ª"˜˜ª¤.¸Official Team August 2013 Thread!¸.¤ª˜˜"ª&#9733

[krd315]

Now in all seriousness - why would you not do 2 TS in one day? Just curious as we have 2 days of 2 TS.

We have done 2TS every day of our last 2 trips and a couple of days we even did 3 TS (it was a lot of food). We generally do an early breakfast or lunch and dinner. We love the character meals and dinner shows!

 

[thetorit]

Can I do the QOTD?!

Do you use a dining plan (if so, which one) or pay OOP? And what helped you decide?

 

[donnaf516]

Can I do the QOTD?!

Do you use a dining plan (if so, which one) or pay OOP? And what helped you decide?

Booked the free dining bounceback last year so we'll be using the dining plan. Last year we did the DxDP. Loved having everything covered but by the end we were sick of eating. Lol

I think we'll stick with the DDP from now on.

 

[mrstomrice]

Now in all seriousness - why would you not do 2 TS in one day? Just curious as we have 2 days of 2 TS.

We do the regular dining plan. I don't want to spend a lot of time out of each day at adrs, which is why we prefer 1 ts a day.

 

[mrstomrice]

Can I do the QOTD?!

Do you use a dining plan (if so, which one) or pay OOP? And what helped you decide?

We do the regular dining plan. It is a good deal for us right now since our kids are not paying the adult price yet. We barely pay oop for any food at all. I like it because we get our money worth. We tried a shorter trip without it and we spent the same amount of money. We felt like we were not choosing what we would have liked to have had since the cost was so much oop. It's a vacation and if we want to have steak and dessert every day, we can and we don't worry about the price with the ddp.

 

[DisMom1981]

Right now we are OOP. I have gone back and forth about the dining plan. I'm not sure it would be worth it for us. DD will only be 2 so she can't even go on it. I am pretty ignorant about the prices and about DDP. As much as I love the Disney experience I find it hard to believe the company would offer me a plan intended to save me money! I know there is some chart out there to help you determine if the DDP is worth it for you but when I saw all the spaces to fill in I blew it off.

Sent from my iPhone using DISBoards

 

[Loreli]

We are on the Regular DP. My mom's taking us to WDW, so she's paying for the DP. We were going to go for the DxDP, until I saw the price, she was willing until she saw the price LOL.
We figure it will take the fuss out of dinning. I wish we could do a lotta signature dinning, but we need to fuel up my DD7 in the mornings so Character Breakfasts for us! (I'm gonna eat so much french toast...)

 

[DisMom1981]

Character Breakfasts for us! (I'm gonna eat so much french toast...)

Haha! Love this.

My dad used to get so annoyed when we went to Hoopdee because we were "supposed to get our money's worth"........we were like 7.

Sent from my iPhone using DISBoards

 

[succorso1]

Hey all, looking for some advice. We are staying at AoA from Aug 12-22. We are planning to have a day to do some shopping on the 19th in the Orlando premium outlets and then the 20th-21st at Universal Studios. We were thinking maybe it would be better to stay at a Universal Resort the last 2 days seeing we will be there for the days anyway. We have a few options and cannot decide the best one.

1. We could just stay at Disney and take cabs back and forth the couple of days (or rent a car, whichever is easier/cheaper).
3. We could check out of AoA on the 19th and use our shopping day to travel to the UO resort and check in there, then go shopping.
   
4. Or do our shopping on the 19th as planned, check out of AoA on the 20th early and head to UO, hope we can do early check in and then get to the park as early as possible (this might be rushed though I suspect).

Any advice on what others would do, or have done in the past?
Thanks!

 

[Gina-Gina-Bo-Bina]

We were thinking maybe it would be better to stay at a Universal Resort the last 2 days seeing we will be there for the days anyway. We have a few options and cannot decide the best one.

Any advice on what others would do, or have done in the past?

Definitely stay at a Universal resort hotel if you can for those days of your trip. The properties are absolutely lovely, its soooo nice to stay that close to the parks, and the free Express Passes are an awesome perk .

 

[Gina-Gina-Bo-Bina]

Can I do the QOTD?!

Do you use a dining plan (if so, which one) or pay OOP? And what helped you decide?

No dining plan for us as we are offsite. But we are doing two character breakfasts, as well as a dinner at Planet Hollywood OOP.

We had the regular dining plan on our 2009 Disney trip, and while it was nice to have most of our meals prepaid with the plan, it really didn't fit our eating style. We are three-meals-a-day people, so with the DP we were always missing a meal somewhere (usually breakfast unless we had a character meal booked). We didn't want or need all the desserts that are provided (we would much rather have appetizers rather than that much dessert ), and DS never orders the most expensive meal (he's a chicken strips or pizza kind of guy) making his "value" on the plan far less than ours.

I am very sure we would come out much further ahead by just paying for what we want to eat, when we want to eat it.

 

[HeadintheClouds]

So....whatcha got planned for the non-Disney days?

Asked out of pure friendly nosy-ness by a fan of offsite stays who also happens to love exploring all the other amazing things Orlando has to offer .

Busch Gardens, Seaworld, Universal Studios, Discovery Cove, and skydiving.

 

[Loreli]

Originally Posted by Gina-Gina-Bo-Bina

So....whatcha got planned for the non-Disney days?

Asked out of pure friendly nosy-ness by a fan of offsite stays who also happens to love exploring all the other amazing things Orlando has to offer.

