DLP annual pass - sell it to me please

[miked1e]

We are a family of 3. 2 x adults and 1 x 2 year old (turning 3 mid 2020).

We are in the North West so any trip to DLP is usually by plane, but would look at driving...

Thinking of getting annual passes for 2020 or maybe from December if we go for a weekend for Christmas celebrations this year.

Maybe plan on going min 2-3 times in 2020 (also have WDW booked).
If we had the annual pass we may look at 4-5 nights early in the year and again in summer hols with possible weekend trips.

Anyway, I have seen the perks / benefits of having an annual pass but would like someone who has one to give any advice / experience of actually having it.

Is it worth it?

Do you go more just because you have it? So more expense just to use it?

What is best advice for when DS turns 3?

Also are the hotel prices a lot cheaper with AP than what you can get as part of an offer... or if shopping around?

I know we will likely save a lot of money on merchandise and food whilst there..

Any advice appreciated.

Thank you

[kempydee]

I had the Infinity pass while the rest of the family had Magic plus. That way we got all the best discounts.
Used it alot for money off the restaurants and shops.
Used it for room only discount at the Sequoia Lodge - think one year I got 50% off. It was better discount with the AP than with my shareholders discount.
We are in Yorkshire so its either a plane or train/Eurostar for us too.
We did end up going more often than we would normally just because we had the AP.
We stayed off-site with it too and that made the trip more affordable.

I’ve let them expire now though. Can’t justify the price of them for a family of 4 at the moment. Will get them again in the future though.

[miked1e]

Thank you kempydee...

Looking at 2 night stay in sequoia over a weekend in December. Expedia is 450 ish for the 2 nights.

Would it generally be cheaper with AP?

If only 1 infinity pass I guess the whole family are unable to take advantage of the preferred viewing spots for parades etc? Is this actually worth it?

[kempydee]

Originally Posted by miked1e

Thank you kempydee...

Looking at 2 night stay in sequoia over a weekend in December. Expedia is 450 ish for the 2 nights.

Would it generally be cheaper with AP?

If only 1 infinity pass I guess the whole family are unable to take advantage of the preferred viewing spots for parades etc? Is this actually worth it?

See more...

I would say it would be cheaper with the Infinity pass - you can ring up and get a quote without actually having the pass. They are really helpful. Then compare that to the Expedia cost.
Yes the downside to only having the 1 Infinity pass within the family is you can’t get all the family into the preferred viewing areas. We tried to blag it last Christmas (showing the Magic plus AP’s and my shareholder card too) but they weren’t having any of it.

I would get a quote over the phone 1st for the cost of SL and go from there.
Edited to say there are blackout dates during December with all annual passes lower than Infinity - so check that too.

[vickiell]

We have had annuals passes a few time since now. You do save quite a bit on food and merchandise. We have also had very good deals at the hotels with the passes but this year we have stayed off site a lot as the hotels can be a very good price, we are going on Sunday for 3 nights staying in the ace hotel including breakfast for £250.
I do find myself looking at prices all the time as we have the passes, and if we could I would do a lot more trips.

[giblets]

We've had the magic plus passes twice now, first time we went for 7 nights and stayed in Val d'Europe via AirBnB, can easily get an apartment there for less than £100 a night and it's within walking distance to the parks and there are free buses from the hotels within that area. Can also use the massive supermarket to get food etc which saves a lot on dining.
The magic plus pass gives you the extra magic hours, so you get to go in and beat the queues first thing in the morning. We only used the passes the first time for that week, but it was cheaper than getting a 5-day pass if I remember correctly.
This year we went in Easter and got the magic plus passes again, this time as family of 5, but our youngest is only 2 so didn't have to pay for her. We stayed a week again in an apartment and went to the parks every day, some days just for the morning, some days we went for the whole day, and some days we went in the morning, back to the apartment for a few hours to relax and then back to the park late afternoon/evening. We are returning in October so wont have to pay for tickets this time - just flights and an apartment again - 7 days again!
We used the discounts in the restaurants now and again, but we mainly got the passes because overall it was cheaper and for the magic hours

[mickeyismybff]

We are a family of 3, and I have Infinity, DS (who is 5) has Magic Plus, and DH has no pass. Makes sense for us because DS and I go by ourselves sometimes and then when all three of us go, we go to the window to buy DH a €35 friend ticket. We looked at the whole year for how many days he would come with us and that was our best deal. He can come through the passholder gate with us on that ticket too, even during magic hours.

