Would you stay cheap & eat well or stay deluxe & eat cheap?

[w8ting4pooh]

I'm debating (or just insane) whether it would be nicer to stay at the Pop Century with the 5+2 package and add on the Silver Plan. The kids could have a character buffet breakfast every day, we could go parasailing, go to the spa, Cirque & to the Luau at the Poly, etc. We'd do all the expensive stuff without freaking out about the $$. With 6 people, we would have 84 wishes for 7 nights!

Or we could stay at the Contemporary resort in a standard view room and eat at counter service for most of the week with vouchers. We'd be in a much bigger room with many more perks. The cost of the rooms (we need 2) plus the food would be roughly the same as the pop + silver.

Is it better to put my money into the room costs or food & fun costs?

 

[Fromeurope]

If you want to see and do everything at all the parks, you don't have time to do fancy things such as parasailing!
So I would prefer a larger room at a nicer hotel...
But that's my honest opinion. I go to WDW just for the parks and the atmosphere. Things as visiting a Spa, having luxury diners, seeing shows etc. I can do somewhere else as well.
Greetings from a rainy Amsterdam

 

[TLinden16]

If you go the value + Wishes route, use your wishes very wisely to make sure you get your money's worth. In my opinion, character breakfasts aren't the best use for wishes. You can go to a character breakfast for around $22 including tax and tip. A wish costs around $34, so you are already behind on the cost. If you're thinking of doing a character breakfast most mornings of you trip using wishes, you'll have quite a bit of ground to make up.

I have stayed at all levels of resorts, and to be quite honest, for me, it's not really worth spending the extra money on the deluxe resort. I don't spend very much time at the resort--I'm in the theme parks all day, Jellyrolls all night. It's really just a place to shower and get a few hours of sleep for me. I usually prefer to stay in a moderate resort.

Karen

 

[MermaidsMom]

Stay Deluxe/Eat Cheap!!

 

[#1hockeymom]

Stay deluxe, eat cheap! Casey's hotdogs taste so good! Its the atmosphere that makes ALL of the food taste so great!

 

[kathylovesdisneyworl]

For us it would be stay cheap and eat good. We don't usually go to the nicer resturants except when we are WDW so for us that is also part of the vacation.

 

[WhispyPixie]

Stay deluxe...eat cheap...

Try...Casey's Hot Dogs....ABC Commisary....El Pirate.....nibble your way through the WS.....and....eat a large breakfast and you should be able to have a lighter late lunch and snack for the evening.


We prefer the less eating in the evening anyways......gives us time to walk off all the yummy food we eat early in the day..

 

[susy]

Stay deluxe, eat cheap. A character breakfast every day would get old quick. You won't have time to run around doing all that stuff. I wouldn't pick the CR, though. The WL and AKL are nicer and cheaper.

 

[RumpleMom]

Stay moderate and have a couple nice meals. One character breakfast is enough IMHO. You waste too much valuable morning time when you could be in a park.

Now if you are going to skip several days at the parks, then a deluxe would be nice. I would base my decision on which pool we liked the most.

 

[Mymatisse]

One thing you should probably take under consideration is that the "cheap" food options at Disney are not really all that "cheap." Eating at all those little counter service places add up quickly.

Saying that, my personal preference would be to stay in the nicer room and pick a couple of days to have really nice sit down meals, or the character breakfast.

 

[firefawnkimmy]

If you stay deluxe and eat cheap your going to be penny counting all week. WHy oh why people would consider doing that on their vacation is beyond me. I refuse to worry about money at all when on vacation, so I just make sure I have more than enough when I go for extra stuff like ice cream, that hat that my fiance falls in love with, pictures at tower of terror, etc. I would totally stay value in your case. Value resorts are awesome and I am still trying to figure out the difference right now (Ive been to deluxe, moderate, and value and can't see any service difference AT ALL) so stay value. Its really fun!

