Wow -- I love the planning! Makes me feel like I'm not alone in my detailed plans and spreadsheets.
We've had free dining once before and it was great. You certainly get a ton of food - more than anyone needs - so we split meals a lot. We always had dessert leftovers that we brought back to our room but it never really got eaten. It definitely was great to just take the thinking and money aspect out of ordering, etc. but I'm not sure we would ever pay for dining. We'll take the free dining though any day!
Although the last couple trips we have been renting DVC points, therefore we don't qualify for free dining.
And I have to say - I know people are leery of renting points, but we have had great luck every time going to dvcbyresale.com. It has given us the opportunity to save A LOT of money by having a large room and a small room, instead of getting three separate rooms. When you have a group of 10 like we do this year, that makes all the difference. Plus, having the full kitchen we always order food to have in our room. We are going to order stuff off of Amazon to be delivered to our room. So like diapers, snacks, etc. Hoping that will help with the packing and having more stuff in our room for us.
Either way, I'm excited that we can just attach our credit card to our magic band and make all of our purchases that way! So slick!!!
Disney Dining Plan
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Re: Disney Dining Plan
I did the same with alcohol -- it get's its own line and is added into the out-of-pocket sub-total (includes an 18% tip calculated off menu prices from the restaurants where we will be dining & groceries).theBIGyowski wrote:In my calculations, I always tack on an extra $10 per meal for gratuities, as well as 6.5% sales tax. That way you can have an honest comparison to know how much you will be spending. I also always break out alcohol into a different line item even when I'm calculating out-of-pocket dining costs.
Looking ahead to next year, we're pretty sure that we'll do the DDP. I think if the amount ends up being over $50 more for the DDP we'll reconsider. But anything under that or if the DDP saves us money, we're sticking with it.
- 1980-93: Fort Wilderness
1996: All-Stars Movie
1999: rented a private home
2008: Hilton Grand Vacation Club at International Drive (HGVC)
2009: All-Stars Music & Pop Century
2010: HGVC at I-Drive
2011: Anaheim Hilton (DisneyLand)
2012: HGVC at I-Drive & Caribbean Beach Resort
2013: HGVC-Parc Soleil & Port Orleans Riverside AND Anaheim Hilton
2015: Old Key West & Saratoga Springs