Latest / Ear Scouts Podcast / Should You Upgrade to an Annual Pass at Walt Disney World?
Transcript
- Rob: In this episode of the Ear Scouts podcast, we're talking annual passes. If you have an annual pass, we're going to share some things that you might not know that you can do with your annual pass. And if you don't have an annual pass, we're going to share some reasons you might want to consider the upgrade. We got a lot to chat about, so let's get to it. Hi ho everybody, this is Rob with Ear Scouts coming to you from our makeshift studio here in Celebration, Florida. Also with me here in Celebration is the other half of Ear Scouts, Eric. Hi ho, Eric. Erick: Hiho everyone! Rob: Eric, as always, is going to be keeping up with the live chat over on Patreon. If you'd like to join us live as we record each episode and gain access to the Patreon exclusive after party, just head on over to patreon.com forward slash Ear Scouts. Also joining us from the great state of Indiana is our resident Disney trivia guru, Quizmaster Craig. Hi ho, Craig. Craig: Hi ho, everybody. Rob: ⁓ good to see you because I know you and Jessica, you're both getting ready for a big trip to Walt Disney World. ⁓ we're coming up on the fourth of July as we're recording this. Are you excited? Craig: ⁓ beyond excited, except for the fact that I'm just not ready. But I've got twelve hours. I'll be fine. We'll get this done. Rob: All right. Also joining us from the great state of Connecticut is the host of Jessica Scraps on YouTube. Jessica. Hi, ho, Jessica. Jessica: Hi, how everyone. I too am not ready, but I don't leave until Friday morning, so I have a few more hours than Craig does. Craig: Yeah. Rob: Well, we're getting prepared to welcome you guys to Disney World. And we're gonna do some fun things while you're here, including we're gonna all ⁓ enjoy a great big beautiful farewell party to the current version of the carousel of progress. in case you're not aware, Disney is gonna completely redo the carousel of progress. And if you're like me and you're a child of the 80s, You're gonna be horrified to discover that now what used to be like the 1940s is your childhood. That's basically the equivalent ⁓ of the 1940s now. So I'm looking forward to enjoying one last spin around the carousella progress that doesn't make me feel you know, a a little ancient, but Jessica: Yeah. And just a just a shout out to the Patreon. This ⁓ meetup came about because the Patreon family kind of said, is there something we can do? And we were able to all figure out who was going to be there and do this. So if you're interested, you should really join the Patreon because there's a lot of these one-off things that we do ⁓ because we're all in Disney World together and we're able to celebrate. So it's a it's something that Rob's helped us put together this community. And I just want to give a shout out to the Patreon members who kind of Craig: Yeah. Jessica: rallied behind this and we we kind of told Rob, Hey, don't you want to do an early entry or a a a a rope drop? And he said, I guess I do. I guess I do. So ⁓ it's pretty exciting. I'm I can't wait. I can't wait to be there on Saturday with everybody. Erick: Thanks for watching. Craig: Mm-hmm. Rob: Yeah, we're so by the time this episode airs, we will have already done our great big beautiful farewell. But as Jessica said, we do have lots of things that we do here in person at Walt Disney World, including our Jamboree this October. ⁓ you don't have to join Patreon to join us at the Jamboree. It's completely free. So you can actually sign up for free at Patreon and you'll find out all about that event when it happens. So we hope to see you over there. Patreon.com forward slash earscouts. But the reason we're doing this episode today is also kind of because of Patreon, because one of our Patreon family members, Bernadette asked a question. And this question got us to thinking, you know what? She's right. We should do an episode all about this. So I'm gonna read the question that we got from Bernadette. ⁓ she says, Hi ho, I'm going to Disney several times in the next 12 months. Yay! And I was Considering getting an annual pass. As someone out of state who would be new to having an annual pass, I thought I would throw out a podcast episode idea of a show all about annual passes. So this episode is going to be if you're contemplating an annual pass, maybe you've already decided you want to get one, or maybe you're a recent ⁓ annual pass holder, you just became an annual pass holder, and you're not sure about all the great things the annual passes offer. We're going to take a deep dive today. And I do want to ask our Patreon family that's here with us, if you're not an annual pass holder yet and you have questions, let us know. Eric will be sharing those with us in the episode. And if you have any thoughts as a current annual pass holder, reasons that you love having an annual pass, or things that you think people maybe need to think about before they take the plunge, also let us know those things in the chat and we will share those in the show. So Jessica, why don't you start us off? Because you were so kind. You you made this very detailed like map of all of the little things that you need to know about the different tiers of annual passes. ⁓ so why don't you share that with us? What tell us about the different types of annual passes and the things that people know, kind of the basics before we before we get into the less tangible things. Jessica: Yep, and and I'm hoping my dad is listening because I labeled this just the facts, ma'am, just the facts. so just the facts. ⁓ the first thing you do need to know is that the W WDW, the Walt Disney World Annual Pass, only applies to Walt Disney World. Disneyland and the foreign parks have their own programs. Disneyland specifically is called the Magic Key program. I'm not familiar with the other ⁓ foreign parks are called, but if you get an annual pass at Walt Disney World, It only gets you access to Walt Disney World. I think that is ⁓ something that people get confused about. It lasts one year from activation. So if you were to buy it today, when you checked into the park in two weeks, that's the date of activation. That's when it will start your one year. So you can people do, you know, if you get your bonus from work or you get your tax refund and you just want to go ahead and get it. I know people have done that. It It does not activate until you actually use it. So that's something that's really important to know as well. Rob: I do think there's a caveat to that that people need to be aware of. What some people will do is they'll have an existing ticket and they're at Walt Disney World and they will upgrade their ticket to an annual pass, which is the thing you can do. It's important to know that if you do that, your annual pass is actually going to begin at the first day of that ticket that you are using. So you won't get the benefit of kind of waiting until you come back for your annual pass to start. In that Very specific scenario. But Jessica: Right. And so that was one of my facts, which is you can upgrade your ticket that you have bought to an annual pass for the delta in price, but you must do it before you tap in ⁓ on the last day of ticket. Before you tap in on the last day of your ticket. ⁓ You can't be experiencing the for the last time of your trip and then go try to do it. It has to be before you've used that last day. There has to be active. days on your ticket for you to upgrade it. ⁓ I think that's a very important point that people forget. But you can for the Delta upgrade your ticket. Just like you can upgrade your ticket to get add-on park hopper, you can upgrade your ticket to an annual pass as long as there's time available. ⁓ let's talk about the the other kind of ⁓ issues with an annual pass. The first of which is there are different levels of an annual pass. I'm gonna go through all four of them. There are four levels. Florida residents, this is real Florida residents with a Florida driver's license or bills in Florida. You cannot have a timeshare, you cannot have a ⁓ a random condo that you kind of go to part of the time. You have to be an actual Florida resident. You also, Rob can't buy my annual pass for me because we're friends. He can only buy his own. ⁓ you can't buy your kids, you can't buy your other family members. Florida residents are Florida residents. ⁓ this is a question we see a lot in all of the groups online. You know, ⁓ my grand my mom was gonna buy the kids their passes at a cheap price. It doesn't work that way. So please bear in mind that the Florida resident is for Florida resident. ⁓ go ahead. Craig: And I will add on that, especially for DVC members, because a lot of DVC members assume they're on already going to be able to get that Florida discount. They do get a discount, which Jessica will, I'm sure, cover very soon. But I just wanted to throw that in there that just because you're DVC does not mean you're a Florida resident resident at all. Jessica: That's right. So timeshares don't count. And DVC is a version of a timeshare. So it just doesn't count. ⁓ so just wanted to throw all of that out there. ⁓ Florida residents also get a payment plan that other other people do not. So if you're a Florida resident, you can also pay for your annual pass in monthly installments. ⁓ DVC owners can purchase the top two tiers. So Florida residents, all four tiers. DVC owners, top two tiers. People like me, just sitting here out of state in Connecticut, living my best life, can only buy the top tier. So that's important. Craig: Now let me add in that, let me caveat that as well. This is gonna be an episode about caveats, which a lot of them are when it comes to Disney. But again, the the third tier, the sorcerer tier that DVC can get, only DVC direct members can get that. Those of us, like me, who bought resale, do not get that perk. Jessica: Mm-hmm. Rob: Mm-hmm. Jessica: ⁓ that's correct. Craig: ⁓ so to make things clear, ⁓ when it comes DVC purchases, there's two different ways. There's direct when you buy directly from Disney, or you can buy a resale. That means if somebody who already bought direct from Disney is trying to sell