Ticket Advice PLEASE.

[Guest]

Can any of you more experianced Disney fans advise me on the disney annual passes.

we are going for 3 weeks shortly.
we all have 21 day disney tickets
we have at least 8 meals booked while there and want to book a few more
we dont drive so wouldnt make use of the parking discount. is worth our while if i got a disney annual pass and would it save us any by getting 1.
also avice on dining plans if not staying at a disney on site hotel.

Thanks in advance for any info and advice anyone can share with us.

[highlander447]

Hi only advice I can offer is on non driving dining, plan to pay for cabs the way I do it is either use the free disney transport to get to restaurant if u are eating at a resort, all parks and DTD send buses to resorts, if u are eating at a park then u can't get a bus to or from DTD from a park, we usually se the free transport either to get there or back but plan for a cab one way as well, cabs are pretty cheap, even staying onsite at disney we still used cabs, WDW is huge our resort hotel was closer to parts of I-D than it was to WDW

[Guest]

I think if you are not going to make use of resort discounts or free parking, then there is not a lot to be gained by having an AP unless you will use it for more than 1 trip, especially as you already have a 21 day ticket for this trip.
You could save on dining and shopping, but you would need to spend an awful lot to save the cost of the pass with these discounts alone. I'll let you do the maths!
Another thing open to you if you have an AP is the DDE card ($50) which would save 20% on all food and drinks at participating restaurants. This could be a considerable saving if you have a large party and plan a lot of onsite dining. Again it's a case of doing the maths to see if the cost of the AP and DDE is worth it for the savings you could make.
If you are not staying onsite then the dining plan isn't an option, it is only open to guests booking a Disney hotel and ticket package.

[Guest]

OK Thanks for info DEFERNATLY looking into it for our next trip.

[michelleminnie]

Hi Loadsafairydust.

I was interested in your comment about the DDE card.
We are going in Dec for 1 week and May for 3 weeks.
Would the DDE be valid for both trips or will it expire sooner?
Can you purchase just one AP and DDE card and still benefit?

Do you have a link to a website providing details of participating restaurants and is it valid for any character meals?

[Guest]

DDE card is great! It is valid for a year from the date of issue (sometimes they give 13 months to allow for processing time) so you can use it for both trips.
We found it saved us loads as we did a lot of onsite dining and there are 4 of us. This link explains a bit more about it and gives a list of participating restaurants, lots of character meals are included.
Only one person needs an AP to purchase it, you can ask for an additional card for a spouse and it is valid for a party of up to 10 people provided the cardholder pays the whole bill.

[michelleminnie]

Loadsafairydust,

Thanks for the reply. It seems to make great sense to get a DDE, can you use it on pre booked meals including character meals and breakfasts(ADR's).

[Guest]

The only one we encountered where we couldn't use it was the Fantasmic package, otherwise all our pre-booked meals were OK.