Am I calculating this right for CSR package?

[diznyfanatic]

Having reserved our package and paid the $200.00 deposit for our ten night visit on December 22-January 1, I am crunching the numbers to see if adding the dining plan would make sense.

The package right now as it stands is for ten nights at CSR in 2 preferred Cabana, waterview rooms with 7 day MYW base passes for 5 adults and 1 child (age 3). It was booked directly with Disney using Code YQC. I am told the last day to change it to a Dining Plan using Code YQE is October 22.

I was told it would cost $38.00 per adult per day and $11.00 per child per day to add the Dining Plan. To add dining to our package for all of us will cost $2010.00

Anyway, I'm trying to see if the deal I got on the room and tickets package plus the benefit of having the Dining plan justifies the additional $2000.00 expense.

So, if I deduct the ticket prices from our package total (using the prices posted on Mousesavers), I think that leaves me paying $129.70/night/room at CSR during the Holiday season. Does that sound decent?

I think I could save an additional $69.10 on the passes, if I changed the package to a one day base ticket and bought the remaining days through ticketmania.

I've never purchased a dining plan before and frankly the added expense makes me a little nervous, otoh, it would be nice having the bulk of all of our expenses paid for before we go.

Breaking the dining plan out it equals spending $200.00 per day for ten days for a party of 5 adults and 1 child. Do you think it's possible to do it any cheaper?

Thanks for any advice!

 

[landmark]

It really depends on where it is that you want to eat and how often. For example the $200 per day is less than $40 per day per adult. If you planned on only eating counter service then you could probably do it cheaper. However, if you want to have table service and already have those meals paid then dining is the way to go. It will save us a little as we typically budgeted for several TS restaurants. By using dining we don't have to be limited and look at the price list etc in order to make it fit the budgeted amount thus giving move flexibility and having the dining taken care of will really add to the magic. Tax and gratuity are also included. I think that with a party of 5A, 1C if you want to be able to really experience character dining and a TS each day then dining would save you some money. For someone that primarily wanted to use CS then it may be a little more in the long run. I've also read that some people just think it's too much food for them.

 

[diznyfanatic]

Thank you so much for your insight and comments. In the past, typically during a week's stay, we would use TS 3 times and utilize CS for all other meals.

Having said that however, I was wanting to make THIS visit extra special as it is my granddaughter's very first visit, so I've already reserved three character dining meals, which I was told I could use the Dining Plan for and have my deposits refunded on those.

Am I understanding that on the Dining Plan breakfast is not included at all?

 

[landmark]

Am I understanding that on the Dining Plan breakfast is not included at all?

Sure is. They don't limit you on what meal you want to take. So for example if you wanted to do CRT for the Princess Breakfast that would be counted as a TS meal. If you wanted to do the food court for breakfast for your CS that day then you could. Basically there will be one meal a day that you would be responsible for... I've found that if you are the type to just have coffee in the morning and can schedule a late breakfast say 9:45 for something like Chef Mickeys then we really aren't hungry again until 4ish that we have gotten away with two meals and a snack.

If you are planning to do several character meals with that party size I think you will get a good deal by using the dining.

 

[diznyfanatic]

Thanks so much for the clarification. I thought after reading this from the Disney site that breakfast wasn't included in the plan (bolding mine):

Disney Dining Plan
Experience over 100 selected Walt Disney World® restaurants including our legendary Disney Character Dining. For each night on your package, you enjoy:
1 table-service meal including appetizer, entree, dessert (excluding breakfast), and nonalcoholic beverage and gratuity charge
1 counter-service meal including entree, dessert (excluding breakfast) and nonalcoholic beverage at select counter-service locations...

Thanks again for your help!

 

[landmark]

Thanks so much for the clarification. I thought after reading this from the Disney site that breakfast wasn't included in the plan (bolding mine):

Disney Dining Plan
Experience over 100 selected Walt Disney World® restaurants including our legendary Disney Character Dining. For each night on your package, you enjoy:
1 table-service meal including appetizer, entree, dessert (excluding breakfast), and nonalcoholic beverage and gratuity charge
1 counter-service meal including entree, dessert (excluding breakfast) and nonalcoholic beverage at select counter-service locations...

Thanks again for your help!

That just means that at breakfast they won't allow you to purchase a dessert. So for example a breakfast CS would be entree and nonalcoholic beverage.

 

[diznyfanatic]

Oh I see!!! Thanks very much for all of your help and great suggestions!

 

[rcpae]

I just returned yesterday with a family of 5 (3adults and 2 kids) on the dining plan. We had more than enough food. In the morning we would get 2 breakfasts and share those since we were leaving to go to the parks. At the parks we would then get 3 or so lunches and share those also. We ended up eating 3 meals a day and just spreading our credits out. We actually bought 2 lunches for a family yesterday befor we left since we had 2 extra credits.

 

[diznyfanatic]

Thank you very much for the information!

Shelling out that much money upfront is hard to do and I suppose part of that is because you always think that there is no way you'll spend that amount on food.

The reality is often quite different though when you actually get there and realize you are spending as much or more in cash for food, and then you'll think..."geeze, WHY didn't I get the Dining Plan?!!!"

Hindsight is always 20/20!

