TIW or DDP? Has anyone done the math so that I don't have to?

[Marionnette]

Background:
3 adults staying 5 nights at Kidani followed by 1 night Poly CL.
All adults are 21 or over.

Currents ADRs:

• 1900 Park Fare (dinner)
• Crystal Palace (breakfast)
• La Hacienda St. Angelo (dinner)
• Garden View Lounge (tea)*
• Kouzzina's (dinner)
• Yak & Yeti (lunch)*
• Sanaa (dinner)
• 50's PT (lunch)
• 'Ohana (dinner)

*not included in DDP

Advantages to the DDP:

• Prepaid meals. No need to guess how much extra to bring.
• No gratuity automatically added. I expect that a server will be more attentive when they know that they are working for their tip?
• Up to 20% savings on food according to the Disney website.
• No additional charge to get the plan (I'd need to upgrade to an AP and buy the TIW card)

Advantages of the TIW:

• Guaranteed 20% savings.
• Can order appetizers and alcohol and have the discount applied to those.
• No pressure to "get my money's worth" when ordering.
• No running around on the last day to spend my unused snack credits.
• 18% automatic gratuity is less than my usual 20% tip.
• Having an AP *might* translate to a nice room discount at the Poly.
• Having an AP & TIW card provides an incentive to return within the year.

I'll admit that right now I'm leaning towards the AP/TIW. Please, either talk me down from the ledge or give me some encouragement to take the leap!

 

[quinnc19]

To really see which would be best in your situation, you need to look at the menus, guess what you might order, and compare. However, your TS don't seem to be very expensive choices, so unless you're picking the most expensive items at each or planning on expensive CS with drinks and desserts, I doubt you would save much on the DDP. People on the Dis say that the break-even point with the TIW card is $375 - meaning you have to spend MORE than that to reap any savings. I also wanted to point out that returning to WDW within the year, while wonderful, is not likely to save you any money

I am always tempted to get either the DDP or TIW to help justify the high prices of WDW dining. But sometimes the wisest (monetary at least) choice is OOP.

Background:
[*]Having an AP & TIW card provides an incentive to return within the year.
[/LIST]

I'll admit that right now I'm leaning towards the AP/TIW. Please, either talk me down from the ledge or give me some encouragement to take the leap!

 

[havoc315]

To really see which would be best in your situation, you need to look at the menus, guess what you might order, and compare. However, your TS don't seem to be very expensive choices, so unless you're picking the most expensive items at each or planning on expensive CS with drinks and desserts, I doubt you would save much on the DDP. People on the Dis say that the break-even point with the TIW card is $375 - meaning you have to spend MORE than that to reap any savings. I also wanted to point out that returning to WDW within the year, while wonderful, is not likely to save you any money

I am always tempted to get either the DDP or TIW to help justify the high prices of WDW dining. But sometimes the wisest (monetary at least) choice is OOP.

I agree with all of the above... except... I don't qualify for the TiW, but if I did -- As long as you are positive you will realize at least some savings (hit that $375 number of whatever it is), then there is no downside. Unlike the DDP, the TiW doesn't harshly dictate your dining choices, except perhaps stearing you towards choices that accept the card. But you aren't pushed to get desserts just because they are pre-paid, you aren't pressured to get more expensive items. You get savings off appetizers, alcohol...

As long as you are positive that you will at least break even, I don't see a downside of TiW.
Of course, if you are buying an AP that you wouldn't otherwise purchase, just to get the TiW.... that may be spending way too much for it.

 

[sharonabe]

I'm not sure you could get the DDP for that 1 night at Poly w/o buying tickets again, but I could be wrong.

Even if you can, you still would only have 6 TS Credits and you have 8 TS you desire (Yak n Yeti will probably be on DDP by the time final list comes out in Dec), so you would have to pay OOP for at least 2 and maybe 3 meals.

 

[honeymo78]

Technically, the server will still work for their tip on TIW. Unless you tell them at the start of the meal, they won't know until you give them your card and ask for the check.

 

[Marionnette]

Thanks for the replies.

I'm still on the fence about it. I know that we would definitely spend more than $375 on TS meals during our stay. Just looking at the 3 fixed-price restaurants, we're past that break-even point. Anything that we spend beyond that would result in a savings.

I just got back from a 4-night trip with my husband and we paid OOP for all of our meals. I liked that a lot better than having the dining plan since he and I are not big dessert eaters but we do like to sample the appetizers. The bills were a little high for what we got, IMO. And we live in an area where $100 dinners for two are not unheard of. A little TIW discount would have been nice on that trip. So it got me to wondering if it might be worth looking into for a longer trip with an additional person.

Looks like I'm going to have to do some number-crunching for the remaining restaurants.

