Purchase of an annual pass question

[magicalmemories]

My son was accepted into the college program for the fall and I'm considering purchasing Annual passes since we may make multiple trips down for some visits ... It's an excellent excuse . My question is, when purchasing the pass, does your annual calendar start on the purchase day or the first day of use? If I were to purchase one at a time ... spread out before he starts, that spreads the financial load better if they don't actually activate till first time use.

 

[DisneyGigi]

It begins first day of use for new purchases- at least to my understanding. We have never pre-purchased before, have turned already purchased package tickets into APs but everything I have read, it isn’t active until you use it.

 

[Think Tink]

First day of use I bought mine last year before the prices went up and activated it in May.

 

[Nottamus]

Yep....as stated above..first use activation.
Then you keep that date for all following renewals.

 

[larryz]

I thought annual pass questions were free... did they just start charging for them???

 

[Trackmaster]

Just a warning: its a pretty expensive if you're out of state. Florida residents get a pretty sweep deal on the, but you can only get Platinum or Platinum Plus out of state. Which runs you about a $1,000 a year. You'd probably be better off just seeing if your son could get you comp tickets through work. You did give him life afterall...

 

[larryz]

Just a warning: its a pretty expensive if you're out of state. Florida residents get a pretty sweep deal on the, but you can only get Platinum or Platinum Plus out of state. Which runs you about a $1,000 a year. You'd probably be better off just seeing if your son could get you comp tickets through work. You did give him life afterall...

Buy 1200 shares of DIS and let the company buy your annual pass for you.

 

[thomas998]

Just a warning: its a pretty expensive if you're out of state. Florida residents get a pretty sweep deal on the, but you can only get Platinum or Platinum Plus out of state. Which runs you about a $1,000 a year. You'd probably be better off just seeing if your son could get you comp tickets through work. You did give him life afterall...

Very true. My neighbors daughter went to work there during college and she always seemed to be able to get them in without any problem. Even if you had to pay once or twice when you went there it wouldn't justify a annual pass. You really should consider realistically how often you expect to go before doing the AP. They rarely make sense for people that live near the park, unless you are really die hard fan and expect to spend more than a 10 or so days during there during a give 12 month period. I know they used to have some reasonable perks and quite a few decent discounts on rooms that made them worth it to more people but recently they seem to have cut back on those things making the whole thing less enticing.

 

[danyoung56]

Plus you get discounts on hotel rooms, which can really add up. And with an AP you can purchase the Tables in Wonderland card for I think $150, which gives you 20% off of all table service restaurants and even some quick serve locations, INCLUDING ALCOHOL!!!

 

[magicalmemories]

Thanks for all the responses. We do live out of state in Ohio, but we are also die hard disney fans. I am kinda kicking myself right now for not turning our 8 day tickets we had in December into annual passes. But at the time we did not know he would get into the program. The only way I would buy them is knowing we would be doing another longer trip next year sometime while they were still active. Mom and Dad may just have to visit a time or two while he is away and take advantage of his room discounts at some resorts we don't typically stay at

 

[Chef Mickey]

Buy 1200 shares of DIS and let the company buy your annual pass for you.

Buy 120,000 shares and let them buy your house too.

Wait, something is wrong with this logic.

 

[mergatroid]

How far away do you live. Do you expect you will be using the car alot? One of the remaining benefits is free parking at the parks. Normally that would cost about $22 a day.

$25 a day to park now.

 

[Trackmaster]

Very true. My neighbors daughter went to work there during college and she always seemed to be able to get them in without any problem. Even if you had to pay once or twice when you went there it wouldn't justify a annual pass. You really should consider realistically how often you expect to go before doing the AP. They rarely make sense for people that live near the park, unless you are really die hard fan and expect to spend more than a 10 or so days during there during a give 12 month period. I know they used to have some reasonable perks and quite a few decent discounts on rooms that made them worth it to more people but recently they seem to have cut back on those things making the whole thing less enticing.

Yeah, the perks are pretty bare bones on the AP's compared to other parks. The discounts are only on very, very select already overpriced dining. Basically, the level really just refers to intensity of the blackout dates. Every level of AP comes with free parking too, which is actually pretty valuable in itself. I've been 16 times this year, so even without the free admission I get, I would have made my money back in parking fees alone.

 

[danyoung56]

To be fair, it's free PARK parking - you still have to pay the fee at the on-property hotel.

 

[thomas998]

To be fair, it's free PARK parking - you still have to pay the fee at the on-property hotel.

Which is kind of ironic because it really means that an AP holder now has an incentive to stay offsite which I doubt is what they would like to have an APer do.

 

[danyoung56]

You can also find a really nice room for a lot less than at the WDW hotels. Right now the only advantage is booking FP's 60 days out.

 

[Janir]

Buy 1200 shares of DIS and let the company buy your annual pass for you.

That's a nice stock bennie...LOL.
You could buy some DVC points, then you'd have a place to stay then you could buy the Gold passes and just avoid going during Easter and Christmas times during those pass blackouts. ;P

 

[Think Tink]

Thanks for all the responses. We do live out of state in Ohio, but we are also die hard disney fans. I am kinda kicking myself right now for not turning our 8 day tickets we had in December into annual passes. But at the time we did not know he would get into the program. The only way I would buy them is knowing we would be doing another longer trip next year sometime while they were still active. Mom and Dad may just have to visit a time or two while he is away and take advantage of his room discounts at some resorts we don't typically stay at

Hello fellow Ohioan. Yes APs are expensive, but they honestly saved me money in the long run! As long as you go enough to make up for it then it’s worth it. I got twice a year for a week each time and for me, that’s perfect! I’m upgrading my husbands tickets when we go next time

 

[Trackmaster]

You can also find a really nice room for a lot less than at the WDW hotels. Right now the only advantage is booking FP's 60 days out.

A lot of people don't realize just how cheap Central Florida hotels are. They don't realize how insane it is to pay $300 for a mediocre room when they don't understand that you get alright rooms in Orlando a few miles from Disney for $30 a night.

 

[Trackmaster]

Yeah Orlando has some of the cheapest nice hotels and motels out of any major city in the US. You just can't get those prices for the quality elsewhere.

I think that in the movie The Florida Project, they had mentioned that years ago, a bunch of hotels and motels popped up to serve the needs of the tourism influx from Disney World... But now the big thing is to stay on site if you're going to Disney. So that's why the hotels that are offsite are all so cheap now. And why the motel in the movie is basically a project for ultra low income people. I love the scene when the couple from Brazil with Mouse Ears on come in expecting it to be a nice hotel, and the girlfriend screams at the boyfriend for what a dump it is.