 

[Teresa Pitman]

If you would like to eat at a table service restaurant at least once a day, I think the dining plan is worth it. But you certainly can eat much more cheaply if that is your goal.

My family is always on a pretty tight budget, and for us the food is one place we can save a little money. We usually plan a couple of table service meals and then for the rest we either eat in the room or do counter service or eat snacks we've brought with us. So it depends on what you want to do.

Teresa

 

[diznyfanatic]

Thank you for sharing your experience. That's normally how my family does it as well and I just keep thinking we wouldn't spend that amount on food to offset the cost of the Dining Plan.

So much to plan for and think about!

 

[greatbooks]

I was told it would cost $38.00 per adult per day and $11.00 per child per day to add the Dining Plan. To add dining to our package for all of us will cost $2010.00

I'm pretty sure the dining plan for 2005 is $35 for adults per day and $10 per child per day which includes the tax. So you can deduct $16 per day for your party if you used the figures of $38/11.

 

[diznyfanatic]

I wondered about the price too when the CM quoted it since I had seen the lower prices on mousesavers. When I asked about it here, I was told those are the new rates for 2006.

Since my stay will overlap 2005/2006, what is the correct price I should be charged?

Does switching from a YQC code to a YQE code mean that I have to cancel the original reservation or can they just add the Dining Plan to the tickets?

 

[rantnnravin]

you may want to consider adding the dining plan to only one room, to cut costs a bit (especially since it does tend to get to be a bit much food-wise)
you could do one room w/2 adults and the 3yo--which would save $1200. If you spread those allotted meal credits out wisely, i'm sure everyone would be well fed.

when we went in february, my dh and dd5 were on the pkg w/dining and i joined them 4 days later. All three of us ate until we were well-stuffed.

 

[diznyfanatic]

Thank you so much for the suggestion.

Actually, we were JUST discussing this issue because my son's family (in the second room) doesn't want to add the Dining Plan to their package. They are on a very tight budget to go on this trip and they really can't afford the added Dining Plan expense, hoping they will be able to do it cheaper.

Soooo, here is my next question, if I purchase the Dining Plan only for the room with the 3 adults, (I don't even want to get into the whole adult vs. child credt debate, LOL!!) can I treat my son's family one night with TS using our credits?

In other words, can I pay for TS for all six of us one night using my credits? Or pay for the 5 adults with our credits and purchase a child's meal for my granddaughter?

 

[greatbooks]

I wondered about the price too when the CM quoted it since I had seen the lower prices on mousesavers. When I asked about it here, I was told those are the new rates for 2006.

Since my stay will overlap 2005/2006, what is the correct price I should be charged?

Are you checking out on the 1st? If so, your reservations are all in 2005. Your coupons expire at 11:59pm on check out day. If not, you can do a room only ressie for Jan 1--seems silly to pay extra for 9 days of dining in 2005 and one day in 2006.

 

[diznyfanatic]

Thanks to all of you and an amazing CM, I was able to change some things around and come up with a great plan for all of us. The CM confirmed that the Dining Plan would be at the 2005 rates of $35.00/$10.00 for our stay.

In addition, since my granddaughter will be in my care for a great deal of the time since my three kids will want to plan things not suitable for my granddaughter's age, the CM rearranged our room configurations so that my granddaughter is in our room with a YQE code and made a new ressie with code YQC for the other 3 adults (son & wife and other son) in the other room.

She then was able to add the Dining Plan to our room only so if we got split up at the parks, and we wanted to eat with my granddaughter we could.

This CM was extraordinary and I made sure and called and gave her rave reviews!

Thanks again for all of your help!

 

[MEK]

I think you will be happy with your choice to use the dining plan. I was not going to use the dining plan on my recent trip ,because I knew I could eat cheaper. When it became available through the free dining deal, I changed my mind (no brainer).

The dining plan was so good that I would not hesitate to pay for it in the future. It allowed my family to eat in restuarants we would not normally have visited. It required a bit more preplanning, but it was soooooo worth it. One meal alone at Tony's in MK was $177 for 4 adult meals. The plan for that day would have been $140 for the four of us, had we paid for it out of pocket. We split our credits up so we only used 3 per lunch. That left us with some leftover for breakfast. We also saw the Hoop de Doo review. We could have spaced our meals out even further, but didn't because we spent an entire day in Daytona. We practically had to force ourselves to eat the snacks. Planning table service meals was a whole new experience for us and added a special dimension to our vacation.

Have a great trip.

_______________________________________

Max is my favorite cat! aw:

 

[diznyfanatic]

That's great to know and I really appreciate hearing your experience.

Everyone is thrilled with how it all worked out and we're all just counting down the days until we leave! Thanks again!

 

[Orgamizer]

I wondered about the price too when the CM quoted it since I had seen the lower prices on mousesavers. When I asked about it here, I was told those are the new rates for 2006.

Since my stay will overlap 2005/2006, what is the correct price I should be charged?

Does switching from a YQC code to a YQE code mean that I have to cancel the original reservation or can they just add the Dining Plan to the tickets?

I already had the dining plan booked and they just added the code to my current reservation. I believe they can add it as well to your current reservation as long as you current room reservation is not a discounted rate.