Why do so many like these vouchers.......long
I have not used vouchers yet and hadn't even considered using them until I had read all of the threads on this subject. I didn't make the decision until I researched the options. These are the factors:
Even though we will have our own vehicle and cheaper meals can be located offsite, I wanted to maximize our time in the parks and not waste it getting back and forth. Our hotel has continental breakfast, fridge & microwave but is also offsite (Family of 6 would mean two rooms, even at the Value resorts this was more than we wanted to pay)
So, I set about trying to feed us inexpensively in the parks but still experience some of the themed restaurants, a character breakfast, and go to a variety of locations, etc. I have my itinerary pretty much in place and know what days/times we plan on being at the parks. Our plan is to eat earlier or later than the busiest times while there. I read descriptions of the different restaurants and viewed the menus for all of the parks to see what would appeal to us. My kids would not appreciate fine cuisine (can you say chicken nuggets?) so that eliminated a lot of places. I considered the vouchers when looking at the menus to see how I could feed the family by splitting meals. I think the key to the value of the vouchers is the ability to split meals. Besides myself there is my DH, dd15, ds11, dd5, dd4 so it is doable for us.
Some days we will bring sandwiches, some days we might have a heavy snack at 11:00am and then an early dinner at a pre-determined park/resort restaurant, and on other days a restaurant lunch will be the main meal and we will prepare a quick/easy dinner in our hotel room upon our return. I will bring kid snacks into the parks everyday for those inbetween times. I think I have found a good balance between bought and prepared meals.
My budget for food is $925 for 9 days for 6 people. This includes all meals, snacks, groceries and road trip meals each way. This includes the following places:
Safari Coffee, Rainforest Cafe, Main St Bakery, Chef Mickeys Character Breakfast, Pepper Market, Liberty Inn for 5 (Fish & Chips for me), Beaches & Cream, Boulangerie Patisserie, Ohana's, Sunrise Ranch, Sci-Fi Dine-In Theatre (Dessert only), Trails End Buffet.
I figured if I could feed two people well for $13-16 at WDW it was a good deal. IMHO you can get value out of the vouchers if you do your homework and have a meal plan.
Sorry so long but it was a long decision making process for me!
Hope it helps!
Sharon