Why is it so hard to decide DVC AP's vs. 10 day???

[edk35]

grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. We have had the PAP once which was Aug. 07 and we used them for that trip, Nov. 07, Jan. 08 and July 08. IT was a great value. BUT BUT BUT....we are NOT NOT NOT going that much over the next year.

We are going Jan. 26th for 6 nights. So we will need park passes starting on Jan. 27th and then we are going back to WDW on July 21st for 10 nights but will probably NOT go into a park on July 29th so we are looking at 13 days of park usuage in 09. So I am sitting here trying to figure out what to buy for these two trips.

We will be going each summer probably so I know the smart thing is to get them in July and then plan our other trip for a week earlier in 2010. Well with a daughter starting college next fall, a son in high school who does summer soccer programs....it is hard to tell when we would go in 2010. We have 2 days still to use on non exp. magic your ways too. I know we all want to save money on these tickets so we want the best deal but sometimes maybe we have to go with what works. grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. I like the money saving idea better. Oh and let me add that we can get discounted magic your ways through SOG or the military base here so that is a savings over gate prices if we go that route.

I know if we were to get PAP's it would only be for our two sons and dh. My dd and I could skip the water parks this go round and just get regular DVC AP's. So that is something else to think about in this what to do scenario. OH and my older son and dh want to go to Univesal for one day in Jan. too.....so that means if we get Magic Your Ways....they are going to have an extra day that my dd, ds and me won't have.

Okay at this point I am not sure if I am asking for advice or just venting. HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[thesupersmartguy]

Go with the AP. Since you are going for so many days, the AP would be a better value.

 

[hakepb]

I've heard that the SOG/military is a really nice discount (but do not know the specifics) That might put you in the realm of just buying the regular tickets there. What sort of cost per day would you get?
Would any ticket discount be negated by the use of an AP TIW card (old DDE)?
I think you talked yourself out of the AP for Jan, unless you dine enough with TiW..

 

[edk35]

I've heard that the SOG/military is a really nice discount (but do not know the specifics) That might put you in the realm of just buying the regular tickets there. What sort of cost per day would you get?
Would any ticket discount be negated by the use of an AP TIW card (old DDE)?
I think you talked yourself out of the AP for Jan, unless you dine enough with TiW..

I have been trying to get on the Shades of Green web site but it is not coming up to look at their current ticket prices. We did use the DDE card a lot when we had the PAP's. We tend to go to a few TS restaurants each trip. I forgot about the DDE card. When I can pull up the SOG site I can post that price as well.

 

[edk35]

I was able to get on the web site.

A discounted (with no tax) 10 day base ticket is 232.50 for an adult. A hopper is 282 bucks, with the no exp. added bumps it to 478 bucks. If you added the the no exp. hopper and 10 days at the water parks it jumps to 527.

 

[chris1gill]

I was able to get on the web site.

A discounted (with no tax) 10 day base ticket is 232.50 for an adult. A hopper is 282 bucks, with the no exp. added bumps it to 478 bucks. If you added the the no exp. hopper and 10 days at the water parks it jumps to 527.

OMG, that is just painful.... sorry to jump in.... I remember when we'd pay 250 regular price for our AP's, that was the day.....

I struggle now with what to buy as well. The kids like going other places around Orlando, and rarely go into a Disney park during our trips, but we do go in. I think that I'll buy the ten day hopper in April when we go, we already have AP's for Seaworld/Aquatica & Busch Gardens.... When those expire I might think about getting a Disney AP and doing two trips 11 months apart.....

 

[Buckeye Fan]

Well...we decided to go with the 10-day pass over the AP, and here's why:

1) For $531.95 a ticket , we purchased through Undercover Tourist. This included the ability to park hop, no expiration & water park access. The tickets have 10 credits to the water parks, including 10 days in the theme parks.
2) Even though we'll be going down twice a year, we don't go to the parks every day. A 10-day pass will last us about 5 - 6 trips (or about 2.5 - 3 years). We will end up having credits left over from the water parks to use, as we do 1 or 2 water park trips per visit.
3) Each park entrance (theme or water) averages out to about $26.60 per person, per visit ($531.95 total price/20 visits). Not bad, since theme park tickets are around $75 at the gate, and water park $40. That's a significant discount, even though the initial out of pocket is pretty high.

