Planning Has Begun...Question About APs

[WDWVolFan]

Plan is to go to WDW weekend before Memorial Day and stay for 7-8 days.
So I'm already doing some preliminary planning...

I've read on a blog before that sometimes you're better off buying an AP for someone in your party that way you get some discounts and added benefits. They recommended that even if you were only planning on going once during that calendar year.

Has anyone ever done that?
How did you go about it during booking?

 

[FrostyNaples]

Just break out the price of the park tickets for a 7/8 day ticket per person. If its more than an AP, there is your answer (even if only one trip).

As a FL resident, my choice was easier, as the AP is cheaper for us. Our break even was about 3/4 day, not to mention another huge savings on AP renewals.

I figured even if we went the once, we saved.

...Unfortunately for me (great for Disney World ROI), now there is an excuse to go more frequently, and we will have 3 trips under out belt for 2014 (this after not having been in 5 years)...


**To answer your question with booking, very important, after you have your AP's, you must select your resort starting points from "PassHolder" promotions. If you don't start with a passholder promotion, the site doesn't understand you already have park tickets, and makes you buy them to complete a Magic Your Way package (typically), in order to get the right pricing shown. So always start with a Passholder promotion, then you will be shown the correct resort pricing, as well as be able to add the dining plan option if you wish (you cannot add dining plan when you haven't started with the passholder link, as only a passholder can book a room only, and not park tickets, and still get dining plan options. (took me a quick minute to figure this all out).

 

[Monty]

Plan is to go to WDW weekend before Memorial Day and stay for 7-8 days.
So I'm already doing some preliminary planning...

I've read on a blog before that sometimes you're better off buying an AP for someone in your party that way you get some discounts and added benefits. They recommended that even if you were only planning on going once during that calendar year.

Has anyone ever done that?
How did you go about it during booking?

It depends on how many in your party and what level of resort you're staying at. As an example, I stayed at Beach Club with my son for 8 nights on a 42% AP discount. The savings for the room discount covered his 8-day Hopper, a TiW card and with the TiW discounts all of our food and drink for the whole stay dining at TS or Signature restaurants every night. But a family of four with free dining at a Value resort there probably wouldn't be enough value to getting an AP for the discount.

 

[wannabeBelle]

Exactly as Monty pointed out, you must compare the Public Discounts to the AP discounts. Generally speaking the AP discounts are issued before the AP ones are for the same time frame and may be close in terms of the discount offered. For one trip it may not be worth the purchase. If you are going two times or more in a 365 day range, it is almost certainly worth a strong consideration. I have an AP and have since 2002, I love it but I do go multiple times a year so it is totally worth it for me. The true "discount" offered is the admission itself. The other discounts are more in the way of perks or options to purchase such as Tables in Wonderland. Good luck with your planning!! Marie

 

[dreamfinder]

Do the math. That's really the only way to tell. As @Monty said, it may work in your favor. But the AP discounts are getting very close in value to the general public discounts. So while he may have gotten 42% using an AP, the people in the room next door may have gotten 35% off, no AP needed. So what used to be a huge factor isn't so much. TiW is most likely the best way to save a bunch of money at this point. The merch discount is almost the save as what you can get with Disney Visa, and both offer similar dining discounts.