Here is my quote from AAA - any suggestions?

[kcoop35]

It is $3800 for ten nights to stay in the Ft. Wilderness Cabins. This includes cabins, tickets, and park hopper and all that other Jazz.


Or we can rent two rooms at Port Orleans Riverside and it was $3300 for ten nights and includes all the same.


We are taking 3 adults and 3 kids.


We can add flight on from Des Moines Iowa for $1500 ($265 per adult, and $245 per child)

any thoughts?

 

[tea4sanity]

when are you going? we are going 4/18-26 and it is costing $5000 w/ dining
(3a, 1@13, 1c)

 

[jenseib]

How did you get it cheaper for a child? Non of the airlines I looked at did that!

I guess it depends on what you want. I think I would go Port orleans. It is less money and I could use that at the park. Plus, I don't need a kitchen on vacation. I am not cooking while away from home. They are really 2 DIFFERENT palces, so it depends on what you are looking for. Also research the transportation to and from parks. I'm not sure if one is better than the other for that, but that could make a difference too.

 

[themudd4]

when are you going? we are going 4/18-26 and it is costing $5000 w/ dining
(3a, 1@13, 1c)

The 13 yr old counts as an adult...so that makes it 4 adults and 1 child in your group.
Where are you staying?
Did you book through AAA?
And unless I just missed it I don't think the OP mentioned DDP.

That may also play a large part in the price difference.


OP: I think I would opt for the 2 rooms at POR (or any other resort) and save the money. The camp ground would be nice, and different but I think by not be allowed to have a bon fire at your camp site, kinda takes away from the camping thrill.

 

[tea4sanity]

I didn't book with AAA. I was just trying to show the rate I got, so she can see its a good price. (Depending on when she is going it can change the price also.) Take off the dining plan and I am spending about 3500 for the 8n/9d. We are staying at the FW cabins. I really do not plan on cooking on vacation either, but it's nice to know its there if I want it. 9Last vacation one of the kids became ill and had to stay in the hotel. Not having a way to get food while staying with him was miserable.)

POR was an option (2rooms) but the food court is being redone while we are there and didn't want the hassle and we have stayed there before.

 

[diseyore]

I stopped using packages because they were SO much more expensive. I discovered Mousesavers.com and used the codes for the hotel and them bought my own passes. You can add on any itmes, but found I could get everything with just a little work at a much cheaper price. One year I saved over $2,500.

 

[byoung]

Wishing you have a great vacation.

 

[jenseib]

I stopped using packages because they were SO much more expensive. I discovered Mousesavers.com and used the codes for the hotel and them bought my own passes. You can add on any itmes, but found I could get everything with just a little work at a much cheaper price. One year I saved over $2,500.

I think it all depends on the person and what they want, and how much work they want to do as well. I found AAA to be the best and cheapest for us. We wanted the dining as well, so we had to do it in a package. I didnt think any of the links provided much of a ticket discount either. Plus I found no deals for hotels at the time we are going. And beleive me I looked. But it got to be a time where I didn't want to wait any longer so I booked.
I also was getting a bit crazy at repeatedly trying to find the "best" deals, and got sick of it as well. Too much for my brain!!

 

[kcoop35]

The lady at AAA told me that we can add it on for $39 a day per adult, and $11 per day per child. Well I did the math and thought, wait a second

$39 x 10 = $390 x 3 = $1070 (3 adults 10 days of food)

$11 x 10 = $110 x 3 = $330 (3 children 10 days of food)


$1400 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I don't think so.

unless she explained it wrong

 

[MomofKatie]

The lady at AAA told me that we can add it on for $39 a day per adult, and $11 per day per child. Well I did the math and thought, wait a second

$39 x 10 = $390 x 3 = $1070 (3 adults 10 days of food)

$11 x 10 = $110 x 3 = $330 (3 children 10 days of food)


$1400 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I don't think so.

unless she explained it wrong

Have you looked at menus and prices? If you are planning a TS meal each day and a CS meal each day for each member of your party, you might be suprised- you could easily end up spending less with the DDP than if you paid OOP for everything. If you eat mostly CS with only a few TS meals, and bring your own snacks and drinks, the DDP might not be a good deal for you. But, I'd recommend doing the math to see if it would be a good deal for you.