For us, and our travel habits, this actually makes more sense than purchasing annual passes.

 

[edk35]

Well...we decided to go with the 10-day pass over the AP, and here's why:

1) For $531.95 a ticket , we purchased through Undercover Tourist. This included the ability to park hop, no expiration & water park access. The tickets have 10 credits to the water parks, including 10 days in the theme parks.
2) Even though we'll be going down twice a year, we don't go to the parks every day. A 10-day pass will last us about 5 - 6 trips (or about 2.5 - 3 years). We will end up having credits left over from the water parks to use, as we do 1 or 2 water park trips per visit.
3) Each park entrance (theme or water) averages out to about $26.60 per person, per visit ($531.95 total price/20 visits). Not bad, since theme park tickets are around $75 at the gate, and water park $40. That's a significant discount, even though the initial out of pocket is pretty high.

For us, and our travel habits, this actually makes more sense than purchasing annual passes.

Well that is one way to look at it too. IF we got the same ticket you are describing from SOG we would pay 527 per person but I some how doubt it would last us that many trips. LOL What do you do on your NO Park days. See my kids would probably do a no park day too....especially since we are staying at BCV and there is stormalong bay. I don't know why I feel we should do a park every day. I also think there is a annnual water park pass too not sure if that is more expensive or not and then just get 10 day no exp. and hopping

 

[tjkraz]

The main thing that has kept us from justifying 10-day non-expiring passes is the 10 park days. We typically have 6-8 park days per trip. So buying a 10-day park pass gets us one full trip plus just a fraction of another.

It would be nice to stockpile those waterpark admissions since we've been going at least once per trip. But until now we've been sticking with APs and just paying the single-day rate (with DVC discount) to get into the waterparks.

 

[Pennyguy23]

We go to the parks everyday, even if its just for dinner so AP is the way to go for us. I could NEVER only go 10 times in 3 years

 

[Buckeye Fan]

Well that is one way to look at it too. IF we got the same ticket you are describing from SOG we would pay 527 per person but I some how doubt it would last us that many trips. LOL What do you do on your NO Park days. See my kids would probably do a no park day too....especially since we are staying at BCV and there is stormalong bay. I don't know why I feel we should do a park every day. I also think there is a annnual water park pass too not sure if that is more expensive or not and then just get 10 day no exp. and hopping

These are the best prices I found on the web (includes tax and shipping), so you can compare these against APs and SOG, and see what works best for your family. http://www.undercovertourist.com/united-states/florida/orlando/attractions/tickets/

As for our days at Disney, we usually do 3 theme parks over 2 days, and one water park day each visit (which is usually 5 - 7 days, twice a year). We'll do a full day at MK, and then hit either AK/Epcot or AK/HS on the other day. My kids can take or leave Epcot, so we go about every second or third trip.

For off days, as I mentioned, we always hit a water park. My kids love both BB and TL, so they would be extremely disappointed if we didn't go once or twice per visit. We also spend one day at the resort just enjoying the pool and what the resort has to offer. For the other two days, we have done the following:
* played mini-golf
* rented boats
* gone to DTD and/or the BW
* pool hopped
* gone to the movies
* visited the outlet malls (NOT a fun day for the kids! )

I think the times of year we go play into our habits. We go in late July, early August when it's sweltering hot, and over spring break, when the crowds are at their peak. If we went to the theme parks daily, I would definitely buy APs, too. We just don't and never have. Prior to joining DVC, we received free park passes one year with our 7 night stay. Even then, we only went to the parks 3 or 4 days of our visit.

 

[alldiz]

IMO if you go 2x a year....it pays for an AP.

Of course I bought my AP in Oct....and won't be back before then

From now on I will do the AP....and go say Dec....then the following Oct/Nov so I can "maximize".
This is killing me not using my pass And I promised the family we would go somewhere else this year Oh why did I say that.

