AP Question

[Priority Four]

Is there any advantage to buying annual passes online before we arrive in Fl (tax)?

[VWL Mom]

No, the price is the same either way.

[Priority Four]

Thank You Ma'am. I recon we will wait till we arrive to get the most out of the calendar year.

[dmallan]

If you purchase them in advance, you actually get a confirmation number that you bring to the ticket counter at any of the parks. The AP start date is the day you present your confirmation number and are admitted to the park for the first time.
We chose to purchase our APs in advance and charge it to our Disney Visa, hence earning more rewards points. We also got them before the price increase, so that was another bonus.

[Priority Four]

Thanks for the tip. That sounds like the way to go for me. I like to have most of the money stuff done before we get there. Then if something costs more than I expected or does not work like I thought, it is worked out already and we don't spend 'Magic" time dealing with it.

[DizneyRox]

Do the math on an AP before you purchase... The new price really puts it out of whack with the rest of the tickets.

Remember, only one person in your party needs to have an AP for discounts. That person usally has to be the adult, not that there's a price difference anymore, but it's worth mentioning. You can still get room discounts and TiW (which are usually the two biggest AP perks witho only one person having the AP.

If you really do need it for park admission days (which is really the only guaranteed reason to be considering the AP) then everyone will still need one of course.

The new price of an AP is like $574 plus tax per person for adult and child tickets. Looks like the break even point is still about 11 or 12 days with some creative book keeping.

Adult 10 day with park hopper and 2 day without will run you $551.
Child 10 day hopper and 2 day without hopping runs $521.

Using the non hoppers for longer days will save you from having to fork over for park hopping on those days and give you decent flexibility with the other 10 days. As long as your trip is less than 16 days it's an option.

Giong twice a year more than 14 days apart and the AP still is a pretty attractive option. As long as the trips are more than 4 or 5 days each.

[Priority Four]

I will check the price. We are already booked for seven days this month and four in December and plan to visit again at the end of the 2013 school year. So we should make out better with the APs.

[VWL Mom]

Since this is posted in DVC, the AP price for DVC members is $425 plus tax so definitely the better deal for the trips you mentioned.

[DizneyRox]

Yep, three trips within a year is a no brainer.

[dmallan]

Since this is posted in DVC, the AP price for DVC members is $425 plus tax so definitely the better deal for the trips you mentioned.

Also, according to a DVC website I frequent, even though AP prices have gone up, the DVC discont on the APs has also increased. This resulted in just $6 increase in the DVC price for APs. (From $446.24 to $452.63, including tax.)