Pros & Cons Of Having An Annual Pass

[Jack Peterson]

What are some pros/cons of having an annual pass for those that have one?

[CH-GenX]

In the state of FL or out? For me it would be are you getting your $'s worth out of it?

I

[jm1670]

The pros are if it saves you money. Not really much beyond that. You used to get photo pass but not any more. The only real benefit now is money. That still is pretty significant. The standard number of days is 10. If you are going to the park 10 days or more then you should absolutely get an annual pass because the cost of 10 tickets is more than a pass. That is excluding the discounts you get. When you take all of the discounts into account then the break even point is actually closer to 4 days. The room discounts themselves make it worth it. They are very significant. I typically get 20% discounts on rooms.

[CH-GenX]

Someday....I hope to live close enough to make the AP worth it.

[Liquid Ice]

The $99 photo pass option for the entire year is still a lot cheaper than the memory maker option ($69 for 1 day, $169 for your entire trip when purchased in 3 days in advance, $199 when purchased for immediate - 2 days use).

So I see that as a benefit of the annual pass - assuming you go often enough to justify it.

You should consider not just the number of days but the number of trips as well since ticket prices increase dramatically if you're making multiple trips to Disney World. For example, a 4-day park hopper is about $500. The cost of the Sorcerer pass (assuming you qualify for it) is $900 (plus tax), so if you plan to make 2 trips of 4-days or more per year then the Sorcerer pass is worth it. Renewing that pass is $764 (plus tax) too.

If you were going to buy Memory Maker for your 2 trips, you're also saving $239.

My family and I tend to make 2 trips per year of ~5 days or so, so the Sorcerer pass is worth it for us (we're DVC and qualify to buy the Sorcerer pass). If you're out of state and not DVC - you need to buy the Incredi-pass which is $1,299 - so you need to check the costs and see what works.

The discounts for an AP are really only needed for 1 person in your family, so also consider this when you're considering AP vs. Tickets.

For example, you are only planning to go to Disney for 7 days in the next year, you have calculated you will save enough with room, merchandise and dining discounts to make buying an AP worthwhile - then you only need to buy 1 AP and the rest of your family can purchase tickets. Even if you buy Photopass for your AP, everyone in your family will still get their pictures so long as you're all linked in MDE.

There is a good Google Sheets you can use to try to help determine if it is worthwhile for you too:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... e1-J1G57s/

[CH-GenX]

I would suggest using one of the a.p. calculators that folks have built. I think I posted it in a couple of other threads. It's a good way to take the emotion out of the purchase and look at the purchase pure nickels and dimes. Touring Plans has one of the best ones out there.




https://forum.touringplans.com/t/cheat- ... p/37667/25