AP Room Rates or Free Dining?

[TMM]

I have noticed most of you prefer the free dining over the AP discount for rooms.

We are visiting WDW in from August 18 - 27, 2006 and have planned to use our APs for a two discounted rooms at AKL. We are a family of 5 (Me, DH, SD 14, SD 14 and S 3). None of us are big eaters, but will do breakfast and dinner. Can those of you who prefer free dining over AP room rates tell me how much you actually save once you pay rack for a room.

The girls have never been to WDW and would like to stay at YC/BC specifically for the SAB. If we stayed there we would have to have one room as we don't want to pay over $600 for two rooms we will probably hardly be in. Problem is the girls are not used to sharing (strange to me as they are twins) and sharing a bed would be a problem.

I have lots of dilemmas here:

Do we have one room at YC/BC and pay full rack rate and get the free dining?

Can my husband and I even get the free dining as we would not buy park tickets since we both have APs from our visit in January 2006?

Do we move to a moderate or value resort and get two rooms and get the free dining?

Or do we just keep our two rooms at AKL, use or AP room discount and pay for our meals as we planned?

I am so confused now

 

[Letsbgoofy]

You would need to buy at least a one day base ticket for each of you, whether you have APs or not.

My advise is to figure out what the dining would cost, and then figure out how much you are saving with an AP discount. The free dining doesn't work for everyone.

You also have to decide if free dining is worth changing your resorts for. A moderate would cost you about the same as a deluxe with the AP discount.

Personally, I would stay at a moderate or value, save money, and get the free dining.

 

[n2mm]

The biggest savings comes from those staying at the value or moderate resorts. Here is my suggestion, though a little complicated. You could get 2 rooms (as planned). Book one room with 4 of you listed and pay rack and get the tickets you need and the free dining. Then have your husband get his AP, and book an AP rated room (when they are released). Your husband would not be on the dining plan, but you can certainly share your credits with him. Considering you will have 3 adult credits and 1 child's credits, it is enough for the 5 of you. We did this last September. We stayed in the CR with a discount, but my son (who could not afford the CR) stayed at Pop during the free dining. Instead of saving $25 a night for the room with the AP discount, he paid rack and got the free dining. We also moved several juniors to his room, so that they all got the free dining. We shared some of the credits with them. THe only downside would be not getting connecting rooms. Personally I would opt for 2 rooms at a moderate or even a value. We couldn't pass up the free dining plan, so booked Pop for ourselves for a long weekend in August. (Only because we have a 2 week trip planned for May and a 2 weeks trip planned for October--DVC member)

 

[MDMOUSE]

Last year we did one room at WL on the free dining. We are 2 adults, 2 kids. We have APs so we got one day base tix. They do not expire and we used them to renew APs later. When AP discounts came out, we got another room only. At chekin, we asked for connecting. The free dining is the best deal for the cheaper hotel rooms. At the value resorts it is like staying free.

 

[aka-mad4themouse]

SAB is a great pool but if the girls are not willing to share a bed during your stay, I'm not sure that it's worth getting two rooms at the YC/BC just for the pool. I do like it a lot but my kids' biggest complaint when we stayed there was that the pool closes early compared to other resort pools.

I agree with the others who have suggested two rooms at a value or moderate. One with 4 of you all on the dining plan and a connecting room with the adult AP holder by himself. How you choose to make the sleeping arrangements once you're there is up to you. The added advantage will be the two bathrooms (very important when dealing with teenage girls).

I don't think that you'll find it difficult to split meals between the 5 of you. The dining plan offers alot of food and Disney portions are HUGE! If you find that you need an extra beverage at the TS restaurants, the added cost will be minimal.

 

[3PRINCESSMOM]

We planned on getting our AP's and staying at the Dolphin originally. AP's are the way to go for us since we plan our 2 eight day trips within the 365 days. However, with free dining we've been re-thinking those plans, going with 2 rooms at a value instead, doing MYW w/ free dining, getting 1 day base tickets then trading them up for our AP's. Your little trick seems to be an even better option for us, though!

Do I have this straight...? I can book the pkg for me and 3 kids (plus an infant), then if/when AP rates come out book my DH a room only. Obviously, in your example you stayed at different resorts, but if I booked both the pkg and room only at the same resort I could request connecting rooms, right? (I know...no guarantee). Wow! That just sounds perfect for us!

 

[LakeAriel]

The question becomes, will they have an AP discount along with this promotion or skip these dates?

 

[n2mm]

We planned on getting our AP's and staying at the Dolphin originally. AP's are the way to go for us since we plan our 2 eight day trips within the 365 days. However, with free dining we've been re-thinking those plans, going with 2 rooms at a value instead, doing MYW w/ free dining, getting 1 day base tickets then trading them up for our AP's. Your little trick seems to be an even better option for us, though!

Do I have this straight...? I can book the pkg for me and 3 kids (plus an infant), then if/when AP rates come out book my DH a room only. Obviously, in your example you stayed at different resorts, but if I booked both the pkg and room only at the same resort I could request connecting rooms, right? (I know...no guarantee). Wow! That just sounds perfect for us!

Correct. You can request connecting rooms and request them again when checking in. What we did was, we were at different resorts, but not at the beginning. First we checked into Pop. I had a reservation for 2 rooms with a discount and my son & GF (and one DD) had a rack rate room with free dining. Even though we had 2 different reservations, the CM put us all next to each other. 2 days later, part of us moved to the CR in a discounted room. My son and group stayed in his room at Pop for another week. Everyone laughed at me and told me I had strategize way too much. But we had 36 credits that we shared for some of our meals. It helped subsidized our meals.

