Is the Tables in Wonderland card worth it?

[jodim]

We are leaving Sunday (woohoo!) for our trip, we will only be spending 4 days at the parks this time as we got Military Tickets, but we are spending a total of 12 days there. We have planned on 3 TS Meals so far, Ohana breakfast, Chef Mickey's Dinner and Raglan Road for dinner. We are trying to add in 1 more depending on if it opens up or not for us.

We are a party of 7, 5a 2k by WDW standards, and I am pretty sure we will save over $100 on our meals if we end up keeping our Chef Mickey reservation (still contemplating that one, it is so expensive when you aren't using DDP)

Are there any other perks to getting the card other than the 20%? Does it count on CS meals too?

Also does anyone know if any of the restaurants offer Military Discount on meals?

 

[supersnoop]

This is the best comparison of discounts that I've found: http://allears.net/pl/disc_dining.pdf

Very few counter service restaurants participate; mainly the ones at Animal Kingdom park and the Value Resort food courts.

 

[bumbershoot]

Well, I like it, but before going further, make sure you can get it. It's only available to Florida residents, Annual Passholders, and DVC owners.

 

[acc82]

Well, I like it, but before going further, make sure you can get it. It's only available to Florida residents, Annual Passholders, and DVC owners.

Totally agree with this ^^^^^^^ You def. want to make sure you're eligible first!

But, if you are able to get the TiW - my answer is YES YES YES YES YES, AND YES!!! Totally worth it! I've done the dining plan and this is much better and cost effective. Here's why:

1.) It's paid for itself in valet alone for us! 20 bucks a pop at each signature has paid for the 100 bucks it costs in only 5 trips to our favorite places.

2.) the 20% off is accepted at most all table services and some counter services. Plus, you get the discount on alcohol as well!

3) The Cast Members have told me the TiW is better than even the discount THEY get!

WE LOVE TiW - we will never let it, or our Annual pass expire!

 

[bumbershoot]

Assuming you're eligible... It also gets you no-fee valet parking at resorts for dining purposes (you have about 3 hours of parking, and you have to show them the receipt with the TIW discount on it). Of course tipping is still expected.

counter service:

Food courts at AOA, Pop, Music, Sports, and Movies
Food courts at SSR
Sassagoula food court at POFQ
CS places inside Animal Kingdom PARK

 

[auger]

When making your decision, keep in mind that you must spend $500 just to break even on the initial cost of the TIW card.
You will also have a mandatory 18% tip added to your bill, regardless of how good or bad your waiter/waitress was.

 

[JanaDee]

When I was eligible, I never found it worth the cost. We wouldn't have spent (and didn't) the initial $500 it would have taken to break even.

 

[Marionnette]

There are so many things that affect whether TiW is worth its cost.

One thing to note is that even though the 18% tip is automatically added to your bill, it is based on the full amount prior to the application of the TiW 20% discount. There is no gratuity added to CS purchases.

The tax on the bill is based on the total AFTER the 20% discount.

The TiW card expires one year later at the end of the month following the month in which it was purchased. That means that you get more than 13 months of use from it. If planned correctly, you can get a couple of vacations' worth of meals using it, if not more.

FL residents pay $125 for the card but DVC and AP holders pay $100 for it. So, if you're a FL resident you would need to spend $625 on dining before you break even, while DVC and APs need to spend $500.

I've found it to be very much worth the purchase price. I used it last fall when dining each night as a party of 4. We broke even after 3 nights. And then I used it again this spring. I plan to use it on the next two trips as well, the first one being just me and my husband while the last one will be spent with 5 other adults (you can get a discount for up to 10 people at one time).

 

[jodim]

I thought it was available to everyone. We aren't eligible. :/
Thanks to everyone for your responses.

 

[hungrygreenhippo]

There are so many things that affect whether TiW is worth its cost.

One thing to note is that even though the 18% tip is automatically added to your bill, it is based on the full amount prior to the application of the TiW 20% discount. There is no gratuity added to CS purchases.

The tax on the bill is based on the total AFTER the 20% discount.

The TiW card expires one year later at the end of the month following the month in which it was purchased. That means that you get more than 13 months of use from it. If planned correctly, you can get a couple of vacations' worth of meals using it, if not more.

