Is adding MYW Dining worth the hassle?

[back2disney]

Okay I have a tough question for the pros of MYW dinings brief 4 month existence. I have already book a room only reservation for 9 nights and another continuation one for 2 nights at the Pop Century. For some sort of availability reason I couldn't have 1 whole reservation. Anyway, I'm putting together my PS list and I realize I have 10 that I would like to do; a mix of breakfasts, lunches, and dinners. I think I can save some money by adding the dining plan whereby getting either a 1 counter-top or snack free per day.

But,
1) I bought a 7day pass at ticketmania already. So can I get a refund from ticketmania, a credit from disney to make a change, or add on new tickets.

2) When getting new tickets, since I have 2 reservations do I have to get a 9 day pass and a seperate 2 day pass. This would seem to be more expensive.

And finally,
3) I got my confirmation at the AAA rate. I have read that AAA can do the add on to get that rate, but the CRO cannot.

Can someone help me please?

 

[estnh]

MYW dining has to be a package of room, park tickets, and dining. With two separate reservations, you would have to have two packages, each of which includes at least one day's worth of park tickets. To get the AAA rate, the only way you could book the packages is with AAA, not with Disney. (You can get AAA discounts on room only booking with Disney, but can't get the package. You also have different payment requirements with the package(s), whether they are with AAA or Disney, they must be prepaid minimum of 45 days prior to your trip).

Not sure about your existing ticket refunds, but the easiest way would be to get a refund from ticketmania if you can.

Here's a link to the definitive site on the dining plan:

http://www.touringplans.com/MYWDining.html

Good luck!

 

[back2disney]

Thank you for the reply.
Unfortunately I don't think its worth it for me to switch. I save money thru ticketmania and so would lose that and my highest priced dinner is $27.99 at thee Gala in GF. It looks like the 3-8 dollars a day I was trying to save would be lost in other costs.

To bad you can't just add the MYW dining on an existing base ticket or length of stay visit for resort guests.

 

[estnh]

Thank you for the reply.
Unfortunately I don't think its worth it for me to switch. I save money thru ticketmania and so would lose that and my highest priced dinner is $27.99 at thee Gala in GF. It looks like the 3-8 dollars a day I was trying to save would be lost in other costs.

To bad you can't just add the MYW dining on an existing base ticket or length of stay visit for resort guests.

I'm surprised you are not saving more than that! Here's an example from the Concourse Steakhouse menu of what can be saved with the plan:

Go to the Concourse Steakhouse and order a shrimp cocktail ( $8.99), an 8 oz. Filet Mignon ($ 27.99) , a cheesecake for dessert ($ 6.99), then add on a coffee for $ 1.75. Totals $ 45.72. Then add on the tip (15%--$7.00 and the Florida Tax around $3.00. Your total for that ONE meal is $55.72. For that day, you have paid only $35.00, and on top of the dinner you had for $ 55.72, for lunch you had a counter service for around $10 and a soft drink in the parks for $ 2.00. For the day, you got around $ 68.00 worth of food for $35.00.

You can pretty much come up with the same dollar figures at a number of the MWY restaurants (Spoodles and Kona Cafe come to mind). It might be worth another look, as you don't save a huge amount on park tickets through Ticketmania. We researched it pretty carefully and anticipate our 8 day savings in the $300 range. (We like to eat alot though!)

 

[back2disney]

I'm surprised you are not saving more than that! Here's an example from the Concourse Steakhouse menu of what can be saved with the plan:

We are not eating at the concourse steakhouse, however I suppose we could switch that out with the Trails End lunch instead,

But still our sitdown meals are:
1)Crystal Palace breakfast 17.99
2)Donald's Breakfastosaurus 17.99
3)Garden Grill lunch 20.99
4)Ohana's dinner 24.99
5)1900 Park Fare dinner 27.99
6)Boma dinner 24.99
7)Crystal Palace lunch 18.99
8)Chef Mickey's breakfast 17.99
9)Liberty Tree Tavern dinner 22.99
10)Whispering canyon lunch 13.99
11)Trails End lunch 16.99

average cost is about $20 + $6tax/tip = $26
then say average snack is $2
and average counter service meal is say $11

then total cost would be ~$40 per day. I would save about 5$ a day going with the MYW dining option regardless of what the financial imagineers would hope for me to believe.

Now if I ate at the concourse steakhouse every day, then yeah it would be a different story. But for the average Joe(me) trying to plan a wonderful trip on a budget with a wife and a little girl staying onsite and making as many PSs as possible, it doesn't help much.

That and the strings attached, ie you must buy some sort of a ticket for your stay(hey I already have a ticket) and your stay has to be split up into 2 reservations if its too long and so you will need seperate packages(yeah whatever) and the dining option must be for the number of nights(which is actually perfect in my case) of your stays and no less. I would like to see some changes and flexibility to it to really help out the little guy.

Thoughts anyone?

 

[back2disney]

this would also assume I had 11 counter service meals, 1 for every day - which I don't. I actually only have maybe 3 or 4. For 2 or 3 days I'm also going to US/IOA so this would lower my savings more and possible cost me extra in the long run...

 

[estnh]

Almost every one of your meals is a buffet, which are typically less expensive that the other restaurants. In that circumstance, no, I wouldn't even consider the MYW plan.

(We are saving around $300 on our MYW package, but we only have one buffet.)