Is an Annual Pass Cost-Effective?

This Article Was Contributed by Scat Cat

With the variety of ticket options available, it can be difficult to sort out the issue of which ticket option offers the best value.

For a single trip within a 12 month period, it's difficult to justify an annual pass based on park entrance alone. A ten-day MYW ticket with the Park Hopper add-on costs $287 for and adult, $252 for a child; shorter duration MYW tickets are even less. Compare that with $469 and $414, respectively for the adult or child Annual Pass. However, Annual Passes can save you significant money in certain situations. Disney has made a habit of offering discounted room rates for holders of Annual Passes several times per year. It is quite possible -- indeed, even likely -- that having a single Adult AP in your group can result in significant savings for even a week-long trip. A lot depends on the category of resort you choose, and the time of year in which you will be traveling. As an incentive for people to purchase APs, Disney frequently offers excellent discounts for room-only bookings at their resorts. The following numbers reflect summer room rates for 2009, and are only presented as an example. Due to the seasonal variation in room rates, it is not practical to attempt a comprehensive definition of the savings afforded by an AP discount.

Having offered that caveat, let's say a family of four were planning a trip for July of 2009. The regular room rate for for Port Orleans Riverside is $185 weeknights, $195 Friday/Saturday. Paying the base room rate for a weeklong trip (arrive Saturday, depart on the following Sunday) would come to $1315. Add 8-day park hoppers for two adults ($281 each) and two children ($246 each) and the vacation total comes to $2369.

Let's see what happens when one of the adults buys an annual pass. The ticket prices change from $1054 to $1242. However, the AP-discounted rate for that same room is only $114 weeknights, $124 Fri/Sat -- meaning the cost of the room has dropped to $818, making the whole vacation cost $2060 -- a savings of $300! For a value resort, the AP savings would be less ($182), but for a deluxe such as the Animal Kingdom Lodge considerably more (the exact difference is difficult to predict due to the varying rates within the summer season for deluxe resorts).

Now let's say the family wants a couple days away from Disney, perhaps to visit some of the other Orlando-area attractions like Sea World or the Kennedy Space Center. Let's drop the MYW tickets down to five days. You still have one adult AP ($487), one adult 5 day MYW+PH ($272), and two child MYW+PH ($237 each) for a total of $1235 in tickets plus $818 for the room - a total of $2,053. The rack rate total comes to $1014 for 5-day MYW+PH (2 adult and 2 child), plus $1315 for the room for a total of $2,333. Still a good deal.

From the above, and other calculations which have been omitted for benefit of the reader's sanity, we can conclude some general rules of thumb:

1. The more expensive the resort, the fewer days you need to stay to realize significant savings by utilizing the passholder discount.
2. The longer the stay, the greater the benefit of using the passholder discount.
3. The benefit will be less pronounced during off-peak time, when room rates are lower.
4. A single AP holder can book the discount for two rooms at a time, so the savings can really add up for larger traveling parties.

Keep in mind that AP discounts are only available for a limited number of rooms, and may not be available at all for some resorts. If you wish to use them to save money on your trip, it is best to be flexible as to which resort you stay in. The planning forums here on Magictrips are a good source for timely notification of these discounts, so be sure to check in frequently if you hope to use an AP discount. And if you're not thoroughly confused by all that, consider that there are other discounts available as well, such as for AAA members. In the final analysis, you can save significant money on your vacation if you're willing to put pencil to paper and work out all the numbers. And don't forget to enlist the help of of the Magictrips community (via our message boards) if you get completely confused!

Last Updated: May 21, 2009