Disadvantages of AP?

[wendysue]

Am thinking of upgrading to AP during our upcoming trip as we would like to go in September also. Does anyone know of any disadvantages of having an AP? With and AP I don't need to book a package, but If I wanted to book a bounceback with free dining in Sept. if offered, I cannot do that without booking a package, Correct??

 

[ratherbeinwdw]

I asked why I never got a bounce back offer and the cm told me that only people who buy packages get the bounce back offers. But, I have seen people on this site who I know have ap's talk about getting a bounce back. I'm not sure what they did to get one.

 

[Master Yoda]

Not all bounce-back offers are the same. Some are free dining, which require a ticket purchase (more on that later), but some are for a room discount. Those can be booked without purchasing tickets.

For the free dining promotion (bounce back or otherwise) you will typically be required to book at least a 2 day ticket and you will be paying full price for the room. You can still book this with an AP, but you still have to make the minimum ticket purchase. The saving grace is you can hold onto whatever ticket you purchase and either upgrade it into an AP or use it towards your AP renewal.

Here is where it starts to get tricky and you have to do some math.

Free dining is quite often not the best promotion when you have an AP. A room discount is often a better deal. A room discount plus a Tables in Wonderland card pushes you even further away from free dining.

The three things that will most often determine which promotion is better is where you stay, your party size and the age of the people in your party.

A room discount will be better for 2 adults staying in a deluxe resort (higher priced room equals more discount) almost 100% of the time.

About the only time free dining really starts to look more attractive than a room discount is when you have 2 adults and 2 kids over 9 staying at a moderate resort as you are getting 4 free adult level dining plans.

 

[BrianV]

A room discount will be better for 2 adults staying in a deluxe resort (higher priced room equals more discount) almost 100% of the time.

About the only time free dining really starts to look more attractive than a room discount is when you have 2 adults and 2 kids over 9 staying at a moderate resort as you are getting 4 free adult level dining plans.

And it depends on how much and how often you eat. Free dining isn't necessarily a better deal than a room discount if you eat food you might not have otherwise Chosen to eat. We have never elected free dining over a room discount. But then again, we always try to stay at a deluxe, and though there are four of us, we choose not to eat even two big meals a day. Usually just one decent sized meal, one small one, and snacks.

 

[Master Yoda]

And it depends on how much and how often you eat. Free dining isn't necessarily a better deal than a room discount if you eat food you might not have otherwise Chosen to eat. We have never elected free dining over a room discount. But then again, we always try to stay at a deluxe, and though there are four of us, we choose not to eat even two big meals a day. Usually just one decent sized meal, one small one, and snacks.

Quite correct. The actual value of the DDP varies per person. There is also a convenience factor with the DDP. This is why I try reduce it to just numbers.

Free dining gives you X of a value, a room discount gives you Y. If X and Y are drastically different go with the best one. If they are close, you have to dig deeper.

I have personally used the free dining promotion with an AP, but it took an absolute perfect storm of variables lining up just right for it to be a value.

 

[lazyboy97o]

One thing people forget when the discounts help make them break even is that only one person in your family, who can be there to pay, needs to have the pass.

 

[Tuvalu]

Does anyone know of any disadvantages of having an AP?

You are tempted to take more trips to WDW ("after all, we don't need to buy tickets!") and thus end up spending more money

With and AP I don't need to book a package, but If I wanted to book a bounceback with free dining in Sept. if offered, I cannot do that without booking a package, Correct??

We always book the room discount bounceback (see above comment!) We purchase Tables in Wonderland which is a much better value for us than free dining.

 

[wannabeBelle]

Throw in Tables in Wonderland and it becomes more complicated still!!! I buy into the TiW program every year and love having the ability to get 20% off most of my sit down dining ( there are some places that don't accept this plan) including any drinks, alcoholic or otherwise!!! I find this work better for me as I prefer a sit down breakfast and a sit down dinner with usually not much in between, although I can almost always be talked into a Dole Whip. For admissions, I haven't seen a downside yet, other than having me book a LOT of trips for myself!!! Marie

 

[wannabeBelle]

You are tempted to take more trips to WDW ("after all, we don't need to buy tickets!") and thus end up spending more money


We always book the room discount bounceback (see above comment!) We purchase Tables in Wonderland which is a much better value for us than free dining.

