We usually renew because we go every few months. But our passes expire in January and we don't have a trip planned until April, so we chose to buy new passes and have them activate when we go in April (which means our expiration date will be the following May) -- side benefit of this is I get to bump my renewal date to later in the year so I'm not paying for APs and DVC dues at the same time.
We visit in the Spring and again in the Fall. If we're careful about picking our travel dates we can get 3 trips per pass, so we'll go Spring-Fall-Spring on one pass, let it expire, and then Fall-Spring-Fall on the next (new) pass. We pay more per pass but we're buying one every 18 months instead of renewing every 12 months.
My Gold Pass expired in December and we renewed, thinking if we renew with 13 month deal, we get two trips. Or if we let it expire and get new 12 month deal in March, we also get two trips, so we went with the renewal. But based on your post, I realized that a new Gold Pass would also get 13 months, so we would have to pay an additional $176, but now we get three trips out of this new pass.
Unless I missed it, this limitation is not listed anywhere in the Terms and Conditions of the sale. I wonder how they can possibly enforce it when it's not disclosed at the time of sale.
Thanks for posting the correct info on the last increase. I should have checked rather than relying on my memory.
My understanding is that the cert is good forever, but if activated after the 18-month period, is good for 12 months rather than 13. I can't remember how I knew this when I bought mine, but I did.I purchased 3 13 month AP's on 3 different days. All 3 (different) CMs said that the passes must be activated within 18 months of purchase. It appears not all CMs are informing people of the 18 month expiration, which can
definitely present a problem especially as once added to MDE, the notation is that they expire 12/31/2030.
side note: the 13 months worked out great for us as we like to go around the same times (early-mid May, early-mid Oct) every year
But again, this is not disclosed anywhere online that I can find. I just went back and read every bit of published information I could find on their website about this offer and this detail is not included anywhere. I can't see how Disney can enforce a policy that was not disclosed along with the other restrictions on this offer but was communicated verbally to some purchasers but not all. In addition, we all know that some Disney CMs are prone to providing incorrect information, so who knows if those who were told about the restriction were given correct information.
