Annual Pass Worth It?

[xlauren13x]

So I already have 2 trips planned to Disney World for next year and was wondering if it would be a better deal to get an annual pass than buying tickets for each visit or just buy tickets? Any advice would be a great help

 

[labdogs42]

I think they are worth it if you'll be in the parks >10 days and you like to hop. We have AP's this year because we did a week in February and are headed back for a week starting Saturday! You get some nice discounts with the AP sometimes, too. Oh yeah, and you get Memory Maker which makes it a bargain for me, since I buy it every time! That's $340 right there. Touring PLans does the math for you here: http://blog.touringplans.com/2015/10/08/breakeven-wdw-annual-passes/

 

[xlauren13x]

I think they are worth it if you'll be in the parks >10 days and you like to hop. We have AP's this year because we did a week in February and are headed back for a week starting Saturday! You get some nice discounts with the AP sometimes, too. Oh yeah, and you get Memory Maker which makes it a bargain for me, since I buy it every time! That's $340 right there. Touring PLans does the math for you here: http://blog.touringplans.com/2015/10/08/breakeven-wdw-annual-passes/

Thank you! As of right now we are going for a weekend in April and then a week next November, but I will probably go at least one or two more times between those two

 

[GADisneyDad14]

So I already have 2 trips planned to Disney World for next year and was wondering if it would be a better deal to get an annual pass than buying tickets for each visit or just buy tickets? Any advice would be a great help

We'd need to know your total number of park days to provide a better opinion.

But even without knowing that, my little bit of advice is to watch out because APs are addicting! The darn thing burns a whole right through my pocket. Once we got ours, we found it was a convenient 'excuse' to plan more trips throughout the year. Anything I thought I'd save on park tickets has been totally evaporated by increased trip frequency. But I'm not complaining... loving every minute of it.

 

[xlauren13x]

We'd need to know your total number of park days to provide a better opinion.

But even without knowing that, my little bit of advice is to watch out because APs are addicting! The darn thing burns a whole right through my pocket. Once we got ours, we found it was a convenient 'excuse' to plan more trips throughout the year. Anything I thought I'd save on park tickets has been totally evaporated by increased trip frequency. But I'm not complaining... loving every minute of it.

As of right now it will be 9 days

 

[izzylovesmickey]

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[izzylovesmickey]

We'd need to know your total number of park days to provide a better opinion.

But even without knowing that, my little bit of advice is to watch out because APs are addicting! The darn thing burns a whole right through my pocket. Once we got ours, we found it was a convenient 'excuse' to plan more trips throughout the year. Anything I thought I'd save on park tickets has been totally evaporated by increased trip frequency. But I'm not complaining... loving every minute of it.

This x 100! Also, you will start checking neighboring airports for inexpensive flights, rental car rates, etc, etc, etc....

 

[HopperFan]

But even without knowing that, my little bit of advice is to watch out because APs are addicting! The darn thing burns a whole right through my pocket. Once we got ours, we found it was a convenient 'excuse' to plan more trips throughout the year. Anything I thought I'd save on park tickets has been totally evaporated by increased trip frequency. But I'm not complaining... loving every minute of it.

As of right now it will be 9 days

Now price out the tickets individually for the trips since there is no expire to see if just on tickets what your breakeven is.

Will you stay on property? If so look at historical discounts for room with AP. If staying off property you can calculate daily parking fees savings now that they would be free to you.

We don't know yet but if they extend the great dining discount, that helps as does the 20% off shopping.

 

[North of Mouse]

So I already have 2 trips planned to Disney World for next year and was wondering if it would be a better deal to get an annual pass than buying tickets for each visit or just buy tickets? Any advice would be a great help

We usually plan at least 3, 8-10 night trips, preferably three, to justify AP's. Yes, I know people will tell you less than that will be break even, but we don't just want to 'break even' LOL. We love to PH, but on long trips without an AP, we do not go in the parks every day as we tend to want to stay the whole day, and wear out without breaks.
With the AP (usually three 10night trips) we tend to leave the parks for breaks, but go in every day. Just our way of justifying all that money upfront!!

Before they stopped the non expiring tickets, we'd get a 10 day water parks & PH ticket and it would last 2-3 trips.

We tend to get AP's, then skip a year or two before getting them again.

@HopperFan, thought the 45th year AP Dining discount was through Dec????

 

[jpeterson]

thought the 45th year AP Dining discount was through Dec????

It was just until the end of September but it's been extended a few months. No word on whether it will be extended further.

 

[GADisneyDad14]

The 20% dining discount is currently in effect through 12/23/2017.

