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DizneyMommy
08-02-2007, 05:51 AM
I have had a premium AP for many years, as had my husband, but this will be the first time we have to buy one for our soon to be 3 year old. My question is, it seems entirely ridiculous to include parking and discounts on a pass for a 3 year old who can neither drive nor buy anything - has anyone ever heard of Disney giving a discounted price for the premium pass for toddlers? I have never heard of them doing such a thing and it is probably a waste of keystrokes to ask, but I just can't get over how silly it is to pay extra for parking priveledges for a 3 year old when all I really need is the extra days.

Darkbeer
08-02-2007, 05:55 AM
No discounts.

But what many families do is buy one Premium AP, and then Deluxe AP's for the rest of the family. Yes, you would have to worry about Blockout dates, but most families don't want to deal with the very busy days anyways.

DizneyMommy
08-02-2007, 06:03 AM
We are seriously thinking for the first time about down grading to Deluxe for this reason, but the only thing is we always enjoy going Christmas day or Christmas eve, and my birthday happens to be a perpetual blackout day due to 4th of July. Right there we are already paying $60 each in blockout tickets and between that and the discounts (we dine there a LOT) it is really worth the money for the Premium for us. We are the kind of sick people who don't ever mind how crowded it is, if we get it in our minds one afternoon to have dinner in the park, or just go watch the fireworks and get some perpermint hot chocolate, we like the freedom to just go and do it.

DizneyMommy
08-02-2007, 06:06 AM
It is such a silly rule, makes we want to take full advantage of it and make sure whenever we go with friends and family that we loan them our 3 year year old (AND her car seat of course) and her parking pass so they can park free. As long as she's in the car they have to accept it, right? If they're gonna make us pay it, why not use it?

Malcon10t
08-02-2007, 06:08 AM
I have had a premium AP for many years, as had my husband, but this will be the first time we have to buy one for our soon to be 3 year old. My question is, it seems entirely ridiculous to include parking and discounts on a pass for a 3 year old who can neither drive nor buy anything - has anyone ever heard of Disney giving a discounted price for the premium pass for toddlers? I have never heard of them doing such a thing and it is probably a waste of keystrokes to ask, but I just can't get over how silly it is to pay extra for parking priveledges for a 3 year old when all I really need is the extra days.No, but remember if you bring family, he can ride in their car and save them parking. Also, consider starting him off with a deluxe and see if he truly needs a premium.

Malcon10t
08-02-2007, 06:10 AM
It is such a silly rule, makes we want to take full advantage of it and make sure whenever we go with friends and family that we loan them our 3 year year old (AND her car seat of course) and her parking pass so they can park free. As long as she's in the car they have to accept it, right? If they're gonna make us pay it, why not use it?Actually, thats exactly what it is designed for. When we used to go with extended family, we would place one kid in each car so everyone got free parking.

You really are paying for all the additional days, the perks are just that, perks. In the last 3 years, we have never used parking, it would be nice if we could lower the premium by that, but they won't.

DizneyMommy
08-02-2007, 06:12 AM
Ah, well then I will do it guilt-free and enjoy the option to do so! :)

carolyn
08-02-2007, 08:19 AM
A lot of people do that with lower-level passes as well. Pay to add parking only to the child's pass. That way Mom or Dad or Grandma or the nanny, whatever, can take the child and you only had to add parking to one pass.

This doesn't work for me, however, because sometimes I like to go without the kids. :p

Bytebear
08-02-2007, 10:54 AM
We were Premiums for years, but we droped to Deluxe when they raised the prices. I added parking to my pass and that worked out fine. We did go on one blackout day which was an extra $30 per person, but that's still cheaper than difference in pass prices. I think you can actually use 3 blackout days and still come out ahead. If you are a big shopper, then maybe the 20% will be worth it (Deluxe only gives 10%), but we usually end up with friends who have Premium passes and can occasionally get the bigger discount, and we don't really buy much more than a meal anyway.

mkraemer
08-02-2007, 11:02 AM
We've had APs for years, and for most of that time, all our passes were Premium (nothing to sneeze at, with six of us in the family). We always stay at a hotel on Harbor, so we don't use the free parking (I think I've been in the parking structure twice).

Why do we have Premium passes? Well, we live 400 miles away. Now, that doesn't seem to make sense. Buy the more expensive pass when you live farther away? Yep. We don't want to have to try to figure out when we can or can't go to the park. We want to go when we want to go.

One year, the kids had Deluxe passes, and I had a Premium pass; we were trying to be practical. We went to the park, and I went through the turnstiles. My kids couldn't--we hadn't checked the blackout dates. Believe me, it only takes one event like that to change your mind!

("Mommy, why could you go into the park and I couldn't?")

Never again.

Malcon10t
08-02-2007, 11:13 AM
We do the "Upgrade Plan." Start with the lowest, and upgrade as you need it.

I have 3 of us with PAPs and 2 with Deluxes. The ones with deluxes expire Dec 25th. So for them, I get the 8 day pass for our trip and we upgrade on Dec 31st (last deluxe blackout day.) Then, in the summer, we have 1 day that one of them is usually there on a blackout day and its cheaper to buy 1 block out than upgrade to a PAP. The other 3 expire in the summer. So, in July we get DAPs (1 PAP for Discounts) then in Dec will upgrade the other 2 DAPs to PAPs for Christmas.

This last trip, Escape Artist brought is SoCal GF. He first bought her a SoCal 1 day tix. Then upgraded it to a 2 day hopper for a visit a couple days later. Then on that day, upgraded for $2 to a SoCal Select. In Oct when we go, she will upgrade to a regular SoCal. If they determine she will use a DAP, they can upgrade then.

katiesue
08-02-2007, 12:15 PM
My daughter's had a premium since she was three (she's 11 now). We go mostly on weekends and we like to go on holidays etc so it's easier. What I did do though is to spread out our renewal dates. Mine is in March and hers in June. That way it's not such a huge hit all at once.

I've thought about downgrading but it just never seems to work out with the dates we like visit on. And I don't want to have to think about it. We can just jump in the car and go spur of the moment.