Help me crunch the numbers so many options!

[sheboz]

I need help planing a trip for my family of 5. I'm hoping you can help with the numbers.

2 adults 13 year old, 10 year and 3 year old.
October 29-Nov 4 2017

These dates last year were covered under the Canadian free dining promo.

Should we purchase discounted park tickets and hope for a room only discount?
Should we rent DVC?
Should we attempt free dining?

Feeling a little overwhelmed. I look forward to seeing some numbers and hearing your suggestions. TIA

 

[pigletto]

Ok off the top of my head..

Free dining is a really good promo for a larger family. Essentially by Disney's rules you are 4 adults and 1 child. Free Dining in a moderate room (that sleeps 5) would be a cost saving option.

However, where do you WANT to stay? Because often a room only discount or renting points for a Deluxe will often be much better than free dining at a Deluxe. Especially with the 25% off tickets.

It's so hard to plan when the ticket promo is ending soon, but there's no guarantee that free dining will come or cover the same dates it did last year. I see your dilemma.

What's the MOST important thing for you on this trip?

For example, for the August trip we were planning, the most important factors were budget and space. With those two things at the forefront of our mind we did a cost comparison of the options that gave us space, and offsite won. We decided it made the most sense to stay offsite at Bonnet Creek. In the past when the kids were smaller, space didn't matter as much and the most important thing to us was DDP and budget so we usually went with a moderate resort and free dining.

If you can identify the most important thing/s to your family, it will be easier to begin to narrow down the options.

 

[Cottager]

Without getting deep into the numbers with the various scenarios, I'd simply say, get your 25% off the tickets now, then 15 - 30% off for the "room only" discount (more if you add the additional room discount at Cheaptickets/Orbitz) and control your spending of your food on your own and you should end up saving the most if that's your intent.

 

[sheboz]

Keeping control of the budget is essential. Our last trip was offsite. I want to stay onsite.

 

[Donald - my hero]

I know you asked my help with the numbers and while normally i would be all over this in a heartbeat I'm currently down for the count! The sinus infection i managed to find floating around in the petri-dish that is called Disney World and that lowered my resistance enough to allow the flu to piggyback it's way home with us. I figured as much with how utterly exhausted i was the last day (eating a bowl of oatmeal was an impossible task and i didn't end up with a sweatshirt that i planned to buy our last day in DS, couldn't walk more than 20 steps without needing to sit down)

I concur with the previous poster who said buy the tickets now and then keep an eye on the discounts that come out. When we booked packages for our kids there was a "stay, play and dine" offer which was a wacky combination of room, ticket and dining discounts and they received a LOWER price than a friend i have in the states could get for the same time period -- in a resort that wasn't included in the stated offer!! Once my head clears i can look around my disaster zone of a desk and find the exact numbers, but that could be a week or more

 

[sheboz]

Oh no! Feel better soon! I appreciate the response!

 

[Michelle Mahovlich]

I'm in the same boat. Knowing the promotion ends soon and trying to decide whether to buy the discounted tickets now and hope for an additional room discount (which typically happens in the fall) or to hold out for the possibility of free dining. This is how I've been trying to rationalize my decision;

If I buy our 5 day park tickets now (no PH) I'll save 330 US. In addition, fall typically has a room only discount between 15%-30%, value and the lowest end and deluxe at the higher end. We are staying at AOA and at the typical room discount for this resort at 15% it's another 700 and change in savings. Giving us a total of just over 1000 in discounts. This is where it gets tricky;

In order to get Free Dining you may have to be flexible in your dates as they may not be covered. In addition, you would most likely have to add either park hoppers or water park, making your tickets more expensive if you didn't plan on this. Depending on which resort you are staying at you may want to upgrade the dining package which is an additional cost per person per day.

When I priced staying at AOA (Nemo suites) with free dining (with PH and upgraded regular dining plan) vs. pre-purchased discounted tickets and room-only discounts, free dining came out on top by only 35 dollars. To me the gamble of not getting the promotion or having to switch resorts to one you didn't plan on staying at because it's only offered at certain resorts and certain rooms made the decision for me.