their contract. Now the thing with that is if you buy from Disney Direct, it's gonna cost you a lot more than buying resale. However, when you buy resale, you do not get a lot of the perks you get by dying buying direct. Jessica: Mm. Craig: One of those is getting that ⁓ sorcerer's pass, the DVC pass at a really nice discount. ⁓ plus there's lots of other ones, but I don't need to go into that for for this discussion, but yeah, you have to be a direct purchaser to get the sorcerer's pass. Jessica: ⁓ okay. Rob: We we definitely need to do a whole episode that's just about D V C because I feel like if you think annual passes are complicated with all the different caveats and ifs thens, man, D V C well, you know, it's real estate. So it's it's not it's not unsurprising that it's very complex. But ⁓ Craig: Yeah. Ha ha. And I highly suggest you get it if you can. So that'll be a different episode, but don't want to turn you off of it because it's a wonderful thing. So Jessica: Right. And I think ⁓ that that's a good segue to I think all of us who are obviously have spent the money and are annual pass holders, I think we all believe annual passes are a good thing. I think what we want to make sure is that people listening to this are informed, ⁓ that you know everything you're getting into. So, you know, we're gonna tell you the good, the bad and the ugly a little bit, but realize all of us came down on the side of the good when when it came to it. So I think that that's important. ⁓ but now that we know who can actually purchase these passes, let's find out how much they had to pay to get them. ⁓ the first of which is the tier one, the lowest level is called a Pixie Pass. And it is $489. $489 for a ⁓ year. But Rob: And and that is the price today. You never know. By i by the time this episode airs, it's possible it could have gone up. But not likely. But yeah. Jessica: That is the price today. It could change tomorrow. Could change tomorrow. Craig: Ha ha Jessica: There you go. ⁓ but with that $489, there are no weekends, no peak times, and no holidays. This is perfect for Florida residents who have kids who are smaller kids that want to go to the parks during the weekdays. I think this is a it to me, it's the an amazing deal for parents, ⁓ for families. I I the fact that it was $489, I was kind of floored by. I think that's great. ⁓ but that's the Pixie Pass. Next step up is the Pirate Pass, and it's $869. It has no peak or holidays. So we've added back the weekends, and it's less than $1,000. It's $869. Once again, this is only available to Florida residents, but it's I would say it's a perfect Florida resident pass. You know, we've talked a lot. Do you really want to be there on the peak times? Do you really want to be there on the holidays? If you can go all the time, maybe maybe you don't. And this is a perfect pass. So it's $869 today for that and no peak or holidays. We then move into tier three, and this is for Florida and then direct DVC members. And that is ⁓ $1,099. And it's only missing select holidays. Basically, Thanksgiving and Christmas is I think New Year's Eve. Basically, those holidays. Everything else, I checked the availability calendar, was basically available. So this is like this is the ideal pass for Florida residents. This is the one that unless you're really dying to be there on Christmas or Thanksgiving, seems like a really good deal. Rob: And you looked at this, you could go between Thanksgiving and Christmas. So you could get to experience the magic of Disney decorated for the holidays with this pass. ⁓ you just wouldn't get to go on the like during the actual holiday period itself, right? Yeah. Jessica: Mm-hmm. Correct. Correct. Correct. There were definite times. I mean, it was like the week of Thanksgiving and then the week of Christmas. And that was the only blackouts. And just to clarify, you could buy a one-day ticket for those days if it was really that important to you. And you're still saving money over the long run ⁓ on on having this pass. Because the next pass, so $1,099. Let's talk about the next pass, the In credit pass. Craig: Mm-hmm. Jessica: No blockout dates available to you no matter where you live, no matter what your passport says, no matter what your driver's license says, for the low, low cost of $1,629. Basically, for an extra $600, you get to go on those two days, Christmas and Thanksgiving. I mean, it's kind of what it feels like. ⁓ no blackouts, no nothing. That is what Rob: Mm-hmm. Jessica: most which what all non-DVC non-Forida residents do. Then there's a couple of other things that you can purchase ⁓ because and wait, there's more. ⁓ The water parks and more for $109 get you an annual pass to the water parks. That's an add-on to any of the tiers. And then the the add-on that I would say is absolutely necessary is the photo pass add-on of $109 that sticks with you for the whole year. Rob: Yeah. Jessica: ⁓ and I think that is very important. ⁓ Rob: We're gonna talk about that one later. That that one's a no-brainer, but I do want to back up really quickly to it's sort of sort of I think it's called water park and sports ⁓ option. And I actually just learned this recently. I knew it included water park admission. I also knew that it included mini golf. There is a caveat on the mini golf. You can only use it during the daytime hours. Once it cools off and you actually want to be on the mini golf course, yeah, you're not allowed to be on there. Craig: Mm-hmm. Rob: That pass. So it's only during kind of the the daytime hours you can use it. But here's the cool thing you can actually use it ⁓ at one of the golf courses, like real golf is included. ⁓ it does it doesn't include your your ⁓ golf cart rental if you want to get a golf cart. But if you just wanted to carry your clubs, ⁓ I can't remember which course is, but one of the courses you can use that. Craig: ⁓ Jessica: ⁓ wow. Rob: You only pay a hundred and nine dollars ⁓ for the year and you get that in addition to the water parks and the mini golf. So I think that one also is it's certain times of the day. It's not like always, I think, but ⁓ yeah, that's a pretty amazing deal if you love to golf. Craig: Mm-hmm. Jessica: That's amazing. Craig: Mm-hmm. Yeah, and I wanted to also add, ⁓ when you renew, they have discounts available as well. So when you're renewing that whatever sixteen, hundred and thirty dollar in credit pass, you save two hundred and fifty dollars when you renew, ⁓ it's one hundred and seventy dollars on the eleven hundred dollar sorceress pass, a hundred and twenty on the pirate pass, and you save ninety dollars when you renew the Pixie pass. So that's another thing to consider if you're thinking long run. Rob: Mm-hmm. Jessica: Yeah, you do Craig: is that it will be cheaper after your first year if you think you're going to keep going. Jessica: Right. So I do want to before we kind of turn it over to everybody else, which, you know, and and talk about something, I just want to tell you the documented, now these are the things you see on their website, the documented perks. And then we'll kind of talk about ⁓ some other intangible perks, but the documented perks, back to just the facts, free parking. So you do get free parking at all the parks. ⁓ this is a huge perk. The other thing that you get is the cost of that parking applied to the premium parking. So you only pay the delta. in the premium parking versus regular parking. ⁓ if you're annual pass holder, you only pay that to get the premium parking. You get a 10% dining discount, comes with a lot of caveats. We'll go into ⁓ and shopping, 20% discount, also has some few caveats. And then it says availability of special discount offers throughout the year and other perks. But those are kind of the documents documented on Disney's website about what it means to have an annual pass. So ⁓ I think I think that's kind of the big picture. ⁓ any cav other caveats on some of those perks you guys want to cover? Anything I on maybe on the the dining. Rob: Yeah, the dining's most complicated. You wanna you wanna discuss that one, Craig? Craig: Well yeah, I mean yeah, you well yeah, you you it's for just certain restaurants and sometimes certain times a day. Sometimes it's only for lun or for dinner, sometimes it's lunch and dinner, sometimes it's breakfast, lunch and dinner. ⁓ you just have to look. I mean you have to literally go on the website, look at that specific restaurant's page, and there's usually a thing you can click on that says dining discounts and it will let you know if there is an annual pass discount. available for that restaurant and what time of day that might be good for. Jessica: Yeah. And some don't do weekends. and it's just it's not just cut and dry that you're always gonna get ten percent. So you kind of need to ask every time you go in. ⁓ the other thing that I'll say is no lounges. So if you are like John and I and your idea of a good dinner is Steakhouse 71 lounge, because you're in the bar area, or you like to go to ⁓ Enchanted Rose. Craig: Right. And Jessica: or a lot of these places that are more lounges and not get the full reservation and and do more of a ⁓ relaxed kind of sit down experience that's that's not as ⁓ I'm gonna say stuffy, but that's not necessarily the word I mean, they never apply. Annual pass discounts never apply there. So Craig: Mm-hmm. Yeah. And even then it only applies for food. It doesn't apply for alcoholic beverages anywhere. Jessica: Yeah. Right. Never on alcohol. Rob: Yeah. And if it's a quick service restaurant, you can pretty much count on there will be no annual pass discount. It is almost always exclusively available at table service restaurants that are not lounges. So I think this conversation we just had makes it clear: yes, there's a 10% discount, and you are going to use that a fair amount. I'm not gonna say you're not gonna use it, but don't think that automatically Jessica: Mm-hmm. Rob: All of the food and drinks you're gonna get at Walt Disney World are gonna get 10% cheaper because it's gonna be kind of hit or miss ⁓ when you can actually use it. Jessica: Yeah. Let's talk about a positive a positive caveat though, and that is the shopping 20% discount applies to all stores inside