Hi! I’ve never had an Annual Pass, so I’m not entirely sure what the perks/benefits are. I’m assuming that if I were to upgrade to an AP, then that eliminates me from taking advantage of any free dining opportunities. Is that correct?
Also- when AP discounts are announced, does that mean that the discount only pertains to booking a room? We usually stay at Pop Century- would there be a discount for that resort and if so, what would the discount likely be? 15%? 20%?
I’m going on a 5 day trip with DH in June and am trying to decide whether to upgrade or not- I will likely take my son on a trip later this year but it is not 100% certain. How do I know whether an upgrade will be beneficial??? I need someone to just tell me what to do! (just kidding…sort-of… )
My wife and I purchased a WDW Platinum pass last year… The AP discounts on resorts so far have been limited and have been for room only. The special we booked over lapped the general promotion WDW was offering.
My understanding about the free dining promos is they need to be room/ticket/dining stays. So APH couldn’t take advantage.
As for discounts, we are staying at Pop, we got a 20% room discount. Not all resorts were included in the APH promo, and the discount varried by hotel and its classification (value, moderate, deluxe).
Why did we choose an annual pass? Our Dec 2015 stay was off-site in a non-Disney Time Share. So we added parking per day, memory maker, etc. Then we added the Tables in Wonderland gift card (we were a party of 4 adults and 1 child so it did save us). My wife and I got annual passes, our son, my sister-in-law and her boyfriend get regular tickets.
Another consideration my wife and I had was, coming down in May to watch her kid sister compete at the Summit Cheerleading competition at the end of this month. We are going, so we only had to book room (and we were able to add dining).
If we were only doing a single stay, on site, we probably would not have done annual passes.
The room only discount is typically 5% better than the one offered to the general public. Buying tables in wonderland is a great perk too depending on how much you spend on food. If your second trip isnt definite and since you are staying at a value (i.e., less $ saved in that extra 5%) it will be harder to justify getting the AP.
I am actually in a similar situation this year. I had an AP last year but this year we are only going twice and staying at AoA and Pop so financially it just makes more sense to not get the AP. Its pretty close, actually. I did all of the math last weekend and its like a $200 difference whether we get it or not. Just in case our second trip cant happen for some reason I decided the AP just didnt make sense.
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