What would you do? (AP vs Ticket Question)

[sailored]

My husband and I recently became passholders again for Disneyland, they won't be active until June though. We are going to visit Disney World later this year, from October 27th - November 10th. We initially planned to just purchase 10 day park hoppers while we were there, but we are now debating upgrading our annual passes to the premier passport. If we chose to upgrade, it would cost us about $123 more total compared to purchasing the 10 day tickets. When upgrading, we get the added benefits such as discounts on merchandise and whatnot, we also could visit the parks whenever on our trip to Disney World and not worry about wasting a park day. What would you do? Do you think the $123 extra is worth it for the extra perks?

 

[starry_solo]

My husband and I recently became passholders again for Disneyland, they won't be active until June though. We are going to visit Disney World later this year, from October 27th - November 10th. We initially planned to just purchase 10 day park hoppers while we were there, but we are now debating upgrading our annual passes to the premier passport. If we chose to upgrade, it would cost us about $123 more total compared to purchasing the 10 day tickets. When upgrading, we get the added benefits such as discounts on merchandise and whatnot, we also could visit the parks whenever on our trip to Disney World and not worry about wasting a park day. What would you do? Do you think the $123 extra is worth it for the extra perks?

Yes! Upgrade, then you can hop to other parks and also not worry about "wasting" a park day. You will also get Memory Maker (pictures) included as part of the AP at WDW too. Discounts at WDW aren't as plentiful as they are at DLR, but every little bit helps. Plus, if you stay on property, you can potentially get AP deals for the rooms too.

 

[sailored]

Yes! Upgrade, then you can hop to other parks and also not worry about "wasting" a park day. You will also get Memory Maker (pictures) included as part of the AP at WDW too. Discounts at WDW aren't as plentiful as they are at DLR, but every little bit helps. Plus, if you stay on property, you can potentially get AP deals for the rooms too.

Oh wow! I didn't even think about memory maker, so we won't need to purchase memory maker at all with the pass? We are staying on property, but we are staying with the military discount.

 

[starry_solo]

Oh wow! I didn't even think about memory maker, so we won't need to purchase memory maker at all with the pass? We are staying on property, but we are staying with the military discount.

WDW APs include "memory maker" (really, it's just all photos taken at WDW, they just scan your AP) As far as I know, Premier APs include memory maker at WDW and photopass at DLR.

Have a great trip!

 

[sailored]

WDW APs include "memory maker" (really, it's just all photos taken at WDW, they just scan your AP) As far as I know, Premier APs include memory maker at WDW and photopass at DLR.

Have a great trip!

We are traveling with another party and planned on doing a memory maker share with them, do you know if we would still be able to share with the feature with our annual pass?

Thank you!

 

[Ben E N]

We are traveling with another party and planned on doing a memory maker share with them, do you know if we would still be able to share with the feature with our annual pass?

Thank you!

Yes, as long as they are included as friends and family in MDE. Only AP holders can download them, but you can then share them via Google drive or something similar.

 

[loves to dive]

$125 more than buying passes or $125 more than your current passes? I just do the math, if it cost less to get the AP than the tickets, I get it. I don't take any possible discounts into account, just apples to apples. We always get park hoppers, we never get memory maker/photo pass whatever the heck it is called so that doesn't get factored in for us. So if the amount of days we are going to be there park hopper is more than the AP, and I'm talking about $5 more, we get the AP, if it's less we buy the tickets.

 

[sailored]

Yes, as long as they are included as friends and family in MDE. Only AP holders can download them, but you can then share them via Google drive or something similar.

Awesome! So, they could scan their magic band and it will show up under my account as long as they are included as friends and family? I just have to download them? If so, that is saving us money as well!

$125 more than buying passes or $125 more than your current passes? I just do the math, if it cost less to get the AP than the tickets, I get it. I don't take any possible discounts into account, just apples to apples. We always get park hoppers, we never get memory maker/photo pass whatever the heck it is called so that doesn't get factored in for us. So if the amount of days we are going to be there park hopper is more than the AP, and I'm talking about $5 more, we get the AP, if it's less we buy the tickets.

Upgrading to annual passes would cost us $125 more than buying the park hopper tickets. We planned on purchasing memory maker as well, but for the military price.

 

[Ben E N]

Awesome! So, they could scan their magic band and it will show up under my account as long as they are included as friends and family? I just have to download them? If so, that is saving us money as well!



Upgrading to annual passes would cost us $125 more than buying the park hopper tickets. We planned on purchasing memory maker as well, but for the military price.