I just want to afford to do it all
Kerri

 

[TheDISneyFamily]

IMO if you go 2x a year....it pays for an AP.

Of course I bought my AP in Oct....and won't be back before then

From now on I will do the AP....and go say Dec....then the following Oct/Nov so I can "maximize".
This is killing me not using my pass And I promised the family we would go somewhere else this year Oh why did I say that.

I just want to afford to do it all
Kerri

This is what we do and it works well for us. We buy our APs in Dec. and then use them again the next Oct. We always go to WDW at least twice per set of APs, but it only seems like one trip per year. We average about 20 days per set of APs, sometime more... like this year... We are going to get 5 trips on our current APs. For the next set of trips starting in 2010, we are going to do Dec., May, & Oct. Rinse & repeat for the foreseeable future. We love going to WDW for Christmas, Flower & Garden Fest, and Halloween/Food & Wine Fest.

 

[Anal Annie]

grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. We have had the PAP once which was Aug. 07 and we used them for that trip, Nov. 07, Jan. 08 and July 08. IT was a great value. BUT BUT BUT....we are NOT NOT NOT going that much over the next year.

We are going Jan. 26th for 6 nights. So we will need park passes starting on Jan. 27th and then we are going back to WDW on July 21st for 10 nights but will probably NOT go into a park on July 29th so we are looking at 13 days of park usuage in 09. So I am sitting here trying to figure out what to buy for these two trips.

You say that NOW!! Who else wants to bet with me that Denise adds another trip in there somewhere if she gets the AP's?!

 

[allshookup]

We typically only go about twice a year, but we always get APs. There is a lot to be said for not feeling like you have to get a full days worth out of a park ticket. Sometimes we just go for a few hours in the evening & it doesn't feel like I've wasted a park day. Also being able to purchase the Tables in Wonderland card is a huge savings for us.

We've made the mistake of NOT purchasing APs in the past, and then we ended up going back sooner than we thought so we just bite the bullet & buy an AP every time. It's getting tougher these days to get away now that DD is in high school (she missed so much when we took her out for a couple of days this October) so next year we might just go mid-August & then the following summer go the beginning of August so we still get 2 uses out of our passes.

 

[msteddom]

I will be buying my first DVC AP on Sunday. I already have a 10 day no expiration PH with 6 water park admissions on it, so I figure that will cover my water park admissions for the next five years or so, so no need to buy a deluxe AP. I will probably do at least 10 park days this year, so I think I'm right at the break even point, and if it turn out to not be a good value, then I simply won't renew!

Melissa

 

[edk35]

You say that NOW!! Who else wants to bet with me that Denise adds another trip in there somewhere if she gets the AP's?!

THIS MADE ME LAUGH...............YOU ARE STARTING TO REALLY KNOW ME GIRL.

 

[edk35]

Denise Is Going For The AP's!!!


YES the more I thought about it......I am just biting the bullet and doing the AP thing. I hate having to feel like we would need to get "our park day's worth" with just getting a 10 day ticket. I loved having those AP's and yes it did make it easier to add on trips. However.....we love the dining card and we too love the freedom of not having to stay in a park all day or night if we don't want to. I am going to just do it.

 

[edk35]

I am just going to get dh and both sons the PAP's and my daughter and I the regular AP. We have no desire to do the water parks again or Disney Quest. We prefer shopping and resort pools to the water parks.

 

[Anal Annie]

Whew! I think that's a good decision for you.

We got the PAP's the first time...used them for 3 trips. Got to use them once for DQ and once for each water park. We discovered that we didn't use / need the water park option for winter trips or on shorter trips that are only a few days. The only time we'll use the water parks is on longer trips in the summer and even then just for like about 1/2 day each. DQ...ummm...we could take it or leave it. So we have decided to save the money up front & just buy the reg. AP's and use the DVC member discount for the water park admission in the future and pay as we go. We will try to plan at least 2 trips on the AP's.