of of the Disney World Parks. And the stores, most of them, have a cooler that have ⁓ bottles of water, bottles of coke. ⁓ if you have a kid, they usually have milk ⁓ in there. And you get 20% off those bottled beverages. If you will instead of going to the popcorn cart. Walk in the door to the emporium, you will get 20% off. So your 20% off applies to food and beverage purchased in stores. That's one people forget all the time. I I will go out of my way to purchase water at a store now out of a cooler because you get, and it seems silly, but you did you get 20% off. Why wouldn't you save a buck? Right. ⁓ and it's important. Now, the the one thing I'll say about the 20% off discount, it does not apply at DisneyStore.com. Most of the time. Every once in a while, like Craig was saying, you gotta read the fine print. Every once in a while they have a code for annual passes. So ⁓ the merchandise discount of twenty percent is really great. It's a really great discount, but it only applies in the stores at Walt Disney World property. Rob: And yeah. The other thing I will throw in there, there's some places that you might not think of as a store that are. There's like, for example, I think a lot of us think of ⁓ the different Werthers locations like Caramel Kucha in ⁓ Epcot or ⁓ the in in Magic Kingdom, the confectionery. These are like you know, quick service counters, you know, in many cases. It it feels like you're going to a quick service spot. But because they are considered a retail location, you get the full 20% discount on all the foods that are in the case there as well. So you can get 20% on some food, but most cases it's gonna be 10% and it's gonna be kind of limited. Jessica: Right. Rob: Craig, why don't you talk about the next ⁓ the next caveat that people need to be aware of? ⁓ I think we we talked about the the shopping, we talked about dining. What about these select other discounts that ⁓ the website vaguely mentions? Craig: Mm-hmm. So we're thinking they're talking about the ⁓ the special parties, like the Halloween parties and ⁓ the not so scary Halloween party, the Christmas parties, ⁓ the after hours events. ⁓ annual pass holders generally get a discount, but it's usually only for a limited amount of dates, of party dates. So again, you just have to watch, you have to be aware of you know when these discounts are being offered, and don't just assume it it coincides with when you want to visit, unfortunately. Rob: Yep. Another discount that comes and goes throughout the year that's a really significant discount sometimes is the discount on rooms. If you want to stay on property at Walt Disney World Hotels, they have passholder rates, but there's another caveat. Jessica, you want to share what that caveat is? Craig: Ha ha ha. Jessica: So the caveat with those pass holder rates is they go quick. So ⁓ most of the time, ⁓ for those of us that did the Run Disney a couple of weeks where we tried to get the princess 5k, much like that, when they announce AP discounts for rooms, what you will see is a virtual cue when you go to log in to the Disney World website to get a room, because there are so many people trying to. Rob: Mm-hmm. Jessica: Change their reservation or get a reservation to get those discounts and they sell out quickly. And they have a limited number of rooms. And what I have learned because of ⁓ we we canceled and rebooked a trip recently. They don't all room types are not on all of the Disney discount. So if you had a family suite, they might not be discounting family suites this with this particular annual pass discount. They're only They're only discounting the king king rooms or the queen rooms. So you don't know. They say there's an annual pass discount, but the fine print is select room types and limited quantity. So you can't assume you're always gonna get that annual pass discount on rooms, or at least not the exact room in the exact resort that you wanted. And I think that's the that's the caveat to that. Now I will say You can usually change a reservation into it. That's kind of the one joy is if you have a reservation, you can go in and look on the website to see if that room is now available on a discount or to see if a similar room is available on a discount and you can change. But sometimes you actually have to call Disney to do that. It's not always available on the website. Rob: Yeah. And this is actually I'm going to give a quick shout out to our friends ⁓ who are Disney certified Disney travel planners. ⁓ if you're an annual pass holder and you wanna take advantage of these discounts and you don't want to think about it, you don't want to keep up with it and have to call and be put on hold and find out what's available. ⁓ that is one of the services that Disney travel planners typically offer, is they will keep an eye out for those discounts for you and they'll make those changes if you just let them know. I'm an annual pass holder. I want to keep abreast of any changes. And if you can get me a better rate, please do. And that is one thing that they offer as part of their services. ⁓ I'll just throw that out there. ⁓ Craig, you look like you wanted to to add something to that ⁓ the the room conversation. Craig: yes, because ⁓ I'm actually using that perk for the first time, ⁓ starting tomorrow. We're staying at ⁓ Port Orleans French Court, and this is the first time using my AP discount. ⁓ And I will say was it was fairly easy as far as like going through ⁓ the website and all and like ⁓ figuring out what the were and what I was able to get. So ⁓ But yeah, I mean it it was definitely a great deal to be able to stay at at ⁓ Port Orleans French Quarter, which is a place I've always wanted to stay just because everybody loves it. Everybody loves it so much and I can't wait to find out why. Rob: Yeah. Eric, what are we hearing over on Patreon before we before we jump into all these kind of less tangible things? Do we have any questions or thoughts that folks have shared? Erick: Since we are talking about Port Orleans, Noah is asking the important questions. What about Bignes at Port Orleans? Do I get my annual pass discount? Rob: Ha ha. So here's the I you do not because the beignets unfortunately are at a lounge. they're well you if you during the daytime they're at the cafe, which is considered quick service, and then in the evenings they're at the the lounge, which being a lounge does not typically get discounts. Erick: also like Noah was wondering if ⁓ these discounts, ⁓ this discount applies for buffets like ⁓ Mickey's Rob: Yeah, like you mean like ⁓ Chef Mickey's? Yes. ⁓ so any buffet restaurant that is a Disney buffet. ⁓ so not necessarily always at a third party. I'm trying to think there are any third party buffets though at Walt Disney World. ⁓ but the the discounts that we're referring to are the table service restaurants, which includes buffets ⁓ at Walt Disney World ⁓ in the parks. There are some restaurants that are table service restaurants at Disney Springs, for example, where you would have a different discount structure. But I don't think any of those are buffets. So I think, as far as I can remember, I feel like every buffet at Disney World is gonna you're gonna get that discount. Can you guys think of any where you don't? Jessica: I'm looking right now and I don't see any. I think I think all the buffets have have a discount. So and it's it's pretty consistent. And it's always food, not alcohol. It's ten percent. They'll typically ask you when you check out if you have any discounts. It's it's very easy. Very easy. Craig: ⁓ Rob: Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Craig: Yeah, and and that's a big thing. Like I've had this annual pass. I it's renewing in a c actually on Wednesday or Thursday of this week. But and but again, I it's only been a year and I keep forgetting. I always forget to ask or d ask for the discount, but they ask me, which is so wonderful of them to do so. So that's that's a big thumbs up, Disney, to like have your cast members make sure they ask if you are eligible for a discount. Rob: Disney cast members are great about that. And and the and they'll I can hear it in my ears right now. They say, Do we have any Disney discounts? Do we have any Disney discounts? ⁓ is what they typically ask. But but it's important to note ⁓ there are discounts available at third party locations as well. They're not necessarily going to ask you that question. So Craig: Yeah. And one of these days I'm gonna be ready and like tell ⁓ beforehand so they don't have to ask me. Rob: Anytime you're at Walt Disney World, if you're especially at Disney Springs, where there are lots of third-party merchants, you would be surprised. In some cases, their discount will be as good as Disney's. There's some locations that only offer the discounts during certain times of the year. I think Sephora has a discount for Disney annual pass holders, but it's only for like certain periods of time. ⁓ but always ask. If you're at Walt Disney World, Jessica: Mm-hmm. Rob: Always ask, even if it's not a Disney location. ⁓ 'cause you may get a discount as an annual pass holder. ⁓ Eric, did you have another? Yeah. Erick: This question comes from Brian. ⁓ He asks, is there a limit to how long you can wait between buying the annual pass and then activating it? Jessica: you have year, three hundred and sixty-five days from the day you purchase it to activate it. So it is actually one whole year. So that that's a good thing to know. But ⁓ once you have activated, is your date for life. It's it's like your anniversary date. It doesn't change. Anniversary. Craig: But that's really good to know that you have a year after you purchase it because they generally announce before things before prices go up, ticket prices. So, you know, if you know you're planning on doing it and it makes sense, if you know they're going to up the price within like two months of your first stay, think about it. It might work out for your benefit. Jessica: Mm-hmm. Rob: Mm-hmm. So for me, every year I get a notification, I think it's by email, that I can renew my annual pass starting about three months out before the annual pass is actually going to renew. I always do it immediately because the prices