Susiesnowflake said:We got them because it was the most cost effective option for our length of stay. And once we had them, we planned for returns before their expiration.
I said "other" for the exact reason above. We just returned from a 2 week trip, potentially 15 days in the park. I really could have gone either way - get APs (1 adult/1 child) and be able to go into the park every day or get MYW 10day non-expiry hoppers and ration our park days. I planned to use left over plusses we have from previous trips with either AP or MYW. Although I wasn't aware at the time that some consider it cheating to reserve AP rate before actual purchase of the AP, this is what I did, so I guess I was one of the "cheaters."
Economically, for me, it just didn't make sense to go the AP route without a room discount as part of it, since I already was holding reservations with a AAA discount. And I didn't just get one AP to get the discount - I got one for each of us going so we could have the same days in the park - just didn't make sense otherwise. If we couldn't have gotten an AP room discount, then it made more sense to keep my AAA discount rate, purchase 10 day MYW tickets. The outcome was so close economically with the AP room discount, that it was almost a breakeven situation for me. What made me go with the AP was the fact that we had the option to go into the park all 15 days (we actually did 12 park days) and we had the option to make a second trip with tickets paid for.
So going the AP route, in the long run, will have me spending more money at Disney over the year than I would have with only the MYW and AAA discount. I didn't really save money because I already have reservations for a week in December - it's just that I feel like I got "more" for the money I spent and will be spending. So even though I guess I'm considered a "cheater" for reserving AP room discount w/o holding an AP or voucher at the time of making the reservation - I'll still be spending far more at Disney this year than I would have otherwise. I would think this is what Disney wants - customers who spend more there than they planned to otherwise!