to get an annual pass or not

[20th at disney]

I was looking at going to Disney with my wife for our 20th ann. We are also looking at taking the family later in the year and was trying to decide rather it was better to by annual passes or to do package specials. The big key is about room discounts with the pass. We are looking at going late april or early may. Does anyone know about the room discounts offered at that time and if the Pass benifits outway getting two package deals in a year? Thank you.

[BigRedDad]

Current discounts vary by category. It also depends on how many days total you will use the passes. Current discounts for AP in April/May for Moderate resorts is 40%. If you are going for more than 10 days, then getting and AP makes sense.

[Goofy4TheWorld]

Any attempt to give a good answer depends on the number of days you will need park ticket days for each trip. A generic rule might say over 10 days total and get the AP, but with the current discounting that Disney is doing through public discounts, I doubt you would be better off with the AP unless you are looking at 14+ days or so, and even that is a maybe.

So, how many total days for each trip (7 and 7, 5 and 5, etc...), and also when are you going for both the 1st and 2nd trip? Are you doing any water parks, and if so, how often? Is park hopping a must-have, maybe-need, or never-use?

[MarkC]

Your signature line doesn't indicate where you are from or if you have the ability to get there more than the two suggested times. We've bought annual passes 3 separate times living in Nebraska. Once we made two trips, and the other two times we made two planned trips and a 3rd unexpected trip due to a bowl game, etc. They are really worth it. But if you want to just do the math, according to this site an annual pass costs $521. A 7 day pass costs $250 but that doesn't include park hopping. So if you add that in it is indeed cheaper for the two of you to buy annual passes. Plus there are discounts on rooms, dining and mini-golf among other things if you choose to do those. I've never been disappointed in the times we've bought annual passes. I doubt you will either.

[DizneyRox]

Please base your decision to purchase an AP on actual park admissions only. Unless you have a room booked with the AP discount or other discounts GUARANTEED it's not wise to base your desicion on those.

Disney has gone on record saying they want to reel in discounting they are doing. This means fewer discounts and worse (lower percentages off) discounts.

I feel, comparing apples to apples the AP break even point is around 12 days. We don't do the DDP or room costs (DVC) so our decision is based about 95% on park admissions only. The remaining 5% is the TiW card option. We also get a rather steep discount on the AP being DVC members, which makes the decision much easier.

I always figure park hopping as part of the experience. I can't imagine going without.

[kakn7294]

I mostly agree with DisneyRox - base your decision to purchase APs on park admissions. We are planning for 16 days on our next 2 trips within 1 year so we are getting APs for the ticket savings. However, for the second trip, we are using the AP to stay at a better resort than we could afford if we purchased a package each time we go - the ticket media is already paid so we can spend the "extra" money on the resort, with or without a discount.