked up the cheapest 10 day PH in the fall is $606 pre tax so that would even be a slight savings for your kids if you fit 2 trips in and if they are over 10 (or just slightly more if they only need a child ticket). It is a lot of money upfront but it does insulate you from any price changes in the meantime and if you are able to add in an extra trip then it becomes a pretty good value.

Okay yeah I'm definitely going to look into that. My oldest two kids are 12/10 -- so adult ticket status. That would def save me overall for the two years. Thank you!

 

[e_yerger]

I’m from NJ, and I got my first AP in Jan 2018 (but didn’t use it for the first time until May 2018). I’ve renewed once, and I probably wont renew again this May.
I LOVE my AP. I love the flexibility and the convenience of it. I’ve done 7 trips so far with my AP, and will complete 9 in total over the two years having it. Most of my trips have been over long weekends, to maximize my PTO. I watch for room discounts closely (especially the AP room discounts and Disney Visa discounts). Flights have averaged around $250 round trip each time.
It’s not an CHEAP hobby, but I love the freedom being an AP has given me.
I’m not renewing this year because of a couple reasons: 1) I’m paying for my upcoming wedding 2) I have some other non-disney vacations booked and 3) The pricing is just too high now, even with the renewal discount.
If you’re an out of state disney fan, i think everyone should give it a try at least once!

 

[shaunaday]

My husband and I are getting a significantly larger tax return than originally estimated and are thinking of how to spend it. We have a trip planned for December 2020, and were thinking about upgrading to APs on that trip. We'd take another 5/6 day trip in 2021, but I'm not sure how many times we'll go down in 2021 besides that because we're from PA and flights can add up.

So for those of you who are passholders and don't live in state, do you regret it? Do you still take enough trips to get your money's worth out of the AP? I’m mostly worried about flights being a barrier for taking a lot of trips and wondering how others have gone about it.

We are in Alabama and only a 1.5 hr drive from Atlanta. We get flights (from Jet Blue) for under 100.00 all the time and have a lot of flexibility with our travel dates...so we are getting our money’s worth. I’ll have around 30 days in the parks during this AP year...4 shorter trips and 1 long trip.

Having said that, I’d definitely run the numbers! It only makes sense for us *right now*
because we have a lot of flexibility. We said no to APs in the past and probably will in the future based on family dynamics, responsibilities, and other interests. But this year, it was worth it for us. Disney is expensive and there are many ways to spend your vacation dollars! Good luck with your decision making!

 

[OfCourseTheresAlwaysMyWay]

I just got an annual pass for the first time. I live in New York.

It made sense for me because I knew I was going in March with friends and in January 2021 with family. I also plan to visit Halloween Horror Nights 30 in the fall, so I like having the option of adding a day or three at Disney to the front or the back of that trip.

I'm not sure it'll be worth it money wise. I think I'll break even. But I've always wanted to try it once and for me that was enough of a reason. Plus the discounts, etc. of course.

I've actually never park hopped either, so I like the freedom it gives me.

 

[Nana2Callie]

Glad you asked the question... we are looking at a May trip and then another May trip in 21 before the expiration - probably 10 days so total of 20 days, but the increased out of state cost really caught me off guard. I'm still on the fence factoring in park hopper and other discounts, but not completely sold.

 

[Renarr]

I live in Washington (state, not D.C.), but love WDW that much more than DLR.

We've gone the Annual Pass route in summer '17 - summer '18 and as well from summer '19 - summer '20. Go in August the first year and in July the second. We've actually not gone in between (we've talked about it, but the airfare doesn't make sense for us at the times my work schedule permits), but go for 10 days each year (sometimes we get part of the 11th, depending on flights). If we were just doing it for a single year, it would be borderline close (we would have paid for the Photopass downloads some years but not perhaps every year), but doing it for the two years back-to-back leaves us comfortably ahead, between the merch we buy, the table service restaurants we do (we do a lot), the stop at the spa every year, and other factors.

 

[kwdw]

I loved having an AP this past year - but I pay about $190-260 for the flight routinely. I went 7 times in the year - about 40 park days, lots of nice 20% off merchadise purchases, and I used a resort room discount 5 of the 7 times (two stays were off-property). I also bought TIW and that definitely was well worth it for me. I also perfected the onsite grocery delivery order/or stop at the grocery store when I had a car to help save me food/water money. So - I loved my year.

That said - yes - that added up in cost. But I knew I was going on at least 4 trips when I bought it so I had expected at least 4 trips in my budget for the year.

It's all really about whether or not you are 100% committed to using enough park days to warrant the price of the AP. That's it. If you know you are going to hit the break-even mark on park tickets - that's all you need.

BUT - be warned - it does tempt you to make trips you hadn't planned on!

I didn't renew my AP. I'm not headed back to Disney before December 2020 at the earliest, so letting it lapse makes sense.

 

[Gabsdad]

We live in NC and have had AP’s for the last 3 or so years (we are also DVC owners and buy our AP at the Florida rate). We usually go 2-3 times a year for 5 days or so, so that makes the AP worthwhile alone. The biggest perk I’ve seen for AP’s are the short notice/spur of the moment trips. We just went in February and have another trip scheduled for May. When my wife brought up going out of town with her girlfriends for a beach weekend in April I immediately thought about booking a Disney trip for our daughter and I. Within 15 minutes a room and flight were booked. All in I’m at about $1k (plus our during the trip spending), which is much more palatable by having our tickets already covered. If we were not AP’s it would add another expensive dynamic to the decision.