FL residents pay $125 for the card but DVC and AP holders pay $100 for it. So, if you're a FL resident you would need to spend $625 on dining before you break even, while DVC and APs need to spend $500.

I've found it to be very much worth the purchase price. I used it last fall when dining each night as a party of 4. We broke even after 3 nights. And then I used it again this spring. I plan to use it on the next two trips as well, the first one being just me and my husband while the last one will be spent with 5 other adults (you can get a discount for up to 10 people at one time).

What's the price for TIW if I have a Florida resident annual pass? I'm moving to Orlando at the beginning of July and trying to figure out if it's worth it to get TIW and try to get in at Victoria and Albert's before it's no longer part of the program.

If I pay the Florida resident price for the annual pass do I still get all the regular annual pass perks? I don't have it in front of me, but I'm looking at buying the most expensive FL resident pass that doesn't have blackout dates.

The place where I need to do more math is that a lot of the restaurants that I'd eat at (aside from V&A's of course) seem to already offer a 10% discount to annual passholders. So TIW is really only giving me an additional 10% savings. Thus it seems like the breakeven would be more like $1000 than $500.

 

[acc82]

I also want to point out that though everyone keep saying you have to spend 500 to break even (i get 20% off the 500 is the cost of the card).....I don't agree.

Why? Parking!!

If you valet like we do, that card will pay for itself in a few meals, and that's much less than 500 dollars. Sure most of you may just say you'll self park, but some of the parking lots are a HIKE and if it's raining (like it does 80% of the time in FL), valet is key!

Also someone pointed out that they factor in gratuity as a downside of the card. I give above 18% anyway because disney service is always exceptional, so that's not a problem for me AT ALL. In fact, when you tell the CM up front that you are a TiW member (when they ask if you're on the dining plan or what) they get really happy because they KNOW they're getting their 18% and they usually give us even BETTER service!

Like I said, if you're eligible, I'd recommend. I've done the dining plan and held the Tiw card and I'll take TiW any day! Much better deal!!!

 

[manning]

If you are a DVC member go eat at the Swan/Dolphin
You get 20% off at
Cabana Bar and Beach Club
The Fountain
Fresh Mediterranean Mark Market
Garden Grove
Picabu
Splash and Splash Terrace

and you don't have to buy a discount card

 

[bumbershoot]

I thought it was available to everyone. We aren't eligible. :/
Thanks to everyone for your responses.

Aw bummer.

When making your decision, keep in mind that you must spend $500 just to break even on the initial cost of the TIW card.
You will also have a mandatory 18% tip added to your bill, regardless of how good or bad your waiter/waitress was.

If your service is really that bad, speak up! Talk to the management, try to get it turned around. Or at the very least talk to the manager at the end of the meal, and let them know what happened and they will help you with the gratuity.

Of course, if the OP had been eligible, they would have been facing the autotip anyway, since they are a party of 7.

I also want to point out that though everyone keep saying you have to spend 500 to break even (i get 20% off the 500 is the cost of the card).....I don't agree.

Why? Parking!!

If you valet like we do, that card will pay for itself in a few meals, and that's much less than 500 dollars. Sure most of you may just say you'll self park, but some of the parking lots are a HIKE and if it's raining (like it does 80% of the time in FL), valet is key!

Also someone pointed out that they factor in gratuity as a downside of the card. I give above 18% anyway because disney service is always exceptional, so that's not a problem for me AT ALL. In fact, when you tell the CM up front that you are a TiW member (when they ask if you're on the dining plan or what) they get really happy because they KNOW they're getting their 18% and they usually give us even BETTER service!

Like I said, if you're eligible, I'd recommend. I've done the dining plan and held the Tiw card and I'll take TiW any day! Much better deal!!!

I personally would NOT factor the valet parking into the cost. They can take that away at any time. To me that's an extra.

 

[lucyem]

Sorry to hear OP

Like any dining plan you have to run the numbers for your family. People eat differently, they eat at different restaurants, their group is made up of different numbers and ages. So what works for one does not work for another. Whether it is the DDP or TIW or possibly even no discount. You have to run the numbers.

 

[Marionnette]

If you are a DVC member go eat at the Swan/Dolphin
You get 20% off at
Cabana Bar and Beach Club
The Fountain
Fresh Mediterranean Mark Market
Garden Grove
Picabu
Splash and Splash Terrace

and you don't have to buy a discount card

Thanks for the suggestions. Those work out great if you're staying in either BCV or BWI, or if you plan to be in the WS area at meal time. But if you want a discount at any of the Disney TS restaurants when you're somewhere else on property, you're still going to want the TiW card.

