Orlando/Disneyworld Thread (Part 3)

aprilshower

HI everybody,

We are going to Orlando in just over a week and staying in a villa off the 192. Which is the best all you can eat breakfast?

I know last time we went I looked on this thread and we went to the one that was recommended and it was amazing. But I cannot remember that it was called.

Thanks in advance for all your help

Aprilshower

KarenG

aprilshower wrote: »

HI everybody,

We are going to Orlando in just over a week and staying in a villa off the 192. Which is the best all you can eat breakfast?

I know last time we went I looked on this thread and we went to the one that was recommended and it was amazing. But I cannot remember that it was called.

Thanks in advance for all your help

Aprilshower

Golden Corral?
Ponderosa?

(I hate them both but lots of people love 'em):D

rabbit_burrow

Golden Corral by far.

rabbit_burrow

dazzer68 wrote: »

Can anyone help...
My sister wants to go to wdw next year, stay onsite. 2 adults 2 childrenn (9,11) probably an allstar resort as the best value, but a resort with a free dining plan might be better overall value. October next year 14 days, no car needed, with disney passes. Im on ipad and its a real pain looking at every site, if theres any TA here whats the best you can come up with

The 'free' dining plans aren't really worth it, you can pay extra to upgrade it to the regular dining plan but it's restrictive in that you can't have an appetizer (half of our party prefer savoury to sweet), so we always pay for ourselves (but then again, we can get a Tables in Wonderland card for discounts, so we get it cheaper, maybe we are biased).

The child who is 11 will be charged adult rate if they opt to pay for a dining plan on top of an all stars resort. A regular dining plan will cost about $180 per day (£120 roughly), the quick dining plan (the one that comes 'free' with the middle resorts) will be about $125 (roughly £85).

She will need to compare the cost of the middle resorts incl free dining plan/paying extra for upgrade, with having the value resorts and paying for the dining plan separately.

rabbit_burrow

kellyanddarrell wrote: »

Hi everyone!!

We are going to Florida in March 2014, 2 adults and 3 children, aged 14, 10 &5. We have already booked our flights with BA and have money sorted for car hire & villa hire. I need some advice on how much spending money I should save, we are spending a week in Orlando & will be doing a day at Disney, 2 days at Universal, 1 day at seaworld, 1 day at DC and a day at either blizzard beach or typhoon lagoon. We are then driving down to Fort Myers Beach to spend a week down there, just relaxing & chilling out!! I was thinking about £3-3,500 should be enough, is this about right? Also because we are only planning to spend a day at Disney & a couple of days at Universal would it be easier to purchase our park tickets when we are over there or prior to when we go? Sorry for all the questions but this is our first time going to Florida so I have no idea lol!!

1 day in Disney? Which disney park are you planning to do in that day? To cover everything in each of the four parks you will need about 7 days, so you need to look at what park has to offer and decide which one you will visit, you may want to also plan which rides & shows you will want to see as you won't get to to everything in the one day.

KarenG

rabbit_burrow wrote: »

The 'free' dining plans aren't really worth it, you can pay extra to upgrade it to the regular dining plan but it's restrictive in that you can't have an appetizer (half of our party prefer savoury to sweet), so we always pay for ourselves (but then again, we can get a Tables in Wonderland card for discounts, so we get it cheaper, maybe we are biased).

The child who is 11 will be charged adult rate if they opt to pay for a dining plan on top of an all stars resort. A regular dining plan will cost about $180 per day (£120 roughly), the quick dining plan (the one that comes 'free' with the middle resorts) will be about $125 (roughly £85).

She will need to compare the cost of the middle resorts incl free dining plan/paying extra for upgrade, with having the value resorts and paying for the dining plan separately.

Regular dining plan is also free if you book a deluxe WDW hotel. That's where the best discounts are - at Old Key West and Saratoga Springs. I think the majority of UK visitors would vehemently disagree with your statement that they aren't worth it.

Like you I have a TIW card and am a DVC member too, but shockingly the free DDP actually works out better financially than using my DVC points to stay at Old Key West or Saratoga.

I would never pay for the dining plan for the reasons you mention above (no appetiser any more and we aren't dessert fans), but when it's free, combined with a discounted room rate, we'd be crazy not to take it.

2ba3c

Hi everyone, off to Orlando for the whole month of August, yippee!

Can anybody recommend car hire companies who let you have more than 1 driver, for not an extortionate amount, please?

rabbit_burrow

KarenG wrote: »

Regular dining plan is also free if you book a deluxe WDW hotel. That's where the best discounts are - at Old Key West and Saratoga Springs. I think the majority of UK visitors would vehemently disagree with your statement that they aren't worth it. i'd love to see their sums. I've worked it out several times now, and it doesn't ever come out on top

Like you I have a TIW card and am a DVC member too, but shockingly the free DDP actually works out better financially than using my DVC points to stay at Old Key West or Saratoga. I've not found this, but maybe it depends on what time of year you go and what room type you have?

I would never pay for the dining plan for the reasons you mention above (no appetiser any more and we aren't dessert fans), but when it's free, combined with a discounted room rate, we'd be crazy not to take it.i bought when it was cheap so it works out about £600 per year for accomodation for us (or £1200 per trip) so it would have to be a lot less than £2600 for a 2 week trip in a 1bedroom including the free dining plan to make me go for it (not including flights of course, we don't do package anymore as get our flights cheaper)

Of course, I'm sure it must be different for others, but I have never been able to get it to work out cheaper, especially as my TiW card basically covers the tips and we save money too, not to mention buying snack stuff at super target or Walmart, DDP doesn't include tips so could easily end up costing us around $25 a day extra

rabbit_burrow

And when I say less than £2600 including the DDP, I am talking about the regular upgrade. If it was just the free DDP (the quick service plan), it would need to work out at less than £2100 for it to be worth it to me.

KarenG

rabbit_burrow wrote: »

Of course, I'm sure it must be different for others, but I have never been able to get it to work out cheaper, especially as my TiW card basically covers the tips and we save money too, not to mention buying snack stuff at super target or Walmart, DDP doesn't include tips so could easily end up costing us around $25 a day extra

In brief, my example is OKW in a studio for two adults and two children (though they are Disney adults, now). Last trip (usually August, always school holidays) we paid £119/night. That then carried free DDP for the four of us. We then stayed for a further two weeks in two other DVC resorts with no DDP and used our TIW card (though we also used it with free DDP for drinks etc). By that point though, we were fully happy to go offsite for a lot of meals. We would already have bough cereal, milk, fruit for the room.


Agree in the tips, but we'd pay those whether DDP was free or if we were paying OOP (though I agree the tips are greater with DDP, but it still doesn't come close to eroding the free DDP value for us).