 

[TMM]

Can an of you personally recommend a value or moderate resort. My husband and I have only been once and we stayed at WL and AKL. We loved AKL, but only the public areas of WL. My husband and I love really nice hotels when we travel, but this trips is realy for the kids. My husband has always thought they would prefer a value or a moderate just because of the different themes.

So if I understand this correctly, the kids need park tickets - so I could get the free dining for them and park tickets, free dining for me or my husband and then a discount on one of the rooms with no free dining for the 5th person?

Thanks for all the help!

 

[Amyrlin]

If you want a nice mod then POFQ is nice, it is quiet and quiet small but nice pool. HOwever, a lot of children like the All stars resorts due to the themeing, Movies has movies themes, and Pop century is very new. If they are into sports there is All Star Sports.

To get the free dining everyone in the room needs to have the same ticket, but if it is a 1 day one you can always upgrade it when you get there. Yes, the second room could be for one adult only with AP rates.


The way we worked oiut wether AP pf FRee dinign was best was to sit down and work out what we would probablt want to eat and then add that to a room asusming the same AP discoiunt as in the past after allowing for the DDE, and then pricing up a room with the rack rate and one day ticket but free dining.

 

[planning06]

How about if you are hell-bent on staying at a deluxe? We want to stay at a monorail resort and we already have our APs and DDE card. I haven't crunched the numbers yet, but would free-dining be worth it for a 7-8 day trip or should we stick to a possible AP discount?

 

[arizonacolbys]

We've stayed at a few deluxes & still love POP Century!! We'll be staying there again for our 4th time for the 1st half of our upcoming trip. I just booked free dining this morning after calculating it all out - here's what I came up with:

AP Room Discount for 2 adults:
Estimated $59/night x 8 nights = $526.28 (includes tax)
Dining Out of Pocket x 8 days - approx $760
AP's x 2 = $883.96
Total: $2,170.24

Free Dining for 2 adults:
Rack Rate x 8 nights = $704.68 (includes tax)
1 Day tickets x 2 = $134.20
AP's less the 1 Day ticket cost = $749.76
Total: $1,588.64

So, the free dining saves us approximately $581.60 on this trip. We are also splitting our stay & staying at a Boardwalk Villa the 2nd half of the trip, which I didn't include in the calculation above. We will use the AP's an additional 7 days & may even add on the Dining Plan OOP to that ressie, too. Once I calculated it all out, it just made a lot of sense for us to utilize the free dining!!

Hope this helps!

 

[Amyrlin]

If you are staying at a delux then it is probablty better to have the AP discount, as this is usually in the region of $100, but you need to crunch the figures.

 

[LiteBrite]

How about if you are hell-bent on staying at a deluxe? We want to stay at a monorail resort and we already have our APs and DDE card. I haven't crunched the numbers yet, but would free-dining be worth it for a 7-8 day trip or should we stick to a possible AP discount?

You should definitely crunch the numbers. Going by the AP discounts that have already been out this year, it looks like you'd save between $100 and $133 a night on a deluxe. Your next step will be to guess how much you'd be spending on food out of pocket (be sure to figure in the DDE discount if you have it). Understanding that these numbers are a guess, just figure out which would save you more. I'm pretty sure that the free dining would save you more at a value or a moderate, but the deluxes may be another story.

There is one other consideration, though, which is the fact that no AP discounts are out yet, and there's no guarantee that there will be any. In light of that, you could go ahead and book the free dining now, then cancel it later if you're able to get an AP discount and that turns out to be a better deal. I think that's what I would do if I were you.

 

[TMM]

Oh, I forgot we have the DDE card as well.

I spoke to my husband. He does not think we will spend more than $140 a day for food - what we would save per night using our AP for the room discount. We have two rooms reserved at AKL.

What do most of you budget for food per person?

 

[EEyorelover22]

The question becomes, will they have an AP discount along with this promotion or skip these dates?

They had AP rates during free dining last year, but that doesn't mean that they will for sure this year though either.

 

[LakeAriel]

They had AP rates during free dining last year, but that doesn't mean that they will for sure this year though either.

Thanks, that is good to know!

 

[3PRINCESSMOM]

if we go with a value, it wouldn't be so terrible if we got AAA should there be no ap discounts...

32 TS credits, 32 CS credits, and 32 snack credits should be more than enough for our family. So booking a package with 1 adult and three kids it will be!

I am SO, SO, SO glad I opened this thread this morning! A very special THANKS to n2mm! I always get helpful info, but every once in awhile I feel like get that tip that was posted just for me!

 

[planning06]

I've looked at the numbers and I don't think the free dining is cheaper if I'm planning on a deluxe resort, assuming a decent AP discount will be released.

What is the cancellation policy of packages? How far in advance would I have to cancel to not get charged cancellation fees?

 

[n2mm]

I've looked at the numbers and I don't think the free dining is cheaper if I'm planning on a deluxe resort, assuming a decent AP discount will be released.

What is the cancellation policy of packages? How far in advance would I have to cancel to not get charged cancellation fees?

The cancellation policy is 45 days before your arrival for full refund.


3princessmom: you're welcome!