Where are canadians eating at wdw?

[cottontail]

Hi Folks:

Our trip is getting closer in april, and I have been on different menu sites trying to figure out what we will eat and where. Boy oh boy I am not too sure I am ready to pay something around l7. or l8 dollars for a sitdown meal, for four of us with the exchange that will add up to like 80.00 amerian which is $127.00 canadian for ONE MEAL. To me the cheapest eats are at the foodcourts in the moderates and all stars.

What are other families doing their main meal of the day. Breakfast I will have muffin or cereal in the room, even lunch we can pick up some fruit and coldmeats and lettuce salad at publix's but the main meal whether at lunch or supper seems expensive at wdw sitdown restaurants. I will probably splurge for a restaurant for the fantasimic show.

I am now wondering if we should drop from a deluxe resort ankl and poly to a moderate, but it has been 6 years since we have had a trip, and it is our 25th wedding anniv. family trip. There are four of us, my son and daughter need their own beds, and I cannot afford two rooms.
It s just that the poly has a day bed and two queens, so there is a bed for all of us, as well as the animal kingdom lodge if we get the bunks. But the 94.00 a night looks like a great deal also, but we would need another bed. The poly will be expensive for eating, I really like the foodcourts where we can get pizza, spaghetti, chicken fingers, for a reasonable price.

Is everyone else paying for the expensive meals and worrying about the expense when they get home or what.

Deb/

 

[Jo-Anne]

Not sure how much you're paying for the deluxe resorts, but have you thought about renting DVC points? I'm going in Sept and staying at the deluxe Boardwalk Villas for $81.00 USD/night (includes taxes!) 9 points/night @ $9/point. Sunday through Thursday nights are the cheapest for points. The room we're renting has a queen bed and a Queen pullout. Some rooms have both of these plus a daybed which might accommodate your family better. If you want, browse the forum on Renting DVC points, and maybe post a request for the dates you want to see if anyone can accommodate you. Most points are being rented for $8-10/point. I hear you about the food prices tho! I try not to agonize over the conversion while I'm in Disney, but when you get home and the visa bill comes in, you choke thinking that you paid that much for a burger and fries!! You might want to try some off site restaurants, drive to the moderates for their food courts, or I hear the buffet at the Wilderness Campgrounds is pretty good value comparatively! Have Fun Jo

 

[SandraC]

Congrats on your 25th Wedding Anniversary. I see your problem. You can still stay at the Poly and eat other places. Moderates are great too, but you are right about the bed situation, unless the girls share a bed and the boys share???

The food thing was an issue for me too after we returned from last April's trip. We books TONS of character meals and ate at places like Tony's ~ character breakfasts are $75 CDN and character dinners and Tony's were like over $100 CDN! This April we are going and have 4 character breakfast, one char dinner, ice cream social. THAT'S IT! The rest of the breakfasts are in-room groceries, lunches will be picnic lunches, also groceries. Dinners will be counter services and food courts. We have lots of park days, so plan lots of counter service dinners. Actually with dd 8 and ds 2, counter services and food courts are better for us, fast and easy.

 

[cottontail]

Hi Sandra: What is the ice cream social. Have you heard of any canadians getting those connections vouchers, from mousesavers, the eleven dollar ones for casual places? I wonder if customs makes you pay anything else towards them.

I guess it is necessary to do the dinner thing for the fantasamic show to get a seat, so I guess we will do hollywood and vine. But boy it all adds up.

Deb.

 

[cottontail]

Thanks sandra for the congrats, not many of our friends that we started with are still together.

Hi Joanne: How do you know when you are paying someone you do not know for those points that you will really have a place to go, I mean that the transaction is legit.

That price for the boardwalk is awsome , we are paying $194 including tax for the poly (this has been moved from sept and they kept the price we had), but I am seriously thinking about switching to the car beach at l05 a night. I guess when I think of it I will have to order a rollaway for l5 so my car beach price is now $120 vres $194, and it is a special expensive trip.

Maybe just keeping the poly for the last three days to relax and move about visiting the monorail resorts after a week of touring the parks from car. beach.

Deb.

