Which AP should I get?

[peppermint]

I'm planning on upgrading to an AP for my son and I during our trip next week, but I'm not sure if I should get a Deluxe or Premium.

I live in the Bay Area, so I've never had one before because we only make it down once or twice a year. But my brother and his family are in the process of moving to Costa Mesa right now, so I'll be travelling to the area pretty frequently.

I'm just not sure if the Premium pass is worth the extra money to get the blockout days and the parking. When I do visit, I'll likely be staying at my brother's so will need the parking. But I'm not sure about needing blockout dates or the other discounts. It's a lot of money to plunk down all at once.

Any advice?

 

[mechurchlady]

You get the premium for the 15% discounts and free parking. Son gets the deluxe as he does not need discounts and free parking. You probably will not want to be in the parks on block out days for deluxe passports as those are the busiest times of the year.

 

[LuLusApple]

What mechurchlady said is what I am doing. I live in nor-cal and will return 2-3 times.
I am getting the premium for myself, for the parking and discounts. The discounts Can really add up especially on the food for us. And I will get the deluxe for DD12.

 

[Sleepless Knight]

I'm also in the Bay Area and I have the premium. I once thought that I would be able to control when I visited the DLR, but what I could not control was when friends would go down. My first pass was a deluxe and I won't make that mistake again. One thing that happens when you have an AP is that you suddenly can go to Disneyland, but if you have the deluxe, which blocks out summer weekends and most holidays(which are great times to get away from it all) you may not go down.

I was able to get the monthly payment plan at the ticket office outside the parks when I renewed in February. While it's advertised as being exclusively for SoCal residents, if you ask they will let all California residents use the payment plan.

 

[disneyland89]

Premium passes all the way! I live in AZ and on our last family trip we all got Premium AP and it rocks. The free parking and discounts on food and throughout DTD (they give you a little booklet telling you which DTD stores and resturants have AP discounts) is awesome. In only 2 trips are passes have already paid for themselves. I love it! Oh and you get the birthday fun card on your birthday, which in my opinon is way better than free admission!

 

[peppermint]

Thanks everyone! Glad I asked because I was thinking I couldn't quite justify the Premium passes. But now I'm leaning toward Premium passes for both of us, especially if I can get in on the payment plan. But at least one, for sure.

We'll always be down for holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas, and I know my SIL already got an AP for herself, so even though it's crowded on holidays we'll end up going anyway, even if it's just for a morning (and I Won't be able to resist!). Premium passes would be a lot more flexible for us. I'd probably end spending more buying blockout day tix.

That's what I'm telling myself, anyway. That and we won't have to spend money on hotels... so might as well.

 

[Huff]

Here's what ya do! Buy a deluxe AP for $269 at most California Costco's (more common in southern, call first, item #295609). Same price as gate but you get a free $50 Disney gift card.

Take the Costco voucher to Guest Services or any ticket window at Disneyland. Use the $50 gift card towards the upgrade to Deluxe with parking. That will cost you $9 ($59 to add parking).

If sometime later you decide you want to visit on a blackout day you have the option on that day to pay the blackout day charge or pay $70 to upgrade to the Premium.

The only advantage to getting the Premium from the start is the increased discounts on park merchandise and food. The deluxe gives 10% on merchandise while the Premium gives 15% on food as well. Better detail on discounts is available on Disneylands website.

 

[LuLusApple]

The deluxe for my DD12 works for us because our return visits (the ones I have already booked) do not land on block out days. If they did/or any future dates land on block out days she will get the premium too.
I wouldn't like to pay any block out ticket costs

 

[pixiewings71]

Hello fellow Bay-Areaer. LOL This is what we did. The first year we had APs we upgraded our 5 day hoppers to Deluxe APs. That worked for us because we went in July, upgraded then and we weren't able to get back until Sept due to other little vacations we had planned over the summer. We then went monthly and sometimes twice a month just over the weekends, driving down on Friday night and coming home on Sunday afternoon. That was fine until we were blacked out again on Saturdays, we did buy blackout passes once and that was it. Needless to say the summer of 08 was harder to get there but we managed. We did a total of 14 trips from July 07-July 08 counting the first one we did in July before upgrading and the last one we did in July before the APs expired. At that point we were unable to renew so we didn't. We were APless until Christmas of 08 when DBFs family gave us the Costco vouchers. When we went in Jan. for DBFs bday we activated the vouchers and got the Deluxe APs. We added parking to mine with the reasoning that if we needed the parking I'd be with the kids to use it. Well, we went back in Feb and at that point we started discussing upgrading to Premiums. Why? Because we usually go on the weekends, my bday is on Mem. Day this year and we have a July bday as well. DBF & DD9 are Jan & Dec and not blacked out but DD12 and I would have issues going around our bdays. So......we decided to do it. We had the $50 gift cards and other gift cards from family so our upgrade only totaled us out of pocket $100 for all 4. We also had the credit on my AP from the $59 parking addition. Anyway, we made the decision to upgrade because we love to go to DL, we hate having blackout days and we generally go on the weekends. It works better for us, no missing work or school and the higher discount is really nice. IF we are able to get new APs next year we will try to go with Premiums yet again, probably with the payment plan because that may be the best way for us to get them again. So for us, the best deal is the Premium AP.

 

[Chickysmom]

You can always get the Deluxe for now, see how you like/use it, and upgrade to the Premium if you need to as well......

 

[bumbershoot]

I would just start with Deluxe and upgrade if needed. But I'd also set that upgrade money aside, so you don't have to scrounge if suddenly you do need it.

then again, the extra discounts and the parking are nice!