Having one infinity pass gets the Photopass included and some bigger discounts than Magic Plus, so that made it sensible to get one for us. Infinity gets you special seating (if you book) for Illuminations which you can’t take others into, so I am basically ignoring this benefit unless I do a solo trip before our year is up. DS has only made it through fireworks fully awake once on a very special day, so I don’t feel this is a big loss, though I do wonder what the infinity space is like as I’ve never had a decent view in the crowd since I am very short. But it’s not a big deal for me.

So far on our pass we have done two on-site stays (April and May) and one off-site (August, just back about 10 days ago). The May price was a particular bargain and we called about 36 hours before we left home, so with my limited experience, I think last minute in low season is a good time to get a decent deal. April we booked a few weeks out and the price was more or less the same that was available on Last Minute and Hotels com. Both those stats were at Cheyenne, as it was cheapest and we quite like it. Oddly Santa Fe was more on both those dates, though not by much. Our August dates were a whole other story and the cheapest room we were offered was nearly £500 a night, even in Cheyenne or Santa Fe, so we booked the cheapest of cheap off site places and paid £45 a night plus €2 (per adult, kids free) bus fare each direction to the parks, or €8 in an Uber. I much prefer walking back and staying on site, but at that price it was a case of we can do the trip offsite or not so the trip at all, and off site was absolutely fine, just a little more complicated and not themed (this left the 5 year old slightly disconcerted, trying to work out what theme it could be).

It was fab to still be able to go into the parks at the early time even though we had the cheap offsite hotel. On our last morning, we went in at 10:15 on a day the park had opened for normal hours at 10. It was miserable. Early morning is our preference every time. We are very relaxed and happy disneygoers but that 10:15 crowd on a hot and busy day, it was just moaning and bad attitudes in every direction, and I wanted to tell them they were all being ridiculous. Early morning is bliss!

We use the pass for discounts on meals (including Earl of Sandwich, but you usually can’t double up the discount of a pass and a meal deal, so check which is better) but snack counters don’t have discounts. (Annoyingly that includes Victoria’s with no AP discount, which would help with the price of their milkshakes but alas, Disney apparently knows I will buy them even at full price.)
Discounts also apply to merch in the shops and to special tickets. We did the Lion Kong Signature Package this last trip and it was €85 with the infinity discount and included €15 in gift card cash to spend, which we would have anyway, so that made the package more like €70 and we still applied the pass discount to our shopping, so the gift card went further than it would without a pass, if that makes sense.

We make good use of our Photopass. It’s nowhere near as nice as in the American parks, where there are far more photographers, but we’ve had enough lovely ones from character meets to make it certainly worthwhile. Meet Mickey in Disneyland and the Lineberty meets in Studios both have photopass. Our ride photos are mostly laughable at the moment, because the cameras are all aimed at an angle that DS simply doesn’t appear and it often looks like I’m talking to an empty space. But with a taller sidekick, the ride photos would be fab too.

When the entrance gates get busy at seemingly random times of the day, there is basically never a queue at the far left gate just for Magic Plus and Infinity. Handy sometimes.

Infinity and Magic Plus can book in for the hotel pools even without an onsite stay. We’d like to do this but haven’t yet! A friend who is local to the parks does it quite often but always books right on the minute they are released, so I think that one takes a bit of planning.

Our plan is to just have passes for one year and to try to catch every ‘season’ (more like festival) in that calendar, except Halloween because we are going to WDW in October so can dose up on pumpkins and spooks there. So far, so good.

I think our biggest thought differences in having the passes are that we watch for Eurostar discounts because that is our biggest expense if we don’t get a good deal - either way in advance or right at the last minute. (Eurostar is the only option for us really, as we live in London and don’t have a car, plus the travel out to an airport to fly to Paris would take longer than just going straight there on the train.) And that we always go to the parks with the thought that we don’t have to do anywhere near everything in one or two days. Some days we do lots and other days we are pretty chilled. Our last half day, we just rode Peter Pan’s Flight, met Peter and Wendy, took photos with some friends, and got lunch. So chilled, so little queueing. Just right for what was a hot day with a seriously high footfall. But on a once a year trip, I wouldn’t consider that, much less once in a lifetime.

Happy decision making! I hemmed and hawed quite a bit but so far am very glad we went for it this year.

[giblets]

Are you sure magic plus get the use of swimming pools without an on site stay? I thought that was only for infinity pass holders?

[mickeyismybff]

Oooh you may be right that it’s infinity pass plus one guest - which would still work for us but not a bigger group! Sorry.