Dining plan credits vs paying for an expensive meal?

[joy13]

I have a question about using my TS credits effectiviely. Here are my ADR's :


Dining Reservations:

9/20/07 : None

9/21/07: Lunch – Cinderella’s Royal Table (Castle Magic Kingdom) 12:55 2cr

9/22/07: Lunch – Play and Dine at Hollywood and Vine (MGM) 1:05 1cr

9/23/07: Dinner – Chef Mickey’s (Contemporary Resort) 6:00 1cr

9/24/07: Breakfast – Crystal Palace (Magic Kingdom) 9:05 1cr

9/25/07: Dinner - Garden Grill (Epcot) 4:30 1 cr

9/26/07: None


So - anyway - We are staying for 6 nights, so all my TS credits are used up with these reservations. When I called to change my CRT time, the CM I talked to tried to talk me into not using Dining plan credits for that meal. I'm thinking that a $118 meal for the 3 of us is totally worth using 2 TS credits (per person). We leave around noon on the 26th - so we wouldn't use TS credits that day - so the only day we don't have any for is the day we get there and I'm thinking we can just eat CS or we can probably find dinner for less than $118. Am I missing something?

 

[illiniowl]

Looking at your plan, assuming you eat lunch & dinner every day except no lunch on 9/20 or 26, you have 7 lunches and dinners not otherwise planned and 6 CS credits, so you will have to pay OOP for 1 lunch or dinner. Obviously the cheapest thing to do would be to go to a CS for that meal. What the CM is essentially saying is that if you went to a TS for 2 of those 7 lunches/dinners (for example, if you ate TS appetizer+entree+dessert meals on 9/20 & 24, say at Coral Reef & Spoodles just to pick 2 at random), your combined checks for those would easily exceed $118 and you'd be better off paying OOP for CRT. (This leaves you with 1 CS credit that you could use for a breakfast somewhere or picking up sandwiches to go at Earl of Sandwich on your departure day.) But this obviously results in you laying out more OOP to Disney than you would if you followed your original plan. So the CM's advice makes sense only if you want to eat 2 more TS meals than you already have planned. Hope this helps.

 

[joy13]

Looking at your plan, assuming you eat lunch & dinner every day except no lunch on 9/20 or 26, you have 7 lunches and dinners not otherwise planned and 6 CS credits, so you will have to pay OOP for 1 lunch or dinner. Obviously the cheapest thing to do would be to go to a CS for that meal. What the CM is essentially saying is that if you went to a TS for 2 of those 7 lunches/dinners (for example, if you ate TS appetizer+entree+dessert meals on 9/20 & 24, say at Coral Reef & Spoodles just to pick 2 at random), your combined checks for those would easily exceed $118 and you'd be better off paying OOP for CRT. (This leaves you with 1 CS credit that you could use for a breakfast somewhere or picking up sandwiches to go at Earl of Sandwich on your departure day.) But this obviously results in you laying out more OOP to Disney than you would if you followed your original plan. So the CM's advice makes sense only if you want to eat 2 more TS meals than you already have planned. Hope this helps.

Ok - I can see that. The only TS meals we intend to eat are the ADR's we have - so I think we are good. Thanks!