AoA or Deluxe for 5 with deluxe dining upgrade

[jaeebird]

Hi
Were a family of 5 (3/5/7) heading to Disney in Sept. Keeping our fingers crossed for free dining. My question, we always get deluxe dining so Im trying to debate if its better to stay at AoA and upgrade from the free quick service to deluxe or stay at Poly or Contemp and upgrade from regular dining to deluxe. Trying to figure which would save me a little bit.
Any ideas?

 

[Jrabbit910]

imho: i think the kids would love the AOA and you have more room if you choose to go w/ that resort... so I would stick w/ that one. and I will keep my fingers crossed for free dining too!

 

[Wendybird55]

I would think the real value difference would come with the room rate...with free dining you are paying full price for the rooms. Obvioulsy it would cost more to upgrade from QS then DXDP...but how much more is Poly or Contemp than A0A..when I was pricing AoA once I realized it wasn't as inexpensive as you would think....but for a family of 5 (not sure of kids ages) I would think that or deluxe is way to go....

Just a thought...I have gone many times during free dining bur never enjoyed it because I rented points from DVC...In all the figuring I did I found for the type of accomodations I was getting with DVC (1 or 2 bedroom villa) that a comprable room with freed dining (and we got DxDP) would cost us more than renting points and paying for dining plan.

Also, when we got stuck at Disney during Sandy (flights were cancelled) we changed resorts from WL to Pop Century to save money as we didn't expect to sepnd and extr 5 days in Disney...and were pleasantly surprised with the quality of the resort...we really enjoyed it...you would need to have 2 rooms as they only include 2 doubles - if you have older children that may work.

There's alwasy alot of figuring with Disney trips as there are so many options. I would compare room rates and see if the difference in rooms exceeds the difference in dining upgrades...

 

[Shanna-like-Banana]

why not try POR that accomodates 5, and the you get the reg dining ? You can upgrade from there if you still want deluxe dining

 

[LockShockBarrel]

are you 100% on deluxe dining? I upgraded to it on my solo trip in September 2012 and it was simply too much food. I skipped a lot of appetizers and had trouble finishing a lot of stuff. Granted some of that was due to it being so warm out and my tendency to lose my appetite when its like that but really, it's just a lot of food. If you want it, by all means go for it, I guess I'd just really be sure you want all that food and all the time it takes to eat it to be part of your trip.

 

[jaeebird]

I would think the real value difference would come with the room rate...with free dining you are paying full price for the rooms. Obvioulsy it would cost more to upgrade from QS then DXDP...but how much more is Poly or Contemp than A0A..when I was pricing AoA once I realized it wasn't as inexpensive as you would think....but for a family of 5 (not sure of kids ages) I would think that or deluxe is way to go....

Just a thought...I have gone many times during free dining bur never enjoyed it because I rented points from DVC...In all the figuring I did I found for the type of accomodations I was getting with DVC (1 or 2 bedroom villa) that a comprable room with freed dining (and we got DxDP) would cost us more than renting points and paying for dining plan.

Also, when we got stuck at Disney during Sandy (flights were cancelled) we changed resorts from WL to Pop Century to save money as we didn't expect to sepnd and extr 5 days in Disney...and were pleasantly surprised with the quality of the resort...we really enjoyed it...you would need to have 2 rooms as they only include 2 doubles - if you have older children that may work.

There's alwasy alot of figuring with Disney trips as there are so many options. I would compare room rates and see if the difference in rooms exceeds the difference in dining upgrades...

What exactly are DVC points? That might be an idea.

 

[travelgirl06]

DVC points are points you can rent from Disney Vacation Club members to rent a villa at a DVC resort (I.e. AkV, BwV, BCv, BLT,etc.). We are going in September and got a rate we were very happy with by renting points. Based on that rate, how we like to order in restaurants, and what restaurants we want to go to, it makes more sense for us than free dining did (we had a bounce back offer last year, so I compared the two before we checked out). We are two adults and a under-3, so with more kids that would benefit from free dining, you may have a different result.

You can rent from brokers or individuals, and there is more info on the DVc part of the boards

 

[amomma23]

why not try POR that accomodates 5, and the you get the reg dining ? You can upgrade from there if you still want deluxe dining

This is what we're doing (just sticking with regular DDP, though). We're going in August with a FD bounce back. I have figured every scenario I can think of as far as resorts, renting points, etc. and I can't come up with a better price for our family.

ETA: We are also 5 with kids 10, 6, and 4.

 

[wiigirl]

why not try POR that accomodates 5, and the you get the reg dining ? You can upgrade from there if you still want deluxe dining

Thats a good idea.

 

[clanmcculloch]

It's it's 100% about cost then just price out both options and choose the cheaper one.

Here are the intangibles between the two as far as I can see. If prices are close then which means more to you?
* AoA has more space and 2 bathrooms
* Deluxe has a lot of TS restaurants within easy access (walking, boat or monorail depending on the resort); you'll be doing a lot of TS meals with DxDDP so less travel time required.