My experience wth TIW

[Crystal824]

Where can I find the list of 2012 blackout dates for TIW?

http://www.wdwmagic.com/other/Tables-in-Wonderland.htm

The blackout dates are mostly holidays.

We are getting annual passes and using TIW this year. We decided where we wanted to eat and I did a quick budget to see if it would actually save us money. I think it will save us about $20 on our first trip. We will use our annual passes for at least one more trip and TIW will really save us money then (maybe two depending on affordable airfare for a quick weekend trip).

We are staying offsite this year. I thought I would really miss the DP, but I think this may work out even better. We too have started getting gift cards at the grocery store (so that our meals are pre-purchased like the DP).

 

[North of Mouse]

Where can I find the list of 2012 blackout dates for TIW?

I found the list, but not computer savvy enough to post it, but they are the 8 major Holidays - Mother's Day, Easter, July 4, Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, C. Day, New Years Eve, NY's Day. So, not really enough blackout days to affect us not buying it as we avoid the major Holidays anyway. But even so, it's not days at a time, but rather 1,2 days consecutive. I'm sure, as everything else, this is subject to change

 

[sabrecmc]

We love the TiW card b/c it works for how we eat. We like an appetizer, not dessert. We like alcohol with dinner. We don't eat a lot snacks. TiW just works out to match how we like to dine way better than the DDP.

 

[sharonabe]

This is very interesting. I just posted the below in another thread & would love your views/thoughts/advise. We have always done the DDP & loved it, but thought this trip we would do the TIW, then we hear that the prices of food have gone up considerably so we are back to undecided.

We are also trying to figure which is better for our family. We are going in May for DS's 17th b-day & for him it is not about the food ( I know he is crazy! )

We have reservations for dinner at:

50's Prime Time Cafe
Biergarten
Kona

and we are hoping to get into Beaches & Cream.

Breakfast we will have in the room.

Lunch will be quickserve.

As DVC members we hear the TIW card will cost $100 so the breakeven point will be $500. Both DD & I enjoy a glass of wine or beer with meals & at the pool. Originally we were going to go with TIW, but we understand the prices at the restaurants have gone up so we are wondering if the DDP isn't a better value. Any thoughts?

It looks like you're a family of three Disney adults. If the TS you listed are the only TS you plan to do, I think you'll have a hard time getting to that $500 break even point. Will you be able to use the TIW card for another trip (they are good for one year)? However, if you plan to order apps along with your meals and have wine/beer with all four, you may hit that magical mark of $500.

As for prices going up, they have not gone up as much as the cost of the DDP. SOME QS entrees went up $1. SOME buffets have gone up $2-3. The biggest price increase was for sodas and kids' meals, but you don't have any kids and two of you are drinking wine/beer. So I'm not sure the DDP is going to fit your family either.

The best way to decide is to use the menus for the places you want to go and "order" what you WANT to eat/drink with no thought to cost (either trying to get the most for your money or trying to order the least to save money). Add it up and see what works for you. If you do order apps and alcohol, be sure to add those to your cost for DDP when you compare it with TIW or OOP.

 

[BriarRosie]

This is very interesting. I just posted the below in another thread & would love your views/thoughts/advise. We have always done the DDP & loved it, but thought this trip we would do the TIW, then we hear that the prices of food have gone up considerably so we are back to undecided.

We are also trying to figure which is better for our family. We are going in May for DS's 17th b-day & for him it is not about the food ( I know he is crazy! )

We have reservations for dinner at:

50's Prime Time Cafe
Biergarten
Kona

and we are hoping to get into Beaches & Cream.

Breakfast we will have in the room.

Lunch will be quickserve.

As DVC members we hear the TIW card will cost $100 so the breakeven point will be $500. Both DD & I enjoy a glass of wine or beer with meals & at the pool. Originally we were going to go with TIW, but we understand the prices at the restaurants have gone up so we are wondering if the DDP isn't a better value. Any thoughts?

You don't get annual passes with the DVC discount? Have you compared the cost of a standard AP against the ticket media you planned to get? I ask because only one adult needs to have the AP to buy TiW at the $75 rate, which makes the break even cost $375.

And do you really eat dessert at every meal? What if you wanted to get appetizers as your meal and add drinks? Those are all covered on TiW at the participating restaurants. There's a ton of flexibility, and you won't feel compelled to order the most expensive items on the menu in order to find "value" in the dining plan.