 

[tinkerbeth]

I would vote stay cheap and eat well. But it's not just eating well I'd think about - you could likely also afford a few more souveneers, etc. I'd agree with the other poster that I'd be more likely to go to a spa somewhere else but it's your vacation so do whatever makes you happy.

Be careful with the silver plan. I was going to do that too but I costed it out for the 2 of us and our 2 year old son (who would be free and yes, he's really only two, dis police ) and it was 3195 for 9 nights at Pop with the Silver. In stead, I bought Annual passes for the 2 of us (although you'd only need to buy one really) and got 300 bucks off the room. The room and 2 annual passes are costing us 1500. Therefore, based on that, the wishes cost out to about 89 bucks each if we got the silver plan compared to doing it that way. (I divided the difference in price by the 18 wishes we would get.) We can eat a LOT of cool meals for 1600 bucks in 9 days. If you wanted the PAPs because you were going to do a lot of water parks, then it might not be as cheap. We aren't planning to do that b/c the pool will be fine for us. Also, you don't get the little "perks" that come with the dream-maker, but I would rather have the money to buy myself some souveneers and scrapbook stuff. Of course, with the 7 for 5, it wouldn't be as expensive but I think we come out ahead.

Hope that's helpful!

Beth

 

[ducklite]

I'd go down the middle, stay moderate and eat moderate. Personally kids seem to burn out on character breakfasts everyday. More than two or three character meals in a week and thye just aren't so special anymore.

By staying moderate you could enjoy a slightly larger room, quieter, and IMHO nicer themed resorts with more amenities. You could do counter service for breakfast and lunch, and then have a nice moderate dinner every night, Spoodles, the Concourse Steakhouse, Bongo's. the GF Cafe, Kona all come to mind.

Anne

 

[QJ411]

Originally posted by susy
Stay deluxe, eat cheap. A character breakfast every day would get old quick. You won't have time to run around doing all that stuff. I wouldn't pick the CR, though. The WL and AKL are nicer and cheaper.

I would choose Stay Deluxe, eat cheap. Even though, it's not really THAT cheap. Have one or two character meals (these Buffet meals really fill you up! And I believe the kids prices are a bit lower.)

And I agree w/ Susy, I wouldn't choose CR, WL and AKL are nicer and cheaper.

Hope this helps, its just my humble opinion.

 

[Nathan's Grandma]

We would always stay deluxe and eat cheap. Eating sit down dinners are not important to us. The food courts have great meals and salads. My 6'4" hates sleeping in a double bed so the queen is important to him.

It doesn't matter what you choose if you choose what is most important to you.

Kathy

 

[trola2]

I'd go moderate and eat what I wanted...do you really want a character bfast every day? I can't tell, but it looks like your kids are all boys...are they into the princess bfasts, or would they tire of Donald's bfast and Chef Mickeys? Just a thought. For us, we like 2 character meals in about 8-10 days and that is plenty...and one true sit down meal a day is what we enjoy...but everyone is different. Have fun planning and good luck with your decision...

OH and looking at the pictures...will you be having any pool time? My kids(8,7, and 3 on the last trip) loved the water slide at the moderates and that was better for them than any character meal!
~~Beth

 

[lwilliam]

would stay deluxe and eat cheap. We like the good, sit-down restaurants, but love the counter service more and there are
so many to choose from....and the snacks too.

 

[Fromeurope]

Something I want to add is that the food at WDWfoodcounters is really cheap (and very good), when you're used to European prices. Just think about it, a medium burger, medium french fries and a brownie (no drinks) will cost you about $13 at Disneyland Paris. We were there last weekend.
Greetings from Europe

 

[Gretel]

Stay deluxe ...............eat cheap.....................

 

[lissawynn]

I guess I'm in the camp with the people who enjoy their vacations and don't sweat the money issue too much. We save so we can do the things we want to do at WDW. If that means eating at CG twice on our trip, we do it. We stay where we want and eat what we want. If I had to eat pb&j every day and pack people into a hotel room, I wouldn't really be enjoying myself, regardless of being in WDW.