Annual Passes or No?

Yes, this. It is always tempting to renew at the cheaper price, but unless we've got a trip lined up soon, it generally makes more sense to wait and buy new passes later.

Since we're discussing AP's, does anyone know if you can still upgrade a multi-day ticket to an AP once you're at the parks? DH and I hadn't planned on getting AP's this year, but since then we've scheduled a shorter trip with grandkids next month. Each ticket for that trip was $600+. So, we figured that since we've already got $600 invested, the two of us may as well go the rest of the way and upgrade to Incredipasses when we get there if that's still an option.

Yes you can, just make sure you do it before you use the last day's ticket, and your AP will start when your first ticket was used. https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/annual-pass-terms-conditions/

Sorcerer Pass here from NJ. I don't see the value in the Incredipass. It's way too crowded Christmas and Thanksgiving anyway. Been there done that. Besides, you get all the Christmas vibes without having to go those weeks.

As an out of state, resale only, owner, Incredipass is all that we can buy. We, too, have no desire to go to the parks over the holidays. If I lived in Floria, I would buy the lowest end pass (I can't remember what it's called) that blacks out weekends and holidays and I'd be just fine going midweek.

Thanks! We upgraded once, several years ago, but I hadn't heard about anyone doing it for awhile. Since this is a short trip, we'll probably go ahead and upgrade the first day and, hopefully, take advantage of some AP discounts.

Just a reminder if you upgrade your tickets to annual pass you’ll need to make park reservations for any days after that unless they’re “good to go days”! (They really need to get rid of that!)

We currently have a Sorcerer Pass, we had an aborted trip last November with 10 day date based tickets. Medical issues prevented that trip so i asked how much to convert to APs? Turned out approximately $75 each for 2 of us. (A no brainer) So we planned a trip we just took at the end of April, and have our usual trip scheduled for November. We’ll probably try for athe same thing nect year using Membership Magic Beyond. My planning has us at 6 points to bank after a 1 week in April next year followed by 2 weeks in November with the 65 points each for the AP. Yes, we had a surplus of points from banking.

We are from Ohio and like to venture down at least 3 times oer year. Having an AP also makes it to where my wife and I are able to take spontaneous 1-2 day trios withiut the kids. We buy the sorcerer pass with the DVC discount. It was ine of the biggest reasons we went direct, knowing the AP was so inportant to us. We olan to buy an AP every year for our family of 5, except for years we go on Disney cruises- which we havent done yet.

I like Annual Pass binge years. I last went from January 2024-January 2025, and my next AP year will be September 2026-2027. Go 3-5 times in a year, go until you feel done, and then take 6-18 months off. If your AP year crosses your DVC use year, you can bank and borrow to use up to 4 years of DVC points in one AP year. And DVCPointSorcerer71's math is spot on: don't pay to renew if you will not be going back for a few months. Even if we leave September 2027 and go back January 2028, we get an extra trip our of a new pass rather than renewing.

This year, we are going big with friends and family, so not quite as many trips for us but more people going. Nah, I added on a resale contract so I still have enough points to go on 3 week-ish trips and probably some smaller trips too. And then we take a break.

I have been wanting to go back, so maybe the 20-month break was more than I wanted. And those 20 months were broken up by a quick overnight trip when I got Moonlight Magic.

We use a sorcerer pass as were locals and go every week. When were blocked out during the holidays we use our Universal pass but since this is our last full year in Florida we wont be renewing our Universal passes as dont go regularly enough. Going forward we will probably be here twice a year so its debatable if the pass is worth it? Depends on how many days we stay but probably most time it pronably is justified as 2 5+ days stays or longer will run over 1100 dollars I think. If we can do AP looping itll be even more worthwhile.

We live in NY and have purchased the Incredipass for the last 4 years. Given the amount of days we go to WDW, as well as the time of year we typically visit (October through February), it saves us money. For example, this year the cost for Incredipass had a "break even" point of 6 park days when comparing the cost of a park ticket during our December and February trips. We were going to the parks for 7 days over those two trips, so the Incredipass makes sense. Then tack on the trip in October (another 4 days) and it just becomes a no-brainer to get the Incredipass.

