WDW Annual Pass Questions

[Chipfio]

Is it true that you can purchase Disney World Annual passes and start them at any date of the year(good for 365 days from that date) as opposed to them all starting on Jan 1 each year?

I am looking to purchase the Annual passes over the next few months, but will not be going until Late December, 2008 followed by 2 more trips within a year. If I purchase the passes soon, can I use a code from a voucher or something to login to take advantage of the Annual Pass Resort discounts for my trip in December?

Do you have to 'Activate' the passes only at WDW or can it be done online or somewhere else just before leaving?

 

[stopher1]

WELCOME!!

AP's are activated the first time you use them... so purchasing the amount you need over time but not actually using them until Dec is perfectly acceptable. They would then be valid for a year from the date of first use. I don't believe you can use the discounts, though, until the cards are actually activated at the parks or water parks.

 

[dvczerfs]

we are from pa and my date is oct 12th for renewal. they will send you a reorder form before they expire. we send in our money and they give us vouchers. mine always go from oct 12th to oct 12th. when we go we go to cust.service at vill. market place and at that time w/ id etcc.. they give you your tickets.

 

[Chipfio]

Thanks,

I would think Disney would allow you to take advantage of Resort discounts if you were to purchase the Annual Passes ahead of time and just activate them right before you are going, but maybe not.

 

[wdwluver]

Hello,

I have purchased an annual pass before. You get a plastic voucher by mail. You can use the number on the voucher to login to the annual pass website and take advantage of any of the discount codes they have available. I've done it before. If you look at the annual pass website, you'll see that they have a number of login options from using an actual pass or a voucher (called an "exchange certificate).

 

[Chipfio]

Perfect - Thank You WDWLuver!

 

[Conan the Librarian]

This maybe only for DVC, but, you can renew up to 30 days before or after they expiration date. My wife's expires on May 9, but, we won't be there until the 11th. We'll still get the DVC renewal discount.

 

[amcrum]

How many times do you have to go a year to make the pass beneficial to purchase? When we go we usually go to the parks at least 6 days and we hop from park to park.

 

[Chipfio]

I think it would depend on each situation, but I am guessing the 2 trips in a year would definitely be worth it but even one trip like yours might as well especially if you can get the hotel resort discount for the room.

I found this link with an example comparison of annual pass(just one in this case) vs regular trip mousesavers.com/packagevsap.

Was not allowed to add the full URL since I didn't have 10 posts

 

[jackdis]

We have been going 2-3 times a year. We have had APs for a few years. We originally started with the 10 day park hopper and found it to be worth it for us to just get APs. I think we figured it out once and as long as we spend 10 days at the parks, it's worth it.

(We would frequently go to more than one park per day, or just to have dinner at a specific park, so it was well worth it to us.)

 

[Conan the Librarian]

Basiclly its 13 days a year to break even. But, then you count room discounts, food discounts, gift discounts, free parking, and the other perks. I can actually be free.

Before we went DVC, we stayed at POR for 2 weeks. We saved almost $800 dollars off the price of the room by getting an AP rate. That was the price of two APs for us.

One warning, to get AP rates, you have to be aware of when they come out and be ready to call first thing. There is only a limited number of discounts offered in a particular time period and you have to be fast!

 

[dunbarfamily]

This maybe only for DVC, but, you can renew up to 30 days before or after they expiration date. My wife's expires on May 9, but, we won't be there until the 11th. We'll still get the DVC renewal discount.

Conan, not sure if you're trying to do what we tried to do, but if you are, here's what we know....

Our passes expire Dec 8th. It'd work better for our travel habits if they didn't expire until the 18th or so of Dec, so we tried to get a later expiration by renewing them later (but still within 30 days), but the date remained the same.

Both DVC Member Services and Town Hall at MK said while you have do 30 days either side of the expiration date to renew and still get DVC (or renewal price for non-DVCers) discount, the expiration date will remain the original date. So, if yours expires May 9th, you techinically would have until thirty days after to renew, however, if you renew on May 30th, the expiration date would still be May 9th.

 

[dunbarfamily]

Forgot to say Welcome to Chipfio! You'll love it here, and before too long, you'll be just as addicted as the rest of us. You have been warned!

 

[Conan the Librarian]

Yep...that's what we are doing. Like I posted, we don't arrive at WDW until the 11th. All will be well though, and, the pass will have paid for itself by the time we leave on the 23rd.

Odd thing about our APs. We bought them both on the same day back about 5 years ago. The next year, mine had some type of error, so, we went to GRelations and they fixed it. They also gave me an extra 6 months on my pass. Its nice having alternating renewal dates as we don't have to scrape too much to pay for both.

 

[byoung]

We have been going 2-3 times a year. We have had APs for a few years. We originally started with the 10 day park hopper and found it to be worth it for us to just get APs. I think we figured it out once and as long as we spend 10 days at the parks, it's worth it.

(We would frequently go to more than one park per day, or just to have dinner at a specific park, so it was well worth it to us.)

I agree that 10 days makes it worth it.