Interlines Rate 40% vs. FD planning help needed

[PrincessatheartMN]

Hello all,
I am new to the site and clueless about Disney world. Anyway, here is my dilemma.
We never been to Disney World and hoping to going in the fall for my daughter birthday.
Family of 5 - Mom, Dad, 8 yrs old, 3 yrs old and 1 yrs old.

I have a 40% off Interline rate (Airline employee discount) at any WDW resort (room only)
For example: one week at pop in the fall would be around $400 for all of us.
We can not add FD or any other discount on top of it.
We can buy YES ticket since my son want to enroll in one the program anyway.
That would come to about $800 for 8 days pass.
We also have a friend offer 1 wk at her Condo in Kissimee for FrEE.

So if we go for 2 wks, our cost so far about $1300 . For tickets and 2 weeks lodging.

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Now the other options:

The free dining plan that we all talking about. I would love to have those. We did the princess dining at Disneyland once and it was one of the best memories of the trip. The dining plan is so attempting. But we can not get it with my interline discount. A week with Dining plan (assuming no FD would be offer) and 10 days tickets at All star music is about $2600.


I am sorry that i am all over the place. Any help or suggestion on how i can figure this out? how much food will cost per day. We can eat anything from hot dog to PBJ. But we would love to have a few time at those character dining too.

ANy help would be appreciated.

 

[mountdew1]

The best way to see if dining plan works for your group, is to check out the menus. Most of the TS locations now have their menus posted on the WDW website, and you can find menus for CS and other locations here -> http://www.wdwinfo.com/wdwinfo/dining/diningmain.cfm or here -> http://allears.net/menu/menus.htm Look at the locations you would be eating, and figure out what you would eat. Do the math on what the food would cost you, and then compare to the cost of the dining plan. Make sure to look at what you are most likely to eat, not what costs the most. Remember that a CS dining plan entitlement includes drink and desert. If your family will normally share drinks, drink water, or not eat desert, you would be paying for food that you won't eat. Running those numbers will tell you if any dining plan makes sense for your group. In most cases unless you would normally all consume your own beverage and eat your own desert, the dining plan has little if any savings.

Regarding FD, thats simple. See if the room discount is a better deal than the cost of dining. Since you are talking about staying at POP, you would most likely be offered the quick service dining plan. Do two counter service meals plus snack per day cost more than the 40% discount? Not sure when exactly you were planning on going, but if the room cost $110 per night, a 40% discount would save your $44 per night. Can you feed your family 2 counter service meals a day on that $44? If you think that 2 CS meals would cost more than $44, then FD would make more sense for you.

 

[WendyMS]

Be aware that the number of rooms available for interline rates is limited. We've been very lucky to occasionally use them when traveling with my parents. However, when we called last week to check for availability for our dates this fall only one moderate and a couple of expensive deluxes were available for those dates. The rates are usually released in the fall for the following year and fill quickly. You need to be a bit flexible on your dates and resort of choice. Sometimes closer in or last minute Exactly what you want is available, other times not.

 

[dclfun]

I work for WDW and also get a discount on resort rooms. We've done FD though several times in the fall as it ended up being a better discount for our family when we did what was suggested...check out the menus and what you would want to order. In the past when we took advantage of FD the gratuities and appys were included so it was a much better deal, plus we got one TS per day vs. the QS now offered- we also stayed at Pop. What usually happens is that if you're staying at a deluxe resort, your % discount is better. If you're at a moderate or value, often FD is better depending on your party size. Good luck with the math ( it's not my strong suit, lol).

 

[padawans]

I would book with the interline rate. If free dining is released you can switch to free dining. I usually book with with a interline and then change to a Ap discount and add dining if its a comparable. You be will going from a package to a package it won't be a problem. I have never had a problem booking with an interline rate even on short notice. My experience has been there has always been a lot of availability. I only stay deluxe so that may be the difference. If you already have a FD pin then I would book with that. Generally Fd is a better dealy when staying at a value or moderate resort and a room discount is a better deal when staying at a deluxe.