Funny how it works, though. We kicked the tires on DVC for years before finally purchasing. Before we bought DVC, we would visit WDW one week a year. After buying DVC, we said we would never need the AP because we are not FL residents and only go one week per year. Then over the years we started visiting WDW more often, and a few years ago my wife floated the idea of APs. I was like "no way, we don't need them", maybe because of some weird stigma in my head that they were only for people who live near WDW. Then my wife showed me the cost savings and I said "ok, it makes sense this year because of the number of days we will be there". Yeah, that was four years ago and we have continued getting the AP every year because of the cost savings. I guess we are "those people" now 😂

The one thing about APs that I like is that when I go into a park I am okay with not doing much because I know I can always go back. When I had whatever type of pass I had with a finite number of days on it I always felt that I had to get my money's worth every time I entered a park.

I keep seeing people saying that they get the Sorcerer Pass with the "DVC Discount". I know that buying a direct DVC contract gives you "Florida residency" in Disney's eyes, and allows you to purchase a Florida resident annual pass such as the Sorcerer, Pirate, or Pixie Dust pass. That said I have not see anything official about a DVC discount on annual passes. Am I missing something? or is there a true annual pass discount for direct DVC owners?

This isn't true, only actual Florida Residents can get the Pixie Dust and Pirate passes.. DVC unlocks the Sorcerer pass for non Florida Residents but not the others. For the Florida Resident passes, you actually need an ID with a Florida address or a utility bill.. DVC property doesn't count.

No, you dont get Florida residency at all. You only get access to the sorcerer pass which is cheaper than the incredipass. Which is why I think people call it a discount.

Yes, you get to buy the sorcerers pass at the same price Florida residents do. Its on the dvc page and in several articles written about direct benfits. Check out this article on DVC fan which outlines it:https://dvcfan.com/dvc-discounts/a-guide-to-dvc-membership-levels-and-benefits/

I have had the Incredipass since it’s birth (and formerly the Platinum Plus Annual Pass which was a much more superior pass offering in my opinion!). We actually just switched to the Sorceror Pass this year with 2 kids now we felt like the price difference wasn’t worth it if we weren’t taking advantage of the no black-out dates during the holidays. So first year as Sorceror Pass members, we will see if it makes any difference to us or not. Disclaimer, we did not use our points to purchase the passes, we paid cash for them. I am in a state of forever borrowing so I need my points for room stays more than tickets haha

We do have one... we oscillate between Pixie, Pirate, and Sorcerer Passes... Each have their benefits...

We like the Sorcerer Pass, we typically go down 4-5 times a year, 4 to 8 days at a time. I like to rope drop, my husband not so much. Go back to the resort around 11-12 noon hang by the pool or do something else. My voodoo math was after 5 days its free 😂

We've had annual passes for a long time, since they were like $300 😭. We're out of state and do the two annual trips in one ap year, not renewing just getting a new one to line up with trips.

Now we are eligible for florida resident passes because we recently bought a vacation home in sw florida so it's likely we'll get the Pirate pass and renew since we are going slightly more often.

We live in PA but are retired so we take 3 - 4 trips a year to WDW. The Sorcerer's pass has been great for us. We would never come during the blackout periods anyway so not having to buy the Incredipass or individual tickets saves us a lot of money. I know my son can't wait until he and his fiance are married so she qualifies for the Sorcerer's pass as well (he's listed as an owner on all of our contracts). I mean, that's not the only reason he can't wait to get married, but it will be nice 😂.

We originally got the Sorcerers pass after getting the blue card and the savings on that vs the Incredi-pass were pretty significant, more or less offsetting the maintenance fees on the 150 pt contract. However the Christmas week is now back in our annual rotation of trips to Florida so we are back to the more expensive pass. As long as you make two trips to Disney buying a pass is probably worth it