Can Annual Passes be worthwhile for a one time trip?

[UPbeekeeper]

I just started exploring the option of an AP, and I am wondering if you folks can shed some light on this option for me. When looking on the WDW site, it says that AP holders receive 365 day park admission (ok, I get that part), but it just says "discounts" for resorts, dining, & merchandise. It doesn't give me a specific percentage for the discounts, so I don't know how to figure if this will be beneficial to me. Do the discounts fluctuate with the seasons (value vs. peak?) If so, what are the general discounts you would see in October to mid November for resorts and/or dining? (I am currently thinking of a 8 night stay at CBR or a split stay between Pop and Contemporary. If the discount is deep enough maybe staying the entire 8 night at Contemporary, but that is HIGHLY unlikely.)

We will be a party of 4. Can I purchase an AP for myself and then just regular Park Hopper Tickets for the other 3 members in my party? I would be booking the trip, so technically, I am the only one who needs the option of a resort discount.

My final question is, if I am able to do the AP option for me & the PH option for the rest of my party, when booking, would this be considered a "magic your way package" or something entirely different?

I haven't actually done any number crunching to see if this would save me any money, because I don't know how much the discounts are. But I'm just playing with lots of different options and interested in seeing if this one is worthwhile. We would definitely ONLY be using this one time, no other visits during the year, which makes me skeptical if this would save any money, but I am certainly open to suggestions and pros/cons. :shrug:

 

[Master Yoda]

All of the details for an AP can be found here.

http://allears.net/pl/apass.htm

AP room discounts are a fickle thing. They are never guaranteed and the discount can vary widely based not only on the resort time but how close you are to your travel dates (the closer you get the less the discount).

Is it worth is? There is no easy answer. You have to do the math. From a ticket only standpoint your break even point is around 12 days (can be less depending on the length of multiple trips). If you can get an AP discount at a deluxe resort the savings can be considerable but typically not that much better than a general public offer. You can book an AP room rate over the phone or through a travel agent without an AP.

If you were to book with an AP you would have to book as a room only to avoid buying an extra ticket. To get the dining plan you must book at a Passholder room only annual offer (fancy word for rack rate) or with an AP discount. You can book a maximum of one room per AP.

 

[docdebbi]

i have found the AP to be beneficial even in years when i am only making one trip (that's pretty rare )
but i go to the deluxe resort, where the rack rate is higher and the % discount is higher, so it is more worthwhile. and i always go for at least 7 nights, if you are going for fewer nights, almost definitely not worth the AP.
i also then buy a tables in wonderland card for less. i make most of my money right there.......we eat at signature restaurants every night, and table service for many lunches, and do at least one character breakfast. TIW definitely saves me money
for you, you need to decide what your trip will include. longer length, higher level hotel, lots of costly table service restaurants? these make it worthwhile, otherwise, maybe not. a free dining deal may suit you better
and i agree with prior poster, you never know when and what percentage AP discounts are coming out.

 

[Monty]

The good news is you can book an AP discount before you actually get the AP.

So if you see here on WDWMagic that they've released AP room-only discounts, you can decide based on the discount whether it makes sense for you.

My experience has been very good with getting discounts at Deluxe resorts. They're almost always available when we normally travel at the end of August. On one trip, my son and I stayed at Beach Club for 8 nights. The AP discount on the room easily paid for my AP, his 9-day Hopper ticket, the TiW card and after the TiW discount all the food we ate while we were there! It was during "free" dining and our whole vacation cost us less than the rack rate the "free" dining folks had to pay and they still needed tickets as well. :king:

 

[sbkline]

As others have said, discounts cannot be guaranteed, so there isn't one concrete answer to your question. However, it has been my observation over the past few years that there are general public discounts pretty much all through the year. So your chances of getting a general public discount during your trip dates is pretty good. And such discounts aren't much different from the AP discounts.

I'll just use myself and this year's upcoming trip as an example. For the first time, I'm going the route of the AP, and we're staying at a moderate resort, Carribbean Beach. We're staying from April 12-22 and a while back, they released a general public discount which included our dates. It was for 25% off. Hoping for an AP discount, I went ahead and booked this discount while waiting/hoping for an AP discount to come out. When they finally did come out, it was for 30% off. So it saved me a whopping 5% more which, for my 10 night stay, amounted to around $114 bucks or so.

For Deluxe Resorts, the difference is usually about the same from what I can tell. GP discounts seem to be around 35% on Deluxes (not all the time, but quite often) and AP discounts might be around 40%...so again, an extra 5% savings. I've heard of AP discounts on Deluxes sometimes being 42%, which would amount to another 7% if comparing it to a 35% GP discount.