Great minds Tuvalu!!! Marie

 

[Monty]

I agree that the only "downside" to an AP is the ticket burning a hole in your pocket tempting you to go more often. Extra flights from Canada tend to wipe out all of the "savings" I'd calculated when I bought my first AP.

As downsides go, extra visits are a pretty darn good "downside"!

 

[JasonDeyoung]

I've only been a Prem Annual Passholder for 3 years but I've yet to find a disadvantage

 

[draybook]

I agree that the only "downside" to an AP is the ticket burning a hole in your pocket tempting you to go more often. Extra flights from Canada tend to wipe out all of the "savings" I'd calculated when I bought my first AP.

As downsides go, extra visits are a pretty darn good "downside"!

You got that right! Between last September and this September we will have 4 trips made. I think we'll have a total of 42 days in the parks.

 

[JasonDeyoung]

You got that right! Between last September and this September we will have 4 trips made. I think we'll have a total of 42 days in the parks.

Best part of only living a hour away love going whenever I want lol

 

[draybook]

Best part of only living a hour away love going whenever I want lol

One of my sisters lives in Bonita Springs. Not quite as close as you, but she's happy that she'll be able to go frequently. We're all from California, so she's been to DL countless times, now she gets to start on the East Coast.

 

[JasonDeyoung]

One of my sisters lives in Bonita Springs. Not quite as close as you, but she's happy that she'll be able to go frequently. We're all from California, so she's been to DL countless times, now she gets to start on the East Coast.

It's awesome, I love it. Wanna go just for a afternoon, evening grab dinner go watch fireworks whatever just hop in the car and go. It is hard sometimes because lets be honest I wanna go every day lol

 

[LoveDiz]

I agree that the only "downside" to an AP is the ticket burning a hole in your pocket tempting you to go more often. Extra flights from Canada tend to wipe out all of the "savings" I'd calculated when I bought my first AP.

As downsides go, extra visits are a pretty darn good "downside"!

So true!! We became AP passholders for the first time this year and have 4 trips booked!!! Whenever I think of my magic band just sitting in my closet, I feel it's being wasted,! It's been a costly year for vacations, but have loved every visit

 

[sjhym333]

We have been AP holders for over 20 years and our passes are about to expire and we are not renewing...more about that in a moment.

I don't see any real downsides to an AP as long as the math works for you. If you are fairly local or you are someone who makes multiple trips to WDW then it may be a great option. Just take the cost of the AP and the number of days you think you would visit in a 12 month period and see what the cost per day would be. Add in things like parking and merchandise discounts, as well as resort stay discounts and you may find it a real value for yourself. If there are other perks that you usually use that the AP will exclude you from then factor that is also.

As for us...we have been long time passholders (20+ years). We have adult children who don't live with us but are local who also have AP's and interestingly we have all decided separately not to renew. There are several reasons for that: the parks keep getting busier and busier, there are no real slow times anymore, the perks associated with the AP have greatly diminished over the year and we no longer see the value of the pass. At one time Disney really worked hard to make AP holders feel special. Now we are just another ticket holder. Meanwhile down the road Universal offers great perks to their AP holders so I think the family will be getting Universal AP's instead.

Again, I don't see any real downsides to having an AP as long as the math works in your favor.

 

[LAKid53]

You are tempted to take more trips to WDW ("after all, we don't need to buy tickets!") and thus end up spending more money


We always book the room discount bounceback (see above comment!) We purchase Tables in Wonderland which is a much better value for us than free dining.

And that's why we now go every 2-3 months..... "look honey, Disney's running a passholder room discount. Wanna go? I know we went 3 months ago, but we've never gone in [insert month] before." Before purchasing our APs, we only went twice a year in the Spring and Fall.

And I agree about the TiW card. We stopped purchasing the DDP and bought the TiW card as we found it a better deal for us (and I was getting tooooo fat on the DDP ).

 

[wendysue]

Thanks all for the responses. Not sure what I'll be doing yet, but you gave me some really good ideas.

 

[StarWarsGirl]

I don't really see the downside to getting APs. There's a 10% discount on merchandise. You can usually get a room discount, especially for the months you're planning. You won't get an offer for free dining, but I've seen room discounts as high as 35% off, and you qualify for Tables in Wonderland, which is $100 additional but gives you 20% off TS restaurants. You can use your passes for more than one trip and don't have to worry about a park hopper feature.