 

[Dbk8784]

I've been debating the same thing as you for a while.... My husband officially thinks I'm nuts... We are also 3 adults staying 5 days at Jambo House. We really like to eat at TS meals. For our honeymoon we were on the DXDDP and wanted to do the same thing for this January's trip but after I literally crunched the numbers over and over again, eliminated a few meals altogether I came to the conclusion that it was save us money to buy the TIW card. It varies for everyone though, you have to do whats right for your family. Hope this helped a little bit.

 

[neodymm]

We are 2A & 1C. I've been debating this myself and have crunched lots of numbers, already picked our most likely menu selections and have everything entered in excel! Without factoring in snacks, we will save about $150 by using TiW. We've been using the dxdp for many years, this is the first time we've considered TiW. We have 3 signature dinners, CRT, Akershus, CM, and several regular TS booked. We rarely eat CS, so not worried about losing that option. We usually order "adult" beverages and DD also usually orders drinks that aren't covered. So, I really like that we will ge a discount on drinks with TiW.

The only bummer for me is that we won't have the snack credits to snack around the food & wine fest and all the other snacks we've become accustomed to getting on our trios. So, I've tried to a count for that in my spreadsheet and it looks like we will still come out ahead with TiW.

We really like that we won't feel like we should be ordering 2 apps, 2 entrees and 2 desserts (plus DDs kid menu choices) since we are on the dxdp. Plus, DD won't be restricted to the kids menu. So, I think we are going with TiW for the following reasons:
-freedom of choice, we can order whatever we want!
-discount on drinks
-TiW allows discount to up to 8 at table and we are meeting friends at a few meals
-if we miss a meal for some strange reason, we don't have to try to use up the credits at some point on our trip (or lose them entirely)
-card is good for a year...can use this to convince DH that we need to go back sooner

These all seem to out weigh the loss of snack credits.

Would love to hear more opinions on the comparison between TiW and DxDP.

 

[aubriee]

I go to WDW several times a year and have always been a big fan of the DDP and DxDDP. We are not breakfast people, prefer TS over most CS, are not big snackers, love the Signature restaurants, and usually prefer the appetizers over the desserts, so used the DxDDP more than the basic DDP, even though we always had alot of snacks left over at the end of each trip. A few months ago, I started running the numbers for my recent Sept 10th-18th trip and with as many trips as I make, even going solo, the TiW worked out better. Including gratuties I would be able to eat what I wanted where I wanted and spend a little more than the DDP, but alot less than the DxDDP and would have only had to have 2 or 3 CS meals during the entire nine day trip. The rest would all be TS. When I was down there last week, I round up spending most of my time with some fellow DISers who were on the DDP, so canceled all my reservations at the very last minute and round up doing some CS meals I hadn't planned on, so didn't get full value out of the TiW card, but I'll be making 2 or 3 more trips with it this year, so it will still pay for itself easily. I did go off on my own a few times and was able to get into several restaurants as a walk up. I loved not feeling tied down to having to use a certain number of meal credits by the end of the week. I liked having the TiW card, so I could go to restaurants I hadn't been to in a long time because they don't accept the DDP. I loved being able to order two appetizers if I wanted or an appetizer and entree. I was able to order specialty drinks at Yak & Yeti and Via Napoli without worrying that they were not included on the DDP. I didn't drink near as many sodas as I do when I'm on the DDP, so my feet didn't swell as much as they normally do down there. I refuse to skimp while on vacation, so carried several Disney gift cards and didn't even look at the prices of what I ordered. I ordered exactly what I was in the mood for at the time without worrying if it was the most expensive thing on the menu. I had steak and lamb, but also had chicken, Via Napoli pizza, etc. I came home with $105.00 left on one gift card and one I didn't even touch, so will have $405.00 to spend on my next trip in Nov/Dec. I loved being able to order exactly what I was in the mood for that meal. I refused to order dessert until I was almost through with my entree to see if I was full or not and if I wanted it. I ate a few snacks, but didn't bother checking to see if they were covered on the DDP or not and didn't feel like I needed to make sure they were in the $3.99 range so they'd be a good value for a snack credit. I could order exactly what I wanted at that time. When I figured what I spent and what the DDP (with tips) cost my friends, I spent alot less with the TiW and got more TS meals and appetizers. The TiW card is good for 13 months, so as long as you go at least once a year within a 12 month period you can use it more than once. Even though I've always been a fan of the DDPs, I don't think I'll ever go back to using them (and I used either the DDP or the DxDDP at least four times a year ever since they first started the DDP). The main draw for me was the convenience of having everything prepaid. With Disney gift cards, I can still prepay, save 20% on most of my meals, order exactly what I'm in the mood for, won't feel so tied down to ADRs, can go to restaurants that don't accept the DDP if I want, and still save money. Since I prefer TS over CS and appetizers over desserts the 20% the TiW saves me is a better deal than the percentage the DDP would save me. The DDPs don't save as much as they used to, so aren't as worth it anymore.