Does this make sense to do?

[Rmurphy005]

I am planning on a trip in Sept 2016 with me my DH, my DD, my DF, and my In laws. So there will be 5 adults total travelling and my DD will be 1.5. Would it make sense for my father to buy an Annual pass for about $200 more than if he bought the 5 day park hoppers that the rest of us will be getting, just so he could then buy the Tables in Wonderland card so we could save 20% on the dining for the entire party for the trip?

Some info that might be useful for your advice...

-My father probably wont use the AP a second time since we do not ussually travel more than once per year.

-We are planning on doing at least one Table Service per day for an 8 day stay

-I know its possible to get a free dining but we would be staying at a value so we would want TS included

Let me know what you guys think. Thank you so much for the advice.

 

[Alesia]

I don't think anybody is going to be able to answer with any confidence. You're really just going to have to do the math for yourself.

 

[minnie mum]

Without knowing which restaurants, what you would all likely order, and what you would want for beverages ( cost of each meal), its impossible to say. You would have to estimate the cost of all your meals, figure out how much you would save with TIW, and compare that with the cost to upgrade to an AP.

 

[alicat8]

It's probably pretty close, depending on how much you'll spend on meals. You might want to check out prices at the places you plan to eat.

 

[davper]

You will need to spend 1500 in food and drink at participating locations to break even.

 

[Lucius Best]

Would it make sense for my father to buy an Annual pass for about $200 more than if he bought the 5 day park hoppers that the rest of us will be getting, just so he could then buy the Tables in Wonderland card so we could save 20% on the dining for the entire party for the trip?

To me it looks like an Annual Pass would be about $300 more than a 5-day Park Hopper? Add in the $100 for the TIW card, and you would need to spend more than $2,000 in food and drink for it to be worth it. Not counting the toddler, 8 Table Service meals for 5 adults would mean each adult would need to order $50 in food/drink at each meal.

 

[smiths02]

A few points
--there are "rumors" that TiW is going to be phased out, so this may all be a moot point
--if you have TiW, generally the person with the TiW has to pay for all the meals, no split checks, etc. I don't know how this will work with a group as varied as yours. And your DF will have to be present at every TS meal
--there are other benefits of the Annual Pass, merchandise discounts being another big one
--is anyone else in the crew likely to go again within the next year, why the AP for your DF instead of someone else in the party?
--If you stay at a value and get free dining, big IF as free dining is getting harder and harder, you can pay to upgrade to the 1 QS, 1 TS plan

You don't have to make this decision until you get there, you can upgrade to Annual Pass and buy a TiW once you enter a park for the first time (this is what we did in June)

 

[smiths02]

To me it looks like an Annual Pass would be about $300 more than a 5-day Park Hopper? Add in the $100 for the TIW card, and you would need to spend more than $2,000 in food and drink for it to be worth it. Not counting the toddler, 8 Table Service meals for 5 adults would mean each adult would need to order $50 in food/drink at each meal.

At the value resort, the food court would also accept TiW. There would also be a discount on merchandise.

 

[Rmurphy005]

You will need to spend 1500 in food and drink at participating locations to break even.

Yeah thats what i was coming up with too, which would make it really close to saving money or not, maybe with the merchandise discount it could put it over the top. But who knows...

A few points
--there are "rumors" that TiW is going to be phased out, so this may all be a moot point
--if you have TiW, generally the person with the TiW has to pay for all the meals, no split checks, etc. I don't know how this will work with a group as varied as yours. And your DF will have to be present at every TS meal
--there are other benefits of the Annual Pass, merchandise discounts being another big one
--is anyone else in the crew likely to go again within the next year, why the AP for your DF instead of someone else in the party?
--If you stay at a value and get free dining, big IF as free dining is getting harder and harder, you can pay to upgrade to the 1 QS, 1 TS plan

These are great points...
-Thats true this would be a waste of time if its phased out...
-As for my DF paying for it, i was thinking we could just pay cash for the meals and split it up ourselves. Which could get annoying but if it could save us money might be worth it.
-These other benefits are what i think could put the AP/ TIW in our favor for saving money.
-I was thinking of having my father do it because he is staying in the room alone and since each other room is a double occupancy we would all need our own tickets.
-that is true about the free dining and the upgrade i will def. keep that in mind.



Thank you all very much for your advice, basically its going to be a very close decision and i understand that it really all depends on how we eat. Say it is 50/day that we have to spend i would assume we could come close to pulling it off between a QS and a TS plus any alcoholic drinks at dinner. It seems like it is going to have to be a gametime decision and if we can get really lucky and pull off Free dining then we will do that but if not we will have to really dig in to see what the best option is.

 

[hblevins32]

If he does get the AP, he would be able to purchase the park tickets for the other 4 at a discount. Take that into consideration also.