What are these "non-Disney days" of which you speak?? LOL
We are going for the complete bubble experience. If the plane could land @ the resort we would take it directly there.

 

[lovingeire]

Can I do the QOTD?!

Do you use a dining plan (if so, which one) or pay OOP? And what helped you decide?

We are big fans of the DDP. In the past we've done the DDP, but this trip my husband is insisting on the DxDP so we are going to try it out. Whatever gets us to Disney more often!

 

[momto3gr8boys]

We are going OOP this time. Using the DDP calculator had the DDP costing us about $600 more than paying OOP. now if FD came along I'd be all for it. But paying ahead of time just for the convenience is too expensive this trip.

As for non-disney days, we have none. We did US/IOA and stayed at the HRH for three days last time before Disney. I loved WWOHP and the hotel, but that was enough. I am too much of a Disney freak to want to spend one minute off property when I'm in Orlando. I kept thinking I would get over that at some point, but it hasn't happened yet!

 

[jaz0308]

We do a lot of character meals right now so we find that the dining plan is a good value for us. Those can be pretty pricey for OOP! It totally depends on which restaurants you plan to visit, imho.

 

[DisneyDad in PA]

Hey all, looking for some advice. We are staying at AoA from Aug 12-22. We are planning to have a day to do some shopping on the 19th in the Orlando premium outlets and then the 20th-21st at Universal Studios. We were thinking maybe it would be better to stay at a Universal Resort the last 2 days seeing we will be there for the days anyway. We have a few options and cannot decide the best one.

1. We could just stay at Disney and take cabs back and forth the couple of days (or rent a car, whichever is easier/cheaper).
3. We could check out of AoA on the 19th and use our shopping day to travel to the UO resort and check in there, then go shopping.
   
4. Or do our shopping on the 19th as planned, check out of AoA on the 20th early and head to UO, hope we can do early check in and then get to the park as early as possible (this might be rushed though I suspect).

Any advice on what others would do, or have done in the past?
Thanks!

I would stay at least one night at a Universal Resort. As previously mentioned, the benefit of the unlimited Express pass for resort guests on the day you check-in and the whole day you check out is very helpful. We are going over for one night during our upcoming Disney Trip.

Taking a cab over. We are checking in, probably leaving our bag at the bell station, in the morning and heading to the park with Express pass and tickets in hand. They will call to tell us when our room is ready. Then the next morning we r checking out and leaving our bag at the bell station again and heading our to the parks again for the day. We are then returning to Beach Club that night via Taxi after stopping by the resort to pick up our bag.

 

[momto3gr8boys]

We do a lot of character meals right now so we find that the dining plan is a good value for us. Those can be pretty pricey for OOP! It totally depends on which restaurants you plan to visit, imho.

I think it also depends on your party and what you eat too. If you have kids ages 3-9 it works out better. And if you are entree and dessert people as opposed to appetizer and entree people (which we do more....we will occasionally share a dessert) it works better. I am more apt to have a glass of wine with dinner over a coke and we are five disney adults, so that's over $250 a day for meals. Now I will most likely spend that amount each day, but it will include items not on the DDP such as appetizers, alcohol and tips. All that would be on top of that amount per day.

 

[poohlover4life]

Can I do the QOTD?!

Do you use a dining plan (if so, which one) or pay OOP? And what helped you decide?

I know there is a lot of debate about the dining plan. I have heard some ppl who are really disappointed with it and other ppl (like my family) who LOVE it. It depends on a lot of factors to determine if the plan options are for you. For my hubby, parents, and I we are obsessed.
Now let me share why. First, I LIVE on a diet and frankly we also try not to go out to eat for that reason and the fact that I would rather spend that money in WDW then my local pizza place lol. However, when i'm on vacation all bets are off and I wanna eat like i've never eaten food before. that being said, the deluxe plan is AWESOME!! for 100$ per person per day we eat WAY more than 100$ a piece and find ourselves saving lots and lots of money eating TONS (literally) of food. Now for us this is great cuz we would WANT to eat that much but if you don't want to eat and want to snack this is a bad plan cuz it's only giving you your moneys worth if you eat at expensive and or signiture dining resturants.
Long story short I am a deluxe diner for life lol but i do understand ppl who find it to be expensive and more than they wanted.

 

[Gina-Gina-Bo-Bina]

Busch Gardens, Seaworld, Universal Studios, Discovery Cove, and skydiving.

How AWESOME!!!!!!!! What excellent additions to your Disney trip! Except the skydiving......that makes me . But so cool you are brave enough to give something like that a try. You are a braver soul than I!

What are these "non-Disney days" of which you speak?? LOL
We are going for the complete bubble experience. If the plane could land @ the resort we would take it directly there.

lol, it was not a QOTD.....it was just an inquiry to someone who had posted that they had non-Disney days planned for their August trip .

I know many folks feel the same as you, but we are oddballs in that regard . We love the ORLANDO experience.....there is so much to see and do outside of Disney. We have done all four Disney parks, visited Downtown Disney, SeaWorld, Discovery Cove, Aquatica, Universal Studios, Islands of Adventure, Gatorland, taken an airboat tour, shopped at both Premium Outlet Malls, visited the Florida Mall, golfed at 5 different mini golf courses, spent an evening bowling at the World Bowling Center, and more on previous trips, and we STILL have new experiences planned for this coming August. That's one of the things we like best about our trips "down south".......there is so much NEW to discover! (amid the old favourites, of course!)