Renew child AP v. buy new adult AP...

[janets]

our son will be 10 in February. Our APs expire in early November. We will not be back until mid March after he ages out of a child pass.

I am trying to figure whether it's a better buy to renew at a child's rate, even though we won't use it until March, or let it lapse and buy new in March, even at the adult rate.

Using some help provided here, I have the following:

Renew at child rate w/ DVC discount: $283 (w/o tax)
Buy new at adult rate w/ DVC discount: $334 (w/o tax)
Difference between renewal and new: $51
Cost per day at renewal rate: $.775 per day
Number of days until next use: 131
Wasted cost of renewing: $101

Seems to me that I'm better off waiting to buy him a new one, considering it's going to be over 4 months between renewal and next use.

Do my calculations seem right?

 

[ChelleinNC]

I guess I have more questions for you rather than answers, but here are my thoughts.
1. When (besides March) do you think you'll be going again? Another trip before November?
2. How many other people are you buying the passes for and have you considered the increased cost of buying new instead of renewing, for all of them?

Our passes expire in August and we've decided to wait until December to get new for our next trip to maximize use.

 

[3DisneyKids]

When you renew, does the new pass automatically "activate" the day after the old one expires...or do you get a voucher that will begin when you start your next trip?

 

[janets]

When you renew your pass, it continues from the date of expiration of the old one...so our tickets were purchased on November 5, 2006, renewed on November 5, 2006 and will expire if not renewed on November 5, 2007.

We need to renew or purchase 3 other tickets...me, dh and ds (who is 5). But I think that either way, there are going to be too many days between the renewal and the next trip that the cost of those lost days will be more than the difference between the new and renewal.

We plan on going 2 days in March 2008, then in August 2008 and again in November 2008. There is a chance we will go again in February 2009 as well so we'll get good use out of new passes.

The difference between a kids new and a kids renewal is only $35 (and the difference in adults is only $15), so that savings is more than eaten up when you consider that we won't be using them for over 4 months of the renewal period.

So I think that even with my older son aging out of the kids ticket, we still do better to wait and get new ones when we go in March (although I'll purchase the vouchers earlier in case there looks like there could be a price increase again).