When does AP make sense?

[megs1313]

As in how many days...

We may end up needing around 10 days of park tickets for our upcoming trip. How do I figure out the cost difference? I wish I'd bought APs on our trip in april! Had no idea we'd decide to go back again! Is there anything else to consider? TIA!

 

[stinkpickle]

If I think I'll go for two 6 day (or more) visits within a 12 month period. The current 13 month promotion is perfect, because we usually go the same week every year, and the AP should cover two 7 day trips. The merchandise discounts and other perks are just a bonus.

 

[cmorris303]

A 10 day adult park hopper is about $500 and an AP is around $800. If there's a chance at all that you'll be back again within the year it may be worth it. Right now with your AP you save 20% off Disney retailers and 20% off of some restaurants until I think Sept 2017.

 

[anomamatt]

If you are staying on property, be sure to consider the AP room discounts, which can be hefty. I had a 7-night trip planned for feb/mar and it was slightly cheaper to go the AP route for that trip alone! That's without the merchandise and food discounts. Of course, now with APs I also booked a trip next week. So it'll wind up costing more, haha.

 

[bookgirl]

The year I had an AP was the year I knew that I would have two trips (4/5 day trips) with a possible 3rd (offsite and visiting on the fly between ball games). By the time I paid for the two trips with stand alone tickets, I was within 1 single day priced ticket of an AP. However I did squeak out a 4th trip because 'I had an AP so the tickets were already paid for....' haha ended up spending more that year on Disney just because I tacked on that 4th trip.

This year I'm a little torn. I have a 3dPH for my Jan trip. I want to go in December but will probably only do 3/4 days. Cheaper to get two stand alone tickets especially if I do package trips. The kicker will be that my parents are talking about wanting to do a 3/4 day trip to Florida in April/May which they want me along as well. However this will be offsite and we are planning 1 Epcot day. Still wouldn't really save any money to buy an AP

But:
I might with an AP go at night after they are in for the night or I might put a few solo days stay on the end of the trip.

So many factors but getting an AP will encourage to plan extra trips....

 

[GADisneyDad14]

Warning, APs are addicting. Depending on your circumstances you may find yourself finding a reason to go to Disney way more often than before.

While in theory I saved on park admission, I went a bunch more this past year than I ever have before! Not complaining, just happened that way. . Oppps!

 

[DekrRini]

another thing to consider is the photopass perk. If you were planning on getting memory maker, you'd add that to the cost of the regular ticket to see if it's comparable. It might be worth it to get one annual pass for the discounts and photopass perk. What's nice about the photopass perk with the annual pass is that you can download the pictures for a year rather than 45 days. And for me, when I renewed my annual pass, the photopass pictures I'd taken earlier were again available. That was really nice.

 

[Accident]

Here is what I recommend...

1: make a cart with all the normal tickets you would buy (including current tickets if at disney now). do it exactly how you would be traveling so 2 5 day tickets, 1 2 day, etc etc, do not make just 1 ticket of # of days, those are cheaper and cannot be used over the course of a year.

2: now delete the cart out and make it with annual passes.

Which cart was cheaper? That's the tickets that will save you money..

Other fees to add to the ticket cart: cost of memory maker, cost of parking if you stay offsite. Also add in about 10% of the cost of what you would spend on merchandise during an average trip (spend $500 normally, put in $50 to the number).

Now which cart is less money?

there is other fees like you might get a few more percent off a room, and then you can factor in if dining plan is not worth it anymore and the cost savings on food but that's a little rougher to get the idea...

Also, some of those things like food, merch, photopass and parking you only need 1 person with an ap to get so maybe it's not worth it for everyone to get an ap but might be very worth it for 1 person to get it.

 

[megs1313]

Here is what I recommend...

1: make a cart with all the normal tickets you would buy (including current tickets if at disney now). do it exactly how you would be traveling so 2 5 day tickets, 1 2 day, etc etc, do not make just 1 ticket of # of days, those are cheaper and cannot be used over the course of a year.

2: now delete the cart out and make it with annual passes.

Which cart was cheaper? That's the tickets that will save you money..

Other fees to add to the ticket cart: cost of memory maker, cost of parking if you stay offsite. Also add in about 10% of the cost of what you would spend on merchandise during an average trip (spend $500 normally, put in $50 to the number).

Now which cart is less money?

there is other fees like you might get a few more percent off a room, and then you can factor in if dining plan is not worth it anymore and the cost savings on food but that's a little rougher to get the idea...