 

[peppermint]

Good point about upgrading to Premiums later. If I can't get in on the payment plan, I'll just do that.

pixiewings, I can't believe you did 14 trips in a year. That's awesome. I think I'm going to end up doing a lot of what you're talking about -- driving down on Friday and back on Sunday afternoon, but probably not 14 times

 

[pixiewings71]

Well there were a few trips that were more than just a few days, and a few that were just for basically an overnight. But ya, we did that many....lol We don't regret it, well most days we don't. LOL

 

[YellowMickeyPonchos]

The only advantage to getting the Premium from the start is the increased discounts on park merchandise and food. The deluxe gives 10% on merchandise while the Premium gives 15% on food as well. Better detail on discounts is available on Disneylands website.

I do like the tip about getting the Deluxe with the $50 gift card and then going to upgrade to Premium from there. That's a smart tip. HOWEVER.... I really have to disagree with the comment about Deluxe and merchandise discounts - If you have Deluxe - you CANNOT get a discount INSIDE the park. This means you have to wait to go to World of Disney to get any souveniers - and they do not carry everything that resides in the parks. That is really a pain in the butt to have to do that.

We started out the year with both of us having Deluxe due to the economy. I upgraded to Premium - because I had to. Being a DIS correspondent means you have to be able to go on any day. My husband is still on Deluxe. We ran into a problem where I could go in and he couldn't the other weekend. Luckily, we had some cast member friends with us that got him in. Otherwise, we would have been screwed, as we had Fantasmic Dessert seating that night.

If you can do premium, I would. Blackout day prices have jumped up again and it really stinks to have 2 people who will always go tothe park together on two different levels of pass. That and it hurts to know that paying for a couple blackout days would have paid for an upgrade to Premium.

 

[pixiewings71]

I do like the tip about getting the Deluxe with the $50 gift card and then going to upgrade to Premium from there. That's a smart tip. HOWEVER.... I really have to disagree with the comment about Deluxe and merchandise discounts - If you have Deluxe - you CANNOT get a discount INSIDE the park. This means you have to wait to go to World of Disney to get any souveniers - and they do not carry everything that resides in the parks. That is really a pain in the butt to have to do that.

We started out the year with both of us having Deluxe due to the economy. I upgraded to Premium - because I had to. Being a DIS correspondent means you have to be able to go on any day. My husband is still on Deluxe. We ran into a problem where I could go in and he couldn't the other weekend. Luckily, we had some cast member friends with us that got him in. Otherwise, we would have been screwed, as we had Fantasmic Dessert seating that night.

If you can do premium, I would. Blackout day prices have jumped up again and it really stinks to have 2 people who will always go tothe park together on two different levels of pass. That and it hurts to know that paying for a couple blackout days would have paid for an upgrade to Premium.

Nancy did they change the no discount on merch inside the parks thing recently? I ask because our July 07-08 APs were Deluxe and we did get discounts at some stores, not every store but at some. I don't remember where but I know we did........

 

[bumbershoot]

Nancy did they change the no discount on merch inside the parks thing recently? I ask because our July 07-08 APs were Deluxe and we did get discounts at some stores, not every store but at some. I don't remember where but I know we did........

You're not supposed to.

All APs, even the so cal ones, get various discounts in DTD.

But wait, I don't think Deluxe APs are supposed to get discounts at World of Disney, either! I think maybe Huff mis-typed.

 

[pixiewings71]

That's so weird because we did and more than once.....Or maybe I'm just really misremembering and used my Disney Visa...but no, because we didn't spend over $50 every time.....I'm so confused.....lol

 

[pycees312]

I'm also in the Bay Area and I have the premium. I once thought that I would be able to control when I visited the DLR, but what I could not control was when friends would go down. My first pass was a deluxe and I won't make that mistake again. One thing that happens when you have an AP is that you suddenly can go to Disneyland, but if you have the deluxe, which blocks out summer weekends and most holidays(which are great times to get away from it all) you may not go down.

I was able to get the monthly payment plan at the ticket office outside the parks when I renewed in February. While it's advertised as being exclusively for SoCal residents, if you ask they will let all California residents use the payment plan.

I agree 100% im a DVC member and have always traveled sunday-thursday and the first time we got passes were the delux however going when family and friends go usually requires a weekend stay so now we use premium so there is no worries but you really need to go often to make it worth it. once or twice can be controlled and i'd stick with delux but more than that premium.

 

[Sleepless Knight]

I'll use another example to illustrate why the premium is worth it. Last summer, my mother started floating a "trial balloon" about a family visit to Disneyland during Christmas season. Because of where various members of my family are living, the possible dates literallly ranged over the course of 5 weeks with some blackout dates falling within that 5 week period and I'm the only person with an AP.

Because I had a premium, I didn't have to worry about my family might choosing dates that didn't work for my pass. Likewise, we could budget for food knowing that there was a 15% discount and stretch souvenier money further with my 10% merchandise discount. When the plans started to firm up, if I had the deluxe pass, I faced a 50/50 shot of having it blacked out. Because of the premium, the dates didn't matter to me.

If you have a deluxe with parking and visit on a blackout day, your parking is not valid on the blackout day. So if you go on a blackout day and are not close enough to walk, you will have to deal with parking costs on top of your blackout ticket.

In my opinion, the only way the deluxe may be "better" than the premium is if you live in the SoCal area and have total control over when you can visit. Even then, you may not be able to control when friends decide to visit the parks.