sell me on tables in woderland

[karsen11]

WE have four trips planned for this year. A couple we have the dining plan for and a couple we don't. Is tables in wonderland worth it. We do have cocktails at every meal. If we are using dining credits, may I still use my tables in wonderland card for the drinks we get?

 

[bbkangs]

WE have four trips planned for this year. A couple we have the dining plan for and a couple we don't. Is tables in wonderland worth it. We do have cocktails at every meal. If we are using dining credits, may I still use my tables in wonderland card for the drinks we get?

TIW allows you to get free valet parking at places such as Disney Springs if you have a reservation that day. It also gives you meal discounts, but if you have dining plans, you don't need it.

 

[dkmulder]

From my understanding you can still use it for your alcoholic drinks even if you are using the dining plan.

I'm buying an annual pass this coming trip and priced out what we would typically eat, savings with TiW, price of DDP. I can say for us, one adult and one child, TiW is a much bigger savings. The only way I'd pick DDP over TiW was if it were free dining.

 

[carlandellie31]

Yes, you can absolutely use your TIW card for whatever you order that the dining plan doesn't cover. Drinks included.
Just double-check the restaurants. TIW isn't taken at all of the restaurants on the dining plan (most, but not all) and sometimes the other way round. You can use TIW at some places not on the dining plan.

 

[BuckeyeBama]

This year the AP discounts are significant enough that TiW is not worth it for us. Generally it is a great value if you are taking multiple trips and not using the DDP.

 

[Missyrose]

This year the AP discounts are significant enough that TiW is not worth it for us. Generally it is a great value if you are taking multiple trips and not using the DDP.

But AP discount doesn't cover alcohol.

 

[robinb]

WE have four trips planned for this year. A couple we have the dining plan for and a couple we don't. Is tables in wonderland worth it. We do have cocktails at every meal. If we are using dining credits, may I still use my tables in wonderland card for the drinks we get?

I think you will be hard pressed to break even on the TIW card if you (1) have an AP and get AP discounts anyway and (2) especially if you get the DDP!

Edited: You need to spend $750 to just break even.

 

[BuckeyeBama]

But AP discount doesn't cover alcohol.

I drink a bit at WDW, but not nearly enough to cover the cost of TiW.

 

[mkymouse4ever]

We've had TIW cards for a few years > but I noticed that after TIW changed to include tip and not leave that option up to you
that I was less than thrilled with our service. To the point a few times I did not use the card. Service always ask about discounts, and meal plans at start of meal. Seemed when then knew we where locked in > we barely saw a few of the waiters etc.. . Of course not all > but enough to not get the card since last year and no plan to do it in the future.

 

[kboo]

I think you will be hard pressed to break even on the TIW card if you (1) have an AP and get AP discounts anyway and (2) especially if you get the DDP!

Edited: You need to spend $750 to just break even.

We had back to back trips where we had dinner with another family at Akershus (total of 5 adults and 3 kids), and another time where we had 6 adults for a grownup dinner at California Grille. We used our TiW card and had our friends just pay us back. It was totally worth it for those two dinners alone.

 

[jwfla422]

This year the AP discounts are significant enough that TiW is not worth it for us. Generally it is a great value if you are taking multiple trips and not using the DDP.

Same with us, this is the first time in many years we did not purchase TIW because of the AP discounts, just couldn't justify cost for both and it didn't make sense. Even though some of the AP discounts don't cover some of the ones TIW does there are many AP discounts that TIW does not have (a lot of counter service discounts-TIW has barely any), so it just doesn't even come close to the "break even" point for TIW for us.

However that being said what I do miss by not having TIW are the dining discounts at the Swan & Dolphin and most importantly, the valet parking perk. It really comes in handy especially during high peak time (and rainy season LOL!) If you have a car and plan to drive to the resorts a lot for dining this is a great perk with the TIW. Also if you have a large party that will eating & drinking a lot it can be a good value.

 

[karsen11]

between four trips, equaling 24 days, I think we can spend $750 that's on $32ish per day...even if we are using the dining we absolutely spend that in adult beverages each day...try not to judge us, my job is awful so I vacation hard!

 

[AngiTN]

We save the cost of TiW in drinks alone, between DH and I. We have 2 or 3 every meal, both of us. 2 meals on most days. (which is why we have NO cars at Disney )
I like that between AP and TiW we never pay full price for a meal, one or the other works everywhere we eat

 

[karsen11]

I feel like the AP discount is not good for many of the restaurants we really want to eat at.

