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potzbie
11-11-2010, 01:59 PM
I got my Annual Passport renewal in the mail this week. So I thought that now would be a good time to crunch the numbers and do a spreadsheet on which Annual Passport is most efficient for my visits.

The renewal form already has a discounted prices.
• I will not be using any after-the-fact, full-price "upgrade" prices for my calculations. (You lose something like $20 by doing a late upgrade.)
• I am only looking at Disneyland and Disney California Adventure. Not Florida.

Here are the basic numbers I am assuming:

• Parking = $15 (ordinary automobile using Mickey & Friends)
• Adding parking to an AP = $99.
• AP Premium = $439 (which includes parking automatically)
• AP Deluxe = $309
• AP Southern California = $239
• AP Southern California Select = $184
• AP block-out fee = $50

The number of block-out dates is crucial. So consider how important for you (for example) Saturdays are, or Summer months, or Christmas time, or Easter time.
Beware that many Saturdays are blocked out. Saturdays are the days when there is BOTH: (a.) a big bang or jump bang in the Carnation Plaza; (b.) a rock band in the Tomorrowland Terrace.
I won't be using block-out fees in my calculations. But if I were to include block-out days' cost of $50, like for a Saturday visit or like for a Christmas week visit, then be aware the extra cost of an AP might turn into a modest savings by me paying $50 x 2 for 1 summer day and 1 Christmas day, instead of $101 x 2 for those two extra days.
(Here, $100 for two days of block-out fees certainly beats $202 for two full-price admission days.)

Full box office price for same-day tickets:
• One day, One Park = $76 (adult)
• One day, Park Hopper = $101 (adult)

Also, just for comparison sake:
• Two day, Park Hopper = $161 (adult)

An Annual Passport is like a PARK HOPPER in that both parks (DL + DCA) are included. So the best cost-comparison is to compare an AP to a PARK HOPPER.

I shall NOT be comparing the 2-DAY, 3-DAY, 4-Day, ... N-DAY, PARK HOPPER tickets, since I myself would never use that alternative. But out of state visitors should crunch their own numbers if they will visit on consecutive days. Likewise for the occasional "TwoFer" (i.e., "two for ..."), which I would never use myself.

Okay! -- "Here we gooooooo!" (quote from Peter Pan)

***

PARKING (using MICKEY AND FRIENDS structure)
$99 / $15 = 6.6

• If you park 6x or fewer, you save money by paying the daily rate, i.e., NOT including parking on your AP.
• You save money on your 7th visit if you add parking to your AP.

Table of "1-DAY PARK HOPPER" costs, per visit (assuming no consecutive days, and no 2-day Park Hopper), cumulative:
1 x = $101
2 x = $202
3 x = $303
4 x = $404
5 x = $505

Therefore, you save money when:
• You visit 2x and buy a SoCalSelect ($184 vs. $202).
• You visit 3x and buy a SoCal ($239 vs. $303).
• You visit 4x and buy a Deluxe ($309 vs. $404).
• You visit 5x and buy a Premium ($439 vs. $505).

Reminder: 2-DAY PARK HOPPER is $161 (adult) -- This beats the lowest priced AP (viz., the SoCalSelect at $184). You would have to visit 3x before you begin to save money with an AP.

The 2-day amortization the two comparisons looks like this:
• PH = $161 / 2 = like $80.50 per day (vs. full price of $101 per day x 2)
• AP = $184 / 2 = like $92.00 per day (vs. full price of $101 per day x 2)

Note that at 3x, the price difference between the AP Deluxe ($309) vs. full 1-DAY PARK HOPPER ($303) is only $9. So, you could justify paying the extra $9 ____:
• if you use the purchasing discount which AP holders get.
• if you like getting the quarterly newsletter by being an AP holder, and getting the occasional AP promotional offers, and not standing in line for tickets.

***

That's it.
I've used the hotel discount-promotional offers in the past 4 years to stay at the Grand Californian and at the Disneyland Hotel. So I have taken advantage of this extra perq of being an Annual Passholder.
I've used the renewal discount coupon to buy a calendar. So that is another few percentage points off.

I am betting that I wrote a typographical error somewhere.
If you catch an error in any number, then post an update. I am hoping that the above numbers are current across the board, and stable for a while.

shna
11-11-2010, 02:33 PM
Since the beginning of August, I've spent 12 days in the parks. While I actually didn't use parking (left the car parked at HoJo), I certainly got some bang for my buck with Premium AP merchandise discounts.

