offer for free dining, wwyd?

[mchhp]

So, we are going april 23-28. we are going as a party of 7 (5 adults and 2 children) and getting two hotel rooms

I have made ADRs for:

cinderella's royal table (breakfast)
plaza resturant (dinner)
whispering canyon cafe (dinner)
Rose& crown pub (lunch)
chef mickey's (dinner)
mama melrose's (lunch)

we are currently staying at shades of green and got tickets through the military base (4 day hoppers for around $120 each)

I get this card in the mail about free dining plans with magic your packages with hotel and ticket purchases.

So, i call them to see if it was still possible to price this out to see if we could save money. They had rooms available at POP for those days but we would have to get atleast 2 base tickets per person (which they said have an expiration date until the first day is used). and that would give us the Deluxe DP for free including the day we arrive and the day we depart (neither of these days are in the park. We will be at the WCC the day we arrive, so that is one TS taken, then we would use our departure TS on Cinderella's royal table since it costs 2.

So, for all 7 of us with two rooms and two day base tickets to use for our next trip (which we wanted to do anyways maybe in december this year) would be approx $3135.

I am assuming the rooms are costing around 154 a night (that is what i searched a few months ago, but decided to go with SOG since it was only 123 per night). The total cost of the other two hotel rooms would be approx $1340 and then we would have to pay for all our meals OOP.

Would you change? do you think its worth it? I know we will use the tickets again, especially if no expiration date.

 

[BellePrincessBelle]

Well the free dining plan @ the values & mods is the quick serve. You would have to pay to upgrade to the regular plan for your table serves.

 

[mchhp]

that is what i was thinking. but, the guy said he did it with the deluxe. we even discussed which ts and character dinners would cost 2, etc.

 

[tinka-belle]

CRT is the only 2 credit dining on your list. CM and most character meals are still just 1 TS credit. If you don't need the mug and think the extra snack and meal credit might be too much food for your group, just pay OOP for one of the lunches or the Plaza (these on your list are most likely the lowest cost) and use your basic DDP TS credits for the others.

Downgrading that quote from Deluxe dining to Basic dining will save you a significant amount, unless you feel that you'll be buying more food OOP than the cost difference is worth. Don't have the exact amounts, but for a Disney adult (over age 10) the difference between the two plans is a bit over $30 per person per night, and that's included in the quote you got.

Edited: For the POP the Quick Service plan is free, you are paying an add-on to get the Basic plan or the Deluxe plan. The basic is approx. $10-11 per adult per night add-on, the Deluxe is over $40 add-on from the QS plan per adult per night.

 

[mousefan1972]

If the CM priced your reservation with the Deluxe DDP, it doesn't mean you're getting it for free. As PP stated, the quick service plan is free when staying at a value resort, so you're paying the difference between the 2 plans. The quick service plan is $34.99 per adult, and $11.99 per child. The Deluxe plan is $78.99 per adult and $21.99 per child. Quite the difference.

I would call back and price out the reservation with the basic dining plan.

 

[mchhp]

so what is the regular dining plan per day for an adult and child?

 

[mchhp]

ok, i was confused that there were so many levels of dining plans. It was priced out at the regular dining plan. so for my family of 4 (2 adults, 1 child, and one infant) it would be $1509 for 5 nights, 2 day base tickets (to use at another time), and the regular disney dining plan (1 qs, 1ts, and 1 snack per day).

what do you think?

 

[mwatson011]

Here is what I would do...

Take the total price for POP with the 2-day tickets and dining plan, with discount, and subtract the total price for SOG plus the tickets you already have.

The number you have leftover is the actual amount you will be paying for the dining plan (including the cost of giving up one discount for another).

Divide this number by the number of nights you are staying, and you will get the per night amount you will be paying for the dining plan.

Decide if, realistically, you will spend more/less/about the same to eat the way you want to eat, and then compare amenities and perks, and voila, the right decision for you!

 

[goopysolelady]

ok, i was confused that there were so many levels of dining plans. It was priced out at the regular dining plan. so for my family of 4 (2 adults, 1 child, and one infant) it would be $1509 for 5 nights, 2 day base tickets (to use at another time), and the regular disney dining plan (1 qs, 1ts, and 1 snack per day).

what do you think?

This quote includes park hopper passes?

 

[TDC Nala]

Something's wrong. At POP you would not get the regular dining plan free.

 

[mchhp]

my mom and I crunched numbers for hours, and decided that it wasn't that great of a deal, mainly based on HOW we eat while at disney. If they had a plan with Lots of snacks, we would be golden.

I think the deal was for either the quick service but us paying the difference for the regular dining plan or the guy giving us the regular dining plan just because (which i doubt). They really can't break the items down for you, so that bothered me. I wanted to know my nightly rate, etc. We were going to still have to pay for two ADRs, 3 breakfasts, and whatever snacks we wanted. I was figuring another $300-400 in food alone on top of the dining plan (from the time leave home until we returned home... food on the road, etc).

I had a bad feeling i my gut we were not saving us much money. yeah, we were going to walk away with 2 more days in the park to use again at a later date, but we are military (well my dad) and we could probably save on that later anyways.

Thanks for helping me through this decision. We are sticking to our orginal plans and feel like its the best choice. FWIW: we always try to make the disney dining plans work for us, but they just never seem to.....