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View Full Version : Whats the best way to get an AP



SJSman
12-17-2004, 03:06 PM
Im going to DL on Wednesday and want to get an annual pass. What is the best way to go about doing this? If I buy a ticket and get the pass later in the day, is there any discount? I want to do this the right and most economical way, so any info would be much appreciated!

arielova
12-17-2004, 04:33 PM
Buy the pass instead of a ticket at the front ticket booths. I've always bought my passes at the Disney Store. I don't even know if they sell them there anymore, furthermore with the price increase in passes I'll wait to buy mine until next time I go!!! :D Since mine expires on the first. I cannot afford to renew it this year, not right away anyhow.... :(

sediment
12-17-2004, 06:41 PM
You won't get a discount, per se. You will only get a few extra days to the end of your AP by buying a multi-day pass and then converting to an AP on the last day. (And I'm not even sure if this is how it works.)

So, ask yourself: will you be returning at the same time next year, between the first day used on the multi-day pass and the last year of the multi-day pass? If so, then you might be better off buying parkhoppers and then converting to AP afterward.

Do note that I think you'd have to buy a PAP in order to go next week in a year. (Well, probably starting 12/24 for a Deluxe.)

Secondly, if you buy an AP on Wednesday, then you can use the discounts in the park on your first day, which I don't know exactly what they are. Food and souvies.

jon80flt
12-17-2004, 06:58 PM
Hi Everyone... this is my first post, and I'm a little "wet behind the EARS"... so to speak! I am a recent Premium AP holder... have gone 12 times in the past 45 days!!!

We just bought passes for my sister's family using an interesting method... we took advantage of the Albertson's Fall Pass promotion, where we purchased full-access passes (no blackouts) on the monday before Thanksgiving, and could use them as many times as we wanted until they expired yesterday (Dec 16). They cost $89 each... the interesting thing was, we were able to upgrade them to the $99 So.Cal. pass for only an additional $10 each... as long as we did the upgrade before they expired yesterday. My sister's family went to DL and DCA over two days, and now they have passes for the rest of the year, albeit, with blackout dates now... but, that's not all, when we upgraded the passes, we flashed our AAA card, which has a promotion running that gave us $10 in Disney Bucks for each pass we upgraded! We netted full year passes for no actual additional money!

Although the Albertson's promotion has ended, I would be willing to bet that you could do a similar process with the Costco City Passes. According to Mouseplanet's DL Park Update:

http://www.mouseplanet.com/parkupdates/dlr/dlr041213.htm

It says:

Costco is offering a Southern California CityPass for $149.99 for adults, and $114.99 for children ages 3 to 9. The CityPass includes a three-day Disneyland Resort park hopper ticket, one-day admission to Knott's Berry Farm, one-day admission to SeaWorld in San Diego, and one-day admission to either the San Diego Zoo or the San Diego Wild Animal Park. The first admission must be used by March 31, 2005, and the pass expires 13 days after the first admission is used.

The tickets are available at Southern California Costco stores, or at the Costco Web site (link). You must be a Costco member to purchase the tickets, and a shipping fee applies to Internet orders.

Depending on which AP you were thinking of buying, this may be a great deal, because you might be able to upgrade the CityPass to an Annual pass, and get the added benefit of the other park tickets, as well.

Only you can decide if the CityPasses would work for you, and it takes a little "thinking outside the box"... but maybe there is something here you could take advantage of.

Good Luck!
Jon

Wendi
12-17-2004, 08:01 PM
If your AP will have any blockout dates during your initial trip, get a park-hopper first and then upgrade it to an AP after your blocked dates. Otherwise, just get the AP right away so you'll be able to take advantage of the AP discounts.

SCUBAbe
12-17-2004, 08:11 PM
my AP expired on 12/10. I'm in no hurry to re-new it though. I'm on a disney break...LOL...I amy re-new it in a couple of months or just wait until next year, because I may be going to NY soon..:)

MommyTo3Boys1Girl
12-17-2004, 10:43 PM
If you get a parkhopper and then convert it to an AP on the last day of your park hopper, your AP expiration date goes back to your first use day of your parkhopper, but they will give you credit for that parkhopper cost.
Example, you spend $129 on a 5 day parkhopper, first use is December 20th, and on your 5th day, December 24th, you convert it to an AP, $209, you would only pay the difference of the $209 and $129, $80, but the pass would expire on December 20th of the following year. Hope this makes sense.

disney jones
12-18-2004, 11:17 AM
Also, if you plan to purchase a lot of merchandise at Disneyland during your AP annual life, one person in your party could upgrade to Premium, the others still hold normal passes. That way, you can take advantage of all the extra shopping and discounts for your gropup, but there isn't a need to upgrade all your APs to premium.

stan4d_steph
12-18-2004, 03:27 PM
Im going to DL on Wednesday and want to get an annual pass. What is the best way to go about doing this? If I buy a ticket and get the pass later in the day, is there any discount? I want to do this the right and most economical way, so any info would be much appreciated!If you buy another form of admission media, whatever you spent may be applied to an AP as long as you are in the park on the day you used it. There's no discount, but you won't lose the money you spent on the ticket, it will be subtracted from the additional cost of whatever AP you choose.

DefyingGravity
12-18-2004, 03:40 PM
This is a little off-topic, but if you have an AP and want to go to the parks on a blocked-out day, do you have to pay full price? Or can you buy a cheaper ticket?

SoCalDisneyLover
12-18-2004, 04:31 PM
This is a little off-topic, but if you have an AP and want to go to the parks on a blocked-out day, do you have to pay full price? Or can you buy a cheaper ticket?

A Blockout Day Ticket is $30 I believe, and works like your regular pass to Both parks, for that day Only.

VickiC
12-18-2004, 07:06 PM
The Costco Citi Pass is not upgradable as the price incorporates other things besides DLR admission.

Darkbeer
12-19-2004, 03:55 AM
^ I have been told that with the CityPass, you could upgrade, and that you got a $129 credit (not the full price of the CityPass, but the DLR portion)... but as always, things are always subject to change, I would call and verify before I bought the ticket to make sure (and be sure and write down the date, time and person you talked to, in case there is any problems when you try and upgrade....)