Dining Plan or Wonderland: Crystal Palace

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Dining, Disney, Walt Disney World

Thanks for reading the second installment of my series Dining Plan or Wonderland. If you’ve read the first entry you know I take a look at a table service restaurant and try to decide if it’s a better value for me to get the Disney Dining Plan or the Tables in Wonderland discount card. If you want more detail about the rules of the game please see the first installment, 50’s Primetime Cafe.

I actually really like Crystal Palace. I ate there on my very first trip to Walt Disney World it 2009. Funny enough we had the Disney Dining Plan during that trip. It’s a good buffet for Lunch and Dinner, though you’re not there for the food. You’re there to meet the Pooh characters. Eeyore is my wife’s favorite Disney character so it’s always fun to go meet him.

As the rules of the article go, I have calculated the price of a meal on both the Tables in Wonderland (20% discount, 18% tip added back in and 6.5% tax) and the amount I pay in cash for the Dining Plan plus an 18% tip.

For a typical Table Service meal I would choose the entree I would eat and compare it to the full Dining Plan meal I would order. This restaurant is a buffet so I’m actually able to bend the rules in a very interesting way. I traditionally wouldn’t speak for my wife but at a buffet we all pay the same for whatever we eat! In this article I’ll go more in depth to determine which option is truly the best discount for a Disney family.

According to Allears.net the Non-discounted, pre-tax cost of a Dinner meal at Crystal palace ranges from 37.99-43.66 for adults and 17.99-21.29 for children. To make this insanely number-heavy I calculated the price for both the “low” and “high”. Don’t worry there will be a summary at the end.

As in the last article I set the “cost” of an adult table service credit at $33.50. That works out to be about 55% of the cost of the Dining Plan per day. I looked at the price of the child’s dining plan and mathed out $10.57 as the cost of a child’s table service credit.

Now on with the math!

Crystal Palace, 1 adult:

To fully abide by the rules I’ll run the numbers on me going to the buffet solo.

In the low season the adult buffet costs $37.99. If you add our 18% tip and 6.5% tax into that price you’re looking at a cool $47.30 when you walk in without any discount and belly up to the bar.

Since the adult dining credit costs $33.50 that means you save $6.96 before the 18% tip. The tip actually works out to $6.84 which means in total you paid $40.34 to use the dining credit and pay your tip.

With Tables in Wonderland your meal costs $32.37 pre-18% tip, so the total comes to $39.21 with the tip added in. With TiW you save an astounding $1.13 off the cost of the Dining Plan to be a sad lone adult meeting Winnie the Pooh…

Winner: There are no winners when a 31 year old male eats alone at Crystal Palace.

The Typical Disney Family: 2 Adults, 1 Ten Year Old, 1 Child:

When Disney advertises discounts they always calculate it based on a family of four. In an outstanding feat of logic, a ten year old can’t vote for the Mayor of Main Street, USA but counts as an adult at a buffet. The child, however, gives us a good price break.

A “retail” price child’s buffet costs $17.99 in the low season. That works out to $22.40 after tax and tip.

The Dining plan table service credit costs $10.57 for a child so after tip the dining plan is $13.81, a savings of $8.59 from retail.

Tables in Wonderland works out to total $18.57 for a child and is completely blown out of the water. You are paying $4.76 more to use the TiW discount instead of the dining plan.

We know how much each meal will cost our three adults and child so let’s put these numbers together.

Dining Plan: 134.83
Wonderland: 136.20
No Discount: 164.30

Winner: Disney Dining Plan

As much as my personal opinion makes me hate typing it, the winner is the Disney Dining Plan. You save 29 dollars over “retail” and aren’t paying the $100 entry fee.

Bonus Round: High Season

These numbers are all assuming you travel in a slow time when food is relatively cheap. If you’re visiting during a peek season you may encounter a price hike on your way to the 100 Acre Woods.

In the high season an adult buffet costs $54.36 and a child buffet is $26.50! This is the time the Dining plan really shines. Our Disney family sees a slightly higher tip at the end but their up front costs remain the same.

