TIW...AP Required or Not in 2012?

[LisaS]

On a side note.. Who could possibly take a WDW vacation and NOT spend $500 on food for a family? I guess if you don't drink, and only visit four or five days a year its possible, but I think the average DVC Member does more than that.
Perhaps I'm wrong.

MG

We don't. We are a party of two. On a 7-night stay we eat at a TS restaurant four or five times. The rest of our meals are at CS restaurants or in the room, often those in-room meals are the leftovers from the TS the night before. We are vegetarians so our entrees are usually on the lower end of the menu price range. We don't typically eat at signature restaurants. DH usually has a glass of wine with dinner but I do only once or twice during the trip. We usually order a salad with dinner but not dessert. Our most expensive dinner on our last trip was in the $90 range I think (before the TIW discount), the rest were 10 to 20 dollars less. We're not deliberately trying to pinch pennies, that's just how we like to eat.

 

[MFMont]

I purchased my TIW on Jan 28th last week for $100. We spent over $1,000 on food so it was worth it. Please also note that my card last until 3/31/13 so that is over 14 months of use. Our next trip will be in early March 2013 so I will get two trips out of this card making it a great value.

 

[luckyman_apd]

It depends on how many TS meals you eat AND it depends if all of them are at participating restaurants AND it depends on how big your family is. We eat breakfasts in our villa and we usually only do about 3 TS meals over the course of a week. Partly because of the expense involved and partly because we don't like to be tied to ADR times & schedules so much.

I'm with you. My wife likes to plan a thousand places, but I hate it. I like to eat when I'm hungry, and not have to plan my trip around meal times, and park locations. We stopped getting the DDP because of this. Yes it CAN save you money, but it was a hassle. I found that we spend less without it because we don't do as many sit downs without it.

I like to have one character meal for the kids whether it be the castle, princess dining at Akershus, 1900 park fare, chef mickeys, or tusker house. Now that we are buying a DVC ownership, there will PLENTY of chances to do character meals over the kids childhood, Although my wife is trying to plan the castle and hollywood & vine for the Nov trip. My daughter just LOVES Jake and the neverland pirates, and I believe Jake is now part of the character brunch at H&V.

Not sure if I will get TIW but H&V and the castle will make up a $50 savings at least with the card (I'm assuming $150 for 2 adults and a child at the castle, and at least $100 for 4 adults and 2 kids at Hollywood & Vine.) So I'm sure we can make up the rest.

Not trying to be cheap, but I normally leave 20% tip, so if the TIW makes me pay 18%, I'm actually saving there too

 

[Maistre Gracey]

Alrighty then... I guess we are in the minority. It's just my wife and me, but between dinner and drinks we do $500 in about a day and a half (not joking).
We visit WDW and VB around 18 days a year, so we save enough on TIW to pay for our AP's. I thought we did the restaurants and bars a bit more than average, but I guess we do a little more than that.

Whatever works..
MG

 

[Anal Annie]

Alrighty then... I guess we are in the minority. It's just my wife and me, but between dinner and drinks we do $500 in about a day and a half (not joking). We visit WDW and VB around 18 days a year, so we save enough on TIW to pay for our AP's. I thought we did the restaurants and bars a bit more than average, but I guess we do a little more than that.

Whatever works..
MG

I would probably explode if I ate that many TS meals and my bank account would be over drawn and my credit card would melt!!! We are a family of 3 & I generally budget in the neighborhood of $40 for each CS meal (but we haven't been down in 2 years so maybe food prices have gone up a lot now and I should bump that to $45). On our upcoming 6 night trip I will budget for 6 lunches & 3 dinners at CS places for a total of $360. We will probably have 3 TS dinners that I will budget at around $120 each - we stick to more moderately priced menus than you I guess. We never order desserts & rarely order appetizers. DH will order a beer & I may or may not have a cocktail (it irks me that they charge enough for 1 drink that I could buy the whole bottle & they only put a drip in it). If I order a cocktail it would likely be a martini simply because at least then I'm getting the alcohol I'm paying for. But anyway this means my food budget for the 6 days will be around $720. That's a heck of a lot more than we'd spend if we were HOME as we never eat out at home (just take out stuff) so I still have a hard time justifying it. So I can't wrap my head around spending $500 in a day & half for just 2 people.

 

[lilpooh108]

Alrighty then... I guess we are in the minority. It's just my wife and me, but between dinner and drinks we do $500 in about a day and a half (not joking).
We visit WDW and VB around 18 days a year, so we save enough on TIW to pay for our AP's. I thought we did the restaurants and bars a bit more than average, but I guess we do a little more than that.

Whatever works..
MG

I remember those days...before we had kids...and before we started traveling with the grandparents to help take care of the kids Eating was a big part of our travel. Now on vacation my DD keeps asking me when Mickey Mouse is going to show up.

We still spend about $700 for 3-4 days at WDW, 4 adults, on food.

 

[Hollymom1229]

While I wish TIW was $75 for DVC members, even at $100 it's still a great value for us. In a typical week at WDW, DH and I spend anywhere from $1,000 to $1,500 on food and drink. For us dining is a big part of our vacation. We love to eat at the signature restaurants, have wine with our meals, and often hit the lounges for a cocktail or two at night. We also eat at least one TS meal a day, but the DDP doesn't work for us, because we often split 3 courses, or have a selection of appetizers, whatever we're in the mood for.

I appreciate not having to buy an AP in order to get the TIW anymore, as I can't always plan two trips into a single year which justifies the price of the AP.