I'm the only one in the family with a PAP. DH & DD have Deluxe passes. My reasoning on that is that neither of them ever goes without me, so I'm the one who needs parking on my pass (which I actually do use if I go for just a day trip).

Kuzcofan
11-11-2010, 02:43 PM
Me and my wife goes about 2-3 times a month. With parking and everything I always recommend to anybody going to buy the PAP. especially since PAP holders also get 10-20% discount on most purchases including food. It is actually the best deal it works out to pay for itself to the point we can go after work for a few hours and not spend any money, its nice tio be able to just go and walk around and enjoy the atmosphere.

Malcon10t
11-11-2010, 02:50 PM
Note that at 3x, the price difference between the AP Deluxe ($309) vs. full 1-DAY PARK HOPPER ($303) is only $9. So, you could justify paying the extra $9 ____:You lost me... $309-$303 = $6. Or were you referring to something else. I admit, I was glazed over at this point.

This calendar year I will have spent about 40 days in the park. Renewing my AP was $439. So, it costs me about $11 per day to enter the park.

lowfidelity
11-11-2010, 05:33 PM
I get this. This is what I do to figure out what kind of pass we should get.

If parking equals $15 dollars per visit and it is $101 per visit for a Park Hopper then you are actually going to spend $116 per visit.

$116 per visit multiplied by 4 visits equals $464. A Premium pass costs $439 (and it includes parking). So if you visit at least 4 times in a year then the Premium has paid for itself. The Deluxe with parking is $399 and the same basic rules apply however there are blackout days to contend with and the discounts are less.

But if you don't have parking then its $309 and you will have to visit at least 3 times in a year for the pass to pay for itself but you are stuck with an extra $45 dollars in parking. So in reality you are paying $354 for three visits on a Deluxe pass alone. And of course every other visit after that is $15 extra dollars...

But I guess it all depends on your situation and how you perceive a value. For us the Premium is the best value due to how many times we go (2 times a month) and what we purchase while we're there (meals and occasional merchandise).

mkraemer
11-11-2010, 05:59 PM
Back in June, I spent some time figuring out our various trips to Disney parks for the next year or so. I did the math and discovered that it made the best financial sense to buy the Premier pass (the AP for WDW and DL with no blockout dates), which costs $700 (and no, I did not get a discount on it because I'm a travel agent). Scary thing was...I did the math and bought that same pass for my three kids. :eek:

In the first month we had the passes, my son and I spent 4 days at WDW and we had two weekends at DL. I have two trips at the beginning of the year to WDW, and we're going to DL the weekend that Pirates 4 opens. We rationalized that it made sense to go to WDW for spring break because we already had the passes. We normally visit DL four times a year so we always have APs but it's looking like I'm going to put more days on my pass at WDW than DL this year...

:rolleyes:

oregontraveler
11-11-2010, 06:17 PM
You lost me... $309-$303 = $6. Or were you referring to something else. I admit, I was glazed over at this point.


The AP Deluxe is $309 compared to the cost of 3 seperate 1-day hopper tickets
for $303. So you're only paying $6 more for an AP pass w/o parking.

I'm surprised how much blackout tickets went up. It would seem more of a deterrent, then again it's basically half off a one day ticket.

The only typos I noticed is I think you meant big band & jump band on Saturdays instead of big bang & jump bang.

fairestoneofall
11-11-2010, 07:38 PM
This calendar year I will have spent about 40 days in the park. Renewing my AP was $439. So, it costs me about $11 per day to enter the park.

This is exactly how I justify the expense every year when our AP renewals (mine, DH and now DS3...DS4 is in April) come due and I just about vomit. Then again, I've started ordering a $100 Disney gift card each month. I keep them in a safe place and just whip them out when I need to renew.

3Princesses1Prince
11-11-2010, 07:41 PM
The AP Deluxe is $309 compared to the cost of 3 seperate 1-day hopper tickets
for $303. So you're only paying $6 more for an AP pass w/o parking.


The OP said the difference was $9 in their post so that's what confused Mal.

currence
11-11-2010, 09:58 PM
• I will not be using any after-the-fact, full-price "upgrade" prices for my calculations. (You lose something like $20 by doing a late upgrade.)

