New Membership

[testrack]

Five years ago my husband and I looked into becoming DVC members. At that time we just could not make the comfortable decision that it was right for us.
Well with the package deals constantly going up (understand) last Saturday we officially became DVC members. Animal Kingdom is our home and looking forward to our first trip this December as DVC members.

Now the question is Annual Passes vs Premier pass (we are close to Disneyland) or just buy park hopper tickets for the 7 days we are there.

[currence]

If you are close to Disneyland - definitely Premier!

I mean, do the math, see what makes the most sense for the way you intend to travel ... then get Premier.

It's a bit easier if you don't already have any passes. We have DL annual passes and only mine was a Premium, so only mine got turned into a Premier. It was cheaper to keep my husband's a Deluxe and just get tickets for the time we were there. But if we didn't already have tickets, I could easily see us trying to get two visits out of one WDW annual pass and at that point, any trips to Disneyland would be a bonus.

[3Princesses1Prince]

If you have a DL Premium and want PHs in WDW, then anything over 5 days in WDW would be a savings not considering any discounts for food/merchandise. The food discounts in WDW are sparse unless you get a TIW card, but DVC owners can buy those now even if they don't get APs.

[DVC Mike]

Congrats!

[Hannahbelle]

Five years ago my husband and I looked into becoming DVC members. At that time we just could not make the comfortable decision that it was right for us.
Well with the package deals constantly going up (understand) last Saturday we officially became DVC members. Animal Kingdom is our home and looking forward to our first trip this December as DVC members.

Now the question is Annual Passes vs Premier pass (we are close to Disneyland) or just buy park hopper tickets for the 7 days we are there.

Congrats!!

Let us know what you decide. Im having this debate with my husband right now. We both have/ had Premier passes for 2012 since we went to WDW twice within 12 months so that was awesome! Now that our passes are going to expire this month we are debating on renewing just the DL portion of the Annual Pass and getting the Premium. We are going to WDW in December this year and getting a Premier would make sense but that would mean the FL portion would expire with the CA portion. Sooooo a friend suggested an ANNUAL for WDW when we go in December since we also want to run in the Wine and Dine next fall too. Of course the Annual for WDW is a lot more money but when we know how many days we will need in Dec and how many days we think we might stay for the Wine and DIne we will just have to figure out the math I guess..... the confusing part is what type of Annual Pass in Florida and where do we go for the best price....does any one know the DVC member price?

[Drince88]

There's only 2 type of non-FL resident Annual passes at WDW. One includes water parks, and the other doesn't. Prior to the times I've gotten a premier, I always just got the 4 parks one. Both are good 365 days.

[fairestoneofall]

Congratulations and Welcome Home!

We've done both. Last year it made sense, based on our DL AP expirations (Sept) and our trip dates to WDW, for me to get a Premier Pass. However, since DH and the DS's only had a DAP for DL it didn't make sense for them. I bought them park hoppers in advance, but when we got to the park we realized that I would be back with the boys in January for marathon week. So, I upgraded the boys' hoppers to WDW APs (with our nice DVC discount). By the time we went back in January my Premier had expired and DH decided to go last minute. We purchased DVC discount APs for ourselves since we have a cruise/WDW vacay planned in December of this year. Again, since our DL AP expire in September it made no sense for us to upgrade to Premier. You really have to look at your travel habits. Sometimes a Premier might make sense, sometimes it won't.

[testrack]

Drince88. I was not aware there were two types on non-FL resident AP's. We don't do water parks so the one without water parks would best serve us. Do you happen to know the price of the AP without water parks?

[testrack]

Congratulations and Welcome Home!

We've done both. Last year it made sense, based on our DL AP expirations (Sept) and our trip dates to WDW, for me to get a Premier Pass. However, since DH and the DS's only had a DAP for DL it didn't make sense for them. I bought them park hoppers in advance, but when we got to the park we realized that I would be back with the boys in January for marathon week. So, I upgraded the boys' hoppers to WDW APs (with our nice DVC discount). By the time we went back in January my Premier had expired and DH decided to go last minute. We purchased DVC discount APs for ourselves since we have a cruise/WDW vacay planned in December of this year. Again, since our DL AP expire in September it made no sense for us to upgrade to Premier. You really have to look at your travel habits. Sometimes a Premier might make sense, sometimes it won't.

Our AP's also expire in Sept. for DL. We are traveling late Nov early Dec to WDW. If we got the Premier Pass then most of the use would be DL with maybe one other trip to WDW. I guess now that we are DVS members we can travel more frequently to WDW depending on airfare.

[testrack]

Thank You all for your input. It has helped alot in most ways and made things more confusing in some ways LOL.

[3Princesses1Prince]

Drince88. I was not aware there were two types on non-FL resident AP's. We don't do water parks so the one without water parks would best serve us. Do you happen to know the price of the AP without water parks?

$552/adult $509/child
Not sure how much after the DVC discount.

[Drince88]

$552/adult $509/child
Not sure how much after the DVC discount.

And the Premium WDW is 691/637 (and change) -- so you have to do more than a couple of visits to water parks/other included things to make the premium pay for itself. (Plus I think the regular AP gets you a discount on water park admission -- I know we got a discount when I had a premier on my sister's water park admission (she had no AP))

[DisneyFunFamily4]

DVC AP rates (including tax) are

$446 for adult and $411 per child for the Reg AP

$558 for adult and $514 per child for the Premium AP. And the renewal rates are about $40 cheaper.

We had the Reg AP at WDW this past year since we did not anticipate using the Water parks option. We are planning on getting Premium DL AP's this summer. We have a Christmas trip planned to WDW and we will be spending about 8 days in the parks. We do not anticipate a 2013 WDW trip unless of course we win the lotto. So for us for this year it makes sense to just upgrade our DL AP's to premier.

I wish they gave DVC members some sort of a discount on the Coast to Coast passes.

[Toocherie]

DFF4 I have felt the same about the Premiere passes--it's a big investment on top of the DVC initial cost and annual maintenance fees. Would be nice to have our "contribution" to the Disney economy rewarded with a discount--even if it was less than the usual Florida one (and more than the measly $20 discount in Calif.)
I have had Premiere the last two years (and it saved me money) but am not planning to go to WDW this year (Wah!) so I just got the DL Premium.