Yet another annual pass question(s)...

[branfam]

My husband and I and 2 of our adult children are planning 2 trips to WDW within 12 months so we are getting annual passes. We are experienced disney vets. We stay at moderates. This will be our first time purchasing annual passes. I have a few questions....1. What is the most economical way to purchase? I want a hotel discount. Our preferred hotel is POFQ. 2. If I buy an annual pass now in order to get an AP discount, will it definitely not be activated until I go into the parks on our trip? 3. Has anyone ever had an experience where their AP was activated upon booking their hotel and fast-passes? 4. Is it safest to just book the best package deal and upgrade? We are planning on the end of June/first of July. 5. If we wait and upgrade I'm assuming ticket prices will increase between now and then so I would have that additional cost if I by a regular package and upgrade? FWIW we also plan to purchase the dining plan for the first time for this trip. 6. Is it likely there will be an AP discount on a room for that time frame?
TIA

 

[anomamatt]

1. Online. There are no discounts to be found (except for the possibility of price bridging from an existing multi-day ticket but you lose the ability to book your room with an AP discount).
2. Correct, you must activate it in person at a ticket window or guest relations.
3. No, must be done in person. AP vouchers can book FPs. and will not activate the AP.
4. Nothing unsafe about buying vouchers. You can save some (small amount of) money by buying tickets from a trusted reseller and price bridging them to an AP, but you lose the possibility of saving money on your hotel room.
5. Possibly. Tickets last increased in price Feb 2017.
6. Likely there will be some sort of AP room discount. Not guaranteed the resort or room category you want, but likely some AP discount.

 

[Lesley Wake]

6. Is it likely there will be an AP discount on a room for that time frame?

There probably will be a discount, but I have found the availability to be questionable. I was able to get a room discount at POFQ last September, and after talking to Guest Services was finally able to get the AP discount to apply (there was some glitch with the website that was showing POFQ as a package non-discount, while other resorts showed an actual discount for APs).

My advice would be to jump on any room-only discount when it becomes available. AP discounts aren’t released until later than GP, so you would need to change your reservation to apply the discount.

 

[anomamatt]

There probably will be a discount, but I have found the availability to be questionable. I was able to get a room discount at POFQ last September, and after talking to Guest Services was finally able to get the AP discount to apply (there was some glitch with the website that was showing POFQ as a package non-discount, while other resorts showed an actual discount for APs).

My advice would be to jump on any room-only discount when it becomes available. AP discounts aren’t released until later than GP, so you would need to change your reservation to apply the discount.

From what I have seen, AP discounts are getting worse and worse... fewer rooms available and fewer room categories.

 

[Lesley Wake]

From what I have seen, AP discounts are getting worse and worse... fewer rooms available and fewer room categories.

Agreed. I would not get an AP expecting to get a room discount. I would not book a Disney vacation, period, that is contingent on an unknown future discount.

 

[anomamatt]

Agreed. I would not get an AP expecting to get a room discount. I would not book a Disney vacation, period, that is contingent on an unknown future discount.

If you are not that selective (especially with respect to views and sometimes even resort choice), it can work out. But your earlier strategy is the best one: find something you are happy with (public discount, etc) and book that. If an AP discount pops up, great, but hard to plan on one these days. Booking room only gives a lot of flexibility in cancelling if another (better) discount does appear.

 

[Ciandella915]

Maybe it's just me, but I was very disappointed with the room discounts. I find it's cheaper on Orbitz sometimes than with an AP discount. I would save the money doing ticket-bridging where you know for a fact you'll save money.

 

[Dr.Mickey]

From what I have seen, AP discounts are getting worse and worse... fewer rooms available and fewer room categories.

I agree. We started getting APs about 16 years ago, and we found deeply discounted AP rates frequently. This was before Disney's current trend of rolling discount seasons for everyone (which are well advertised and easily available on the website). Our last three trips have seen the regular seasonal discounts as better options than the AP rates, which was quite surprising.

We used to mentally calculate the AP savings on a room as a good balance to the cost of the AP - but not anymore. We would view it as luck to get a worthwhile AP discount today.

So now, it is simply a calculation of number of trips/number of park days that tips the scale for us on when to buy APs.

 

[tobikaye]

I had a 7 day PH that was bought from Park Savers and for about $50 less than hate price. I then upgraded that to an AP on the day I arrived.

I called and booked an AP discount for January 2017, telling the CM that I was upgrading the day of arrival. I had no problem booking the AP rate. I was lucky and POFQ was available considering discounts there had been rare in the past.

I got lucky with a great AP discount at AKL in June. I have one more trip coming up on this AP this month and there was no good AP discount that fit this trip.

I only upgraded to the AP as I knew I would be going for 10-14 day’s on the pass. I got lucky in 2017, but the room discounts were only 5% more than the other discounts. The prior time I had an AP (2011), the discounts were 10-15% more at some resorts.

 

[CarrieR]

^That's the cheapest way to do it. Buy discounted tickets at a reseller and then upgrade to an AP early on in your vacation. If there are decent AP rates, call to book. (I have personally never gotten a decent AP rate, but YMMV.)

Of course, there is the unknown of the price increase - so I would maybe hold on all purchases until the price increase is announced. If the increase is larger than the savings from UT or whoever, then buy a voucher direct from Disney.

 

[disneyvoice]

We have had APs multiple times, including now, and I have always been able to book multiple trips using the AP discount for the rooms as soon as I purchased the APs online. You must activate your AP in person to show ID so there is no way for your APs to be activated unless you are purposely activating them at WDW. There is absolutely no reason to delay purchasing an AP online out of concern that they will be activated when you book your hotel - you can rest easy about that.

I have never had a problem getting an AP rate for a trip - even for trips that weren't booked very far in advance. The only time I wasn't able to get an AP rate was when we stayed at BC during F&W. We booked the room as soon as we knew we were going even though AP rates hadn't been released because we wanted to be as close to Epcot as possible and were willing to pay rack rate for it. The hotel sold out before AP rates were released (I'm not sure there were ever any AP rates for when we were there). If we have a resort we absolutely want to stay at we will usually go ahead and book the room at the lowest available rate when we decide to go but keep checking for the AP rates to be released. As soon as the AP rate is available I cancel and rebook at the AP rate. But we pre-book just to make sure we have a room.

 

[Eastern]

I would also check Orbitz and Disney specific TAs when you are looking for room discounts at POFQ.

 

[TinkLoverSam]

Buying tickets from a re-seller does not preclude you from booking an AP rate. You won’t be able to check availability yourself online but you can call and book an AP rate without one in hand. The front desk will want to see it within about 24 hours of check in, so you’ll have to drop by the front desk after you upgrade your tickets if you go that route.

 

[MakiraMarlena]

You can't count on the room discount. Even if there is one, it may not apply to your preferred resort or dates.

 

[KittyKitty]

I bought a discounted 10 day tkt that I upgraded to AP when I got to WDW. It showed up on My Disney Experience. I started looking at AP room discounts online. The current one is thru Apr 14th(?). I don't know if you can see the room discounts with a voucher only. But you always call to see what dates are available.

It was great to get discounts on food and merchandise. Not everywhere, but always ask.A friend of mine put her AP passholder card in a clear pouch on her lanyard, so the CM could see it.

The downside to being an AP holder is you want to make more trips to WDW!