Renew or Not to Renew: AP Renewal - DVC

[Brian Noble]

We are coming up on our Sorcerer's Pass renewal. Our only trip planned is a week (6 days) in Sept 2023. All other points have been listed for rent/confirmed reservation. We have no other plans on coming back to Disney until after 2025 due to other family obligations.

In this case I would not renew. You'd otherewise have at least two years in which you are paying for an AP but not visiting in '24 and '25, plus your one 2023 trip would be cheaper as day tickets than as APs.

The total you would not be spending on APs will pay for several sets of day tickets.

You also end up giving yourself a big window in which you can buy an AP certificate and activate it later, if they are offered anytime in the year prior to your visit (and assuming the activation windows stay the same).

 

[Maria_Ohana]

In this case I would not renew. You'd otherewise have at least two years in which you are paying for an AP but not visiting in '24 and '25, plus your one 2023 trip would be cheaper as day tickets than as APs.

The total you would not be spending on APs will pay for several sets of day tickets.

You also end up giving yourself a big window in which you can buy an AP certificate and activate it later, if they are offered anytime in the year prior to your visit (and assuming the activation windows stay the same).

I don't even know if they are offering AP certificates anymore. Rules have changed so much since COVID, trying to keep up is so challenging.

 

[Brian Noble]

The current T&Cs still say you have one year to activate it, but that can (and maybe will) change.
https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/annual-pass-terms-conditions/

 

[Maria_Ohana]

The current T&Cs still say you have one year to activate it, but that can (and maybe will) change.
https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/annual-pass-terms-conditions/

Thanks

 

[RuntheMouse]

I don’t know if this has already been discussed elsewhere but I received an email survey from Disney about my annual pass yesterday which leads me to believe they are considering bringing it back, otherwise why would they waste the time and money on a survey.

I also received a survey last week. FWIW I have an incredipass as we’re resale owners.

 

[Lumpy1106]

You are thinking of renewing a pass you have no intentions of using? Dump it. There is no way to make that math work. At best the AP is like a discounted ticket. It's not free. So what if you end up buying mulit-day tickets the next time you come? So much could change by then.

 

[mustinjourney]

If I wanted to enjoy a nice resort, it wouldn't be Disney. I'd choose a better run resort that isn't overrun with kids playing Disney music. Without the parks, it's difficult for me to see the appeal of DVC. For the cost, you could do a whole lot elsewhere.

When I give up my APs, I'll probably plan to come back every few years for a Halloween party and maybe a day at Epcot.

The question is whether you think you can do your long-term Disney plans without APs.

Personally -- I like being in the bubble and "feeling" like my room is already paid for. I haven't done it yet -- but I could easily do a parkless disney trip -- as it is -- we only hit up the parks 3-4 hours a day when we are there. If I went anywhere else comparable -- I would spend far more on the hotel than what DVC costs us.

 

[mustinjourney]

YEP 2 yrs of AP passes being unused. For 2 people 1 yr = approx $1800+ just to guarantee of having an AP.

technically speaking -- there's no guarantee that disney will continue to allow for AP renewals.

 

[mustinjourney]

I'd be curious to know how much higher their renewal rate is now vs 2019.

 

[FinnFogg]

Our passes expire in May, and I am facing a similar dilemma. I know what the rational choice is, but I really really don’t want to give up my AP!!!

We are from Vancouver, Canada and bought annual passes for our family of 5 for a trip in Nov 2019. At the time it made sense, as the Gold Pass was only $80 more than our 8 day park ticket, and we figured if we made it back in the next 12 months we were winning. Then Covid hit, we elected to cancel our passes and receive the partial refund. When the opportunity came up for people who has cancelled passes during the pandemic to purchase Gold Passes, we decide to do it as they weren’t selling APs to the general public at that point, there was no date by which we have to activate them (in fact, I think it was 2099) and the price was very reasonable (in the US$700’s plus tax).

We activated our passes last May for a 6 day trip to VGF, then I took the younger two back in October for another 6 days (3 BWV/3 BCV). In Feb the whole family went back and spent 5 days at AKV (club level). I’m heading back next week for 10 days with the younger two (4 nights BCV/6 nights OKW HH), and I have another 8 night “tentative” trip (4 nights BRV/4 nights BWV) booked in May the week before our passes expire as a “farewell” trip before our APs expire. We had a ton of DVC points banked though covid, so accommodations have not been an issue or significant cost as all points stays.

