Charge meals to room?

[tomzpc]

When not on the DDP, can you charge all of your meals to your room using your room card, or do you have to provide a cc at the restaurants?

 

[acourtwdw]

Yes you can.

 

[bcrook]

You have to activate charging privileges on your room key, but after that charge away. I send my teenage kids out armed with room key charging privileges and let them eat what they want. We even did this at the kiosks during Food and Wine in October. A family of four spent $1,000 on eating around the world in four days. I'm not complaining. We loved every morsel of food, every dessert, and every specialty drink. I like having a printout at the end of the visit showing how much I spent on food.

 

[OKW Lover]

You can do either. The restaurants will take either your KTTW card or your credit card.

 

[tomzpc]

Thanks folks.

Still can't decide if we should do the meal plan this time out. We'll be eating sit down dinners every night (mostly in Epcot restaurants) but my oldest DD is 10 and I can't see her ordering the adult meals at some of these places if I were to give her a choice. More than likely she'd opt for the children's menu, if they allowed her too, or just appetizers (she loves shrimp, mussels..go figure..and would make a meal out of a small appy).

Every time I crunch the numbers I come out slightly ahead with the DDP, but slightly may not be enough to make the disregard the convenience of not thinking about who has to order what, just getting what we want and paying at the end.

 

[bcrook]

I have debated this for years too. I have never purchased the dining plan because I don't want to have to work everyday to spend my $180.00 (charge for a family of 4 over 10). Two different years I had the family eat whatever they wanted off the menu, we had at least one TS a day, and I charged everything to my room. One year it came out almost exactly even, and one year I saved about a $150.00 by not doing the dining plan. I think you have to really work hard going to the most expensive restaurants and ordering the most expensive meals (and not going to the signature meals) to really come out ahead.

The last few visits I don't worry about it anymore, I know I will come out ahead by not doing the dining plan. We have been eating TS for lunch and I have been eating more breakfasts both are much cheaper than dinner. We have been snacking at night. I like the freedom to skip a big expensive meal if I want to, I am uncomfortable being locked into my food cost each day.

Also, the best deal has been the Tables in Wonderland card. But that is only worth it if you get a reduced price on the season pass (like DVC) or if you will visit multiple times. It is also nice if you have a large group going with multiple families.

 

[bookbabe626]

Every time I crunch the numbers I come out slightly ahead with the DDP, but slightly may not be enough to make the disregard the convenience of not thinking about who has to order what, just getting what we want and paying at the end.

That's why we decided not to do the DDP again.

We did it once when travelling with another family that included a very "budget-minded" dad. His DW knew that there was no way he'd pay the price for character meals, etc. if it was OOP. So, the pay-up-front style of the dining plan was an advantage on that trip, and enabled his DD to go to all the character meals since "they were already paid for, anyway." (Can you tell us wives did all the planning?)

But it was a real pain, IMO, figuring out what could be ordered and what couldn't, whose cards to take how many credits from, how to use up all the snack credits, etc.

With the room charge, there's no hassles...just order what you want, and charge it to the card at the end of the meal. No figuring out who can order what and feeling obligated to get desserts at every meal even if you don't want them, no rush to use up your credits at the end of the trip.

We did the math, and the small amount that we'd maybe save isn't worth the aggravation of using the plan in our books. Even during free dining, we usually go with the room discount instead...it's just better for us overall.

 

[Silver Queen]

I have to agree with the above posters. We've done DDP and found that it was more of a hassle and many more desserts and snacks than we wanted. Many times we prefer an appetizer to a dessert and don't like to feel obligated to order an expensive entree just to get the value out our plan. We're DVC members and once we started using TiW there was no turning back for us.
As far as using the KTTW card to charge meals we have also found that to be very convenient. The only time that I will charge meals to my credit card is when there is a promotion going on that will give you triple points for restaurant charges. (Disney VISA currently has this going on but it ends 12/31 and we aren't arriving until 1/3.)

Good luck with your planning!

 

[LilGMom]

Thanks folks.

Still can't decide if we should do the meal plan this time out. We'll be eating sit down dinners every night (mostly in Epcot restaurants) but my oldest DD is 10 and I can't see her ordering the adult meals at some of these places if I were to give her a choice. More than likely she'd opt for the children's menu, if they allowed her too, or just appetizers (she loves shrimp, mussels..go figure..and would make a meal out of a small appy).

Every time I crunch the numbers I come out slightly ahead with the DDP, but slightly may not be enough to make the disregard the convenience of not thinking about who has to order what, just getting what we want and paying at the end.

Are you adding gratutity into your DDP figure? If not than you might actually come out ahead paying OOP. If you are paying OOP your DD can order off the child's menu or just an appetizer. The only time that you'd have to pay an adult price for her would be at an AYCE type of restaurant.

 

[kaybird]

Guess I'll be the lone dissenter here. Never found DDp to be a hassle, It seems very clear what can be ordered and not ordered, when we have the DDP we do not even look at what an entree costs, and the kids are free to have steak every nite if they want! We have gone with and without the plan, and while we can possibly save a few dollars paying OOP, it is usually because we gave up soft drinks, snacks, and ate on the cheap. We still find it the most convienient way to stay on a budget. It works for us, know it doesn't work for everyone.