Dining Plan: 138.48
Wonderland: 157.15
No Discount: 189.58

So for the price of a car payment you can meet Pooh, or you can save some serious money with the dining plan. You’re looking at saving 51 dollars over that the schmuck at the table beside you.

Conclusion:

If my wife and I planned to eat at a buffet every day for dinner then I think the Dining Plan would work for us. I think it REALLY makes sense if you have a child and want to “Dine with Character” every single dinner. If you just want one or two buffets then you really need to do the math on the entire trip to figure out which discount, if any, is best for you.

If you have any questions, want to see my math, or have suggestions for other restaurants please tweet me @tbgree00. Thanks for reading.

Dining Plan or Wonderland: 50’s Prime Time Cafe

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50's Prime Time Cafe, DDP, Dining, Dining Plan, Wonderland

Greetings and Happy New Year! I’ve decided to start a series of articles I call “Dining Plan or Wonderland”. In these articles I will look at a menu for a Table Service restaurant (or Counter Service in Animal Kingdom) and decide what I would buy if I was on the Dining Plan and what I would buy if I had purchased Tables in Wonderland. Then I compare the prices and decide which is more likely to actually happen.

Many podcasts and articles dive into the dining plan and it seems like everyone has an opinion about it. Some travelers refuse to go to Walt Disney World without it and some people don’t see the value in it. I hope to give both options a fighting chance and earnestly look at both options with an open mind.

Dining Plan:

I’m not a mathematician so I didn’t personally crunch the numbers to pull the “cost per meal” on the dining plan. Instead I used this post to have Len Testa tell me how much it costs. At the time of writing the dining plan costs $60.64 per day for an adult. Reading that Touringplans.com article I will use the following numbers for the price you pay per credit:

Table Service: $33.50
Counter Service: $14.75
Snack: $4.24
Refillable Mug: $8

For the purpose of these articles I will assume I have paid $33.50 for a table service credit.

Tables in Wonderland:

The Tables in Wonderland card is a perk allowed to Annual Passholders and DVC owners. It costs $100 and gives a 20% discount at most Table Service and a few Counter Service locations around the resort. The perk lasts for 1 year. The discount applies pre-tax on any food or alcoholic beverage. There’s a maximum of 10 people per meal that can receive the discount. The named owner of the card needs to be present and pay for the meal, though this depends on the Cast Member. The break even point on this discount card is $500 dollars spent in a calendar year.

50’s Prime Time Cafe:

I’ve never had the opportunity to dine at the 50’s Prime Time Cafe, though the menu seems to be right up my alley. I love comfort food, milkshakes, and old television I would have watched on Nick at Nite in the 90’s. I don’t know that I would enough being fussed at by the wait staff but we’re talking about food cost here and there is definitely a lot I would like to try.

When I use the dining plan I tend to go straight for the biggest meal on the menu. This time will be no exception. The sampler platter would be my choice. I am extremely indecisive with food so this takes a choice away without letting me test. The price for this meal is $20.99. I’ve heard rumor that they will let you get a milkshake for your beverage on the dining plan so I would get the Peanut Butter and Jelly milkshake for $5.59. For my desert I would choose Dad’s Brownie Sundae for $6.49.

I think of myself as health conscious but yes I would really order this much food. When I go to a buffet I always feel the need to make “them” regret the day they let me in there. I haven’t really glutted out in quite a few years so I would likely have to hurl 30 minutes after leaving the restaurant. It would be worth it to make Disney hurt as much as possible. Unfortunately the house, and the Mouse, always wins.

If you add up the retail price on this feast after 6.5% tax you would get $35.22. That works out to saving $1.72. You then have to pay tip. 18% of that would be $6.34. So you’re out the door paying $6.34 for a large bounty of food.

Looking at the menu as someone paying out-of-pocket with my Tables in Wonderland discount I would actually make most of the same choices. I’d stick with the sampler and order the Peanut Butter and Jelly milkshake. I would definitely skip the brownie, though. If I felt that I needed a second dessert I would go to the Writer’s Stop and get a carrot cake cookie.