 

[Jo-Anne]

Cottontail - there is some trust involved, but we did this last Sept without a hitch and loved staying at the Boardwalk for less than a moderate! After you make a "connection" on the internet, you usually will talk over the phone. I know others on that site have asked for references from others' who have rented from the individual you may be dealing with. Also, once you pay for your deposit with this individual, they will pass along the confirmation number of the reservation, and then change the reservation from their name to your name. At that time, you can call the reservations line and confirm that the reservation is in your name and that the dates jive. For this Sept, I sent a one nights' deposit to the points owner and in July I'll rehook up with him and make some more payments. WE had a good experience the first time, and looks like we've hooked up again with another very nice, trustworthy points owner. Good Luck. Jo

 

[SandraC]

Hi! The Ice Cream Social is *sorta, kinda, not really* a character meal. It's at 3pm (used to have two times, 3pm and 3:15pm ~ cut backs) at Garden Grill in the Lands at Epcot. You pay $6.75 USF for a HUGE ice cream, I've seen pictures and the ice cream sundaes are HUGE! They only charge for 3 years old and older, but my 2 year old can get off my plate, so we are only paying for dh.dd and myself $6.75 USF ~ tip and taxes only about $25.00 USF for a character greeting. The restaurant revolves and there are effects like at RFC, so that's cool. We got PS for 3pm, we will leave GG at 4pm-ish and walk around World Showcase. While in World Showcase we are going to all the countries counter services that we have eaten at before and EATING OUR WAY AROUND THE WORLD! I printed up menus and we picked things we would like to eat. I figures the cost about $20.00 USF (we are trying lots of different food and sharing, mainly the kids meals and side dishes, so the price is staying low). Between the Ice Cream Social and EATING AROUND THE WORLD we will pay about $45.00 USF ($70 CDN) for that whole days meals (breakky will be from groceries in room). I am looking forward to this day!

 

[jaret]

Is there a restaurant at the pool.I know we did that one time the food was less expensive and they had enough variety to get a few cheap dinners out of it.Otherwise counter service, and resort hop to the less expensive resorts for dinner(I would imagine from the park to resort then to DD to catch a bus to the Poly)We just came back and the exchange really added up.

 

[cottontail]

Hi Jaret: Where did you stay down there?

Deb.

 

[SandraC]

We stayed at CBR last year (dh, me, dd was 7 and ds was 15 months old and ate mostly baby food or from ouir plates, so basically we were two adults and one child eating).

We took advantage of kids meals a lot of the time. The portions are very generous. At CBR food court they had a $3.99 pasta with maranara sauce and a soft garlic stick, kids meal. I ordered it a couple times and one time dd and I shared an order because we were only a little hungry. Another time dha nd I shared the chicken and ribs meal, it came with rice and salad. I am the salad lover, so I ate the salad and little bit of meat and dh chowed down on the rest. I can't recall the price, maybe $10 USF.

I like the counter service at MK, especially Pinocchinos and Columbia Harbor House. We ordered two adult meals and one kid meal for about $18 USF with drinks. This is our meal plan for 10 nights.


B=breakfast, L=lunch, D=dinner, all in USF (we will grocery shop too $75) CS = Counter Service
FC=Food Court (I went thru the menus and guessed what we'd order to bugdet, price includes taxes and tips)

Day 1, B at home, L on plane, D at Pepper Markey CSR ($30)
Day 2, B=Cindy's MK ($50), L=snacks, D=Plaza Pavillion CS ($25)
Day 3, B=in room, L=picnic, D=MK CHH ($25)
Day 4, B=H&V char meal MGM ($50), L=snack, D=ASMo FC ($25)
Day 5, B=in room, L=Trail's End Buffet FW ($30), D=PO FC ($30)
Day 6, B=been invited to breakfast FREE, L&D=Epcot Ice cream social and CS at Epcot ($50)
Day 7, B=in room, L=picnic, D=AKL Maya FC ($30)
Day 8, B=Poly char meal ($50), L=snack, D=Epcot Lands ($30)
Day 9, B=Donald's Breakfast AK ($50), L=snack, D=????? ($50)
Day 10,B=in room, L=snack, D=Crystal Palace ($60)
Day 11, B=in room, L=on plane

USF $660 for food, round up to $700 for ice cream etc.,. $1100 CDN

 

[DSNY FN]

Hi Cottontail we are DVC members and we just joined right before our trip in Dec but we rented points for our stay and it was well worth it you get your deluxe resort at a moderate resort price so look into it you would be pleasantly suprised trust me my wife is probably the most sceptacle person in the world but everything went A OK and we even had a contract plus you get a copy of the reservation and you can call down and check the res before you even leave. Just some food for thought
Darren & Lisa

 

[cottontail]

Hi Everyone: That is real interesting the renting of dvc points, where do you find all this info on the dvc site.
Darren and Lisa didn't the exchange on the dollar kill you when you bought the dvc? My brother and sisterinlaw are thinking about buying in the orange lake resorts in kissimmee. I really don't know too much about them. Do you have to pay a maintenance fee every year? Do you buy a week at a certain time of year, and are some times cheaper than others? Why are people renting these points,

Sandra: Boy you are on the ball, I haven't mapped out where we will be yet. I am going to look again on deb site to check the menus, I want to check some of the ones that you mentioned. We are jumping around from akl to either poly or car beach, and hrh for a day or two. Thanks,

Deb.

