327 days and counting

[xo0ally]

Were in the very early stages of planning our vacation of July 2011. We will be leaving the 2nd and staying for 2 1/2 weeks. There will 4 of us for the whole time and an additional person for only 1 week. We are considering the dining plan but we do not know if it is worth it for our family. It's 4 adults and in the four adults is a 19 year old boy and a 18 year old girl. So we do not know if the ddp will work for us. Any one have any thoughts? Another thing is we are considering the junior suite at Coronado springs but am not sure about that, another hotel we were considering was Saratoga Springs. Any help or advice will be greatly appreciated!

[Strmchsr]

The DDP's value really comes down to a couple of things. First, do you all like to eat 2 really big meals plus snacks each day? You get plenty of food at both the counter service and the table service and, for some, it can be hard to eat that much food, especially in the heat of the summer. Second, do you like to plan sit down meals every day or do you prefer to just eat when you're hungry? During a very crowded time, like the summer, you pretty much have to make your ADRs 6 months in advance. That removes the spontaneity out of your trip. Some folks like that. Others don't. So, if you like 2 big meals plus snacks, then, yes, the DDP can be a good value. If you don't then you'd do better without the DDP. Same thing for the planning question.

[faline]

For a 2-1/2 week stay, I'd suggest looking at annual passes. You'd also be able to purchase the Tables in Wonderland discount card which will provide you with 20% off food and beverage at most table service locations and many lounges as well. You may also be able to get an annual pass discount on your lodgings with an annual pass. This may actually work out better for you (depending on your style of dining) than the dining plan.

For our May trip, I kept track of our dining expenses and compared that to getting free dining. It wasn't a true comparison in that the "free dining" lodging that I priced out was in a less expensive time of year than when we were actually there. Even with that advantage for the "free dining", we came out ahead by paying for our room and paying for all dining out of pocket.

[xo0ally]

Thanks for the advice I'll def look into that.. also considering this is our about 20th something trip is there anything you can recommend that you think we may have never done. We are doing the Keys to the Kingdom tour for the first time this July.

[Strmchsr]

also considering this is our about 20th something trip is there anything you can recommend that you think we may have never done

Look at all the various tours. The Segway tour is good, the Behind the Seeds tour is a lot of fun and inexpensive. My favorite is Divequest (and you can do Aquaseas if you're not scuba certified - both let you swim the aquarium at the Living Seas).