What is she thinking?

[c.w.e.m.]

I called the TA at AAA yesterday. DH and I were thinking of taking two trips to DW this summer and not one. We wanted to take one trip for just the two of us and then take another with DD and DS. She was determined for us not to purchase APs. She said that they would not be cost effective for the purchase of packages. (We wanted to pay for the dining plan in July and then go for free dining in August.) Am I missing something? I know that we would have to buy a base ticket for everyone in the room to get dining each time. I was thinking that an AP would be the way to go for two trips. Am I wrong?

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

Well, it depends.

From the dining standpoint you are right. If you had to buy a 1 day pass for each person but you would save more than that cost with the plan then you are ahead. But you have to pay rack rate for your room.

For our family it is more cost effective to have the AP discount on the room and not have the dining plan. If we were looking at Free Dining then rack rate wouldn't be a big deal.

Take a look at the price comparison on Mousesavers - it shows how the same components price out using an AP and having a package with Dining.

 

[Skylarr29]

We have ap's and we did the same thing you are saying... we had to buy the base tickets for the free dining but it still works out way ahead for us to have to pay rack rate etc.

The ap discount on your rooms alone can be huge especially in JUly... how many days will you be there total??? The break even point for an ap is around 9/10 days.

Also it is a fortune to add park hopping to your tickets. If you are going back within a year or eve next year ( just plan your trip one week earlier than this year) It will probably be a better deal to have ap's.

 

[iluvepcot]

I think the breakeven with AP's and 10 day non exp is 13 days without php and 17 days with php. disney experts, please correct me if I'm wrong. We plan two trips with dining, so we will not use room discounts for those. We plan all together spending 8 park days between the two trips.

As I see it, it breaks down as follows:

DH wants us to buy 10 day, non exp, non ph option: the Advantage here is a cost savings. The AP will cost more then this. The second advantage is the extra two days do not expire and can be used for a trip in the future. DH does not want to bound by a timeline. The disadvantage is no PH, which we could live without....

MY way: The AP adds ph for both trips which gives more flexibility, but could plan around this. The AP will need 3 more days to breakeven. I could easily plan a third trip..... If we go more then three days we are ahead. I guess this is an advantage for me but DH has a diffrent point of view here. Dh does like to go at free dining. This is the one time he will not give me any arguments. If disney offers it again next year we could plan our trip a week earlier and be ahead without added expense and we would be ahead.

Please weigh in on this and let me see if I am missing any points here....

 

[Allison]

It would depend on the number of days you are talking about. You are going to be on a package so room discounts wouldn't be a consideration because you would have to pay rack rate.

 

[MinnieGirl33]

TA's don't get commision on sales of AP's.