Real Expert advice needed.....almost financial genius advice

[cgbsilver@hotmail.co]

Here is the thing.

I have a vacation planned starting August 30th until September 7th, I shouldmentioned this was booked with the Airline Employee Discount, so the 2 rooms come out to $ 702.00 connecting at Pop Century.

Now they come out with the Magic your way Plus free dinning. So I am thinking that for our party of 2 adults 1 junior 2 children and 1 infant. for 8 nights we would end up saving more money with the free dinning deal than the AIrline Employee room discount.

Help me figure this one out.

 

[mmeb144]

You need to calculate how much you will spend on food. As a guess, I would think that the free dining would be a cheaper package. Just get on the phone and call disney. They should be able to give you the total cost for the whole package.

Marie

 

[EthansMom]

The normal cost for the dining plan is $35/adult or junior per day and $10/child per day for a total cost to your family of $125/day for your family. With the Free Dining Plan your family would save $1000 over 8 nights.

Rack rate for the hotel is $77/night + 13% tax. Assuming that your figure of $702 for two rooms includes tax, you are saving $690.16 on your rooms.

You could save just over $300 more with the Free Dining Package.

But this assumes that your family couldn't eat for less than $125/day. If you could feed the entire family at DisneyWorld for $87.50 each day with your current discount, you would be even with the cost of the Free Dining Package. You certainly won't be able to feed a large family nearly as well on $87.50/day as you could with the Dining Package. So, I would definitely book the Free Dining Package if I were you!

I hope this helps!

 

[rifamtrav]

You didn't mention anything about tickets. I assume your first price is 8 nights, rooms only. It's hard to price out exactly but If you put in 2adults 1jr 1kid for 8 nights with myw park hopping for 7 days its $1609, figure another 700 for the 2nd room (85/nt 8 nights) and about 180 more for the 3rd kid's ticket, you're probably looking at a package price of around $2500 without the cost of dining added in. But assume you get it for free! So, will you spend $1800 for tickets for all of you and food for 8 nights? I really am just ball parking the package price, since they don't let you book 2 rooms in one package on their website, so I'm just assuming the incremental cost of the room. Not sure if this helps, but that's probably how you want to do the calculation. You might just call central reservations and ask them to work out the price for you, then you'll have an exact price to compare. In the end, it all depends on how you tend to eat (counter service, on the go, a few meals in the room, then dining might not be worth it, especially if your kids are not likely to want to take the time to do that many sit down meals.)
good luck.

 

[EthansMom]

You didn't mention anything about tickets. I assume your first price is 8 nights, rooms only. It's hard to price out exactly but If you put in 2adults 1jr 1kid for 8 nights with myw park hopping for 7 days its $1609, figure another 700 for the 2nd room (85/nt 8 nights) and about 180 more for the 3rd kid's ticket, you're probably looking at a package price of around $2500 without the cost of dining added in. But assume you get it for free! So, will you spend $1800 for tickets for all of you and food for 8 nights? I really am just ball parking the package price, since they don't let you book 2 rooms in one package on their website, so I'm just assuming the incremental cost of the room. Not sure if this helps, but that's probably how you want to do the calculation.

Actually, you should be able to assume that the ticket price is constant between the two different ways of booking. If the OP was going to buy tix directly from WDW, the tix should be the same price in either situation. So you can add the cost of dining to the cost of rooms:

Original Plan
2 rooms @ POP for 8 nights at Airline Disc. $702
Food for 2 adults, 1 junior, 2 children, assume same cost as dining plan $1000
Total Cost Food + Room: $1702

Free Dining Package
2 rooms @ POP for 8 nights at Rack Rate $1392.16
Food for 2 adults, 1 junior, 2 children, assume same cost as dining plan $0
Total Cost Food + Room: $1392.16

In the end, it all depends on how you tend to eat (counter service, on the go, a few meals in the room, then dining might not be worth it, especially if your kids are not likely to want to take the time to do that many sit down meals.)
good luck.

Actually, it doesn't really take that much analysis. For this family to save more money with the original booking, food costs would have to be less than $1000 - ($1702 - $1392.16) = $690.16 for the week or less than an average of $86.27 per night. Now, just one character dinner will set you back more than $86.27 for 2 adults, 1 junior, 2 children, and 1 infant and on the dining plan, you could conceivably go to a character dinner every day plus have a sit-down meal and a snack. There's just no way you could feed yourselves as well. Might as well take the extra savings AND save money!

 

[cgbsilver@hotmail.co]

Great Analysis.............I cant think of a way of not saving money by chosing the dinnig plan, specially since we are planning ay least three Character meals plus the MBYBBQ those four alone are over $ 400.00, so Again
Thanks very much

 

[EthansMom]

You're welcome! Make sure you make your PS's early -- I'll bet the sit-down restaurants book up quickly with so many people on the dining plan.

Enjoy your trip!