Tables in Wonderland - Is it worth it??

[David Raguso]

I dont get it, whats the point of paying $100 annually for this to save 20%, how can you save when youre paying? lol

 

[jambo5564]

Yea it seems only worth it if you plan to go multiple times a year and eat big the whole time. Too rich for my blood tho! Haha

 

[erionm]

You will need to spend $500 in pre-discounted dining (and alcoholic beverages) to break even on the purchase cost of the TiW card. The card will be valid for approx. 13 months.

 

[David Raguso]

Yeah i didnt preface this by saying i usually dont travel in a big party..sometimes im alone sometimes with just a few people and I only get to WDW 2x a year max usually for a 5 days per trip so it doesnt pay..youd have to get there many times a year and in a huge party and to extremely high end restaurants for it to pay

 

[jel0511]

For us it's worth it. We go for 10 days at Easter and only eat at TS restaurants. with the large crowds during that time, I hate fighting for a seat at CS. For us, we'll get 3 trips out of our card this time. 10 nights we just used, 3 in October for F&W, and 10 next April. ChaChing!

 

[Dacky619]

Obviously the TIW card doesn't work for everyone, but we have done very well with it just as a party of 2. The last time we got it (granted, it was only $75 then) it paid for itself on our first trip since we were staying at Pop (food court) and had meals at O'hana, Crystal Palace, and 1900 Park Fare. We did go on two weekend trips and then a trip the following summer which really helped make the card worth it, but it is just up to each person to figure out what would work best for them.

It is also a great benefit that the TIW card works on alcohol. Those can raise the bill quite a bit at WDW.

 

[drusba]

Whether it is worth it depends on what you spend per year on meals and drinks. It is actually quite easy to spend more than $500 on meals and drinks at WDW in less than a week if you have family members with you and if you go two or more times a year like us, the discount becomes very significant.

 

[CarolMN]

According to the math Cheshire Figment did in this post:

http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=48233473&postcount=6

one only need spend $469.48 to break even with the TiW card.

That's not hard to do, even for two people. That's about 8 TS meals for the two of us, so 4 nights. We usually get 18-21 nights out of our AP, so the TiW is an easy YES for us.

 

[bumbershoot]

Yea it seems only worth it if you plan to go multiple times a year and eat big the whole time. Too rich for my blood tho! Haha

..youd have to get there many times a year and in a huge party and to extremely high end restaurants for it to pay

No, really, you don't.

There are 3 of us in my family, one is a child. Honestly he's the biggest eater while we are at WDW, that boy just won't fill up!

We are vegetarian (so we're not ordering the high end menu items), there are sensitivities that keep us from getting a LOT of the Disney food (mainly desserts, and the vegetarian thing affects that too, since many desserts have gelatin in them). We don't drink soda, I don't drink the brewed coffee onsite.

We tend to have one sit-down meal a day, and usually one QS. Sometimes we share foods. We almost never get appetizers. I'm the only one that drinks alcohol, and I think the most alcohol I've ever had on the TIW card is two drinks in one trip.

Each time we've bought the card, we have hit the "pure discount" mark before the end of our first trip using the card.

It's just NOT that hard to spend to that amount.


OH, and we go to the store to get other foods, beer, desserts for when we're back at the room, and our trips have always had at least one meal offsite at Sweet Tomatoes. We use the TIW card relatively sparingly and yet both times it's plain old discount before the end.


Also remember that it's good at:

Value resort food courts, including AOA's.
Sassagoula Floatworks at POFQ
Artist Palate at SSR
the QS places inside Animal Kingdom park


tablesinwonderland.com is a good resource!

 

[omalley1118]

For years, we always did the DDP. We were happy with it. We tried TIW this past November. We do one counter service and one ts per day. There are 4 of us, including two kids. We were able to buy for $75. We saved $80 that trip and will be using it again this August. It also helps us to eat healthier...do you really need dessert with every meal??? I have seen this topic often, and I believe it's a personal choice.

 

[k3chantal]

I dont get it, whats the point of paying $100 annually for this to save 20%, how can you save when youre paying? lol

Easily worth it! In one meal, it was 'paid for'. We went to Wolfgang Pucks, had a five hundred dollar bill, and all the rest of the week the discount became a savings.

But, it is really how you eat and if you drink alcohol that can make the card 'worth it'. Two nice bottles of wine on that Wolfgang Puck's bill sent it up to the five hundred dollar range.

 

[jade1]

Our bill at Shula's was almost $500 alone (2 adults but 4 grown kids) they take it there. We also had many nightly bar bills as well-worked well for us.

 

[Kidanifan08]

..youd have to get there many times a year and in a huge party and to extremely high end restaurants for it to pay

You don't have to eat at high end restaurants .... you just have to eat at Disney!! We are on our second TIW card. We are a family of 3, although we frequently host others. We usually get about 15-20 days on the card. We like to do a TS meal most days, as it gives up a little down time in a cool environment to recharge. We do 1-2 character meals per 8-10 day stay, which really helps with re-couping the cost. I also try to remember to use it at the lounges. I am hoping they wait a few years before they jack up the price again!

 

[Anal Annie]

It's just 3 of us (DS is 15 almost 16) and if we eat say 5 TS meals over the course of a week + include alcohol and CS meals at AK that are covered then we more than get our money's worth. If you do Boma for 3 adults + a couple of adult beverages you're way over $100. Same with Ohana or Crystal Palace or La Hacienda de San Angel for dinner - esp. with a fancy margarita or martini thrown in!! With 3 adult meals at any of these places you can easily save $20 per meal. If you do more than 1 trip per year or more than 5 TS meals in a weeks time you've got the price covered. DH even uses it in Epcot to get his beers in the UK and in the AK park!! (Have you priced a Disney beer lately?!) Since it's a percentage based discount the larger your party the more you'll save...but even with 3 people it's not a far stretch to recover the investment cost.

 

[crisi]

Its perfect for us.

The best deal was the year there were ten of us. We took my family, and while we split up every day, each evening we all sat down together for a table service meal - obviously, paid for itself.

But even with just the four of us on a short vacation, we tend to spend enough to hit the approximate $470 mark to break even within two nights of dinner. We do drink and find it to be very nice there.

It doesn't work for everyone. But I'm willing to bet it works for more DVCers than it doesn't work for.

 

[spruce]

It saves us money, it really does depend how you use it. Big dinners, multiple guests or trips and it's easy to be in the black

 

[loveswdw]

Do they accept TiW at the drink stands such as the stand alone margarita place in Mexico? Or in France where you can get the Grand Marnier slushies?

 

[erionm]

Do they accept TiW at the drink stands such as the stand alone margarita place in Mexico? Or in France where you can get the Grand Marnier slushies?

No. The freestanding kiosks do not offer the TiW discount. Many bars and lounges do.

http://tablesinwonderland.com/

 

[DVC Grandpa]

We went for 19 days during January and February and used the TiW card where ever accepted and we broke about even. Now we are scheduled for another 21 days during the F&W festival. If you think about it, perhaps I should consider how much I would have saved by using other means of discount such as DVC discounts when I make the savings calculation.

 

[tink519]

I am looking at this for our next trip, we definitely spend more than $469 so it seems to make sense.

Can someone tell me how the discount works for CRT if we already paid for it?