Also, some of those things like food, merch, photopass and parking you only need 1 person with an ap to get so maybe it's not worth it for everyone to get an ap but might be very worth it for 1 person to get it.

So, two things intrigue me here and I have questions:
1) Could I get an AP for just myself so that I get the discounted room rate and the photopass perk? we were most definitely planning to get the photopass

2) our room discount is right around 20% right now, though the website indicates that the AP discount for the same travel dates is potentially 30% (I can't get access to look for availability since I don't have an AP on my account.) We're staying at least 10 days, so that discount difference could be significant. Is there any way for me to calculate this without having the AP yet?

 

[Accident]

So, two things intrigue me here and I have questions:
1) Could I get an AP for just myself so that I get the discounted room rate and the photopass perk? we were most definitely planning to get the photopass

sure, not uncommon to hear people doing this. Just keep in mind any discounts on food, purchases and free parking will require you to be there to show you have an ap and may require you being the one to pay (some cms are sticklers on the who actually hands them a credit card, uses the band to pay or hands cash). If your a family that splits up, consider what the lost discounts might be and if that's enough money to get someone in each "group" an ap.

2) our room discount is right around 20% right now, though the website indicates that the AP discount for the same travel dates is potentially 30% (I can't get access to look for availability since I don't have an AP on my account.) We're staying at least 10 days, so that discount difference could be significant. Is there any way for me to calculate this without having the AP yet?

Some of the discount appear online but there is also ticketless discounts that do not. The only way to find out all the discounts is to spend time on the phone with disney. note you can also book an AP rate without having the AP yet if your planning to upgrade tickets when you get there. I've been told you had to upgrade within 24 hours of checkin or you'd be charged the full price of hte room automatically but recently some people posted that they had to upgrade before checkin so i'm not sure what the current policy is, the person on the phone should know.

side note, this might be a good time to consider a travel agent where you pay disney direct. They can take the account and help you work up best discount based on ap or not (if they are good).. wouldn't cost you any more money if it's a good travel agency that specializes in disney.

 

[megs1313]

sure, not uncommon to hear people doing this. Just keep in mind any discounts on food, purchases and free parking will require you to be there to show you have an ap and may require you being the one to pay (some cms are sticklers on the who actually hands them a credit card, uses the band to pay or hands cash). If your a family that splits up, consider what the lost discounts might be and if that's enough money to get someone in each "group" an ap.



Some of the discount appear online but there is also ticketless discounts that do not. The only way to find out all the discounts is to spend time on the phone with disney. note you can also book an AP rate without having the AP yet if your planning to upgrade tickets when you get there. I've been told you had to upgrade within 24 hours of checkin or you'd be charged the full price of hte room automatically but recently some people posted that they had to upgrade before checkin so i'm not sure what the current policy is, the person on the phone should know.

side note, this might be a good time to consider a travel agent where you pay disney direct. They can take the account and help you work up best discount based on ap or not (if they are good).. wouldn't cost you any more money if it's a good travel agency that specializes in disney.

Thanks, Bryan! We don't really split up at all. I'm starting to think I should go ahead and do the AP for myself and maybe upgrade the rest of the fam while we are there if it looks like we'll make another trip.

 

[Accident]

Thanks, Bryan! We don't really split up at all. I'm starting to think I should go ahead and do the AP for myself and maybe upgrade the rest of the fam while we are there if it looks like we'll make another trip.

do you pay for food out of pocket? there is some nice AP discounts right now but there is some places that are still better with Tables In Wonderland (another card you can buy as an AP holder). It's also the only discount that includes alcohol if your group tends to get some drinks while at WDW. May not save you money though, especially with the current ap discount and it does have blockout dates where the ap discount doesn't so decide on that card carefully.

But in general, the hard one to tell you if there is savings is AP discount vs meal plan. generally many don't save too much using the meal plan but when you factor in food discounts you'd get as an ap holder it might be a good amount of savings vs the meal plan. again this one is rougher to figure out. Generally I recommend you save all your receipts and when home, figure out what it would have costed with the ap discount and if you would have ordered differently (less food = less bill = less gratuity). This is where the meal plan stopped making sense for us. We started to get room + food for the same cost of what just the food was on the meal plan.

 

[Klayfish]

Bryan is spot on, and I'd defer to him anyway as he knows more than I do. One other thing I'd ask is if you can make a second trip during the year if you get an AP, or would it just be the 10 day trip? If you can make a second trip, then it's almost certainly worth it. When we bought our AP, we were bound and determined to get the most out of it and made many trips down.

