Calling all Annual Passholders: Any regrets?

[sharadoc]

None here either. We too have let ours expire until our next trip, then we'll get 3 10 day trips out of it.

Love TIW, love the shopping discounts, love the fact that we don't need to worry about whether or not to hop, or to go to a park on arrival or departure day for an hour or two. Love the room discount especially.

OP, in your case, only two trips and 7 days may not make it worth it to you. But if you do the additional trips that you're considering, then go for it!

Good luck!

 

[cheergirll]

not at all! we live two hours away and we have been over fours times, not including about three day trips. we absolutely love them!

 

[GeneralTso]

We live in Seattle and even we have no regrets!
One of the kids lived in Orlando over the past year, so we went twice. It saved money and worked out well. He's moved now, so we won't be going to WDW for at least a year or two. We are AP holders at Disneyland and go down there 2-4 times/year so that's always worth it to us.

 

[toddlermickey]

We just got back for a 12 day trip which we bought annual passes for
DH and I. We are going again in March then again before the passes are up.

Total worth it.

Sylvia in MN

 

[stitch34]

NO regrets here... we get them and take 2-3 long trips each year.

But, do some math and see if worth it for you. You said a 3-day and 4-day trip you'd be doing, two of you?

Maybe add no expiration? 2 adults no expiration 7 days is $854... $964 if you do park hopper............... versus 2 annual passes would be $1038. All of these numbers are before tax.

As for resort discounts.. they are nice, but not that great lately I don't think. I find can do just as well with either bounceback, general public offer or pin code. The only reason I like booking the AP rate is the ability to add the dining plan without having to buy park tickets to make it a "package".

 

[fla4fun]

No regrets here either, but I agree you have to do the math. And you should do the math with only admission (and parking, if you drive to the parks) - not counting on room or merchandise discounts.

Perks for the AP can be added or taken away at any point, at Disney's discretion. So just because there is an AP discount available for January, doesn't mean there will be one for March, or May, or October. Just because there is a merchandise discount now, doesn't mean it will still be there three months from now. Trying to use these to justify the cost of your AP can cause some disappointment. There have been threads where people complained about room discounts either not being offered, or not being good enough, to cover their AP cost. That's not what the AP is about.

If you are planning on spending at least 10 days or more visiting the theme parks per year, then the AP is a good deal. If you take two trips, but they're only 3-4 days each, then the AP is not such a good deal. Do the math based on your travel patterns to see what works out best for you. Then if any of the other perks come your way, they are icing on the cake!

 

[glammadiva]

No regrets at all!! I live 4 hrs away and have trips booked in Nov, Dec and planning Jan trip! My discount at BC on the room and dine discount is pretty sweet. I have saved probably around $1,000 this year thanks to my AP!

 

[Jo*Mama]

I wouldn't call it exactly "regret" but I do think we should have bought 10-day non-expire tickets instead. We had two trips planned so I got 4 APs and since then we've crammed in 2 more trips that I felt like we "had to" take to get our money's worth from the APs. Next time we'll get the 10day Non expire and spread out the trip dates a little more, also only use 2-3 Disney days per trip, and plan days to enjoy the resort or Universal/SeaWorld.

Regarding the AP room discount, the times we've used it this year was 40% off for a deluxe. They also had a general public discount for 35% off a room-only rez, so the AP rate wasn't drastically better than what you could get without the APs. Don't know if this is the case always though.

 

[PIRATEGIRL007]

Wanted to add that no, we haven't had any regrets. Like a PP having annual passes seems to "make" us go to Disney a lot though. What we have started doing is alternating years for APs.

For example buying APs in May of 2010 and going multiple times through to the following May of 2011. Then not going again until May of 2012 when we get annual passes again and travel a lot until May of 2013.

We do this with our AP's too except with September. We get free dining in Sept (works out best for us in mods and values) then we upgrade those tix to AP's and use them a few more times. In 09-10 we did 4 trips, took 380 days off and just renewed our AP's back on 9/23. We came home on 10/3 and within days I was itcin' to go back. If DH gives me the all clear I will be booking by tomorrow to go back Thanksgiving weekend, keeping my fingers crossed that he says yes.

He is also threatening to hide my AP from me so I'll quit check rates online, he just doesn't know I have the numbers memorized by now and saved on my disney account.

We are not local, we live in Tennessee. 11-12 hour drive, about 1 1/2 hour flight.

 

[AmberHeartsDisney]

AP are very costly (meaning they made us take 4 trips this year) plus we always stay on site too. Luckily we signed up for the South West card a few months ago and got 50,000 points so air fare is free!