 

[DSNY FN]

Hi the exchange was of no concern to us we purchased directly through Disney and it worked out to be approximateley 14K Canadian 11200 US we don't have to worry about weeks they run on ponts so we can pick any time of any year any week it is really not like the usual Time Share. People will rent out their points if for instance they are not going to be able to go one year or the points are going to expire and they didn't bank them things like that so you can get them at a good rate sometimes we rent ours for between 10 to 12 dollars a point US highest yet is 12.50 a point and you get a contract with that my suggestion is stay at Old Key West it is only 8 points per night from Sunday to Thursday in Value season and at 12 dollars a point you are staying in a deluxe for 96 dollars a night that would be a studio with 2 queen beds and a fridge and toaster coffee maker and a few other goodies. Hope this helps shed a little light on the subject. You can also use the points to stay at any of the hotels on property except for All Stars
Darren & Lisa

 

[bjsmythe]

We're DVCers now & stayed in a 1 bedroom last time at Villas of Wilderness Lodge wheich had a little kitchen. This saves us lots of money. We bought quick easy to make food & didn't spend lots of time cooking.

We went out to Boma's at AKL for supper. Excellent meal - all you can eat buffet. It was well worth the money.

We went to Fastasmic without the dinner package & had no problems getting great seats when we got there after the last Indiana Jones show.

Brenda

 

[SandraC]

Darren, got some questions about DVC. So you pay about $14K and get how many points annually? Is there an annual fee? Does the $14K get you so many years or a set amt of years or forever until you sell it? Thanks! S

 

[DSNY FN]

You get 150 points per year and the fee is approximateley 500 dollars a year with us we have the payment come right off our Mastercard every month and just pay the balance on the card so it isn't so bad we get a much more favourable rate on the exchange that way. the time ends in 2045 I think

 

[cottontail]

Hi Darren and Lisa;

Just curious how many years in a row can you bank your points. If you get l50 points a year, and you go in value season, do you end up getting a one bedroom with the l50 points, or a studio? I was just wondering if you could save your points for two years giving you 300 to splurge on a week say in a one bedroom.

So the total price is ll,200 us. for l50 points, and you have to pay 500u.s. each year whether you bank your points for that year as well? Does disney keep the number of points required, for your nightly use the same til 2045 or can they increase the number of nightly points you need to go to the studio/one bedroom at okw. In otherwords at some point are you going to have to buy more points than the initial 150 in order to stay for a week at the okw timeshare.

We are looking at about 2000us in resort costs just for this trip, I can see how it would be practical if you go there quite often. Do people ever sell off timeshares that they own, do to disinterest etc, and can someone pick one of them up at less than the ll,200.00? This is quite interesting,

Deb.

 

[DSNY FN]

Well from whatr I have seen the number of points per night has not changed but they are different at each property like Wilderness lodge villas are 12 points/night the same as Boardwak and the new Beach Club Villas and those are value season and for a studio. You do pay your 500 a year regardless if you use or bank your points we are saving the rest of our 2002 points and using our 2003 points and some of our 2004 points for our 2003 trip we are getting a 1 bedroom for 2 weeks for ourselves and a studio for a week for my dad and little brother and sister. We love having the DVC it has been a great investment just with the fact that we can call and make a res just about any day and if you are not too picky as to where you stay they will always find you a room. Plus right now Disney is offering a buy back on your first years points towards your down payment that is what we did with our 2001 points and it made it so we only had to pay out around 500 US towards our down payment so it worked out great for us. If you have any more question just ask I would be happy to hep you out as best I can if you want I even have an extra DVC info book and property book kicking around here I do believe and can send it to you if you like. I almost forgot you can look at the timeshare store posted in the DVC area of this board you will find some not bad deals so you can get a 150 point deal for around 9500 sometimes we just prefered dealing with Disney directly they take care of everything including the loan.
Darren & Lisa