Annual pass

[Serenitedisney]

Looking at buying Magic Plus annual pass. I’ve read so many posts but I’m still not confident about how it works.

Is it worth it to buy the Magic Plus AP rather than a 4 day 2 park hopper pass. On the face if it there not much difference in cost. The magic plus will give us Extra Magic Time which is worth a lot to us staying off site and not planning to buy fast pass.

We’re going for one week and would go to the parks every day if we had tickets. Disney is the focus of the holiday.

However much I read about it I just don’t get it - can anyone explain

-how/where do I buy AP and how to pay for it;
- about the temporary one day pass/buying online/activating date etc;
-What’s the deal about people saying they are waiting for them in the post etc?
-Is there a difference in activating the date if you buy outright or pay monthly? We’d want to secure our 3 days we can book.
-Also I’m confused about AP booking - is this actual lower availability? If we’re there Wednesday to Wednesday first week of July is it reasonable to say if the weekend will be available if we book our three days as Wednesday/Thursday/Friday.
-So AP can only book 3 days so there’s a chance the parks will be booked up for the other days and we won’t be able to go anyway?
-If there is a price increase in March and we buy the AP before then when will it be valid from, is it date of purchase?

Is there anywhere this is explained? Is there anything else to know about that I’ve not thought of?

We’re going first week of July 2023.
Staying off site to use points from hotel chain.
Will be there one week. Wednesday to Wednesday.
Might go back within the year but we really want to be able to go everyday when we’re there.

Am really looking forward to getting replies to help me figure this all out.

[Dutchdisneyfan]

When you buy your temporary pass you can reserve one day.
When we did this it was all online nothing with the postal.

Then you go to the office in Disneyland Paris (near the studio's) and get your annual pass. Only then you can reserve the other days if available.
But if you stay at a Disney hotel you can get in the parks with your magic pass, so you don't have to have reservations.

And don't forget to add you discount at shops/restaurants you get with an annual pass. Or parking if you are staying offsite.

[Gill H]

That is what is putting me off renewing ours. If staying offsite you can’t reserve days until you have an AP (I think?) and once you have it, you can reserve 3 days.

So I could buy a dated 1-day ticket in advance (dated ones don’t need a reservation) and then upgrade to an AP in the park. Then I could reserve your other days - if they were available. If not, I would be stuck outside DLP for the rest of my stay!

If you are staying onsite you don’t need to reserve days. But onsite is way more expensive.

I guess I could buy the AP over the phone in the UK and have it posted to me - but then I would miss out on some of the 12 months. And I wouldn’t want to leave it too close to the date of travel in case it didn’t arrive in time.

Last time we stayed offsite and bought 3-day dated tickets. It was annoying not to be able to get APs (you can only do that with 1-day tickets) but until they change or drop the reservation system, it’s just too awkward IMO.

[eaglesrest]

I'd say it's worth buying the AP in your case, from a financial perspective at least, as you will also get free parking, 10% discount on food and merch, early park entry and a dedicated entrance.

You can buy it from DLP online, just change to the French site and turn on translate in your browser. You will need to take some passport size photos and upload them to the DLP site.

If you order the tickets to be delivered to you, which in your case will probably be for the best, then they will issue your pass numbers by email within 7 days or so. At this point you can then reserve the first 3 days of your stay. The hard copy passes will arrive within another week.

The only disadvantage to having the passes delivered is that the expiry clock starts ticking the month you order them, whereas with the collection option the tickets start on the date of collection.

Pay monthly might take a little longer as they need to setup account details and there are more forms to complete and submit.

You've hit the nail on the head re the biggest issue with the AP - park reservations! At this stage you should be able to bag any 3 days you want early July, but there is reduced availability and they are released in phases. This means if you book W-F, then you cant book Sat/Sun until you've entered the park on Wednesday, and then only 1 day at a time e.g. Book Sat on Wed, and Sun on Thurs. However, Sat/Sun are the busiest days so you might find they aren't available to book when you get there. They could release more on the day or a few days before, but its a risk.

ideally you book Sat/Sun/Mon and then hope for the following Tues/Wed/Thurs but that might not work with your schedule.

[kenville]

We have an annual pass and here's my experience...

We bought ours online on the French website, because you can't currently do this on the UK site. The passes came through in the post in under two weeks. I thought that was OK and didn't mean we lost much time of our 12 months.

Since covid, AP holders and un-dated tickets need to reserve their park days. AP holders can only book three days at any one time. Further days can only be booked once booked days have been used. This is a big issue and cause of complaint because it limits how often you can go and where. There is less park availability for AP holders than buying tickets, so if you want to go on the off-chance it is likely the allocation will be used up unless you book weeks or months out. Yet the system will still show that dated tickets can be purchased!

The three day limit might be OK for locals but us Brits will typically go for three nights, which equals four park days, and you can't do that now. You can't book four or five days if you want to make it a longer stay.

You can get around this by booking an onsite hotel but the hotel prices are extortionate. The discounts I have got with my AP is no different to the prices you see on Expedia or Hotels.com and are still in the region of £400+ a night. I wouldn't call this a discount for a room only booking.

So, instead you look at offiste to make it more affordable but you're then back to the three day limit. It feels like Disney has thought all of this through to maximise profits, and it feels a poor deal.

Food discounts look attractive but in reality are still more expensive than booking a meal plan.

Shop discounts are the only real discount you get.

Whilst Disney keeps this park reservation system in place, and the three day limit for AP, I will not be renewing. It goes against the whole principle of what an annual pass should be. I imagine the French locals will also have issues with this as they'll be facing constraints about how often they can go and how far out they need to book because of it.

[Gill H]

There have been demonstrations by AP holders outside the Disneyland Hotel, protesting against the park reservations. Hasn’t made any difference unfortunately.

The same goes for WDW - despite thousands of complaints from AP holders, Disney is saving so much money by using the park reservation system, they would rather make thousands of people unhappy than give it up.

[Serenitedisney]

Thanks for the responses, very informative.
I’d want to leave it as late as I could to but the tickets before any price increase.
Does anyone know is the price increase always in March, is there a time of year when it increases or is it random?
The Temporary one day pass doesn’t start the pass expiring but also doesn’t allow you to book the 3 allotted days, is that right? I don’t think I could take the chance!
But it means allowing 3 months expiring before we can use the tickets, it seems so unfair 🤷

[Veniza]

With the temporary pass the 12 months starts the day you redeem it. However they must be redeemed within two months (or maybe 60 days) of purchase.