This or That? October Trip

[Trishtack]

We are going back to WDW! I am so super excited that we were able to rent DVC points. We will be staying at the BLT. It will be DH, DD (7) and me. But I am so unsure what to do in regards to tickets and dining.

Would you do Park Hopper or Basic tickets? DH is paraplegic and needs to take a lot of breaks. The Park Hopper option allows for greater flexibility but is quite a jump in price.

We did Deluxe Dining on our last trip and DD enjoyed every character dining event but was not interested in eating otherwise. DH hates having reservations for anything and often didn't feel well enough to do dinner. Although he was fairly newly paralyzed and still adjusting. The DDP allowed him to get room service in exchange for 2 dining credits and he did that several times. At the end we had dining credits remaining and snack credits remaining. I am so for Deluxe Dining but financially I'm trying to determine if it's worth it...

Any feedback appreciated....

 

[MichiganKris]

Leaving snack credits should never happen. You can always purchase Mickey rice crispy treats or some other item to take home.

If you had TS credits left last time, that is probably telling you that you don't need that many meals and maybe switching to the normal dining plan may be better for you.

Remember if you have credits left you are throwing away a lot of money.

 

[Marionnette]

We are going back to WDW! I am so super excited that we were able to rent DVC points. We will be staying at the BLT. It will be DH, DD (7) and me. But I am so unsure what to do in regards to tickets and dining.

Would you do Park Hopper or Basic tickets? DH is paraplegic and needs to take a lot of breaks. The Park Hopper option allows for greater flexibility but is quite a jump in price.

We did Deluxe Dining on our last trip and DD enjoyed every character dining event but was not interested in eating otherwise. DH hates having reservations for anything and often didn't feel well enough to do dinner. Although he was fairly newly paralyzed and still adjusting. The DDP allowed him to get room service in exchange for 2 dining credits and he did that several times. At the end we had dining credits remaining and snack credits remaining. I am so for Deluxe Dining but financially I'm trying to determine if it's worth it...

Any feedback appreciated....

Hopping is great if you don't want to return to the same park after your break. Since you're going to be at BLT and your husband is going to need a lot of breaks, could you vision yourself heading to the MK after those breaks rather than back to AK, Epcot or DHS? If so, get the hopping. If you're unsure whether you will take advantage of it, get the base tickets and leave money in your budget to pay for a hopping upgrade to your passes.

If you didn't use all of your dining and snack credits on the DxDP, then you probably don't need it. Consider cutting back to the regular dining plan, paying OOP for the room service meal (because using 2 credits for room service is a poor use of your TS credits) and enjoy a little more flexibility with your meals.

I'm not a big fan of the dining plans and my own experience has been that it costs me less to just pay OOP for all of my meals. But other people have much better luck with the plan and have researched it well enough to ensure that they get much more than their money's worth from it.

 

[Trishtack]

Thanks. We didn't leave the credits we just had a lot of snacks for the plane and DH had room service the last few nights.

In 09 I had a breakdown that showed we saved quite a bit with the DDP due to all the character meals. I just don't know if they will be as popular this time.

 

[blessedby3]

As far as tickets go...you can save lots by doing their YES program. I have signed DD up for it for the first time for our Oct trip. Basicaly you sign you child up for a class (they are early am, ours is at 8:30-11:30) and then you can get discounted tickets for you, DH and DD. We saved $500 for our family of 5 by doing this and DD is very excited. She is doing Wild by Nature at the Animal Kingdom. You have to pay for tickets when you sign up and there is no changing them so you just have to be sure of your dates and such. I know others have gotten inexpensive trip ins to cover in case of a problem.
Here is a link to the ticket prices...you can get the hopper option much cheaper this way

http://www.disneyyouth.com/individual-enrollment/WDW/pricing/2012/non-florida/

and a link to the classes for Oct. Just put your dates in the calendar and it will pull up classes.

https://www.studentguest.com/yes/index.php

Im with you DH as far as the dining. We dont like to have lots of ressies and only do about 2 sit downs on our trips. We prefer CS meals as we can eat when we want and we are less restricetd. You could just pay OOP and eat what, where and when you want. We also stayed at BLT 2 trips ago and I just wanted to say you will LOVE it! I have a link in my siggy with some pictures. We were family of the day when we checked in and got some amazing perks! What a great trip We also ordered pizza/pasta one night from Giordanos and they delivered to the lobby. Maybe thats an option for you when DH doesnt want to go back out. We ate off of it for a couple of days.

 

[budbeerlady]

We love the park hopper because we do take afternoon breaks and then head to a different park at night. But its not a must if you are trying to save $.

We each pick our favorite meal and then fill in with ones we have not done yet. Maybe take the same approach and price out the meals on Debs All ears menu page. That will tell you after totaling if the plan will save you money or not.

This last trip was no hoppers and we paid for our food out of pocket. I enjoy my food more when I don't have to foot that bill at the time, LOL!

 

[3pletprincesses]

We don't do park hopper because we take breaks. We feel like it's fine to return to the same park both twice in a day since we usually miss the entire afternoon and there's always something else we want to do at that park.

We also like Deluxe meal plan because we do character in the morning and signatures in the evening. It give our kids greater meal options also as we find signature restaurants to have better options for the girls as they get sick of the same old really fast.

 

[englishteacha]

We always stay offsite so the dining plans are not an option for us. We find that we can eat frugally. We don't do character meals, though, and only a few table service meals on WDW property. We'll often do a long day at the parks, having a late lunch and some snacks, and then a late dinner on our way "home" to our condo.