 

[mousehouselover]

The lady at AAA told me that we can add it on for $39 a day per adult, and $11 per day per child. Well I did the math and thought, wait a second

$39 x 10 = $390 x 3 = $1070 (3 adults 10 days of food)

$11 x 10 = $110 x 3 = $330 (3 children 10 days of food)


$1400 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I don't think so.

unless she explained it wrong

one table service (TS) meal, with a soda and a dessert is about $40 per person. that means your counter service (CS) meal and snack are basically free.

DH and I just got back from a trip with the premium DDP, our meals were covered and we didn't have to worry about where we were going to eat. If we paid out of pocket (OOP) for everythinng it would have been more than $900. We had TS every meal though as we needed the rest and I wanted to try out a lot of places. I personally would't do another trip with out the dining plan since the meals are prepaid and I don't have to budget them during the trip.

Here's the link to the menus: http://www.wdwinfo.com/wdwinfo/dining/disneydining.cfm Make sure you check the prices of what you would like to eat. It adds up really quickly. 'm not trying to 'sell' the plan, I personally feel it pays for itself.

 

[kimberh]

The lady at AAA told me that we can add it on for $39 a day per adult, and $11 per day per child. Well I did the math and thought, wait a second

$39 x 10 = $390 x 3 = $1070 (3 adults 10 days of food)

$11 x 10 = $110 x 3 = $330 (3 children 10 days of food)


$1400 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I don't think so.

unless she explained it wrong

Have you been to Disney recently? A coke or water is $2.50. The dining package is 1 table service meal, 1counter service meal, 1 snack $4.00 value per person per day, tax and tip included. There are about 100 restaurants on the plan. Are you planning on eating character meals or sit down dinners? If you are, you will save about 40% according to the Disney Web site. We love the Dining Plan. It truly feels like everyone is on vacation. No bill at the end of the meal to worry about. For 2 of us at one restaurant our bill was $119.00. We do not drink. This is the meal, we had the DDP and it was included. When I took the family last October we had a meal at LeCelliar that was $387.00. We were 4 adults 2 children. It is well worth the money in my opinion. Unless you are cooking, you will spend a lot of money on food unless you are eating burgers the whole time. Burgers are expensive. You can go to allears.com and check the menus out. Just be prepared.

What time of year are you traveling in? Different seasons are different values.

 

[smidgy]

we like it either way. we often drive to disney, so we bring a cooler and have sandwiches, mac salad, chips, breakfast bars, pop, beer,etc. in the room, ans then have SOME counter service meals. but we never could justify the expensive sit down dinners until we discovered the dining plan. I get to order steak or prime rib!
It is a lot of food, though, for the whole trip, and you must purchase the dining plan for the length of your package.... however! we like to do a split stay. we stay at one resort for 3 or 4 days WITH the dining plan, (and park tickets for 7 days or so) then transfer to a dif. resort with a room only reservation with AAA discount. disney transfers your luggage for you. since the dining plan is good until midnight of the morning you check out, (of the 1st resort) you can still use a TS meal for the first night at your new resort. we like to use transfer day as a NO park day. relax at the pool in the morning, have a CS lunch at the food court, then transfer to the new resort, explore it and have a nice sit down dinner there.
addendum: since at many food courts 1 snack crdiet buys you a huge bag of chips, or a whole box of donuts, we "buy" those at the first resort, then save them for the 2nd, when we are no longer on the dining plan!

 

[bab31]

I just have to say if you eat daily for table service

appetizer
entree
desert
drink

and you eat this way regardless it is a good deal. or if you want to experience the foods without worry of cost. keep in mind you need to make reservations.

You have to compare apples to apples. I would not eat this way everyday and feel I cant say I saved a certain amount of money because of the cost of the food on the menu.

But regardless it is a good deal, I found that we saved not doing the dining plan. We ate at Fultons crabboat. rainforest, scifi and the Maya. We were there 7 nights. Fultons being the very most expensive (ouch). We only ate breakfast out twice.

