Talk to me about being an out-of-state passholder

[winnieofpooh]

My husband and I are getting a significantly larger tax return than originally estimated and are thinking of how to spend it. We have a trip planned for December 2020, and were thinking about upgrading to APs on that trip. We'd take another 5/6 day trip in 2021, but I'm not sure how many times we'll go down in 2021 besides that because we're from PA and flights can add up.

So for those of you who are passholders and don't live in state, do you regret it? Do you still take enough trips to get your money's worth out of the AP? I’m mostly worried about flights being a barrier for taking a lot of trips and wondering how others have gone about it.

 

[SaintsManiac]

Before the last 2 price increases it was well worth it. Now there is no way I would be able to justify it. And I'm much closer (Louisiana). We did 6 trips in 2 years. Some 3.5 park days, others 8 days.

You have to really sit down and take the time to crunch numbers. How do you like to dine? Do you shop? What resorts? Flights, etc. Are you willing to take 4 trips in one year? How long can they be? Do you have enough vacation time through work? Lots of questions only you can answer.

 

[winnieofpooh]

Before the last 2 price increases it was well worth it. Now there is no way I would be able to justify it. And I'm much closer (Louisiana). We did 6 trips in 2 years. Some 3.5 park days, others 8 days.

You have to really sit down and take the time to crunch numbers. How do you like to dine? Do you shop? What resorts? Flights, etc. Are you willing to take 4 trips in one year? How long can they be? Do you have enough vacation time through work? Lots of questions only you can answer.

Yeah, my worry was with the price increase. I have plenty of vacation time, but I think our plan of attack would be to take two larger trips and a couple of extended weekend trips or similar. We never drive so we don’t get the savings there. On longer trips we’d eat quick service for breakfast/lunch and table service for dinner. Weekend trips would likely just be quick service.

The biggest concern I have is flights. We’re using the rest of our points for our December trip, so we’d have to pay cash. For the most part we can get two tickets for $500, but that’s still a good chunk of change to be dropping multiple times a year.

 

[SaintsManiac]

Yeah, my worry was with the price increase. I have plenty of vacation time, but I think our plan of attack would be to take two larger trips and a couple of extended weekend trips or similar. We never drive so we don’t get the savings there. On longer trips we’d eat quick service for breakfast/lunch and table service for dinner. Weekend trips would likely just be quick service.

The biggest concern I have is flights. We’re using the rest of our points for our December trip, so we’d have to pay cash. For the most part we can get two tickets for $500, but that’s still a good chunk of change to be dropping multiple times a year.

Yep flights can be the big problem. We used points sometimes, drove a couple of times, and I had to stalk the Southwest site for months to get credits on our Thanksgiving flights.

For dining we used Disney Visa rewards dollars and rarely paid for a meal out of pocket. We encouraged family to gift us gift cards for birthdays and Christmas.

I just feel the break even point with out of state APs is not good anymore. It's so nice to not worry about buying tickets and having flexibility, but you need to work to make it worth it now.

 

[loves to dive]

I live in Georgia and drive down, had APs for about 5 years until the increase before this one and then just couldn't justify it. Before you needed to go to the parks at least 10 days a year, I'm not even sure what the break even point is now. We always get PHs so I would factor that in when I was crunching the numbers and we didn't use the Memory Maker even when it was included so didn't factor that in, and also always stay on site so free parking wasn't part of the price. I don't buy my tickets from Disney, I usually buy them from UT so I also use the discounted price when doing the math. I used to go 2 to 3 times a year for anywhere from 4 nights to 6 nights. We bought a RV about a year ago so take more trips in that so I just don't have the time or money to add 3 WDW trips a year, I might could squeak in 2 4 or 5 night ones. A rough estimate using the regular Platinum AP price, which is about $1290 and UT's current ticket prices on their site would be I would have to get 2 5 day PH trips and one 3 day. So, now it would take approx. 13 days for me to break even. We went in Nov. for 4 nights, I got 4 days with 1 day free PHs from UT for that trip. We went again in Jan. for 5 nights, again I got my tickets from UT and got 6 day PHs. So if I had bought an AP in Nov (it would have been somewhere around $1000 I think at that time) I still would not have broken even with how much I actually paid for tickets. I don't have any plans on going again before next Nov. We have camping trips planned in April and May already and we tend to take one a month or every 6 weeks up until Dec.