Hope that helps!

 

[sheboz]

I'm in the same boat. Knowing the promotion ends soon and trying to decide whether to buy the discounted tickets now and hope for an additional room discount (which typically happens in the fall) or to hold out for the possibility of free dining. This is how I've been trying to rationalize my decision;

If I buy our 5 day park tickets now (no PH) I'll save 330 US. In addition, fall typically has a room only discount between 15%-30%, value and the lowest end and deluxe at the higher end. We are staying at AOA and at the typical room discount for this resort at 15% it's another 700 and change in savings. Giving us a total of just over 1000 in discounts. This is where it gets tricky;

In order to get Free Dining you may have to be flexible in your dates as they may not be covered. In addition, you would most likely have to add either park hoppers or water park, making your tickets more expensive if you didn't plan on this. Depending on which resort you are staying at you may want to upgrade the dining package which is an additional cost per person per day.

When I priced staying at AOA (Nemo suites) with free dining (with PH and upgraded regular dining plan) vs. pre-purchased discounted tickets and room-only discounts, free dining came out on top by only 35 dollars. To me the gamble of not getting the promotion or having to switch resorts to one you didn't plan on staying at because it's only offered at certain resorts and certain rooms made the decision for me.

Hope that helps!

Michelle what would the savings be if you went to a moderate like a cabin at the fort and you did not pay for the upgrade in the dining plan like you are at the AOA?

 

[Michelle Mahovlich]

Michelle what would the savings be if you went to a moderate like a cabin at the fort and you did not pay for the upgrade in the dining plan like you are at the AOA?

More than likely you would save a bit more because you don't need to upgrade dining plans like I would at AOA being a value+ resort. Based on the information you provided above I priced yours out using your dates, resort and used 5 day park hoppers (just to give you an idea), and it looks like you would save approx. $1,225 with ticket discount plus more than likely a 25% room-only discount for that resort level. The dining plan in the package came to $1761.00 so you would definitely save more on free dining. From my many hours of research the more people (specifically adult tickets) you have staying in one room the higher the cost of the dining would be therefore the bigger the discount with free dining. If it were me in your situation, I would hold out for free dining and know that I may need to be flexible with my dates and be ready when the time comes to snag that discount. Looks like the cabins are very popular with the free dining promo. Good luck!

 

[sheboz]

More than likely you would save a bit more because you don't need to upgrade dining plans like I would at AOA being a value+ resort. Based on the information you provided above I priced yours out using your dates, resort and used 5 day park hoppers (just to give you an idea), and it looks like you would save approx. $1,225 with ticket discount plus more than likely a 25% room-only discount for that resort level. The dining plan in the package came to $1761.00 so you would definitely save more on free dining. From my many hours of research the more people (specifically adult tickets) you have staying in one room the higher the cost of the dining would be therefore the bigger the discount with free dining. If it were me in your situation, I would hold out for free dining and know that I may need to be flexible with my dates and be ready when the time comes to snag that discount. Looks like the cabins are very popular with the free dining promo. Good luck!

Thank you Michelle I appreciate your time!

 

[Average Joes]

If you did not have free dinning would you reduce your TS meals, order groceries for beverages, snacks and some breakfasts? Would that negatively impact your vacation? To compare the cost of adding the dinning plan to your party of 5 to the 25% plus a likely room discount is problematic if you are fine with the above. There are other issues with comparing the dinning plan here. You have a 10 & 13 year old who you are paying full adult dinning plan prices but if you paid out of pocket would they eat that much? Then you have a 3 year old who perhaps would not eat nearly enough to justify a dining plan price.

There are calculators on-line that you can use to ballpark how much you would spend on food if you paid out of pocket. I would use that as another means of comparing the cost of free dinning vs. other discounts. It is time consuming.