 

[leelip1982]

If you "pre-pay" to reserve you dining. Disney does not charge your card unless you cancel your reservations within the allowed time frame, other wise no charge and give you TIW at the end of the meal.

Also if dining at a resort the TIW card gives you free Valet Parking--Still have to tip the Valet though.

 

[PrincessBelle39]

Question: How does the TIW card work for CRT or other places where you pay ahead?

I wondered this also. We are getting TIW this trip for the 3rd time. We are doing V & A's main dining room so it will pretty much pay for itself with this. We have done CRT before but as it was prepaid didn't worry about the card. But I want to make the most of it this time. We are doing both CRT and MBYBBQ.

 

[csmommy]

It looks like you're a family of three Disney adults. If the TS you listed are the only TS you plan to do, I think you'll have a hard time getting to that $500 break even point. Will you be able to use the TIW card for another trip (they are good for one year)? However, if you plan to order apps along with your meals and have wine/beer with all four, you may hit that magical mark of $500.

As for prices going up, they have not gone up as much as the cost of the DDP. SOME QS entrees went up $1. SOME buffets have gone up $2-3. The biggest price increase was for sodas and kids' meals, but you don't have any kids and two of you are drinking wine/beer. So I'm not sure the DDP is going to fit your family either.

The best way to decide is to use the menus for the places you want to go and "order" what you WANT to eat/drink with no thought to cost (either trying to get the most for your money or trying to order the least to save money). Add it up and see what works for you. If you do order apps and alcohol, be sure to add those to your cost for DDP when you compare it with TIW or OOP.

You don't get annual passes with the DVC discount? Have you compared the cost of a standard AP against the ticket media you planned to get? I ask because only one adult needs to have the AP to buy TiW at the $75 rate, which makes the break even cost $375.

And do you really eat dessert at every meal? What if you wanted to get appetizers as your meal and add drinks? Those are all covered on TiW at the participating restaurants. There's a ton of flexibility, and you won't feel compelled to order the most expensive items on the menu in order to find "value" in the dining plan.

Thank you both. We are a family of 4, DD is 13. This is our only trip this year so I am guessing TIW will not work out for us. We have done the DDP every trip since they offered it so it is wierd for me to plan without some form of "dining plan". I think what we will do is buy a disney GC for what the DDP would have cost us & see how we come out. We always went with the DDP b/c it was a mental thing - I would always order on the cheap or stop the kids from having a snack b/c I had to pay out of pocket for it. With the DDP it was already paid for so go ahead & have 2 desserts, a snack & the most expensive thing on the menu, it's already paid for!

I found the list, but not computer savvy enough to post it, but they are the 8 major Holidays - Mother's Day, Easter, July 4, Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, C. Day, New Years Eve, NY's Day. So, not really enough blackout days to affect us not buying it as we avoid the major Holidays anyway. But even so, it's not days at a time, but rather 1,2 days consecutive. I'm sure, as everything else, this is subject to change

http://www.wdwmagic.com/other/Tables-in-Wonderland.htm

The blackout dates are mostly holidays.

We are getting annual passes and using TIW this year. We decided where we wanted to eat and I did a quick budget to see if it would actually save us money. I think it will save us about $20 on our first trip. We will use our annual passes for at least one more trip and TIW will really save us money then (maybe two depending on affordable airfare for a quick weekend trip).

We are staying offsite this year. I thought I would really miss the DP, but I think this may work out even better. We too have started getting gift cards at the grocery store (so that our meals are pre-purchased like the DP).

Thank you. I was a bit confused when someone said their entire vacation was blacked ou.

 

[Grumpy92]

I agree. I did this comparison with the free dining as well and we still came out saving $$$ with the TIW.
Thanks for posting this.

 

[Celestia]

Thank you. I was a bit confused when someone said their entire vacation was blacked ou.

The PP may be traveling Christmas week. When we are there from Dec 24-Jan1 we usually go ahead and get the dining plan because the TIW can't be used for four of the days. We look at each trip and run the numbers to see if we will save more using the DDP or TIW. It all depends on the ages of who is traveling with us, what our dining plans are for the week and how many black out days during our time.

 

[DipsyDoodles]

Does the TiW card give you the discount at the pool bars?

