2ofUs
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Sep 24, 2004
- Messages
- 559
DH & I (active adults in our late 50's) took advantage of the Mousesavers Newletter offer for Double Tree Suites at $85 per night & free continental breakfast. 
We made our ressies for 9/23-9/30/06 & booked a car for 5 of those days through National ($177). I was getting ready to buy Park tickets when I read another post about POP rates & Dining plan.
Here is my question:
POP for 7 nights: $616 room portion w/o dining ($76 daily extra) & tickets
**Pros: EMH, Magical Express, can buy Dining and enjoy meals at all the wonderful WDW resorts & parks!
If booked through AAA could get slight discount and AAA Diamond parking pass (would have to rent a car to take advantage of this however).
**Cons: Can be noisy; rooms are smaller (especially bathrooms); long walks to buses; no fridge or micro.
DDT for 7 nights: $668 room only but includes cold breakfast
**Pros: Much larger room & beds in a seperate area; free cold breakfast (fruit, cereal, pastries, juice); in-room micro & fridge; free parking at hotel; buses at front door every 30 minutes; walkable to DTD; can budget food by stocking-up; can eat off-premise (using rental car); can buy park passes for less than WDW prices (Ticket Mania).
**Cons: $9 per day to park in theme parks; must rent car ($177 for 5 days) or use Myers ($20?) to get to airport; would have to COOK some on vacation (blah!)
So, anyone have opinions or suggestions? If you have stayed at either POP or Doubletree, I would appreciate viewpoints/feedback.
POP at this point saves us money and provides more 'Disney' features. But DH likes having a car (same cost either place) so free WDW parking is great as is the AAA pass.
However, we are conflicted about the dining plan. We usually share meals anyway and, in the past, we used the vouchers (no longer available) which worked very well for us. This time he wants to focus less on food and more on the park experience. I'm just not sure if or how we would really utilize the dining plan.
My thought is that the dining plan takes less effort and pre-plan than I would have to put into planning/preparing 'in-room' meals and 'take-to-the-park' sandwiches & snacks. I'm sure we could get by on a budget of $30 per day (saving $36 off the dining plan) and spluge for a couple of nice meals. But doesn't that work out about the same anyway?
Has anyone that used the dining plan found they still spent money on extra meals & snacks? And, will restaurants let us share a meal using 1 table service credit so we can save for a nicer 1 credit meal? We usually buy an extra appetizer or salad anyway.
Sorry to make this so long, just couldn't sleep last night for trying to decide. I am in need of some serious HELP - please?
We made our ressies for 9/23-9/30/06 & booked a car for 5 of those days through National ($177). I was getting ready to buy Park tickets when I read another post about POP rates & Dining plan.
Here is my question:
POP for 7 nights: $616 room portion w/o dining ($76 daily extra) & tickets
**Pros: EMH, Magical Express, can buy Dining and enjoy meals at all the wonderful WDW resorts & parks!
If booked through AAA could get slight discount and AAA Diamond parking pass (would have to rent a car to take advantage of this however).**Cons: Can be noisy; rooms are smaller (especially bathrooms); long walks to buses; no fridge or micro.
DDT for 7 nights: $668 room only but includes cold breakfast
**Pros: Much larger room & beds in a seperate area; free cold breakfast (fruit, cereal, pastries, juice); in-room micro & fridge; free parking at hotel; buses at front door every 30 minutes; walkable to DTD; can budget food by stocking-up; can eat off-premise (using rental car); can buy park passes for less than WDW prices (Ticket Mania).
**Cons: $9 per day to park in theme parks; must rent car ($177 for 5 days) or use Myers ($20?) to get to airport; would have to COOK some on vacation (blah!)
So, anyone have opinions or suggestions? If you have stayed at either POP or Doubletree, I would appreciate viewpoints/feedback.
POP at this point saves us money and provides more 'Disney' features. But DH likes having a car (same cost either place) so free WDW parking is great as is the AAA pass.
However, we are conflicted about the dining plan. We usually share meals anyway and, in the past, we used the vouchers (no longer available) which worked very well for us. This time he wants to focus less on food and more on the park experience. I'm just not sure if or how we would really utilize the dining plan.
My thought is that the dining plan takes less effort and pre-plan than I would have to put into planning/preparing 'in-room' meals and 'take-to-the-park' sandwiches & snacks. I'm sure we could get by on a budget of $30 per day (saving $36 off the dining plan) and spluge for a couple of nice meals. But doesn't that work out about the same anyway?
Has anyone that used the dining plan found they still spent money on extra meals & snacks? And, will restaurants let us share a meal using 1 table service credit so we can save for a nicer 1 credit meal? We usually buy an extra appetizer or salad anyway.
Sorry to make this so long, just couldn't sleep last night for trying to decide. I am in need of some serious HELP - please?
There's nothing better to stay on-site. The POP Century has a nice theme to it. We love it cuz we don't have to drive to the parks nor Downtown Disney. Also you save $$$ on parking, with that in mind, going back to your car & the heavy traffic leaving the park is a total mission. We think that it's better to stay on-site cuz we feel more Disneish even when you go back to your Disney hotel. Good luck 
