Anyone found the AP to be NOT worth getting for the Hotel Discount?

[DisDarling]

We are staying at ASMovies in mid-May for 10 days. We couldnt get the AP rate, but it wouldnt have saved us that much anyways. We would have to buy the AP which would cost about $150 over the 10 day MYW Hopper we are getting ( only I would have bought it) and then we would have saved only x amount. My daughters WANT to stay at the AS Movies, so its not about upgrading. Anyone else run into this?
D.D.

 

[areno79]

I wouldn't have saved any $$, since I'd have to get the PAP. (We're currently getting Premium MYW tickets). Plus, we're staying 7 nights, and have the AAA discount currently. As long as I'm not paying rack rate I'm happy

 

[Luv2Roam]

I think before MYW tickets, owning an AP was better for most staying any length of time.
I don't think that is the case now, unless guests plan to return more within a year.
The DDE card also factors in whether that may save $.
It all depends on the total number of days visited throughout the year.

One way Disney might have hurt themselves (I think) is having such a $ gap between passes and APs.
How many times have we read here, and experienced for ourselves, that once guests have APs, they squeeze in more return visits? MAny peple buy an AP to save, and then that AP burned a hole in their pocket, giving an excuse to get in as many trips as possible.

 

[debbiedoo]

I own at SSR and the AP is to most DVC members advantage. especially with the DDE card now

 

[Gillian]

We are stuggling with this right now. We were not able to get the AAA discount for our first several choices of resorts, and were planning to get an AP or 2 or 3 if we could get the discount. But now we have to cut short our trip by 5 days and DH wants to get 10 day MYW tix with no expiration. We are going back next year, but we'd like to go about 13 months later.

So even though we would save money by getting the AP rate, even with the add'l cost of an AP, because we could reuse our MYW tix next year, and could NOT reuse the AP, it's not quite worth it.

I think DH is afraid (rightly so!) that if we have APs I'll try to drag him back sooner.

We want to stay at a moderate, and will probably end up paying rack rate. I know once we're there I won't mind, but right now I'm a little disappointed.

 

[brooke1]

DIS DARING:
I also did the math, and came out exactly even.

7 nights a Pop

99.00 x7=693
74.00x7=518

difference 175.00

the 175.00 is the difference between AP ticket vs reg. tickets pop hopping ticket.

Now if you are staying at a Deluxe its worth it.
But I wont be going until Oct, so we will se what happens
Brooke

 

[Gillian]

How many times have we read here, and experienced for ourselves, that once guests have APs, they squeeze in more return visits? MAny peple buy an AP to save, and then that AP burned a hole in their pocket, giving an excuse to get in as many trips as possible.

Planning as many trips as possible is a great way to justify the expense of an AP! The discounts are just an extra bonus. Sadly, we don't have time or money to go more than once this year, unless we skip our cruise in December.

 

[A Mickeyfan]

Disney hasn't made the AP to save people money with it's discounts, it made it to have them go often & spend more. You are purchasing a theme park pass when getting the pass, you aren't purchasing a discount card. Many guests have come to think of the AP as a discount card. The discounts are an extra perk that you can't base your decision on when purchasing the pass. The Disney Company can take away these perks at any time... just think of them as the extra perk they were meant to be, not the discount that some expect & get mad when they don't come... I am not saying anyone in particular does that... I am quilty of it myself at times, I get annoyed when I can't get the AP discount on the room... but then I have to remember, I didn't buy my pass for the discount, I bought it to get me into the parks

 

[disney1990]

Somebody said that it comes out the same -- I didn't do the math, so I will take their word on that. However, do you know that the AP also gives you a 10% at sit down restaurants at Epcot. It also gives you a 10% discount at the World of Disney. We always try to wait and buy our "presents" for others and ourselves on our last day and get as much of that as possible at the World of Disney. Add that to the resort savings -- even at All Stars -- and the one AP pays for itself pretty quickly.

 

[MagicKingdom05]

Luv2Roam,

I agree. I feel lucky that I got discounted room rate for both my Feb and May trips.

