When do annual passes make sense?

[Dtw002]

Seems like +6 days in the park(hopper) and annual passes are better?

Also, do you need the AP purchased 60 days out to book fastpasses? But I presume it won't activate until you walk through the park (this way you don't lose 2 months of time on it)?

This is our first time considering APs, appreciate any help on how it works. Thanks!

 

[erionm]

Also, do you need the AP purchased 60 days out to book fastpasses?

You need to have park admission which can be either an AP or MYW Tickets along with a room reservation linked to MDE in order to make advance FP+ selections.

But I presume it won't activate until you walk through the park (this way you don't lose 2 months of time on it)?

If you pre-purchase an AP, you have to stop at either a Park Ticket Window or Guest Relations Location while at WDW to activate the pass. They don't self activate upon park entry.

 

[mdelano4]

When it makes sense is really a personal choice. We are going for 7 days and the hopper pass is clearly the better deal in terms of raw dollars, however, I have a tendency to over-analyze everything. I ran the numbers, taking into consideration that we always get the memory maker (free with Gold AP) and this year there are additional dining discounts (including some QS), so it made sense for us to buy at least one AP. Will get one for DW if we think there's a real chance we will return within the year. Truthfully, the AP is about $100 cheaper than a discounted 7 day hopper pass, so with the memory maker being $150, that clinched the decision right there. Good luck!!!

 

[BillPA]

With tax, a 7 day hopper from UT or Park Savers is $492. A new AP, with tax is $592 if you typically purchase the memory maker ($150) the AP is less.

 

[DduzDis]

Yep - it's the MemoryMaker that puts the AP in favor for us. If they ever do away with that, it will definitely be more of a decision to make for us unless we know we a re doing more than one trip that year.

 

[Nuclear Monkey]

There are other factors to consider, too. They include any savings from ticket bridging, when you purchase the AP and whether you can renew in person (to take advantage of bridging in the renewal purchase), and whether you are going to visit multiple times in the same year.

 

[ahen]

And there are annual pass holder discounts as well, so if you don't have the blue card there is one way to get some of the perks back.

 

[Tlmb615]

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.

 

[Cyberc1978]

So to sum up. It can make sense to buy the AP but it most likely won't save you any money as you tend to go more than if you hadn't got the AP.

We are AP holders also and we get 3 trips on our current ones. We do save money on admissions but not overall.

For those who live in Europe you can get 14 days of admission including memory maker and hopper for 484$. Yearly this year they had a promo so you only paid $386 for tre same tix. Dont know which Price is used to bridge Them.

Actually don't know if you need to live in Europe, when I bought some additional tix this year they just forwarded me the tix numbers so I could add them to our MDE.

 

[pklein09]

We buy APs when we know we'll go two years in a row, i.e. first trip in August (new AP), second trip in July of the next year (before AP expires). We tend to go 8 days per trip, so that's about 16 days on a AP. For us (and we haven't done the math for a few years), the break point it 10 days. If you plan on being in the parks for more than 10 days over the course of the year, the AP seems like the better deal for us. Now that they've added Memory Maker, it's a really nice perk. We did not buy TIW this year because the dining discounts were expanded. I also like the 20% discount on merchandise, which includes groceries in the DVC resorts.

 

[DenLo]

All Ears Chart on Ticket prices will give you a great comparison for pricing when it is better to go with an AP versus a park hopper or regular tickets. These charts even show the prices with tax. The DVC APs are at the very bottom. People usually say more than 10 days in a year is the difference, except you could add on a single day ticket to a park with park hopping and still be less than a new DVC Gold AP. If you are renewing the DVC Gold AP is only 88 cents more than a 9 day park hopper.

If you always go to WDW yearly for 6 or more days, consider scheduling the next vacation within the dates of the AP before it expires. It will be a lot more money when purchasing than buying tickets for a single year but the APs can cover two vacations if you can be flexible on your dates. Many times it means only going a week earlier.

 

[BillPA]

With the 13 month AP, it's much easier to book 2 trips, we now can get 3 in.

 

[erionm]

With the 13 month AP.

This promotion has ended (except for renewals which ends 9/30/2017).

 

[DduzDis]

All Ears Chart on Ticket prices will give you a great comparison for pricing when it is better to go with an AP versus a park hopper or regular tickets. These charts even show the prices with tax. The DVC APs are at the very bottom. People usually say more than 10 days in a year is the difference, except you could add on a single day ticket to a park with park hopping and still be less than a new DVC Gold AP. If you are renewing the DVC Gold AP is only 88 cents more than a 9 day park hopper.

If you always go to WDW yearly for 6 or more days, consider scheduling the next vacation within the dates of the AP before it expires. It will be a lot more money when purchasing than buying tickets for a single year but the APs can cover two vacations if you can be flexible on your dates. Many times it means only going a week earlier.

Excellent charts. Thanks for posting.

 

[Spartan86]

This promotion has ended (except for renewals which ends 9/30/2017).

K

This promotion has ended (except for renewals which ends 9/30/2017).

Im a bit fuzzy on renewals. Our current AP's expire 12/28/17. Can we purchase a renewal prior to 9/30 but not activate it prior to say Feb '18 and have 13 mo. From then? Our AP's are "retail" but we anticipate being eligible for Gold DVC AP's soon. Before 9/30.

 

[erionm]

Im a bit fuzzy on renewals. Our current AP's expire 12/28/17. Can we purchase a renewal prior to 9/30 but not activate it prior to say Feb '18 and have 13 mo. From then? Our AP's are "retail" but we anticipate being eligible for Gold DVC AP's soon. Before 9/30.

The renewal window opens 60 days prior to the expiration date of the pass and remains open until 30 days after it's expired. Not sure if they will sell you a renewal at 90 days prior to expiration.

 

[BillPA]

Renewals have the same dates as the original, ie if your pass expires 12/28/17 the renewal will expire 12/28/18

 

[Spartan86]

Renewals have the same dates as the original, ie if your pass expires 12/28/17 the renewal will expire 12/28/18

Thanks Bill

 

[Canadian Disney Mom]

For us, we would not do an AP unless we were doing 2+ stays of 7+ days within 12 months. We usually like to squeak in 3

 

[DisneyKLN]

Another thing to consider is that there are additional AP savings at several restaurants through 9/30/2017 for the 45th anniversary. Many restaurants are offering a 20% discount.