 

[Klayfish]

With an annual pass you may find yourself making extra trips. That's what happened to us. The first time we bought annual passes, it was sort of on a whim. We had purchased 10 day passes for a two week trip.... we bought the water park option so we had enough things to do. We were floating down the lazy river at TL and just talking (it was July 4th week). We were just daydreaming about Christmas at Disney. So we started doing the math and just said "Let's go for it". So we converted our tickets to passes. Well... now that we had passes, like NorthOfMouse said, we didn't want to just break even. We wanted to use them as much as possible. So we wound up spending exactly 50 days in the parks during the 12 months. Yes, we had the extra expenses of renting a house (we only stay off site), food, etc etc... but it still worked out for us since we had already paid for the passes. We're doing the same thing in '17-'18. Bought passes this summer, heading back this Saturday, and a goal of 53 days total.

I realize we're very lucky to be able to do trips as often as we do (which will end after next summer) but my point is that you may find yourself making extra plans just because you already have the passes.

 

[zebrastreyepz]

I also recommend looking at a free app called Mouse Perks that will show you all the discounts with an AP.

 

[bashuck]

Number of stays is a bigger factor than number of park days. 10 consecutive days on one long trip is far less than park tickets for three 3 day trips despite being an additional day. We always hop so value that and place some value in the photos but nowhere near what the cost of the photos will be. We ensure we get 3 trip for a total of approx 20 days in a 12 month period, then take 6 months off and repeat. Great value in that case.

 

[BigredNole]

If you are going more than I think 10 days, yes. You get free MM, discounts at places, free parking.

 

[jlundeen]

The 20% dining discount is currently in effect through 12/23/2017.

I'm due to renew my AP end of December, and have a trip planned for March....I love having the AP, especially for the merch discounts!! (Of course, the PH is my first reason, but love to be able to save money on those "have to have" impulse buys!) I'm wondering if I need to get the TIW card or not.... Currently I have a DDP for our March trip, but I know that I could save more money with the TIW card...but the current AP has some pretty nice dining discounts...

Do you suppose that they will go right up until 12/23 before announcing anything about AP dining discounts? (IF they keep them.... )

 

[GADisneyDad14]

I'm due to renew my AP end of December, and have a trip planned for March....I love having the AP, especially for the merch discounts!! (Of course, the PH is my first reason, but love to be able to save money on those "have to have" impulse buys!) I'm wondering if I need to get the TIW card or not.... Currently I have a DDP for our March trip, but I know that I could save more money with the TIW card...but the current AP has some pretty nice dining discounts...

Do you suppose that they will go right up until 12/23 before announcing anything about AP dining discounts? (IF they keep them.... )

My guess is the dining discounts go away... but that is totally just a guess! I could be way wrong!

 

[PSUGuy]

We hit Food&Wine every year for 9 - 10 park days. This year we bought 9 day hoppers from UT to book FP+ 60 days out, upgraded them to Platinum APs the first day, tomorrow our DVC gal will book 9 days in Oct 2018, tickets already covered. That alone makes APs worth it. On top of that we made several purchases for some in our party of 11 at a 20% discount and all made use of PhotoPass, a great feature included in APs but something we would never pay extra for.

Bill From PA

 

[allsaintsatx]

There’s also AP resort room discounts. Our room for early spring it’s 35% off with our AP. Also, there seems to be more availability than general room discounts. And it’s the same rooms, they just don’t seem to sell out as fast. Another weird/cool thing with the room discounts, sometimes it will show available rooms, with no discount, that are the very least available! For instance, we wanted to add a day on to our trip to the wilderness Lodge in December. Of course, it was completely sold out. But, we were able to add a day using an annual pass discount where in the room was not discounted Pricewise at all but it was available only through the discount page. So we paid rack rate, but we were able to get it! And that was only through the annual pass offer. We’ve only had annual passports since August, and are finding many perks similar to that one that definitely add up over time and make the money spent seem totally worth it! And this has nothing to do with saving money, but other cool perks are passholder only T-shirts during parties and festivals, as well as pins and other assorted goodies. Just adds an extra layer of special!

 

[jcvalenti]

AP does have other benefits to factor in - merchandise discounts, free parking (if you're driving a car and not staying on property), room discounts, memory maker. Usually you only need one card per party to take advantage of those. But overall, the rule has always been (and still is) if going 10 days in one calendar year, AP is worth it. Problem is, when we get APs, we usually stay way longer (or make more trips), because we want to get "value". One year we made three trips for 32 days - our record (we live in Michigan ... I'm sure if we were within driving distance, we'd have been there even more).