CRT....Gratuity Included?

[kristenrice]

I am trying to figure out a dining budget for our Spring Break 2010 vacation.

The dinner menu for CRT on allears.net, it says:
Adults $57.19
Children 3-9 $34.78
Price includes tax and gratuity

We are thinking about doing a DDP and I am wondering if I need to budget additional cash for a gratuity. I know that the DDP normally does NOT include gratuity, but if it is a fixed-price meal with the gratuity included in the price, then I would assume that they are not going to "double-dip", correct?

I know that my dad would love to eat in the castle and he would never do it if he saw how much it costs. I can get him to eat there and enjoy himself if I tell him that it is "included with his plan". I just need to know if I need to budget in the 18% automatic gratuity, since we will be a party of 6.

TIA!

 

[catne]

I am trying to figure out a dining budget for our Spring Break 2010 vacation.

The dinner menu for CRT on allears.net, it says:
Adults $57.19
Children 3-9 $34.78
Price includes tax and gratuity

We are thinking about doing a DDP and I am wondering if I need to budget additional cash for a gratuity. I know that the DDP normally does NOT include gratuity, but if it is a fixed-price meal with the gratuity included in the price, then I would assume that they are not going to "double-dip", correct?

I know that my dad would love to eat in the castle and he would never do it if he saw how much it costs. I can get him to eat there and enjoy himself if I tell him that it is "included with his plan". I just need to know if I need to budget in the 18% automatic gratuity, since we will be a party of 6.

TIA!

You can eat at CRT on the Dining plan, but it will cost you 2 Table service credits per person. Everything is covered, though, including tax & tip, regardless of party size. When you book the restaurant, make sure you tell them you will be using the dining plan (otherwise they will charge your credit card for the full amount at the time of booking.)

 

[kristenrice]

Thanks!

After weighing all of our options, I think that CRT might be in the plans for this trip. We have eaten dinner there twice, once on our honeymoon and once for our girls' first trip to Disney World. The food is ok, but the setting is unbelievable. My dad loves the nostalgia and "magic" of Disney World so I think he would really enjoy a meal IN the castle. Unfortunately, there is no way he would pay almost $120 for himself and my mom to eat dinner. So, if I can sneak it in with a dining plan, I might get him to go for it.

Since we are doing a 2-night/3-night split-stay on DVC points, we can add any dining plan to either or both of the stays. I am thinking about adding the basic DDP to our 2-night stay. We could use our 2 TS credits to eat dinner on Easter Sunday (our arrival day) at CRT. (*On a side note, we are arriving in Orlando by car on Saturday so we will be arriving at WDW early Sunday morning...no need to worry about a delayed flight). We usually eat breakfast in our room anyways so we would use the 2 CS credits for dinners on Monday and Tuesday. This would cover three of our five onsite dinners. The only other TS dinner that we really want is LeCellier. Since we have the TiW card, we will save that for later in the week (i.e. NOT on the holiday) and probably just do a very late lunch to save some money. We also do a breakfast at Boma on our departure day. What a great way to fuel up for the 2-day drive home.

Now, as far as the budget goes, it looks like we can either do the plan outlined above (and include CRT) or we can do another plan that would include dinner at Boma on Easter Sunday, instead of CRT. Dad and Mom are still "park commandos" and they do not want to "waste time" at a lot of TS meals. So, I have limited our itinerary to include only THREE TS meals. We will definitely want breakfast at Boma and lunch/dinner at LeCellier. That means that I (we) have to decide between dinner at Boma or CRT. Whichever one we choose will be our Easter dinner so we must choose wisely. My parents have not eaten at either of them so they really have no opinion. Food-wise, I prefer Boma, but dinner at the castle is really something else.

I guess I will be waiting until October 27....what we do will all depend on what ADR's we can snag. My plans might all be for naught....

 

[Tricia1972]

Closing this thread and redirecting you to the Tipping Thread stickied at the top of the forum http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2300858

The first post of the thread explains the why of the single tipping thread, has the guidelines for the thread and even has a little FAQ to answer some of the more common tipping questions.

Closing this one up now