 

[candleonwater]

I was always scared away from the AP's because of the data on the "break-even"... however I took a look at it this time, and it was able to save me $400 on my room... and considering the pass isn't much more than $400.... I thought it was PRETTY worthwhile to get this time around. Of course, it works exactly as they plan... I'm already trying to figure out which weekends I'm free to fly down for a long weekend...

 

[Selket]

I believe with the current round of AP codes the discounts were a flat $100 off a deluxe, $40 off a mod and $10 off a value - something like that. If you are staying in a deluxe or want to upgrade to a deluxe it can be worth it if your stay is long enough. We moved up from POFQ to the CR for 8 nights and we're not paying much more for our room there than rack at POFQ. My CR rate is $194 including tax per night.

 

[Liz]

I tried and tried to justify getting an AP, mainly because I wanted that DDE card! But we are staying at a value resort and no matter how many times I crunched the numbers it would cost us about $85 more to go with the AP/DDE than staying with what we have now.

 

[maggiew]

We purchased an AP so that we could go twice in one year's time. We went the week after Thanksgiving the first year, then the week of Thanksgiving the next year (one week before our APs expired). If you are able to do this, it is worth getting the AP. We basically still did one trip per year, but were able to use the AP for both. Any resort savings you get on top of it is just extra. Plus, we did save a little money on things at World of Disney (and Basin!) and at restaurants at EPCOT.

Maggie

 

[thinkerbell]

We are staying 8 nights at POR so it saves us $400-- almost enough to cover the ticket. It actually ends up saving us about $200 overall.

What is a DDE?

 

[beth_cam]

We are really debating the issue. We were going to All Star movies. But had been considering putting out the extra for CSR or CBR so I called the other day and found out i could get those at 109. Yet that still costs me an extra 10 per night (total 70) plus the added cost of the ap (about 200) plus taxes. Then factor in that there will be a frige that we might have paid anyway we are back to the extra 200. Still I just didnt know if it was worth it since i Think the kids will really enjoy the movies resort. However when they said they still had AKL for 139....totalling an extra 400+. But still it's AKL....I booked it calling back today to add a room for my parents (who will share in the extra 200 for the nights they stay anyw) well....still debating and debating I really dont want to spend the extra money BUT AKL. Dont know what we will end up with. (Adding my parents too since I hadnt bought the ap yet I had them Check My parents names for and discounts/codes/pins linked to them but NOTTA) I think they may be getting sick of hearing from me...call to reserve character dining, call to change it, call to reserve hotel, call to change, call to add parents room.. lol ...Help!!!! I'm driving my husband insane.

 

[Liz]

What is a DDE?

Here's a link that will explain DDE.
http://www.allearsnet.com/din/dde.htm

 

[beth_cam]

Gillian
Why not one ap pass for the discount and 10 days for the rest of the family then you just buy one new ticket the next time.

 

[Gillian]

Gillian
Why not one ap pass for the discount and 10 days for the rest of the family then you just buy one new ticket the next time.

Thanks for the suggestion! We thought about it, but because the AP holder would need another ticket for our 2006 trip, and we are only staying in a moderate this year for 5 days (~220 savings) it doesn't work out in our favor. We will porobaly go for 5-6 days next year and a 5 day pass is more than that.

Of course, if we find ourselves in a similar situation next year, with no AAA or general public discount, it might be worth it. But we would still need to buy another Annual pass to get an AP discount.

We've tried to think of everything. It's just confusing with the new ticket options!

 

[llij]

When I did the math last summer, our AP's were cheaper for us than getting a length of stay pass at the time. Of course, since we've gotten AP's we have now scheduled 4 more trips to the World.

I keep emphasizing to my DH all the money we have saved thus far with room discounts, WoD discounts, and the DDE card. He is wondering how I snookered him into getting the AP's because at the end of the day, we've spent a lot more money at Disney than we ever initially planned. I'm loving it, but alas this is the last year for us to have an AP.