So I wouldn't imagine the AP would save you that much in discounts vs getting regular park hopper tickets with GP discounts, but you would have to do the math and crunch the numbers and see for yourself.

But just to give a rough idea, let's say you're looking at a Deluxe Resort that costs $350 a night. 5% of that would be around $17.50 a night. So if you're comparing, say, a 35% GP discount with a 40% AP discount, the difference between the two would be 5% a night, or $17.50 a night. If it was a 10 night stay, that would be an extra $175 saved on AP discount. Now, you need to see what the difference is between a 10 day park hopper pass and an AP. I don't know what the exact numbers are, but I do know that the higher price of the AP over the 10 day pass would wipe out most, if not all, of the extra 5% savings on the room.

 

[SpenceMan01]

Don't forget about 10% off on souvenirs/merchandise. It can add up. With Tables in Wonderland, we were very close to breaking even on a 10-day trip with 4 adults and a two-year-old. We had about 6 or 7 table-service meals with the 20% off which was nice. We did not figure any room discounts into that calculation (we had a pin code), so that definitely would have put us over.

I think where the AP really shines is on trips over 10 days and 2+ trips within the year... And be careful. Even if you don't plan on going back for another trip, having an AP burning a hole in your pocket is a strong temptation... (I'm going back in November :hammer: )

 

[Disney Dawg88]

I just started exploring the option of an AP, and I am wondering if you folks can shed some light on this option for me. When looking on the WDW site, it says that AP holders receive 365 day park admission (ok, I get that part), but it just says "discounts" for resorts, dining, & merchandise. It doesn't give me a specific percentage for the discounts, so I don't know how to figure if this will be beneficial to me. Do the discounts fluctuate with the seasons (value vs. peak?) If so, what are the general discounts you would see in October to mid November for resorts and/or dining? (I am currently thinking of a 8 night stay at CBR or a split stay between Pop and Contemporary. If the discount is deep enough maybe staying the entire 8 night at Contemporary, but that is HIGHLY unlikely.)

We will be a party of 4. Can I purchase an AP for myself and then just regular Park Hopper Tickets for the other 3 members in my party? I would be booking the trip, so technically, I am the only one who needs the option of a resort discount.

My final question is, if I am able to do the AP option for me & the PH option for the rest of my party, when booking, would this be considered a "magic your way package" or something entirely different?

I haven't actually done any number crunching to see if this would save me any money, because I don't know how much the discounts are. But I'm just playing with lots of different options and interested in seeing if this one is worthwhile. We would definitely ONLY be using this one time, no other visits during the year, which makes me skeptical if this would save any money, but I am certainly open to suggestions and pros/cons. :shrug:

First, you can absolutely purchase an AP for yourself and buy whatever tickets you want for the other three people in your party. The next thing that you should take into account is the price of the tickets - a 7 day park hopper pass is $322 plus tax and an 8 day is $330 plus tax. An AP is $552.74 plus tax so in tickets alone you're going to have a difference of $230.

Unfortunately I can't tell you if that will help you save money with Disney hotel reservations as I've never booked a Disney stay, even as an AP for the past two years. But based on what I've seen on this site the past several years I'm sure that an AP will help you save money at the Disney hotels. One thing you'll have to think about is that you'll have to see if the savings are enough to wipe out that $230 ($28.75 per night) on the difference in the tickets . . . hopefully that makes sense :lookaroun

Now you can make up some ground, like the other posters said, savings on merchandise and certain restaurants. While it might not be a whole lot, it will certainly add up for you and the rest of your party. I know I went to dinner as a party of four at the Paradiso restaurant at Downtown Disney and we got 15% off all of our bills across the board even though we were paying separately. While that particular dinner didn't save a whole lot, if you take that times the 8 days you'll be there it certainly will. So it does add up.

 

[UPbeekeeper]

Eeekk! So much to consider.:dazzle:

Thank you so much, everyone, for your insight. It is a lot of info to get my head wrapped around, but now at least I can see what I'm working with. I certainly appreciate all of your detailed suggestions and examples. It helps so much.

I'm all about saving money, but if I can figure out how to stay at a Deluxe resort for the same/similar price that I am budgeting to stay at a Moderate, I will be all over it. ((HAHA...yeah, me and everybody else in the universe, huh?! :ROFLOL

 

[rodserling27]

Don't forget, free parking with AP too :wave: