Canadians with WDW Annual Pass, should I take the refund or extension?

MaMudduck

Disney Princess Forever
Joined
Oct 14, 2002
Background : In Feb.2020 I upgraded a 6 day ticket to an annual pass. I usually buy an annual pass and use it for 3 trips (this year Feb, Nov, Jan2021) then I let it expire and and wait another 18 months to go to WDW and then pay for new AP (and start the cycle again), so with all the "new world stuff happening" now I'm not sure what I should do?

Originally I was just going to take the extension but with the travel restrictions crossing the border and Covid 19 , makes me wonder if the November trip will be scraped. and if I do go next Jan.2021 I don't think even with the extension it will give me enough time to do a 3rd trip.

Can you all let me know what you are going do? Are you taking the extension or refund? and why? Would you be going in November?
TIA
 
Just want you to realize that the refund is only for the period of time the parks are officially closed (since March 16), it is not a refund on the unused portion of your Annual Pass.
We are in a similar situation in that we upgraded our Air Miles WDW tickets to Annual Passes in November 2019 and had 3 trips planned in 2020 in March, August and November, getting 4 trips out of our annual passes, however we have cancelled all our trips in 2020 because of all the uncertainty and the fact that the August and November trips also included a Disney Cruise. With the current administration's push to reopen the USA without any regard for people's health, I have no confidence, even if the border is reopened that we will want to visit WDW until at least mid 2021. I am hoping that if the parks reopen and our border is still officially closed (heard rumours of it being closed until the end of summer), that WDW will include this period for a refund but that will be up to Disney. I am waiting to see how long the parks are closed before I decide if I want the refund or extension but I am leaning towards refund and using that amount towards our next AP.
 
I upgraded an Airmiles 5dayPH DL ticket to a Flex AP in August 2019. I was not really planning to go again and I only paid $229USD out of pocket for the AP. The refund, if pro-rated based on days closed, if DL opened July 1st, would be ~ $170USD (assuming that’s how it’s calculated). Considering I’ve saved $42USD in AP discount and gone to DL for 15 days... I’m at about $1/day for my AP this year 😂 I’ll definitely take the refund lol I can totally put that money towards my next AP whenever it’s a bit safer to travel.
 
I did understand it was pro rated , but does that mean you would still have the original expiration date? In other words, if I take the refund vs. extension will my pass still expire in Feb 2021?
I know we’re all speculating and kinda have to wait and see what Disney’s going do?
I hope “the rumour” of border closure happens and if Disney adds that into the extension, that may make a difference in my decision. 🤔
or even better just have my AP expire Feb 2022! That’s wishful thinking!
 
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I did understand it was pro rated , but does that mean you would still have the original expiration date? In other words, if I take the refund vs. extension will my pass still expire in Feb 2021?
I know we’re all speculating and kinda have to wait and see what Disney’s going do?
I hope “the rumour” of border closure happens and if Disney adds that into the extension, that may make a difference in my decision. 🤔
or even better just have my AP expire Feb 2022! That’s wishful thinking!

My understanding from what has been posted with respect to the AP, if you opt for a refund, you will get a prorated refund for the # of days that WDW is closed and your AP would expire on the original expiration date. If you opt for the extension, your new expiration date will be your original date + the # of days WDW is closed.
 
Well, let's do the math:

They closed March 16th. If they open on July 1st (like currently predicted) then that's 107 days. If they open that day, you'll get back 107/366, or about 29% of the cost of your AP. With the refund, your expiration stays the same in Feb 2021.

If you take the extension instead, you don't get any money back, and your AP extension gets pushed out those 107 days. You didn't specify the exact day you started your Feb trip, so, if we take Feb 1st, then that would push your AP out to expire on May 19th, 2021. If you started on Feb 28th, then that pushes it out to June 15th, 2021.

If you think you're going to want to get another trip in March, April or May (or maybe early June if your AP was late Feb) of 2021, then take the extension.

If you don't think you're going back during that time, take the refund.
 
Maybe the title could be altered that this is for WDW and not Universal?
 


Well, let's do the math:

They closed March 16th. If they open on July 1st (like currently predicted) then that's 107 days. If they open that day, you'll get back 107/366, or about 29% of the cost of your AP. With the refund, your expiration stays the same in Feb 2021.

thanks for that! If I can’t go in November as planned then the extension until June is almost pointless to me. (February 2/21 is expiry date) but if it’s extended for “border closure” or out of country issues: which I know is totally speculative, then it might be better. At this point I’m really hesitated to even book Nov. (no vaccine, the crowds will probably be higher than usual for the time I go😣).
 
thanks for that! If I can’t go in November as planned then the extension until June is almost pointless to me. (February 2/21 is expiry date) but if it’s extended for “border closure” or out of country issues: which I know is totally speculative, then it might be better. At this point I’m really hesitated to even book Nov. (no vaccine, the crowds will probably be higher than usual for the time I go😣).
I don't really understand this point? I would have thought the exact opposite, that if you couldn't go in November, you'd welcome the chance at an extra trip by taking the extension. If you already know you can't go between Feb 2/21 and June, then what difference does it make whether you go in November or not?
 
In order to get value from my AP, I need 3 trips from it.
But yes I hear you loud and clear, it doesn’t make sense that I wouldn’t welcome the extension if I can’t go in November,( I definitely prefer to go in the fall vs Spring) but I was seeing it more as I’ve lost a full year (by not getting to go in Nov) vs getting a 1/3 refund. Hope that makes sense. If I can go safely in January then I might feel differently about the extension/ refund but I am feeling discouraged about this right now : like I’ve paid $1200 for 7 days use.
so yes as original posted I was happy enough for the extension and would probably take advantage of it, but now I feel sad, that we all are in this crappy situation. 😞
 
Actually, with your situation, you'll probably be one of the few that might benefit out of all of this, since you didn't directly have a trip impacted by the closures. I know when I was running the numbers for an AP, it worked out to only 2 trips within a year that made an AP worth it, if you factor Memory Maker into the numbers. For my calculations, an AP was 1272.68, and a 6 day PH ticket, at the cheapest rates I could find in 2020, was 568.32. Memory Maker, which we always get, is 169.00. 1272.68-568.32-169.00= 535.36 remaining. If you take the example I used above of being based on 107 days closed, that means you'd get 372.07 back of that 1272.68. So, if you look at the remaining 535.36 and subtract the refund of 372.07, means, you'd still need 163.29 worth of value. Now, remember that the Memory Maker was worth 169? So, factor that in for a second trip, an extra Memory Maker of 163.29-169.00 = -5.71. That means you'll basically be getting that second trip for free. (at least for ticket values). So, as long as you can go on your Jan trip, you'll be ahead, even if you don't make the Nov trip. If you can't make any trips at all before Feb 2, 21, then perhaps taking the extension, if it means you can squeeze one more trip in, might be your best option.

And that's based on them opening up July 1st. If they don't open until Aug 17th, that means you'll see a 154/366 of your AP back, which works out till 535.50. So, if they're closed until Aug 17th, you should be close to breaking even. Personally, I hope they're not closed that long, as our trip is booked at the end of Aug and I don't want to have to cancel if they're not open by our 'able to cancel' date at the end of July, but in your case, if might be best to hope for that.
 
Thank you for the bright side of this! And I do feel sad for those that are really going to lose big time on their vacations. I know I might be better off than most.

But in my “math world” I can only account for the Memory maker once as that was the deciding factor in order to upgrade to AP in the first place. Other wise I would not have even gotten it at all. For an AP to have value to me I need 20-28 park days. My preferred trips are 2 weeks at beginning of pass and 2 weeks at end of pass. But I knew that I could only do a week at a time this year (thats why 3 trips was the break even amount). My calculations are based on the 10 day park hopper which works out to be $65 per day. $1285-169/ $65= 17 days. I’ve only used 7 days, need another 10 to break even. Obviously refund not included.
I also hope they are not closed until August, so you can get your trip.
 
