When do annual passes make sense?

[gdrj]

I will say that having an annual pass makes it easier to go back. (Which is good and bad lol) We live in Maryland and went 3 times last year. And then my husband and I went down for 2 nights in February and plan to make another trip without the kids soon.

Agree on the thing about making it easier to go! We are in VA and got our most recent passes in Oct 2017, when we were down for the week.
We also last minute went for week after XMAS NYE, we had traveled South to visit family and extended it. We also did our planned Spring break, and last week decided to go for a 4 day weekend over Memorial Day (traveling on miles). We also will get in next October since we got the pass with 13 months of usage. I'd say well worth it. The pass before that I think we had 5 visits.

The best part to me is that with air miles and cheap Orlando Hotels (Downtown Disney) when we run out of points, we can add an extra unplanned trip. No way we would do that without AP's.

 

[aoconnor]

I would LOVE if they would offer DVC members the Weekday Select AP. Only available to FL residents, but at $286 with tax it's an absolute steal (basically the Gold AP but without weekends)

 

[Nuclear Monkey]

Here's a quick breakdown the math of an AP (using my family of 2 adults and 1 child as an example). Let's make 2 assumptions: 1. you qualify for the gold AP and 2. you want memory maker. Using a popular wholesale ticket seller a few weeks ago , the biggest discounted ticket is 7-day at 467.95 vs 516.53 disney advanced purchase. With a gold AP costing 595.34, your total bridged cost would be 546.76. Using prices from the same whole seller, 2 adult, one child, and memory maker for four day tickets would cost 1417.85. For the same number of days, a GP, 1 adult ticket, and 1 child ticket would cost 1385.66. In this example, the savings for 4 days is 32.19.

Two GPs don’t make sense until the renewal year. Assuming all prices stay the same (Ha!), a GP renewal cost 505.88. If you purchased two GP the prior year (at a loss unless you stayed more than 7 days and always more expensive than 1 GP), it is cheaper to have the 2 renewed GPs only if you stay 7 days. At 8 days it might make sense to have 3 renewed GPs. However, the GPs are never cheaper if you do not purchase memory maker.

Anyway, the point is that if all the stars line up correctly, a GP can make sense on a single trip.

 

[Dtw002]

Great info. I still don't know what to do though. My family (2 adult and 3 kids) will be at the parks in dec for 6 days. My wife will be back for the 1/2 marathon and going to the park 3 days. We were then thinking (if we got APs) to go back again sometime in the year window. What do you think - we all get APs? Or just my wife? Many thanks!!!

 

[pklein09]

Great info. I still don't know what to do though. My family (2 adult and 3 kids) will be at the parks in dec for 6 days. My wife will be back for the 1/2 marathon and going to the park 3 days. We were then thinking (if we got APs) to go back again sometime in the year window. What do you think - we all get APs? Or just my wife? Many thanks!!!

I think if you're seriously planning another trip within the AP window of a week or more, it might be worth your while. Do the math. But you have to be definitely planning on that second trip. Otherwise, buy the passes for the first trip and use the discount provided by RunDisney for your wife's 3 park days during the marathon.

 

[GoofyDisneyDaddy]

Multiple short trips make APs quickly a better value.

 

[davidl81]

I generally tend to think either a 7 day or longer trip is the break even point for an AP. Just the extra dining discounts now plus the merchandise discount would most likely wash away any savings of just buying 7day tickets. Any time two trips are involved the AP becomes a no brainer.

 

[Shellyred8]

Another thing to keep in mind is that you can get some pretty decent room discounts with the AP, if you are out of DVC points and have to pay cash.