Tables in Wonderland dining discount program price increase begins today

[alissafalco]

I wouldn't be surprised if TIW eventually gets fazed out.

 

[**Stacy**]

I had TIW as recently as 2010-2011 and I am pretty sure it was $100 for the year as a FL Res/AP holder($50 for the second card). At that time we were a family of 5 and dragged along friends and family for day trips and long weekends a lot. We would break even after a weekend of TS meals. That TIW card made TS more attractive to us and quickly converted us from quick service to TS. I was able to snag a Ft. Wilderness cabin for $125-137 per night, we would board the dogs on-site, and we would spend an insane amount of money on food at Disney...$200-350 per meal X 3 every day.

I almost wonder if Disney realized that they had to show the long-term value of DVC by actually getting room prices up to the insane levels they were using as the boogey-man if you did not pre purchase your hotel room for 40 years. We sat through the DVC presentation and couldn't justify the cost of the buy in and maintenance fees if we could still find rooms for less than $150 per night...they made the numbers work for maintenance fees , but that 50k initial buy in for the points we needed mysteriously disappeared their magical calculation (we also lived 45 minutes away..we were going to be a hard sale anyway) .

They got people hooked on "free" dining and rapidly raised room rates while people were distracted with "free" food.....I never see the cabins for less than $337 per night now. Free dining made a race out of landing dinner reservations so now people are willing to plan their vacation meals months ahead of time in order to have a place at a table..any table whether it's free dining or not. For what it's worth, in my experience whenever any company I worked for rolled out free food, it was to soften the blow of something bad..working through lunch, impossible sales goals, take over announcements, being forced to listen to the audio version of "Who Moved my Cheese?" before strongly suggesting we put on our little mouse tennis shoes and get on board with changes quick..etc.

 

[Minthorne]

I have to say on my final trip last week with the Card I bought in Dec 2014 I was with group of 11 (so one kid we got a separate check for) and between just Brunch at Chef Mickey's and Dinner at Marrakesh the discount was $160. If you have a big group the card can still pay itself off fast. But usually I only travel in 2-4's so this was out of the norm.

That was a year that matched up with an AP so I got several trips in and definitely saved a bunch over 5 trips, the large group in this last trip was really icing on the rice krispie treat.

 

[AEfx]

I have to say on my final trip last week with the Card I bought in Dec 2014 I was with group of 11 (so one kid we got a separate check for) and between just Brunch at Chef Mickey's and Dinner at Marrakesh the discount was $160. If you have a big group the card can still pay itself off fast. But usually I only travel in 2-4's so this was out of the norm.

That was a year that matched up with an AP so I got several trips in and definitely saved a bunch over 5 trips, the large group in this last trip was really icing on the rice krispie treat.

That's just it - you basically just told the story of a lot of folks here, at least previously. Folks like me, or other long time members, who always kept an AP, had the dining discount plan (at whatever name it has been at various times), and usually stayed on property. Each year, though, for more and more of us it just became less and less worth it. Not only in terms of the actual costs/value equations, but also just the fact that so little is at WDW over the past five or so years to justify going down 3-6 times a year.

It can still work - but the sad truth is, it works for fewer and fewer all the time. At $50, the dining discount card was awesome - and encouraged more sit-downs. obviously, with all the promotions, they need to sell less sit-downs these days. What will be interesting is the next "nerf" to the program I see coming - as you so deftly pointed out, the amount of people it can include can be "game changing". They can't raise the price of the card much more without it stalling, but I can see them reducing the party size, or, aghast, excluding alcohol. (Though I do think the former is the more likely, as the latter would likely kill the program.)

 

[Nastory4]

Don't worry another across the board increase in general meal prices will again make it "worth it".

Sad but true.
The web site says each year you have to renew, do they mean it is now only valid twelve months? I believe theylasted fifteen months.

 

[note2001]

Sad but true.
The web site says each year you have to renew, do they mean it is now only valid twelve months? I believe theylasted fifteen months.

The TIW card I purchased at the end of June of this summer and the card has an expiration date of 7/31/16.

 

[Tuvalu]

Sad but true.
The web site says each year you have to renew, do they mean it is now only valid twelve months? I believe theylasted fifteen months.

I have had TiW for many years. The card was only ever valid for 12 months, but depending on your date of purchase it could be closer to 13 months. I renewed on 9/26/15 and my membership is good until 10/31/16.

 

[Nastory4]

Maybe it was 13 months. I used it in August 2014 & 2015 with same card. Either way, I am unsure I will purchase it with the increased cost.

 

[rucifee]

Maybe it was 13 months. I used it in August 2014 & 2015 with same card. Either way, I am unsure I will purchase it with the increased cost.

Increased cost, reduced restaurant participation, and black out dates are why I won't buy into it anymore. It's too bad too, it used to be a good value.