40% pin, free dining, or 4/3 deal - which is best?

[twoplustwins]

My head hurts from all this number crunching!!

We are headed to WDW next month and I've been reading about the bounceback offers. My question is with a family of 6, which offer saves the most money?

40% PIN (which we will need 2 rooms)
Free dining
4/3 deal

We plan to go back next Sept/Oct as well. By that time the kids will be 8,5, and the twins 3.

 

[Aliceacc]

OK, here's the free dining savings (I'll assume a 7 night stay at POR in September.)
Approximately $120 per day ( 2 x $40 + 4 x $10, though it's a bit low after the most recent price increases)

So that's a savings of about $850 for your family.

Hang on, let me look up the POR prices:

OK, POR is coming in at $149 per night. Multiply that by the 3 nights you're getting free, and you save $447 with the 4/3 deal. Double that for the 2nd room, and 4/3 saves you almost $900.

Now let's look at a 40% PIN:
$149 x 7 x 2 rooms = $2096 rack rate.
40% off that is $834.

SO.... if you're lucky enough to actually get all 3 offers, it's a near thing. (That's good, because there's no guarantee on any of them.)

But 4/3 would likely be your best bet, followed by free dining, followed by that 40% PIN.

 

[marcielm]

Now next year you are talking about needing 2 rooms at POR... but have you considered 1 room at ASMu in the family suite? You'd get a small kitchenette, and would all be in 1 place... plus you would get a queen size bed in the bedroom.

The rates for the ASMu suite is $190 for weekday, $210 for Fri/Sat nights. The 40% rate off would be $114 & $126, respectively. Free dining per day for your family is a better savings than the 40% code. It is also a better deal than the 4/3, but is 4/3 better than 40%???? Doing the math, with the "3 free" nights being the $190 price, you'd only pay $800 for 7 nights, whereas on the 40% price code you'd be paying $822 for 7 nights. Not to mention you'd get the savings on the park tickets for 3 days.

So to finalize the information.... FREE DINING is the best deal, then go with a 4/3 offer, and finally use a 40% PIN if you don't get any other deal.

This again is all for the numbers on the ASMu family suite. Wow, now I know exactly what to look for for my own trip next March, of course I'm short 1 kid in the numbers, but I do have a child 'adult' as well.

 

[rt2dz]

It’s different for everyone.

The dining plan only saves you what you would spend on dining without it. You need to figure out your ideal dining plan using the menus and prices at All Ears. From there you can guesstimate your out of pocket dining costs. Then you can figure out which dining plan would work best for you. Port Orleans would give you the basic dining plan and the family suites as a value resort would give you the quick service dining plan, if Disney keeps this up. You can always upgrade your dining plan, but you need to add that to the cost of your room. You then figure out the rack rate of your room, and the rack rate of buying tickets directly from Disney. That is the cost of free dining, and the savings is your out of pocket dining costs.

Then compare that to the rack rate of your room, minus 40% and the cost of buying tickets from a discount broker while paying for dining out of pocket. That is the cost of a 40% room discount.

Then compare that to the cost of getting 1-3 days free for the buy 4, get 3 free package offer. You can either add whatever dining plan works for you, or the out of pocket costs for dining. There is your total for that offer.

I would like to suggest looking at a Fort Wilderness Cabin. It sleeps 6 and has a *full* kitchen. You also get a TON of room. Your 8 & 5 year old could take the bunk beds while the twins share the double bed in the bedroom. Then you and your SO could take the Murphy bed (surprisingly comfortable). You could cut your room costs and your food costs. If you have a car, you even get to park right outside your door.

Also, you say you’re going this September and possibly next September. If you could plan your trip a week earlier the next year, you might want to look at getting APs. If you already have tickets, just upgrade them after you use them (might get you a backdoor AP discount, depending on when and where they were purchased—just use them once first!). Then you get discounts at certain stores, 10% off many restaurants, you can purchase the Tables in Wonderland card and get 20% off most table service restaurants (cutting your out of pocket costs further), and could even get a better room only discount and if you want to add the dining plan you could without purchasing tickets. We’re saving 42.71% off our room next month.

 

[twoplustwins]

Yikes - you would think that Disney would make this more simple for me!

I need to spend more time focusing on this year's vacation than planning for next year!!