Advantages and disadvantages of having an Annual Pass?

[DisneyorBust]

For those of you who have Annual Passes..... Just what are the advantages? The disadvantages? We are considering purchasing AP's and want opinions from the most knowledgeable Walt Disney World fans on earth!:number1:
Some background info: we normally go for one 8 day 7 night trip per year and stay on site. We try to take advantage of promotions whenever possible. We would like to add a short trip each year (anniversary) for 3- 4 days.
Your thoughts?

[faline]

To know if an annual pass is worthwhile to you, divide the cost of the annual pass by the number of days you plan to enter into a park during the course of the year it is active. Compare that cost to the cost of buying other types of tickets; such as an 8 day pass divided by 8 days and a 4 day pass divided by 4 days. If you break even or come out ahead, by all means purchase the annual pass.

Any other potential discounts you get with the annual pass are then benefits atop your pass.

For our last set of annual passes, we used the Tables in Wonderland discount for dining and also received a very nice pin code discount (But who knows, we might have gotten that even without being an annual passholder)!

[KylesMom]

My family's been A/P holders since 2002. The way we vacation, an A/P is the only one that makes sense for us all.

Now, you're awful close to the "break even" point with the potential of visiting 11 or 12 days in the parks in one calendar year. Right now, dividing the ticket plans up into 8 & 4, the A/P might even give you a bigger advantage. However, if you could get two of your extended trips on one pass, plus your extra three or four day trip, it would be very worth it for you to become passholders.

For example, if you were to vacation March 12 through 28 this year, go for your anniversary in November, and then take your annual trip prior to March 13th in 2010, you'd be getting 19 or 20 days' of entry into the parks for one pass price. As Linda mentioned, the value of an A/P is predicated upon how many days you are actually going to get park admission out of it. Yes, there are small discounts to be had at World of Disney or lunch at a few restaurants, but the bulk of your $$$ savings will be in park admissions. A/P room-only rates have been hit-and-miss the past several years, so we never bank on receiving one. Last year the Buy 4 Get 3 free was actually a much better deal for us than any A/P rates that were released. We had to buy a base ticket for each of us for both 7-night reservations - these tickets will be saved to put towards our next A/Ps - and the ones after that! It was still a better deal, even with the purchase of those tix for the three of us.

We are also Tables in Wonderland cardholders (one big perk of A/P), and over the past two trips (30 days total) we've saved a total of $506 on Table Service dining - something else to check into if you enjoy adult beverages and sit-down meals.

Honestly, I can't think of any "cons" to being an A/P holder. Although you can now purchase the dining plan as A/P holders, we find that the TiW card is a much better value for our family. :mickey:

[KylesMom]

Wow was my math off earlier! :mickey: I hope you got the idea of my post, however. If you were to go eight days in March, four days in November and another eight days the following March before your pass expires, you'd come out ahead. Wouldn't it be marvelous if you could go March 12 through 28? :D Sorry about that!