vagabonder1
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Feb 8, 2009
- Messages
- 6
Ok, my first post here and I need help figuring out what I should do. A little history:
We are looking at going to Disney the end of Aug. for 10 nights. We went 4 years ago wen DS was 4 (baby stayed home with Gma) and stayed at the SOG. DH is now currently retired with 20yrs of service. This trip is happening because of the great military deals.... we knew we wanted to go in the next couple of years and now seems to be the time! So....
We stayed at SOG poolside and had a GREAT time there, loved it... didn't know any different. We had no issues with transportation and hopped the monorail at the Poly most days. That trip we spent all our time at the parks, and also went to Universal Studios for a day. I was planning to just rebook this trip there; however, I was thinking of possibly doing the dining plan.
The dining plan is what is throwing me for a loop here... we would gladly go back to SOG and spend money OOP for meals... but with the 40% discount for disney resorts I started looking else where, and now my once simple 'cheap' trip is turning into a big debate.
Considering the dining plan to make things easier and less OOP tracking; however, I read in a travel book that if we are big breakfast people (which we are) then we shouldn't do this plan. We HAVE to have a decent breakfast, for DH he could skip lunch if he had a good breakfast... I can't, I need every meal as do the boys (ages 8 and 4). I want to do (again) Hoop Dee Doo review, Mama Melrose for Fantasmic, and possibly The Spirit of Aloha (not sure about this one). We never ate a sit down breakfast last time - just what we bought from the store (spent around 250 at the store which included all breakfast for the week and all water and snacks). We're also not looking to eat at any character dining places on this trip, just the 3 places mentioned above. Do you think a family of 4 can eat QS meals for under 100?
Ok, so the options are this:
1. SOG, we used a wonderfull town car last time and would do so again, with this we get a free trip to the grocery store where we bought cases of water, snacks, and or breakfast items (for the most part). So SOG with OOP for meals, I am averaging 100. a day for a family of 4 (my youngest doesn't eat much). WIth the purchase of all the dinner's mentioned above it will cost me about 2800 for hotel and ALL food.
If we stay at a disney resort we know we want to stay at AKL, so here are my options:
2. AKL Savannah view with standard dinning will be about $3100 but then I will have to buy OOP some food to cover the shows and what not so this will be around $3500.
3. AKL Savannah view deluxe dinning will run me $3600, but here is where I need help... with the deluxe will I be able to get most of the dinner shows included here? Say if we eat a big breakfast and skip lunch which would give us the extra table service?
and lastly:
4. AKL club level with standard dinning will cost me $3400. We will be able to eat enough in the club room that I might be able to save the table services for say 2 of the dinner shows. So the club level with standard dinning is winning out on me right now.. and is only 600 more than SOG (which I'm totally willing to spend for this trip for the experience). If we were to add the deluxe onto this club package it would be $3900 - but I think WAY too much food.
I'm just not sure. Last time at the parks we only did the Hoop Dee DOo review and Hollywood and Vine for Fantasmic, everything else was quick service. We're at Disney for a few extra days this trip and will have enough time (I think) to take our time and enjoy the food Disney has to offer.
I was thinking it may be nice to not worry about paying OOP every time we eat and tracking the costs. It would also be nice to try the dining plan and eat at places we wouldn't if we were at SOG; however, I'm not sure if the dining plan would feed us... I'm concerned about the standard dining plan and only having 2 meals and 1 snack since we wouldn't stop by the grocery store (and going to the grocery store defeats the whole cost analysis of this because that would add on more money)... which is why I was looking to go club level with the standard dining.... I think between the two we would have enough food, and possibly credits to use for the dinner shows. But I don't know and am confused with what option will be the best cost effective choice to feed my family.
Thanks in advance! Any and all dvice welcome!
sorry so long
We are looking at going to Disney the end of Aug. for 10 nights. We went 4 years ago wen DS was 4 (baby stayed home with Gma) and stayed at the SOG. DH is now currently retired with 20yrs of service. This trip is happening because of the great military deals.... we knew we wanted to go in the next couple of years and now seems to be the time! So....
We stayed at SOG poolside and had a GREAT time there, loved it... didn't know any different. We had no issues with transportation and hopped the monorail at the Poly most days. That trip we spent all our time at the parks, and also went to Universal Studios for a day. I was planning to just rebook this trip there; however, I was thinking of possibly doing the dining plan.
The dining plan is what is throwing me for a loop here... we would gladly go back to SOG and spend money OOP for meals... but with the 40% discount for disney resorts I started looking else where, and now my once simple 'cheap' trip is turning into a big debate.
Considering the dining plan to make things easier and less OOP tracking; however, I read in a travel book that if we are big breakfast people (which we are) then we shouldn't do this plan. We HAVE to have a decent breakfast, for DH he could skip lunch if he had a good breakfast... I can't, I need every meal as do the boys (ages 8 and 4). I want to do (again) Hoop Dee Doo review, Mama Melrose for Fantasmic, and possibly The Spirit of Aloha (not sure about this one). We never ate a sit down breakfast last time - just what we bought from the store (spent around 250 at the store which included all breakfast for the week and all water and snacks). We're also not looking to eat at any character dining places on this trip, just the 3 places mentioned above. Do you think a family of 4 can eat QS meals for under 100?
Ok, so the options are this:
1. SOG, we used a wonderfull town car last time and would do so again, with this we get a free trip to the grocery store where we bought cases of water, snacks, and or breakfast items (for the most part). So SOG with OOP for meals, I am averaging 100. a day for a family of 4 (my youngest doesn't eat much). WIth the purchase of all the dinner's mentioned above it will cost me about 2800 for hotel and ALL food.
If we stay at a disney resort we know we want to stay at AKL, so here are my options:
2. AKL Savannah view with standard dinning will be about $3100 but then I will have to buy OOP some food to cover the shows and what not so this will be around $3500.
3. AKL Savannah view deluxe dinning will run me $3600, but here is where I need help... with the deluxe will I be able to get most of the dinner shows included here? Say if we eat a big breakfast and skip lunch which would give us the extra table service?
and lastly:
4. AKL club level with standard dinning will cost me $3400. We will be able to eat enough in the club room that I might be able to save the table services for say 2 of the dinner shows. So the club level with standard dinning is winning out on me right now.. and is only 600 more than SOG (which I'm totally willing to spend for this trip for the experience). If we were to add the deluxe onto this club package it would be $3900 - but I think WAY too much food.
I'm just not sure. Last time at the parks we only did the Hoop Dee DOo review and Hollywood and Vine for Fantasmic, everything else was quick service. We're at Disney for a few extra days this trip and will have enough time (I think) to take our time and enjoy the food Disney has to offer.
I was thinking it may be nice to not worry about paying OOP every time we eat and tracking the costs. It would also be nice to try the dining plan and eat at places we wouldn't if we were at SOG; however, I'm not sure if the dining plan would feed us... I'm concerned about the standard dining plan and only having 2 meals and 1 snack since we wouldn't stop by the grocery store (and going to the grocery store defeats the whole cost analysis of this because that would add on more money)... which is why I was looking to go club level with the standard dining.... I think between the two we would have enough food, and possibly credits to use for the dinner shows. But I don't know and am confused with what option will be the best cost effective choice to feed my family.
Thanks in advance! Any and all dvice welcome!
sorry so long
