Anthony Vito
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jan 16, 2017
So we're planning on going at the end of August/beginning of September and getting the Free Dining when it becomes available. We're planning on staying at Contemporary (our kids will be 5 and 3 and after staying at Caribbean this past September, we want to be close to MK) so we'll have the standard/Disney Dining. In doing the math between potentially 30% off rooms for Deluxe or doing the Free Dining, even if we don't maximize our Dining plan value, we're still likely at least breaking even by doing the Free Dining as opposed to the room discount (30% discount would save us $835 vs. $1280 for the Dining plan). We also do some of the character meals for the little ones, so those get us good value on the plan (and I'd be really hard pressed to pony up almost almost $160 for the 4 of us for one of those character meals otherwise).
I know it's generally not considered a good use of meal points, but we are considering doing California Grill one night (and being able to take advantage of returning for the fireworks). We would like to go there, but didn't really want to use 2 meals. However, since we're planning on doing Kona for breakfast, looking at the math, we'd actually get more value out of using two Table Service meals on California and paying for our breakfast at Kona ($47 entree vs. $14 entree). Even looking at some of the other meals we'd get, like Tony's Town Square, Mama Melrose's, etc.), I personally would probably only be losing a couple dollars by using two meals at California ($5-$10 or so, including dessert).
So, after trying to justify using two Table Services for one meal, I finally arrive at my question - do we have to use any of the kids' Table Service meals or can we choose to pay for their meals ($10 for the mac & cheese - about all we can get them to eat out these days) while using the Dining Plan for ourselves? It's a total waste to use 2 meals for them when their meal would only be about $1 more then at other Table Service places. We'd rather pay for theirs, then use theirs when we're paying for our less expensive meals at Kona for breakfast, etc.
I know it's generally not considered a good use of meal points, but we are considering doing California Grill one night (and being able to take advantage of returning for the fireworks). We would like to go there, but didn't really want to use 2 meals. However, since we're planning on doing Kona for breakfast, looking at the math, we'd actually get more value out of using two Table Service meals on California and paying for our breakfast at Kona ($47 entree vs. $14 entree). Even looking at some of the other meals we'd get, like Tony's Town Square, Mama Melrose's, etc.), I personally would probably only be losing a couple dollars by using two meals at California ($5-$10 or so, including dessert).
So, after trying to justify using two Table Services for one meal, I finally arrive at my question - do we have to use any of the kids' Table Service meals or can we choose to pay for their meals ($10 for the mac & cheese - about all we can get them to eat out these days) while using the Dining Plan for ourselves? It's a total waste to use 2 meals for them when their meal would only be about $1 more then at other Table Service places. We'd rather pay for theirs, then use theirs when we're paying for our less expensive meals at Kona for breakfast, etc.
