Annual Pass ?s...THANKS!

[tennantsrwe]

Hey everyone.
So here is our situation...we are a family of 4 who like to try and plan one WDW trip a year. We're tossing around the idea of buying Annual Passes for 2009 which would cover a Dec 2009 trip and a Dec 2010 trip. We would have to purchase 3 'adult passes' (one DD is 11) and one child AP. We plan on staying at a value resort and then adding the Dining Plan (standard) to both trips. Do you all think we'll be saving enough money to merit the purchase of the AP since they would only be used twice? We live in SC and it's hard to get to the World more than that. Any thoughts or opinions would really be appreciated...thanks! :mickey:

[KylesMom]

To determine if this would be a money saver for you, how many days total do you plan on utilizing your passes in 2009 & 2010 combined?

[teambricker04]

We LOVE having APs. We have only had them for the year, but we took a 5 day trip and a long 2 week trip and so it was well worth it. My favorite thing about them??? We spent enough time at the parks that none of us felt rushed... AND we got a pre ride on Toy Story Mania. I think if you cost it out your trips would have to be 3 or 4 days per trip (at least) to make it worth it. Price it out... for us it was well worth it!

[faline]

Look at how many days you plan to be in the park for both trips. Divide the cost of the annual pass by the number of days you plan to go into the parks. If this number equals or is less than what you would spend on another type of park ticket, go for it!

You mention that you want to take two December trips. If your first trip, for instances begins on December 12th and ends on December 21st and your second trip begins on December 1st and ends on December 10th, you'd be able to do as you suggest. However, if you plan two December trips - both beginning on December 1st and ending on December 10th, your annual pass will only be good for your arrival day of the second trip and will then be expired.

[Disney Lynn]

As others have mentioned, you need to calculate the number of days vs the costs of AP's and Park Hoppers. Also, each AP is only good for 365 consecutive days (as explained above by Faline), so if you are scheduling around school holidays, your dates for 2009 and 2010 may not line up properly.

Also, if you would normally be happy without the park hopper option or would not go to a park every day of your visit, you might be better off with 10 day, non-expiring tickets. You may possibly receive a AP reduction in the room rate, but this is not guaranteed!

[DisneyDudet]

We have been AP holders twice before, and we usually try to see if its a good deal before buying. We crunch numbers, doing all the options available (no expiration, mult passes, etc), and do whatever is cheaper.

We did our numbers for our 5 day Free Dining trip and our January week long trip for the Disney Marathon. Since we are already paying for a 5 day, we are going to upgrade to an AP before we head into the parks so that it will be cheaper when we go in Jan!