AKV first trip Spring Break!! Dining plan or not?

[Kim Gillihan]

I am getting so excited!! Finally our first trip as DVC owners to our home resort AKV! We are taking a good friend and her family with us, staying in standard 2 bed kidani! Her kids first time, husband first time too.... so exciting.

Wondering if March will be too cold for swimming?

We still have to decide to get dining plan or not... we do have quite a few meals booked. Ohana dinner, cinderella castle lunch, tusker house breakfast, boma and askerhouse at epcot... lunch. I have ran the tools and technically we may spend little more but I wonder when you consider all snacks etc and ease of not having to worry plus you get a adult beverage now.. what are your thoughts?

Any other AKV tips, please share.

We are driving so we will go grocery shopping and plan to do breakfast in room...

Thanks again!! KIM

 

[kboo]

If you are doing breakfast in the room, I don't think the DDP is for you, even if you book the biggest meals to make up for it. We have been many times and every time I run the numbers both before and after (what we actually ate), we have paid less by paying out of pocket. In short, we have never done the dining plan. We are not big snackers, typically eat 2 meals a day, and don't drink soda, so it's a no brainer for us.

 

[Kim Gillihan]

If you are doing breakfast in the room, I don't think the DDP is for you, even if you book the biggest meals to make up for it. We have been many times and every time I run the numbers both before and after (what we actually ate), we have paid less by paying out of pocket. In short, we have never done the dining plan. We are not big snackers, typically eat 2 meals a day, and don't drink soda, so it's a no brainer for us.

I hear ya... I love the convenience of it... snacks being able to get dole whips, ice cream etc for snacks.. not having to worry about money, but I agree we may be able to do it cheaper. I'll have to continue to think about it and see what we come up with.... thanks for your advice!

 

[sndral]

With two couples plus children there might be less stress doing the dinning plan, since everyone’s already paid so no awkward splitting of the bill and all, although you’ll still need to divvy up tips.
We probably break even using the dinning plan, I just personally like having food already paid for and not worrying about the price of my meal when I’m there.
If you’re staying at Kidani, you must try Sanaa!

 

[drusba]

I view the dining plan as something for which you really need to use all the meals and snacks covered by it to actually claim a discount and doing a meal like breakfast in the room essentially eliminates acheiving any real discount. You should be aware that the DVC member card provides a 10% discount at a lot of restaurants -- the number has significantly increased this year to the point that most restaurants at the parks now provide a DVC discount, see latest list here https://disneyvacationclub.disney.g...mbers/perks/MM_2018 Perks list_WDW_Jan_R8.pdf. The discount is available for a member and up to three guests but if both husband & wife are members and each has a DVC card, you can cover up to 8 people at a meal.

 

[kboo]

I view the dining plan as something for which you really need to use all the meals and snacks covered by it to actually claim a discount and doing a meal like breakfast in the room essentially eliminates acheiving any real discount. You should be aware that the DVC member card provides a 10% discount at a lot of restaurants -- the number has significantly increased this year to the point that most restaurants at the parks now provide a DVC discount, see latest list here https://disneyvacationclub.disney.go.com/media/dvc/languagespecific/eng/member/justformembers/perks/MM_2018 Perks list_WDW_Jan_R8.pdf. The discount is available for a member and up to three guests but if both husband & wife are members and each has a DVC card, you can cover up to 8 people at a meal.

This is a good point. But do you have to have the blue member card in order to get the 10% discount? I believe OP is a resale buyer.

 

[disneynutz]

We look at menus of what we would like to eat, note the prices, look at the DDP, TIW and DVC cost and benefits and decide from there. For us the DDP gives Disney more money and causes us to eat more than we should and we often have unused credits left over. The DDP makes Disney money, a lot of money or they wouldn't offer it.

Bill

 

[wnielsen1]

I have never been able to get the dining plan to work financially. I'm not changing my eating habits in order to justify the high price of the dining plan.

 

[kboo]

If it's the ease of snacks that you're thinking of, perhaps with the kids they could each have a preloaded GC to pay for those? or some other pre-paid method that makes you not have to think about cost. If they're really little, they could have little cards with pictures of a dole whip, mickey bar, popcorn, etc on them.

I totally agree with @disneynutz and @wnielsen1, even with little kids (and one under 3), and tons of character meals, I have done the calculations afterwards, and we would have paid 10% MORE by buying the dining plan, and still have had a ridiculous number of snacks left over. DH and I usually share one appetizer and 1 dessert at dinner, and we don't usually get snacks. And if we do, it is not 1 per day, per person. Even ordering what we want at TS restaurants, we usually end up with leftover kids' meals that we use for lunch the next day. There is no way we could eat 3 full meals (as described by Disney) a day, every day.

 

[kboo]

Don't get me wrong, every trip we look at whether DDP makes sense. I *think* we might make it work if we had a short split stay and only got DDP for the first half and then bought a bunch of nonperishable snacks to eat during the second half. But I've played with the characters and if we missed just one breakfast, we'd "lose" money. I'd rather stick with the discount-as-you-go that is TiW.

 

[wnielsen1]

I know many people like to buy the DDP just so they don't have to worry about spending while on vacation. I would personally rather load an equivalent amount of funds onto Disney gift cards and see how much of a balance I take home. It's really hard to get the numbers to work and even more difficult if you have access to TiW, AP and/or DVC direct discounts.

