Annual Passes Question

I see a lot of people here have annual passes even though they dont live in FLA. So either they fly down to FLA mult times a year or am I missing something? :shrug:
 

Hakunamatata

Le Meh
Premium Member
I see a lot of people here have annual passes even though they dont live in FLA. So either they fly down to FLA mult times a year or am I missing something? :shrug:

Nope. If they don't live in Florida than they drive or fly down. Occasionally someone might be making a long enough trip that the cost is effective.
 
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sbkline

Well-Known Member
I see a lot of people here have annual passes even though they dont live in FLA. So either they fly down to FLA mult times a year or am I missing something? :shrug:

Some indeed do make more than one flight or road trip to Florida in one year. But even for those who go annually, such as myself, if you use one annual pass to cover this year's trip and next year's trip, you're still saving money on park admission.

Using myself as an example, I ordered APs for the first time, after we got home from our most recent trip, this past April. I haven't used the APs yet, since our next trip isn't until next April (we go every April). So I intend to use those APs for our April 2012 trip and our April 2013 trip. Now, I do have to be careful to make sure that the April 2013 trip falls within a year of the 2012 trip, since the AP expires 366 days after first use. But I figured up that if we bought parkhoppers for this coming trip and park hoppers for the 2013 trip, I would be paying more over two years in park admission than I would by getting APs to cover those two trips. On top of that, I can buy one Tables in Wonderland Card to cover our dining on both trips.

On top of that, my wife and I keep talking about wanting to make a shorter trip down one of these days over the christmas period so we can see all the Christmas stuff. So we're now talking about making such a trip next December, in between the April 2012 trip and the April 2013 trip, so we can get further mileage out of the AP.

But as I have said, even if the AP is only used for two trips, it still saves you money over buying seperate park admission for each trip.

There are also AP discounts on room rates, but I don't know if that's even worth mentioning, since Disney seems to always be releasing general public discounts anyway. So it seems to be my observation that you have a pretty good shot at getting a good discount with or without an AP. But if anyone disagrees with me on that, then they can throw in the AP discount as another cost saver with getting the AP.
 
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YEah I have an AP which I just got for the first time in July 2011. I have been down there twice (Shuttle Takeoff and Landing). I am going in Sept (Running the Wine and Dine 1/2 Marathon) and going in December for the Christmas lights. Also, I am planning to go again before they expire next summer.

I drive down from the DC area.
 
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drysdaleo

New Member
If you plan to visit Disney World twice over a 12 month period, an annual pass is about the same price as buying two 5-day park hoppers. Vacation Club members get an additional discount on annual passes. You do not have to come several times a year for it to make sense; just twice.
 
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marcriss

Member
If you go for a week or longer and then come back again for another week before they expire it can be cheaper than regular tickets when you factor in other discounts.

For example, I saved $1300 on my hotel reservation with an AP discount. The AP will cost me about $250 more than the 10 MYW park hopper. So I'll ultimately save $1050. If you factor in TIW and potentially coming back next year before the pass expires I could wind up saving a lot more.

This year we are going 12/10-20. Usually we go earlier in the month. So I might be able to use my pass again next year.

I bought everyone else MYW tickets before the prices went up.
 
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jlevis

Well-Known Member
Everyone's mileage will vary, of course. We're AP holders and live in Michigan. We have timeshares (not DVC) in Orlando and we get to Disney 2, sometimes, 3 times a year, most of the time for 2 weeks. We prefer to drive finding that cheaper than two plane tickets and renting a car, especially if we're there for two weeks. Conventional wisdom says you recoup the cost of an AP with 10 visits. Couple in the various discounts and it can be a good deal if you can make those visits. I love the free parking!! And we just saved 20% on our Keys to the Kingdom Tours. Anyway, an AP, for us, is a good deal.
 
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sbkline

Well-Known Member
Before ordering our APs, I figured up the cost of APs for my wife, my son and myself, and then compared it to the cost of parkhoppers for the next two trips (just based on ticket prices at the time, not counting this year's increase or next year's) and I think I found that I was saving 300 or 350 dollars just based on that, but I can't remember how much I even paid for the APs now, let alone how much the park hoppers would have cost. :lol: But we like to stay for 10 nights and buy 7 or 8 day parkhoppers, to take into account the days that we spend off property and don't even enter the parks.