can go up. And if I renew it, you know, and this has happened. This has happened where I renewed it. And by the time my renewal day actually came, Jessica: Mm-hmm. Rob: There had been a price increase in the interim, but I was able to pay last year's price because I did it, you know, in that window of time. And you also get that renewal discount that Craig was talking about earlier. Erick: Which you're answering also the question from Noah. It does not automatically renews itself. Rob: No. It you have to you have to actually actively renew the pass. And if you want to get that renewal discount, there is a window of time that you have once it actually expires that you can still get that discount. But I'm guessing based on what I'm hearing, I I was not aware of this, that that it's always going to renew at that same date. Jessica: Mm mm. Rob: Sounds like if you want to use that discount, even if the date has passed, when you renew, it's probably going to renew back to that date. Is that correct? If you're going to use that discount. Yeah. So so you could wait to renew, but if you want to use that discount that's applied, ⁓ then you're probably going to be renewing back to your original renewal date, not the time when you're going to come to the park again. Now you could let it lapse. Jessica: Yes. Yeah. Rob: And not take advantage of that discount and choose to get a new annual pass at a later date. But I will tell you, as someone who went through the the traumatic experience of when I first was planning to move here and we were starting to work on the channel, Disney took away annual passes for a while. There was a period of time where you could not purchase an annual pass. So I initially, when we began this channel, we were paying for park tickets. We every time we came. Craig: ⁓ that's right. Erick: I've this for a long time. Jessica: Mm-hmm. ⁓ well. Rob: Yes, every time we came to the park, we were we were getting regular park tickets. And as soon as that annual pass became available, we were at that time we weren't living in Orlando. I just was like, We're going right now. Like I I we drove to Orlando. We planned a trip immediately. We bought the annual pass. And so I think that that's a rarity. That was likely related to the pandemic that that was happening at that time is why they took away annual passes. But it's a it's a regular thing at Disneyland that they take the annual passes away for periods of the year. They essentially sell out of the annual passes. And I'd say it's not outside of the realm of possibility that we could see that here in Orlando. So I will say if an annual pass is important to you, I don't know that I would let it last. Craig: Mm-hmm. Jessica: Mm-hmm. Rob: for a long period of time just 'cause there's a risk that it you know it could go away again. But ⁓ Jessica: Yep. ⁓ so now that we've kind of do you want me to talk about just as the engineer, I'm gonna do a little bit of let's talk about math. That's my favorite part of the annual pass. Let's just talk about math just a little bit. Rob: Yeah. Craig: Yeah. Erick: Thank Craig: Yeah, we need yeah, think definitely you need to cover this. And you are the one to do it. Jessica: So I I in general, they say eleven park days is what you need for an in credit pass. That is in general. ⁓ and I will say recently Disney has done a really good job of making it 13, 14, 15 days to justify an in credit pass because there have been such incredible, ooh, incredible twice. There's have been incredible deals during the summer. These $99 for park tickets, these afternoon tickets, some of the tickets they've done are a really good price. And also, if you buy a ticket to Disney World, you typically do not pay a set price per day. The price goes down for up to five days, six days, seven days, eight days. So you really need to look at what your vac, particularly for out-of-towners. what your vacation schedule looks like to make it math. And I think some people get go to the boards and they read the board and say, ⁓ a a two-day ticket is $200 or $400. Obviously I'm going to be here for eight days. This is this no brainer. What you don't realize is it's not that much more to get a five day ticket than it was to get a two day ticket and your per day cost went down. Or if you were going to come during the summer, The per day cost is so much lower on some of these tickets. I am an annual pass holder. I love my annual pass. But if you are a family of four people and you're coming just for two trips, really look at the discount tickets available. The pure ticket price may not math for you. if you don't bring a car, if you're not gonna do the parking, some of these things, it may not math for you. And I think that's very, very important if you're an out-of-towner. The flip side is if I lived in Florida, it would be a no-brainer. If I lived where I could drive to the park at a moment's notice or with a little bit of planning, this is an amazing cost. It's like 11 days, 11 park days. ⁓ and I think that's the difference. I think if I was someone who loved Disney and I lived in driving distance, this would be a no-brainer. As someone who lives out of town and has to pay for flights and arrange my schedule and take vacation, eleven days is a lot of I mean, if you look at my planned vacation for work, 90% of it goes to Disney. ⁓ and I think that's something that not everybody can do or sh or, you know, wants to do. So really think about that when you're thinking about the math. I I just don't wanted to say that. I mean, I've been real impressed with the summer deals. ⁓ that Disney has had, particularly the last two years, it makes the math harder on the Incredit pass. Craig: Mm-hmm. ⁓ Rob: Yeah. That said, if you're planning to be here during the holidays, ⁓ when there aren't typically as many great deals, in fact, the inverse is happening, right? The the flexible rate of ticket pricing goes to the other extreme, you know, that can make it maybe you don't even need to be eleven days if you're planning to come mainly during holiday periods. I think the best way to do it though, honestly, start Go ahead and look at your year ahead. If you kind of know I'm going to come to Walt Disney World from this time to this time and this time to this time, you can use Disney's website. You can go ahead and just pretend purchase your tickets. And you're going to be able to see what you'd be paying for each of those. Now there may be some promotions, as Jessica said, that could come up closer to the date that might bring that price down a little bit. But I would say that's more than going to be offset by the discounts that you would get that would be deeper. as an annual pass holder on other things like your hotel room, ⁓ especially if you're gonna have a car with you, that parking, man, that adds up. If you need to park at the parks, I mean, what is it now? $39 a day, I think, for parking? $9 or 39? What is what is the 35? Okay. It's it's a lot. I mean, and and that that alone, I mean, can can add up a lot as well. So Jessica: Mm-hmm. I think it's thirty five, but it could be thirty nine, thirty five. Rob: Number one, I'd say look at when you're coming, look at what the ticket prices are gonna be, but then also factor in the other expenses that you're gonna have that would be offset by having an annual pass. ⁓ and yeah, do the math. Craig: Yeah. And they don't make it difficult. I mean, I love math probably as much as Jessica does, maybe a little less. But even then, like my brain is like I ⁓ trying to figure out the break even point with all the different discounts they throw out there. It's not easy. So personally, it's like if it's if it came close, it's just like just get the annual pass. It's gonna make things life a lot easier for you. That you don't have to like worry about all these other little things. But again, that that's my personal experience. Jessica: Yeah. Rob: And that's the perfect segue, really, because for the next the rest of this episode. So, what we've talked about now, we've kind of gone over what you get and and what it costs. And you know, you can do the math. Obviously, if you do the math and it's cheaper to get an annual pass, you're done. You should get an annual pass if you're going to save money. That's a no-brainer. But if you're in that Area where maybe it's close and you're just not sure. You're you're not sure if you're gonna get the full value. ⁓ there's gonna be a delta between what you would have spent without an annual pass versus with it. These are the where the intangibles come in. And that's what the rest of this episode is going to be about because there are a lot of things about being an annual pass holder that you really can't put a dollar amount on. and and that's what I want to focus on here. ⁓ Craig, why don't you start us off? What is your favorite kind of intangible thing about being a pass holder that if it was close math-wise would push you over to getting it? Craig: ⁓ well, I th I think the simplest one is gonna be just the discounts themselves. When you really think about like especially in the summer, like again, it it could change next year, but for the last at least two years that I know of, maybe before that, they have like forty percent discounts at some restaurants. And it they're still they're like decent restaurants. Like one place we're going to Beer Garden in in a couple of days. Finally, I've never been to Beer Garten. I've been going there since Jessica: Mm-hmm. Craig: Well, at least since eighty seven to Epcot, but ⁓ it's forty percent off. How can I not? I mean, I'm not interested in the food, I'm not that interested in the entertainment, but I gotta go. So it it affords me to do that. Rob: You're gonna love it. You will be you will be interested in the food and the entertainment after you experience it, I think. I love I love beer garden. Craig: Okay. I I'm I'm I'm very open for that to happen. But ⁓ even links like Toledo in at ⁓ Coronado Springs, this Tapas restaurant, we did that last year and gosh, the amount of food we got and then when we got the bill, it's like okay, that that was actually a very good deal. and again, going back to the caveats, ⁓ they're only from Monday through Thursday for pretty