What would you do - Tickets vs. Annual Pass?

[Girlie1]

DH, DS10, DS6 and myself are DVC members. 2 years ago when I came into some money, I bought 2 sets of 10 day Non-expiring park hoppers with water parks and more. Between the two sets, we have 17 waters parks and more credits and about 13-14 credits for the parks. So here is where the dilemma comes in. We are travelling to VWL for Thanksgiving and will spend 4 days in the parks. We will return in April and spend 3-4 days in the parks and probably 2 days in the water parks. Now we are thinking of going in October 2011 so the kids can go to MNSSHP. Aside from MNSSHP, I would think we would spend another 2-3 days in the parks.

Would you use the tickets you already have or get an annual pass? I have the money so I am really just looking for the best value. Since we are DVC members, we are able to go at least once a year to WDW and since I got the nonexpiring tickets, I know they will get used someday. I would be getting 3 adult annual passes ( still can't get over that DS10 is considered an adult ) and one child. I would just get the standard annual pass not premium.

Now if you think I should go with the annual pass would you also suggest TIW? We used to get the DDP but did not do so on the last trip when DS turned 10. So now we are paying out of pocket and eating at Table service almost every evening. No big alcohol drinkers but like a drink every once in a while

Thanks for all of your help. Just trying to stretch the mighty dollar as far as I can.

 

[meriface11]

if you have the money, i would get an AP and save the non-expiration tickets for a year when the AP doesn't make financial sense. the DVC discount, the ability to get the TIW, and the cheaper renewal for next year if you get another AP, the AP is a really good deal. the non-expiration tickets are so expensive now, by the time you have an opportunity to use the ones you have, you will be saving a lot of money rather than having to buy them at that point.

 

[jnsolomon]

if you have the money, i would get an AP and save the non-expiration tickets for a year when the AP doesn't make financial sense. the DVC discount, the ability to get the TIW, and the cheaper renewal for next year if you get another AP, the AP is a really good deal. the non-expiration tickets are so expensive now, by the time you have an opportunity to use the ones you have, you will be saving a lot of money rather than having to buy them at that point.

I'll second this. It appears that an annual pass will work for you this year, so save your non-expiring tickets for a year when an annual pass would not make sense.

 

[webcs]

I was facing the same choice.
What is TIW?

 

[mdsd8700]

I currently hold 2 sets of 10 non expiring passes as well. Although the first set will be used up with our two trips next year. If I were adding a third trip as you have planned, I would definately go the route of the AP. As you say the non-exipiring will be good forever and as long as it isn't a financial issue it seems like the best idea.

 

[saphyre]

The AP is a great deal, and once I move to Florida I will definitely get the State resident AP

 

[allshookup]

I agree with everyone else & say go with the A/P. It's so nice to come & go from the parks without worrying about "wasting" a day's ticket. If you feel like just going to Epcot to catch dinner & watch Illuminations, you can! Save the non-expiring tickets for another time.

I was facing the same choice.
What is TIW?

Tables in Wonderland card offers 20% discount on food & even alcoholic beverages at most WDW restaurants. It costs $75.00 but can only be purchased by A/P holders or Florida residents & it comes out to a huge savings if you tend to eat out a lot & especially if you enjoy adult beverages.

 

[sweetdana]

You can use one of the sets of tickets and upgrade the already amount you paid towards an AP.

Best of both. Save 1 set for later and use 1 set.
1000 % AGREE unless you dont have it, you are better with AP amd save tickets.

 

[gracelrm]

I would agree with others. If you are going enough to make an AP a good value, then get the AP and save those others for later. The DVC discount and the TIW opportunity make the AP an even better value.

 

[Disneycouple99]

You can use one of the sets of tickets and upgrade the already amount you paid towards an AP.

2 problems with this. 1. You can not upgrade any type of ticket after 14 days of first use. 2. The price of a 10 day PH WP&M Non exp. ticket is 583 dollars and the DVC AP is 399. This is a diffrence of 184 dollars and disney usually dose not give refunds.

 

[SuzanneSLO]

DH, DS10, DS6 and myself are DVC members. 2 years ago when I came into some money, I bought 2 sets of 10 day Non-expiring park hoppers with water parks and more. Between the two sets, we have 17 waters parks and more credits and about 13-14 credits for the parks. So here is where the dilemma comes in. We are travelling to VWL for Thanksgiving and will spend 4 days in the parks. We will return in April and spend 3-4 days in the parks and probably 2 days in the water parks. Now we are thinking of going in October 2011 so the kids can go to MNSSHP. Aside from MNSSHP, I would think we would spend another 2-3 days in the parks.
[snip]

I am not sure how the existing tickets really help with Park admission.

If I understand this correctly, you have 2 tickets with 6 or 7 days of PH at the parks. You plan to go to the parks at least 9 days in the next year, possibly 11.

This would mean you would still need another ticket if those using these tickets. A 4 day adult ticket would cost you $240. Why spend that money if you can buy DVC AP for $425 and still keep your MYW PHs?

I would use the WP&M options for 2 of you to go to the WPs and then buy either 2 admissions or upgrade to a DVC PAP (if you want to go 3 days or more) for the others in your group. -- Suzanne

 

[Girlie1]

Thanks everyone for all the responses. My hunch was to go with the annual pass but I always worry that I am missing something.

SuzanneSLO - sorry if my post was confusing but I actaully have a total of 8 tickets (2 sets of 4).

 

[ford91exploder]

Recall also that AP gives you 10-15% discounts on purchases at most Disney venues and when not staying on points you have specially discounted rooms a

 

[dzorn]

OP still bring your tickets you can use the water park features on them.

Denise in MI

 

[toniosmom]

I'll throw my two cents in here and just say that I agree with everyone! I bought APs for us and we are getting 3 trips out of them. This year is unusual in that we will be there 3 times -- most years it will be once or twice at most, so I'll save the non-exp tickets for those trips.

 

[lmshaggard]

Don't forget that while using a TIW card that they do add an automatic 18% gratuity. I would definitely look over some of the TIW threads as they do a better job of comparing TIW and DDP.

 

[dianeschlicht]

Don't forget that while using a TIW card that they do add an automatic 18% gratuity. I would definitely look over some of the TIW threads as they do a better job of comparing TIW and DDP.

We consider the 18% to be a savings as well, since we normally would tip 20%.

We used 4 trips to do a detailed comparison of our costs WITH DDP and WITHOUT DDP but using TIW. We kept reciepts and tallied what we had etc. In each case, the DDP cost us $200 or more above what we spent paying OOP with TIW.

We like to do a sit down daily, and often do a signature restaurant, which costs 2 DDP credits. I can see the value of DDP when you have children under the age of 10, because then it's a convenience issue, but for us, DDP is way too expensive. We get more of what we want by paying OOP with TIW and spend less. Part of the issue is that we don't do counter service much or at all. DDP isn't very efficient if you don't do counter service.