Like me, I'm sure many of you are known at your local Disney Store by your first name. My annual passport is going to expire in February, so I decided to check out the best deal to renew. I checked out all the available deals and discounts and found a really good one at the Disney Store. The manager told me that if I bought a new annual pass (with discounts it cost me about $175.00) I would then get a $50.00 gift certificate for use at the Disney Store and a T-shirt. Well, I didn't buy the pass then because I was still in the process of looking for other discounts. Anyway, last week I narrowed all my options down and determined that the aforementioned deal was the best. I went back to the Disney store and bought 4 of the passes for myself and family. I cashed in the gift certificates for Disney dollars and I'm off to WDW next week. Here's the kicker, the manager at the Disney store told me that this offer was pulled by Disney management just two weeks after the promotion was first begun. To my knowledge you can't get this deal now. Anyone else hear about this? And, before anyone asks, the clock does not start on the vouchers I bought at the Disney Store until I first use them at WDW. Also, I got a big discount at the AKL for next week.
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WDW Annual Pass
- Thread starter James123
- Start date
Are you saying that, since you don't NEED to use them this trip (yours don't expire until February) that even if you don't go back until, say June, your new annual passes will then be good until June of 2003? That's what I used to do with mine, but recently they've started the clock running either from the time of purchase or the date the old one expired. Or do you mean they run from expiration date until expiration date?
NowInc beat my pass discount!
Yeah Marcia there is a lot of confusion about this topic. Let me see if I can help straighten it out. If you renew, then your pass starts the day after your previous pass expires, although you do get about a $27.00 discount. My current pass expires February 8, 2002 and had I renewed it, the new pass would start on February 9, 2002 and be good for one year. However, since I bought a new pass (discounted) the time doesn't start ticking on it until I first use it at WDW. As in your example if I first use it in June, 2002 it will last until June, 2003. Heck, why would anyone buy a pass at a Disney Store if the clock starts ticking on the date of your purchase? Also, since you are a Florida resident, you can get one of those passes that give you an extra 3 months for free. You just have to buy it before the end of December. The clock on that one starts December 31, 2001 if that works into your plans. I'll admit that's it's almost a full time job finding Disney discounts. Mousesavers does a great job but they are one of several options. Travel agents are a very iffy situation. Sometimes they get you a deal and sometimes you pay through the nose. Disney Club offers special deals but most really good deals last a very short time. Other discounts are out there, but if I told you all about them then everyone would know.
NowInc must have found a deeper discount (i.e. 6 months free). I wish I had found that one! You the man NowInc!
Yeah Marcia there is a lot of confusion about this topic. Let me see if I can help straighten it out. If you renew, then your pass starts the day after your previous pass expires, although you do get about a $27.00 discount. My current pass expires February 8, 2002 and had I renewed it, the new pass would start on February 9, 2002 and be good for one year. However, since I bought a new pass (discounted) the time doesn't start ticking on it until I first use it at WDW. As in your example if I first use it in June, 2002 it will last until June, 2003. Heck, why would anyone buy a pass at a Disney Store if the clock starts ticking on the date of your purchase? Also, since you are a Florida resident, you can get one of those passes that give you an extra 3 months for free. You just have to buy it before the end of December. The clock on that one starts December 31, 2001 if that works into your plans. I'll admit that's it's almost a full time job finding Disney discounts. Mousesavers does a great job but they are one of several options. Travel agents are a very iffy situation. Sometimes they get you a deal and sometimes you pay through the nose. Disney Club offers special deals but most really good deals last a very short time. Other discounts are out there, but if I told you all about them then everyone would know.
NowInc must have found a deeper discount (i.e. 6 months free). I wish I had found that one! You the man NowInc!
Thank you, guys! Since I only have a seasonal pass, the rules might be different, but it sounds like they have changed things back to what they used to be when I first started purchasing them! The last time I renewed, the clock started on the PURCHASE date, so I really ended up losing time. I suspect people complained a lot (I know I did) and decided it was better to buy a new pass, rather than lose days by renewing an old one. Again, thank you for the update!!! I wasn't confused, the rules just keep changing!!! 
NowInc
Well-Known Member
Originally posted by marciahahn
Thank you, guys! Since I only have a seasonal pass, the rules might be different, but it sounds like they have changed things back to what they used to be when I first started purchasing them! The last time I renewed, the clock started on the PURCHASE date, so I really ended up losing time. I suspect people complained a lot (I know I did) and decided it was better to buy a new pass, rather than lose days by renewing an old one. Again, thank you for the update!!! I wasn't confused, the rules just keep changing!!!
Well...it's only fair that it starts counting from the first day you use it...i mean...all other types of disney passes "Never Expire"...so why wouldnt an annual pass be good 2 years after you first bought it...providing you havnt used it yet...
Well, all I can say, is after all I went through last year to get WDW to renew our annual passes at the discounted rate, at the date of first use, that if they do not offer it this time I am going to forget it. I found someone in customer service who agreed to renew them, and he left information in the computer to this fact, and then I still had to fight to get the discount once we were in WDW to renew. And to make matters worse, they have moved the WDAC to Calif for next year, so we will only get two uses out of them. So now I am thinking it might not be worth it do do anyway.
James, I really hope you are right and don't find out the hard way that they renew the day after your old ones expire.
James, I really hope you are right and don't find out the hard way that they renew the day after your old ones expire.
Maria
New Member
If I understood correctly, he didn´t renew his pass, he bought a new one, so it sounds logic to me that it won´t start until he uses it for the first time.