much most of them. So we're staying at Jessica: ⁓ yeah. Craig: Port Orleans French Quarter, and I thought, and ⁓ there's a restaurant, Boat Rights, at Port Orleans Riverside, that is offering the discount. So I scheduled that for Saturday because that's our resort day. And then afterwards I realized, nope, that's not good for Saturday. It's only good Monday through Thursday. So I did manage to get one for tomorrow night, for Tuesday night. Yeah, luckily. And well, and that's the other thing. ⁓ if you're an annual pass holder, be aware when they offer these 40% discounts. Rob: Yeah. Jessica: ⁓ wow. Craig: those normally really easy to book restaurants are going to be the most difficult ones to get because all the other annual pass holders are trying to get it. So I actually had to use a stakeout to get a decent return time or decent dinner time for ⁓ tomorrow night to for Tuesday night. Yeah. Jessica: Mm-hmm. Rob: Yeah. Jessica: Yeah. Rob: So what Craig is referring to, ⁓ these 40% deals, we talked about 10% on dining earlier. During certain times of the year, Disney will at select restaurants do a deeper discount. It's not always 40%. Sometimes it's, you know, anywhere between 10 and 40%, ⁓ depending on the restaurant. But a lot of them are 40% off. And it does make it, you know, if if you like if dining is a big If that's something that's important to you, then yes, these discounts can actually make a material difference in the price of your trip when you're getting that 40% off. So definitely a good one. Jessica, what's your next intangible? Jessica: Mm-hmm. So for us, one of the things that really kind of pushed us over the edge was ⁓ John and I are both ⁓ engineers. We both travel a lot for work and we travel all over the country. And we love the ability to tack on a couple of days at Disney randomly when we're traveling. ⁓ oftentimes, you know, Rob will be like, I didn't know you were gonna be here. And I'm like, I didn't know I was gonna be here. we just are able to, because we have an annual pass. Without a lot of planning, without a lot of ⁓ kind of really researching or looking at the prices, we tack on a couple of days at Disney, particularly if we're in Florida or in Atlanta for work. ⁓ we have come down, and I say almost last minute, and it's just it takes that pressure off. It says, I can do that. I can come and have a Disney trip when I want for as many days as I want. I don't have to feel like I have to do a week at Disney. I can be there for a day. I was there for a day when they announced that Figment meet and greet, I literally came in for a day so that I can meet and greet with Figmet and then I left. And it was one of the top ten days of my Disney experience. But if I didn't have the annual pass, I would have really struggled ⁓ to do that. You know, and and I think that's that's one of the things about the annual pass. If If the nostalgia and the if you have a job or a situation where you can travel quickly, you got points, whatever it is, getting the annual pass takes that one less thing off your bucket list. Off your off or your list of things you have to do. Rob: Mm-hmm. And I the things you need to be concerned about is like that when you're budgeting for it. If you live in a city that either has really good access to ⁓ a budget airline that has a a popular Orlando route, or you live in a hub city where there's obviously tons of airlines that are going to be competing with that Orlando route, having an annual pass means that you might get an email. Jessica: Mm-hmm. Rob: On Wednesday that says that there's a $39, you know, rate to to go to Orlando. And boom, your tickets are you've already paid, you got tickets already. You know, you just gotta pay for that airfare. I see ⁓ to me, this is a little bit crazy, but I see it a lot on social media. There are people, especially who live in like hubs like New York City. Jessica: Mm-hmm. Rob: Who will come down, they'll get the first flight out in the morning, they'll come down, they'll have a Disney day. I mean, I think that flight to New York is like what, two and a half, three hours, three and a half hours. It's not a lot. They'll come down, they'll have a Disney day, they'll, you know, get back to the to the airport late that evening and take the last flight home and didn't pay for anything in terms of lodging. They just had that really cheap last minute flight and they had a Disney day. So Jessica: Mm-hmm. Rob: If that's something that sounds fun to you, like they just kind of spur the moment, or you want to be more less crazy about it and just get an inexpensive room for the night, that's what I would recommend and make a weekend out of it. I mean, that's the beauty of an annual past, is that you can do that. Craig: Mm-hmm. so cool. So freedom. Rob: Yeah. And if you've got a job where you've got a lot of points for either airline points or hotel points, you know, you stay. I mean, Swan and Dolphin, for example, those are Walt Disney World hotels that give you all the perks, including early entry and extended evening hours and all the good stuff. And you can book those with Marriott points. So I mean, that could be a a basically free trip for you, you know, if you had airline points and hotel points and an annual pass. For me. I want to talk about something that's kind of similar to this. And this is if you're already coming for a trip, one of the benefits of having an annual pass is you can do things that would have been kind of crazy to do before. And what I'm talking about is going to the parks on your arrival day or your departure day when you're only going to be able to be in the parks for couple hours, a few hours before it's going to close. In normal ticket math, that's insane to use a park ticket to basically go in for an hour or two. ⁓ but when you got an annual pass, that's that's exactly what people do. I mean, you'll see a lot of people, they drop their bags at their resort, ⁓ you know, at the at the the desk basically, the before the room is even ready sometimes, and they just pop over to the park. You know, and they're only gonna spend a portion of their day there. And if you've got an annual pass, that's not a crazy thing to do. In fact, it's a perfectly logical thing to do. So I think that that mindset of your vacation that the park does not become something that you've got to kind of budget. You've got to like figure out, you know, is this is it worth it to do this extra park day? Is it, you know, you just go when you want to go. And more importantly, Jessica: Mm-hmm. Rob: You come back to the resort whenever you want to come back. You aren't thinking in your head, ⁓ my gosh, I'm burning a park ticket today and we're gonna go back and hang out at the pool. Like that just seems crazy to me. You don't have to have those thoughts when you have an annual pass. ⁓ Craig: ⁓ yeah, like case in point, ⁓ when we arrive tomorrow. I have not seen Phantasmic in many, many years. And it's always because whenever I plan on seeing it, it's at the end in the middle of the vacation, near the end of vacation, I end up being too tired. So when we arrive tomorrow, our plan is to have dinner at Boat Rights at forty percent off and then we're gonna go see Phantasmic. That's our only plans. And that's all we have to do is just get to the park and watch Phantasmic. And That's only available because now Eric has an annual pass and we're that's is gonna be his first day using it. ⁓ and yeah, just that that kind of freedom, especially and and that makes so much more sense on like departure days and arrival days where can actually just do without having to worry about how much money you spent on that one day. Rob: Yeah. For I mean, I I live here, we live in celebration, which makes it very easy to just pop into Disney World. And it is not uncommon that I would take my lunch break ⁓ at Epcot and just go get some festival food that I wanted to try for lunch. And, you know, I can be in and out and back home in an hour, you know, on my lunch break and and have a a quick, you know, lunch in Epcot. And again, that would be completely insane. If I were buying a park ticket, but it's perfectly normal to do something like that. So if you've got work trips that are gonna bring you to Orlando, like Jessica was talking about, the ability to work from here for a period of time, yeah. The annual pass is gonna be your best friend. It's gonna be, you know, what you're gonna do as soon as you're off from work and ⁓ maybe even on your lunch break if you're close enough. Though those are kind of those are the things we talked about so far are the big ones, but we've actually got a nice long list here that we made. So we're gonna kind of rapid fire through these. Some other things that you might not be thinking about that are great ⁓ when you have an annual pass. ⁓ Jessica, why don't you share your next ⁓ thing that you love about being a pass holder? Craig: Mm-hmm. Jessica: It always comes with par copper. Rob: Mm-hmm. Yep. Jessica: There you go. That's it. It always you don't you don't have to think about it. You always get park copper. Y'all know I love a park hop. So that's a great thing. Rob: And and that's another thing. If you if you're gonna come, adding park hopper, you have to add it for the duration of your of your trip. And so if you're coming for a week, park hopper isn't that huge of a price increase, right? Because it's spread out over all those days. If you're coming for a weekend, adding park hopper to a two day ticket is a crazy increase in price as a percentage. So again, the AP makes a big difference there. Craig, what's your what's your next ⁓ intangible or or thing you love about AP that you might not immediately think about? Craig: Well, ⁓ I mean one of my favorite things has always been to be able to resort hop. And it's actually kind of it's it makes it easier if you can get into a park and hop from there. I mean, in the news right now is the fact that they're ⁓ canceling ⁓ bus transportation from Disney Springs unless you have a either a reservation at a resort or resort ⁓ hotel reservation period. ⁓ So just making it ⁓ easier for ⁓ as an annual pass holder, you can still just go to a park and park there and then you can still use the internal bus