Welp, We Did It...

[PlutoTheDog89]

We go every year for Christmas and after a remarkable stay at the Beach Club, we were suffering from quite the Disney hangover. My cousin has two little ones that she's looking to bring to Disney for Halloween. She invited us, as we're the Disney diehards and I've been planning/budgeting/throwing around numbers for her.

Then it happened. My sister and I joked "let's look at Easter!" We figured flights would be astronomical but then... BOOM.. $160 each way. I get a $300 travel credit with my CC and while the points were low, our method of thinking was "we should buy these then use the points for Christmas."

Anyway, I spent the week crunching numbers. It's funny—I failed my one and only math class in college but when it comes to Disney, I can run spreadsheets that impress my CPA friends. We found that purchasing an Annual Pass would save us money if we:

A) Go for Halloween & Christmas (as originally planned)
B) Go for Easter, Halloween & Christmas
C) Just go for Easter & Christmas

It also allows us to do a split stay for Christmas (we always do dining plan and obviously it gets wonky), although I think we're gonna stick with BC during Xmas.

So... does anyone have tips for Easter and/or Annual Passes? We'll be arriving early on 4/15 and staying until late 4/18. I know about most of the Passholder discounts and TIW. I'm gonna hold out on TiW. We'll be there for Easter, NYE, Christmas, Christmas Eve and that's when we do the most expensive restaurants, so we wouldn't receive the discount anyway. Outside of Easter, Christmas and possible Halloween, I could totally see myself going down there to golf in May or September.

 

[Robo]

So... does anyone have tips for... Annual Passes?
Outside of Easter, Christmas and possible Halloween, I could totally see myself going down there to golf in May or September.

That the numero uno tip for APs.

If you HAVE an AP, it makes you want to USE it.

A LOT!

 

[Pembo]

My dd and I went last year arriving on Easter for a quick 4 day trip. We went to the MK and Epcot. It was CRAZY busy but with getting there early and the bonus of a thunderstorm on our MK day, we had a great time. F&G at Epcot is always beautiful. Enjoy all those trips!

 

[DekrRini]

So true. Now I go twice a year instead of once. I must get my money's worth.

 

[Accident]

As said, the AP will save you money right now with your plans but it's also going to dig a hole in your pocket. You will see cheap airfare, cheap rooms, be able to do a 3 day weekend for the cost of travel, food and room.

coming twice in 1 year is when we started to change what we were after when we got down here. We just slowed down, didn't really care what we didn't get done (because we'll be back soon to do it) and it really started to make the trips cheaper, relaxing and we started to see these roses kevin always talks about and just walk past for decades and never noticed even though we thought we did. Maybe there is some budget tricks like get your water and some groceries delivered you skipped because it was your vacation. when your coming down quick, it's just a way to be able to afford coming down more often. maybe you do moderates more, maybe you stop split stays, maybe your fine with just a value suddenly.

For us and many others, the AP did save you money and you started to save it in many other ways but that was to be able to spend it to keep coming down, sometimes with no notice or planning because "that special event sounds cool, we should get down there just to do that".

 

[Accident]

So... does anyone have tips for Easter and/or Annual Passes? We'll be arriving early on 4/15 and staying until late 4/18. I know about most of the Passholder discounts and TIW. I'm gonna hold out on TiW. We'll be there for Easter, NYE, Christmas, Christmas Eve and that's when we do the most expensive restaurants, so we wouldn't receive the discount anyway. Outside of Easter, Christmas and possible Halloween, I could totally see myself going down there to golf in May or September.

TiW is blurry if it'll save you money until the AP change again on oct 1 when the 45th year discounts might alter. If your a drink around the world, expensive meals only type of traveler then it could make a huge difference but you'll need to look and see how many places you want to eat will actually have more discount with it. some do, many don't. It's just a lot of food to get an extra 10% off and many places it's the same discount with AP.

If the goal is to come more often and get your costs down, then not split staying and go for the minimum cost room you'd like to sleep in might be a good option. I like doing moderates when it fits the budget but I'll go value to be able to get the money to come back another weekend (and usually that's the cost difference for us, literally staying at a value gives us enough in our yearly visit disney budget to get double the week long trips). Cutting out some food costs with groceries and reducing table services to minimal if any is another. We always get some table service, just not every day. We'll do 1 table service for every 3ish days we are there. usually a family favorite and we'll hit 1 more that we never tried or just opened. breakfast is usually groceries we had delivered, water is mostly a case (and we get one from the gift shop when not ordering other groceries for shorter stays)...

And of course I can't leave out one thing.. all these different seasons, seeing how WDW changes, some of these short events had us craving them to the point we moved here.... And I hate to say it, living next door has not removed the desire to find reasons to stay a night or two on property.. I completely get the staycation aspect of living here now.

 

[Accident]

Oh I forgot 1 point. you'll be surprised how many things you leave on the shelf that are worth buying when 20% off so be ready for some self control on what trinkets at disney you really need.

 

[Micca]

If you HAVE an AP, it makes you want to USE it

Absolutely! With an AP you can't afford not to go. @PlutoTheDog89 I figure since you failed math I could at least help you rationalize more WDW trips.

 

[jaychis]

And I hate to say it, living next door has not removed the desire to find reasons to stay a night or two on property.. I completely get the staycation aspect of living here now.

You said it!! We moved down and the family has the AP. I like that we can go for a few hours and not wear the little one out and then have to deal with a cranky 6 year old.

 

[pmaurer74]

That the numero uno tip for APs.

If you HAVE an AP, it makes you want to USE it.

A LOT!

True, I just planned a last minute trip with a friend. I would not have done that if I did not already have an AP.

 

[BigredNole]

With an AP, we tend to go more as well. This is why we are on the path of 2 years on, 1 year off. We start the AP in the Summer and end it the following Summer. Typically would start in July and go through June. However, with the 13 month deal, we are starting in June this year and will go through July next year. We will take at least 3 1-week trips, but looking more like 5

 

[Mama Lo]

You probably won't want to do the dining plan if you have an AP. Especially now with the 45th Anniversary discounts on food. That way you can eat what you want and not worry about value.

The TIW will take some number crunching. You can get a discount for up to 9 people so if you are getting several table service meals it may work out better. It does take a lot of figuring to look at where you will eat, what you will get checking to see if you already get a discount with the AP.

After having APs for several years in a row we took a break for a couple years. When we were down in November we knew that we'd be back for the Probowl, to visit relatives in February and then in April when my son is there for his band trip so buying the AP was a no brainer.

The only trouble is it's burning a hole in my pocket. JetBlue keeps sending me these cheap airfare rate to MCO and I want to go all the time!