 

[bwolfe]

We love TIW! The discount at the resort bars is great too.

 

[manning]

TIWL card non discounted spending discounted spending card + discount spending total saving gross discount without $100 fee net discount with $100 fee
100 500 400 500 0 20.00% 0.00%
100 1000 800 900 100 20.00% 10.00%
100 1100 880 980 120 20.00% 12.00%
100 1200 960 1060 140 20.00% 14.00%
100 1300 1040 1140 160 20.00% 16.00%
100 1400 1120 1220 180 20.00% 18.00%
100 1500 1200 1300 200 20.00% 20.00%
100 1600 1280 1380 220 20.00% 22.00%
100 1700 1360 1460 240 20.00% 24.00%
100 1800 1440 1540 260 20.00% 26.00%


I copied this off a spread sheet so the headings are off. I'll try to clarify using the first line of numbers

100 = cost of card
500 = bill before discount (not discounted)
400 = bill after discount (discounted)
500 = cost of card plus discounted bill (combined)
0 = not discounted minus combined
20% actual discount if you did not have to buy TWI
0% actual bottom line discount after buying TWI card

 

[slykrab]

FWIW, we are getting TiW for the first time this year. It hasn't been worth it for us until now.

We have several short trips coming up now through the beginning of November, and a lot of our 13 ADRs are at places where we don't get our AP discount. We are going for our honeymoon, too, so we are eating at a few more expensive places than normal. Our TiW will be good through the end of June 2015, so we likely use it some more before it expires (I have close family in central Florida).

We made a spreadsheet with each restaurant, our estimated bill (which includes taxes), what it would be with the AP discount, if applicable, and what it would be with the TiW discount. Tips remain constant so we left those out of the equation. Then we have a "savings" column, which is the amount TiW will save us from either the standard cost or the AP cost (whichever is less).

TiW will save us, just based on our 13 ADRs, $210. It will cost $100 for one of us to get TiW (AP holder). So, our total savings is estimated at $110. That's just for our ADRs we currently have. We are staying at POP for several days, so we'll save on the food court there as well.

Is it a HUGE savings? Well, we're looking at $100, at least.

We have overstated our total bill a bit for some of the ADRs, just in case we want extras (for budgeting purposes), but we also aren't including everything because we will probably add in more ADRs and TiW-applicable counter services.

It's not a windfall, yet, but we haven't done our planning for the rest of the TiW year. And $100 saved is $100 in our pocket.

It won't always be worth it for us. It is this year, because we're doing more expensive dining and going to WDW a lot. It just depends on how often we plan to go, and the cost of the restaurants we choose. But this year, it's worth it.

ETA: We didn't factor in valet costs, because we wouldn't get valet normally. So that's not as big of a factor to us when we look at the numbers, but it might be to others.

 

[robhawk]

Have been cruising last several years instead of WDW.
So if we have six people going on our trip. All our table service meals are discounted at 20%??
Eating out 7 nights would easily pass the 500$ break even point.
Am I missing something??

 

[bumbershoot]

Have been cruising last several years instead of WDW.
So if we have six people going on our trip. All our table service meals are discounted at 20%??
Eating out 7 nights would easily pass the 500$ break even point.
Am I missing something??

Are you eligible? AP holder, DVC owner, or FL residents can buy it.

Have you determined if the restaurants you'll be dining at are on the TIW list? Comprehensive info is on tablesinwonderland.com. If so, yes, 20% discount.

Note: you will be charged the 18% tip at table service places (there are *some* counter services on the list, and there's no tip at those restaurants), but then you would be with a group of 6 anyway. If there are issues that make you wary of the auto-gratuity, find a manager and get things taken care of.

With 3 people and one TS per day we easily reach the break-even point in a normal trip.

The other thing to check is if the restaurants you have chosen have an AP or DVC discount. If they all do, make sure you'll break even with the TIW cost and 20% discount, vs no cost, and 10% discount. The AP and DVC discounts don't include alcohol, though. Comparison chart can be found here: http://allears.net/pl/disc_dining.pdf .