systems to get to whatever resort you want. ⁓ that never changes. But it's it's just very easy for an annual pass holder to do, especially, you know, if you just go to the park. ⁓ there's a ⁓ single pass for Guardians of the Galaxy. Let's let's get that. Let's ride Guardians of the Galaxy and then go to ⁓ what French Quarter Beignets, that kind of thing. I I'm a I love resort hopping, so that that's like a huge plus in my book. Rob: Yeah. I mean, even before they took away, ⁓ which they, you know, at least for the foreseeable future, it does appear that Disney's going to limit your ability to park at Disney Springs and take the transportation to a resort. But even if they didn't take that away, when you can park at any of the parks and park hop from there, it just it's a game changer. I mean, think about it. You can park at Hollywood Studios, you can take the Skyliner to Caribbean Beach to the Riviera. You know, Riviera has some of the best restaurants at Walt Disney World, including Topolino's Terrace, but even their quick service stuff there is great. The ability to just hop on the monorail, for example, when you park at the transportation and ticket center, you're at the monorail station. You're at the main station. You can go anywhere from there. ⁓ that's a huge perk for resort hopping. ⁓ for me, ⁓ one of one of my Favorite things about being a pass holder are these kind of limited time special things that happen. ⁓ they're only for pass holders. For example, right now, there is a pass holder lounge that's over at Epcot. ⁓ this has been coming pretty much every summer lately. And man, is it great when it is hot as blazes to be able to go to a lounge? It's it's in the back of Morocco. Last time I checked, is that where it is again this year? Has anyone been this year? Yeah. Jessica: Mm-hmm. Yes. Rob: So it's in the back of a Morocco pavilion in Epcot. It's the what used to be Restaurant Marrakesh, which is a huge space. They will have refreshments in there for free, complimentary for your annual pass holders. They'll oftentimes have a character there that's unique that you can meet and greet. Last year it was Jeannie when I was in there. You could ⁓ get your photo taken with Jeannie. ⁓ so they they will be doing little special things. ⁓ off and on throughout the year that are exclusive to pass holders and that's just a little extra pixie dust on your trip that you wouldn't get otherwise. Craig: y well just one thing I wanted to mention specifically about the annual pass holder lounge is it's only good ⁓ if are a pass holder. If you have other people in your party that aren't, they can't get in. This happened last year because I was down there in June. I had an annual pass holder, Eric did not, so he couldn't get in, so we didn't go. So just that's something to be aware of as well. Jessica: Exactly. Rob: Yeah. And also be aware that in most days it will run out of capacity ⁓ for periods of the day. So you're actually gonna have to get on a waiting list to get into the pass holder lounge. So don't don't think that you can just walk right up and walk in. Sometimes you can, but usually ⁓ you'll need to just drop by a little bit in advance of when you want to go to get your name on the list ⁓ so that you can get in. ⁓ but Eric, you wanted to mention, I think magnets you had just said. Erick: Yeah, like the magnets that you can get for having an LPS. ⁓ Jessica: Yeah, there's a caveat with that too, though. So here's the caveat, yeah, here's the caveat for the annual pass magnets. They will send you the same Mickey Mouse magnet, the yellow D with Mickey Mouse in it. Every time you renew, you will get it. We have a we have six of them in the house. Love them. The other magnets that they drop, it seems randomly, about once a quarter. Erick: I am. Craig: Yeah. Jessica: They won't tell you when they're dropping them until a couple of weeks before they're dropping them. They won't tell you who the magnet is. And you have to be there to get them during that time. So once again, if you are an out of towner, unless you just have a trip planned or you can pick up and go, you won't get those magnets. And they become kind of a weird scavenger hunt for me. ⁓ Craig: Ha ha ha. Jessica: Every once in a while they'll do like old magnets. I think last year they did the old magnets at Animal Kingdom and you could go and pick up the ones you didn't have, which was really nice, but they don't always do that. Like I'm missing the Mickey and Mini combo and I want it so bad. ⁓ but you can't always get them. So I just put that out there to say the magnets Craig: Yeah. Jessica: And a lot of the things we say that are positives, there's a caveat. And that's one of the caveats with the magnets. They don't send them to you. You have to go there to get them. Rob: Yeah. Craig, what's your next ⁓ intangible thing that people may not know about annual passes that make them a good deal? Craig: Mm-hmm. ⁓ well this is just a quick one. It's ⁓ something we touched on earlier is about talking about adding on the photo pass. The nice thing is only one person in your group has to have that in your family, your whatever family group you have. You don't all have to buy that. So as long as one person gets that, all the other pictures, all the pictures will show up for everybody. So that is a a nice Rob: Yeah. Not only that one person is going to be able to download the photos without watermarks, but I mean, if it's your family, probably just whoever is the one that's going to be the most ⁓ reliable at downloading the photos from the app, make sure that person is the person who gets ⁓ the the ⁓ the upgrade to their in the past. But yes, everybody doesn't need it. ⁓ so Jessica, what is your next intangible? Jessica: Mm-hmm. ⁓ my next intangible is the one that I talk about a lot, and that is merch. Let's just let's just spend a little bit of time talking about merchandise. At every Halloween party, at every Christmas party, at every festival, and sometimes at other parts of the years, there will be annual pass holder specific merchandise. A lot of times it is the cutest merchandise. It is usually a fun color or it's an offshoot or it's a different ⁓ Rob: Mm-hmm. Jessica: ⁓ kind of variation. They have annual pass holder other magnets for those events. They have pins, they have ornaments, usually t-shirts. ⁓ It's just really fun and it's kind of a way to display hey, I'm an annual pass holder. The caveat with the merch is and the example that I gave to the guys was this year for Cool Kids Summer. They came out with an annual pass holder line, including this really cute crossbody Mickey Mouse black bag with annual pass holder on it. That only the people that were there for the first three days of Cool Kids Summer got because they ran out and they have not restocked it. I wanted that bag so bad. And we're coming for Cool Kids Summer. I thought, no big deal. A lot of times annual pass holder merch goes really fast if you're an out of state ⁓ person. For festivals, a lot of times that annual pain pass holder merch will be gone. ⁓ Run Disney, the annual pass holder merch is gone really fast because there are a lot of local annual pass holders that get that. But the merch is great if you can get it and it's it's really cool. ⁓ I love having I have a Christmas tree filled with my annual pass holder ornaments from the different events we've been to. So it's just a lot of fun. But just the caveat is if you're not a towner and you can't get there on the first couple days, you might not get the exact merch you want. Rob: Yeah. ⁓ the other one I'll mention is when there's a new ride opening. For example, when when Guardians opened or when Tiana opened, the very coolest shirt is usually the one that's reserved for annual pass holders. And you're right, Jessica. On those days, that shirt is gone by lunchtime if it's a really good one. I mean, you just you have to you have to get it early. ⁓ I I Craig: Mm-hmm. Jessica: Mm-hmm. Craig: Mm. Jessica: Mm-hmm. ⁓ yeah. Craig: Mm-hmm. Well, and e even along those lines, the pass holder previews they have for either new rides or reopening rides. Unfortunately, I haven't you have to be there. But ⁓ yeah, that that's a great perk. Unfortunately I haven't been able take advantage of it. But Jessica: ⁓ that's a good one. Rob: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah, that that's one we didn't I'm I'm glad you brought that up because we didn't even have that on our list. But that's especially if you're able to get to the park easily, like being a local, it's amazing that you get to experience brand new rides before everyone else. I mean, that's a huge VIP perk of being an annual pass holder. ⁓ that I I'm surprised we didn't have it at the top of the list because it is really one of the best things. But I guess if you don't live here, It's more difficult to take advantage of that. I actually want to talk a little bit that's a that's kind of related to this idea of being a local. So when we first got our annual pass, I mentioned earlier we drove down to buy the annual pass. So we were not locals at that time. And we had the experience of being, you know, folks who who bought tickets every time we came to the parks. And let me tell you, that added up really quickly. And then we had the experience of being out of state annual pass holders. And I think, you know, Craig and Jessica, you probably would agree with this. Even when you're out of state, when you're an annual pass holder, there's something that makes you feel a little bit more like a local. Now, I mean, obviously there's nothing like being able to just drive to the park whenever, but you feel like Disney World is kind of And a a home away from home in a way. Like I I I it sounds cheesy, but I definitely felt that way. Before we moved here, once I was an annual pass holder, when I came to Walt Disney World, it was kind of like I was coming, you know, to to my home away from home. I I felt like I belonged there in a way, as weird as that sounds, th that that I didn't feel as just someone who was buying tickets every time I came. And it again, it that's the most intangible thing of all, but you really do I feel like you have a different relationship with being at the