I have no doubt that we have gotten full value out of our APs, and Vancouver is FAR FAR FAR from Orlando. It does not make sense for our family of 5 to have annual passes for a resort in Florida going forward. I know the rational thing to do is to focus on Aulani and Disneyland like we used to do. But over the past 10 months, WDW has become like a second home. I REALLY REALLY don’t want to give up my AP.

As an aside, I’m bringing my parents next week. They do not have APs, and are only going to do 2 park days with us. Their tickets for 2 days cost US$627 (for 2 people). Coming from Canada, that’s getting uncomfortably close to $1000. Or $500 for TWO DAYS!!!! That seems absolutely crazy, and makes me want to renew my AP even more.

 

[aokeefe]

Our passes (Incredi-Pass) are up April 15th. It's killing me to let them go but with a daughter going off to college, going into ultra borrow mode to pull off 5 trips this past year and no plans to return until Dec 2024, we won't be renewing. I'll hope for the best for APs to renew but if not.... our future vacation plans will be altered.

 

[WDWLODGE]

We let ours expire in January. Our typical pattern is activate an AP & get two 10-12 day trips out of them & let them expire. Then purchase new AP's 8-10 month's later. Obviously that's not an option right now. We are in a holding pattern with full length WDW trips. We have other vacation plans for 2023 & 2024 and are hoping they return by 2025. If they don't return we'll have to make some hard decisions about DVC.

 

[keishashadow]

Our only trip planned is a week (6 days) in Sept 2023. All other points have been listed for rent/confirmed reservation.

we’ve had the same initial intentions, multiple times. Turns out, cheap airfare and plenty of time has changed our minds at least once per year. Often more, for long weekends before the Mr retired.

I also would often be invited to tag along on my extended family’s trips, nice to be able to pounce

lack of DVC points has never stopped us from booking a bonus trip thru CRO or offsite (WBC)

Personally -- I like being in the bubble and "feeling" like my room is already paid for. I haven't done it yet -- but I could easily do a parkless disney trip -- as it is -- we only hit up the parks 3-4 hours a day when we are there. If I went anywhere else comparable -- I would spend far more on the hotel than what DVC costs us.

I’ve said the same thing multiple times. Usually when I’m beat after several days & many miles on a WDW vacation…”next trip we are going to do a resort day”. Best laid plans…Other than Aulani, I have yet to be able to devote a full day solely to a DVC resort.

Over decades, being armed with APs & despite the best of intentions, the call of the parks was just too loud to ignore . Once park reservations were introduced, Knowing how we roll, I made sure to booking something. We do visit SW as day guests. split our trips when doing U to stay onsite there.

If we didn’t own points, I’d never consider paying the rates via cash to stay in a DVC property. Not that I don’t love staying there and do enjoy the special amenities of the individual resorts, IMO it’s the location that drives up the cost for all onsite properties

even tho all travel costs are currently higher than usual, the deals are still out there, especially if you have flexibility to book more last minute than DVC. We’ve done many non park trips in the last few years lovely deluxe properties for reasonable rates, far below the cost of Disney.

 

[Chuck S]

I've been renewing. But I sure will be glad when new AP sales start back up so I can change my roll-over month. The trip that activated my current pass was a one off big trip of 11 people over Thanksgiving, a time a never normally travel to Disney.

But I figure better to keep my AP active rather than risk losing it altogether.

 

[Anal Annie]

We faced this dilemma last Sept (we were fortunate enough to be able to get our AP's back when we went down for the 50th in Oct 2021). We had done 2 or 3 short trips during Covid WITHOUT the AP's while they were unavailable to purchase and had already said that if they didn't come back we'd be traveling elsewhere. The daily tix rates for length of stay trips is ridiculous. Well so we got lucky and got them and now we're in the "but how long do we keep this up" camp. We renewed last Sept then booked another Sept trip for this fall (it ends a day before our AP's expire). On that trip we were so fed up with the Genie+ mess were were hesitiant to plan anything else. BUT then later we also ended up booking a shorter 5 n trip over July 4th because we had the points available AND had the AP's so figured may as well use them. Now we'll have to decide what to do again this coming Sept. Like Chuck, we'd prefer a slightly different renewal date...but the renewal pricing is definitely attractive VS buying new or length of stay tix...

