WDW AP holder here, if I add DLR to my AP how does this work? and benfits?

LovesTimone

Christmas Day 2017
Joined
Apr 29, 2009
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So DH and I are thinking about taking our DD, SIL, and Sweet little grandson...who will be 4 next year... to DL... We are AP holders here at WDW, and have the Platinum Plus pass. Only DH and I are AP holders.

So my biggest question is if we add DLR to our AP's will we get the same level of pass benefits as we do at WDW at DLR... Such as park hoppers, room discounts, meals, photo-pass and in stores discounts?

It will be quite a trip, and we are trying to figure out before we bring it up to the kids, how we are going to work everything out....also create some type of budget.

DH and I have been to DLR before, but would like to take the kids, before my Grandson gets into kindergarten, once in school it will be hard to take family vacation like we normally do. When visited we stayed off site at a partner hotel, but we were thinking that staying on site might work out better for this trip..

Any suggestions, information... would be much appreciated....
 
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What is DLC? :rotfl:
You clearly mean Disneyland California, but the accepted abbreviation is DL :teacher:
...So my biggest question is if we add DLC to our AP's will we get the same level of pass benefits as we do at WDW at DCL... Such as park hoppers, room discounts, meals, photo-pass and in stores discounts?
Yes to all those (meal discounts, not a meal plan) and also MaxPass.
You will need to do the math, but upgrading to a Premier AP likely does not save money on a single visit to DL.
 
The pass you are asking about is called the Premier Pass. At Disneyland Resort (DLR), it functions as a Permium Plus Pass. You will pay the full upgrade price between your current pass and the Premier. Also, it will only be valid until your current pass expires, regardless of when you upgrade. This means that the Premier Pass might not work for you. I actually have separate APs for DLR and WDW for this reason.
 
What is DLC? :rotfl:
You clearly mean Disneyland California, but the accepted abbreviation is DL :teacher:

Yes to all those (meal discounts, not a meal plan) and also MaxPass.
You will need to do the math, but upgrading to a Premier AP likely does not save money on a single visit to DL.


Oh Sorry I did not mean to offend anyone... Now I know. All Fixed
 

The pass you are asking about is called the Premier Pass. At Disneyland Resort (DLR), it functions as a Premium Plus Pass. You will pay the full upgrade price between your current pass and the Premier. Also, it will only be valid until your current pass expires, regardless of when you upgrade. This means that the Premier Pass might not work for you. I actually have separate APs for DLR and WDW for this reason.

We are not planning on going till next year, and our passes will need to be renewed in January, thinking of adding them at this time....so I was thinking we could do a trip with the kids around April or May, then just DH and I for our birthdays, or even Christmas as the DD and her family will be spending Christmas with the her In-law next year... They alternate every year. I guess I need to run the numbers and drill down on what it would cost...
 
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Just to be clear, you get discounts on meals, hotels (some offsite hotels offer discounts also!), photo pass, max pass for FP, and merchandise discounts. Being a Premier pass holder from CA, I found it strange not all restaurants offered discounts in WDW. Also you do not get discounts on park tickets (on either coast as far as I can tell.)
 
We have separate APs for Disneyland and WDW because expiration dates vary and it works better for us to have both. I had the Premier pass a few years ago because the visits coincided with the 12 month period the pass was good for. Subsequent trips it worked better to not have the one pass.

And LOL for days on end about the "appropriate" abbreviations. Somehow, people on these boards will figure out what you mean OP. For the love of churros.
 
And LOL for days on end about the "appropriate" abbreviations. Somehow, people on these boards will figure out what you mean OP. For the love of churros.
Yes but. With cruise ships and multiple parks and resorts it does get confusing which makes it hard to get a good answer.

Some people ask about info for "DLP". When I see that I want to direct them to the DL Paris forum. But they sometimes mean Disneyland Park. And I do not know the cruise ship names but when I saw DLC I thought it was Disney cruise lines.
 
Yes but. With cruise ships and multiple parks and resorts it does get confusing which makes it hard to get a good answer.

Some people ask about info for "DLP". When I see that I want to direct them to the DL Paris forum. But they sometimes mean Disneyland Park. And I do not know the cruise ship names but when I saw DLC I thought it was Disney cruise lines.
Being mildly dyslexic, I read it as the cruise line also. Took a couple read thrus to realize.
 
We have separate APs for Disneyland and WDW because expiration dates vary and it works better for us to have both. I had the Premier pass a few years ago because the visits coincided with the 12 month period the pass was good for. Subsequent trips it worked better to not have the one pass.

And LOL for days on end about the "appropriate" abbreviations. Somehow, people on these boards will figure out what you mean OP. For the love of churros.

