As a thought - if you will have a unit with a kitchenette is the dining plan that good of a value for you?
Our plan when we decide to rent is to then breakfast in the room and some evenings when we have leftover food possibly take that back to the unit for a later meal in the kitchenette.
We have priced the dining plan a few times in planning & for us it isn't that great of a value. We would have to eat a lot heavier and spend a lot more time dining than we normally do with some grab & go and just 2 sit-down meals during the trip. We normally spend about 60 or 75% of the dining plan costs and don't end up overstuffed & bloated, LOL. With a kitchenette we would save even more by having cereal & milk - etc. in the room vs. paying $12 or up a head for breakfast somewhere.
I feel I need to clarify as DVC villas come with 2 types of eating facilities:
Studios - Kitchenette
1/2/Grands - Full Kitchen
There is a big difference in that you can't 'cook' in a kitchenette, besides heating up water, microwave, small bar fridge (hit and miss and don't trust them to keep things cold enough), toaster and a few other things. You can hardly 'cook' for people with this type of set-up. Plus, there isn't tons of room for that either. There are some very creative DISers here who have done some interesting food prep in studios, but in our opinion, that is difficult to feed an entire family for multiple days. Now, for cereal and milk as you mention, or other small breakfast items, it's great, but what about other meals? You mention not getting DP, and so I just wanted to mention that the kitchenette studios are limited for full meals.
The full kitchens are another story - love those! It's basically your kitchen at home, but in your villa. You can 'cook' pretty much anything in them, in a clean and safe manner. Lots of room, dishes, appliances and full fridge.
Just wanted clarify things a wee bit in regards to eating in your villa.
HTH, Tiger