I just have one question: by renewing your passes each year, do u get some kind of "seniority" and some priorities? I have a friend who once told me they always renewed their passes --even when she was working at WDW and had the free entrance with her ID--, because otherwise they would loose the price they have got for renewing every year. Did I make sense?
MrPromey
Well-Known Member
Nope, you don't get squat when you renew. There is something with a pin and lanyard but you can get that with a new AP, too. They still have me in the system from the early 90's (I guess the beginning of the current system because I had passes long before then) back when I only had a seasonal pass.
Originally posted by Maria
If I understood correctly, he didn´t renew his pass, he bought a new one, so it sounds logic to me that it won´t start until he uses it for the first time.
I just have one question: by renewing your passes each year, do u get some kind of "seniority" and some priorities? I have a friend who once told me they always renewed their passes --even when she was working at WDW and had the free entrance with her ID--, because otherwise they would loose the price they have got for renewing every year. Did I make sense?
Maria, I think at one time, annual passes could be renewed at the previous year's price. My in-laws, who live about 15 miles from WDW, used to be able to do that back in the 80s...they were renewing theirs for around $100/year even though the "new" rates were around $200. I don't know if this is still the case...certainly, it's no longer true for seasonal passes! When it was the policy to grandfather people in at the old price, it would make sense to always renew your pass, so you could "lock-in" the rate indefinitely.
mickeyfan
New Member
My brother's in-laws left today for DW and are taking his two kids with them (lucky guy -- peace and quiet for a few days!!). Anyways, at their Disney Store his mom and pop-in-law bought Florida Resident Season Passes, each received a T-shirt and a $50.00 gift certificate which they then allowed them to use towards the purchase of their granddaughters season pass (his son is under 3 so he didn't need a pass this time). I thought that was an excellent deal. They purchased these last week, but I know there was a certain date you had to do this by and sorry I can't remember it!!
MrPromey
Well-Known Member
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying it is. I realize that most people pay that to spend a week in the parks. I'm just saying that $200 was a lot nicer
... I mean, there is a lot more to do than there was when they were $100 cheaper, I'm just thinking back to the old times. You know, when you could see a movie for a dime and get your popcorn for a nickel; back when a dollar could keep a kid in candy for almost a month. Ah the good old days, the mild delivered fresh to your door every morning! Oh how I miss those days gone by!.. Then again, there was that walking two miles up hill in the snow to school 
Scooter
Well-Known Member
Just to confuse everyone a little bit more, I'm going to add this... .
It's NOT true that you don't get squat if you renew your annual pass. There are some discounts for annual passholders...and also:
Every year the price of the annual passes increases. That is to say, if you buy a NEW Annual pass you pay a higher price BUT, those who RENEW their annual pass get theirs at a cheaper rate.
OK now...is everyone TOTTALLY confused now? I know I am. :hammer:
It's NOT true that you don't get squat if you renew your annual pass. There are some discounts for annual passholders...and also:
Every year the price of the annual passes increases. That is to say, if you buy a NEW Annual pass you pay a higher price BUT, those who RENEW their annual pass get theirs at a cheaper rate.
OK now...is everyone TOTTALLY confused now? I know I am. :hammer:
Originally posted by MrPromey
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying it is. I realize that most people pay that to spend a week in the parks. I'm just saying that $200 was a lot nicer
Now don't exaggerate! It was only a mile, mile & 1/2, tops!!
MrPromey
Well-Known Member
As far as what you get with the AP, the question was in regards to a renewal and there isn't any kind of seniority or special thing you get because you choose to renew. It's also worth mentioning that the renewal price goes up every year as well, it's normally a $20-$30 discount over a new one. That comes to about 10% but with the renewal pass starting the day after the old one expires, that value gets cut, too. If your someone like say, Steve, who can't get over here every other day and you choose to renew and it takes you more than a month or so, it's actually costing you more in lost time on the pass than you would be saving. To put this more clearly, it used to be that when your pass expired, you had up to 30 days to buy a renewal voucher. This was an opportunity to renew your pass by mail. they would send you a ticket and the next time you went back you would take that ticket up to the window and they would give you a pass that was good for a year from the day of first use. Now, when you do that, and go back, that ticket is good from the day after the last one expired. This means that if you order your voucher ticket through the mail and don't get it till say, a week after the old one expires, and then go to the park, you've already lost a week off the new ticket. I guess this is why they encourage you to renew two months before your current pass expires. If they were going to do it this way, one would think that they could credit your current ticket with the additional time but they don't do it that way. I know this is probably not helping with the confusion at all but this policy that's been in effect for a little over a year now has made a lot of AP holders angry. In light of this policy change, there is next to no incentive for most AP holders (especially those that don't go every weekend) to renew at all. In fact, most are better off if they do just go out and buy new tickets... And like that one person pointed out at the beginning with the offer from the Disney Store, you could go out and buy a new ticket, get a $50 gift certificate worth more than the discount offered for renewing and start the use of that new ticket at any date you chose...
Scooter
Well-Known Member
Seems to me, if you go to WDW at least twice in one year, and visit all the parks, you save money. THAT's the incentive to renew annual passes. The more often you go, the more money you save. SO if you are a Disney freak like my wife and I, you find a way to go between the dates renewed and the expiration date. It's just that simple. If you can't go enough during these times, then don't get an annual pass. My wife and I like to go in the off seasons, so we bought our first annual pass and went in October, then we went again in April, renewed our annual pass in September, then went in September and again the folllowing May. As long as you can go between the dates of the pass, there is no problem and we always find a way to do that.