 

[Stini228]

Let's not forget the free valet. Good stuff

 

[motherof4]

So that magical number of $500, does that include the price to upgrade to AP, and the cost of the TIW card? We are going in March without the dining plan and there is 4 adults and 4 disney adult kids, wondering if one of the adults was to upgrade to AP and buy a TIW card, if this would save us $$ Our reservations so far are:

O'hana
Saana
Biergarten
LTT
Sci Fi
Tepan Edo

 

[North of Mouse]

This is very interesting. I just posted the below in another thread & would love your views/thoughts/advise. We have always done the DDP & loved it, but thought this trip we would do the TIW, then we hear that the prices of food have gone up considerably so we are back to undecided.

We are also trying to figure which is better for our family. We are going in May for DS's 17th b-day & for him it is not about the food ( I know he is crazy! )

We have reservations for dinner at:

50's Prime Time Cafe
Biergarten
Kona

and we are hoping to get into Beaches & Cream.

Breakfast we will have in the room.

Lunch will be quickserve.

As DVC members we hear the TIW card will cost $100 so the breakeven point will be $500. Both DD & I enjoy a glass of wine or beer with meals & at the pool. Originally we were going to go with TIW, but we understand the prices at the restaurants have gone up so we are wondering if the DDP isn't a better value. Any thoughts?

I guess I'm confused - you said you and DD enjoy a glass of wine or beer at the pool, then say in a later post that you are a family of 4 with DD 13 and DS 17??

 

[csmommy]

I guess I'm confused - you said you and DD enjoy a glass of wine or beer at the pool, then say in a later post that you are a family of 4 with DD 13 and DS 17??

Sorry! Enjoy wine with DH while watching DD 13 & DS 17 in pool!

 

[Cheshire Figment]

Making the rash assumption that you will normally tip 18% at all table service locations, with TiW you save $21.30 per $100 of menu price. This $21.30 also is the savings at quick service that accepts TiW.

So based on this, you would have to have menu prices totaling $352 to break even on the card itself if you have an AP. If you are a Florida Resident or a DVC Member, not having an AP, the break even point is $470 of menu prices.

And, for the poster who will be having eight adults, all it takes with a group that size to break even (without the AP rate) is two buffets.

 

[Couchy]

DH and I used TIW for the first time in December.

We dined at

Portabella's
Le Cellier
Flying Fish
50's PT
Rose and Crown( drinks 2x)
Flame Tree BBQ
Via Napoli

We split an app some meals, sometimes dessert. We usually had 1-2 drinks a piece. We saved a ton of $$ and we are going back in April

TIW for us is the best thing ever. It makes us feel better about drinking that extra drink or eating another dessert. The guilt factor is lessened while gorging with TIW

 

[motherof4]

Making the rash assumption that you will normally tip 18% at all table service locations, with TiW you save $21.30 per $100 of menu price. This $21.30 also is the savings at quick service that accepts TiW.

So based on this, you would have to have menu prices totaling $352 to break even on the card itself if you have an AP. If you are a Florida Resident or a DVC Member, not having an AP, the break even point is $470 of menu prices.

And, for the poster who will be having eight adults, all it takes with a group that size to break even (without the AP rate) is two buffets.

I am the OP with 8 adults (technically 4 are kids, buy not according to Disney when it comes to buffets anyways!) so it would be wise to purchase one AP and TiW card, I don't know if we will be back within the year to benefit from either of them again, but who knows!

 

[TDC Nala]

Does the TiW card give you the discount at the pool bars?

No - the resort lounges take it but not the pool bars. At least, not at the deluxes. I can't recall if Pop Century's pool bar took it or not. They might, as Pop doesn't have an indoor lounge.

 

[cluvsdisney]

We purchased annual passes & a TIW card during our trip in January. I kept all the receipts and made a schedule of what we actually spent, what we would have spent without the discount and what the dining plan would have cost.

We spent $320 OOP for 4 lunches & 3 dinners (5TS/2CS) which includes a couple of appetizers/drinks which are excluded from the plan. IIRC, approx $100 of that was for appetizers & drinks so we spent $220 on food. The dining plan would have cost us $412 - which means we saved close to $200 by not getting the plan.

We also spent some time in the lounges which accept the card so we saved quite a bit there as well. We would have done this with or without the dining plan or TIW card.

The discounts we received on that trip already exceeded the cost of the card so the savings we receive during our other two trips this year will be gravy.