:thumbsup2 and :hug:
 
People who have been on these boards may figure out what the variety of self made abbreviations mean (and no harm intended or done), but it can be so much easier and efficient (not just for those answering, but also for the one seeking the answer!) to settle on some agreed upon terms. :) And, for anyone trying to do a search on their own, something like CDL may not come back with many hits or with any appropriate threads. (I, too, thought this thread was about the Disney Cruise Line.) But a search for DLR will come back with much more useful information. It can save much pulling out of hair in the long run. And wouldn't we all much rather be discussing the parks than pulling out our hair?
For the OP, one benefit to having 2 separate APs instead of the Premier might be an easier time getting your discounts in the parks, at least on the DLR end. Even after all this time, I still occasionally see a CM at a register stumped by the sight of a Premier AP and a frustrated guest having to explain what it is and that it does indeed qualify for a discount. We saw that at the registers at the last D23 Expo, too. Apparently the Premier Pass still isn't common enough out west for all/most CMs to recognize it immediately. So having a DLR specific AP might just save you repeated explanations every time you want a discount.
 
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One thing to note about the Premier Pass is that you can only upgrade/purchase and renew it in person. You are unable to purchase it or renew it online. I believe all other AP's can be purchased or renewed online. Additionally, you may have to call the Disney internet help desk to get your Premier Pass activated for the park where you did not purchase it. For example, I purchased my Premier Pass at WDW. I called the Disneyland website helpdesk to get my Premier Pass recognized so that I could use MaxPass once I had scanned my ticket at the turnstile. Otherwise I would have had to go to the Guest Services location outside of the park to get the Premier Pass linked to my Disneyland resort. A friend of mine had to do the reverse so she could book her FastPass + at the 60 day mark for one of her WDW trips.

While I like the thought of having a single AP for both DL and WDW, the implementation of purchasing/renewing and activating is not always the easiest.
 
I have the Premier pass (last year and this year). It makes sense for me since I’m a DLR local and have 2 WDW trips planned. It costs about $1600. So you would need to consider how many trips and how long for if it would make financial sense! Usually it’s people who already have a DLR AP and plan a trip to WDW who come out financially ahead rather than WDW APs who do a single trip to DL.

Benefits: no blackout days, parking, Maxpass (vs paying $10/day or $75/year-includes photos), discounts. The discounts are 20% on merchandise and 15% on food. For food, pretty much all permanent locations have discounts (Table service and quick service), it’s just the movable carts and stands which don’t have discounts. There are often room discounts, but only Sunday-Thursday, and I’m not sure availabilities. Sometimes special AP merchandise or areas where you can get a free button or something.
 
One thing to note about the Premier Pass is that you can only upgrade/purchase and renew it in person. You are unable to purchase it or renew it online. I believe all other AP's can be purchased or renewed online. Additionally, you may have to call the Disney internet help desk to get your Premier Pass activated for the park where you did not purchase it. For example, I purchased my Premier Pass at WDW. I called the Disneyland website helpdesk to get my Premier Pass recognized so that I could use MaxPass once I had scanned my ticket at the turnstile. Otherwise I would have had to go to the Guest Services location outside of the park to get the Premier Pass linked to my Disneyland resort. A friend of mine had to do the reverse so she could book her FastPass + at the 60 day mark for one of her WDW trips.

While I like the thought of having a single AP for both DL and WDW, the implementation of purchasing/renewing and activating is not always the easiest.

So true! I bought mine at WDW. Unfortunately, for some reason Tech was unable to get the AP recognized at DL, so I had to go to Guest Services. They were unable to get it recognized as well & issued a new pass (same expiration date), but then I had to call to have that updated on the WDW side so I could book FP for a 2nd trip. While it made financial sense for me this year to have the Premier pass, I don't understand why Disney offers this AP without having the ability to have the two systems (WDW & DL) connected - takes a lot of extra effort & time on the consumers part.
 
I don't understand why Disney offers this AP without having the ability to have the two systems (WDW & DL) connected

I think it just comes down to two different IT groups and two different websites. Yes, I agree it would make sense to have all of this combined into a single system. If you look at your Premier Pass there are actually 3 different sequences of numbers and/or alphabetic characters. One of those is the AP # for WDW, one is the # for DLR and then the other is PhotoPass.

And the only reason you have to purchase/renew in person is because they use a special printer to print these passes. They are only located at the various Guest Service locations.
 
I am another Premier Passholder. Works for me as I am local to DL and go to WDW 2-3 times a year totaling about 20-24 days per year at WDW. Someone gave the perks above. I am amazed the number of people having technical issues with their Premier Passes. I have had no issues purchasing at DL and then using it at WDW. No stops needed to Guest Services (well except when my physical card went off the top of the Top of the World Lounge at Bay Lake Tower last year and I had to visit Guest Services to get a new card issued so I would have my discounts, but it was fine when I got back to DL and used my new card with new number issued by WDW).

OP - just do the math to determine if the pass makes sense for you.
 
OP, we are a WDW AP holder with a platinum plus pass. We are going to DL next month. It was way more expensive for us to upgrade our WDW AP to one that includes DL than for us to just buy 5 day DL hopper tickets with Max Pass. Just an FYI.
 













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