Which is the pass for me.

[StephenKay]

Hi everbody,
We are a family of 2 adults and a kid of 6, and we visit and stay on site for 13/14 days straight and never go off property. We have in the past,before we became DVC members bought the UMP Pass but now we are members should we still buy this pass for our next visit. We come "home" every year from now on.

Thanks from Stevie Kay
Inverness

 

[StephenKay]

I should add that I am also a serving military in the RAF which means, could I also qualify for a discount at the shades of green.


Stevie Kay

 

[spiceycat]

I think you would be saving money to get the Annual Pass.

 

[Ed T]

I would go for the annual pass.

the break even point is generally 8 visits to the parks.

Ed
DVC 1994

 

[slimplaw]

I would get an annual pass too. But, I would probably get a Disney Club card first and save on the annual passes. You would also save on a car rental at National some. There are some discounts which repeat themselves on the annual pass and the Disney Club, but it is still a good deal. It is just confusing as to which card to use for which discount.

 

[wdwnut]

hi: hope your weather is nicer than ours at this time. there are two types of annual passes-the regular and the premium. the regular does not include admission to any of the water parks, just the 4 main parks. there's a fair amount of price difference between the two; you may want to check out what the different prices and privileges of each before purchasing.

 

[PamOKW]

8 days in 12 months is the typical break-even for buying an AP. I think that's the way for you to go. You'll have to consider the Premium vs. the Regular. DVC members do get some discount on single ticket water park and PI admissions. There is also a PI annual pass you can buy seperately. I'm not sure if there is such a thing as an annual pass for the water parks.

I don't believe you'd be entitled to any SOG discount. This is run by the U.S. military for current and career retired personnel (and some civil defense employees). You could see if there is any reciprocal arrangement between the U.S. military and British but I kind of doubt it.

 

[drusba]

Some thoughts:

1. The Annual Pass gives you theme park entries for a year. The Premium Annual Pass also gives you unlimited entries to everything else (including Disney Quest)for a year. That PAP, in other words, provides the same thing as the length of stay pass except it does it for a year rather than just for your 14 day length of stay.

2. The PAP without a discount costs less than a 13 or 14 day length of stay pass without a discount. As a DVC member you get a 10% discount on the LOS which would make it cheaper for your time period than the PAP, but if you are a Disney Club member you would get about a 5% discount on the PAP which would bring it in close to the same price as the LOS with the 10% discount.

3. Now, when you to renew that PAP it will cost significantly less than when bought new. Thus, during your second year (and third year, etc.) with a PAP, you will likely pay about $40 to $50 less per person than you would for that length of stay in the second year (and subsequent years).

4. What I am suggesting is this: you have absolutely no reason at all to buy the length of stay pass because you can do it cheaper with the PAP which is better than a length of stay.

5. However, I am not suggesting that you buy the PAP. You probably do not need it. If you buy the AP and go to waterparks (or PI, DQ etc.) 4 times or less while you are there and pay single day entry fees for those, the combined cost of the AP and those entries is less than the PAP (and less than the LOS). In other words the PAP makes sense only if you are going to do 5 waterparks/DQ. But note, also, that as a DVC member you get 10% discounts on waterpark single day tickets and 20% on DQ. Because of that, you really need to do waterparks/DQ more than 5 times before the PAP makes sense.

6. Thus, it boils down to this: if you are going to do waterparks/DQ 6 times or more buy the PAP. If not (which is highly likely for most people) buy the AP. Get a Disney Club membership first to get the discounts on the annual passes. You have no reason to stick with the LOS if you go for 2 weeks every year. The annual passes also give you some restaurant and merchandise discounts but many of those match the same discounts you get with the DVC membership.

 

[StephenKay]

Thanks for the advice. I know we in the UK forces do qualify for a 10% on passes at SOG, but I was wondering whether it is 10% for DVC and 10% for military? . We generally go to lots of different parks in the same day but do not use disney quest or P.I. but the waterparks are a must.

 

[drusba]

As to your last post, Disney does not allow different pass discounts to be combined; thus you will not be able to get 20% by combining military and DVC discount.

 

[PamOKW]

DVC doesn't give 10% off any pass except for the UMP.

 

[drusba]

Just another thing I forgot. If you are going to do a lot of waterparks but not do Pleasure Island or Disney Quest, you can buy an annual waterpark pass. An annual pass plus an annual waterpark pass costs less than the PAP or the LOS you would get.

 

[KNWVIKING]

BUY THE AP BUT DO WHAT WE DO.PASS IS GOOD FOR 52 WEEKS.PLAN VACATION FOR WEEKS 1 & 2,PLAN NEXT YEARS VACATION FOR WEEKS 51 & 52. GET 4 WEEKS OUT OF ONE PASS.IF YOU LIKE SPENDING A LOT OF TIME IN THE WATER PARKS,DIS HAS A 99.00 ANNUAL WATER PARK PASS. ALSO,AP & WP PASSES COMBINED ARE CHEAPER THEN PAP.

 

[mickey7861]

We buy AP's, we vacation only in the summer so we bought our AP in mid August last year (8/12). We stayed 8/12 through 8/27. Now this year we'll go in the end of July for 16 nights. SO we will have gotten 31 days out of our AP. We do not renew at the $40 off rate however. It is more cost effective for us to purchase a new AP the following year during our August time which will then be avaiable for 2 trips again. If we re-newed we would only get 1 trip out of the AP as opposed to 2 trips buy purchasing new again.