Alexander said:
We too would like the MYW dining plan to be available. I know many don't agree, but it would work well for my family. $80/day for more food than we could eat is a big money saver for us. We too stay in studios and the cold-cut sandwiches, yogurt, and cereal gets real old, real fast. We are on vacation and want to have nice meals. We can have those foods at home any old time.
As an example, I just found the O'hana receipt from April, we spent $85.57 for 2 adults, and 1 child. This was the CC total, so it included the tip too. (We did not have any drinks we had to pay for.) So for that one meal, it cost us $5.57 more than it would to buy the MYW dining plan. That was for one meal only. We had lunch one day at Epcot, and it was $29.55 for the three of us. Add that to the dinner we had at O'hana and we are already way ahead of the game.
The DDE is the best we can get right now, so I'll likely get one in August, then we'll have it for four trips, and really get our money out of it.
I completely agree that $35 is an incredible deal for adults and $10 for the kids is amazing. We bought the PAP's and the DDE card for our upcoming trip in DEC. However, if the the MYW dining plan had been available we may have done that. We love meal plans. We were completly loyal to the old Dreammaker gold or silver plans. We loved them. The silver was out fav. We used it for a character/resort breakfast and then a sit down dinner. We ate fast food lunch that we payed for. I know some may think it's silly but, my big hesitation in buying DVC, aside from the fact that we will not stay at the POLY anymore, was the lack of a meal plan.
We like eating lots of food on vacation! We don't plan on cooking in our DVC kitchen, ever. In fact, I asked DH if he wanted to eat a couple of breakfasts in the villa like frozen waffles, and he looked at me like I was nuts. He said he'd go to Cape May Cafe and meet after I ate my frozen waffles.
Needless to say, we will not be eating breakfast in the villa.
We love planning our PS's 90 days ahead. We aren't going until Dec and have been talking for days about our dinner choice restaurants! We have fav's that we HAVE to do every time (Brown Derby, Flying Fish, Ohana) and we love picking others to make each trip special. We have been having the Yachtsman vs Le Celliar conversation for weeks. (I know, we're weird). We order appetizers and when we had the meal plans, desert too. We have 3 kids who love to eat out also.
I think the MYW dining is a good deal. We could get a sit down dinner, a fast food luch and a snack. The only thing we'd have to pay for is a sit down breakfast and alcohol.
Also, trails end buffet is NOT a great suggestion for everyone. That place is a haul to get to unless you are staying at VWL or have a car. We are staying at BWV and don't ever rent cars. I would never spend that much time getting somewhere just to save a few dollars. We are planing a $2200 food budget for 5 of us on a 9 day trip. Hopefully with the DDE card, we will save some of that.
I think that's pretty good. It's our first time with out a meal plan. We looked at the menus on allearsnet.com to figure out the budget. Our friends who went last June were bragging about how they only spent $1800 on food (2 adults, 2 kids). Then in talking to them we discovered they did 2 dinner shows which were prepaid that they didin't count in their total and 3 princess breakfasts that they did CC deposits for, that they also did not count! I will still miss the silver plan, but if DVC gives us the MYW dining plan next year, we may get it for our 2006 trip. It depends how much we like the DDE card!! The fact that it includes alcohol is a huge plus for us!
! It helps to have a kitchen for those leftovers if your staying in a one or two bedroom! So the MYW dining could come in handy for us as well, but since its not available, the DDE is definitley a great alternative...
