If your staying a Disney Resort it would probably still be worth it to get the AP for the room discount and merchandise discounts
In theory that may be true, but I seem to be noticing a pattern lately that there is ALWAYS a discount of one sort or another available to the general public. Whether it's free dining, or 30% off the room, or stay 4 or more nights and get 3 free, or whatever, it seems like there are discounts all year around anymore.
As an example, when we stayed at Coronado Springs last April, there was a bounceback offer available if we booked before checkout. It would have gotten us 35% off the Wilderness Lodge. Problem is, we go every year in April and the new year's rates don't come out until August. I was told on the phone by two different people that I could book a fictitious stay for sometime in 2010 under the bounceback code, and then simply change the dates in August when 2011 rates come available, and the bounceback code would still hold since I had already booked it. I was later told that this was incorrect information and that the bounceback code is only good for certain dates in the same calendar year. So I cancelled the Wilderness Lodge and booked Carribbean Beach. However later in the year, some discounts came out for 2011 such as free dining off and on throughout the whole year. I was dissappointed to find out that none of it included our April dates, so I kept my reservation booked at CBR. However, another month or two went by, and more discounts came out, and this time they DID include our dates. And guess what? It was for 35% off most Deluxe Resorts, including Wilderness Lodge. In fact, the general public discount I booked under was pretty much exactly the same as the bounceback offer available back in April: 25% off Values, 30% off Moderates, 35% off Deluxes. So now, I'm booked at the Wilderness Lodge.
But the bottom line of my long winded story is that there seems to be a pattern nowdays of constantly releasing discounts such that the de facto price throughout the year ends up being cheaper than the official, posted price. While I certainly don't object to a discount, I find it to be somewhat dishonest to post one set of prices and advertise that as the official price and then turn around and discount it for the vast majority of the year, making that the defacto price, and giving the illusion of a "discount". It's kind of like business that raise their prices and then turn around and lower them back down just to claim that the product is "on sale". It may be a common business practice, but I think it's kind of dishonest.
Even if the OP does not get an AP, more than likely, there is some kind of general public discount available which would get him or her the same percentage off.