 

[suemom2kay]

Don't regret it at all. We go every 11 months and 3 weeks to get 2 uses out of our passes.

If my DD ever quits competitive gymnastics (please God!) we will go more often (maybe every 6-7 months). One can dream!

 

[basketlacey]

We have been going once a year for the past 3 years. I just learned that we might be doing a quick trip in January. If I take that trip and then move up our normal fall trip, I can get 3 trips out of one year. I am contemplating APs but I am not sure it will be worth it. We have been going with FD discounts and for my family of 5, those are pretty hard to beat.

 

[basketlacey]

Deleted - duplicate message

 

[robinb]

Your AP will burn a hole in your pocket.

I'm looking at pricing for you ... a 7-day non-expiry Park Hopper is $513.00. An AP is $552. If you know you will be going a third time between Feb and Dec it's a no-brainer. If you wanted to do a super-budget trip and stay offsite, your AP also includes free parking. If you are not planning to return, then I'm not sure that the AP discounts are worth the extra $80.

Would your 16-year old be interested in the YES Program? There are some really great prices on park passes when a child attends one of the educational programs. Depending on your dates, you could do both trips for just over $300 each in park tickets. More info can be found here: http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=41306554&postcount=2741 , here: http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2332767 and here: http://www.disneyyouth.com/individual-enrollment/catalog/?location[]=WDW&filter=startDate

 

[MickeyMinnieMom]

No regrets here! Benefits for us...

- first, we're DVC members so we get discounted APs

- we go once a year, and schedule 2 10-night trips just within a year of one another and thus use the APs twice (actually a total of 22 days park access)

- we get the discounted TIW card and 20% off most of our ADRs

- we get up to 20% off the loot we come home with

Works out very well for us!

 

[robinb]

We have been going once a year for the past 3 years. I just learned that we might be doing a quick trip in January. If I take that trip and then move up our normal fall trip, I can get 3 trips out of one year. I am contemplating APs but I am not sure it will be worth it. We have been going with FD discounts and for my family of 5, those are pretty hard to beat.

You can upgrade your ticket from FD to an AP while you are there. We even got FD in August, used our AP's as passes and then used the Aug FD passes towards our AP renewal when we were back in December. You can also run the numbers and see if it might still be worthwhile for you to get FD twice a year, upgrade to the AP on the first trip and then buy a 2-day basic pass for the second trip v/s two trips with 2 7-day passes. The passes never expire as long as you don't use your KTTW in the turnstile.

Back of the envelope calculation:

Two FD Trips with 7-day PH's:
2 7-day expiry PH - $343 x 2 = $686

1 AP, upgraded from 7-day expiry PH plus 2-day basic pass for 2nd FD:
Annual Pass - $552
2-Day Basic Pass - $179
Total - $731

So, it's about $50 more to upgrade to an AP. BUT ... you would have the 2-day basic pass to use at an=other time. That pass can be upgraded at any time too. Since you will be onside and have FD you will miss out of the biggest benefit of the AP which is restaurant discounts and free parking. Again, if you think you may do a 3rd non FD trip (maybe staying offsite in a roomy condo) you would do better with the AP.

 

[ZehnJahren]

Don't regret it, and I've only gone on one four-night trip on it so far.

For me, the benefit was in the AP rate on the room. I don't eat much, so FD isn't a great deal for me (unless I'm with DBF, and then it's a good deal). I actually saved the entire cost of my AP on only two nights at the Contemporary; so my mom and I got a great great room (and a dream fulfilled ) and my AP was basically "paid for" by the room discount. And now, I'm looking at taking a couple of three-night trips over the winter to escape the snow - the AP room discount makes it possible, where it wasn't before. Also, the AP discount on merchandise did save us some money; not a ton, but it was nice to have.

Also, had I bought an AP last year when we went, I would have been able to go on this trip as well while still on the AP - you just never know when you could use it. There are sudden cheap flights; so if you can get a cheap hotel room you very well could be in Disney at any time!

I can't wait to visit more this year!

 

[Dan Murphy]

I'm considering purchasing annual passes for me and my DD16 since we have a 4 day trip in Dec and a 3 day trip in Jan planned. Just wondering if there are any discounts ever offered that would make the purchase worth it? We may even consider another trip in April and a couple during the summer if we could get a decent discount on the resort.

http://allears.net/pl/apass.htm#bene2011

 

[Cheshire Figment]

The major problem with Annual Passes concerns when they are in a drawer more than 100 miles from Disney World and they whine a lot and scream:

Use Me!

 

[lakelandgal70]

No regrets for us. Live close by to go everyday if I wanted. Life is good lol