So the Sampler is still $20.99 and the PB&J Shake is still $5.59. That is $26.58 pre-discount. With 20% off and 6.5% tax it is $22.65. Add on 18% tip from the pre-discount price ($4.78) and you get $27.43 out the door.

Summary:

I realize that was a lot of numbers so I figured a summary was in order.

Dining Plan: The “price paid” for the table service credit was $33.50 and I got $35.22 worth of food. I left a $6.34 tip on the table.

Wonderland: I paid $27.43 including tax and tip, but also had to pay $100 dollars for that discount and didn’t get as much food.

Winner: Wonderland

This article was written from the perspective “What would I actually order if I went into the 50’s Prime Time Cafe with each of these discounts”. For me personally, I would rather get the Wonderland discount because I don’t need a brownie sundae and a milkshake in one meal.

The dining plan can be a great value if you wanted to eat big meals, have two desserts every day, maximize the cost of your snacks, and refill your resort mug 4 or more times every day. If you get “free” dining you need to do the math to see how much you’re paying vs getting a room only discount.

To soothe my curiosity I actually did the math on Wonderland with the brownie added in. The total came to $34 and some change after tax and tip.

My Introduction

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Introduction

Hello everyone! My name is Thom and I am extremely excited to contribute to the Enchanted Tiki Talk blog. I’ve been a listener from the beginning so when I saw the call for contributors I had to throw my name out there. I’m a huge Walt Disney World fan and hope that I somehow help or entertain you between trips to The World.
As a child I remember being obsessed with The Lion King and Aladdin. I must have watched them a hundred times over. I sat in my living room floor for hours teaching myself to draw using Lion King coloring books. I was also infatuated with The Muppets. I wore out at least one VHS recording of Muppets Take Manhattan. They weren’t a Disney brand at the time but my sense of humor and timing resemble a combination of Fozzie Bear and Statler and Waldorf. The jokes aren’t very funny but they can be snide and sarcastic.
I never had a chance to go to the parks and I’m not even sure I was aware they existed. Rural Kentucky didn’t seem to have a #DisneySide (ugh…). As I grew older I put aside the “childish” Disney animation in favor of video games, comic books, and action figures. Obviously I was extremely grown up at that point. Little did I know there was a Disney World fanatic lurking under the surface.
Enter my lovely wife Amy. As part of our wedding planning in 2009 we contemplated where to travel for our honeymoon. She mentioned that a coworker was taking her niece and nephew to Disney World for spring break so I suggested we go there. Her family had visited the parks a few times so she wasn’t a complete newbie. She bought an Unofficial Guide, called AAA to help us book, and that was that.
She tried to include me in the planning but I was less than helpful. I had never visited so I had no idea what to do, where to eat, and which parks to visit. Thankfully she’s a fantastic planner and came up with a perfect vacation. We stayed at Port Orleans Riverside on the Free Dining promotion. Despite my feelings about the Dining Plan today I would always recommend it to a first time visitor.
One of my favorite Disney memories comes from that first trip. As we walked down Main Street USA after spending two days touring the Magic Kingdom I told my wife “Well, I feel like I’ve done everything here and don’t feel any need to come back to the Magic Kingdom again.” It was so naïve and I was obviously taken by a sudden bout of insanity.
I have visited The World six times since 2009 and purchased DVC at Saratoga Springs. Despite owning there I have yet to stay, preferring to stay at the other DVC resorts. The attractions are great but the atmosphere, details, and food keep me eager to go back.
Beyond writing about trips, favorite moments, and favorite restaurants you can expect me to write about the new technology in the Disney parks, Disney Infinity, and maybe review some of the rare and cool merchandise I’ve stumbled across in the past five years.
I hope you have enjoyed reading a little about my favorite subject… me! In all seriousness I am extremely grateful to have this opportunity to share some of my Disney experience and hope you enjoy hearing me talk about it.