Should we upgrade to Annual Passes? Looking for advice.

[tipsytrtle]

I am throwing out this question for those who have way more knowledge than we do about how passes work, TIA
We are lucky enough to be going October 31st-November 12th and then November 12th-24th with the free dining promotion, two linked reservations.
As part of that promotion we needed to put a 2day park hopper on each reservation.
We plan on being at the parks 20 times over that 25 day period.

We are undecided if we will be returning in the next year after this very lucky amazingly long trip.
Does it make financial sense to upgrade to the Annual passes anyway? How will that work if we have already paid off our two reservations before arriving? Will we get money back as the AP is 664 per year but 2 10 day passes are 777 each?
How would the mandatory 2day park hopper on the second package come into play with crunching the numbers?

Thanks again for any input

 

[acbshada]

While I don't have an annual pass (yet - we are discussing it for next year), I did a quick look around for an answer to your questions.

According to http://www.disneyfoodblog.com/dining-plans-for-annual-passholders/, it looks like "Annual Passholders...members are not eligible to take advantage of any Free Dining Plan promotions if they choose to book a package without tickets or a package using any discounts".

The way I read this is you have to have some sort of ticket (other than your annual pass) tied to your reservation; otherwise, you won't be eligible for free dining.

Again, I don't know a lot of info - just been doing my own personal research. So I hope someone with some more know-how can come along and help you out a bit more!

Best to you - those trips sounds like a lot of fun!

 

[Lynne M]

I'm going to move this over to the theme parks board, as it pertains more to tickets than resorts.

 

[Sammyjo199]

You could downgrade your second registration for just a 2 day hopper ticket. You would then upgrade your original 10 day hoppers at the park to Annual Passes. The 2 day hopper you would not use for this trip but could use them for a trip in the future (they do not expire until they are used). Make sure when you go through the check in they are using your annual pass from the first trip and keep the 2 day tickets. Does that make sense?

 

[supersnoop]

Can you clarify; do you have "free dining" on both reservations, or just the second one?

You can't trade in two tickets for one new one. So, you'll want to upgrade one ticket and save the second for later.

 

[hakepb]

You could downgrade your second registration for just a 2 day hopper ticket. You would then upgrade your original 10 day hoppers at the park to Annual Passes. The 2 day hopper you would not use for this trip but could use them for a trip in the future (they do not expire until they are used). Make sure when you go through the check in they are using your annual pass from the first trip and keep the 2 day tickets. Does that make sense?

The problem with the downgrade is losing those extra FP+
Once you upgrade to the AP, you can then select more FP+.(based on availability)

 

[schoen]

Upgrading at least one of your tickets could make financial sense. There are decent discounts on merchandise, tours, food, etc. I know you have free dining for the second half of your trip, but the first half is almost two weeks, so Tables in Wonderland might make sense for you. TIW work for alcohol, resort bar food, so it can even have value even if you have free dining, but of course you will need an AP to get access to it.

 

[theyoungs07]

If you are ok with the Fastpasses for the second part of your second stay being at 30 days, then I'd buy 10-day hoppers for the first part, then upgrade them. The 2-day ticket can stay on your account and can be used for a later stay, or towards a future AP. If you are eating TS meals (and depending on your resort you may be able to use it at QS there) in the 1st half, then you should get the TIW card for an extra $100 and it'll give you 20% off most TS meals for a year as well as 20% off of the cash items while on free dining (alcohol or extra food for anyone you might be meeting). If you are concerned about 60 day FP for the entirety of your stay, then you will pay more but be better off with separate hoppers.

How are your 10 day hoppers more than your AP? I'm guessing you have a number wrong there. It think last time I paid an extra 250 to go to an AP from a 10 day PH...but was worth it for me since I was offsite (parking) and using TIW for character meals. Maybe I'm missing something.

 

[tipsytrtle]

We have free dining on both reservations