 

[GADisneyDad14]

So, two things intrigue me here and I have questions:
1) Could I get an AP for just myself so that I get the discounted room rate and the photopass perk? we were most definitely planning to get the photopass

2) our room discount is right around 20% right now, though the website indicates that the AP discount for the same travel dates is potentially 30% (I can't get access to look for availability since I don't have an AP on my account.) We're staying at least 10 days, so that discount difference could be significant. Is there any way for me to calculate this without having the AP yet?

You may know this but one thing to keep in mind is that AP discounts are like Disney's other discount offerings in that the availability of a discount to any given resort/room type/view category can be limited. Disney's standard "The number of rooms allocated for this offer is limited" caveat very much applies.

That being said, I'm going into my second year with APs... went four times this past year and for each trip I found what I considered 'good' discounts with reasonable availability.

BTW, many of us are happy to search your dates/resort and let you know if we see availability for an AP discount.

Sometimes the AP rates are better (eg, 5-10%) than the general public discount, but that's not always the case. Sometimes the general public offer can be better, depending on the resort!

The AP discounts generally come out later than other discounts, which can be a bit frustrating. However, the "book by" dates tend to be later, so I've found it easier to book more last minute travel and get a discount.

More than you asked for I know, sorry.

 

[PSUGuy]

We do 9 or 10 day stays during Food&Wine.I buy 9 day hoppers from Undercover Tourist for less than Disney prices so I save $$ and I get to make FP+ selections in advance. Once at WDW I upgrade to APs. The first year we go later in the F&W festival, the 2nd year we go before the year is up. We save about $284 with the APs vs 2 9 day hoppers. Plus we get Photopass.

Bill From PA

 

[NH-to-FL]

If I think I'll go for two 6 day (or more) visits within a 12 month period. The current 13 month promotion is perfect, because we usually go the same week every year, and the AP should cover two 7 day trips. The merchandise discounts and other perks are just a bonus.

That was my approach. We got AP's once we made the jump from one to two 1 week trips per year. I found the AP room discounts less than helpful. Mostly because we wanted a specific resort and had specific dates in mind which never seemed to line up with the available AP discounts. We found either bounce back or the public offers more valuable.

And I will reinforce one warning... having AP's in your pocket really does make you spend more time thinking about how to get just a few more days at Disney.
Be strong or those savings will magically disappear.

 

[loves to dive]

I agree with Brian but as others have mentioned, I would only factor in cost of ticket and memory maker if you were going to buy that to start with. If you had no intention of buying it, don't factor it in. Frankly we never use it and I was a little put off when the price of the AP went up, but look you get free memory maker. It would have been nice had there been an option to get one without it. I would not factor in any other discount. I've had an AP for about 4 years now and the room discount was less with it only once, the other times either the general public discount was the same or I could stack it with an Orbitz discount and come out better. The other discounts, WDW can and has been known to change those so you can't count on them.

 

[ELSA711]

We upgraded to AP on Thanksgiving because we booked 2 trips next year, an 11 night / 12 day trip I June 2017 where we will have the car and wanted the parking. Another 7 night / 6 day trip over Thanksgiving 2017. We have a possible 3rd trip in the works for Easter break as well.

I still can't access the AP page but I have a question do APs get discounts on tickets? My niece is going and was hoping to buy her a ticket for one day cheaper.

 

[loves to dive]

We upgraded to AP on Thanksgiving because we booked 2 trips next year, an 11 night / 12 day trip I June 2017 where we will have the car and wanted the parking. Another 7 night / 6 day trip over Thanksgiving 2017. We have a possible 3rd trip in the works for Easter break as well.

I still can't access the AP page but I have a question do APs get discounts on tickets? My niece is going and was hoping to buy her a ticket for one day cheaper.

No.

 

[Skywise]

10 day contiguous tickets with park hopper are currently $469 - a platinum AP (new) is currently $750.

Now the AP includes memory maker (~$150 last I checked... too lazy to confirm ) which puts you around $620 for the 10 day ticket.

There are discounts for shopping and dining although dining really only covers half the tip if you do TS But you're really going to push to find 5400 in savings (figuring 4 passes) from those discounts.

If you were going to go at least ONE more day on a separate trip in the next 13 (!) months (presuming you upgrade before Jan 3, 2017) I'd go for the AP - but in this case I'd lean towards sticking with the 10 day tickets.