Yes. And I would upgrade even just for park hopping and discounts. The discounts aren't all that great, but they sure would add up over 10 days.

 

[loves to dive]

Awesome! So, they could scan their magic band and it will show up under my account as long as they are included as friends and family? I just have to download them? If so, that is saving us money as well!



Upgrading to annual passes would cost us $125 more than buying the park hopper tickets. We planned on purchasing memory maker as well, but for the military price.

Simple enough then, does military memory maker cost more or less than $125? Another thing to ask is are you staying on site? If so, parking is already free if you are driving, if not, you get free parking with an AP. So, now is the cost of memory maker plus the cost of parking less than $125? If the two combined is less that $125 than, no for us, it's not worth it. If it's more than $125 than, yes it's worth it. Simple math. The reason I don't factor in discounts is that they are moving targets. I can say that if we go on a 5 day trip, only one or two meals is going to get us a discount, if we are lucky. For some reason we tend to not eat where the discounts are offered. The room discounts are rarely better than the general discount. The merchandise discount can be good but,again, when we do buy something it tends to be somewhere that doesn't offer the discount (I always get a mask in Italy, no discount).

 

[sailored]

Yes. And I would upgrade even just for park hopping and discounts. The discounts aren't all that great, but they sure would add up over 10 days.

Thank you for your feedback!

Simple enough then, does military memory maker cost more or less than $125? Another thing to ask is are you staying on site? If so, parking is already free if you are driving, if not, you get free parking with an AP. So, now is the cost of memory maker plus the cost of parking less than $125? If the two combined is less that $125 than, no for us, it's not worth it. If it's more than $125 than, yes it's worth it. Simple math. The reason I don't factor in discounts is that they are moving targets. I can say that if we go on a 5 day trip, only one or two meals is going to get us a discount, if we are lucky. For some reason we tend to not eat where the discounts are offered. The room discounts are rarely better than the general discount. The merchandise discount can be good but,again, when we do buy something it tends to be somewhere that doesn't offer the discount (I always get a mask in Italy, no discount).

Memory maker is costing $98, we won't have to worry about parking because we aren't getting a rental car. Factoring that in, it's now $27 more. I think we are going to do it, because the places we plan on shopping and our spa day at Senses, the pass will definitely save us more than $27.


Thank you everyone for your feedback!

 

[starry_solo]

One other thing, I don't know what kind of pass you have for DLR, but, since the Premier AP is the equivalent of Signature Plus at DLR and Platinum Plus at WDW, the DLR portion should include Max Pass (which in itself is a $75 value). The Max Pass is just the ability to book fast passes from your phone after you've entered the park, instead of running around to the kiosks to get the FP "tickets"

 

[sailored]

One other thing, I don't know what kind of pass you have for DLR, but, since the Premier AP is the equivalent of Signature Plus at DLR and Platinum Plus at WDW, the DLR portion should include Max Pass (which in itself is a $75 value). The Max Pass is just the ability to book fast passes from your phone after you've entered the park, instead of running around to the kiosks to get the FP "tickets"

Yes! We have the signature plus. We used MaxPass on our last visit before my husband deployed and LOVED it! The free parking and maxpass made the signature plus pass the smart choice for us, and it would cost us less when we upgrade.

 

[starry_solo]

Yes! We have the signature plus. We used MaxPass on our last visit before my husband deployed and LOVED it! The free parking and maxpass made the signature plus pass the smart choice for us, and it would cost us less when we upgrade.

Great! And I remembered one other thing, the ticketing systems for DLR and WDW aren't in sync (as I recall) so you'll need to go to guest relations/services outside the park for them to activate the WDW portion of your AP if you upgrade at DLR.

 

[sailored]

Great! And I remembered one other thing, the ticketing systems for DLR and WDW aren't in sync (as I recall) so you'll need to go to guest relations/services outside the park for them to activate the WDW portion of your AP if you upgrade at DLR.

Thank you! Would I still be able to make my FP selections 60 days in advance?

 

[starry_solo]

Thank you! Would I still be able to make my FP selections 60 days in advance?

I'm not sure as I've never had a dual AP when they started the FP. You'll probably have to call WDW IT/Ticketing to make sure they activate your AP in their system before hand.

 

[hsmamato2]

So what you're saying is you already bought the DL AP, and you want to upgrade to the 'both coasts' AP and use at WDW and DL? and it costs $125 more oop than just buying the extra tickets for your wdw trip? seems like a no brainer to me- you should get the premier AP- I think you save on merchandise,and some food costs(?20%?) plus parking ($22 a day!!!!) plus a memory maker...that sounds like that $125 is a wash right away! I'd do it