Are half board vouchers still good value?

[Verity Chambers]

The title asks the question!!
Thanks, Verity. x

 

[mommy2ash]

not really, the only advantage to buying them that i can see is that your budget for food is sorted.

the only reason they were once good value was because the prices were set for the period and then the difference between sterling and euro changed dramatically.

the key word in the offer is up to 15% or up to 10% if you are from ireland. many times you are saving very little if anything at all and the choice especially on the lower plan is quite limited

 

[Mum to Belle]

Definitely not if you are a shareholder and get 15% off in table service & buffet restaurants anyway!

As Sonya says, they used to be good value before the change in the exchange rates....

 

[carlins_leap]

I'd still say they're good value - last Feb, we paid roughly 35 euros for lunch and 50 euros for dinner...

So for 3 days - 85 Euros per day
Standard vouchers are 188 (ish Euros) or 63 (ish) Euros a day

Not a huge saving, but its enough for me to justify buying them for our December trip - and I was very happy with the choice of places we have to eat....

Roll on December

 

[mommy2ash]

I'd still say they're good value - last Feb, we paid roughly 35 euros for lunch and 50 euros for dinner...

So for 3 days - 85 Euros per day
Standard vouchers are 188 (ish Euros) or 63 (ish) Euros a day

Not a huge saving, but its enough for me to justify buying them for our December trip - and I was very happy with the choice of places we have to eat....

Roll on December

you know with the vouchers you only get one meal which you can use at lunch or dinner but not both?

 

[carlins_leap]

you know with the vouchers you only get one meal which you can use at lunch or dinner but not both?

OH MY GOOD GOSH!!! I've just read up on what you said and my travel agent has down right swindled me!!!!!!!!!!

I went to DLP last year when they had an "eat free" offer on - I told the travel agent I wanted vouchers for the same and they told me half board standard vouchers were the same thing - IE breakfast at hotel, lunch voucher and evening meal voucher - they even worked it out the same as I did in my earlier post in this thread.

I have been ripped off good and proper - why did I have to find this out just before bed - I am livid...I hope I calm down before I go back to the travel agents tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[carlins_leap]

you know with the vouchers you only get one meal which you can use at lunch or dinner but not both?

 

[mommy2ash]

oh no i am sorry i hate to be the bearer of bad news.

 

[wideeyes]

I won't use them ever again, It is not worth the cost and I don't like being limited to what I can eat. I didn't like that they would let me order of the standard HB menu instead of the premium. I still don't understand why

 

[Jonjo]

We tend to go for Half Board Plus vouchers and use them at their face value in the resturants. More of a budgeting thing realy for us. As we know we do not have to worrie about having to pay for meals when we get there.

 

[jothp]

Hi, I have also been trying to work out if it is worth us buying the half board plus vouchers for our next trip.

I think if you use the vouchers at face value you pretty much get back what you paid for them so you don't really save anything. If you use them to pay in full for the set menu at a restaurant then you can save money if you eat at restaurants that are on your half board plan but not the plans below. Eg for half board plus we would save money using the vouchers at Walts which is not on the standard plan but would loose money if we used them at Annettes which is on the standard plan. If that makes sense?

I think we will probably go for the vouchers because we like to have at least some of our meals paid before we go.

 

[mommy2ash]

Hi, I have also been trying to work out if it is worth us buying the half board plus vouchers for our next trip.

I think if you use the vouchers at face value you pretty much get back what you paid for them so you don't really save anything. If you use them to pay in full for the set menu at a restaurant then you can save money if you eat at restaurants that are on your half board plan but not the plans below. Eg for half board plus we would save money using the vouchers at Walts which is not on the standard plan but would loose money if we used them at Annettes which is on the standard plan. If that makes sense?

I think we will probably go for the vouchers because we like to have at least some of our meals paid before we go.

the only advantage to them really is to have your main meal budgeted for. with the exchange rate you are likely to save very little if anything even using them in the designated restaurants. just beware that using them at face value means you would have to pay extra if your bill exceeds the voucher value

 

[jothp]

the only advantage to them really is to have your main meal budgeted for. with the exchange rate you are likely to save very little if anything even using them in the designated restaurants. just beware that using them at face value means you would have to pay extra if your bill exceeds the voucher value

Yes even carefully selecting the designated restaurants we eat in the saving is quite small. I worked out something like E20 over 4 meals for our family of 5compared to what we would spend if we paid out of pocket at the same restaurants (although in some cases we do get a 3 course meal for that when we would probably only buy 2 if we were paying). I know we will have to pay extra if we use them at face value but it still means quite a big chunk of the meal is paid for already.

 

[Ms Poppins]

After using them last year and not on our recent visit DH and I both agreed we'll buy them next time, not so much for saving, but more for convenience and a more enjoyable stress free holiday.

I think, with 5 of us (2 kids classed as adults) it is very pricey to eat out somewhere decent for 3 or 4 nights at DLP. When we had the vouchers we'd paid for them included in the budget for the holiday. We ate in Walts, somewhere we'd never have tried because of cost, and we loved it.

This time, without the vouchers, I felt myself price watching more - and we never ate as well as we did the last time. Even with shareholders discount, I still didn't want to spend our holiday money on expensive meals and wanted to make sure the kids could buy what they wanted without me moaning.

A difficult choice I think - one thing I did notice though, for buffets a drink is included in the voucher price, when you pay at the door it's not - again with 5 of us, that adds up, so I think there is a saving there.

 

[mommy2ash]

After using them last year and not on our recent visit DH and I both agreed we'll buy them next time, not so much for saving, but more for convenience and a more enjoyable stress free holiday.

I think, with 5 of us (2 kids classed as adults) it is very pricey to eat out somewhere decent for 3 or 4 nights at DLP. When we had the vouchers we'd paid for them included in the budget for the holiday. We ate in Walts, somewhere we'd never have tried because of cost, and we loved it.

This time, without the vouchers, I felt myself price watching more - and we never ate as well as we did the last time. Even with shareholders discount, I still didn't want to spend our holiday money on expensive meals and wanted to make sure the kids could buy what they wanted without me moaning.

A difficult choice I think - one thing I did notice though, for buffets a drink is included in the voucher price, when you pay at the door it's not - again with 5 of us, that adds up, so I think there is a saving there.

i agree they can be well worth it from a budgeting point of view but a lot of people buy these thinking they are making a saving when in fact really they are not. seeing as you mentioned you are a shareholder, your definite discount of 15% is better than what the vouchers offer you. in buffets for example, standard ones (plaza gardens, restaurant des stars) they are 25.40 with a drink, with your discount that comes to 21.59. the standard vouchers are costing 22.49 in euros.

i did find it a good deal when i got them for free but with set menus and express menus in the restaurants i can get a better deal with my shareholders discount