UPDATE: August, 2021
There’s an update to the update! After the latest annual pass types and costs were announced I updated the sheet to take into account the prices, PhotoPass and Water Park Add-on costs.
I also created a new video on how to use the sheet.
UPDATE: November, 2018
I’m leaving the thread as is, but for first-time readers of the thread I wanted to point out up here at the top that I’ve just updated the interface.
In the age of tiered pricing, looking up reseller prices is more complex and I haven’t had time to work on it much. Also, the process for bridging those tiered tickets is not clear yet.
So, I’ve removed the bridging savings estimates from the sheet and just use plain-vanilla Disney online ticket prices. If it makes sense in the future I may add back the bridging savings, but for now, C’est La Guerre.
You can see the latest post with a screenshot of the new interface here in this thread.
Now, back to the original programming…
Howdy All,
You may have seen my other posts on my "Maximum Savings" spreadsheet for buying tickets and how much it will be to upgrade to an AP. People have offered many useful comments, suggestions, and requests and I’ve expanded the sheet many times.
Because CMs often seem to perform arithmetic on an abacus with missing beads when calculating upgrade costs, I’ve added printable cheat sheets for people to have with them when attempting to bridge tickets.
One of the last things I added was a sheet where you can enter information about your upcoming trips and see if upgrading to AP will save you money.
However, with all of these things in a single spreadsheet, I think it got a bit confusing, so I’ve taken that last “Worth It?” sheet out and made it a free-standing tool.
You can go give it a shot in your browser over on The Google Sheets by visiting this link.
If you like it, want to play around with it and not worry about others changing your numbers, you can click File… Make a Copy and save a version for your very own, as shown below:
I have included a lot of notes in the sheet itself, and hope it is fairly self-explanatory and many people should be able to dive right in and start using it. But as an IT Pro, I know that my self-explanatory is someone else’s Ancient Aramaic. (I think Gabby Johnson said it best.)
So, if your Mesopotamian languages are a little rusty, below is a series of screen captures with some general notes on each portion of the sheet. Hope they help!
In the sheet, you can enter or change info in any of the RED cells. Starting at the very top of the sheet:
Then, you can choose from each of these options.
Some notes on the above section:
- I would strongly suggest if you don’t normally buy Memory Maker on your trips don’t select it here or it will abnormally inflate your overall savings.
- There are currently some really good food discounts for AP holder, which may make Tables in Wonderland less helpful in gathering discounts. (Do remember that TiW also discounts adult beverages, though.)
Next up is to enter the percentage discounts an AP will give you.
These will influence your savings calculated lower in the spreadsheet, so you’ll want to try to get these in the right ballpark so you’ll have a decent estimate at the end…
Note: You’ll have to make an educated guess on how many of your planned restaurants will be covered by an AP discount since not all are.
Now we’re on to the meat and potatoes of the sheet: Enter the basic info of your planned trips. (or imaginary trips if you are just playing around.) If you toggle between ticket types and flip Memory Maker on and off, you’ll see that people who normally buy Park Hoppers and Memory Maker will need much fewer park days and food expenses to make an AP upgrade worth it.
Note: Unless any hotel discount you would get on your trip(s) is exclusive to AP holders, I would not enter hotel costs. If you can get the same discount without an AP, the AP is not really saving you money for that part, right?
You’ll see that the sheet doesn’t let you enter ticket prices. That is because it is using my super-secret data table* to lookup up the current BEST discount for the ticket type and park days you select. (If people already have tickets in hand, maybe I can add a spot to override those numbers later…)
*It’s not so super-secret. It is the other table in this spreadsheet.
Finally, the pièce de résistance: another automagic table showing how much you will save both with and without AP discounts - as well as on and off site! If you get a positive number in the Savings (Loss) line, there’s a decent chance upgrading to an AP on your first trip will save you money.
UPDATE, March 27, 2018: Adding this other reference screen capture in case it helps explain what is going on with the totals at the bottom…