 

[amilli12]

I'm interested in the responses here too. I live in Kansas City and am considering buying an AP just for myself. Time off is not a problem at all, I run my own business and build the schedule around vacation time. I also drive, so flight costs are not a concern.
I take my 3 boys to Disney each fall for a long trip, and we always do 10 day PH tickets. This year in April I'm also headed down to the World for a girls trip with 3 day PH tickets. That would be 13 park days for me, I always get Memory Maker on my trips with my kids, and usually spend somewhere around $400-500 so I think I'm pretty close to making it worthwhile. Still debating though for some reason, ha.

 

[preemiemama]

We have been doing this for several years now. As PPs have said, it was worth it if you went for 10 days and factored in parkhopper cost. Currently, we are DVC owners, so it is a savings for us because we buy the DVC Gold passes. We're teachers, so we travel in the summer. We stay about a week in back-to-back years, and make the trips both within the 365 days that the one pass is valid. (We then skip year 3 and start over again the following year. ) This allows us to make 2 trips for less than the cost of one week's worth of PH tickets. I'm not sure I could justify it if we were considering Platinum passes- that is a higher break-even point for sure!

Free parking, merchandise and special event discounts, and Photopass value could also be included in the potential savings if these are important to you. Up until last year's hefty AP increase, followed by this year's increase, I would have had no problem recommending someone purchase a Platinum AP as an out-of-state visitor. At the moment, I would say to total up all the costs involved and see where your break-even point is.

 

[sparkle78]

We just became APs in 2018 , but been going to the parks yearly since 2010 from Ohio. 10 days is the breakpoint. We went for 11 day trip that year, I might consider it with only a 9 day trip because you can park hop for free, go in for just a few hours on arrival day , and the discount on shopping added up quickly.
Now we take 2 trips a year, one in April for 4-5 days long weekend. Then at thanksgiving for the 9-11 days.

 

[ellbell]

I'm in Canada and became a passholder in December. Best and worst decision ever.

Best because I've never felt like I've had so much freedom at Disney. We didn't feel like we had to "get our money's worth" and on rest days if we found a fastpass we really wanted we could pop in for a ride and leave again.

Worst because I went for 8 days in December and will be back 3 more times by the end of May. I'm spending more because it's easier to justify a quick weekend trip if you can find a good price on flights. I feel like by the end of the year I will have take at least another 5 trips between 3 and 8 days long.

 

[MLWDW1971]

My husband and I are getting a significantly larger tax return than originally estimated and are thinking of how to spend it. We have a trip planned for December 2020, and were thinking about upgrading to APs on that trip. We'd take another 5/6 day trip in 2021, but I'm not sure how many times we'll go down in 2021 besides that because we're from PA and flights can add up.

So for those of you who are passholders and don't live in state, do you regret it? Do you still take enough trips to get your money's worth out of the AP? I’m mostly worried about flights being a barrier for taking a lot of trips and wondering how others have gone about it.

We are from PA and have had annual passes for 2 years. We feel they were definitely worth it! Granted, we bought them thru DVC so we got a small discount. We ALWAYS park hop so for us, if we go twice a year it pays for itself. We also love how it eliminates that feeling like you need to be in the park all day to justify the ticket cost. The included photo pass is also a big value-add.

 

[alliecat523]

We live in IN and did APs for a few years. Recent prices had us drop them though. We never did long trips but tons of shorter ones. I would watch for a flight deal and then off we’d go. It was a blast and I miss it but those prices....

 

[SaintsManiac]

We live in IN and did APs for a few years. Recent prices had us drop them though. We never did long trips but tons of shorter ones. I would watch for a flight deal and then off we’d go. It was a blast and I miss it but those prices....

I'm going to cry when my AP expires!!! It's been so much fun.

 

[DisneyStarWisher]

My DH and I just got our first APs. We plan to activate them in November and go again in October 2021. After we got them, we decided we might throw in a shorter trip in May 2021. We would like to do the Flower and Garden Festival. The plan is to fly each time, but we may drive on the May trip. OP, I'm like you. Two tickets are around $500, but going down three times makes it pretty expensive. That's why I decided it would be better to do two longer trips in the future, making sure our APs cover both of them. We are also like a PP who said they take a year off. We also have the DVC discount. If we didn't, I'm not sure it would make sense cost-wise. If we lose the discount or if APs keep going up, we may do several trips without parks.

