Tables in Wonderland Price Increase About This Page:

[DrDolphin]

They haven't increased the price in a very long time... so, I am not really surprised. Also - given the increased prices in the sit down restaurants, (I hate to say this), but it won't be any harder to break even.

[Mystic]

I can purchase a TIW card when I upgrade my pass to an annual pass correct?

[Beautiful Mother]

That's what we did. I'm looking forward to using it in December, even with getting the DP, otherwise, I will have wasted my $$.

[num1DVCfan]

Originally Posted by Beautiful Mother

That's what we did. I'm looking forward to using it in December, even with getting the DP, otherwise, I will have wasted my $$.

Do you use both the DDP and TiW for your trip? I was considering doing that for our trip in May. I have more TS booked than dining credits, but not enough TS to justify the cost of the Deluxe Plan. I was thinking I could use TiW for some meals and then use it again when we return in October too.

[Beautiful Mother]

Yes, we are using both. With TIW everyone needs to be eating together to get the discount. There are 5 adults traveling with us and we will not be eating all meals together. I can still use the TIW card for appetizers and FAB's we may want to eat or for meals that we choose to eat that would be OOP. I ran the numbers and if everyone ate together all the time, we might save $50 on the trip. So for convenience, we chose to get the meal plan and supplement it with TIW.

[num1DVCfan]

Originally Posted by Beautiful Mother

Yes, we are using both. With TIW everyone needs to be eating together to get the discount. There are 5 adults traveling with us and we will not be eating all meals together. I can still use the TIW card for appetizers and FAB's we may want to eat or for meals that we choose to eat that would be OOP. I ran the numbers and if everyone ate together all the time, we might save $50 on the trip. So for convenience, we chose to get the meal plan and supplement it with TIW.

Thanks for the info. I'm going to use both as well. I like that I'll be able to get 2 trips out of TiW and still get a discount on the meals we'd pay OOP. For our Oct trip, I'm only going to be using the TiW due to the short amount of time we'll be there, so I'll still get my money's worth.

[Dave Marx]

I'd have to pull out the spreadsheet to be positive, but I can't see how TIW + DDP makes any economic sense.

Every DDP meal you eat makes it that much harder to break even or come out ahead on TIW.

The counter service and regular DDPs deliver zero in the way of discounts. Sure, there are ways you can come out a bit ahead, with very careful restaurant selection and meal planning. At this point, it's a tool for meal planning and budgeting, and a convenience for those who want to divorce money concerns from their vacation enjoyment. Nothing else.

Now, if you're using the Deluxe DDP, the arithmetic changes, but it's really hard to do better than 20% savings on the Deluxe DDP, and you'd have so many meal credits that it's unlikely you'd pay OOP for anything but alcoholic beverages and a couple of CS meals (since on Deluxe DDP you're way overpaying if you use a credit for CS). In other words, unless you're buying a lot of alcoholic beverages, the TIW card is worthless if you're on the Deluxe DDP.

Meantime, TIW gives you the discount on table service meals, including alcoholic beverages, and you can order appetizer instead of (or in addition to) dessert. If you you're the type to skip both appetizer and dessert, you haven't paid for a dessert you didn't consume.

With TIW everyone needs to be eating together to get the discount.

That's not quite the way to look at it. The better way to look at it is, "Only those eating with the card holder get the discount." Whoever has the card is saving on each and every TS meal they pay for OOP.

If most of your meals will be covered by DDP credits on this trip, I'd suggest you delay purchase of TIW until a trip(s) where you'll put it to better use - you may get yet another trip's use out of it.

If you're footing the meal bills for everyone on the upcoming trip? You could skip DDP, use TIW for every one of your meals (including the meals everyone eats together), and hand out Disney Gift Cards for meals folks consume away from the main group.

And when you consider the break-even point on TIW, consider that, if break-even is $625, then your actual savings after $1,250 in food and beverage purchases is 10% (20% = $250, 10% = $125 $250-$125=$125). Again, the more you spend on TIW, the less you use DDP, the more you're likely to save a significant amount of money.

[num1DVCfan]

That's really good info Dave, thanks. I'm going to skip DDP now and just use TiW. For our particular situation, it must makes more sense.

[saibot0001]

I'm wondering with all the price increases on the dining plans and TIW card if all the restaurants/buffet meals will be increasing in 2013 too. If that happens, it would probably still be a good deal.

[Dave Marx]

I think the price increase is making up for previous price increases, rather than anticipating new increases. That said, we can pretty well count on Disney prices going up every year anyway. For a long time, meal prices did not increase all that much year-to-year. The two biggest changes lately were the dramatic increase in the buffet/character meal rates (relative to other restaurants), and the widespread use of seasonally-adjusted rates. I don't think future buffet/character increases will be nearly as dramatic - more likely they'll increase about the same amount as other meals. Seasonal adjustments are another matter. I expect the "seasons" will get longer and more frequent.

[Beautiful Mother]

We already had TIW from our previous trips this year. Our kids (all grown,BTW) thought DDP would be better for them. In hind sight, I think they would now go OOP not because of the $$ but because they thought it tied them to "mom's" plans and they hate planning anything or being a part of anyone else's plans! If not for their wishes we probably would have used TIW for everything. Using both tends to confuse some of the CM's, so I had to carefully monitor the bills.