But one other thing to consider is if you buy an AP, you get to beat the annual price increases. In my case, I bought ours in April or May and thereby beat the 2011 price increase and the 2012 price increase.
 
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bigorangeandy

Well-Known Member
I had bought an annual pass at the end of March so that we could get the room discount. At the end of our week we decided to upgrade the rest of the familys tickets to annual passes so we could come back during the holidays this year. We only paid the differences between the ticket cost and what the annual pass cost, and the rest of the family have expiration dates a year from when we made the switch, not the date of first use. We live 8 hours away so we can drive down, do a day at a park, then drive home the next day. You also get a 10% discount at most shops on property when buying soveriners, and such. The other thing that it has done for us is discuss about going down for a day or two, as we already have our passes, so would only have to pay for a place to stay, and gas.
 
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erstwo

Well-Known Member
Guilty as charged. We live about 12 hours away from our driveway to the gates of WDW. Sometimes we drive, sometimes we fly (there is a great discount airline with a direct flight to MCO from our city.)

I agree about the AP room discounts, but we bought our AP's based solely on the purchase price of MYW tickets over several trips vs. the price of AP's. We have made 4 trips thus far on our AP's. We will make at least 3 more trips with these AP's. We knew about all of these trips before we purchased our AP's. And my husband is adamant that we NOT make any additional trips because we have Annual Passes (he says that negates the $$ savings behind purchasing the AP's. :lol:)

Disney is smart, in that the first day of MYW tickets is the most expensive. For our family of 4 it costs about $320-ish for 1 day non - park hoppers. For 2 days it costs us just over $600, 3 days just under $900. It's not until day 4 that you really start to see some savings on MYW tickets. So our AP's 'paid for themselves' over the first 2 trips we took to WDW.

Will we renew next year? I have no idea. :cry::lookaroun:D
 
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becanya

New Member
If you are a DVC member, you get 100 off each pass. We go for 10 day trips. This year we are going in November (10 dys), Jan (7 days), and September (10 dys). It is way cheaper to get the annual passes than to buy parkhoppers for all those days.
 
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sbkline

Well-Known Member
Okay, I just looked up the price of APs to compare with the price of a 7 day pass with parkhopper. I'm not sure how long you're going for or who is in your party, but I looked it up based on our family and length of stay.

As I said, we like to stay 10 nights, but I looked up the price of a 7 day parkhopper, since we normally have 3 or 4 days where we don't even enter the parks at all (although it wouldn't cost much to add on an extra day if needed on a MYW ticket, and an AP is a parkhopper anyway). We have a 5 year old son, so we bought one child AP, as well as two adult APs for us. Our daughter doesn't count yet because she'll still get in free next time, and then we'll have to buy her park admission on the 2013 trip, so we couldn't get her an AP with the rest of us this time.

But anyway, under current prices, an adult AP is $552.74 and a child's AP (ages 3-9) is $509.07. So two adult APs plus one child is $1614.55. We may have even payed a little less than that because we bought ours back in April or May, before this year's price increase, but I can't remember now how much we payed.

Now, for a 7 day pass with parkhopper, for 2 adults and one child, the price comes up to $947. If I did that for 2012 and 2013, excluding any price increases and just basing that on the price listed right now, I would be paying $1994. So by using APs for the next two trips, I am saving $379.45.

That's the bare minimum savings. Again, that's not including any money I may have saved by beating two annual price increases, or any other discounts that I may get as a result of those annual passes (including dining discounts by using the TiW card rather than the DDP). And it's not including the fact that we may do that long hoped Christmas trip in between these two April trips, thereby getting even more mileage out of the AP.
 
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sbkline

Well-Known Member
Just another update...I just dug out our AP vouchers and invoice to see how much I payed when I ordered them back in April. Excluding tax or handling fees (since those weren't included in the previous numbers I gave), I payed $499 each for the adult APs and $450 for the child AP. So that's $1448, so it looks like I saved a good chunk by beating this year's price increase, not to mention however much prices may go up next year (prior to our 2013 trip).

**EDIT**
Alright, after checking further, I see that those AP totals I gave DID include sales tax. It seems that the current base price for an adult AP is $519, and for a child, the base price is $478. This would mean that I saved $20 per adult by purchasing them early, and $28 for the child. When I went on the website to get the price, it gives the higher price right off the bat, but when you click "purchase", then it lists them by the base price, so the first price they give you one the first page, is apparently the grand total including sales tax.
 
