Upgrading worth it?

[agamble]

Is it worth upgrading one AP to a Signature pass if parking is mostly a non-issue? We generally stay at walking hotels and will likely only need to park 2-3 days of the entire year. So parking only adds up to $40-$60 saved with the pass. I will say that if we have parking, we may take advantage of it during the trips we're staying at time shares, but if we didn't have it we wouldn't use it. Photopass costs $78 for a week now. We would enjoy having it for the year, but also recognize it's not the end of the world. I know the discount is slightly higher, but we aren't big merchandisers. We will likely visit about 8 times in our 13 months, and two trips will be for a week. It would cost me $250 to upgrade.

 

[SMD]

Is it worth upgrading one AP to a Signature pass if parking is mostly a non-issue? We generally stay at walking hotels and will likely only need to park 2-3 days of the entire year. So parking only adds up to $40-$60 saved with the pass. I will say that if we have parking, we may take advantage of it during the trips we're staying at time shares, but if we didn't have it we wouldn't use it. Photopass costs $78 for a week now. We would enjoy having it for the year, but also recognize it's not the end of the world. I know the discount is slightly higher, but we aren't big merchandisers. We will likely visit about 8 times in our 13 months, and two trips will be for a week. It would cost me $250 to upgrade.

The first thing is, are you looking for the extra money to pay for itself? It probably won't. But some people decide to buy signature for the perks, not necessarily for the extra days in the park.

How many APs do you have? If you're a family of 2 or 3, $250 seems like a lot more than a family of 6 that is already spending over $3100 on APs.

There are some people who really, really value the photos. How many times do you go on rides that have photos? Do you stop to look at the photos? Are you going to stop and add the codes of you have the pass? How often do you pose for Disney photographers?

With the higher discount, I haven't found that it makes a ton of difference. I don't make a lot of large purchases, most are $25 or less. So it's often a difference of $2, and while that probably adds up over the year, I often don't sweat $2 on a relatively small purchase. I can just make up the difference by spending a little less throughout the year.

 

[boggerbret]

We Did this! I bought myself a Signature Pass(sp) and got the rest of the fam Deluxe AP(DAP) . We liked the SP for more% off on Food and Merch. We used my SP for all Purchases, and for Fun added up our Receipts between the two passes and we saved over 200 bucks more having the SP vs the DAP. And we parked 2 days so thats an extra 38 dollars. I found the Value right away because we bought some Expensive Souvenirs( Replica Stormtrooper Helmet Blue tooth Speaker ) So it just depends If you need the Extra 5-10% off stuff and the Parking is A lot of money if ya gotta park. Non sat blackout wasn't really a Focus for me, it's more savings. We have a Bunch of trips plan and we tend to save up to Slurg when we go. So it seemed Right for us and I'm glad I did it.

 

[theluckyrabbit]

If the parking is a non-issue and the rest of your family will be blocked out the last two weeks of the year (would you ever visit without them?), it comes down to the Photopass perk and the discounts. Do you get PP on all your trips? How much do you spend on photos on average? How much do you spend on food and merchandise on average per trip? Crunch the numbers to see if it really will be worthwhile for you.

 

[agamble]

If the parking is a non-issue and the rest of your family will be blocked out the last two weeks of the year (would you ever visit without them?), it comes down to the Photopass perk and the discounts. Do you get PP on all your trips? How much do you spend on photos on average? How much do you spend on food and merchandise on average per trip? Crunch the numbers to see if it really will be worthwhile for you.

It really would be for the photopass perk. I was hoping there would be more information on MaxPass, but there hasn't been and we're going next Sunday. I would not use the extra days or go without my family. I would do as many others do and only I would upgrade only my pass so we have one signature for discounts and photopass and parking. Note, we all would be blocked the last two weeks, as I'm only looking at the regular signature pass. We have DAPs.

 

[theluckyrabbit]

Multiply the cost of the PP package you usually buy/would buy by the number of trips you have planned before your passes expire. Is that cost equal to or greater than the cost to upgrade your current pass? If so, then go for it! (I think many of us are waiting to hear about MaxPass...)

 

[GatorChris]

This is how we did it. The Sig pass gets us some extra money off food - 5%. And since we spend at least $100 day on food for a 7 day trip, that's $35 saved. For two trips like that, plus a few small trips inbetween, we'll save about $100 more in food. Then there's that photopass. Instead of getting it just on our week long trips, we get it for all of our trips. So at $78x2 trips, we're at $156. Add that to the food savings and we've got our $250 back, plus we get the photo pass on the extra trips, plus parking should we need it (and we probably will later this summer), plus the extra 5% on Disney Merch. It was a good business decision for us.

 

[Winnowill]

We use parking, so that alone has paid for my upgrade. That said, I buy a fair amount of merchandise (and every time I go, someone asks me to pick up something for them, too) so that discount is important, and we LOVE Photopass. So, regardless of the parking situation, I would still likely have done the upgrade. Note that we'll get 20-21 park days out of our APs over five separate trips, so the Photopass thing would also pay for our upgrade.

 

[mich311e]

I did the upgrade to Signature for PhotoPass and food & merch discount. I love PhotoPass, I feel like their photographers take way better pics than my phone. And I love being like "Here, let's get a pic with this character!" with my family since I'm usually behind the camera. I felt like it was completely worth it. I also saved $40 on my Dooney & Burke purse alone.

My husband & son had the Deluxe passports. I've never parked at a Disney parking area though.

 

[agamble]

Thanks everyone for your responses. I feel like it's a given if you park regularly and a mostly worth it if you don't. Thanks GatorChris for the thoughts on food. We will eat in the parks at least once per day, family of five. Really I want the photopass and was hoping to know about MaxPass before our trip so I could decide what might be better. We used photopass our last big trip with my parents and I loved it. We didn't use it our last trip, and it wasn't a huge deal, but I do really like having all those pictures including the ride pictures. Ahh decisions, decisions...

We will be parking when we visit this Sunday as we are not staying nearby. I've read that I could use my parking receipt when I upgrade to save that $20. In July we are staying at HOJO and I have read they now require you to move your car the last day, so we'd likely have to park then too. And if I upgrade we would do the same when staying at the Desert Inn to avoid paying for parking on our last day. We are staying at the Dolphin's Cove in June and planned to walk to the Toy Story lot, but we could park if it was more convenient (not sure it will be). Next summer we are in a less convenient location and would either have a long walk or have to use ART, so I suppose I could consider that as money saved too. Driving and parking just sounds like a hassle.