Here are the basic numbers I am assuming:

• Parking = $15 (ordinary automobile using Mickey & Friends)
• Adding parking to an AP = $99.
• AP Premium = $439 (which includes parking automatically)
• AP Deluxe = $309
• AP Southern California = $239
• AP Southern California Select = $184
• AP block-out fee = $50


I think you are doing yourself a disservice by not considering a late renewal. The So Cal passes have no renewal discount, so there is no monetary savings to renew the pass prior to your next scheduled visit.

Without a renewal discount the AP Premium = $459 or $1.258 per day. You save money by not renewing early if you wait more than 16 days after your pass expires before your next visit.

Without a renewal discount the AP Deluxe = $329 or $0.901 per day. You save money by not renewing early if you wait more than 22 days after your pass expires before your next visit.

We are DVC members so we get the $20 discount regardless of when we renew. This year I figure we saved approx. $25 over 2 passes by waiting 12 days after our passes expired to renew. This only entailed skipping one weekend that we probably wouldn't have gone anyway due to other commitments. I think in the 16 years I've been an AP holder, I haven't paid for about 1 1/2 of those years due to breaks between expiration and renewal.

If we were not DVC members, many large companies now sell annual passes. We could have considered buying passes through work which would have also reduced the break-even point of waiting to renew. I love Disney, but I'm willing to skip a weekend here and there and forego the "special" designs if it means saving money.

mkraemer
11-11-2010, 10:22 PM
T

I'm surprised how much blackout tickets went up. It would seem more of a deterrent, then again it's basically half off a one day ticket.


I was surprised by the price increase on these tickets too. My husband has a Deluxe pass (his renewal is off-synch with the kids and me) and we've had to use the blockout day tickets a couple times--still not enough to justify the premium pass, but close with the price increase. It's tricky to use the blockout ticket price as the determining item between the deluxe and the premium...only to have the price go up and sort of bungle the calculations.

Another poster mentioned they were nearly physically ill when it comes time to renew passes...boy, do I hear ya!!:eek:

potzbie
11-12-2010, 12:20 AM
Typographical errors so far:

• "$9" should have been "$6" (because 309 - 303 = 6)
• "bang" should have been "band"
***
I see that I should have done the full parking inclusion as its own table, since, indeed, adding the $99 parking to any AP gets to be a big advantage very quickly (i.e., after only a few visits) when compared to separate full-price Park Hopper tickets.
I will work something up as a followup. -- Watch for it.
Nonetheless, the savings are greater when you do < 5 visits and do the daily rate of parking. -- Why pay for $99-worth of parking when it is cheaper to do it ad hoc?
I was pondering how many people bypass Mickey and Friends and use the hotel shuttle or the Anaheim shuttle. That is basically why I separated out the parking as its own comparison.
***
I agree: Once you get past 5 visits, the PREMIUM AP is best bang for the buck.
***
It's hard to do a spreadsheet on LAPSES (plus the corresponding RENEWAL). I think I agree that the extra month or two of not carrying that cost could well be a smarter move than carrying all 12 months of any AP.
***
Because I myself like to include some Saturdays, I had gotten the AP which includes some Saturdays on it ("SoCal").
I don't know which AP I will get this year. -- Like James Thurber said, "My Life And Hard Times". :(

danyoung
11-12-2010, 07:59 AM
Just to throw in an alternate view -

I live in Dallas, and get out to SoCal a couple times a year - June or July for a few days, and Christmas every year. I'm really on the fence between just getting multi-day passes and getting an AP (I'm currently a deluxe AP holder). It's good for the springtime trip, and also good for the days leading up to Christmas, but I usually spring for at least 1 blackout ticket to visit after Christmas. For me it's not as much a matter of money as it is the convenience of visiting even for a few hours. I have family in SoCal, so they of course take up a lot of my visits. But if I have a few hours in the morning or evening, I like to pop into DL. Now, if I was going with a multi-day ticket, I'd feel bad about blowing a whole day's pass just for a few hours. But with an AP I don't feel so bad about it, cuz I can go any time I want to. It may be just a game I play with my brain, but I feel a better value is had with the deluxe level of AP.

houseofmouse
11-13-2010, 12:25 PM
We live in CO and have Deluxe Passes. Well at least DD and I do. My boys only got hoppers this year and we used the GAGAD vouchers for passes and AP's. I am kicking myself for not adding parking to my pass this summer! It was before the cost went up and I still did not do it. Now we will be back next month and are staying with family so I will have to pay to park and grrr.... it will cost me more than if I had just added it in May! I paid 5 days this summer which at the time was the cost of adding it to the pass. So dumb!

