Hello all, so in a few months it will be only 6 months to our next trip 
We are planning to go the week after Easter because, well, that’s when we can. I’ve noticed that Easter is April 21 in 2019 and April 12 in 2020 so naturally it seems reasonable to get AP right?
Next year’s trip we will likely stay onsite and get 5-6 park days, would it make sense to wait and upgrade to AP at WDW or buy them first?
Also by having AP we would have a great excuse to go on another trip at Thanksgiving or xmas or sometime. Thanks for any insights!
Fair warning…it can be real seductive to think about all that money you’re saving by not having to buy tickets. You can save yourself right into the poor house if you’re not careful.
Can’t help you on the upgrade question. We’ve always bought ours ahead of time in the hope of scoring an AP room discount.
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Look out for price increases when considering whether to buy AP now or later. I originally purchased a 5-day hopper but when I heard AP prices were increasing $100 in February, I upgraded to AP before our April trip. AP is activated when you arrive, not when purchased, so you do have to go by guest services before you can enter the park.
It is a bit addictive. We planned two April trips but we also went in July for opening of TSL & are going for Christmas, too.
Our last AP (2 years ago) we waited to upgrade in person. It was no problem at all. Handled very quickly & easily at MK guest services.
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On our last trip in April my Mother in law helped to pay for a good portion of the trip and wants to basically do the exact things we did last time. This means flying down, staying onsite and getting DDP. I’m in favor of all this of course 
So if 5 park days are essentially paid for would it be best to upgrade at WDW?
I would say yes in that situation since you’ll benefit from the help with the initial ticket cost. Buying direct from Disney also makes it easy to upgrade since you’ll get credit for the price paid. Also if the tickets are part of a room/ticket package they cannot be upgraded to AP until you arrive. Keep in mind that AP does include Memory Maker so don’t purchase that ahead of time.
Aren’t there blackout dates where you can’t use an AP? Sometime around high crowd times like Thanksgiving or Christmas? I’m not sure about the details but if there are blackout dates, that’s something to keep in mind with regards to calculating your savings if purchasing an AP.
We held off on getting them this trip. We will get them in April with plans for April Sept/Oct and Feb trips. That’s at least 15 park days, probably a bit more, so getting them then makes the most sense for us.
My AP does not have any blackout dates. I could be mistaken, but I think the blackout dates are for the Florida resident AP, since the price of that AP is much less.
I believe the platinum AP (or whatever they call it) has no blackouts, that’s important as we would likely go at a peak times. So I am now leaning towards getting our 5-6 day Magic your way tickets and upgrading onsite.
Both the Platinum AP or Platinum Plus (adds water parks) are no blackout dates. The only other options are for Florida residents (which has blackout dates) and DVC (not sure - don’t think it has blackouts, but I’m not positive). So if you’re not a Florida resident, you’ll have no blackout date worries…