Tables in Wonderland

[Silver Queen]

We're a couple who love our TiW. We definitely feel it's a great value and will probably not get the meal plan ever again. It's nice to look at the menu and start mentally deducting 20%.

 

[mill4023]

I'm actually doing the math to see if it's worth buying an AP just to be able to get TiW.
We are going for 2 weeks and staying off-site with a party of 10.
I'm planning to do 5 or 6 TS meals and I figure each one will be $150 to $200, not including tax and tip.

 

[Ramsfan28]

I'm not part of a couple, but I'll answer you, anyway!
I think if you eat at least one full service meal per day, you'll definitely come out ahead. The general break even point is spending $375 of eligible dining, and you probably can do that in one week of dining based on that.

The nice part is that if you order alcoholic beverages with your meal, you get the discount on those, too.

+1.

Depending on your spending habits, the TIW card can pay for itself after just one meal. I used it last year when 8 of us went to California Grill and the card paid for itself right then and there.

 

[DEA]

We are planning 3 one week trips in one calendar year. Even though there's just two of us, I think TIW would be financially beneficial to us, right? Any other couples with experience?

My DW and I made two trips without the kiddos last year and used TiW (once with the DxDP, once without any dining plan) and found that it worked out in our favor even with only a little over a week total eating at WDW. We did a lot of signature meals and drank a goodly portion of wine, which got us to the break-even point in pretty short order. I'd say over 3 weeks total, even if we were being less extravagant it would have worked out in our favor.

 

[Eastern]

We are using TIW now (I decided to buy it after our first TS meal at Plaza). So far, it seems like a good deal. For the 4 of us, we are averaging $200 food per day, choosing exactly what we want, vs paying about the same amount and being limited by the dining plan. We are doing a mix of TS and CS, but mostly TS as we like to sit down and take a break during the day. We usually do not eat breakfast or dessert & we usually split 1 appetizer at dinner.

 

[Jungle Cruiser]

We are planning 3 one week trips in one calendar year. Even though there's just two of us, I think TIW would be financially beneficial to us, right? Any other couples with experience?

I go to WDW a few times a year for at least a week. In the spring I go with my adult daughter and other times with just my husband. TIW card is wonderful for us. We have a few TS restaurants we always go to, California Grill among others. We love getting the discount and not having to fit into a dining plan which we found restrictive. What we hadn't expected with the card is how often we use it for something like a late breakfast after a few hours in the park. Last month my daughter and I would grab coffee and go into the park then come back to the GF and have a leisurely sit down late breakfast around 11:00. That would hold us until dinner. That's when we realize the benefits of the card, we don't spend much more having a sit down meal like that versus, sandwiches, soda etc. from a QS venue. It's much more relaxing and saving 20% makes it doable.

We re-cooped our original $75 the first time we used it for a week. I highly recommend it.

 

[bumbershoot]

We are planning 3 one week trips in one calendar year. Even though there's just two of us, I think TIW would be financially beneficial to us, right? Any other couples with experience?

Do you have any past trips, and the receipts from those trips, to look at? If so, look and see what you spent, and see what the total would have been with TIW. Make sure the tips are 18% or higher on the meals you had at participating restaurants, then deduct the 20%, and you'll know.

We had under 10 table service meals, just the 3 of us...we don't eat heavily, we don't have appetizers, we're vegetarian (so our meals are genearlly a little less expensive than a meat-containing meal), and we avoid corn syrup based products and so avoid most desserts that don't come with ingredient lists at Disney parks, and STILL we hit the breakeven mark before the end of our vacation. Making the discounts we'll get in September pure discounts...

 

[TDC Nala]

Discussion of tipping and personal tipping habits has been deleted from the thread, that discussion is limited to the Tipping Information sticky thread. The information related to that is that there is an 18% automatic tip added to all TIW transactions (except counter service, and 20% for Victoria & Albert's). That can be mentioned here, but not in conjunction with what someone would or would not normally tip.

 

[BriarRosie]

+1.

Depending on your spending habits, the TIW card can pay for itself after just one meal. I used it last year when 8 of us went to California Grill and the card paid for itself right then and there.

Well, of course, that's true when you dine as a party of 8. Tables in Wonderland could also pay itself in one meal if a party of 2 ate at Victoria and Albert's and added wine pairings.