Yeah, I tend to make my math more complicated than that. Here's a screenshot of the spreadsheet I used to figure out the ticket vs AP debate (for my family):

495449

In our case, if we were to do 2 trips in a single year, it would be beneficial for one of us to get an AP, and the rest get tickets, based on the fact that the most park days we'd be able to do was 6, since we can only go for a week at a time, unless we figured on the most expensive times of the year. For your numbers, I've been using the cheap rates, not knowing what you've actually paid for those 6 day tickets you upgraded. But, since you used 7 days, if I go off the 7 day rate, and only figure memory maker once:

1272.68-582.59-169.00 = 521.09 remaining to recoup. So, even a 4 day trip would recoup that, with the 4 day trip being 525.36, even without an extra memory maker tossed in. Or, with your math, at 64.25 a day (for the 10 day prices) then it's 8.11 (so, round up to say, 9) days to recover. It's all about perspective in the numbers, I could be happy with 4 days, saying I'm not any more out of pocket, but I can see your view of saying I need to get 8 (or 9 or even 10) more days to recoup the 'potential' you could have achieved with the same budget.
 
That's quite the spreadsheet. You don't by any chance have a DVC spreadsheet comparing all DVC resorts costs for Resale, do you????
 
Unfortunately, no. I'm still on the DVC fence. We're finally in a position where I could buy into it without financing (but at the sacrifice of some stock options) and looking at it a little more seriously.

I know in general, DVC didn't seem like a good enough deal with our style of travel. Every 2 years, and stay at a Moderate for 6 nights. You take the monthly maintenance fees with most DVC contracts, figure out how much they cost over 24 months and then divide by 6 for the six nights, and it always worked out to about the same as what I paid per night in the moderate.

Now that I'm looking closer to it, I realize our travel is actually closer to every 18 months, not every 24, and that the last trip was 7 nights, and the next upcoming (if we can go) is 8 nights... so the math is starting to swing towards DVC, but I'm still pretty infantile in my research on it.
 
I signed up for the refund. We only had AP because we were doing 2 trips in 1 year. We will not be doing that in the future so we had no intention of renewing our passes anyways.
 
I'm in the same boat as WDWkristin - we had two trips planned in one year, which made the AP worth it. We went last November for 1 week, and were planning another 10 days this fall (late October). As a 911 call taker/police dispatcher, I can't get any vacation between November 2019 and Feb 2020, so the extension does us absolutely no good.

If we can't take our trip this fall, we will have paid more for our tickets than we needed to. If we can, then we got extra great value for our AP. If they do reopen on July 1, 2020, we should get about 738.15 USD back, which would mean we overpaid for our 6 days by almost 400$ USD, which really sucks. If we can go in October, then it's a different story but I'm not holding my breath.
 
If you are an WDW AP holder and had previously requested the refund for the closure period, check your credit card statement - we received our refund on Friday and it was within $2 of what I had calculated. Also, if you are planning to take the option of cancelling your AP and receiving a refund for the balance, your request must be made by August 11. I called the VIP telephone number (407-939-7727) just after 7 am today and opted for the cancellation. I received an email confirming our selection within 15 minutes of my call.
 
Thank you for updating this with a reply. I am going to request cancellation, I’d just been holding off cause it still makes me so sad. I have park reservations for November and the 2 weeks at POP booked for January. But with the rumours of the borders possibly being closed until the end of 2020 it just seem that’s the only choice.
By my calculations I should get back 323 days of refund. Is that how you did your calculations? $1275/ 365 x ( July 11/2020 - Extension date)= refund ?
I was kinda concerned exactly how WDW was calculating it?
I was going to use the email link or do you think calling is better?
 

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