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Originally Posted by Boss Mouse
Seriously, Does this constitute a big savings? There are 7 of us so this adds up to $266/day; over 8 days = $2128. That is a lot of cockles.
We usually stop at the grocery store on the way in so that we can fix meals in the room.
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I think it depends on your family, and how they eat. For many people, it is a huge savings. I have two teenage boys that we usually force to share an adult meal, and they come out starving. It sure would be nice to just let them order what they want and not have to worry about cost or if they eat it all.
The plan is based on the number of nights you stay. If you normally eat one nice meal per day, whether it is a character meal or nice dinner, it will work for you. We stay in a 2 bedroom, and usually just have cereal or whatever for breakfast. We would then have a counter service lunch and a nice dinner. Figure it as such. Our family would be 4 adults (10 and older) and 3 kids, so a total price of $185 per night of our stay. Here is a sample day in our family:
Lunch, Columbia Harbour House
4 adults: $51
3 kids: $24
Total with tax: $80
Dinner, Rose and Crown
4 adults: $131
3 kids: $41
Total with tax and tip: $211
7 snacks: $21
Total for the day: $312
So, we would save about $127 for that day alone. Now, we normally wouldn't order and appetizer and dessert for everyone in the family, so that is a little skewed. I also didn't chose an expensive restaurant for dinner. Le Celler, Alfredo's or Spoodles would have been much more. Dinner at Akershus with the Princesses would have been $185 for us, so the rest of the food that day would have been free, in a way.
If you normally do a lot of your meals in your room, and you like spending the time doing that, it probably won't work for you. For us, we like doing one nice meal per day.
One other thing to think about is that you have to look at other things besides the cost savings. Most of your meals are pre-paid, so you can budget almost to the penny. When we used to go, we had no idea what the costs would be on food, I would just figure $1,500 for a week, and it usually ended up around that amount, but sometimes it was $500 higher. This way, everything is done, and I know exactly what it will cost. You also have time savings, not having to go back to the resort, prepare meals, clean up, etc. You also don't have to worry about what the kids are ordering, they can do what they want, it won't change the price.
There are so many pluses to the plan, and so few negatives, I find it hard to see many situations where this wouldn't work well.