 

[Jimmy Mouse]

2nd year AP holders. We live 7 hours away in GA so its worth it for us. We did 4 trips on our first year of AP (2018-19) and will have done 3 trips 2019-20 after our upcoming April trip so we got our money's worth. I am also thinking about a June or July trip so yes they are worth it but we are on the fence on renewing but probably will.

 

[LizGirl]

We live in Texas and I've managed to convince us that we should have APs every other year. I try to tell my husband that it "saves us money" but he tells me that my math is wrong! LOL! Disney math is never wrong.

We buy them and then plan to go a lot in the year that we have them. We sorta force ourselves to get our money's worth but we have so much fun and never feel rushed or stressed. We stay value when we can and rarely eat table service to help keep costs down. We have passes now and I don't know if we will do it again with the price hikes. I'm a big fan of the parks so I'll probably find a way. 9 days until I'm back "home"!

 

[HHMcG]

I think once you have the AP you look for cheap airfare as an excuse to go again., Not sure where in PA you are...but if you have flexibility there are great airfare deals out there.

 

[NH-to-FL]

DW and I had out of state APs for a number of years. Of course that was quite a few years ago. We switched to APs when we started making two 6+ day trips per year. The decision was simple math based on the price of park hopper tickets. I kept checking for AP resort savings but mostly found bounce back offers and special sales saved more. Also, we never used having an AP as an excuse for a quick, spur of the moment trip. We are now snowbirds with resident APs.

 

[Shellyred8]

We are in MN and got the DVC discount on the AP, so it's been worth it for us. We originally started with the plan to do the first trip at the end of May and then do a final trip at the beginning of May the following year. We ended up doing 3 additional trips between that time! We watch for cheaper flight prices and then see if those dates work for us to go down. I really like the flexibility of the AP while we are there. If we just had regular tickets, we probably wouldn't go to a park on arrival day. But since we have the AP, we will go, even if we have a late afternoon/early evening arrival.

We've also gotten some good discounts on rooms, so keep an eye out for that too. They aren't always available, but when they are, it's usually a pretty decent deal.

 

[k_hase]

We have been doing this for several years now. As PPs have said, it was worth it if you went for 10 days and factored in parkhopper cost. Currently, we are DVC owners, so it is a savings for us because we buy the DVC Gold passes. We're teachers, so we travel in the summer. We stay about a week in back-to-back years, and make the trips both within the 365 days that the one pass is valid. (We then skip year 3 and start over again the following year. ) This allows us to make 2 trips for less than the cost of one week's worth of PH tickets. I'm not sure I could justify it if we were considering Platinum passes- that is a higher break-even point for sure!

Free parking, merchandise and special event discounts, and Photopass value could also be included in the potential savings if these are important to you. Up until last year's hefty AP increase, followed by this year's increase, I would have had no problem recommending someone purchase a Platinum AP as an out-of-state visitor. At the moment, I would say to total up all the costs involved and see where your break-even point is.

This is almost exactly what we do as DVC owners---two longer trips with 365 days and we can usually swing a long weekend or two as well. This year we were in Florida for a non-Disney thing and added two nights at Disney b/c we had points and APs. We'll use it this summer, and then won't return until 2022.

 

[Redbudlover]

I am from Austin TX and a DVC owner. I buy an AP gold because I usually take two trips on points and then at least one and often two trips with cash and use the AP discount. And I always park hop several times a trip. This year I lost 8 days on a third trip due to the parks closing during my April trip I rescheduled for Sept but my AP will need to be renewed before then

 

[Disneyfan754321]

I'm interested in the responses here too. I live in Kansas City and am considering buying an AP just for myself. Time off is not a problem at all, I run my own business and build the schedule around vacation time. I also drive, so flight costs are not a concern.
I take my 3 boys to Disney each fall for a long trip, and we always do 10 day PH tickets. This year in April I'm also headed down to the World for a girls trip with 3 day PH tickets. That would be 13 park days for me, I always get Memory Maker on my trips with my kids, and usually spend somewhere around $400-500 so I think I'm pretty close to making it worthwhile. Still debating though for some reason, ha.

Ha we also live in KC..
We take cheap flights mid week, the kind you only get to take a backpack with.. i would think they have better flights out of PA than they do out of two terminal kcmo. Our highest cost is hotel cost. I really liked having APs.

 

[MsVanderquack]

A small, but potentially important, thing to consider is the limits of booking FPs when you have an AP. You can only have 7 days booked unless you’re staying at a Disney hotel. We usually stay on site, but were planning to visit family on a separate trip and go to the parks for a few days. We had 6 days of FPs booked for April (staying on site) and when I went to book FPs for March (staying off site) I could only book for one day because of the limit.

 

[Mainsail Minnie]

We're central Texans (either a 20-hour drive or a not-cheap plane ride from WDW) and I got APs for me and my son last summer, unfortunately after the price increase. It's been worth it for us for one year imo. We've taken one trip with it, and have two more planned before they expire. This summer's trip was booked with AP resort discounts, which are significantly better than the general public discount, and that's an important savings when you stay deluxe club level. Dining & shopping discounts are nice but not really a consideration when spending that much up front for the APs. I also love not worrying about how many days of tickets are available, and the ability to park hop, go to water parks, and just know that it's all covered. We visited WDW both before and after a 7-night cruise, and didn't have to worry about the ticketed days being too far apart.

I have no plans to renew them, though. No plans to go to WDW in 2021. Three trips in a year should satisfy us for at least two years, then probably we'll go again, either with APs or not.

So I think the bottom line is that you can make it worth it one year at a time, but it's not necessarily worth it to keep renewing them each year, if you don't live close by.