Kids, DDP or TIW

[katybug34]

This is the first year we will be purchasing AP's and have access to the TIW. My question is this: In your experience, which is the better deal. Let me give you as much info as possible:

1 - We won't be purchasing alcohol
2 - We eat at the character buffets every trip and will do one of these every day
- Crystal Palace
- Akershus (Princess Epcot in Norway)
- Hollywood and Vine (HS with jojo)
- Tusker House (AK with goofy)
3 - We have four children 8 and under (one is young enough to share)
4 - We are staying in 2bdr villa which allows for cooking meals
5 - We will be taking 6 trips to WDW in the next 12 months
6 - We go to the parks every day

Taking these things into consideration, what is your guess as to what will be the best deal or value for my family.

Thanks!

 

[TDC Nala]

Are you asking about one particular trip or will you be making six trips to WDW in the next 12 months all with four children under 10?

If you're doing one trip with all the kids and character meals every night and the other trips won't be a repeat of this (for example some of them may be adults only, some may be one parent plus a kid, ect) then you will want DDP for the big trip. With that many children under 10 and a character meal every night that sounds like a clincher for DDP.

If the six trips are all different and will not be the entire family including all four children, a TIW membership would be good.

In fact, if all six trips are not family trips I would recommend that you buy DDP for the big trip with all four kids AND a TIW for the extra trips.

If all 6 of these trips you mention are with the full family including four kids under 10 and you will be doing a character meal every day, then you may just want to buy DDP for all your trips and forget about TIW.

If you are planning to cook a lot of meals in the villa, get the TIW.

I should mention that the dining plans could very well change for 2011 and we don't know the effect of any possible changes yet, as we won't know what they are until August.

 

[katybug34]

The six trips will be with all children. What I have found is that purchasing the DDP makes me do the character buffets every day because of the value. If I didn't buy DDP, we would do a character buffet at most every other day since we will be visiting the parks so often. Our trips will probably break down like this if not on the DDP:

Every other day:

Character buffet, snack in park, meal in villa

Every otehr day:

Breakfast in villa, quick service meal in park, table service dinner somewhere

 

[ccgirl]

If you are planning on eating at a character meal every day I would say to do the DDP. To make my decision, I looked at the menus on allears.net and priced what I would "normally" purchase. If the $$ did not add up to the cost of the DDP for the day I wouldn't get it.

It you were looking to cut down on the $$ spent I would say to do a buffet every other day, rather than every day, and eat some meals in the timeshare (or pack for the park). Good luck with your decision.

 

[katybug34]

Here is what I have come up with. To me, it looks like even doing a character buffet every day, I will come out cheaper doing the TIW. Tell me if I am missing something. Our upcoming trip:

Day 1 - Crystal Palace character breakfast, quick service meal, snack
Day 2 - Akershus buffet, quick service, snack
3 - Hollywood and Vine, qs, snack
4 - Tusker House buffet, qs, snack
5 - Chef Mickeys, qs, snack
6 - Nine Dragons lunch, qs, snack

6 days DDP for adult - $281.94 child - $77.94

My assumptions are: qs for adult will average $8, child average $5; snacks for both will average $3. I also assume that we will purchase a snack, qs, and the above table service every day. These are very generous, because we will probably split some qs meals between the kids and I know we won't use all the snacks. I wanted to do the worst case scenario assuming we did all eat all the allotments. I am disregarding taxes and tips because they will be the same with either DDP or TIW.

TIW for same scenario:
1 - $16.8, $8, $3 = $27.8 adult, ($9.6, 5, 3 = $17.6 child)
2 - 24, 8, 3 = $35 adult, (14.4, 5, 3 = $22.4 child)
3 - 21.6, 8, 3 = $32.6 adult, (12, 5, 3 = $20 child)
4 - 16.8, 8, 3 = $27.8 adult, (9.6, 5, 3 = $17.6 child)
5 - 21.3, 8, 3 = $32.3 adult, (11.2, 5, 3 = 19.2 child)
6 - 17.5, 8, 3 = $28.5 adult, (7, 5, 3 = 15 child)

So, I have come up with the following:

6 days DDP vs TIW adult - DDP $281.94 ; TIW $184
6 days DDP vs TIW child - DDP $77.94 ; TIW $111.8

DDP for us:
2 adults - $563.8 + 3 kids $233.82 = $797.62

TIW for us:
2 adults - $368 + 3 kids $335.4 = $703.4

Am I missing anything?

 

[TDC Nala]

Not sure about this one - most calculations I have seen as to a family with several children under age 10 is usually DDP coming out way ahead - in your case it looks like pretty much a wash according to your numbers so I might go with DDP only if you know you will want the CS meals and snacks if you haven't left anything out of your calculations. DDP includes the tax on meals (although not the gratuities) so I don't know if that will change anything.

If you're going to split meals between the kids instead of getting them each their own kids' meal that will indeed diminish the value of the counter service meals - and if you go with DDP you should try to use all your snack credits even if it means you select packaged items to take home (remember, no drinks if you're flying)

 

[katybug34]

Yeah, I tried to figure our worst case scenario (eating everything at parks) to see. I will probably go with TIW especially since we will go with the every other day Table service the rest of the trips. The way I calculated the TIW was to take the 20% discount off of the stated buffet price. The tax will make a little difference. I am going to put all my dining and snack expenditures into a spreadsheet over the next year just to see what acutal costs and savings are.

 

[Mickey country]

TIW does have some blackout dates, don't know if you have any trips planned around these. Buffets also have added expense during the holidays.

 

[elfbo]

I could be wrong, but i heard max snack was 3$ so you may want to estimate 2.50 for snack value.

 

[ccgirl]

I could be wrong, but i heard max snack was 3$ so you may want to estimate 2.50 for snack value.

I was just there in May and I believe the max was $4.00. Some things that qualified were even a bit more. There is a sticky somewhere that has the snacks included in the dining plan listed. For us, it was just way too much food. We left with credits once again. Don't forget, in addition to the snacks, there is also dessert included with lunch/dinner when on the DDP.