Confused on the Numbers - Help!

[DJT]

My DS and his wife and 6 year old DD decided to go with us in June. We're thrilled! I had already made reservations for my DH, myself and two Dgrandsons, 12 and 7. Got the $500 gift card deal for five nights. Since my DS and family are going, I called today to add two nights to our reservation and to make the reservation for DS's family.

Here's the confusing part. Our previous cost was $1998.22 for five nights, five day tickets and getting a $500 gift card.

Adding two nights, Sat. and Sun., brings it to $2431.34 (still five day tickets). The CM said if we didn't want to get the $500 gift card, we could get the QS dining instead and it would be the same exact price, $2431.34. So obiously we're paying over $200 a night for two extra nights (didn't think it would be quite that much).

Are we better off with the QS dining or with the $500 gift card? We'd use the $500 gift card for food and we would only do QS dining anyway. I've thought about all of this so much that my brain is mush. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Donna

 

[luvmyguyz]

I think the best thing to do is try to do a tally of what food you are most likely to order and the cost it would likely be. If your food bill would be higher than $500, then the free dining plan is better. I'm not sure how many people for whom you would be paying for food, but I think if you're staying 7 days and buying food for everyone, $500 will not cover it, even if you only do QS dining. I actually haven't been to WDW in years, but I do know that counter service meals at the Six Flags near me costs our family of five about $40 for one meal, so that would be $560 for 7 days, 2 meals each day, for 5 people. And that doesn't include snacks, which the dining plan does include. I'm thinking Disney probably costs more that Six Flags, so I would probably get the dining plan.

But again, it depends on how many people you would be buying food for, how many times you plan to eat every day, and how much food you tend to order at each meal.

 

[beth_cam]

You will need to look at what you would spend on food. If the qsdp will fit your needs and you will be spending about that much anyway, you are probably better off getting the free qsdp than having the 500 gift card. It is hard to truely compare, but you can get an idea from wdwinfo.com.

QSDP costs about $30/day/person 10 and up, 10/day/person 3-9.
So the total cost for qsdp purchased is about $700 - so more than the $500 gift card. The qsdp gives you 2 meals, 2 snacks, mug

If you are purchasing everyone their own meal, each meal would run somewhere around $8-10/adult meal, $5/kid meal; for simple meals. Meals can often be quite a bit more. So each meal would cost $35/meal. So for just those meals no snacks you are looking at about $490.


As far as the room price, rack rate for weeknight moderate rooms in June after June 4th is about $208 including tax, higher for weekends.



The above relates more to your own room. There isn't as significant of a difference for your DS.