 

[themudd4]

The lady at AAA told me that we can add it on for $39 a day per adult, and $11 per day per child. Well I did the math and thought, wait a second

$39 x 10 = $390 x 3 = $1070 (3 adults 10 days of food)

$11 x 10 = $110 x 3 = $330 (3 children 10 days of food)


$1400 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I don't think so.

unless she explained it wrong

I know it sounds like alot of money but as the PP have stated, if you are planning to eat a TS meal each day anyway you might want to reconsider. Last year I figured up we saved a few hundred dollars by doing the DDP. We too have 3 adults on the plan and 1 child for 7 nights...and it is well worth it to us. The tax and 18% tip is also included in that.
some CS meals may cost you well over $10, TS meals are pushing $40 some time much more, and snacks average $4...With my DS we pay the kids price for him and 1 TS meal cost more than I paid for his entire day...so that is a WIN WIN for us.
You might want to do a lil checking on where you plan to eat, and look into the DDP a lil more.

We select alot of character dinning options, or themed resturants and we may not eat all the food that is offered or brought out to us but the meal itself is part of our vacation...nothing like sitting down for breakfast and Pooh bear coming right up to your table looking for honey! Or having Pluto smack at your pony tail...or Chip and Dale fighting over the pretty girl...(my DD had a Chip ad Dale shirt on and they were going to fight over her at Garden Grill). Also a few other favs with out Disney charaters...Whispering Canyon, Cape May Cafe, and 50's Prime Time.

 

[threecrazykids]

If you don't mind flying out of Cedar Rapids they have Allegiant Air which is WAY cheaper than any other flight I've been able to find.

Only negative...Disney Magical Express doesn't service Orlando Sanford and that's where the flights are into...not Orlando Intl. So if you plan on renting a car OR are willing to pay for the shuttle service from Sanford, it's STILL cheaper than flying any other airline I've been able to price.

 

[jenseib]

Be careful with Allegiant. We are going on them, but they cost more for us than going out of Detroit airport. But Detroit is an hour away, so DH rather pay more to do it this way.
Allegiant posts decent prices each way, but then add on convenience charges, each bag is charged for, and if you want to pick your seats, which we did since traveling with a 2 year old, it's 11 per person each way. Also if you see a good price now, book it. Our flight total would be over120 more per person if we waited. It keeps going up all the time as we get scloser to the date.

 

[kcoop35]

Thank you for all the info on the dining plan. You are correct in the fact that I did not realize it was going to be $10-15 per person for a counter meal at the park.

I will have to do some more looking into this. My concern is that we are staying at the Ft. Wilderness Cabins and we have a fridge and things like that. We are going to be eating a quick breakfast there each day, and some nights will eat there as well.

Clearly we don't want to be cooking for the entire 10 days that we are there. I just don't want to shell out $1400 and then not get my money's worth on it.

If I shell out $1400 and then another $200+ on groceries, it makes me wonder.

Of course it is vacation and I need to quick being a cheapskate.

Thanks

 

[smidgy]

if you are planning on using your fridge and cooking a lot of meals at the cabin, then the dining plan is not for you. we look at our budget, and, as my hubby points out, "we would have been eating at home anyway!". so you have to subtract that right off your budget, do you eat frugally at home (as we do), do you eat out a lot (us- sometimes). calculate what you would spend at home anyway, then add what you are willing to spend extra. we are empty nesters, so spending the $ for a few days of the DP is worth it for us. then, again, we do the SPLIT STAY.
however, there are MANY counter service places that aren't so pricey; i.e. Casey's counter (hot dogs) at magic kingdom, and NUMEROUS places at world showcase. try to RETHINK a "meal" . for the week you are there, give up the "lunch/dinner" thought, and just pick up a bite here or there.
once we split 2 tacos at pecos bills, or split 2 eggrolls in china, or bought a couple pastries in norway or at fountain view. just to get by, a "sampling, if you will". it's VACATION. let the kids have fries for "dinner" they'll be just as happy. a bite here, a bite there; who wrote the rules that you have to have "breakfast.. lunch.. dinner.."? in the unofficail guide, a read a report from a family whose kids still remember that they got to have ice cream sundaes from fountain view for dinner!

 

[KayR]

It is $3800 for ten nights to stay in the Ft. Wilderness Cabins. This includes cabins, tickets, and park hopper and all that other Jazz.


Or we can rent two rooms at Port Orleans Riverside and it was $3300 for ten nights and includes all the same.


We are taking 3 adults and 3 kids.


We can add flight on from Des Moines Iowa for $1500 ($265 per adult, and $245 per child)

any thoughts?

If you are trying to reduce the cost, have you considered staying off-site at a hotel or in a vacation home. You could have a 3 or 4 bedroom home (or townhome/condo) for less than that.