I'll try to help.
If you have a 40% off rate at ASMo, the regular price is $82, so you're paying $49.20/night.
A 9-day base ticket is $237.50 (A) / $198.09 (C).
A 10-day base ticket is $239.63 (A) / $199.16 (C).
So, if you stick with your discount for the entire stay, here's what you're looking at for room and tickets:
10 nights x $49.20 = $492 plus tax ~ $556
2/2 10-day A & C tickets = $877.58
Total = $1433.58
If you split your stay,
4 nights x $49.20 = 196.80 plus tax ~ $223
2/2 9-day A & C tickets = 871.18
6-nights MYW FD package w/ 1-day base tickets = $839.60
Total = $1933.78
I figured that if you added the (paid) dining package to your existing room resevation, your total package would be somewhere around $2400.
It's a lot harder to estimate food costs if you're paying OOP. At a CS restaurant, for 2 adult meals and 2 kids' meals, you'll spend around $35-40. My instinct is that you will come out essentially the same if you do the 2 reservations vs paying for all your food OOP. You're adding $500 to include food for 6 days which is probably about what you'd spend anyway. If you were to eat all CS meals the first 4 days and then use your TS credits on character meals (which are fairly pricey) you might make it worth it.
Remember you're paying a lot more for park admission by doing the split stay. A 10-day base adult ticket is $239.63; a 9-day plus a 1-day is $313.12. Of course, you could get the 10-day for the trip and save the 1-day for a future trip (upgrade it) and get your money back that way.
Anyway, just a few numbers for you to think about and work on. If you haven't looked at the restaurant menus here on the DIS or on allearsnet.com, I highly recommend it. That way you'll have an idea of how much the food will actually cost if you pay OOP.
Good luck!
Claire
I am confused we can't change our ressie and we are going from 8/20 - 830. Is it better for us to split up our ressie so we can get partially FD then to keep our 40% off room rate only. We are staying at ASMO, but by splitting we would have to get a 9 day park pass with a 4 day discounted stay and then a 1 day pass with a 6 day rack rate stay in order to get free dining. Does that make sense financially?