I like the food discount and when they were offering the merchandise discount as well. I also like the AP pins and such you can get.

potzbie
11-13-2010, 07:07 PM
Here is a breakdown on
(a.) AP + prepaid unlimited parking
vs.
(b.) AP + daily fee parking.
******************
Q. If you add the parking fee of $99 to your AP,
how many visits do you need to do
before you justify the cost
over the full box office price of
a One-Day Park Hopper ($101) + parking ($15),
for each visit (i.e., total of $116)?

The amortization schedule is below, where you divide your AP cost by the number of visits:
***
AP SoCalSelect
1x $283.00 (i.e., $184 + $99)
2x $141.50
3x $94.33
4x $70.75
***
AP SoCal
1x $338.00 (i.e., $239 + $99)
2x $169.00
3x $112.67
4x $84.50
***
AP Deluxe
1x $408.00 (i.e., $309 + $99)
2x $204.00
3x $136.00
4x $102.00
5x $81.60
***
AP Premium
1x $439.00 (i.e., $439 + $0.00)
2x $219.50
3x $146.33
4x $109.75
5x $87.80
******************
SUMMARY

When comparing ...
(a.) AP + prepaid parking;
vs.
(b.) adult One-Day Park Hopper + daily parking rate;
... your ____ AP saves you money on visit ___ [nth];

SoCalSelect = 3
SoCal = 3
Deluxe = 4
Premium = 4

To repeat my original post, if you pay the daily parking fee of $15 instead of adding prepaid parking, your savings are greater for visits of 6x or fewer.

*******************
Proof:

Q. How much money would it cost to pay for a 1-Day Park Hopper on every visit, plus daily fee parking?

TABLE: Raw cumulative sum of 1-day Park Hopper ($101) + daily parking fee ($15):
1x $116.00
2x $232.00
3x $348.00
4x $464.00
5x $580.00

No AP is more expensive than the 4th visit at full price.
********************

TRON
11-13-2010, 07:38 PM
Then again, I've started ordering a $100 Disney gift card each month. I keep them in a safe place and just whip them out when I need to renew.

Brilliant!!!!! I am going to do the same.:D

coronado_g
11-13-2010, 09:57 PM
The So Cal passes have no renewal discount, so there is no monetary savings to renew the pass prior to your next scheduled visit.

Disney does send a great 20% coupon to renew, even for the SoCal pass. But I'm considering letting my pass expire just so I can get a NEW picture taken for my card! My photo is sooo awful.

danyoung
11-14-2010, 04:37 AM
Is that a 20% coupon or a $20 coupon?

Malcon10t
11-14-2010, 06:34 AM
Is that a 20% coupon or a $20 coupon?
20% off a purchase of $50.

cstephens
11-14-2010, 08:54 AM
20% off a purchase of $50.

With the extended AP discounts on merchandise they've been offering lately, we haven't had to use that coupon for a while. We used to save ours for when we knew we were making major purchases.

akoni
11-14-2010, 12:21 PM
This is exactly how I justify the expense every year when our AP renewals (mine, DH and now DS3...DS4 is in April) come due and I just about vomit. Then again, I've started ordering a $100 Disney gift card each month. I keep them in a safe place and just whip them out when I need to renew.


This is a great way to prepare for the renewal I am going to start doing this as well

danyoung
11-14-2010, 03:09 PM
20% off a purchase of $50.

Thanks for the clarification. Quite a difference between a 20% off coupon for a $50 purchase and 20% off of a renewal, which is how the post was worded.

Malcon10t
11-14-2010, 05:22 PM
Thanks for the clarification. Quite a difference between a 20% off coupon for a $50 purchase and 20% off of a renewal, which is how the post was worded.I haven't had one in years, but last time I got one, is was $50 minimum.

Merm8fan
11-14-2010, 06:23 PM
Disney does send a great 20% coupon to renew, even for the SoCal pass. But I'm considering letting my pass expire just so I can get a NEW picture taken for my card! My photo is sooo awful.

I got an AP again this year after letting mine lapse for several months between visits, but they still used the old photo - apparently, they keep them on file. :eyeroll:

danyoung
11-15-2010, 06:43 AM
Yup. My picture is from the 90's, back when all my hair was brown. I LOVE that picture!!!