 

[AngiTN]

We've had TIW cards for a few years > but I noticed that after TIW changed to include tip and not leave that option up to you
that I was less than thrilled with our service. To the point a few times I did not use the card. Service always ask about discounts, and meal plans at start of meal. Seemed when then knew we where locked in > we barely saw a few of the waiters etc.. . Of course not all > but enough to not get the card since last year and no plan to do it in the future.

Easy, if you think your service suffers because you use TiW, don't tell them about it. Dining Plan it's hard not to but with TiW, it's not. Though honestly, they never ask us about anything beyond "Do you have Dining Plan?"

 

[robinb]

We had back to back trips where we had dinner with another family at Akershus (total of 5 adults and 3 kids), and another time where we had 6 adults for a grownup dinner at California Grille. We used our TiW card and had our friends just pay us back. It was totally worth it for those two dinners alone.

The AP discount is 10% for both those restaurants so your "profit" is only 10%. Plus you gamed the system by paying for your friends.

between four trips, equaling 24 days, I think we can spend $750 that's on $32ish per day...even if we are using the dining we absolutely spend that in adult beverages each day...try not to judge us, my job is awful so I vacation hard!

I guess if you're spending nearly a month a WDW in the next year the TIW is right for you in alcohol alone! I would say go for it .

 

[jwfla422]

I feel like the AP discount is not good for many of the restaurants we really want to eat at.

Then you would want to go with TIW. We make the AP work for us because TIW is getting so expensive - even if we go somewhere without the AP discount, since it's only me and my 18 yr old dd most of the time. I may have 1 alcoholic beverage in a day if we are doing an overnight trip so even though we go at least once a month we still barely break even with TIW.

With the AP perks going on now, you start saving right away...you don't have to get to that "break-even" point, however if you have a large family (4 or more) and make at least 4 trips and stay more than 1 night or consume lots of alcoholic beverages then TIW is the way to go for sure.

 

[robinb]

With the AP perks going on now, you start saving right away...you don't have to get to that "break-even" point, however if you have a large family (4 or more) and make at least 4 trips and stay more than 1 night or consume lots of alcoholic beverages then TIW is the way to go for sure.

That's a great point! Here are the AP discounts: https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/p...lder-benefits-and-discounts/dining-discounts/ . If you consider that you would save a minimum of 10% on more WDW restaurants with your AP, you would save at least $75 on your first $750. If you used your TIW instead you really only save an additional 10% (and most of the time 0%) on restaurants so I would say the true AP v/s TIW break even point is actually much more than $750 if you don't count alcohol.

 

[bumbershoot]

We've had TIW cards for a few years > but I noticed that after TIW changed to include tip and not leave that option up to you
that I was less than thrilled with our service. To the point a few times I did not use the card. Service always ask about discounts, and meal plans at start of meal. Seemed when then knew we where locked in > we barely saw a few of the waiters etc.. . Of course not all > but enough to not get the card since last year and no plan to do it in the future.

They ask about dining plans. Dining plans have restrictions that servers need to explain so there are no surprises. TIW isn't a dining plan. There's nothing tricky about using it that a person needs to know before ordering. There is no need to tell them about it ahead of time, especially if you feel you might not get good service.

And you can absolutely speak with management if you are getting lousy service, and you *should* do so. If service doesn't get better during your meal then management knows that you'll be talking about the auto gratuity.

 

[steg]

We typically eat at TS restaurants and typically order alcohol so that made it worthwhile for us. We paid for it and then some as a party of 5 and will be able to use it for our upcoming trip being part of a different party of 5. One nice dinner we had at Shula's paid for more than half of the card ($83 off). Bill was $489 after discounts including 18% tip.

Alcohol discounts are this card's secret weapon, especially on bottles of wine or higher end after dinner drinks like whiskies and brandies.

I'm planning on trying King Louis XIII for the first time this next trip at a place that sells it by the ounce solely because I'll get %20 off which is between 14 at 27 dollars depending on how much you get and where you get it from.

The only issues we've found were having to have one person (the card owner) pay the check, however, with the advent of online banking apps and the ease of transferring money these days it wasn't that big of a hoop to jump through for us.