 

[Kim Gillihan]

With two couples plus children there might be less stress doing the dinning plan, since everyone’s already paid so no awkward splitting of the bill and all, although you’ll still need to divvy up tips.
We probably break even using the dinning plan, I just personally like having food already paid for and not worrying about the price of my meal when I’m there.
If you’re staying at Kidani, you must try Sanaa!

Great point! It may come down to my friends and if they want to do it or not... I think we are at the break even point, I spend alot of time calculating last night and even with breakfast in the room with all the expensive dinners/meals we have planned.... I think the ease is worth it for us...but they have 2 kids vs. my 1 and they don't eat much but since all the qs are the same I think... that could allow us to eat breakfast at qs if we wanted etc. So... we shall see. thanks so much! KIM

 

[Kim Gillihan]

I know many people like to buy the DDP just so they don't have to worry about spending while on vacation. I would personally rather load an equivalent amount of funds onto Disney gift cards and see how much of a balance I take home. It's really hard to get the numbers to work and even more difficult if you have access to TiW, AP and/or DVC direct discounts.

Thats another idea I was thinking about... I did that for my last trip to pay for a expensive Character breakfast for 10... great idea too! If we don't do the plan, we will do this!

 

[Kim Gillihan]

I view the dining plan as something for which you really need to use all the meals and snacks covered by it to actually claim a discount and doing a meal like breakfast in the room essentially eliminates acheiving any real discount. You should be aware that the DVC member card provides a 10% discount at a lot of restaurants -- the number has significantly increased this year to the point that most restaurants at the parks now provide a DVC discount, see latest list here https://disneyvacationclub.disney.go.com/media/dvc/languagespecific/eng/member/justformembers/perks/MM_2018 Perks list_WDW_Jan_R8.pdf. The discount is available for a member and up to three guests but if both husband & wife are members and each has a DVC card, you can cover up to 8 people at a meal.

I am a resale owner so I don't get the discounts...I will calculate again... but I think I am pretty close.. even with breakfast in the room... I'll make sure... I may be adding something wrong..

 

[Kim Gillihan]

We look at menus of what we would like to eat, note the prices, look at the DDP, TIW and DVC cost and benefits and decide from there. For us the DDP gives Disney more money and causes us to eat more than we should and we often have unused credits left over. The DDP makes Disney money, a lot of money or they wouldn't offer it.

Bill

great point!

 

[gillep]

We only did the dining plan once and realized that it doesn't work for how we eat at all. There are many times that we prefer to get appetizers instead of entrees, or an appetizer and a side, and you just can't do that with the dining plan. Also, as much as I think I am going to snack, I find that some trips I am much more into snacking than others, and I never know ahead of time. And finally, my husband has gotten sick at WDW a couple times, causing us to have to cancel reservations, which is no big deal when paying OOP, but would be much more annoying if on the plan and trying to get value from money we have already spent. We did the TIW card this year, and will save quite a bit using it, but most years we just go with our DVC or AP discounts.

 

[Kim Gillihan]

We only did the dining plan once and realized that it doesn't work for how we eat at all. There are many times that we prefer to get appetizers instead of entrees, or an appetizer and a side, and you just can't do that with the dining plan. Also, as much as I think I am going to snack, I find that some trips I am much more into snacking than others, and I never know ahead of time. And finally, my husband has gotten sick at WDW a couple times, causing us to have to cancel reservations, which is no big deal when paying OOP, but would be much more annoying if on the plan and trying to get value from money we have already spent. We did the TIW card this year, and will save quite a bit using it, but most years we just go with our DVC or AP discounts.

what is the tiw card? I am a resale buyer.. so no discounts.. don't have an AP either....

 

[gillep]

what is the tiw card? I am a resale buyer.. so no discounts.. don't have an AP either....

From WDWInfo: The TIW offers Florida Residents, DVC members and Annual Passholders 20% off of all food and beverage purchases at the participating Disney restaurants. It is a membership program with annual fees and each card is good for up to 10 guests. The card is valid for one year from the date of purchase.

The price is $150.00 for an Annual/Seasonal Passholder and Disney Vacation Club members, $50.00 for a second card. For a Florida Resident who is not an Annual/Seasonal Passholder, the cost is $175.00. It is $50.00 for lost/replacement cards.

Unfortunately, it looks like it wouldn't be an option for you, but a lot of people find that they can save money using it, especially since it works on alcohol purchases as well as food.

 

[Kim Gillihan]

From WDWInfo: The TIW offers Florida Residents, DVC members and Annual Passholders 20% off of all food and beverage purchases at the participating Disney restaurants. It is a membership program with annual fees and each card is good for up to 10 guests. The card is valid for one year from the date of purchase.

The price is $150.00 for an Annual/Seasonal Passholder and Disney Vacation Club members, $50.00 for a second card. For a Florida Resident who is not an Annual/Seasonal Passholder, the cost is $175.00. It is $50.00 for lost/replacement cards.

Unfortunately, it looks like it wouldn't be an option for you, but a lot of people find that they can save money using it, especially since it works on alcohol purchases as well as food.

yeah.. sounds pretty good, but I can't use it!! I can however at least get discounted disney gift cards at Sam's club a little discounted... or use CC with points for all food purchases.. I will consider those options as well.... thanks!

 

[kristenrice]

I *think* resale buyers can still buy the TIW card can't they? It might be something to look into for your trip, especially if you have another trip planned within the next year.