 

[E2ME2]

We are coming up on our Sorcerer's Pass renewal. Our only trip planned is a week (6 days) in Sept 2023. All other points have been listed for rent/confirmed reservation. We have no other plans on coming back to Disney until after 2025 due to other family obligations. Not knowing when new AP sales are coming back, I'm scared to drop our current AP. What's everyone doing?

We lucked out in the AP lottery.
We had been buying APs every 3rd year,
Traveling Late Jan in Year 1,
Early Jan in Year 2,
Resort Only in Year 3, wash, rinse, repeat.
Worked well from 2012-2020.
We had a family trip in Jan 2020, for all 9 of us (me/DW/DD/SIL/DS/DIL/+3Grands), so we purchased APs - - then WHAM , we all returned from WDW sick, and are convinced we had COVID before it was labelled as COVID!
DW was so sick that she didn’t even activate her pass on that trip, which led to unplanned luck on our part. When my renewal came around, she still had 6 months left, so I renewed as it was half of what 2 renewals would have cost. (& she basically got a free 6 month extension)We traveled to WDW in Jan 2021, and dealt through all of the Masking & Social Distancing & Mobile Ordering requirements.
We kept the renewals going, with staggered dates, so kept spreading the costs that way. THEN - when activating her AP this last trip (Jan 2023), the CM asked about our staggered dates and, when we explained, he extended my renewal date to match hers, so effectively gave me another 6 months on the same AP. So, through happenstance, we pretty much got 6 months gratis, on each AP. Now our dates are synced again, and we don’t have to renew until 2024. We’re retired now, and visit for longer durations, so we will definitely keep our APs active for as long as we can.

 

[CarolynFH]

We are still in our 30-day after expiration renewal window, but we've decided not to renew our Sorcerer APs this year. We plan to spend our "routine" January Disney visit in California in 2024, and for various personal reasons don't expect to be able to add trips to WDW during the year as we've done in the past. Also, we think we'll be able to deal with having regular tickets, +/- hopping privileges. We'll see - hoping that APs do come back, especially with a DVC special AP that allows multiple days in the parks spread across the year.

 

[BroganMc]

I Tell anyone who has an annual pass to renew regardless of what your future plans are. It never occurred to me that Disney would stop annual pass sales. Even the year of COVID when they canceled and closed the parks, I considered it just a temporary measure. But then the idiotic bean counters got in control and started messing with things. So as insurance, I always renew my annual pass. And I insist that my family does so as well. One of our family members did not renew their annual pass and has paid for it ever since. In fact it has stopped her from going to the parks because day tickets are just too damn expensive. It has a chilling effect.

2024 might be a year that you take off from the parks, but until you know Disney is absolutely going to continue offering the annual pass program, you will be screwing yourself over if you don't renew for 2025.

DVC is wonderful. The resorts are very pretty. But honestly would anyone stay or own there if it wasn't for the theme parks? There are much better resorts and much more affordable prices elsewhere. I also have the Marriott vacation Club so I have a lot of experience with that.

 

[DisBuckMan]

We were faced with this dilemma on our renewal date this past November. We usually make 3 trips per year on average to WDW, which makes AP's a no-brainer. However this year, we just had other things planned. We just got back two weeks ago from a trip to Europe. We have a trip to Yellowstone planned for late summer. So, basically, only one trip to WDW on our current AP's if we renewed.

Start doing the math, however, and it quickly skews toward renewing the passes anyway. For our 4 day trip in October, park hopper tickets would cost $2038.14 for the 3 of us. We renewed our AP's for less than $2600. So, we have the option of sneaking down for a short trip and completely recouping our money (likely), or just knowing that if they don't offer new AP's before next year, we'll more than come out ahead with our already 3 trips planned.

That said...it's completely ridiculous that it costs a family of 3 over $500/day on a 4 day ticket to just simply get in the gate at WDW. I feel for the folks on a budget much tighter than mine.

 

[sheilafri]

Question: Can you renew at a lower level pass? Keep that for the year or two you don’t plan to use it, then renew into a higher level pass that more effectively meets your needs? I’m pretty sure you can upgrade, but not sure about downgrading.