Please help me to decide whether an AP upgrade is worthwhile. I have NO plans to return within the year, and I would only upgrade one ticket (mine) to AP.
Here is what I have purchased thus far for 10 day February trip:
10-day PH tickets from Official Ticket Center for 3 adults, 1 child. Cost of my ticket including tax $463.
Memory Maker $149
4 tickets to After Hours $119 plus tax each
Room only reservation MVT
Can I go to Guest Services on the first day (after entering a park using my ticket) and do the following:
Upgrade to AP
Get refund of Memory Maker
Get refund of difference in AP cost of After Hours tickets
Purchase Tables in Wonderland
I think the math works like this:
AP $798 minus 10-day PH from Disney $500 = $298 to upgrade
Minus refund of Memory Maker $149 = $149
Minus ($119-$89) * 4, or $120 = $29
Plus Tables in Wonderland $150 = $179
We eat at least one TS meal per day and one or two alcoholic drinks per day, so I think over 10 days this would be a savings.
Experts? I never tried to do anything complicated at GS before.
In general I think your math/plan is correct. The one caveat is I don’t think DIS has to agree to refund Memory Maker, although all reports I’ve seen say they will/do. Along the same vein, I’d imagine After Hours wouldn’t be a lock, but it can’t hurt to ask and would seem likely.
The other thing to consider is depending on where you plan to eat, if Tables in Wonderland will pay off. With the 45th anniversary DIS is offering Annual Pass discounts at 45 restaurants anyway so if where you want to eat matches that list relatively closely TiW may be redundant. $750 at TiW that aren’t on the annual pass discount would be the bogey of course to break even…
I guess what I’m proposing here is like a level 500 death star ninja Guest Services move… asking for 3 “maybe they will do this, depending what CM you get” transactions at once.
Thanks for posting this. It hadn’t occurred to me that only one of us would need the Annual Pass in order to trigger the discounts and free PhotoPass. I haven’t purchased our tickets yet. We are planning on 9 days in the park, which is a $450 adult ticket. By paying $750 for the AP for just myself, a difference of $300, I would get the free Memory Maker ($150 value). So if I thought I could get $150 in discounts (20% of $750), I would break even. We plan on purchasing a dining plan, so I don’t know that I would be spending $750 on dining and merchandise. Probably only a win if we could also save on the room rate. Are the AP holder room reservation discounts better than the typical room rate promotions available to the public?
I feel confident that buying one AP and paying out of pocket for all the meals for nine or ten days using the AP discounts is going to be a significant savings over purchasing the dining plan. I guess it depends on the ages and number of people in your group and where you’re eating, though. I also realize that sometimes people have their reasons for liking the dining plan even if it’s not saving any money.
I think the AP room discounts beat the general public room discounts, but during some of the agency exclusives, MVT rates are even better.
I’m glad you posted that answer. My DD and I are heading down in August and as of right now, we have the Dining Plan on our package. However, we are planning another trip in November to catch MVMCP and then again in 2018, so were thinking we’d upgrade our tickets to APs for the two of us. It may very well be better to dump the dining plan before we go and just use the AP discounts on food.