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SerenityinPA

Member
Original Poster
Oh ok thanks everyone, this makes a lot more sense. I was wondering if one trip would be worth getting one, but I see most people say 2 at least.
 
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sbkline

Well-Known Member
Oh ok thanks everyone, this makes a lot more sense. I was wondering if one trip would be worth getting one, but I see most people say 2 at least.

Ya, one trip wouldn't generally be worth getting an AP for unless it's a long trip. Like if you're staying more than 10 nights and plan to do the parks every day of that. You can't get anything longer than a 10 day pass, and the common reasoning given is that, beyond 10 days, you're better off getting an AP. So if you're one of those who likes to go down for 15 days, and go to the parks every day, then an AP would be the way to go, vs a 10 day pass and a 5 day pass, or an 8 day pass and a 7 day pass, or whatver combination you can think of.
 
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Monty

Brilliant...and Canadian
In the Parks
No
I did an 8-night stay at Beach Club. I booked room-only using a 40% Annual Passholders' discount and the total savings from the discount entirely covered my AP, my son's 7-day Hopper ticket, the cost of the TiW dining discount card and everything we actually ate while there.

So yes, in certain circumstances a single trip can be worthwhile getting an AP. It does depend where you choose to stay, how long and what discounts are available at the time.

[I did go on to use that AP for a few more trips, but it comfortably paid for itself in the first trip.]
 
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WDWRLD

Active Member
Your best way to get the most out of a AP for those not on Florida like me. We travel one year Just after the 4th of July then the following year we travel last week of June. Our stays average 10 days and like this year we will sometimes get in a side trip which will be for the Halloween 5K, MNSSHP, Wine and Dine and the 40th birthday of the Magic Kingdom all in one weekend. Also with the AP you can do the TIW which also will save you alot if you dine alot.
 
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sbkline

Well-Known Member
I did an 8-night stay at Beach Club. I booked room-only using a 40% Annual Passholders' discount and the total savings from the discount entirely covered my AP, my son's 7-day Hopper ticket, the cost of the TiW dining discount card and everything we actually ate while there.

So yes, in certain circumstances a single trip can be worthwhile getting an AP. It does depend where you choose to stay, how long and what discounts are available at the time.

[I did go on to use that AP for a few more trips, but it comfortably paid for itself in the first trip.]

I hope I'm not sounding too argumentative or anything, but at least for the past few years, it has been my observation that there is always a general public discount out anyway. Like on our past April trip. Initially, when the all year long free dining promotion came out, our dates were not included and I was kind of bummed out at first. But sure enough another month or two later, a new round of discounts came out which did include our dates. We got 40% off the Wilderness Lodge. I think it was one of those discounts where you get 25% off the Values, 35% off moderates and 40% off Deluxes.

I don't know what year you went and got that AP discount, or how generous they were with general public discounts at that time, but I seem to notice a pattern in the past few years at least, that they always offer discounts pretty much all year round. So an AP discount, as nice as that is, doesn't really save you any extra if there's just a general public discount out there for the same amount that you can snatch up anyway. That's why in my previous posts in this thread, I didn't really factor in any AP discounts in evaluating the savings, because they usually offer equivalent GP discounts, which makes it pretty much a wash on that front.
 
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Monty

Brilliant...and Canadian
In the Parks
No
I hope I'm not sounding too argumentative or anything, but at least for the past few years, it has been my observation that there is always a general public discount out anyway. Like on our past April trip. Initially, when the all year long free dining promotion came out, our dates were not included and I was kind of bummed out at first. But sure enough another month or two later, a new round of discounts came out which did include our dates. We got 40% off the Wilderness Lodge. I think it was one of those discounts where you get 25% off the Values, 35% off moderates and 40% off Deluxes.

I don't know what year you went and got that AP discount, or how generous they were with general public discounts at that time, but I seem to notice a pattern in the past few years at least, that they always offer discounts pretty much all year round. So an AP discount, as nice as that is, doesn't really save you any extra if there's just a general public discount out there for the same amount that you can snatch up anyway. That's why in my previous posts in this thread, I didn't really factor in any AP discounts in evaluating the savings, because they usually offer equivalent GP discounts, which makes it pretty much a wash on that front.

General Public discounts are usually slightly less than AP discounts [by a percentage or two]. The 1-2% does make it less of a benefit, but there are other benefits to APs, so I generally take the approach that it's still better. :shrug:
 
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