 

[jbehr12]

My husband and I are getting a significantly larger tax return than originally estimated and are thinking of how to spend it. We have a trip planned for December 2020, and were thinking about upgrading to APs on that trip. We'd take another 5/6 day trip in 2021, but I'm not sure how many times we'll go down in 2021 besides that because we're from PA and flights can add up.

So for those of you who are passholders and don't live in state, do you regret it? Do you still take enough trips to get your money's worth out of the AP? I’m mostly worried about flights being a barrier for taking a lot of trips and wondering how others have gone about it.

I am from Ohio and in 2018 my girlfriend and I upgraded our 10 day trip to an AP and got two other awesome vacations out of it. If you are going to go to Disney for 14 or more days in a single year it’s worth it.

Pros: if you had a vacation in mind already, it will make it significantly cheaper. The AP discounts are also nice.

Cons: it can get you to book trips you originally weren’t intending to book. I’m spontaneous so it worked for my situation but if you’re a planner it might give you some frustrating vacation temptations.

 

[Chris75]

I'm interested in the responses here too. I live in Kansas City and am considering buying an AP just for myself. Time off is not a problem at all, I run my own business and build the schedule around vacation time. I also drive, so flight costs are not a concern.
I take my 3 boys to Disney each fall for a long trip, and we always do 10 day PH tickets. This year in April I'm also headed down to the World for a girls trip with 3 day PH tickets. That would be 13 park days for me, I always get Memory Maker on my trips with my kids, and usually spend somewhere around $400-500 so I think I'm pretty close to making it worthwhile. Still debating though for some reason, ha.

Without actually doing the calculation it looks like you are just close to a break even. If you are able to plan the following fall trip so it falls within the annual pass window you would really be ahead though. I am in roughly the same part of the country as you and have passes but I got them right before the increase last summer. We have more than got our moneys worth from them. Many of the trips we drive and stay offsite so the savings on parking adds up fast. I never bought memory maker before so it wasn't truly a savings but I do enjoy having it.

 

[Miffy]

Out-of-stater here. I'm not in love with the new prices, but I'm still an AP holder, and I remember when an AP cost around $400 and change. Yeah, I'm not kidding. In January when I renewed my AP, which expires in March, I could not believe I was paying over $1,000 for the renewal. And I'm glad I did it then, because if I'd waited, it would've cost even more.

It's still worth it for me with 2 trips a year, but maybe just barely. The room discount sometimes helps, but not always. Ditto the food and merch discounts. It's nice having the photos, but I never would've bought PhotoPass, so I don't feel like I'm saving money there. I enjoy the intangible of having it--the one that says You could go to WDW next week if you wanted to because you have an AP! I've never done this, but I could, since I freelance and don't have to ask permission at work to leave.

So . . . my answer is maybe. Depends. I still like it. Another price hike and I may change my mind.

 

[Scubadaddy32]

You have to do the math for yourself, but we save $1,000.00+ purchasing AP's and that doesn't include any resort discounts.

 

[Brett Wyman]

Id love to but we had to turn off our internet to pay for the 4k renewal for 4.

 

[SleeplessInTO]

I'm in Canada and became a passholder in December. Best and worst decision ever.

Best because I've never felt like I've had so much freedom at Disney. We didn't feel like we had to "get our money's worth" and on rest days if we found a fastpass we really wanted we could pop in for a ride and leave again.

Worst because I went for 8 days in December and will be back 3 more times by the end of May. I'm spending more because it's easier to justify a quick weekend trip if you can find a good price on flights. I feel like by the end of the year I will have take at least another 5 trips between 3 and 8 days long.

This is basically me. We are in Canada, bought AP for two trips because it was worth it financially. Fast forward ... I’ve just booked our 4th trip for this set of APs and bought a second DVC contract because I ran out of points. Ugh. I need help.

 

[winnieofpooh]

I am from Ohio and in 2018 my girlfriend and I upgraded our 10 day trip to an AP and got two other awesome vacations out of it. If you are going to go to Disney for 14 or more days in a single year it’s worth it.

Pros: if you had a vacation in mind already, it will make it significantly cheaper. The AP discounts are also nice.

Cons: it can get you to book trips you originally weren’t intending to book. I’m spontaneous so it worked for my situation but if you’re a planner it might give you some frustrating vacation temptations.

I just did some math and right now, it looks like we'll be about $150 total shy of breaking even if we go for the AP. Which is just an additional day trip throughout the year, which I think is totally doable. It's just the knowledge that having an AP will make me much more likely to overspend on vacations throughout the year that I now have to determine is worth it.