parks once you're a pass holder that's hard to describe. Craig: Yeah. No, Rob: Craig, what is your next intangible that people may not think about before becoming an annual pass holder? Craig: this untangible isn't necessarily a nice one. ⁓ And is that annual pass holders need to have park reservations. ⁓ And can really trip you up if you're not on top of it. ⁓ So basically, if you're going to a park, you have to have a park reservation for that specific park. so unfortunately there are some caveats as usual. ⁓ so ⁓ part of the good things is you if you going in two ⁓ you normally for any park, you don't even need a ⁓ reservation. However, the caveat with that is at Magic Kingdom on the weekends you need a reservation, no matter what time you plan on showing up. Again, one of those other things you need to r remember. And ⁓ good goodness knows I've I've forgotten many times trying to you know ⁓ tap into a park and I didn't have a reservation. Not a big deal. You can almost always get one ⁓ at the last minute. So that's not that's generally not a a huge problem, but something you do want to plan for. ⁓ and they also have good Rob: Unless, of course, you're planning to go on a day like the Fourth of July, which for me, as we're recording this, we're approaching the Fourth of July. I saw a news thing that popped up in my feed that said, ⁓ they're out of annual pass holder park pass reservations for Magic Kingdom for the Fourth of July, which was this year, Fourth of July is a Saturday. So I had to have a park pass if I wanted to get into Magic Kingdom. Now, you could get a park pass at another park and park hop. Jessica: Mm-hmm. Craig: Mm-hmm. ⁓ yeah. Rob: Into Magic Kingdom on Saturday. But that means you have to go to that other park first. ⁓ luckily, I was able to get a park reservation after they had initially run out. So that's another thing. If you look to see if you can get a reservation and it's out, keep checking because when someone cancels that reservation or switches it to a different park, it does come back into the pot and you can grab it. So ⁓ good to know when you're Craig: Mm. And and they do have like during slower times they have what they call good to go days where you don't and they'll let you know you don't need a a reservation for any of the parts at all for those days. but w yeah, one fun thing I just I literally just dealt with, ⁓ because my annual pass re r renews in just a couple of days in the middle of my upcoming trip. And so I couldn't like get lightning lanes on the first two days. I could only do it on that ticket. Then I had to like switch to another ticket to get the rest of the lightning lanes for the rest of the trip. So and that was one of the I I couldn't figure out why why is this not working? I texted, you know, these two experts over they're Are you renewing that week? It's like, yep, that's exactly what it was. Rob: I'm glad you brought up park pass reservations, though, Craig, because that's another important thing for people to know. You have a limited number of park pass reservations. For the Incredit pass, you have five that you can work with. So you can only have five at a time. ⁓ if you have one of the lower tiers of passes, it goes down. So basically, I think if the next tier down, you only have four, and then I think it's three, and then you know, so it's It's you have fewer park pass ⁓ reservations that you can hold on to days for. Now, if you're only coming for one, you know, period of time, that's probably not gonna be that big of a deal. But if you're planning to come, you know, for Christmas and New Year's, you might need a lot of days reserved because they could theoretically run out, right? Because it's the busiest time of the year. This happens to me all the time ⁓ as a local. Craig: Mm-hmm. Rob: I'll go ahead and book Magic Kingdom as you know way out for like Thanksgiving, for Christmas Eve, for Christmas Day, and for New Year's Eve. I'll do Epcot. And there you go. There's four of my Park Pass reservations. And I've just got this one reservation that I keep moving around when I want to go to the next park. It's an annoyance. However, there's another caveat here. If you have a hotel stay that is a Disney hotel, then Jessica: Mm-hmm. Rob: The park pass reservations that you make during your hotel stay do not count against your limit. So if you know you're always going to be coming, if you're DVC and you're always going to be coming, ⁓ you don't need to worry about those reservation limits because they probably won't apply to you. But ⁓ yeah. There's so many little caveats that you don't think about until you you kind of start putting it all in a list like we're doing today. Jessica, what's your next ⁓ thing that people need to think about before getting an annual pass? Jessica: ⁓ I I will say this is kind of a a a ⁓ two-way street here, but because there's twenty percent off, and for example, right now, because of Cool Kids Summer, there was twenty percent off on ⁓ DisneyStore.com, I I have more ears than I would have purchased if I didn't have an annual pass, because I have a discount. All of these ears are twenty percent off. All of them back there are twenty percent off, and I am convinced. That getting the annual pass has cost me more money in merchandise and stuff than I would have gotten if I didn't because I'm justifying it through that girl math, that Disney math. And it is great, but just be aware, you should still think about do I need sixty pairs of ears? Yes. But, you know, that's the other thing. I know. Craig: Mm-hmm. ⁓ Rob: I definitely needed sixty pairs of I mean I've I've I've doubled that number now. Clearly I needed those, yeah. Craig: I've I I've I've always lived by the cr I've always lived by the credo. It's not what you spend, it's how much you save. And I'm sticking by that. Jessica: I know, but ⁓ I will say that is part of it. That's right. That's right. And I will say the whole the other thing I'll say about merchandise is you become a little bit, at least we have a little bit of a Disney family. I now have a shelf of popcorn buckets. John has a room devoted to the Haunted Mansion. If when he's on a conference call at work, it is the Haunted Mansion stretching room wallpaper with the stretching room portraits behind him. He doesn't even blur it. He just lets people see it. Rob: Ha ha ha. Jessica: We have become those people. ⁓ and I think that's a little bit of a plus and a minus right there. Everybody knows I'm a Disney adult now. I can't don't even hide it. And you'll wear your merchandise. I know you said you don't always wear it when you're when you're like in in North Carolina, Rob, but we wear it in Connecticut. And and I will say multiple times I've been somewhere wearing a a Disney shirt and they go, ⁓ hey, a Disney friend. You know, you you always can kind of find them, but it is kind of a plus and a minus. That happened to me after the annual pass. Craig: Mm-hmm. Jessica: Mainly 'cause I got a discount so I could buy a lot of stuff. Rob: Yeah. So my last thing that I want to share and that that's kind of an intangible, ⁓ that I think is a really great perk of becoming a pass holder is ⁓ number one, your visits are gonna become so much less stressful because this is something that changes in your mindset as an annual pass holder. Jessica, you said it didn't happen to you in your first year, but eventually it did. And that is you're gonna kind of move away from that feeling that you've got to pack everything into your vacation because you know you've got a year ahead of you where if you don't make it onto, you know, Pirates of the Caribbean, you know, on on this one day at Magic Kingdom, it's fine. You can probably pop in before your flight out in the morning, you know, and and just ride pirates if it was really important to you. So the the stress that you have of trying to Get it all done. ⁓ if you feel that every time you come on a Disney trip, becoming an annual pass holder is gonna reduce that stress level. The other thing that it does is because you're gonna be here repeatedly, you're gonna learn things. You're just you're going to to start taking your time a little bit more with things, and you're just just really through repetition, you're gonna figure things out that you probably wouldn't have figured out with you were if you weren't an annual pass holder. ⁓ I mean, these can be everything from simple things like, ⁓ my gosh, there's a shortcut that gets me from here to there. I don't have to walk all the way around ⁓ adventureland into frontier land. I can actually just cut through right here and I'm almost at the haunted mansion already, for example, right? They're just these little things that until you spend a good amount of time in the parks, you probably wouldn't pick up on these things. And so it's just your whole experience. at Disney World, I think changes as an annual pass holder because of of that reduction in stress and the the learning, the things that you're gonna pick up along the way ⁓ from being here more frequently. do either of you have any final things to share before we before we wrap up and move on to Happy Thoughts? Jessica: Guess I did have as I'm thinking, I do have one more that I do want to just make sure everybody knows about. And that is if you are an annual pass holder and you're staying off property with family members or friends that have date-based tickets and you're all staying together, when you make your lightning lanes, you are the problem. they can make lightning lanes three days before. The first day of their date-based ticket for the duration of their date-based ticket. You can make lightning lanes for three days before each day. So you are the problem for the second, third, fourth day of the trip. ⁓ and you've got to decide if you want to get their t their lightning lanes and then hopefully you can join them, or if you want to wait and do it day by day by day. Rob: Mm-hmm. Jessica: ⁓ I do want to make sure people realize that you could only book Lightning lanes three days before individual days. You don't get the p perk of a date-based ticket that allows you to book the Lightning lanes for the duration of your date-based ticket. This really only applies in situations