club level instead of ddp?

[kellzkidz]

Hi dis friends,

I always utilize the ddp on my trips mainly for the convenience and freedom to enjoy my vacation along with my kids without having to track a food budget. However, this trip I am considering something a little different (although not new!) and was hoping to get advice/tips!:
I am thinking if a free dining code does not come along then I may actually upgrade to a club level room and pay for dining oop.

I looked into CL at the Poly here on the boards, and judging by the pics there are tons of offerings throughout the day. I am thinking maybe we could utilize that for breakfast, afternoon snack, evening nightcap, and I will take a pre-paid visa with budget already loaded on it and make my adr's.

now the questions:
those that do this, do you tend to spend more? less?

do you get value out of CL? do you actually find that you use the CL lounge enough to justify paying the upgrade?

I am worried that snacks will get out of control without the ddp, anyone have stategies they have tried that worked to keep food spending down while in the parks?

Do you still go to the restaurants you love when you are paying oop? ( We have a lot of favorite restaurants that are "must eats")

Sorry for the long post, thanks for the info!

 

[amomma23]

Sorry, I don' t have an answer. I have thought of this myself and am curious to hear if anyone has done it.

 

[kellzkidz]

Hi amomma...interestingly enough, I found a link from another poster on the boards that has the breakdown of restaurants in the parks and rates them according to oop value.

http://www.easywdw.com/category/disneybest/besttable/

unfortunately just about every favorite place of ours is listed as high value on ddp but most expensive oop! I'm thinking if we do CL and oop meals we will need to do different restaurants. hmmmm, don't know how well that will go over

keeping an eye out for more info

 

[sea nymph]

We are thinking the same, however, I believe were are leaning to the Deluxe Dining Plan.
Although we would love CL, our thoughts are we will not be at the resort enough to take full advantage of it. Since this is our first time (2 adults & 3 kids under 9) at Disney, we will be doing alot of character meals and a few nice sit down dinners. For us, the value is in the Dxdp even if we break even with it!

 

[clanmcculloch]

We love it, but our preferred touring style fits doing this perfectly. We really like a light breakfast at our resort, snack followed by big lunch in the park, followed by light early dinner at our resort. We do this regardless of what level of resort we're staying at. So, when we stay CL we only have to pay OOP for our park snacks and big lunch. If we wanted big breakfasts or full dinners then this wouldn't work so well.

 

[kellzkidz]

Thanks, I'm getting a better idea now how CL will factor in without the DDP. The biggest obstacle I see is our dinners- we love our sit downs at our favorite places and I won't be able to afford both CL and DDP. I'm going to wish up on a star for free dining then maybe try and upgrade. Even without a FD deal, I am super excited to go.
Paying Oop for our dinners scares me- we love to splurge

 

[amomma23]

We love it, but our preferred touring style fits doing this perfectly. We really like a light breakfast at our resort, snack followed by big lunch in the park, followed by light early dinner at our resort. We do this regardless of what level of resort we're staying at. So, when we stay CL we only have to pay OOP for our park snacks and big lunch. If we wanted big breakfasts or full dinners then this wouldn't work so well.

We have a similar touring style, so I' m thinking it might work for us. We already have free dining booked with a bounce back offer, but it only covers some of our dates. Thinking this might be a good option for the few days we'll be without DDP. Will have to see what kind of room discounts they come up with for August.

 

[LuvENDisney]

Last summer, we chose to stay CL at Poly versus getting DDP. It worked out great for us. We stayed at Poly for most of the day versus going to the parks. I think we went to MK in the morning. Staying CL, we had lots of snack options throughout the day while we hung out at the pool. For dinner, I think we split two CS meals and went back to the lounge for dessert before the fireworks.

Have you thought of a split stay at Poly?

Good luck on your decision!

 

[davedmaine]

Sounds like you go often. Have you thought about purchasing an annual pass and then the Tables in Wonderland card? We find it to be a much, much better value than the dining plan.

 

[kellzkidz]

Last summer, we chose to stay CL at Poly versus getting DDP. It worked out great for us. We stayed at Poly for most of the day versus going to the parks. I think we went to MK in the morning. Staying CL, we had lots of snack options throughout the day while we hung out at the pool. For dinner, I think we split two CS meals and went back to the lounge for dessert before the fireworks.

Have you thought of a split stay at Poly?

Good luck on your decision!

ya know I have not thought of a split stay- can you fill me in? how does that work? I have read on the boards that it's a breeze and disney moves bags for you. Can I still use a FD code if one becomes available?

 

[kellzkidz]

Sounds like you go often. Have you thought about purchasing an annual pass and then the Tables in Wonderland card? We find it to be a much, much better value than the dining plan.

Yes! you read my mind, I am thinking it is time to take that step, do we all need annual passes to use the Tables card? What is the current discount? I think that would be the most value for my $$. I'm getting more excited as I go along gotta chill....

 

[LuvENDisney]

ya know I have not thought of a split stay- can you fill me in? how does that work? I have read on the boards that it's a breeze and disney moves bags for you. Can I still use a FD code if one becomes available?

We have either had our car or someone who can help move our bags over. I have also read on the boards that they will move your luggage for you, but it could take a few hours. You still need to check into your new hotel so I would think that it would be just as easy to get a cab to wherever you stayed next.

Keep in mind for split stays, that is a new package. We have AP so we have booked stays with DDP, then checked into CL at another hotel without worrying about our tix into the park. I'm sure others on here could confirm, but I would think that because you are booking a new package, and say you were splitting 10 days into two five-day packages, you would be paying for two 5-day tix.

We haven't been lucky to get a FD pin. However, I would think that if you wanted to book two packages, they wouldn't limit you. The issue, again, may be the cost of the tickets.

 

[kellzkidz]

We have either had our car or someone who can help move our bags over. I have also read on the boards that they will move your luggage for you, but it could take a few hours. You still need to check into your new hotel so I would think that it would be just as easy to get a cab to wherever you stayed next.

Keep in mind for split stays, that is a new package. We have AP so we have booked stays with DDP, then checked into CL at another hotel without worrying about our tix into the park. I'm sure others on here could confirm, but I would think that because you are booking a new package, and say you were splitting 10 days into two five-day packages, you would be paying for two 5-day tix.

We haven't been lucky to get a FD pin. However, I would think that if you wanted to book two packages, they wouldn't limit you. The issue, again, may be the cost of the tickets.

Cool... I'm liking this idea, its like the best of both worlds and I could book our favorite dinners with adr's for the first half, then cut back on oop meals and enjoy CL! Thannnnks!

 

[fici]

Has anyone stayed club level and the standard dinbing plan? I have and hope I did nbot waste my money. I tried to figure what it would be OOP and it always came out almost the same. We did deluxe last time(no CL) and we liked it. I am going to keep track of the meal costs and let you know how I made out.

 

[gigi1313]

I have been contemplating this exact same thing... I think I'd rather spend more resort time and less restaurant time on our next trip, which would work perfectly!

 

[allthingsmickey]

We are trying this for the first time at the end of April. I still booked a few dinners -- Narcooses, Be Our Guest, Ohana and a bfast at CRT. We are staying 9 nights - 2 at Coronado Springs in the new business class and 7 at Grand Floridian Club Level.
We bought the Tables in Wonderland Card last August, so this will be our 2nd trip with it. We are accustomed to doing a sit down dinner every night, so it will be interesting to see how this works out for us. I'll report back after we return.