Numbers and days and trips, oh my! Need Help

[goonie007]

Ok, so I need some help from some of the experts here regarding my upcoming trip/trips

As it stands now our Honeymoon vacation is at POP from 10/19/10 – 10/28/10 and we are currently using the Free Dining Offer and have 10 day hopper with Water park options. Under the current pricing I figure we save $756.00 on the dining plan and I think having it will benefit us because we want to eat at some nice romantic places. I have ADR’s for

Narcoossee’s
Coral Reef
Planet Hollywood :lookaroun(I know NOT romantic but I enjoy it)
Jiko
O’hana
Le Cellier:slurp:
Teppan Edo

Now since I’m the type of person that has to make sure I have the best deal out there and won’t sleep until:hammer:. The best deal I have is right around $2010.00. for the two of us

BUT… We are planning a 8 day trip around the end of Aug beginning of Sept next year with my two daughters and the idea of annual passes jumped into my head for us to cover both trips.

I’m trying to calculate it both ways and see what the better deal is.

Scenario 1 – Leave trip as is and get in on next years Free Dining Offer which is currently out

Scenario 2 – Get annual passes now and drop the 10 day. Lose the Free Dining but pick up the room discount (30% I think) and pay out of pocket for meals. Forgo the Free Dining Offer next year and cross fingers for a good AP room discount.

The numbers I’ve crunched have me paying more this year (around $700) by adding the dining plan back in and going the AP route

I think I should leave it as is and jump on the Free Dining next year with the little ones but I wanted to ask everyone’s opinion

Thanks in advance for any insight :wave:

 

[tink65]

We actually started to do the same thing one year but decided we would leave everything as it was and just book next year with free dining. Who knows what will happen in a years time. It would be unfortunate to spend all the extra this year (purchasing annual passes) and then have something unforseen come up that would prevent you from going in 2011! At least if you book seperate you have until 45 days prior to arrival to pay for it and then even if something happened after that the most you would lose if you cancelled would be the $200 deposit.......

 

[Ariel484]

We are doing 2 trips in 2011 so we got annual passes for the first time...I think it'll save us $100 overall or something like that. We're also going to get the Tables in Wonderland card...have you looked into that? We would normally get the dining plan but I'm excited to try something different.

Just crunch the numbers and see what works best, but my hunch is the APs may be the way to go.

And enjoy Jiko! That was our "special night out" during our honeymoon in May 2009 and we LOVE it there. :wave:

 

[cemeb4dk]

I would also say AP's and then the table sin wonderland cards. Plus with AP's there are other discounts, like free parking ( if you drive) and other room rate discounts.

 

[goonie007]

Thank you all for your replies :wave:

Ariel484 – I have looked into the TiW card and it seems great but… from the research I have done it seems to just cancel out the tip (not that I don’t tip 15-20% anyway) the main thing keeping me from getting it is that on next years trip with the little ones we prob wont be doing that many sit downs to keep us from being tied to a schedule. And thanks for the thumbs up on Jiko we are really looking forward to it

Tink65 – glad to see I’m not the only one with this dilemma :veryconfu

Cemeb4dk – thank you for your input, I am on the hunt for all the perks that come with AP even though we use WDW transportation since we fly in (Oklahoma is too far of a drive for me I’m a wuss:lookaroun)