Going for F&W and need help deciding dining - What would you do?

[TPCShauna]

DH and I have very recently moved to Florida about an hour from WDW, and now have APs and a TIW card. We are doing lots of day trips to WDW, but I'm in the process of planning our next resort stay for the F&W Fest and MNSSHP. We'll be staying at the Yacht Club so we'll be close to all those tasty F&W booths.

Here's my dilemma: I'm not sure how to handle our dining for this stay. On our 2005 trip, we did DDP and stayed Concierge at BWI. We didn't care for DDP (since we usually don't do CS), and didn't get much out of Concierge other than breakfast because we were too busy in the parks and with dining. In 2008, we did DxDP and really enjoyed it, except we were really tired of 2 hour meals by the end of our 8 day trip. Of course, now that we live close by, we are going more often, doing less each time and eating wherever we want because we have TIW. As much as I love TIW, I'm not sure if it is the best choice for us for our upcoming trip due to the F&W booths.

The purpose of this trip will be three-fold: F&W Fest, MNSSHP, and celebrating our anniversary. I'm assuming we'll be spending a ton of time at Epcot for sampling and will do a signature meal for our anniversary. We typically do breakfast in our room. Park attractions are really secondary so we'll probably end up with lots of DTD, pool activity, out of park stuff so lots of options for dining.

Here are my current choices:
(1) Stay at YC with DDP using snacks and extra $$$ on a F&W card for the booths. We would combine TS credits for our signature meal and mainly eat at F&W booths and CS for the rest.
(2) Stay Concierge at YC, put $$$ on a F&W card for the booths, use TIW for our signature meal, and do concierge lounge food and CS for the rest.
(3) Stay at YC with DxDP which would mean we would probably need less extra $$$ for F&W booths since we'll have more snacks, and can then eat wherever we want with no issues.

Option (1) is the least expensive to book, but seems like it could cost the most as I'm thinking we'll spend a lot OOP for the F&W booths. I do like that most of our food would be prepaid, but it is hard to budget due to the OOP expenses.

Option (2) doesn't seem that bad as there was always an overabundance of food in the CL that will be easily supplemented by F&W booths and interesting CS food from Epcot. It costs less to do CL @ YC than to do a normal room with DxDP. I think this might add up really quickly though with all the $$$ for F&W booths, CS, our anniversary meal and any other TS we decide to do.

Option (3) sounds like it might be way, way, way too much food, but we like the prepaid aspect of it. It is, by far, the most expensive of the three options to book and therefore DH's least favorite. I'm just thinking it might end up being the cheapest overall.

So, having read through all of that, what would you do? Which option looks/sounds the best? Truly, I would like the least expensive so that DH is happy, but I'm also looking for easiest. I just don't want to automatically do the DxDP thinking it's the easiest, and waste copious amounts of food. I wouldn't even be stressing about this right now, but I need to decide whether to keep my room-only ressie or upgrade to a package with the dining plan. It's a one-way street with the upgrade so I want to weigh my options before I do it.

Anyway, TIA for any help you can give. I appreciate everyone who has read this far!

 

[sjs314]

Although not the least expensive, I have to say option 3 since that is what DH and myself are doing in October. We are staying at the BC on the DxDP we have decided to skip MNSSHP and have decided instead to do the Wishes Dessert Party at MK on a non party night.
Yes the DxDP seems like overkill at first glance considering we are going to the F&W but as you mentioned it affords you more snack credits to use at the kiosiks, thereby cutting down on as much extra $ needed for sampling.
You plan on one signature restaurant same as us
DH and myself enjoy starting our day off while on vacation with a TS breakfast and we enjoy stopping and having a relaxing TS lunch and dinner so even though the cost seems high for us it is the only option that works (I think the fact that an App is incl. in the DxDP makes it more attractive)plus we are looking forward to having it all paid for ahead of time and not worry about looking at the cost of items on the menu.

 

[purple figment]

This time we're going to do Option #3. We're planning to use the snack credits at the F&W kiosks and focus on Signature dinners in the late evening. We'll use the remaining dining credits at TS lunches or breakfasts on non Epcot days.