where you and your friends are staying off property and half of you have annual passes and half of you don't. ⁓ but it is a very important caveat that people forget about with annual passes bringing people. And I've I've done this quite a few times because I Have done a lot of girl trips or family trips, and I'm always the problem. So and what I tend to do is get their take their their lightning lanes because as Rob said, I know I can ride the ride whenever I want. So if I don't get a matching time that's really perfect, I'll just I'll wait and I'll I'll end up eventually catching up to them on the new lightning lanes. But I will get all of their lightning lanes first and know that I might not I might not ride one of the key attractions, Slinky Dog. When they're writing it, but that's okay. Rob: Yeah. And it is also important to note if you have a Disney hotel stay, even as an annual pass holder, you get the full benefits of being able to book Lightning Lane seven days out and for the duration of the hotel stay. So again, that's an issue if you're staying off property or you're a local, less of an issue if you're a DVC member or someone who's always staying on property. ⁓ Jessica: Mm-hmm. Rob: Eric, do we have any more ⁓ things that people shared in the chat before we move on to happy thoughts? Erick: Okay, one that I think is important, this comes from Rachel, and she asks, if you make a park reservation and don't use it, is there a penalty? I understand you need to make one before 2 p.m. Rob: So if you are a Disneyland magic key holder, there's a huge penalty. It's a really big deal. we're not talking about magic keys in this episode, but ⁓ just know if you're thinking about doing the magic key program, you're allowed to be a no I think twice ⁓ during a period of time. Jessica: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Rob: And if you know show more than you know for the whatever the the limit is, it blocks you from being able to park reservations for a period of time. So it's a really big deal there to make sure that you cancel before a certain time if you're not gonna go. Here, ⁓ you're supposed to cancel. There it it does say that there could be a penalty. I think, but as of now, there has not been one. I always cancel, always because I've been that person who's looking for a pass to open up on a busy day. And I was so grateful that like it, like it happened to me today. I found a spot for Fourth of July because someone canceled, because someone realized, ⁓ I'm not gonna be able to make it that day. So it's very good to cancel as soon as you know you're not gonna go. But you don't get penalized currently here at Walt Disney World. Did you have another question over there, Eric? Erick: Yes, same from Rachel. Also, if you're an annual pass holder and also a Disney Visa card holder, which discount is better to use? Rob: I think it's always better. The annual pass is always better than the Disney ⁓ Visa because the Disney Visa, you have to spend a certain amount to get it on merchandise, for example, whereas there's no minimum for annual pass holders. The percentage is not more for a Disney Visa card holder. And for dining, I think they're exactly the same. In fact, there have been times when I've been places. And I've asked, is there a an annual pass discount? And they did say no, but we have a Disney Visa discount. So there are there are some places where you'll get one and not the other. But if they offer both, they generally ⁓ annual pass is usually as good or better. well, unfortunately, that's all the time we have to share ⁓ our thoughts on annual passes. But if there's something that we didn't cover that you'd like to know more about, ⁓ or you had some thoughts on annual passes that we didn't talk about. Let us know in the comments over on YouTube or if you're a member of our Patreon family, let us know in the chat on Patreon, and we may cover it in a future episode. ⁓ before we go, however, we always like to end each show with a segment we like to call happy thoughts. Just a little a little positive thing to share at the end of the evening. ⁓ Craig, why don't you start us off? What is your happy thought as you're preparing to head off to Walt Disney World? Craig: Well, ⁓ obviously my happy thought is about going to Disney World, but this week it's going to be about the mini trip after because after we leave Orlando, we're flying to Charlotte, North Carolina, and then driving up to the mountains of North Carolina, where I'm going to have a mini reunion with ⁓ some of my best college buddies up in the mountains and just a two or three day trip. Yeah, we haven't all been together. I don't think we've all been together since college, but ⁓ Jessica: ⁓ wow. Craig: Yeah, that's it's a very exciting part of this this journey coming up, so that that's that's aside from yeah, being deliriously thrilled about coming to Disney in a couple of days or tomorrow I should say, that we have that little thing going on afterwards, so it's gonna make the the last day a little bit easier. Rob: Nice. Very nice. Jessica, what is your happy thought this week? Jessica: Well, I did a little Patreon pre-screen of my happy thought and I posted a picture. And if you can tell by my ears and by my shirt, I spent this weekend in New Orleans and I got to go to the Mardi Gras World. And Mardi Gras World is a museum that is devoted to the Mardi Gras parades and the crews and the artisans that make the floats for the Mardi Gras parades. And it shows you how they make them from start to finish. It talks about the charity that goes into the crew, the importance of the Mardi Gras parades. And guess what else they sold? Mardi Gras ears. Rob: I when I saw that I couldn't believe that you got that that a non Disney store ⁓ a store dedicated to Mardi Gras sells Mickey ears that are themed to Mardi Gras. Erick: I I'm assuming that they are referring to the Kings cake, right? Yeah, yeah, Jessica: Yes, the king's cake. Very good. The king's cake. Rob: Well yeah, but but but come on. E everybody looking at that there's gonna it's they're th those are those are Mickey ears. They're they're kingscake Mickey ears, but they're Mickey ears. Erick: Bye. Craig: Mm-hmm. Jessica: The King Cakes Mickey Ears. ⁓ I put a picture of a Mardi Gras float that was a Mickey Ears in the Patreon pictures. I sent the guys a picture of Buzz Lightyear, that was a float. They had Pete's Dragon that was afloat. So they had all kinds of Disney characters in the ⁓ warehouse that we got to walk through as part of the museum that they had been working on off and on. It was really cool. ⁓ Craig: ⁓ huh. Jessica: But my real happy thought is the reason I was in New Orleans. And I'd like to give a huge shout out to the bridal boot boutique by Mamie because my daughter picked out her wedding dress this weekend. And it was a wonderful, wonderful time. Her and a few of her bridesmaids, my mom, my other daughter, and the groom's mom were all in New Orleans together, and we got to watch her put on a wedding dress. Rob: ⁓ Jessica: And if you haven't been the parent doing that, it's a it's a very happy thought and a kind of a surreal thought to think about your baby in that wedding dress. ⁓ but I got to do that, so that was my happy thought. I got all of that and a pair of Mickey ears. So it was a great trip to ⁓ to New Orleans. Rob: That's awesome. ⁓ Eric, what is your happy thought this week? Erick: So this week actually I have two. The first one is ⁓ related ⁓ the magic shots. We finally were able to in the magic kingdom recording this new video. ⁓ And we finally got the magic shot with Louis. So I'm very excited ⁓ for us to be able to share that with you guys. ⁓ in the next Foot of Us Friday. And the second one is that I've been seeing, I've been able to ⁓ meet a lot of you patrons in the parks. And ⁓ I just wanted to give a shout ⁓ to ⁓ Eric. ⁓ The other day I was just ⁓ walking from ⁓ Enchanted Tales with Bill. And then all of a sudden, like someone just comes towards me and I thought that it was just a guest like wanting to ask me a question. And I just stopped by, stopped immediately and I was waving at him. And well, was a big surprise that ⁓ Eric just stopped by ⁓ to say hello. And ⁓ I just feel very, very happy at that moment. I was, my head was in a... different, ⁓ in a different place, you know, and just like it brought me back to that moment and I feel very happy. So shout out to Eric and his family. Thank you so much, guys, for being part of this. I really, ⁓ it was very nice meeting you in the parks. So yeah. Rob: We it's always a joy when we meet folks who watch the videos or who are part of our Patreon family. So always th thank you so much to all of you who've come up to say hello. It means a lot to us. And it is ⁓ it's it's just a fun moment. my happy thought is is another fun moment that happened this past weekend. So Eric mentioned we were in the parks working on a video. We actually did an early entry video at Magic Kingdom, and we were staying at the Grand Floridian Resort. And We were at the pool at the Grand Floridian and there was ⁓ what they call 101, which means basically there's there's lightning in the area and so everyone has to get out of the pool area. And there was this family of Disney ducks. And it was a mama duck and like five little baby ducks, and everybody's getting out of the water, and apparently the rules don't apply to the Disney ducks because they all just marched right in and they had this whole glorious Craig: Mm-hmm. Rob: Grand Floridian pool to themselves and they were just swimming around and it was absolutely adorable. ⁓ so I I love the Disney Ducks, but I'd never seen Disney Ducks enjoying a Disney pool before. ⁓ I did speak to the cast members and they said, Yeah, they're regulars here now. They're they're always in the pool, especially when it's quiet. So keep an eye out for the Disney Ducks next time you're here. They're they're one of my favorite things about ⁓ a day at Walt Disney World. Craig: Ha ha. Rob: Unfortunately, that's all the time we have for happy thoughts this week, but we will be back next week with a brand new episode. Until then, don't forget to think happy thoughts, everybody. We'll see you again real soon.